St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-04-14
Our New York Letter.

We" OhhS hlhil > lCO-'
A fire at sea is supposed to be one Of
the most thrilling aud majestic of
scenes We were treated to one in
the harbOr the other day, and the
cause of the fire was ascertained to be
arson by mutinOus darkeys. The
scamps shipped, got their advance
wages and, when off soundings, com
PEELED the captain to return on the
ground of the alleged unseawOrthiness
of the vessel Knowing that survey
would result in the exposure of the fall
lacy of their assumption they set fire
to the craft, and no doubt expected to
get clear off so as to repeat their little
game. The petroleum laden bark
burned furiOusly the whole day and far
into the night, having grounded on
BedlOe's Island, the famous scene of
the execution of sundry pirates, to
whose number the authors of the last
catastrophe might reasonably expect
to he joined.
Nearly S35,000 was gathered in for
the Actors Fund at simultaneous ben
etits played in New York and Brook
Ign. Large individual donors were
James Gordon Bennett, who gave SI0,-
600, and Edwin Booth, who Clipped in
his little 81 900, to help along the
more unfortunate of the profession of
which he is so bright an ornament.
Telegraph men and electricians gen
orally are excited over the news of
some new sound magnifying telephone,
by which it is alleged conversation is
possible between Chicago and New
York, and may become so between
places further apart. How convenient
it would be if the anxious relatives of
our returning Arctic explorers could
chat with them at Yakutsck, or wher-
ever they may now be in Siberia.
Some pretty good ones have been re-
Gently connected with Plymouth
church in Brooklyn, the wires running
to the houses of gentlemen in New
York and Elizabeth, \. j., by which
the preaching and music are distinct
Iy heard. Mr.. Beecher says he con-
siders the thing a feloniOus attempt to
do away with pew rents. For tired
business men the idea would be popu-
lar, but not for the ladies. They can't
study styles in back parlOrs, or exhibit
the latest efforts of their own taste and
their husbands pockets
The Beecher family get plenty of
free advertising somehow. The old
man eloquent earns it, for people like
to hear what he says, even if they
don't agree with him; but about the
proceedings of some of the others we
don't banker quite so much to hear all
the details, especially when their
doings are shady, like the son who was
cashiered during the war as a lieuten-
ant, for misbehaviOr in the presence of
the enemy, and was promptly restored
to the service as a colonel, and provid-
ed with "A soft place in Washington,
where bullets never whistled. 1t is Il
nephew in a scrape this time, who has
been arrested on an ugly charge of
trading worthless swamp lands which
had already been sold for taxes, for
valuable mining stock.
Our tOney tOpsawyers are getting
more English You know, every
day. Ladies have taken to riding a
great deal on horseback. Of course
the habits are made by men, as also
the fashionable Newmarket coats and
listers, and from this has grown the
employment of men to cut and fit other
garments for the fair ones, favored
with big purses. We can now boast "a
Gothamite Worth. He don't happen
TO be an Englishman, being indeed a
Bohemian, and he has fifteen polyglot