The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-10-06
For The Cecil Wing.
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

For The Cecil Wing
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.
A Brooklyn Bridge !Sensation-The British
Team-Roast Beef and Plum Pudding.
Our new bridge, which connects Brooklyn
with New York, was last week the scene
of one of the most frightful occurrences
ever witnessed i'll the world. For MANY
months past all sorts of people have been
crossing and recrossing the narrow foot
bridge that runs between the towers and
which is used for the making of the great
cables which are to support the principal
roadway. This miniature causeway swings
or seventy feet above the river. 1t is
dizzy height to people unused to climbing,
but desire of notoriety has haunted all
sorts of foolish people, and l have been
anxiously waiting for several weeks for the
bridge to furnish me an interesting item.
l saw fat woman crossing last week, and
figuring from an unknown quantity, judg-
cd if she fell from that elevation, she would
make hole in the water equal to two
whales, seventy-nine catfish, thirteen blad-
dernosed sharks, and one sucker; but to my
story. One day last week man applied
for pass to cross, who was a hand on one
of our foreign steamships; he was fellow
of Herculean build, standing about six
feet two, and weighing, without any spare
flesh, two hundred and twenty eight; he
reached about halfway over when, to the
horror of some other sight-seers who were
on the bridge, he was seen to fall in an
epileptic fit; the passage-way is narrow
only four feet across, and as he writhed
and twisted in his agony, it seemed almost
impossible for him to escape destruction.
Two men rushed forward and seized him
just as he was going to make dreadful
dive into the river below. Thoroughly
reused, the maniac turned on his
preservers, and for few moments it
seemed as if all three would roll into the river
together. Some others rushed out from
the tops of the towers, and after desper-
ate struggle the man was finally secured,
and conveyed to the New York side. On top
of the stone tower another desperate strug-
gle took place. At last he was safely land
ed, and we consider it a special mercy that
this little episode has not cost at least half
dozen lives. In view of the possible re-
currence of such a calamity, the bridge
authorities have shut down on passes, so
that country school-marms and rural
ola fhai tn
by contemplating the bridge from the
Brooklyn ferry boats.
Dan Connors, the celebrated twelve
o'clock man, died last week in Brooklyn. For
many years poor Dan came down to the
City Hall every day, and waited till the
clock struck twelve, for some one to pay
him some money; the man never came, and
last week the great City Hall clock struck
twelve for the last time for poor Dan.
All kind of trade is still lively, and for
the past few days the tramps have been
pouring in upon us. Nine suicides and
four murders give respectable and graft
flying showing to our criminal calendar.
Divorces are on the increase, which | am
sorry to record as the Winter is coming on.
The balance of trade is still in our favor,
our exports exceeding our imports for the
last six months by 100000. Hoping
that this state of things may continue.
We draw our breath freely once more;
our British cousins go back to Hold Hing
land, you know, but the Centennial
trophy remains on this side of the
ocean, at least for year to come. They
gave us splendid specimen of British
craftsmanship one day recently, which
completely wiped out the remembrance of
their defeat.
A japanese tourist jotting down our lit
tie national peculiarites at the present time,
would undoubtedly state that a favorite
amusement among the Americans is throw
ing their wives out Of third-story windows.
l am not prepared to state that it has yet
arrived at tie dignity of a national pas
time, like base ball or sculling, but the ire
quent recurrence of this species of sport
raises the question whether it is finally to
be incorporated in the list of our national
games. 1t is not native to our soil, having
been but recently imported, and looked at
simply as an amusement, l cannot say that
] admire it.
New York has just received great boon
in the way of rapid transit, the Court of
Appeals having dissolved all the injunc-
tions, and now a double track is to be laid
at once from the Battery the entire length
of Manhattan Island.
Pouvert & Co., the great sugar mer-
chants, have failed for $500, 900; they have
been in business since 1929, and own i'm
mense plantations in Cuba.
The temperance crusade has not as yet
assumed the character of Pentecostal
shower; the converts come in slowly, and
the rum shops are fearfully in the ascend
ant. We are waiting anxiously for our
share of the cyclone, but are afraid that
the thing will peter out in passing over
Jersey, and feel like exclaiming with the
fellow that Noah left out of the ark, eco
on with your burned old boat; don't be-
lieve that it's going to be much of shower
after ALL" We slaughtered 5000 head of
cattle this week to send to our British
cousins, representing 10000 quarters-the
largest shipment ever made in single
week; and if this ere thing goes on, you
know, the roast beef of Hold Hingland
will get to be myth, you know. And not
only that, but an expectation of 5000 cans
of Yankee plum pudding promises to make
another frightful inroad into their standard
national dishes.
Truly yours, BRoADBRIM.
THE LAWYER AND THE THIEF.