Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-08
MANHATTANISMS.
SUITS GROWING OUT OF THE MADISON
SQUARE CALAMITY.
Growth of Decorative Art Murder as a
Provocative of Lecturing-Three
Orders of Hebrews.
New YORK. April 90. 1880.

The startling and distressing accident al
Madison Square Garden during the Hahne-
mann Fair still continues to be discussed
in all circles of society. Everybody feels
that it was the result of gross carelessness
that the lives of four persons were sacri-
feed through the criminal inattention-
even indifference so often accom-
panies the erection or reconstruction of
public buildings. The community is,
for once, thoroughly indignant, and
seems determined that the responsibility
shall be fixed where it belongs But to fix
the responsibility is not so easy. The
managers of the fair declare, with truth
doubtless, that they are not to blame; so
says Barnum, who put up the Hippodrome
so says Z. s. Gilmore, who, having sue
ceeded Barnum, made the walls higher,
and turned the place into garden, So
called ; so'says VIM. HI. Vanderbilt, owner
of the property. Under the circumstances
it will be very hard to settle the question,
and the accident is likely to result in CO.
pious legislation.
PICTURES AND OTHER WORKS OF ART
Have been destroyed and injured to the
extent of some $4,000, and as all of these
were lent to the fair, and many of them
were lent by painters and others of small
means, the loss is very serious How are
the losers to be indemnified? The man.
ayers of the fair are really responsible /;
but as they are not a company or corpora
| - L. -
ual capacity, they cannot be held by law.
Who is accountable for the death of Mrs.
Hegeman and her maid, Mary Connolly
of w. M. Tileston and Mrs. Willetts
1t is said that suits will be brought
for damages by the family of
Mary Connolly and the family
of w. M. Tileston, now deprived
of the means of support. Having been a
| journalist and contributor to sporting
weeklies, whose speciality was dogs, he
could not have earned much money at any
time, and his family must fare i'll without
him. hear that the husband of Mrs
Hegeman, prominent and prosperous
lawyer, and that the near relatives of Mrs.
Willetts intend to seek legal damages, not
as any compensation for their bereavement
but for the sake of establishing a prece-
dent, and to discourage the recurrence of
such accidents.
SUITS, INVOLVING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS,
Will, in all probability, beinstituted so soon
as it can be shown where the responsibility
rests. Just now masons are trying to put
this off on builders, builders on contractors
and contractors on corporations. VIM. H.
.N,@,r g IT,,
lem Railway, is the natural selection of
the parties injured on account of his wealth
and ownership of the property. Of course
he would not pay any damages until COM
PEELED. He would carry the case from
Court to Court, and it might outlast his
life. The question ought by all means to
be decided. An accident precisely similar
might happen here any time. There are,
unquestionably, hundreds and hundreds of
wholly insecure buildings, many of
them public, all over the city.
They are liable to give way
entirely or in part at any time, and cause
great destruction of property and life
The general manner of putting up struc-
lures in New York is criminally careless
Building is, for the most part, done by
contract, and the contractors object is
usually to save as much on material and
work as he can, so as to add to his own
gains. The result is plain enough. Walls
are thin and weak, lumber is green and
shrinks, mortar is poor and does not hold,
foundations are infirm, and when there is
any uncommon pressure, peril increases,
and calamity is imminent. The Hahne-
mann Fair casualty, painful as it is, may
yet lead to good by diminishing the proba-
bility of the recurrence OF similar dis
asters.
THE DECORATIVE ART SOCIETY.
The forthcoming annual report of the
Decorative Art Society, only three years
organized, will be very encouraging to its
founders and to all persons interested in
the subject. The Society has surpassed
the most ardent expectations by its solid
success. Its purpose was to establish
rooms for the exhibition and sale of wo.
mans work, the promotion and diffusion of
knowledge of decorative art among wo-
men, and their training in artistic indus-
tries. Nest of the founders are women of
high social position and wealth, desirous to
aid their less fortunate sisters, prevented
from leaving their homes, in new and re-
fined forms of labor. Its progress has been
rapid. At the first opening of its sales
rooms in October, 1877 there were less than
100 contributors at the close of last year
the contributors numbered ,S45, represent
ing 25 different States. The money paid
to them up to the end of the past year,
after deductingthe 10 per cent. commission
for expenses of the Society, was S3l, ,664 80,
a very considerable sum for little more
than two years. The articles, toe, arc of
genuine artistic worth, having to pass Sc
we're critical examination before they can
be admitted The sales last year reached
S29, ,OO0-a gain of some 1000 over the
previous year. There has been a marked
gain likewise in the sales of high priced
articles, largely due to the better quality
of the work. The Society is now on a firm
foundation, and has done deal of good,
especially the refined and cultured who by
their change of fortune had been thrown on
own resources. At once benevolent and
esthetic, it has greatly helped art educa-
tion In the community.
THE LATE JOSEPH sElIGMAN,
Founder Of the we'll known banking house,
having branches in various capitals in Eu-
rope and this country, was one of our most
benevolent and enterprising citizens, and
his death is most sincerely mourned in
many circles. He was representative
| liberal or rationalistic Israelite, one of the
founders of the Society for Ethical Cul-
ture, of which Felix Adler is the center,
and was deeply interested in all that per-
tains to the advancement of humanity.
There are three different kinds of Jews
here, though to the popular apprehen-
sion they are as one-the orthodox Jews,
the old-fashioned order, whose members
are exceedingly conservative, and who be-
lieve what their ancestors believed three
or four hundred years ago; the reformed
Jews, who, as their name indicates, have
thrown off their allegiance to ancient tradi-
tions and embraced the cause of progress
the rationalistic Jews, who are simply
deists, have no respect for ecclesiastic au-
thority or theological dogma, but cleave to
|