The Colfax chronicle. (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1876-1877, 1877-06-30
From Our O,cn Correspondent. ]
Our New York Letter.
NEW YORK, june u, 1877.

I am divided between the suddenly
terminated Ring suit, the seventeen
year locusts, and the fish plague. l
suppose Peter B. Sweeney would hard
ly thank me for the compliment of
bringing him int such low company,
and, besides, we have tho latter at least
as often as once in seventeen years.
while a man like Sweeney doesn't turn
up-luckily for taxpayers nearly as
often. SO think we shall have to give
this getleman our earliest attention.
The remembrance of the dramatic
scenes, the oratory and the great length
Of the Tweed trial had whetted the
morbid appetite of the public for this
sort of enjoyment to high degree Of
sharpness and curiosity being further
stimulated by the former prominence
and recent years of exile of this magni-
ficent thief, the opening of the Sweeney
trial found the courtroom packed to
suffocation with an audience that was
all eyes and ears, ready for a protracted
session. But it was destined to be
disappointed crowd, for after the brief
est of preliminaries, consultation OF
the LAWYERS on both sides was entered
into, and, after few hours, it was an
nounced that the claims of the city had
been compromised, and that all pro-
ceedings were at an end. 1t was a
disguised assemblage that then filed
out of court, freely expressing their
indignation at the turn things had
taken not so much, probably, that the
idea of compromising felony grated
upon their sense of propriety, as that
they were thereby deprived the pleasure
of picking the bones of such scandal as
the suit might unearth.
The amount for which Sweeney has
persuaded the city to give, in effect, a
receipt IN full for stealings of over a
million, is 100000; and even this the
cunning criminal has arranged with the
city lawyers to accept as coming from
the estate of his dead brother, James
Sweeney, so as to leave in the record OF
the case nothing to show that he him
self was required to refund stolen mo
ney. He thus gets himself whitewash-
ed at the expense of his brother; and
being left with technically clear repu-
tation and a large fortune of other PEG
pies money, he is said to contemplate a
return to active political life, taking up
his old Democratic affiliations. RumOr
even goes so far as to lay out partial
programme for the employment of his
peculiar talents; programme embrace
ing the election of the Legislature next
year with view of giving Mr.. Tilden
Mr.. Conkling's senatorial shoes in 1879.
The present seems, indeed, to be the
time spoken of by the poet "when the
swallows homeward fly" Woodward
and Sweeney have already "homeward
few been taken in and done for, and
now Dick Connolly's sOn-in-law pops
up and plainly intimates that that dis
tinguished statesman would like to
leave the elevated society of the Alps
and return to the city whose finances
he kindly cared for some seven years
ago, if he can arrange to do so without
having to cool his nose for a period
againt the grating Of the Ludlow stree
cell. And the city, having her hand in
l. Just now in this settlement business
, intimates back that she shall be happ.
to see him and will only charge hin
81, 100000 for the privilege. The tw'
will probably haggle over the price fol
! a while, and then Mr.. Connolly vii
,, turn up in his old haunts and settl,
, down to the enjoyment Of the 81 5000
, or more which this arrangement woult
I leave him.
Meanwhile, old Tweed shakes tn
, bars Of his cage in angry indignation
, at this easy treatment of his JUNO
: confederates, but cannot as yet shak
! off the clutches of the law which seem
i to have singled him out as the on
scapegoat on whom to pile all punish
ment.
The seventeen-year locust, who come
next to the above mentioned gentry il
q order of present Importance, is, elm
I phatically, queer bird. Why b
shows up at such long and odd intery
: ais, like comet, is a mystery. Tn
conundrum of what he does with him
self in off years is too many even 70
the bug-fanciers. Why he grows SO hi
and, accomplishes SO little and dies S
:, soon are all among ''those things tina
no fellow can find OUT All that
I really known about him is that b
2 hangs around underground somewheI
for a rood while till he gets a goo