Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-05-06
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special Correspondence.


Easter Sunday this year was about
equally noted for magnificent weather
and magnificent costumes, music and
flowers. From casual glance I should
say that the value of the new bonnets,
clothes and jewelry in which feminine
Gotham performed its devotions on that
occasion, would amount to about the
sum of our national debt. Central Park
was probably never so thronged before.
It.is estimated that during the day about
100000 vain mortals aired their spring
fnery in its verdant paths and grand
promenades.
The display of fancy Easter eggs was
astonishingly rich this year, reminding
one strongly of Partisan shop windows
at this season. Easter eggs in the Unit
ed States until few years ago were the
product of barn. yard fowls, hard-boiled
and colored at home in bright but solid
hues, or printed by boiling in bags of
calico warranted not to wash. New Or
leans was one of the first of American
cities to introduce the French fashion of
artificial Paschal eggs highly ornament
ed and rich with hidden bon-bons. New
York City began to cater to the little
people in these highly decorated and
toothsome toys scarcely more than five
years ago, but it has made rapid prog
ress in the art. Every conceivable form
of confectionery or fancy knick-k nack is
now served up in the shape of an egg.
Some big ones open to display to the eye
of the delighted recipient fully equip
ped work box, a jewel-case, beautiful
wax doll, or some costly trinket. The
most sensible Easter egg l have heard
of this year was one which Wall st.
nabob had made for his daughter. 1t
was plain and of ordinary size, but when
broken by the curious young lady, pour
ed into her lap yellow stream of gen.
uine gold dollars with which the doting
parent had filled it full.
After prolonged and costly wrangle
and full half dozen postponements of
its sale, the Erie Railroad was brought
to the block on Wednesday last, and
publicly auctioned for six millions of
dollars. Ex-Governor Morgan was the
ostensible purchaser, but was only the
agent of Reconstruction Committee,
who have plan by which it is expected
that the plundered victim of Jim Fisk
and Jay Gould, the unfortunate road
that has for years been the football of
Wall street, will be again placed on a
sound basis, and made good paying
property. The road which was here
nominally sold for 100000 has a
stock liability of about $4,000, 1000,
and bond liability of over $50,O0O.O0O
additional, large proportion of which
Indebtedness will have to be wiped out
in the Encouragement. 1t is also pro-
posed to change the name of the road,
although nothing definite has been de-
cided on that subject.
The Erie Railway has been scandal
to American financial management. l:
has done more to destroy confidence at
home and injure our character abroad
than any other enterprise undertaken,
Its affairs were involved in inextricable
confusion, and after sinking the money
of working people who bought
shares in it, and the bonds it put on the
market under false pretences, the cndi.
tors of the road found its affairs in g
hopeless tangle of complications, which
no lawyer could possibly unsnarl. The
quarrels at the Erie meetings, and the
contests of its litigants in court, have
been disgraceful, and the operations O
Gould and Fisk in manufacturing stool
od hbitatm, and using its funds to de
moralize our politics and debauch Legis
latures were simply Infamous. The his
tory of railway management furnishes
no parallel to the chicanery and iniqui
ty that have been developed by this roat
and the men who have controlled it. 1t
sale to a new company, with prospec
tive change in its entire management
awakens the hope that new leaf is t
be turned in its history, and that thi
; great road will hereafter be conducte,
, in an honorable manner and for the pub
. lie benefit. fits new purchasers redeem
the promise they have made to the pub
( lie, the people of New York will hav
reasons to rejoice that the road ha
changed hands.
In the death of VIM. Orton, Presiden
of the Western Union Telegraph Con
pany, this city has lost one of her great
> est business geniuses So strictly di
! Mr.. Orion confne himself to his own a
}. fairs and so little ado did he make
:. the discharge of his immense dutie
that public attention was seldom 6xc
!, upon him, and it was not until the who
l. press began to ring with his posthumol
! praises that we realized how importal