St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-12-16
Our New York Letter.
New YORK, December 9, 1881


Now is the season for church fairs,
where the liberal and economically dis
posed can exercise charity and pick up
dear bargains for Christmas presents,
for straw rides and similar Observances
in the country, for balls, parties, sOcia-
bles, surprises and fandangOes of all
sorts in Gotham, its suburbs and all
the other villages, and chaste Diana
has most kindly lent her most glorious
rays to further tiirtations and despatch
merrily to their respective little beds
the pretty girls and gallant fellows who
have tripped the light hours away, and
all that sort of thing. Talk of har-
vest moon, this Indian summer orb
double discounts it. 1t is so unexpect-
ed, SO beautiful, and lights up the leaf
less wintry aspect of things with an
enchantment all its own.
From recent appearances it would
seem that another expert will shortly
be brought into this Guiteau business,
and that is the imprudently ingenious
"remover" himself. He is pert now
after a final interview with his suspen-
ders he will, no doubt, he expert.
See We have had our share of hon
Ors right here at home. People some
times entertain angels unawares, but
boarding house keepers, poor souls,
seem with rather unfair frequency to
be called on to entertain visitors from
the lower regions. The average beat
is a familiar nuisance and diminisher
of scanty profits, and quite too often
angry squabbles are OccasiOned by the
toughest of the kind, resenting being
fired out from the enjoyment of the
traditional hash, but we don't often get
such walking terror as the man now
on trial for his life, who shot IL woman
who turned him out in a most cruel
manner, and then wrote the most APP
palling letter to the family of his vic
tim and the prosecuting officers. A
woman, too, the too frisky grass widow
of "a sea-captain, has just been railroad
ed to Sing Sing for removing" the
consider of her loneliness during her
husbands absences, i'll order to keep
herself solid with the old man, who had
found out and objected to such cOnsO-
lation. We have too many murderers,
and this is one simple reason for it.
The punishment is not certain, and
taking the chances of escape from the
consequences of crime, persons commit
acts which they would carefully alb
stain from, were the penalty as sure as
it ought to be. | suppose we produce
fair crop of domestic murderers, but
good many foreign scalawags who
manage to drift here among the mil
lions of decent emigrants, deliberately
take advantage of the laXity in our
criminal administration and throw all
sorts of self-cOntrOl to the winds. Per
sonally, am in favor of the good old
fashioned way of furnishing murderers.
Hang 'em up like dogs, if they let their
currish prOpensities get the best of
them, and as for the "emOtiOnally in
sane" I'd treat 'em as the Malays treat
the intoxicated rascals who dare to run
''dmOk," cut 'em down red-handed like
mad dogs or Over-driven Texas steers
in the very act of their mischief, before
they can do more. | wouldn't even
give them a trial. But whatever the
punishment is it should be as inevita-
BILE as a headache after a debauch.
And there should be no ''let up" on IA
murderer. England and France have
fewer murders i'll year than we have
in any one of our large cities in Il week.
Whyf Because they don't forget all
about one murder when the next Oc
ours. The criminals are hunted down
by untiring sleuthhOunds of justice,
and very seldom indeed do they escape
their doom.
Highway robbery, considered as
fine art, is under review just now, be-
cause of many recent occurrences.
One of the latest was the Convey
ance," as Shakespeare so neatly puts it,
of diamond earrings from lady on
the threshold of her own domicile,
in broad daylight, in a fashionable
and well-frequented neighborhoOd of
Brooklyn. The delicate manipulatOrs
hurt the lady's feelings, but they alb
stracted the brilliant pendant without
intiicting the tiniest scratch. There
was a policeman on the corner, but he
was, as many of them are, too fat to
have any chance of catching the skill
full youths. | suppose yOu have read
Mark Twain's "InnOcents Abroad
The lady was the wife of one of them.
Perhaps that accounts for her misfOr-
tune.
Gen. Hancock and distinguished
company of ordnance experts have
been examining a delightful little dou-
ble-barrelled sort of Gatling gun which
fires 100 shots in lIs seconds, is small
enough to put on a shelf, and is kept
cool for long time by about gallon
or so of water. Supplied with these
as domestic cOnveniences any respec-
table householder who would keep
cool, like his pocket hOwitzer, might
comfortably defy an army of burglars !;
and an infantry regiment with one of
these for every three men, with say,
one company of crack shots with tele-
scope repeating rifles, ought to be able
to do wonderful things in the way of
military exploits. With torpedo boats,
like EricssOn's last, steaming 30 miles
an hour and firing cigar shaped mis-
siles charged with dynamite twelve