Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-08-27
LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS.
THE CHARGE THAT THE TELE-
GRAPHISTS WE'RE SOLD OUT.
A FavOrIte Way of the New York Police
of DOdging Highway Robbery Cases
Abuse Heaped Upon Misfortune
Coming Attractions of the MetrOpOli-
tan Play Houses.
Correspondence Of the Aorn5etg Nel0s.

NEW DIRK, August 23.-Ihe result of
the telegraphers' strike, as you may re-
member, was anticipated by me before it
begun, and although the surrender of the
American Rapid caused me to halt in my
opinion, / still claim to be better pro-
phet than Mother Shipton or Virgins. 1t
is said by some that, so far as the leaders
were concerned, the strike was merely a
movement in the "bear" interests. The
story is that the head men in the Brother
hood were bribed to bring about the strike
in order to deprecIate Western Union,
and with it other stocks, and that, for the
sake of few thousand dollars each, they
caused thousands of operators to lose a
months pay, and in some cases their stu
atiOns, in a fictitious strike that was not
merely fated to failure. but which was
never intended to succeed. When the re-
suit WGs accomplished which the make
believe strike was designed to prOdnee,
the purchased initiatOrs of the movement
declared it at an end. Those who believe
this story point to the coincidence of the
surrender of the Brotherhood following on
the heels of last weeks slump in stocks
as proof that the strike was solely in
tended to produce the slump, and accord
ingly when the designed effect had been
accomplished, the cause was removed.
Tony mind, the most unkndest cut of
all which the striking telegraphers re-
ceived, was when the Knights of Labor
refused them aid because they wore
"stOre Clothes" Men who can support
themselves and their families and dress
comparatively well on 81 a day, or therea-
bouls, deserve cOmmendation in place of
being called dudes. That word, by the
way, according to those who first used it,
does not rhyme with rude, as it is com
monty pronounced. 1t has been in use
''dOwn East for a number of years, and,
when | was in Massachusetts last week,
| was told that the true pronunciation
made two syllables of it, as if it were
spelled dudy.
PLANTER TOWLE, OF PALATKA,
who was found stretched senseless on the
sidewalk at Read street and West Broad
way at 12:40 a. M, August 10, and claims
to be the victim of highwaymen who
struck him with sandbag, and robbed
him of $1,000, labOrs under the disadvant-
age of having no witnesses to the alleged
assault, In addition to the case of Cadet
Whitaker, there are instances of several
women hereabOuts who have pretended to
be the victims of terrible injuries at the
hands of bold, bad men, that existed only
in their imaginatiOns. Consequently, if
W. II. Vanderbilt or Jay Gould were to be
found bound and gagged in Madison
Square with their watches missing and
pockets turned inside out. the police would
insist that they were either cranks who
wished for nOtOriety, or that having
pawned their watches and gambled away
their money, they hoped thus to hide their
losses from their families! AS Slender
in the "Merry Wives of Wind
sor," after being robbed when
intoxicated byBdrdolph Nyn and Pistol
vowed never to be drunk again except in
''honest, civil, gOdly company" and
''with those that have the fear of God"
so Mr.. TOwle must not permit himself to
be robbed again, except in the presence
of at least half dozen witnesses, unless
he wishes himself second time to be
proclaimed an impOstOr by the New
York police.
The plea of the police in regard to Mr..
TOwle resembles Hume's argument
against miracles. AS the Scotch
philosopher reasoned that it
was more likely that men should lie
than that law of nature should be bro
ken, so the police have argued that it was
more probable that Mr.. TOwle invented
his story than that highwaymen should
ply their trade with impunity in the heart
of the dry goods district. Unfortu-
nately for the theory that
are conspicuous by their alb
sence in the metropolis, young man was
shot and perhaps fatally wounded in
MOrrisania because he resisted robbery on
Saturday night, and more recently two
policemen interrupted Il robbery in the
very precinct in which Mr. TOwle met
with his adventure.
The language used by the police to
the unfortunate planter,
combined with their mode of argument,
reminds me of story which Sir Walter
Scott used to tell about DIR. johnson and
Adam Smith, who, the only time they
were ever in each others company. got
into fierce discussion respecting Hume.
Finally, johnson called his antagonist
liar. Smith in reply said in plain Ian
guage that DR.. johnson was the Offspring
of female dog. son such terms,v saws
Sir Walter, ''did these teachers of morali-
ty meet and part, and such was the classi-
cal language used by the two great
ALTHOUGH IT WILL BE A MONTH
or more before fashionable theatre-goers
return to town, general opening of the
theatres takes place this week and next.
The Union Square reOpened on Monday
with Oscar Wilde's play of - Vera" On
Tuesday spectacular play entitled " EX-
celsior," which, despite its being of the
. Black Crook" genus, is supposed to
point a moral, was produced at Niblo's
Garden, and the same evening sO-called
opera by 5. G. Pratt, entitled ''Zenobia,"
which one paper says, as regards its mu-
sic, is plagiarism from "Patience.'
while another journal considers it mod
elled after Wagner, was performed for the
first time in the new theatre on Twenty !
third street, in which Salmi Morse so long |
and so unsuccessfully tried to produce |
his Passion play, Tonight LecOcq's |
9 Heart and Hand" will be given |
at Days Theatre, although not bv Mr.. !
Daly's company, which is still pIaving in
the ''prOvinces," and on Saturday evening !
the Grand Opera House opens with the |
and now familiar drama of the |
Lights o. London" Lawrence Barrett |
reOpens Wallack's old theatre now called |
the Star, on Monday with Bakers old trag, |
edy, "Francesca da Rimini, which is said, |
as played by Mr.. Barrett, to have met with !
success outside of New York. Harri- |
gan and Hart's theatre reopened a |
ago, the Windsor and the Four |
teenth Street last week, while the Casino !
and the Madison Square Theatres were
closed; so that by next week every theatre, |
with the exception of the Fifth Avenue, |
Wallack's, and the BijOu Opera House, |
which is undergoing repairs, will be open. |
Oscar Wilde's play of "Vera" as per- |
haps might have been expected, is so poor |
that every one wonders at his temeritv i'm |
it out in New York. The pro- |
dqctiOn of "Yera" here indeed is only ac |
counted for on the theory ii was necessary |
for the play to begin its career in the !
in order TO secure a hearing be- !
fore country audiences. Even in the local |
papers which damned" it ''Vera' is ad- |
vertised as a "great success and YOU
will doubtless in time find the play In |
savannah, preceded by mammoth posters |
its instantaneous success |
in New York and repeated triumphs'' in |
other cities.
AS far as the weather is concerned, the |
choose the wrong time for re- |
opening the theatres. 1t has been hotter
for the past few days than any time for
Lhe precious six weeks that is, since the |
Erst week in July: Nd.
Telegraph Rates to BuenOs Ayres.
BUENOs AYREs, August 25.-The COM
mercial public of this place are much
pleased with the reduction of telegraph
charges for foreign kilograms via Calves
ton. Before the establishment of the
American line the charge was $4 60 per
word from the United States via London.
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