Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-06-24
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special Correspondence.
New YORK, June IL. 1879

Although the sad event has been post
poned longer than was generally expect
ed, Mr.. William Cullen Bryant's death
early on the morning of Wednesday, the
18th, has justified the brief obituary
contained in my letter of two weeks
since. The decease of hardly any pub
lie man in this country could have clio
tied such unanimous and spontaneous
tribute to his memory and achievement
as that which has filled the press since
the news of the aged poets departure.
The city flags were even half masted and
the whole city seemed to unite in testi-
flying to the universal respect felt for
one of the most upright and blameless
of men.
Mr.. Bryant's career was an exception
al one. A precocious genius, famous
when he entered his teens, and doing
his best work before he was out of them,
he still preserved his high fame through
nearly two-thirds of century thereafter
Although as his partners confess, he was
not business man, still he accumulated
large fortune and maintained it to the
end with great frugality. Although
slight and rather delicate of frame. his
abundant exercise and regular habits
kept him In the condition and health Of
an athlete and this almost up to the
week of his death. At seventy-fve he
astonished friend while walking with
him in the grounds of his country resi-
dence on Long Island, by running
short distance in advance, jumping east
ly into the branches of an overhanging
tree and swinging for some time by one
hand. When in the city he walked up
and down town every day, rain or shine,
and was always one Of the most conspic.
uous figures on the street. The last
time l saw Mr.. Bryant was one morning
not many weeks ago as he was coming
down Broadway to his Office as usual.
His pace was of course not rapid. but in
his step were much of the frmness and
agility of youth. His sharp blue eyes
looked out undimmed from beneath a
pair of bushy brows, as snow white as
the long, full beard and silky hair franz
ing the strong features with which his
portraits have familiarized US, and his
whole aspect was so strikingly and at
tractively venerable that most of the
passers-by involuntarily turned to look
after him as he went.
Your readers are probably aware that
pretty nearly everything is to be found
in one shape or another in this City Of
New York but | venture to say that q
majority of them would really be sur.
prised to hear that there is regular
gold mine in operation in the very heart
of the town. Such however, is the fact
and any one curious to inspect the pro
cesses and modes by which great pro
portion of the precious metal has beer
got out of the soil of the Pacific slope
can have this curiosity grati6ed withou
going further West than the. corper. o
year and half ago, occurred the grea
fire in which cluster of jewelry ant
silver manufactures were burned. II
these bui ldings at the time of the fir
there must have been. outside of th
dozen safes which were afterwards re
covered, nearly two hundred thousan'
dollars worth of the precious metals
only small portion of which was imme
diately recovered The remainder wa
scattered, in broken and blackened frag
|, ments. through the eighteen hundre
tons of charred rubbish which lay pile
in the cellars of the burned building
when the smouldering fires were at lbs
=, extinguished. During the first fey
;, months after the catastrophe the surfsc
of the rubbish was good deal pick'
: over by the street urchins and quite
- good deal taken out. Recently, two x
perienced miners obtained the necessr,
;" permission from Messrs. Robbins an
- Appleton, the owners of the buildingt
6 work the great ash heap systematically
y They put in thousand dollars wet
of machinery and have now been div
20 ing, sluicing and grading in true nnel
W fashion for several weeks. The two mel
- are able to wash about thirty tons 9 tn
:, - rubbish day, and thus far report; t
A. pan out about eleven dollars ton. Dur
10 ing most of the day the work 9th
grimy pair thirty feet below the de
~ walk is watched by crowd of Ter
+" and stragglers who look down uponth
" strange scene with eager and enDu
u' curiosity. RADl
ost Eight hydraulic screw jacks. whine
nd hundred-ton power each. are being SCI
= to place in erect position Hi>'pata' Z