Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-07-19
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MONITOR
New YORK, July II, 1880.

NeW Iork, at the close OF the late
did not prove to be so
populous as some over sanguine people
expected by two hundred thousand or
more. 1t shared its disappointment
In this respect with nearly every city
In the country for cities, like individ-
uals, are apt to overrate themselves, and
carry their valuation at high figure
But nearly million and quarter of
people in New York, more than half
million in Brooklyn, and between two
and three hundred thousand in Jersey
City, Hunters Point, and other imme-
diate environs of the metropolis, swell
the number, in this great center of pop
ulation, to more than two millions.
That is sufficient for growth which
has taken place almost entirely during
the present century. But, after all, it
IS material, intellectual and moral pro-
gress. and not population, that should
make the pride of great cities. And
how stands the record with New York
in this respect That we have great
wealth here, an enormous aggregation
OF capital, is undoubtedly true; and
that the educational progress of the
city has kept pace with its advance
ment in population, is a reasonable
claim 1t is one of the great educa-
tional oenters of the world, in fact; a
city filled with institutions of learning
of very high order in every depart
ment of knowledge. elementary, pro-
fessional, scientific, and technical.
And in the fine arts we have much more
merit than reputation but the want of
great public galleries for exhibition
keeps our achievements in this line in a
corner. We are moving, however, and
the world is beginning to find that
Americans. too, can paint good pictures.
But, architecturally, the city is a mass
of crudities and incongruities and in
sanitary science it is to be feared that
we have hardly made beginning.
The city might have had, at this CEN
sus, from fifty to one hundred thousand
more inhabitants than it contains, had
we not killed that number outright,
during the last decade, by our ilnper-
feet tenement-house system, and general
neglect 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 Ganges
can put in rivalry. But we ought
not to be 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 Is
land, Long Island, and in Westchester
county, there are not less than seventy
five thousand acres of swamp lands,
filled with decaying vegetable matter,
and breeding malaria. Here is cause
for mischief rarely considered, and fol
which our suburban neighbors are di.
rectly responsible. If those lands could
be reclaimed and rendered fertile We
should have better health in the vein.
ity of New York Bay. and an apprecia'
bly, more rapid growth IN population
Possibly the next generation will ge
rid of this nuisance; but the owners Of
the salt meadows are too much inter
ested now in raising coarse sea grass fol-
fodder" to think of turning their valu
able property to any other account.
Nothing goes nowadays without al
organ. There are several hundred peri
odical publications Of different kinds il
this city at the present time; and By
far the largest number are devoted t,
some special service in art, science, in
dustry, invention, stockjobbing O
trade. Almost every guild has its or
gan, full of new facts and fancies, fol
the benefit of its members and the pub
lie; and it would be hard to overesti
mate the Importance to intelligent in
dustry and commence of this new mean
of disseminating useful information
Here is the Harness and Carriage Jour
nal, published by Beardsley & Thomas
for instance, it is an illustrated magazin
of twenty-six three column pages, neat
| ly bound in tinted covers, and contain
ing all the latest information attainabl
with regard to fashions, material. pri
ces, etc., in the immense industry whicl
it represents. TO dealers in the coun
try who wish to keep pace with metro
| politan. improvements it is an indispen
sable guide: and its recent enlargement
from sixteen to twenty-six pages show
its prosperity and the estimation i
which it is held throughout the country
| The announcement of the engagement
of Miss Vanderbilt, daughter of Wn
H. Vanderbilt, to Lord Dupplin, is a
item to send all the fashionable youn
ladies in New York into romanti
reverie in which courts, castles, coat-of
arms, and coachmen in livery are nike
up in a delicious but sweet confusion
And who, pray. is this Lord Dupplin