St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-03-10
Our New York Letter.
NEW YORK, March 3, 1882.


New YORK, March 3, 1882.
Oscar Wilde and Patience" have
pervaded the land. Suntiowers bloom
everywhere. Tissue-paper invitations
festOOn the stalls of marketmen, and
are worn by festive Office boys in theil
button holes. Finally, the courts OF
more or less justice have been invad-
''Impatience" was played with force
and grace, and all that sort of thing.
Some benevolent ladies have agitated
for some time the necessity for femi-
nine clerks being provided with the
means of occasionally resting their
weary limbs, and an act of the legisla-
ture has been passed to compel store
keepers to provide seats. Some do,
some don't. Those who do usually
discharge any girls they catch sitting
down. A committee of the benevolent
ladies undertook to teach these blue
DtdIuS IL ltSSOI, anu JIClC W dS d HVIu
day in police court. One old Bun
thorne brought $50 rapturous sales
ladies with him, all ready to swear he
was the kindest and best of men. The
complaints were withdrawn, as the
prosecutors didn't wish the girls to
commit perjury, which they were one
and all ready to do rather than lose
their miserable positions. Do you
know, | think Turkish and Chinese
justice would be preferable to our own
in such plain common sense questions.
A Turkish cadi would have summari-
ly treated Bunthorne and his brethren
to the bastinadO, and driven some com
passion for the souls of their over-driv-
en- slaves through the sOles of their
feet Now the audaciOus round-the
stump devil heaters defy the law and
chuckle.
1t is pleasing to note the constant
improvement caused by keen compe-
tition in our American magazines.
They all keep getting better and bet
ter with every issue, and among the
foremost is that old favOrite publica-
ton of the city of BrOtherly Love, Lip
pincott's. 1t has character of its
own of the highest standard. BY the
way. that is the rank deservedly
claimed for the Worcester's DictiOn-
airy, issued by the same publishers.
1t has maintained a rigid consistency
from its first edition. The other die
tiOnary which once varied so radically
under the supposed idea that to mutt
late the English language according to
the unlearned Vagaries of country
schOolmaster, who didn't know any
other language and didn't know his
own, was to AmericaniZe it, which
made it popular with cheap "patriots,"
has been obliged to return to English
in way that, us has often been said,
must make old Noah Webster uncOm-
monty restless i'll his grave, but it re-
tains enough Webeterese to render it an
unreliable guide. The Worcester has
the fullest attainable vocabulary and a
mass of cyclOpadic information of the
greatest value, with an enormous num-
Der of excellent illustrations which are
correct as well as well executed.
To catch a real estate lawyer mapping
is something like catching weasel
asleep. This, however, was the task
arranged by some ingenious gentlemen
of fair positions who got tired of get
ting rich slowly, and proceeded to of
fer for sale to the lawyer in question "A
free and unincumbered piece of prop
erty which didn't belong to them.
They brought reputable witnesses to
their responsibility, which so far as
known was never questioned before,
and explained the hurry they were in
by the necessity of raising funds to
meet IA contract for which the time had
expired and been extended two days.
Their familiarity with the property
was evident. They gave the whole
history of a previous mortgage to a
partner of Steinway, the pianOmaker,
and produced the satisfaction piece
forged, of course, as was the deed they
offered. The lawyer, however, is one
of those who don't do business without
knowing something about the parties
he deals with, and though the affair
looked about as straightforward as the
purchase of a pound of sugar across a
grOcer's counter, proceeded to make
inquiries. He asked Steinway if he
knew the seller. Certainly" said
Steinway, 'he's widower and -"
"Aha ~ said the lawyer. The deed
purpOrted to have been executed a few
days ago by Otto Ernst and his wife.
His wife had been dead ten years.
Then came little telegraphing and an
ambush of detectives. When the flies
arrived to collect their cash, and hand
over the deed, the spiders gathered
them in. 1t was bold and plausible
sMindle RADIX