St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-06-04
Our New York Letter.

SIMMER OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES MADE
! LEMoNADE-THE DECORATIVE MANIA
NEW YoRK's DEAD HOUSE THE
LATEST SAM PATCH.
New YORK, May %, 1880.
To the Editor of the CdledOnian
Here is a nice problem for you i'll
mental arithmetic. If we keep the
thermometer up to 96o by the week
together, with forty sunstrokes per day
in this city, in the month of May, what
will be the condition of things by the
middle of August? Try and figure it
out some cool evening.
The heat here is really extraordinary
and somewhat disastrous as we'll. Our
average death rate in the city for May
is 6S day, but during the past week
it has run up to 100, while the suffering
that falls far short of killing its victims
among men and beasts, can neither De
computed nor counted.
The neighboring seaside resorts, de-
spite the vigorous preparations winch
they have for weeks been reported as
making, were taken by surprise after
all, and are yet totally unprepared for
the rush of sizzling New Workers who
insist on invading them. The Manhat-
tan Beach Hotel was formally opened
on Thursday, and although not ready
to receive guests in large numbers, was
visited by at least twenty thousand
people. In the city the free baths will
open on June list, and not before.
| These institutions of course are run by
red tape. They won't open till statu-
tory date at the commencement OF the
season, if the thermometer stands at
100 and the sweltering poor are dying
for the grateful GOODNESS which they
would afford. Per contra, they would
not close till statutory date in the fall,
if the water in them was frozen two
feet thick. In this respect they are a
good deal like the fires in railway cars,
which are put in at just such time in
the fall, and no sooner, no matter if
there has been snow on the ground for
a month, and are put out on set day
in the spring, after perhaps week of
sunstrOke weather, and very likely be-
fore cold snap when they are as much
needed as at any time during the win
ter. speak feelingly on this railroad
matter, for l live out of the city, and
get the full benefit of their idiotic sys-
TENS.
As a result all the sources of relief
and comfort during heated term are
being early and heavily drawn upon.
The ''custom- made" lemonade men are
working early and late, and will soon
he in the front rank of capitalists.
These gentlemen are comparatively
new characters in our streets, so far as
my observation goes. Of course there
is and long has been the time-honored
punch bowl of ice and floating lemon
peel on the shady corner of the street,
ready to be dipped out with a cOcoanut
shell ladle for the thirsty purchaser.
But the new method, which is now the
correct style, is for the vendor to make
every mans glass of the refreshing bev-
erage to order. He has his pile of the
golden fruit, lemon squeezer, a young
snowdrift of powdered sugar and a sup
ply of ice-water, and puts up each
drink as if it were prescription.
One of the most noticeable reigning
features of metropolitan fashion is the
rage of decoration. The parasOls of our
fair ladies are embellished with all the
splendor of blended colOrs, and the ap-
pearance of the gay promenade of Fifth
avenue in the afternoon is simply gor-
geous. AS far as the eye can reach
there is bobbing, bObbing of highly
tinted parasols. The masculine prom
enaders have not adopted any uniform
high color as yet, except we call the
ruby colored noses of many an indica-
ton of what is to be popular in the flu
ture. The latest fashion of apparel OF
the latter is ridiculous. Tight .panta-
looms, small pointed shoes, asnug fitting
coat buttoned up within an inch of
their chins, and a fiat stiff hat composes
their costume. They ape the English
swell in manners, and being unnatural,
are of course extremely ludicrous. A
cynical friend of mine says "that to be
an English swell you have only to wear
tight suit of clothes, fiat Derby hat,
and have your face covered with PIN
Piles. The latter is indispensable" and
to tell the truth he is about right.
With the advent of the warm wealth
er comes an epidemic of suicide. The
daily journals chronicle each day a
long list of suiciders, who, either weary
of their struggle with fate, or some per
sonal trouble seek rest in the great
hereafter by finding death with their
own hands. The great rivers that sur
round our city appear to attract the
weary, and deliver up daily great
many bodies. When found these relics
of humanity are taken to the Morgue, a
dreary looking building, and there held
for Identification. To-day there are AZ
pine collins of various sizes in the dead
houses. They hold the mortal remains
of as many human beings, whose friends
forsook or were fOrsaken by them, or
had neither friends or homes in this
great and boastful community. of the
Az occupants of the dead houses 30 had
been given up by the silent waters OF
the rivers. Five bodies are those of
children. They, alas, came from back
yards, open lots and ash barrels-aye,
ash barrels. They had persisted and
had been deserted by their parents,
whose poverty had not left them the
means of burial. With our great mis-
sionary institutions that beg for money
to convert and clothe the savage abroad
it does appear inhuman that destitution
and crime should exist unchecked right
in our midst.
Many of your readers will doubtless
remember Sam Patch and his leap over
Niagara. 1t is a curious taste that
leads man to reach fame through such
an avenue, but both before and since
the days of the redoubtable Sam, there
have been those who shared it, eide a
performance in this city on Thursday
| which n renorter descrihes something