The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-07-07

upon thousands would swell his funera
cortege, and draped banners would an
nounce to sorrowing city, "We mourn hi
loss" Another rufian, equally famous, o
infamous, is good for 800, ,ooo,sso it is eas
to see thatin the metropolis of the nation
virtue is not without its reward.
Once q year our friends of the rural pres
honor us with visit; and last Monday wa
made memorable by having within our Dor
ders the brains of the country press. Chaun
cey Depew, who is one OF the very bes
lspeakers in the State, and just about clever
twelfths of q Bohemian, made tho address
Of welcome. When he got through, ever.
| editor from Tarrytown to Buffalo, felt tina
we were the greatest people On the face O.
the globe, and living in the most magnif
cent republic. Of course, they had goot
time; every time is good, where there is lots
to get, heaps to see, and nothing to pay
The Big Bridge and Coney Island were duly
inspected. Kostar and Balls, the Aleazar
and other like places where cool temperate
drinks were dispensed, were taken in. A
few of the more curious found their way te
Harry Hills, Billy McGlory's and Owney
Gohegon's, but very few of them found their
way into any of our numerous prayer meet
ings; perhaps that is because they have the
native article so much better at home; any
how they had jolly good time and no
| doubt returned to their rural sanctums, like
| giants refreshed.
On Tuesday the Washington Light Infan-
| try dropped in on US from Charleston. and
| were received by Major Mclean on hehalf
| of the old guard. Mayor Edison extended
to them the hospitalities of the city, and if
the evidences of good fellowship and fra
ternity are worth anything, not to mention
the complimentary speeches which each ex-
hausted on the other, we may consider the
"bloody chasm'' as pretty well bridged
over. There is no question but these fire.
quent visits North and South are rapidly
restoring the old fraternal feeling. While
the soldiers from the. home of Marion and
Pickens, inspire us with admiration of their
martial bearing, they will return to the
old Palmetto State with grateful sense Of
that broad and generous hospitality which
knows no East, no West no North OR South.
At last the attention of the grand jury has
been turned to that esthouse Ludlow street
Jail. When Dickens took in hand the jails
of England there was nothing worse there
than the Ludlow street jail. 1t has indeed
been den of thieves. In times past it
only too glad to pay $4,000 a year for the
privilege of robbing its inmates. All sorts
of prisoners under civil and criminal pro-
cess are confined there. Tweed paid 500
every time he wished to go visiting. One
hundred went to the keeper of the prison,
and twenty-five to thesofficer who accom-
panied him. When a notorious forger who
had .swindled the Bank OF England out
of many thousands of pounds, was fighting
the extradition law with the money he had
stolen, he went out of Jail night after night
to all sorts of low resorts paying $125 every
time for the privilege. He occupied the
best apartments in the Jail, had plenty of
the finest champagne and cigars, and when
the authorities got ready to send him back
to England, thousands of dollars belonging
to the bank found its way into the pockets
of those legal harpies. The place is a dis
grace to our civilization, libel on law, and
a filthy nuisance which! should be abolished
by the grand jury in the briefest possible
time.
John Gill, the imbecile millionaire, about
whose property and person there has been
such fight in the courts, is now in charge
of his children Alice Woodruff, his English
housekeerer, has disappeared with q good
slice of the foolish old gentleman's prop
erty, and is no doubt by this time safe on
the other side of the water.
Barrett Van Auklen, another lunatic mill
ionaire, has been recommitted to the asylum
at Flushing, where it is quite probable he
will end his days. lot of expectants are
waiting for the old lunatic's shoes and mill
ions, but the old man looks uncommonly
healthy, and the chances are that one-half
of them will cross the Styx, before he takes
a ride with Charon.
The tail end of the Chicago cyclone struck
Wall street early in the week, knocking the
bottom out of the expected boom and
bringing many weak sisters to grief. The
hog always was noisy animal: he certainly
Lo Tod in ,ciIcrnhIa nf q
row this time. Everybody knows that corn
is first cousin to hog. The hog cyclone
struck the corn market; and that affected
wheat: and the consequence was that a great
many comfortable gentlemen, interested in
comfortable corners, went to bed on We'd
nesday night in very uncomfortable frame
of mind. There were curses loud and deep
on the uncanny old Scot McGeoch, who pre-
cipitated the storm.
The death of Charley Backus, on Thursday,
leaves blank in the San Francisco Min
strels which can never be filled. Of the
original four, Birch, Backus, Wambold and
Bernard, Bill Birch is the sole remaining
link. The funeral was conducted with Ma
sonic honors, and was altogether the most
imposing dramatic funeral that New York
has seen.
The political pot has commenced to sim
mer; and question of vital Importance is:
What will John Kelly do? The reorganiza-
alton of the Republican General Committee,
with Johnny O'Brien in the lead, is ominus
of disaster. Still the main fight is year
off. Many changes may take place before
then.
At present, with the themometor at 80 de-
grees in the shade, my advice is to keep
cool.