Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-03-24
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special Correspondence.
New YORK, March II, 1879,

odLHS Oultouo PVpuioi oOuuOuOJ w TAKE |
eager interest in exhibitions of physical
strain and even torture which brought
out the masses of pre-christian Greece to
witness the Olympian games, and pack
ed the Roman Colosseum at every glad
iatorial contest. confers the unbounded
popularity enjoyed in these years of
grace by long distance walking matches
If that is not it. wherein does the fasci.
nation lie which has made New York
more of an insane asylum than anything
else for nearly week {? What else ami
mated the surging crowd that at Sunday
midnight mobbed the Hippodrome where
the match was about to commence
and made it trample itself under foot,
break down the doors of the institution
in its crazy haste and get hundred or
SO of its heads broken by police clubs
for its pains? What else kept the dirty
reeking place crammed night and day
with all classes of men, women and
boys, wasting time and money, yelling
like fends and sufocating the while in
tobacco smoke and miscellaneous stencil ?
One of the brightest dailies says all
this is due to the magic of the word
sport but this is only another form
of stating the same proposition. Speak
ing of this word and the present contest,
this paper says, mo other word, not
even patriotism or religion, ever before
put quartette of men upon such fear
full physical strain and strife and gath
cred saints and sinners OF all degrees to
look at them" And further on it very
justly observes that equally marvellous
is the effect of word on the public.
Men whose wives never could coax them
to the Garden to hear Thomas orchestra
or Gilmore's band, are daily finding
their way, by the thousand, to see the
great tramp. The seats may all be full.
but they will tiptoe by the hour to see
the head of some of the walkers; they
will dash in the most undignifed man
ner across the circle to help howl SYM
pathetically over squirt, although no
one ever saw them run in the street,
even when going for the doctor. They
stand around for hours, determining to
go home, yet waiting for just one more
lap, and then another, and then some
more, and then for man who was off
the track to come on again, and for one
who is on to 60 off. Never before hav-
they been known to consider any other
mans opinion quite as good as their own,
but now they listen eagerly and respect
fully to the probabilities of the race as
discussed by any couple of gamins with.
in hearing. Call all this work and nc
money would hire them to endure such
exasperating annoyance and indignities
but sport-ah, that is the end that sane.
titles the means. Would that somebody
could juggle with the dictionary and
classify honesty, love, loyalty and relig-
ion under the general head of sport /; the
world would wake up next morning and
find itself rival of heaven"
The great match is just ended. Set
what are few of the net results of thi:
bit of sport First, it began with 6
grand row, and has been the subject o.
multitude of lesser ones. Second, i
has already broken down and nearly
killed one of the contestants, and prom
Uses to do the same for at least one o
the remaining ones. Third, it has fur
nished the occasion for the giving wa,
of a gallery filled with spectators, ant
the serious injury of dozen of the lat
ter. Fourth, it has provoked an enor
nous amount of betting. and the conse
quent losing of great deal of none,
by people who could not afford it. Fifth
three men are very tired and footsore
but not strictly unhappy, having divid
a little over $4,000 the sum left afte
paying all expenses, of the weeks trit
: ute to their strength of leg. Truly
there's nothing like 'sport."
: Last Monday, March 10th, was tn
twenty fifth anniversary of the formatio
of the first Atlantic Telegraph Cabl
; Company, or, as it was happily style
in a congratulatory cablegram receive
from Dean Stanley on that day, 18th
I silver wedding of England and America.
: 1t was a noteworthy occasion, and wa
e worthily commemorated by grand re
e ception given in the evening by Cyrr
W. Field, at the temporarily combine
e residences of himself and his brothe
d David Dudley Field, which adjoin eac
8 other in Gramercy Park, nearly opposi
a the handsome mansion of Samuel j. Ii
den. Among the three thousand CUES
who assembled at this extraordinal
reunion were majority of the five pri
- cipal cities of the Union; and, strange
enough, all but one of the originators
this great scheme.
. The objects of the festivity are be
set forth in the following extracts fro
= the opening speech of welcome made
~ the host and hero of the evening, NJ
- Cyrus W. Field: