The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1884-03-29

The town-life was all q delusion
He was home with his mother ct last.
His eyes had grown tear-flled and dim.
While the night in the passage grew colder,
but morning was dawning Tor hini
He lay cold and still as the gray light
Crept in through the half-open door
poor little boy whom the daylight
Could disturb or awaken nolmOre.
His kind, with their own burdens bending.
Have 10 time to lament those who fall;
They swept on in their labor unending,
-Nesc York Clipper.
OUR LETTER FROM BROADBRlM.
Sad Fate Of the Leland Brothers-A Lively
Dead Womaa-The Newman Church
Squabble-A Notable Lecture-Parson
Humphreys Treschery-City Politics,
Stocks and Suicides.
NEW YORK, March q, 1884.
EDITOR CHIEF:
1t is nearly quarter of century ago
since San Francisco was in blaze of ex-
citement On account of the opening of a
new hotel. The Occidental was finished,
and NO man could be found ON the Pacific
coast competent to open and superintend
it. So one was imported from the East,
and that man was Lewis Leland, then a
dapper young hotel clerk just starting into
life. The fame of the Leland Brothers was
| then at its zenith, and their names as first
class hotel keepers were known in every
quarter of the land. When you said hotel
was kept by the Lelands you exhausted the
vocabulary of ecomium, for the simple rea-
| son that there was nothing better. I have
known the brothers for many years. It
! was with profound sorrow that saw them
drop away one by one, and you can scarcely
imagine my feelings when / took up a
morning paper to learn that Lewis, one Of
the most talented and amiable of the
brothers, had been sent to q lunatic asylum.
When Lewis Leland came to San Fran
cisco he was young man. He had abso-
lutte control of the finest hotel on the Pa
cifc coast without the investment of dol
lar. He had a magnificent suite of apart
ments at his disposal, and the largest salary
that had ever been paid up to that day to
any hotel superintendent. At that time it
seemed as though Lewis Leland was on the
high road to colossal fortune. To-day and
almost every member of the family is either
dead or financially ruined. George died
suddenly ic the West. Horace was struck
with paralysis. Charles had to make an
assignment for the benefit of his creditors.
Young Warren's enterprise at the Coleman
ended in q financial disaster. Misfortune
after misfortune seems to have overtaken
every member of the family, but this last
stroke is the cruelest of all. If overwork,
anxiety and disappointment have wrecked
Mr.. Leland's health and shattered his in
tellect, it will be source of unfeigned sor-
row to the thousands who knew him in his
more prosperous days, when the name of
Leland assured the passing traveller of all
the comforts of home.
On Monday q wretched female tramp
was found frozen to death in Rector street.
The policeman who discovered her found
her incrusted in ice, so that he had to beat
of the icicles with his club to get her on a
stretcher. He carried her to the station
house to all appearances as dead as a
mackerel that had been six months in
pickle. They entered on the blotter:
"Woman found frozen to death in Rector
street"-and set the stretcher near the
stove so as to have her partially thawed out
by the time the undertaken arrived. She
had not been,laying there long when, to the
horror of the officer in charge, she arose
from the bier and made it the liveliest time
they had seen for several months. It re-
quired three stout policemen to put her in
the cell, and the officer who brought her in
swears that the next time he finds wom-
an frozen to death he'll be good and sure
that she's done to turn before he takes
her in.
Just now our religious feelings are very
much excited by the Madison Avenue Con-
gregational Council. You have undoubted-
ly read the story of ''The Old Man of the
Sea-" That's just what DR.. Newman is to
the Madison avenue church. DR.. Newman
il Methodist; he has never been anything
else; he never has experienced change of
heart; he never has been received in the
Congregational Church, but he forces HIM
self on congregation which does not de-
sire his services, and when the members
who have represented the church from its
formation, request him to retire, instead Of
exhibiting the humility Of which he is con-
stantly preaching, but which he has never
learned to practice, he and his friends re-
sort to tactics Of the prize fighter and the
bully, representing their ability to knock
their opponents out according to the Mar
auis of Queensbury rules.
New York has seen many disgraceful
sqnabbles which have helped to bring the
church into contempt, and if DR.. Newman
is sample brick no wonder that church
pews are empty. For man who breaches
peace, he is as good specimen of the fight
ing parson as could be found in Christep-
dom. It is sincerely to be hoped that he
will get his congo, but he is going to fight
it to the court Of last resort. It ia dis
graceful affair viewed from any standpoint,
and one of which all the parties concerned
should be thoroughly ashamed.
1t is pleasant to be able to say good
thing Of society man, for as general
thing your regular society man is about the
most useless and insignificant article that
can be conceived, and it was therefore a
genuine pleasure to listen to Maurice NJ,
Mintos' lecture on society, on Wednesday
last at Chickering Hall. Mr.. Mintos sue
ceeded in getting representative society