Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-02-03
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special CORRESPONDENCE.

tCHoCCUS OOIOSPVteSofCtos
NEW YORK, Jan. 81, 1879.
Last week I chronicled the disas-
trous fire on Broadway which wiped
out almost two millions of property.
The embers of that confagratlon were
still smoulding when another occurred
nearly one-half more destructive in the
heart of the dry goods district. In the
latter, as in the former case, the pecul-
iarly favorable condition of the weather
alone evented an unparalleled catas-
trophe. These warning calamlties have
impressed and alarmed the whole city,
by showing to what an extent we are
at he mercy of the destroying element.
The insurance companies. most of whom
have thus seen swept away within a
week more than their possible profits
for the year thus inaupiciously begun,
are naturally greatly aroused, and have
just been investigating, through Com
mittee, the condition of the lower part
of the town.
The masses of snow which have fallen
in the city recently have been terribly
obstructive of travel. Double teams to
half loads have been the rule, with slow
progress at that Our able and efficient
Street-cleaning Department didn't seem
to notice anything unusual in the ap-
pearance of the street for week after
the snow fell, but at length some one
must have told them about it, for they
finally made up their minds to clear the
incnmbrance from the leading thorough
fares. 1t is no small job to clear Broad
way after such a storm, as may be in
ferred from the fact that it took 1000
men and 600 carts from daylight till
six o'clock in the evening to accomplish
it, during which period they shoveled
up, carted away, and dumped into the
rivers some nine thousands cart-loads,
weighing close on to two thousands
tons.
Some detectives in the U. S. Secret
Service have successfully accomplished a
difficult and delicate job in tracing and
arresting man named Ulrich, said to
be the most skillful engraver Of coun-
terfeit money in the country. A few
years ago he was imprisoned for execu-
ting bogus 500 bill on Boston bank
so perfect that Sl,OOO,OOO of it were
put in circulation. He was pardoned
out, however, and soon returned to his
old occupation. When the raid was
made on his house in the little village
whittier he had been traced he was found
at work engraving by hand the geomet-
rical lathe-work of the back of Sl0C
Treasury note, which is done by the
Government with machine that costs
100000 and which it had been sup
posed could not be initiated. Ulrich':
work, however. was almost perfect.
See what noble ambition the success.
of the recent pedestrian matches here
have b9en able to awaken In the pro
vincial breast In Paterson man ha
started on an attempt to walk 400 mile
, in six day, resting only three hours each
day. In the same town, another enter
| prising party is endeavoring to gail
wealth and reputation by keeping awak
for six days. One Mackey, of Passaic
calls himself champion Raw Onion
Eater of the world" Michael Burns i
going to eat against him for $500 "ant
gate money" Another man wants t
seat barrel of raw onions against time
= claiming that he can do so in four days
And in day or SO, another hero vii
charge the public an admission fee t
see him try to 'eat six pounds of ray
Goldfish in two hours" Who can sa
> that the tendencies Of the age are nc
ennobling and refining =?
Church organizations have becom
y famous for their ingenuity in devisin
means for "raising the wind" don
e remember, however, to have heard {
ANYTHING more striking and original i
this line than the scheme now being ez
ecuted by suburban Catholic society
to dispose of their church edifce by
8 lottery, chances one dollar each. If an
IS of your readers happen to want mic
# church for any purpose, here is the
opportunity. RADIx.
u