Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-07-12


Correspondence Of the PnHSiE.l
NEW YoRE, July 1, 1873.
After an unusually long delay, which has
proved genuine boon to the written-out
newspaper paragraphcrs, the summer may be
said to have fairly set in. The mercury lns
at one leap gained the top of the tube All
Jokes involving listers and fur caps have
been suddenly called in, and squibS breathing
sultriness in every line fall copously from
perspring pens, Now are the days when life
is supportable only amid the ease and accus,
toned freedom of home, but during which
the innate perversity Of man and-pardon me
for utteriug the ungalant truth moro espe-
cially of women, with II persistcncy grown
absolutely despotic through annual indui-
gence, strongly moves everybody to flee from
the one tolepble spot and court discomfort in
various time-honored forms. Hence the har-
vest to the polite but mendacious keeper Of
the summer boarding house. creature prod
igal in promise but scanty in fulhlment
creature who is frequently shown up, but
who never fails to find eager victims among
the incurably credulous. Hence. too, the hot,
crowded and uniformly disappointing eXcur-
sion by sea or land, which is packed to suilo-
cation day after day throughout the season,
and that, too, 10y people who have repeatedly
been caught in the same silly trap and vowed
as often never to offend again. Hence, too
the terrible but unavoidable church picnic
that modernized relic of the Inquisition,
through whose subtitle torture the average
church goer is pitilessly dragged at least once
for every revolution of this poor old globe
about the central luminary of our solar sys-
TEN.
What there is in religion to imperatively
necessitate an annual picnic in the face of
both reason and experience, is far beyond
the comprehension of the mere observer of
such phenomena, but the horrid fact remains
and. indeed, believe that the unformulated
rubric which compels the observance of this
cruel rite is as much more binding than any
one of the Thirty nine Articles as the unwrit-
ten constitution of England is superior in au-
thority to Parliamentary enactments.
The man who is responsible for the saying
that nothing is certain but death and taxes"
must surely have been a goddess worldlng.
Had he been like you or me- gentle reader
u regular ulltuAllll III NlNlht NOIhulls ne
would infallibly have included the church pic
mic in his brief category of the inevitable.
| 1t is as curious as it is sad to observe the ac-
ton of this ineXorable law rs the season for
its operation approaches. This season is
usually the first hot spell, and at that time
ministers and Sunday school superintendents
feel the spell upon them. No matter how
mild and kind-hearted they may he by ma
ture, then comes into their faces a hard, stern
expression as they announce to their flocks,
| at is about time to be thinking about our
picnic
All know to their sorrow what this por-
| tends, but no one has the moral courage to
rebel, and in due time there comes to them a
day of heavy baskets of crying children, of
weariness, and sunburn and unalloyed misery,
at the close of which the one thought which
soothes and cheers the aching soul is that of
the coming year of respite from the affiiction.
Do l speak feelingly upon this mournful
theme? Well, it's hardly more than natural.
l went through the mill myself day before
yesterday.
Another comparatively unknown CrDsus
has died here this week in the person Of Will
liam Rhinehnder, whose property is various
ly estimated Mt from ten to fifty millions
Thos. L. Davis is another name which falls
among this weeks obituaries. He was COM
paratively poor man, leaving to his distress
ed family only a couple of MILLIONS, Still
more sad is the condition of William Yer
milye's heirs, who this week find themselves
the possessors of only the paltry sum of 5000.
OOO 1t remains to be seen whether these
three wills will be allowed to stand, or wheth-
err their makers are to be hauled over the
Goals jy TIE lawyers in the Surrogate's court,
every act Of their lives uked up, and every
personal popularity discussed publicly and at
length, as in the poor old Commodores case.
A chance, however slight, of wrestling some
portion of a fat estate from the hands Of the
legatees, is so strong temptation to litga
ton that a good many disappointed expect
ants fall victims thereto. Hence the cele
brated contests like those over the Vanderbilt
Stewart, Singer, Dancer, Rollwagen and 9th
er well known wills, the long duration and
importance of which give many people Al
idea that it isn't of much use to make vii
anyway Figures show, however, that evel
| III new 10TH, MutIt nitl otiAAN - iiA''A N'A''
mon, only one will in twenty is contested
and not one in two hundred is overthrown
Counsel fees in such cases are limited by stat
ute to five per cent. of the amount of the es
tate. In the Vanderbilt case therefore, wher
the estimated amount in dispute is SlOO,000,
600. the surrogate can, if he chooses, ALLOW
So ZOO, 900 to the lawyers. This case still
drags along without showing any signs o
coming to an end, aud that of Stewart, afte
lying quiescent for some months, has burs
out afresh.
1t is a good thing for Mr.. Babbitt, the soal
man. that he has a certain income larger thai
. he can possibly get away with, or he woul
soon come upon the town, what with III
' thieving and swindlng of which he seems t
be fayorite subject. The last dodge O
: which he has been made a victim, cost hir
$50, 600. A woman, of good address apple
to him some months ago, saying that she wa
an expert detective, and would probably b
able to recover good proportion of tn
. bonds and things taken from him by the en-
bezzling cashier, Beekwith. So the conhdin
soap boiler began advancing her money wit
which to prosecute her work, and on her IL
genious representations, was induced to kee
e, this up, until he was was out the sum mel
toned, when, no results having been attain
q ed. he had his female Pinkerton arrested o
the charge of swindling In court the lad
freely acknowledged the corn, and said 81
did it merely "n a spirit of deyltry." 81
u has not yet been tried.
IS Col L. X. Fuller, of the firm of j. Estey
!, Co., sailed last week for Europe. The gre'
=. foreign demand for their organs not on
r evinces the superior quality of their instr
s. ments, but also that they have long been we
.or,.nL L. thnir anicinnt fnreinn nnents. Brn