St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-05-30
Our New York Letter.
THE ELEVATED FUSION - TRIALS OF
RAPID TRANSIT IN BRooKLYN-CHAP-
LAIN BEECHER's REGIMENT-A BEAR
sCRAPE-A $4,000 HEART.

J, RAPID TRANSIT IN BROOKLYN-CHAP-
r LAIN BEECHER's REGIMENT-A BEAR
, sCRAPE-A $4,000 HEART.
NEW YORK, May %, 1879.
g 10 the Editor of the CaledOnian:
Out of the joint occupation of small
> piece of track on the east side grew
complications and quarrels between our
| two elevated railroads, which have been
, seething and bubbling for several
months, to the great worriment of the
! two roads themselves and the partial
incommodement of the public. The
aid of the Legislature was invoked to
; re-establish peace but the law makers
refused to mix up in the fight, and told
the belligerents to settle the affair
among themselves-thereby displaying
: an amount of common sense almost I'M
precedented in the history of State Leg
islatures. This good advice the roads
, apparently took to heart, for they have
| just agreed to turn over all their prop
erty to new corporation formed for
the purpose and called the Manhattan
} Company, which will hereafter operate
, both lines and apportion to each of the
original companies it's share of the
profits.
The success of the New York rapid
transit experiment has stimulated the
formation of companies for the intro
duction of the same advantages into
Brooklyn. One of these is all ready to
begin operations, but, like its prOtO-
types in this city, it finds the path to
success, like Jordan, ga hard read to
travel" The president of the concern,
with the contractor and gang of labor
ers, assembled the other day to break
ground for the work with pomp and re-
jOicing, but hardly had cobble-stOne
been displaced when a squad of police
swOoped down upon them and dragged
the devoted band into court for viOlat-
ing city ordinance. They were soon
out on bail however, and hOstilities are
soon to be recommended. Rapid tran
sit is bound to succeed in all large cit
les, but it seems to be the fashion to
give its promoters all the trouble DOS
sible.
The Thirteenth Regiment of Brook
Ign, which boasts of having Henry
Ward Beecher for its chaplain as its
chief distinction, has started for Canada
to aIticipate in the celebration of the
Queens birthday. 1t had been previ- |
Ously and privately arranged that in the
sham fight, which was to form a part of |
the festivities, the Canadian troops
were finally to G i've way and courteous
y allow the American eagle to screech
in triumph. The Princess Louise was
to present the regiment with cOloIs, and |
a great time generally was expected.
The passage of the regiment through |
the streets of Brooklyn at its departure
was in the nature of triumphal pro-
cessiOn, cheers, banners and flowers be-
ing freely employed to honor these
blood stained warriors, and especially, !
perhaps, their intrepid chaplain who
was to air his gold lace and earn his
spurs in fierce encounter with the Ka-
nucks.
came across, the other day, copy
of the new edition of Webster's Una
bridged, in more senses than one the
greatest of American books, and 1 con-
fess was surprised to see the changes
and additions which it embodies.
We are accustomed to think of die
tiOnary per Sc as one of the most stable
and fixed of publications, and indeed
we are correct enough, so far as most
works OF the kind are concerned; but
the publishers of Webster's seem to
look upon ats nature and mission in
quite different light. venture to as
sert that for twenty years there has
been no single secular volume before
the country of greater value than the
unabridged. Still its owners are not
satisfied. They have gone on repub-
fishing, revising and charging it until
now 1T becomes fair presumption to
believe that they intend it ultimately to
become whole encyclopedia library in |
one volume. This last edition reaches
nearly 1900 pages and contains full
5000 engravings. 1t retains all the |
cOmprehensively treated features which
raised it to its present position, with |
the addition, since the last previous is
sue, of almost five thousand new words
and meanings and new biographical
dictionary of nearly ten thousand |
names. This latter is one of the most
useful and sensible addenda to the great
work that could have been devised. In
our reading we are constantly asking
ourselves ''who was this person and
what, when and where was he % Here
we have the whole in a nutshell. A few
words only are devoted to each subject. |
but they are works carefully chosen
and give just the general information
we require. The new Webster is Gun
approached" as we'll as Unabridged.
That particular squad of Uncle Sans
Custom House employees who earn their
bread by searching the incoming i'm
migrants. at Castle Garden for contra
band and dutiable articles, found them
selves in a quandary the other day
when Frenchman landed, with a good |
big grizzly bear as his companion. The |
othclals ordered him to halt, and after
examining their prize from a respectful
distance, Informed the man that he
must pay ten dollars duty on the beast.
Inc Immigrant objected on several
grounds, of which perhaps the strongest
was that he didn't have the ten dollars.
Inc blue coats insisted, however, so
atter slyly poking the bear until the
latter sat up on his hams and showed
the assemblage a fine open cOunten-
ance, he blandiy informed them that if
they wanted their money they could
just take the bear. This was a fair
enough proposition, but somehow the
omcers didn't act as though they want
ed to take it up. After considerable
sklrmishing, however, during which the
pear tore some clothes and came near
dong more serious damage, he was
temporarily secured, and is, 1 believe.
now waiting some sufficiently secure
conveyance to take him up to Central