The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-01-28
SUNDAY JAN. %, 1877.
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
The Bad Year - Fashions Life lnsur-
ance -Thp Snow -Bennett-M May.
New YORK, January 23d, 1877.
THE BAD YEAR.

New YORK, January 23d, 1877.
THE BAD YEAR.
The season is a dreary one. War
times were hardly worse. Houses
everywhere empty shops full of cheap
and attractive goods; but l have seen
a country store livelier improvements
looking more like ruins, as they stand
unfinished; and underlying all, the
knowledge of the deep suffering of
thousands of poor out of work. People
are not ashamed to stay at home and
economic. Now that the Centennial
is over, and they are learning without
any hesitation or bashfulness to walk
into stores and give them orders for
cheap articles" the cheapest you
have sit is good not to date 'T6 any
longer, and to think that the a%nniver-
sary year is over, and all the folly of
expense which the country took on its
account, for which it is paying the PEN
atty. When we think of the east side
of our city-the great working quarter
and the thousands, not of men, but
thousands of families, depending on
charity for every dole of bread and fire
in the deep mid-winter SHOWS, II feels
twinges at buying a flower, or any in
diligence that might be dispensed with,
III llC uuCotlOIl RlONo, NV "Iub a
/ afford?" but "what can / do with
out?"
There is no vitality, 10 life, in any
thing. The merchants stand listlessly
in their stores, feeling that rent and
clerk hire are eating them up. The
clerks stand idle, living on half wages,
and dreading every night to hear the
words that will cut even that off. The
landlord is worried. for he sees in the
empty store a sure premonition that it
will very shortly be vacant. There
never was an approach to the distress
that New York is experiencing now,
and I hope there never will be. And,
to add to the trouble, the political stu
alton keeps those who have money and
disposition to do something waiting,
and before it is settled the season will
be oyer. 1t is bad here-thank Heaven
that the West is prosperous.
FhrLf FASHIONS.
Women return to the appropriate
custom of wearing light and delicate
colors for occasions of high dress.
White hats, pale gloves and light man.
ties are donned for theatre and dress
promenade, a rule which should remain
in force immutably. White felt hats of
modest shape are the choice, for the
white plush that displaces velvet looks
Enthusiastically coarse, and can only be a
within of the moment. Wide, rich folds
of silk and full plumes are the usua
ornament, though a freak of a French
milliner is to cover the tlaring brim
entirely with rows of gilt galoon, set so
closely as to recall the halo of dead
gold, which in old pictures surrounds
the head of saints but the example is
only quoted for its hard, bad taste.
Next to white, the finest bonnets are of
palest gray velvet, the brims concealed
with deep crimson trimmings and flow
ers in elegant contrast. In dress,
basques and overskirts are popularity
seen, but nothing looks really elegant
save the princess dress, which is adopt
ed as the standard costume also by the
dress reformerS.
LIFE INSURANCE.
The investigation into the affairs of
the defunct I" Security" Life Insurance
Company Security - think of it i
discloses II mass of %rottenness that is
awful. This company had not the ex-
cuse of several that have failed honestly
by depreciation in securities /; it was
thievingly managed from the beginning,
or at least for many years, and was rot
teI. Lie dillludi ltpOltS NSlC uOStOiSo
to show prosperity when the company
was insolvent, and to these false reports
the officers put their names, and swore
to their correctness, without u blush.
1t might have gone oil for some time,
and made even Il worse smash, but the
close times stopped off receipts, and as
there was no more money to wiring out
of the people, or rather us the volume
coming in was too small to make the
swindle profitable, it collapsed. The
thieves swore to balances they never
had, to real estate which they never
owned, and to policies which they
never issued ; and by fraud and perjury
they kept up an appearance of solidity
which deceived ven the experts. There
are others in the same way, that will
come to grief oon
THE SNOW.
Along all the streets are long ridges
of dirty snow, in some places eight and
ten feet deep. The people most ardently
desire to have it moved there are
thousands of men starving for want of
work, and the city is abundantly able
to pay for having it done, but ~unfortu-
nately there is no power anywhere to
appropriate money for the purpose, and
so it stays, to the detriment of trade
and the utter destruction of comfort.
The street cars cleared their tracks, but
the space, in consequence of the piled
up snow, is so narrow that the cars are
perpetually blocked, and it takes twice
the time to go up or down town that it
ought to, and it will lay till the sun
changes it into mud, and it runs off of
its W accord, leaving behind, as re-
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