St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-12-19
Our New York Letter.

l
STRANGE ACCIDENT-ALL SORTS.
NEW YORK, Dec. IL, 1879.
10 the Editor of the CdLedOniGR:
Holiday happenings are the order OF
the day now. The women have begun
already to lay in their stock of Xmas
presents, and articles of nobbiness in
general, Of dress, chiefly in particular.
The uptown shopping districts of New
York, and the corresponding ladies'
| block on Fulton street, in Brooklyn, are
thronged with beauty and fashion all
day from quite an early hour. Such
stores as Stewards and Macy's and five
hundred of more modest pretensions are
| literally jammed, and the streets in the
vicinity are lined three deep on either
curb with carriages owned by the
wealthiest of the wealthy. Union square
and Fourteenth street and Broadway
are full of attractions every store
seems to have put its best foot foremost,
and art, fashion and utility are COM
bined in bewildering variety to tempt
the yawning purses of the gazers. There
are evidences of prosperity abroad on
every hand. Eighth avenue looks as
gay as Sixth did year or so ago, and
Sixth avenue is finer and buster street
any day in the week than Broadway
was in its most famous days of old,
4 ,n lNrl Of oil ha
of the city was done on the great tho
rOughfare. Third avenue and the Bow
cry, that peculiarly cosmopolitan street,
are scarcely less filled with the surging
tide of eager humanity. l cannot begin
to speak of what is to be seen on the
counters and in the glittering windows
of the stores. AS the gold of the world
has been pouring in by the millions in
every incoming steamer for months,
the rich products of the oldest civiliza-
ton have followed in its track.
European houses have been busy for
months making goods for our holiday
display. With the results of their labor,
and those of our home manufacturers,
the caterers for public taste have GER
tainly achieved wonderful display.
New York never was so attractive.
Mr.. Rufus Hatch, the Wall street
millionaire, has just been doing a good
turn to people whose employees take
commissions" tom tradesmen who
supply them with the various necessa-
ries and comforts of life. He had a car
riage which, like Il lady's watch, seemed
to be always wanting something done
to it. The thing began to get mOnotO-
nous, and, on investigation, finding that
his cOachman always seemed flush of
money and redder about the nose than
usual, whenever the carriage was on
the sick list, Mr.. Hatch refused to pay
the next bill. The case came into court,
and the plaintiff, acknowledging that
he had made sundry presents of money
to the coachman, mentioned that it was
a custom of the trade, and hence that it
was a defensible psactice. On some
legal technicality the cause was decid-
ed against Mr.. Hatch. He has appealed
it and has very general sympathy in his
crusade on this new form of dishOn-
esty.
Indian fakirs, and the well-known
who are in the habit of standing for
few years in one position for religious
purposes, have b9en rivaled by genius
who probably went mad by too much
study of pedestrian as-you-please
contests. Misther Michael Carey aston
ished an intelligent policeman by stand
ing fol some hours on a mbstOne in a
marble yard, and refusing to come down
or move on when requested. He said
he had bet $4,000 he would stand just
there for seven days, without eating or
sleeping. A tolerably big contract to
fill. The officer evidently thought it
wasn't good for the mans health, so he |
softly tapped him with his club, and
induced him to change his intentions.
The rights of women and the wrongs
of suffering men have come up in
novel case. A lady entered a smoking
car the other day on a horse railroad,
and fancying gentleman near her had
willfully pulled some smoke in her face,
rose in wrath, wrenched away the Of
Tending Havana, pitched it out of the |
window and pitched into him with vol |
utility and nerve. Whether she did
right or the other thing has been the |
subject of some spicy correspondence.
The victim of feminine fastidousness
has consoled himself with Il wife. 1t
was stylish wedding. Let US trust she
will be more merciful than the fair foe |
who went for him so prOmiscuouslv.
The great pie question has also come
up, and some of the ablest thinkers, |
prominent and representative men have
been interviewed and placed them
selves Oh record us practically indoors
ing the great American pie.
The neighboring City of Churches
seems to be in very bad way, to Judge
from the statements of the editor of the
Brooklyn Eagle, Il staunch and devoted
friend to our great suburb where he
made his money. 1t appears the taxes
and assessments in arrears amount to
SIO,01S, 1884, and the property own
ers prefer to let their possessions 90
rather than pay mp. The publication
of the fact, has of course stirred ND a
lively newspaper war.
| told you recently about an alleged
sea serpent said to have been seen bv a
multitude of fishermen near Sandy
Hook. By a curious coincidence, brig
came in the next day badly damaged
by a collision with whale. Singularlv
enough a dead whale has Just been
stranded on ShinnecOck Beach on Long
Island. The Indians there, a small
remnant of once powerful tribe, have
had what may be termed pudding"
on the occasion. The marine monster