St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-07-16

ence it Is to be 1eareu tnaG we nave
hardly made a beginning The city
might have had, at this census, from
fifty to one hundred thousand more
inhabitants than it contains, had we
not killed that number outright, during
the last decade, by our imperfect tene-
ment-house system, and general neg
lect of the means of securing good
health. We can show the largest pro-
portional death-rOll in the world, I'M
less some of the cities of the Gauges
can put in claim to rivalry. But we
ought not to he too severely blamed
for this circumstance. Our sanitary
regulations are poor enough, and badly
neglected; but within twenty miles of
the City Hall, just over in Jersey, on
Staten Island, Long Island, and West
chester county, there are not less than
seventy-fve thousand acres of swamp
lands, filled with decaying vegetable
matter, and breeding malaria. Here is
a cause for mischief rarely considered,
and for which our suburban neighbors
are directly responsible. If those lands
could be reclaimed and rendered fertile
we should have better health in the vi
cinity of New York Bay, and an appre
Gladly more rapid growth in popula-
tion Possibly the next generation will
get rid of this nuisance; but the own
ers of the salt meadows are too much
interested now in raising coarse sea
grass for ''fodder" to think of turning
their valuable property to any other
account.
There is one duty which seems to be
quite beyond the capacity OF the New
York police; they can suppress a riot
or capture burglar, on ordinary occa-
sions, with reasonable promptness aud
despatch, but they are unable to more
than half repress the explosive patri-
otism of the gamins on the Fourth Of
July. They have injured the trade in
fire. crackers, it is true. 1t is also true
that man no longer walks the street
on the national birthday in the expec-
tation that his head will be blown off
at the next corner by a blunderbuss, of
some sort, in the hands of reckless
urchin; but the torpedo is king now,
and against this nuisance neither spe-
cial orders nor clubs are of much avail.
The youth slips quietly along the
street, with metallic ball attached to
string in his hand, and, at the proper
moment, when there is no policeman in
sight, plump down it goes upon the
pavement on its percussion side, with
a noise like mine musket. 1t is then
only the work of a moment to adjust it
for another explosion, and the boy plies
along as happy as if he had just heard
of the battle of Bunker's Hill. And
the nervous invalid on the top floor, as
he hears the incessant fusilade below,
doubts if he himself is not listening to
the historic echoes of that lively old
scrimmaee. But the city is more
peaceful on the Fourth of July than it
used to be, and we have reason to be
thankful that an effort has been made
in the right direction. That it is yet
very far from being successful, howev-
er, was only too evident to any man
who was in the city during the latter
part of the Fifth of July. At ten
o'clock at night on that date, your cor
respondent saw women in the lightest
and breeziest kind of furnishing goods
hanging from the upper windows of
tall houses, and throwing lighted fire
crackers on the heads of passengers on
the sidewalk. This was in contempt of
special orders and the police.
Nothing goes nowadays without an
organ. There are several hundred pc
riodical publications of different kinds
in this city at the present time; and by
far the largest number are devoted to
some special service in art, science, in
dustry, invention, stock -jobbing, or
trade. Almost every guild has its or
gan, full of new facts and fancies, for
the benefit of its members and the pub
lie; and it would be hard to Overesti-
mate the Importance to intelligent in
dustry and commerce of this new means
of disseminating useful information.
Here is the Harness and Carriage Jour
nal, published by Beardsley g. Thomas,
| for instance. 1t is an illustrated mag
azine of twenty-siX three column pages,
neatly bound in tinted covers, and con
tanning all the latest information at
tainable with regard to fashion, mate
rial, prices, etc, in the immense indus
try which it represents. No harness
nor carriage maker, nor livery man can
afford to forego the advantages of such
publication, for, in addition to all
current topics connected with the trade
the publishers furnish, gratis, to sub
scribers, all the latest patterns in har-
ness and horse furnishing goods. TIC
dealers in the country who wish tC
keep pace with metropolitan improve
ments it is an indispensable guide; and
its recent enlargement from sixteen tC
twenty six pages shows its prosperity
and the estimation in which it is held
throughout the country.
The announcement of the engage
ment of Miss Vanderbilt, daughter OF
VIM. III. Vanderbilt, to Lord Dupplin
is an item to send all the fashionable
young ladies in New York into a rO-
mantle reverie in which courts, castles
cOats-of-arms, and coachmen in livery
are mixed up in delicious but sweet
confusion. And who, pray, is the Lord
Dupplin to whom rumor says the dis
eliminating freight rates of New York
| City Railroad are to be divertedR A
Scottish lord whose first marital adj
venture was unhappy, and who's with a
divorce suit in his career, wishes to
find, in the millions of his proposed
eI-in-law, the hearts, lease thai
could never be secured through his af-
fectiOns. But it is we'll that he has
been divorced. With title in pros
pect, it is doubtful if the average New
York society woman would care to in
quire whether the husband had been
divorced or not. 1t is pity that oul
Young ladies are the last to learn thai