The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1881-12-10
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.


Death of a Millionaire-ContrastB Between
George Law and Peter Cooper-Italian
Lazaroni, and How They Live~The Her
aid on Crime In New York-Brooklyn
Highwaymen-Dr. Cooper's Crime-The
New Stock Exchange, Etc.
New YORK, December 3, 1881.
EDITOR CHIEF:
"Speak no i'll of the dead, )" is an adage
as old as the hills. He was but fool
who invented it, or perhaps knave,
whose life would not bear the scrutiny
Of an honest man. Speak nothing i'll of
the dead. Why not2 If a man in his
life challenges and defes the criticisms
of his fellows, know no reason why his
death should save him from the conse-
quences Of an ill-spent life. George Law
died . week ago, and the papers have
been filed with his biography. It is the
old, sold story of the poor boy starting
out from his home, and by his industry
and thrift becoming possessor of millions.
George Law started i'll life poor, and at
the time of his death he was worth prob
ably ten millions of dollars. When you
have written this you have told his whole
story. No poor man blesses his memory;
no widow OF orphan offers up prayer
for him; nothing remains but the mem-
ory of his millions ground out of the
flesh and blood Of the poor. Mr.. Law
owned two Of the most profitable ferries
between New York and Brooklyn. Thou
sands upon thousands were daily COM
PEELED to use this means Of transit, and
he conducted them with meanneS and
penuriousness in strong contrast with
the liberal management of the Union
Ferry Company, connecting with the
other parts of Brooklyn. That he might
horde up his millions the poor were
ground down, and the thousands who
were forced to use his boats had to sub
nit to crying evil and the grossest incon-
venience. His ferry houses and his boats
were disgrace to the city cursed by his
presence, and thousands, in the hope Of
more liberal management, prayed daily
for his death, who had never looked npon
his face. The High Bridge, which con-
ducts the Croton water over Harlem
river, will stand as a monument of the
moro respectable portion of his life. For
the last thirty years there is little good
to be recorded of him, excepting that he
added to his millions, which if it had
been possible to take into the other
world, no doubt he would have done it.
Society gains by his death; the world is
richer for his takingsr.off. The only re-
gret in connection with him is, that he
lived as long as he did. 1t would have
been better for his fame if he had died
thirty or forty years ago.
In sharp contrast with George Law
stands blessed old Peter Cooper, good old
Peter Cooper, grand old Peter Cooper.
Starting poorer boy than George Law
never achieving the millions that George
Law did-but, OH, what a difference!
What blessings are nightly showered on
old Peter Cooper's head; what prayers
ascend to heaven that his life, already
heightened beyond the lot Of man, may
still be spared to humanity and charity.
What a calamity his death would be
whenever it shall come; for if he were
to live thousand years he would not
have lived a day too long! A man who
has filled the highest measure of human
goodness and who reaps while living the
golden sheaEes of happiness, which even
the best Of men only expect to enjoy be-
yond the grave. One hour Of the hap
piness that Peter Cooper enjoys every
day, as he walks through the galleries of
the grand institute he has founded, and
sees the thousands of youns women
whom he has helped to honorable indie
pendence, is worth a hundred lives Of
such as George Laws if the life had been
prolonged to a century.
On Sunday the Herald came out in a