St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-07-22
Our New York Letter.
NEW YORK, July Is, 1881.
? Editor of the CdledOnidn

incOnvenient, is sometimes mingled
with the adaptability for any and all
pursuits which chaTacterizcs our ma
tive born citizens. 1t was the boast OF
commanding officers in the war that
they could, at a moments notice, de
tail good men from the ranks of any
} regiment to run a church or printing
press, make clock, or in fact to make
? or do anything. Every American boy
is born carpenter and machinist, and
/, his zeal and ability are most useful
said before. Inconvenience sometimes
results. An estimable young man in
, Brooklyn, the other day, for instance,
had got considerably exercised over
some leak in his landlady's pipes, and
volunteered to fix them for her. scorn-
ing the idea that plumber should be
called in. SO, tucking up his sleeves
he prepared his tools in the presence
; of the assembled household, who drew
up their chairs and watched his pro-
ceedings with atfectionate interest. He
, lacked a soldering iron, and, declaring
= he'd soon find something in the attic
to suit, and after poking around there
for some time, returned with apparent
: ~ very suitable instrument. WhcI
heated, however, it exploded, and, OF
inquiry, ii was found to be the bushes,
, end of an explosive harpoOn, left be-
hind by an old whaling captain, for
! mer boarder. No lives were lost, and
= the amateur plumber has taken to
studying other sciences.
So Mrs. Vie. Woodruff. the female
broker, blackmailer and High Priestes,
} of free love, has become relation by
marriage of Queen Victoria, who being
somewhat straight-laced must be quite
offended. Her beautiful daughter, Miss
; Blood, has captured Lord Colin Camp
bell, the fifth.son of the Duke of Argyle
, and brOther-in-law of Princess Louise
of Lorne. 1t must be love match
for the CampbellS have for ages enjoy
ed the reputation of great prudence il
money and other matters. There is
no doubt that the merry King Charlie,
|. owed his death to the treachery of d
, former Duke of Argyle, who sold him
, to Cromwell for consideration, and
the present one looks well to the bau-
bees. He writes heavy review articles
and gets paid for them, and two of his
sons were for awhile in business here
in the tea trade. Without question the
intimacy which has eliminated so thor
f oughly must have begun in Gotham.
Thunder and lightning are somewhat
familiar phenomena, but we here are
: rarely afflicted with such vicious mani
festations as on Wednesday last. Peo-
pie were Frustrated by scores and one
child was killed; barns were set OF
fire in the suburbs, the assembled arch
ers in Prospect Park were drenched to
+ the skin, and in the city itself the tele-
graph and telephone had to cease
working. In fact the tender damsels
at the telephone central office wert
driven from their Instruments and paid
no attention to hurried business men
who wanted to be put in cOmmunica-
ton with their commercial interlocu-
= tors. In my office, and | suppose
pretty generally elsewhere, an inter
mittent lambent flame danced on the
button of my instrument, threatening
shocks OF severity to any one rash
enough to approach it. The diffusion
of the electricity over SO many wires
no doubt saved the city from some ter
rihle calamity, for the sturdiest build
mgs were shaken to the foundations by
some of the thunder peals. A barn at
E'latbush had been insured for 81, 50C
two hours before it was destroyed
just in time
Fifty special sanitary inspectors have
been appointed for the warm season
} now upon us to visit the tenement dis
, tricts and render gratuitous medical
1 aid and advice to the poor, their pre-
scriptiOns being filled at cost OF dis
. pensed freely when needed at various
designated drug stores whose proprie-
+ tors get reimbursed by the city. 1t i,
T. a good measure. but the mortality il
, the crowded dens where our poor are
obliged to cOngrcgate is always dread
l FIJI in summer. In spite of rapid tran
T. sit man who has to be at work early
e must live near it, and his family hav,
, to suffer when the torrid scorching %
our heated term begins. The purlieu:
I of a native quarter in an Indian city
) are not more close or more Odoriferou,
e than many blocks on Manhattan Island
t and III spite of the agitation of philan.
| thropists and others of late wears, ne
o. practical improvement of any extent
b. has resulted. The fact is, if landlord.
can make 80 per cent. by their over
) crowded houses they are not going tC
? fool any of it away for an idea. Il
t death brings his carpet bag to stay i
I makes little difference.
1t is queer how often churches be
e. come transformed into theatres. TIL,
, Brooklyn theatre. where so many
people were burnt to death few year,
] ago. is on the site of Il church anC
r graveyard, and now the sanctuary o
t the reverend Member of Congress Hy
o. att Smith has been sold and theatr,
/ will be erected in place of it, Will,
another theatre is to he built at Elm
Place, Brooklyn, on the ground one,
I occupied by Congregational church
ministered to by the eccentric DIR
b. Wild, whose theory that we are tn,
, descendants of the lost tribes of Israe
o. was the perennial and inccssant subiec
/ of his discOurScs that were by way o.
+. sermons. He wore it to rags at last
l and then the church departed in flames
J 1t is hard on the lawyers, but bust
| ness men who look closely into til,
5 cents as well as the dollars III then
o. transactions find their own courts o
5 arbitration just as effective as the law
| courts, and much cheaper Two pro
duce firms got into wrangle the Othel
, day about the delivery of some lard
T. there being difference of one cent {
pound, one way or the other, involving
matter of some S25, 900, altogether