St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-05-09
on Monday, June 30, at 81 o'clock a. M
l. w. SANBoRN, Secretary.
Our New York Letter.

MAY DAY-A FEW TRITE- REMARKS
THE AGONIES OF THE MOvER-HAP-
Ply RAILROADERs-soME STRIKES
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RICH AND
POOR-AMUsEMENT NOTES.
New YORK, May 2, 1879.
To the Editor of the Caledonian:
May day this year was not much Civ
en- over to vernal warmth and seasonal
BILE flowers. In fact it may be said to
have been invernally cold and buster
ing. 1t was therefore marked by a
good deal of 500 horsepower language
from those young parties who had pre-
maturely pawned their ulsters, as well
as from the numerous heads of families
who spent their waking hours in loading
and unloading their household effects,
and following the latter dinnerless
through the streets. Those coldblOOd-
ed wretches who deal in statistics in
form us that there was less moving in
the city this year than for several years
previous; but there was certainly
enough of it visible to satisfy the most
cynical Halter of his species. 1t was a
sad occasion. 1t always is sad occa-
sion. No man likes, in the first place,
to have to turn the whole contents of
his house into the street for public in
spectiOn. Almost everybody has some
desire to keep up appearances, and to
tacitly ignore, in the presence of strang-
ers or even of friends, the existence of
many indispensable adjuncts of house
keeping. TO feel, therefore, that you
are watched by your neighbors and the
general public while you drag down the
front steps and up into the express wag-
on the rag carpet from the servants
room, lot of dilapidated old bedding,
a small car load of rubbish from the at
tic, all the pots and kettles from the
kitchen, and a terribly miscellaneous
assortment of crockery in various states
of repair-all this, say, constitutes an
ordeal which will almost start the cold
perspiration on a book agent.
OF course, in as big town as this,
people are too busy to pay much atten
ton to such scenes but it is useless to
urge this upon the sensitive household
er. He feels that the eyes of the world
are upon him and his crOckery, and he
suffers accordingly. And then this is
only the beginning of trouble. The
same anguish of spirit is repeated at
the other end of the route, its poignan-
cy increased by the three leggedness of
furniture and fragmentary condition of
glassware which usually insinuate
themselves into load during even the
briefest journey. Then comes the
soothing process of settling with two or
three husky and spirituOus truckmen,
whose memory totally fails them as to
any previous bargain, and who sturdily
demand from $40 to S25 per load for
smashing your chattels. But why pur-
sue this painful subject further? Can
nOt,every American citizen of voting
age look back into his own experience
and sufficiently fill in the details?
Thursday, however, was dedicated
not alone to the slow transit above re-
ferred to, but to rapid transit as well.
On the evening of that day Mr.. Cyrus
w. Field, President of the n. Y. Ele
waited Road, gave an elaborate banquet
at DelmOnicO's to the directors and of
ticers of that institution and of the ri
val Metropolitan Road. The dinner
was prepared on scale worthy of some
great festivity. The bills of fare were
Of sill nd hn
wines were rare and costly. The Occa-
sion of this grand spread was twofold.
1t was intended first to symbolic the
general rejoicing over the lOng-expect-
ed compromise of the difficulties be-
tween the two companies arising out of
the interference of their east side lines,
and secondly, to celebrate the payment
of the first dividend ever declared by
the New York Elevated Road. The
general opinion being that the company
has been coming money ever since its
establishment, it is somewhat surpriS
ing to learn from Mr.. Fields speech de-
livered at this dinner that the company
has been in existence for thirteen years,
and only now declares its first divi-
dend. There is every prospect now,
however, that dividends will follow
each other hereafter in satisfactory sue
cessiOn. Last week the two roads car
ried an average of nearly l56, 900 pas
sengers day, or at the rate of about
tifty-siX millions IA year, and their pat
rOnage steadily increases. The Metro
politan Road is now pushing the work
of extending its lines with great vigOr.
employing some 1000 labOrers. Two
thirds of this formidable army struck
for higher wages one morning this week
but as the company already had pay
roll of some six or seven thousand dol
lars day, they declined to accede to
the demand. The labOrers stood out
for about half a day, and then, wisely
concluding that nine-tenths of loaf
was better than no bread, returned to
work.
Another strike is in progress while l
write. The 'lOngshoremen of the North
River, who load and unload most of the
steamers and sailing vessels plying from
this port, came to the conclusion that
they ought to have five cents an hour
more for work than the steamship COM
panies are willing to give, struck work
on Thursday, and to the number of
5000 have been standing about the
docks idle but peaceable ever since.
Neither side seems inclined to yield
One of the morning papers very Justly
remarked the other day that it costs
money to come into collision with some
people. When recently William H.
Vanderbilt ran over a man on the ave-
nue., the court took no notice of it and
the man went off to work again, feeling
rather chagrined at having been in the
way. 1t should be added that Mr.. Van
derblt did not appear to have been to
blame. When poor man ran against
the vehicle containing the person OF
August Belmont, which occurrence