St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-06-15
Brooklyn Gossip.

| IiC Ill DOSIOI, w lldU uOeS lie KNOW
and in New York, What is he worth ?
Brooklyn goes into the list with ''Has
he been over the Bridge 2" 1t is all
very well for the Washington papers
to vent their merciless sarcasm on our
enthusiasm and to ask learnedly ''if
there isn't just Il shade of prOvincialism
in our rejoicing" Washington has
many castles i'll the air, and some very
expensive ones, but when she puts one
there representing fifteen solid millions
of dollars perhaps she will forget to
''rejOice with quiet dignity" Bridge
day will be long remembered here
Such masses of humanity, most of
whom could see only vast area of
human backs, such crowding and
iOstling were never known in this over
grown country village before. Every
day We read of some new ''first" to 90
o"er. There has been first man, a
first baby, first dray, Il first ambu-
lance, and even the first funeral has
been noted.
Hardly had the sounds of revelry
died out i'll our streets we could al
most catch the brilliant flashing lights
which illumined the towers and grace
full span as well, when the shrill voice
that prOclaims an extra" broke upon
our ears, and told us in CHASTITY lines
that the first accident had occurred,
that our JOY and our pride had been
baptized in blood. Since Mr.. Beecher
told us that it would be possible to
create panic with 500 people on the
open prairie, i'll which many would be
trampled to death, we have wondered
if he had not exaggerated the state
ment ; but from the hospitals and the
gloom of the mOrgue comes abundant
proof of its truth. Still, in our sadness
we cannot forget to rejoice that the
fourteen years labor is crowned with
success. To stand upon the bridge
and see it, and see all that it reveals
to the eye, is to admire. All sense of
danger and all ideas of weakness at
once disappear. The marvel is that
human power, even when availing it
self of natural laws, could produce
such a result. 1t is the engineering
triumph of the nineteenth century.
We can hardly wonder that
one of the trustees, who has stood true
to his trust from the first, should from
Il heart full of satisfaction exclaim
Centuries will roll away, and the
Bridge, though it may grow old in
years, and in the far distant future be
studied and used as the product of ii
bygone age. will still retain its
strength. The cables will not SNAP,
and the towers will not fall. The an
chOrages will be true to their trust.
The massive arches will not collapse.
The steel and the granite will not rot
Fire will not burn the bridge. Freight
trains and Pullman ears will not
break it. The winds will not shake
it. Time and toll will not fatigue it.
Its youth and its age will be alike pc
riOds of vigOr. That Bridge was
built to stand, and stand it will-so
long that we may as well call it i'm
mortal"
In the same week in which we spent
a day in -gloritication over the
bridge, came another festival which
is always great joy to us. Wednes-
day, May %, an army held possession
of the streets of Brooklyn. The army
was far different from that where SOL
diers armed with flashing cuirass and
glittering helmet occupied the streets
of Moscow upon the same day. There,
in one of the great cities of the Old
World, "A monarch was to be crowned,
and thousands of men We're drawn up
in line to escort him to the Kremlin,
where he would be arrayed in coro-
nation robes and sacred oil placed up
on his head, indicative of his divine
right to rule. Here, in one of the
chief cities of the western hemisphere,
the army of occupation was composed
of little children with smiles and tears
for their only ammunition, the hearts
of parents and friends their citadels,
and having a king to honor rather
than defend, whose banner is love,
whose scepter is peace, and who, once
upon time, manifested pleasure in IL
demonstration resembling this in
some sort when little ones eagerly
pressed toward him and were well
coined by the words, "Suffer little
children to come unto me, and forbid
them not, for of such is the kingdom
of Heaven" At least $4,000 children
marched gayly along. Kind mothers
tricked out the little ones in every
variety of juvenile adornment con-
sistent with good taste and the i'm
portance of the occasion, and great
was the joy in many a household
when, as the last pull was given to
the tarletan fiounces and the last dash
of cologne added to the handkerchief,
the sun beat back the encircling mists