Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-02-21
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Especial Correspondence of the Monitor.]
NEW YORK, Feb. IA. 1881.

Especial Correspondence of the Monitor.
NEW YORK, Feb. IA, 1881.
Bunyan's slough of despond wasn't a
circumstance to New York just now. The
ice-bound. streets have been wooed by
southerly zephyrs from the gulf stream,
and are melting into quagmires of unut-
terable nastiness. Everybody prophesied
what has come to pass, but the present
evils are not the easier borne because an
ticipated. To travel on foot is to travail,
indeed. The mud fatigues the eye, of
tends the nose, and destroys the clothing.
Fog, drizzle and mist were all we needed
to make things utterly blue, and we got
them with a vengeance. The Herald has
ing bee on supplementary municipal
holiday by way of shaming the officials
who fatten off their appropriation of $780,
600 year and spend most of their time
in explaining why the money goes, and
there's nothing to show for it. The move
ment has rather languished. Business
men can't exactly see their way to de-
voting an entire day to the delights of
shovelling mud, and so the amateur street
cleaning goes on somewhat spasmodically.
However, we live in hopes of being able
to see our payements again in the course
of week or So
The busy archers have been practicing
all winter in militia armories and Kinks,
| and grand international congress ofrep-
| resentatives from all over the Union are
expected here this summer. The indie
| fatigable president, Major A. G. Consta-
| BILE, formerly of the British East India
Company's artillery in Bombay, now the
right-hand man of the famous publishing
| house of Harper Bros, has secured the
use Of the Prospect Park parade ground
| for the exercises of the devotees of the
long-bow, and there's is plenty of fun in
store. A most graceful pastime, admit
ting the active participation of both sexes
and demanding no little picturesqueness
in appropriate costumes and fastidious-
ness in the selection of approved kits,
archery is fast becoming very popular
among the classes of easy means and re-
fined tastes, and Americans are likely
soon to be in as great repute as archers
as they already are as rifemen-
Diminishing the wielders of antique
weapons, one is naturally led to thinking
of the National Guard and other warriors.
To quote a forcible, though very colloquial
remark your RADIX recently heard, the
Acknowledgement of the State Of New
York seems to have ''knocked the stuff
ing out of the peaceful soldiers who
shoulder rifles several evenings every
month"; and wave yardsticks much of the
balance of their time. Sundry regiments
are to be disbanded, and stricter rules
and sweeping reductions and reforms are
to prevail among the organizations still
retained. There is, as an inevitable con-
sequence, no lack of ''soreheads" in
choice variety, and there will be, OF
course, considerable wedding out Of the
inefficients. 1t is lucky for some Of then
that the examinations are believed, like
kissing, to go by favor, otherwise some
of the rejected ones would feel shame al
being passed over. The regulars are il
force just now, owing to the continuance
) of the court-martial ON Whitaker the
: colored cadet.
The Chinese have been celebrating tn,
New Year. They are growing quite nu
7 merous, and are an interesting and quite
: respectable portion of their community
5 Except for an occasional outbreak O
} prejudice on the part of some recently ar
. rived immigrants of other races, they ar
( not molested and seem to get along yer.
t well. Some of them are wealthy, and
: number are being educated by various
f churches. Their festivities have beef
t openly conducted for the first time here
. and have attracted great deal of atten
e ton. In one particular, at least, an al
G mond-eyed visitor set an admirable ex
e ample. They solder up all quarrels, pa.
d all their debts and start afresh with
S clean bill of lading. in a moral point O
S view. l have heard some ladies say tina
they would be quite nice il they woul
e only sprinkle the clothes they wash in
:. different way.
+ However, the shirts they get up ar
+ laundried to perfection, and one ougl