St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-03-15
Our New York Letter.

FOR THE THRIFTY POoR-NEW TREAT
MENT FOR THE INsANE-THE CHARM
OF MUsIc-MR. BEECHER's CHAPLAIN
CY-KATE CLAxTON's MARRIAGE 10
THE POOR INDIAN.
NEW YORK, March 8, 1878.
To the Editor of the CaledOnian:
From across the water come reports
that holders of our bonds in England
and Germany are selling them as rapid
ly as possible. Perhaps they have beer
frightened into this by the Silver Bill
but if so, they are much more easily
scared than their American cousins, who
seem ready to absorb all of this kind Of
security that anyone chooses to throw
on the market.
The demand for United States bonds
has been unusually great for the last
few days, the total sales by single
bank in this city for one week aggregat-
ing $500, 900, mostly for investment
Three clerks have been kept busy at
the First National Bank filling the or
ders from outside this city, principally
from the West. 1t is stated that fully
one fourth of this has been for per
cent. bonds, of denominations of $50
and 100, to be distributed among far
mers and others having small earnings
to invest.
Large orders were received on Tues
day for several of the issues, including
$3.50, 900 new SIS, 100000 '67's, and
nearly 100000 As. The daily sales of
bonds by one bank now average 81 ,O0O,-
900. 1t is said that two New York cap
italists, who had been loaning money
on stocks at per cent, have withdrawn
their capital, and yesterday they in
vested Jointly nearly 100000 in Gov
eminent bonds.
This is sensible and gratifying action
on the part of our mOneyed men, and |
hope it will be initiated by the less
af1uent classes when the new "long
bond" bill, which passed the Senate
this week becomes law. This bill, as
your readers have perhaps observed,
provides for the issue of a large amount
of tifty-year bonds of the denominations
of S25, $50, 500, bearing four per
cent. interest. All these bonds will be
registered, and offer an investment as
nearly safe as anything Oh earth can
be; and now when the beneficent pos
tai savings system is also introduced,
by which every pOst-Otfice becomes a
savings bank of which Uncle Sam is
president and guarantor, our poorer
people may snap their fingers at the
whole rascally brood of savings bank
and trust company thieves and live in
the happy assurance that their deposit
ed earnings are their own, and will he
forthcoming when wanted. instead of
being used to pay some defaulters's ex-
penses to Europe.
Interesting experiments are now in
progress at the Insane Asylum on Black
wells Island, the object of which is to
try the effect upon unsOund minds of
music in its various forms. The fifth of
Il series of entertainments arranged for
the purpose was given this week, j. n T..
Pattison being the pianist of the Occa-
siou. On some of the patients brought
under the music treatment Oh this oc-
casion the effect was remarkable, vio-
lent conditions being uniformly modified
in Il favorable manner. In one case, an
insane woman gave rational answers to
questions asked while she was under
the influence of the piano-playing, al
though for months previous she had not
render ed an intelligent response to any
inquiry. Many favorable comments on
the entertainment were made by the
visiting physicians, who expressed the
belief that the music, if continued regu-
larly, would produce good and lasting
results. DIR. Strew and Commissioner
Brennan intend to make some arrange
ment by which similar entertainments
will be given as frequently as possible
during the year.
1t seems, therefore, that after all,
''sImilia similibus curantur," and that
the popular musical instrument which
proved so beneficial in the instance re-
lated, is powerful agent for either
good or evil, according to the method
of its handling. In the hands of mas
ter the piano ''hath charms to sOothe
the savage breast" of even the most
hardened lunatic while, on the other
hand, close confinement for a compare
lively short time within earshot of the
same noble mechanism when tortured
by the average schoolgirl limping
through scales or hammering the maid
ems Prayer" will infalHbly unseat the
lOftiest intellect, and, did not the liberty
which is the birthright of every Ameri-
can citizen enable him under ordinary
circumstances to flee from the frightful
inhiction, would speedily cause all the
mad houses of the country to overflow.
Although Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
has passed the age when men are usual
ly supposed fred with ardor to become
bold sOger boys, he has this week dis
played his military penchant by taking
the chaplaincy of the 18th N. Y. Militia
of Brooklyn. Mr.. Beecher's taking the
oath of office was the occasion of Il
great crowd at the regiments armory,
and of a sort of ovation to the always
popular preacher, whose address to his
new charge was applauded to the echo.
We are told that Mr.. Beecher's uniform,
which has already been ordered, will
be "A black coat, gray pantaloons with
black cord down the seams, black
chapeau, black silk sash, black waist
band bordered with gold, and black
swordscabbard with gold trimming
and that the toys of war become him
immensely.
One of the odd characters who haunt
large cities has just died here in the
person of David Leach, an old rag
picker, nearly eighty years of age, who
had lived miserable, lonely life, and
dying unattended in a filthy howell, was
carried off to the morgue like any other
pauper. He proves to have been worth
some $4,000, and as is the fashion in
all cases where property is left either
with or without will, half a dozen
claimants to the unexpected windfall
have sprung and are fighting over it
like Vanderbilts.
Owing to the number and extent of
the conf1agrations of the year, 1877 was
unusually disastrous to the local fire