St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-03-26

The vulgar opinion of the average
common Englishman, who does not find
things go on here just as they do in the
tight little island across the water, is
that this is ga blarsted country, you
know" Unfortunately, New York is a
blasted city, or large portion of it, at
all events. Chiefly founded on rock,
the work of excavators is much aided
by the use of powder, and they are apt
to get careless with it. You may think
1 am joking, but it is solid fact that
anywhere within half mile of these
mining operations, rocks are sent flying
around at intervals ia a very alarming
fashion. 1t is true red flags are dis
played when fuse is about to be fired,
and passers-by are yelled at to get out
of the way, but the powder is so strong
that semi-volcanic upheavals of granite
of pOrtentous dimensions ensue in very
many cases. A short time ago a worthy
citizen had the wall of his house bat
tered in while he was shaving, and,
clad in a very light costume, being dis
played to the multitude outside with a
suddenness that must have been very
embarrassing to bashful man. A few
days ago a child had her nose smashed
while at breakfast by missile from
mine, fired half mile off. The con-
tractor was arrested, as he had been
three times before, and fined, an expe-
rience which he had also undergone
previously. He seemed to feel quite
ill-used, and solemnly declared that he
never, never used more than one pound
of powder for a blast. On this particu-
lar occasion his one pound of powder
had displaced eight heavy oaken logs
and thirty tons of rock. 1t is under
stood that the Russian nihilists are
looking for that contractor to get his
recipe for powder in anticipation of
their next effort to blow up the Gar.
Poor DR.. Morgan Dix, rector of old
Trinity Protestant Episcopal church,
rigid churchman of rather "high" views
and immense dignity, has been made the
victim of the wicked wiles of some ir-
reverent wag. The disguised clergy
man has been overwhelmed for many
days, with visitors and letters from all
sorts of missions embroiled with his
fellow clergymen, who have received
insulting letters purpOrting to come
from him, and with other parties from
whom he was supposed to have ordered
goods, and so on. The freak must have
considerably taxed the perpetrators
time and ingenuity, and cost no little
money besides, and no one seems able
to form even a conjecture as to who the
culprit can possibly be.
The steamship and railroad cOmpa-
MES are, so to speak, rubbing their
hands at the thoughts of the vast influx
of immigrants expected from the famine
stricken regions of Europe. A large
portion of the funds sent to Ireland will
be used to further the exodus of the
poor people there to our new and hap
DIV land, and their fate will be shared
by others from far different places.
As l recently predicted, as conse-
quence of the partial strikes among the
pianomakers. the manufacturers have
struck a counterblow, and joined in a
lockout" The results will no doubt
be precisely as always before in such
cases. All will suffer in pocket, and
the weakest go to the wall. Taxpayers
will have to pay more for suppressing
or Furnishing more crime, and more for
corporate charity, while every grocer,
butcher, dry goods dealer, or purveyor
of anything else, with whom these peO
pie have been in the habit of dealing,
will lose just so much custom, and so
the circles will widen from the central
splash till we shall all in one way or
another, feel the evil. Strikes are an
nuisance. So at least
thought number of industrious factO-
nv hands in Paterson mill the other
day when the water, which had under
mined it, suddenly struck the building,
and calmly wiped it out. RADIx.