The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-04-21
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

| "A Novel Breach of Promise Suft-The
brooklyn Academy of Music-The Saints
Disagree Peter Cooper.
New YORK, April II, 1888.
EDITOR CHIEF:
| With early April days como tho spring
exhibitions of pictures, and it would be IL
pleasant task to write nothing about them
but unstinted praise. There is much to
crafty our pride in these beautiful collec-
| tions, and it is more in sorrow than in anger
that am compelled to speak of the present
! exhibition at the Academy in any thing but
terms of commendaton. The same evil in-
fuence is at work this year which has been
eating like a canker worn at the yitals of the
Acade my for years past. few old fossils
seem to have made up their minds to crush
out anything like rising American art and
this line of conduct has become 50 patent
that selfrespecting young artists have re-
fused to allow themselves to be slaughtered
/ by the enemies of American art on the
hanging committee. If a yonng artist pre-
sented q picture of such supfrlativo merit
that they found it impossible to refuse it,
| they hung it away in some dark corner
| where it could not be seen, and thus pre-
| vented comparison with works of greater
pretension and less merit. do not care TO
mention names, but it is sufficient to say
that the same vicious practices have been
allowed this year which have been so much
condemned i'll the past and the offense is so
! Hournnf tn ba q of If ropt
by every visitor to the exhibition. Not
withstanding the dissatisfaction, the collcc-
tion of pictures is large and of superlative
merit-S14,0OO worth OF pictures being sold
before the exhibition was fairly opened.
This is especially gratifying to our American
artists. as there has never been time. in
my memory, when there were SO many tor
egn pictures in the market as at present.
Sales are taking place every day, and many
of the pictures are of great excellence; but
is forcing recognition, and it is also true
| that q new race of artists is growing up
among us from whom much may be expected
in the future.
among the painters, we are now in the midst
| of q musical earthquake between the rival
impressarios. Colonel Mapleson of Her
! Majesty's Opera has engaged Madame Nils
son. Mr.. Henry Abbey of the new Opera
House has engaged Madame Nilsson. 1t s
evident to the most casual observer that
they both can't have her, but each swears
by Jerusalem that he won't let her go, a nd
come what may, the other shall not have
her. notwithstanding the loss of her hus-
band, Madame Nilsson is a fortunate wo
man; two men are dying to get her; one
offers her $500 q night and the other
makes it round $4,000. Happy Madame
Nilsson! Think of that, ye tolers, who work
from the rising of the sun to the going down
Of the same for dollar and quarter a
day; think of that, you serving girls and
shop girls, whose ill-requited labor brings
you three dollars and fifty cents IL week
$4,000 for an hours pleasant pastime, sur
rounded by every luxury that earth can
| give money can buy The operate busi-
ness is Il very prep1exing affairs and from
the revelations of the past few months it
would seem as if managers lot was not il
happy one.
| il few months ago Abbey had Patti; now
Mapleson and Gye have got her. A short
time since Mr.. Mapleson had Nilsson, or at
least he thought he had her, now Abbey has
got her; and what is more, is making piles
| of ont nf hap Ono t}nr iS tn1eru-
| bly, certain, and that is, that we are going
to have an operate fight and that reminds
me that the gallant Coloners temper is
none of the best, for in addition to his mis-
fortunes a sneak thief got into the box Office
on Saturday night and walked off with
about nine thousand dollars. Considering
the experience Of all the parties connected
with the box office, they appeared to have
acted like lunatics. The key OF the safe
was tucked away in a hole, and five or six
persons knew where to find it. Some one
did find it, and opened the safe and walked
off with the money, and that is the end Of
it. When the noble Colonel came down to
he Academy, although it was Sunday, he
did some Of the tallesu swearing that has
ever been heard inside the walls of the
Academy. He exhausted the Saxon, and
then pitched into Italian. It was not long
till he made babyrags of the beautiful Ian
guage of Alteri and Dante; he then made
q savage onslaught in Russian and finally
wound up in cultural German and low
Dutch. No clue to the thief has yet been
found, but the Colonel expects to make up
his loss on the profits of the next season.
Our courts are enlivened by q novel
breach of promise suit. the complainant be
ing a six-foot Polanter, and the defendant
u dapper little maiden anywhere between
twenty and thirty. The lady has property,
and he has none. He was not only poor
but an invalid, and he hoped to have a
comfortable home free of cost when he
secured his nice little wife. He alleges that
she wooed him, and that he reluctantly con-
! sented, and now, as the lady refuses to
keep the contract he wants $4,000 to heal
his lacerated feelings. The case is novel
heretofore it was the ladies' feelings which
were supposed alone to suffer injury, and
only recently a lady recovered sig, 900 in a
breach of promise suit. 1t may be that this
Pole has suffered one-quarter as much az
that lady; anl if so, ten thousand dollars
would be no more than n reasonable plaster
for such damage. 1t would be a whole
some lesson to the entire female sex; il
would teach them not to trie with our
feelings, and learn them that most valuable
Of all valuable leSsons-that what is sauce
for the gander is also sauce for the goose.