St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-10-08
Our New York Letter.


THE NEWEST PLAN TO EXTRACT GOLD
OUT OF WHARF.-THE STORY OF SILL
yER-ToNGUED BELL-THE SEVENTH
AT HoME-A ROW WITH A GODDESS IN
THE THICK OF IT.
New YORK, Oct. l 1880.
To the Editor of the Cdledonian
In the midst of the boom of business
and uproar of electioneering warning
has reached us from Canada of nature
which has seriously alarmed our fore
most business people. 1t seems that
Montreal, with low harbor dues and
cheaply built ships, is draining away
the commerce once appertaining more
particularly to New York, at remark
able rate. Already the Bluenoses have
gobbled much of the profits of the
transportation of wheat to the seaboard
from the bOundless fields on Northwest
ern prairies now they threaten our ap-
pie export business, and with the facili
ties shortly to be provided by the i'm
provement in the Welland Canal, may
lay no light hands Oh our provision bus
mess as well. Here, our Ring rascals
have piled on the most ubiquitous char
ges on shipping, supplemented NJ
blackmail of the most villainous kind,
and considering we can't buy ships in
the cheapest market, our neighbors
have every chance to underbid us.
Another source of disquietude is the
fact that in the midst of prosperity,
with prices going up, the unfortunate
mill hands at Fall River have been no.
titled of cut in their wages, the con-
sequences of which will be the immedi-
ate misery of thousands of oppressed
artisans and their families, and the en-
HANGED cost of every yard of cotton
clothing used in the community at
large. The mills are mainly in New
England, but they are controlled by
the colossal dry goods commission
houses of this city, which, while nomi
nally acting merely as manufacturers
agents, have, by their advances, got a
tight grip on the properties, and control
the movements of the local managers.
ut SbIlho lHlS JilIIc Is W tuC vi
New York capitalists, who have been
getting a net twenty-five per cent.
profit on every dollar they have turned
in an unprecedently brisk business sea-
sOn-so brisk that lower Broadway has,
night after night, been thronged with
their employees working far into the
night, under the beams of electric
lights, packing and shipping merehan-
disc.
We are soon to have another Cardi-
nal it seems. The success of the first
one was SO immense, and so many con-
versions took place i'll the upper ten,
in order, it is maliciously said, that
Miss Seraphina Shoddy might be mar
ried in the most stylish possible man
ner by a jeweled and belaced Prince of
the Church, that the Pope has elevated
Bishop COrrigan, of Newark, n. j., to
the post of CoadjutOr Archbishop of the
archdiocese, with succession to the
Cardinals hat. The faithful do greatly
rejoice.
We read every now and then of
train wreckers in far Western wilds,
but the horrid crime has been brought
home to us by the dastardly action of
some villains right under our immedi-
ate noses. The Long Island Railroad
conveys thousands daily to and from
many charming little villages within
easy reach of the business part of New
York, and a few nights ago some mis-
creants laid a rail across the track. 1t
was luckily discovered just in time to
prevent the destruction of crowded
train. There is but one appropriate
and effectual remedy for such villainy.
The culprits should be hunted down
with unrelenting vigor, and then, after
due invitation to the world to come and
see their execution, drive a locomotive
slowly and solemnly over them. This
taste of their own physic might discour-
age imitatOrs. 1t is queer coincidence
that the railway company has just dis
charged large number of engineers,
conductors, ETC., after giving them plen-
ty of work all summer.
+ Brooklyn is threatened with a water
famine, or, at least, the officials say so,
and an ordinance has been passed for
the house to house visitation and in-
spectiOn of domestic sanitary cOntriv-
ances by expert plumbers with view
to repairing leaks and stopping waste.
The originator of the scheme has a
father and brother in the plumbing bus
mess, and they and their fellow trades
men are in ecstacies. The average cit
izen is inclined to get mad over it all
Some years ago, under a similar pre-
tence, whole blocks had their water
turned off except for limited time
each day for some weeks. Certain
wealthy persons, knowing how to place
five dollar bill where it would dc
them the most good, managed to get all
, the water they wanted, even to run
, fountains and lawn sprinklers withal.
One of the trophies of the Mexican
war was superb bell composed in
great measure of the finest silver which
was erected on the east side, in the
district once resounding with the ham,
mers of shipwrights and mechanics in
kindred lines. All these years it has
rung thousands of honest workmen to
their labor, their meals and their we'll
earned rest. 1t has pealed merrily in
honor of patriots whom the nation has
delighted to honor, it has tOlled in tones
of deepest sadness of their loss. 1t has
cried with the dangerous note of succOl
, when great fires have ragged, and clang.
r ed triumphantly after many an election
The old bell is cracked, glories of the
) shipbuilding industries have departed
, from this port, and, once so wrapt il
the affections of all within sound of it.
| mellow voice that several serious riot,
! were occasioned by its proposed re-
3 moval several times. There seems t.
be doubt now as to whether enough
: money can be scraped together to pu
f the venerable harbinger of news into
proper shape again.