St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-11-19
Our New York Letter.

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BRAVE HERO OF LYRIC soNG-AN
UNwELCOME AND UNLICENSED VIsI-
TANT FROM CoCKNEYDOM-BUTTI
BARQUEs AND COLLIDING CARS-Ex-
HIBITIoN SITE COMMISSIONERS DIVING
FOR PLUMs IN THE PUDDING THEY
HAvE-MILITARY MATTERS-A RE-
MARKABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE
HISTORY OF THE WAR.
New YORK, Nov. IL, 1880.
To the Editorof the CdIedOnidn
The influence of the numerous COM
cts which astronomers are now so dill
gently discovering, or something else,
is causing the very mischief in the way
of minor maladies. Even your friend
RADIx has had the snuffies quite nu-
merously, and the majority of the peo-
pie he meets seem afflicted with influ-
enza, diphtheria, rheumatism or some
thing. Well-drained and wealthy dis
tricts seem infected as seriously as the
most malarious tenement house quar-
tiers supposed to be reeking with sewer
gas, and the health authorities and
medical profession seem thoroughly
puzzled. What causes the trouble l
give it up.
Of course you will have to read of all
the latest phases of the famous Chinese
letter forgery and of the arrest of sun
dry of the conspirators. Perusal of the
evidence has driven one estimable
woman to insanity; she imagines her
self the author of the fabrication and
worried herself almost into the grave
about it. Insanity generally has been
rife of late, and as usual has been
working in grooves. One man shot a
Protestant Episcopal Sister of Charity
on the ground that he believed her to
be witch, and another has been re-
strained from similar tragedy under
precisely the same halucination while
cases of murder and suicide have ragged.
Now Sara Bernhardt has at last ap-
peared there is quite a controversy as
to her being a success, after all the
trumpeting she received beforehand.
She has found financial success IN
doubtedly, but seems to have disap-
pointed the more eXacting among the
critics, and nearly the whole fraternity
coincide in denouncing her support as
a well-trained and thoroughly mechan-
ical array of sticks. For myself,
though l understand French reasona-
bly, well, l find it strain to follow the
lady's very rapid utterance, and cannot
for the life of me see where the fun
comes in for those who do not under
stand the language of Gaul. She has
had grand audiences, brilliant of name,
fame, wealth and jewelry as the cleo
tric lights which nowadays seem to
have become Indispensable adjunets to
the theater.
L suppose yon may remember once
famous tune entitled the Mulligan
Guards wherein mention is made of a
certain Capt. Hussey, "a Tipperary
man, He is real character, an offic-
ial at the emigrant depot at Castle Gar
den, with a weakness for spelling his
clothes and running the risk of lumba-
go, by jumping into the water at unex-
pected times and fishing out damp
bodies, which, but for him, would be
limp and Objectionable enough. He
wears several medals for life-saving,
and is gallant fellow.
Among other vagaries of our uncer-
tain climate we had stupendous fog
the other day, a regular London affair
ION which the CustOm-h house should
have imposed the highest possible pro-
tective duties, ad yalorem, specific and
every other kind during which ferry
boat smashed schooner, several ships
collided and the ocean steamships car
rying the United States mails were one
and all detained in port, an unprece-
dented event. One of them, the Ger
manic, bearing James Gordon Bennett
and his fortunes, sank an Austrian bark
in a hurry when she did manage to
| point her nose outward bound. We
don't like fogs, they are expensive and
disagreeable.
! Railway collisions, some perhaps Ow-
ing to the fog, but more caused by
| sheer carelesSneSS, or, as in one case,
| by the parsimOny of directors employ
ing lad of seventeen as switchman
for fourteen hours day, till the grow
ing lad was worn out by fatigue and
want of sleep, have been quite numer-
Gus, and large fire has cleaned out a
great EastsIde manufacturing caravan
sary, once famous as the scene of some
vi luO OOuSuCSO III Tue great
draft riots of July, 1868.
Property owners, land spectators
and windy patriots, who like to see
their respectable names in print, have
been hard at it, hammer and tongs,
trying, or perhaps not trying, to settle
on site for the forthcoming great Ex-
position in New York. Large sums of
money are guaranteed by the further
ers of one and another scheme, while
so favorable are the conditions attribu-
ted to Central Park that I should not
feel very much surprised should that
location be finally decided on, though
it would be sin and shame not TO be
remedied for at least generation, to
destroy the patient and artistic work of
so many years, with all the parapher-
MALTA of exhibition building and exhibit
ton maintaining. Prospect Park, in
Brooklyn, is offered, and would really
be more accessible and available in ev-
cry way for the bulk of the residents
of New York and the sojourners in the
stylish uptown hotels, but being in an
other county, no very strenuous sup
port will be rendered in the gallant
fight for it now inaugurated and kept
up by the advocates from Brooklyn.
The Warren Court Martial still drags
its slow length along, while interest in
it is undated, and the Army and Navy
Club have been stirred up to try and
greatly enlarge their circle by the ad-
mission of volunteer officers in a far
larger proportion than at present. 1t is
remembered that during the war Han
cock, though veteran regular officer,
was, as general officer, an officer of
volunteers. There is military boom
all round, which, among other things.