Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-07-25
OUR GOTHAM LETTER.
From our regular Correspondent.
RAILROAD SINS.

RAILROAD SINS.
The rapidity with which many railroad
men have amassed colossal fortunes in the
management of roads that paid but slender
dividens 70 ordinary stock holders has long
excited attention. Petty shareholders were
plumply told whenever they suggested an
inquiry into this phenomenon that it would
be suicidal; il would fling open the doors
to eommunistic assaults upon this particu-
lar species of property, and if they knew
when they were well off they would receipt
for their meagre dividens and say nothing.
This they did year after year with docility
worthy of slighter grievance. But it is a
long lane which has no turn, and now the
long-suffering stockholder, in common with
the general public, is learning some things
Of exceeding rare interest about the way
railroads are run. Montgomery Blair is
reputed to have once sharply reminded
Jessie Fremont that the Presidents Cabinet
was the power which made men and un-
made them; and the Legislative Committee,
now in session in this city, is showing that
there is a power by which merchants, traders
and shippers are made or unmade in business
or fortune, and that power is the VIII of
the railroad magnate. Its shown that in
certain trades where prominent houses
have opposed. the peculiar methods of the
railroad manipulation, he has given the
principal competitors Of the offending mer-
oh ufc discount of ivrfr CIV r,or
every pound of freight; that on one road
over six thousand special rate have been
granted from sheer favoritism; that men
under the managers smile have thus am
assed fortunes and destroyed competitors
of worth having equal rights upon public
highway in a word, the Office of Mr..
Vanderbilt was where they made men and
unmade them, along the whole line of his
roads. OF these methods more anon.
THE HOT SEASON.
New York is probably the coolest large
city in the world. London, Paris, Vienna
and Berlin know nothing of the cool refresh
ng salt air which surrounds us, and an
ocean breeze would whisper to them in an
unknown tongue. Seventeen miles long is
Manhattan Island, and only mile and half
to two miles wide; both sides are washed
by waves of broad swift rivers, through
whose channels the strong tides drive the
salt water both ways twice every day. At
its foot lies that magnificent circular Bay,
over six miles in diameter, on whose bosom
all the navies of the world might safely
ride at anchor, and just through the Mar
rows the dolphins sport amid the cresting
waves of the blue Atlantic. Our City Hall !
is within eight miles of the old ocean; why |
shouldn't we be cool?
Yet every summer the fashion sets more |
firmly and churches close, concerts and |
lectures cease, the fOotlights 90 out, and |
everybody makes q great pretense of get !
ting cool in a cOoped-up little inland, |
country town, where ceilings are low, |
bathtubs are unknown, and half the COM |
forts and luxuries of their city homes are |
left behind. Or Mrs. Grundy requires the
pilgrims in search of ''coolth" to take a |
seven by nine room at a watering place |
hotel, into which during the hottest |
months, they stow trunks, travelling cases
and portmanteaus three deep; and this
store room becomes also their bed room,
dressing room, living room, and private re-
ception room. At home, room after room
invited the overheated to search, en- desba-
bile, if they chose, for a cool and breezy
corner; but from that store room must no
MOIudil uepdI III SedfEH OF Sldue
or summer breeze until her tribute to the
goddess of Fashion has been paid to the
uttermost farthingl And that is "getting
cool!"
Far be it from me to disparage the Gus
tom Of changing ones air and surround
ings at stated intervals. l. is vastly bene-
fetal to do this; dweller in city does well
10 get weeks draught ofeountry air, and
roam through woods and meadows; it is
we'll for his country cousin to frequently
change for the brisk and driving life
Of the great city; the lowlander should
make personal acquaintance with the rug
ged mountain side; and he whose home is
FAR inland should come and see the inde-
grandeur of the old ocean. The
attest and best theory Of rest for the weary
IS not idleness, but change Of occupation
md surroundings. 1t may be well for the
children of fashion to give up
heir elegant city homes and squeeze into
/ single little room smaller than their wait
ng maid occupies at home. The change
nay DO good the lesson that happiness
nay exist in home Of one or two rooms is
lot an altogether bad lesson to learn; but
he idea Of leaving New York to "get cool
lnder such circumstances is supremely
'idieulous. MORLEY.
New York, July 90, 1870.