Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-20
MANHAT fANISMS.
LIVING, DYING AND MANEUvERIEG IN
NEw YORK.
The Backward spring-Fatal Effect Of
Attending Funerals-singular Ca
reer OF an Argonaut-


justified by the manifestations OF external
nature. But, instead Of the vernal weather
expected, we have since had, for the most
part, raw, gusty, uncomfortable weather,
which would do credit to the most odious
March. We have net been favored with
twenty.four consecutive hours of aught
like spring in the last two months and a
half. As consequence the season, which
early in April was very forward, is now
remarkably backward, more so, indeed,
than it has been for years. 1t IS folly for
any of Us to pretend, while We live
in or around New York, to enjoy
genuine participation in spring. We have
no such reason. March is the worst kind
of winter, and April is usually only a
modification thereof, while May bears COM
monty very close resemblance to summer.
In this immediate latitude there are really
but two seasons in the year-summer and
winter the former extending from about
May lst TO the close of October the latter
from November to the end OF April. In
any sort Of calculation, We may as well
omit spring and autumn, which do not ex-
ist out of the Imagination and the rhyming
effusions of the weekly newspapers. The
weather We have been having for
weeks past has been of little benefit to
anybody, except physicians and under
takers. 1t has been singularly
PRODUCTIVE OF PNEUMONIA
More than 200 deaths having occurred from
this disease in the last fortnight-and nat
urally enough, since the temperature has
been SO variable-20' to % in "a hours.
Often between II A. NJ. and 2 P. NJ. it will
be decidedly warm but by 3 or 4 o'clock
there will be sharp chill in the air. The
mornings would be genial and the evenings
bleak, or the evenings mild and the morn
ings cold. No one has known how to dress
from day to day; whether to open the
windows or kindle fresh fires whether to
leave for the country the following week
or defer the annual departure for another
month. Such sudden changes are the most
prolific causes of pneumonia, which can
scarcely be guarded against, and which are
as likely TO carry off an athlete as an lnva-
lid, a child as an old man, very abstemi-
GUS person as debauchee. Pneumonia is
very prevalent, believe, on the California
coast, particularly in the region around
San Francisco. But know of no neigh.
borhood in which there are so many and so
fatal cases as here and hereabout. 1t
seems as if half the people who die, die of
pneumonia. II one reads the obituary
columns, one will find an alarming proper
tion of the mortality due to that ailment.
Kidney trouble, in some form, is another
prolific
SOURCE OF DISSOLUTION.
These two disorders, it would appear, kill
three. quarters or seven-eighths Of our pop
ulation. Physicians express surprise at
the remarkable increase of the two dis
eases and their growing fatality. If
New Yorker might be insured against those
distempers, he would have, / should sup
pose, very fair chance of attaining con.
spicuous longevity. A fertile cause OF
pneumonia is attending funerals at this I'M
settled season. The windows of the houses
are generally opened, as they should be.
and sitting or standing in draft is always
dangerous. Besides, going to the grave,
and standing hatless in the open air, is
the reverse of prudent. There is no place
where persons are apter to take cold than
at funeral and cold, though ordinarily
regarded as trihe, is full of peril, and
ever the beginning of pneumonia. have
heard of q score of deaths in the last three
months from pneumonia, contracted at
funerals. Seven persons got pneumonia
from going to funerals early in April, and
three of the cases proved fatal. Thus
funerals beget funerals, and death, Ia
sense, becomes contagious.
MAN OF MULTITUDINoUs FRIENDS.
The last number of the North American
contains a paper, "Days with Longfellow, "
by Samuel Ward, who is better known as
Sam. Ward-lobbyist, dinner-giver, cpl
cure and man of the world. Those &C
ouainted with him in those capacities alone
will hardly recognize him as a litterateur,
although he has been such from his youth.
Ward is a strange and versatile character.
No one l can think of has SO thoroughly
combined the scholar, adventurer, gour-
met, traveller, author, connoisseur and man
about town. He is indeed wholly excep-
tional he is full of opposites and sur
prises, and has had, on the whole. a remark
able and diversified career. He has had
several fortunes, and spent them in pro-
digal, though not in vulgar fashion for he
has culture, delicacy and taste, and is not
inclined to mere display, or excess of any
kind. He was well born, well bred, well
educated being the son of Samuel Ward,
of the firm of PRICE, Ward & King, once
the largest and best-known private bankers
in New York His first wife was sister
of the present John Jacob Astor, and
grand daughter of the first John Jacob,
who founded the fortunes of the family.
After her death he married, in Paris, the
daughter of British physician, and agreed
with her SO i'll that they
SEPARATED BY MUTUAL CONSENT.
That must have been 40 years ago, and
he has never since sought to enlarge his
connubial experience, owing, perhaps, to
his bad luck in wives. While his father
was rich the younger Samuel was literally
supplied with money, and he also got con-
siderable property by his first wife; but
the disastrous failure of the house OF
which his father was a member, prevented
the continuance of the paternal allowance,
and then his inroads upon the means
gained by his Astor alliance soon dissipated
them. His change of circumstances came
while he was still abroad, and as it has
always been impossible for him to live
without large supply of money, from
some source, he decided to return to his
native land in order to replenish his
exchequer. This was about the time of
the gold excitement il California and the
great immigration thither. He went,
with thousands of others, to the Pacific
coast, and Maidstone say by his connec.
ton with a bank bearing scriptural
name-as much as $500, 600 or $500, 900.
He came back East with his new fortune,
and lived sumptuously, while it lasted.
He was variously occupied here and in
Europe for some years, and, after the
breaking out of the civil war, appeared in
Washington as lobbyist. Excellently
qualified fer such employment, from his
wide acquaintance with public and promi-
nent men from his agreeable address and