Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-03-09

should hesitate about Dancers. A
great many people viii, for a great
many years hence, rise up and call
her blessed. The lawyers who love
fat estates are gnashing their teeth
because she gave them no excuse
for getting their long fingers in her
pie. An acute as well as good wo-
man was Miss Mary Dancer.
HoGGIsHNEss GETTING us REWARD.
Vanderbilt, before he died, want
ed to get hold of the Western I'm
ion Telegraph Company, that he
might bleed that monopoly as he
has every other one that he got his
claws on. He did get enough of it
to control it, and lis estate is reap
ing the reward. Scott, Hewitt and
Garrett, the other railroad mag
mates, turned about and put a mil
lion of dollars into the Atlantic and
Pacific, and turned over their espe-
clal lines to that company, and are
pushing new lines in every direction.
Consequently, Western Union,
which was an eight per cent. stock,
Notwithstanding it has been watered
a dozen times, goes down to sixty,
and the Atlantic and Pacific goes up
proportlonately. Telegraphing is
the most outrageous swindle of this
century. The Western Union is, or
has been, a monopoly, and the peo-
pie have been compelled to pay
whatever it should exact. Conse-
quently the cost of telegraphing
has been four times what it is in
any other country. Now that the
new company has been bolstered,
down will 90 the prices. 1t is a good
thing to throw patronage to weak
companies, to sustain them. They
are the only safeguards we have
against imposition. The prices have
been already reduced half, at com
peting points, and they will go low
er still. Would that there could be
found some relief from the express
swindle.
THE GRAND DUKE.
When the Grand Duke Alexis
was here a few years ago, New
York went wild over him. He was
feted ana danced and balled and
ridden and photographed-and
bellies quarreled for the privilege of
dancing with him. He is here again,
but alas! his Royal Highness doesn't
excite as much sensation as did Gro
min, the fraud with the nose. He
walks about the streets followed by
an English bulldog, the same as
any other man, and the crowd scarce
ly turn and look at him. He is a
good fellow, and rather likes the be-
ing let alone. New York needs a
new prince every time-it don't gush
over an old one worth cent. 1t is
said that his business is to marry
girl with whom he fell in love when
he was here first. She is the daugh
ter of a wealthy mechanic up town,
and is beautiful and accomplished.
The Grand Duke met her at the big
ball given in his honor, and was so
smitten that he demanded permits
sion of his father to marry her. The
old Emperor suggested that possi
bly, it might be well enough to as
certain whether the lady would mar
ry him-something that hadn't oc-
cured to Alexis, So, after worry
ing the imperial family .or four
years, he got permission to come
over and pay his court in person.
The girl will marry him, never fear.
The New York girl who would mar
ry penniless fraud if he had title,
will not stop at taking an actual
Grand Duke, with revenues enough
for a dozen German or French
Counts. She has already signifed
her acquiescence, and now comes
new trouble. The Emperor never
supposed that Alexis meant matri-
moDy-he presumed that his boy
was struck with a pretty face and
figure, and that he wanted her for
a sort of left-handed wife, such as all !
German Princes are allowed. He
was willing to receive the American
girl in the capacity of his sons mis-
tress, but as his wife-that was an
other thing. He might want to mar
ry his son to some one of the great |
reigning families to strengthen his
empire after the fashion of kings
and emperors, who make no more
account of love in such matters than
they do of whipping-tops. So he
has positively forbidden the young
man to do anything of the kind, and |
sent out royal officers in any number
to prevent the match. And the |
young man is under orders to either
give up his mad design or come
home. And Alexis swears, in unex
Russian, that his i'm
perial father may go to blazes, and
that he will follow the dictates of
his own heart, which he claims is
his personal property and not part
of the Greatt Russian Empire. He
has dozen or two millions in his
own right, and he rather fancies the
notion of settling down as a quiet
gentleman in America, and dodging
the cares of royalty. How it will
result, no one can tell. If the Grand
Duke is as stubborn as the rest of
his family, he will do it. He is a
good deal of Democrat, and cares
very little for the forms of royalty.
The attendants that his state impos-
es upon him are irksome to him, and
he enjoys nothing so much as his
liberty.
TALMAGE.
No man who ever made religion
business does so much that might be
called advertising of himself as the
sensationalist who sails un-
Ter the name of T. De Witt Tai
mage. He had built for him a
church that looked more like a thea
re than anything else, and he ft-
ed it up solely for effect. He is a
ono oadavarOus man with q canul |