St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-09-02
Our New York Letter.
New YORK, August %, 1881.


To the Editor of the CdledORidn
We hear sometimes of the good old
British rule (Which is alleged never to
have been repealed) by which hus-
band tired of his spouse may trot her
out to the market place, with halter
round her neck, and sell her on a pri-
vate contract, perhaps even giving
boot to get rid of her, if the better half
is too bad. We have an illustration of
this method of divorce made easy, i'll
wealthy, if not refined, circles i'll the
upper part of our city. a buXom mat
ron, whose husband left her amid any
amount of luxury while he hurried off
early and came home late, delving for
dollars diligently, found an affinity i'll
a carpenter who had been called i'll to
effect some trifiing repairs. After sew
eral months of bliss under the rose, the
husband finally paid attention to del
uge of anonymous letters that had
threatened to Overwhelm him, and,
calling the erring pair together, asked
few questions, which were frankly
answered, and then philosophically
proposed to sell his wife for 81. The
offer was accepted, and the woman
left her brownstOne front with its ct
ceteras for the attic of the plane shower
A woman has just died at Long
Branch from too much dosing with
some patent medicine mixture that
is warranted to reduce obesity. There
is a good deal of humbug about many
patent medicines, but they are not all
by any means to be whistled down the
wind as of no account. In the wilds OF
Central Africa, the plague stricken
bazars of Bagdad, or the cholera chok-
ed earavansaries of upper India, GER
tain American patent medicines OF
well known efficacy are found and
thoroughly appreciated by the con
sci vative natives who are 10th indeed
to touch any new thing. Then there
is a cry of adulteration and sewer gas
and so forth. Some of these cries are
overdOne and oftentimes the so-called
authorizations are wholesome enough
| anu Ilt ullNlClSlOOtl W DC DlCSCnO ny
even the most ignorant consumer
Still it is, l fancy, better to avoid all
possibility of mistake, and | am glad to
see that two well known and very sue
cessfnl firms have maintained strictly
to this day their principle of selling eN-
actly what they purport to sell. Hon
esty is undoubtedly a good policy. Sc
far, your RadiX will indOrse the old
prOverb, in these days of stock water
ing and embezzling, whether it may be
questioned whether it is pecuniarily
| the most successful.
Dear me- It's very hard to buncl
up news in these piping hot and peace
full days. Even the great Herald
with all its widely scattered staff o
energetic borrowers for intellectual
truffies, is forced to fall back on prOsy
articles, running into several columns
in length, about the most stereOtypeC
of stock subjects for character sketches
| The manners and customs of ragmen
car conductors and the lower STRAIT;
generally of the most disagreeable sec
tiOns of the inhabitants of mucl
overcrOwded city, are described for thu
599th time with the usual slipshod re
portorial inaccuracy. A berry scib'
takes a lazy detective" into some
gin-mill and there transfers, as far a
his booty recollection will serve, witt
embellishments arbitrarily added lik,
stucco-work on an inferior architectur
al design, or putty by bOtch painter
some cock and bull yarn that the grea
detector of crime stuffs him with.
1t is amusing when detective i
publicly proved to be the egregiOus as
that most of the professional thieve
hunters are. The stupendous hoa1
about another supposed discovery o
the bones of the great unlamented DIR.