St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-05-03
Our New York Letter.

EASTER DAY-ITS WEATHER, FINERY,
AND EGGs-sALE OF THE ERIE RAIL
ROAD-ITS UBIQUITOUS HISTORY -
DEATH OF VIM. ORToN-A POLICE
COURT SOLOMON.
New YORK, April 26, 1873.
TO the Editor Of the CdledOnian
Easter Sunday this year was about
equally noted for magnificent weather
and magnificent costumes, music, and
flowers. From a casual glance | 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
the sum of our national debt. Central
Park WAS probably never so thrOnged
before. 1t is estimated that during the
day about 100000 vain mOrtals aired
their spring finery 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
4
ed States until Il 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 Orleans was one of the first of
American cities to introduce the French
fashion of artificial Paschal eggs highly
oInamented and rich with hidden bon
bOns. New York City began to cater
TO the little people in these highly deco
rated and tOOthsOme toys scarcely more
than five years ago, but it has made
rapid progress in the art. Every con-
ceivable form of confectionery or fancy
knick-knack is now served up in the
shape of an egg. Some big ones open
to display to the eye of the delighted
recipient fully equipped work-box, ii
jewel case, a beautiful wax doll, or
some costly trinket. The most sensible
Easter egg l have heard of this year
was one which Wall street nabOb had
made for his daughter. 1t was plain
and of ordinary size, but when broken
by the curious young lady, poured into
her lap yellow stream of genuine gold
dollars with which the dOting parent
had filed it full.
After prolonged and costly wrangle
and full half a 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 S6,000,000 has a
stock liability of about $50, 900, and
bond liability of over S50,000,000 ad-
ditiOnal, large proportion of which in
debtedness will have to be wiped out in
the Encouragement. tits also proposed
to change the name of the road, al
though nothing definite has been decid-
ed on that subject.
The Erie Railway has been scandal
to American financial management. 1t
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 Woodworking people who bought
shares in it, and the bonds it put on the
market under false pretences, the credi-
tors of the road found its affairs in a
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 OF
Gould and Fisk in manufacturing stock
ad hbitum, and using its funds to de-
moralize our politics and debauch Leg
islatures, were simply infamous. The
history of railway management fur
nishes no parallel to the chicanery and