St. Paul daily globe., 1885-06-14
GOSSIP OF GOTHAM.
The Mind-Our Business the Silliest OF all
Humbugs that Flourish in
New York.
A Broadway Road Which has EXc1teu
and Incensed Old Knick-
erbockers.
An American Opera Company Backed
By aMillionaire's Wife to
Eclipse All Else.

NEW YORK, June 11.-BOStons latest
craze. mind-cure, has appeared in New
York. No less than three of the disciples
of the new system have moved 10 New
York, and two of them have set up goI,
geous establishments uptown. They all
use the prefix doctor before their names,
and their establishments are run III every
Wav like those of prosperous physicians ol
the old school, One of them, on Madsoh
avenue. is reaping harvest. He charges
So q visit. has handsome brougham,
liyeried man in the hall and all the othef
accessories of fashionable doctor OF nleoi,
cine. These men have now been estaDhSnea
nearly month. and they are rapidly Dulld-
ing M boom in the line OF quackery.
Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, the novel
ist. who has written one good novel. 1nat
Lass O. LowrieS, and one weak play, hS-
meralda, and
GAINED CONSIDERABLE FAME
thereby. is the most prominent convert the
mind-cure people ever had. They nave
been using Mrs. BurnettS name ever since
she was cured or converted by them as
sort of trade mark, and, as the general
opinion among women seems to be tlaV
whatever cures Mrs. Burnett must be ELL
cacious. the mnd-cure people find the use
of the noveliSt'S name very prohtaple. L
called on the Madison avenue man iaSI
week just to see what the much-t -talked-oI
mind-cure was. In the first place the man
was as arrant and transparent a fraud as L
have ever met. He was lOng-bearded,
hollow-eyed and affected creature VINO
could not talk grammatically, or express TWO
ideas consecutively in anything like an IN
telligible manner He not only does not
know how he cures peOple-lf he does cure
them-put he also has not formulated any
theory by which he can account Tor MS as
Surance in
ACCEPTING MONEY
from people for alleged services rendered.
He sat like Napoleon ina chair, While ne
talked to me in the most pompouS ana
stacy manner and spoke somewhat as fol
lows: ''In the-a-firSt place 1t is matter
of extreme difficultnesS to account 10r my
treatments. Firstly, disease doesn't exist.
If a man has boil it is because he thinks
he ought to have it. and not because ne
really has it. | devote my intensest men
tai activity to bear on that mans mind ana
that cures his mind of the deluslon, Whlch
is that he really has got boil. Aftec his
mind has been cured this here boil of his
cures itself" If this is a fair specimen OF
the mind-cure disciples of Boston l am
rather surprised at the extent OF the craze.
Boston has been accused of many things,
but never before of sending ungrammatlcal
men abroad. The mind-cure business Is
the Silliest humbug of all the forms OF
quackery that flourish in New York.
-
Nearly all the upper part of Broadway
is being torn up by the railroad tracks.
4l,s, 41o tha
sewers at the downtown end, and in front
of the post-office there are number of
holes eight or ten feet square in which
gangs of workmen hammer and bang, while
clouds of steam roll up around the horses
heads. 1t has been supposed that the steam
heating company owned Broadway until
Jake Sharp captured it for his railroad.
Heretofore the steam company apparently
possessed the exclusive right to disrupt
that tffOroughfare at all times. and in point
of fact they are throwing up barricadeS in
one or the other portion at all times. Mr..
Sharp will now take hand in the game
and the, chances are about six to two that
ne will down the steam heating company
and retain for himself
THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT
of digging holes or otherwise disporting
himself in all parts of Broadway. The
public look on with equanimity born of
despair. 1t realizes its own helpless posi-
ton and regards the controversy between
Jake Sharp and the steam heating COM
pany coldly. New York was as much ex-
cited over Mr.. Sharps enterprise as a
country town ordinarily is over its first rail-
road. 1t took Sharp 81 years to get his
railroad scheme through, and it is alleged
by his lieutenantS that he had to buy his
way through the state and city authorities,
from beginning to end. He will get his
money all back again, for there cannot be
a doubt Of the success of his Broadway
railroad. The assertion that it will spoil
The street is somewhat off, for the street
has not been in normal or healthy condi-
ton since the steam heating company got
hold Of it some years ago.
*x*
A sharply defined and conspicuous con-
trast between the good and the bad is going
on in Fourteenth street. within block of
Union square. The wealthest and most
fashionable Episcopal congregation in
America is that of Grace church, and they
maintain chapel at the point indicated,
directly opposite the academy of music.
Mission work is here undertaken. At each
side of the fine chapel is concert garden.
and rendezvous for loafers of both sexes.
The neighborhood has developed into
THE WORST IN TOWN.
These summer evenings the hilarious
drunkenness and adventurous debauchery
are by no means confined within walls but
extend freely to the street, where uproari-
Gus men and girls sit and carOuse at small
tables set along the inner edge of the side
IL 'hn from OF II. n
and Prospect garden light the way. from
either direction, of these high-society beaux
and bellies whG are engaged in the mission
work of Grace church: and in front of the
chapel lettered illuminated invitation
to enter the house of worship stands on a
line with the others; and the three estab-
hshments are so adjacent that their music
mingles, and the voices of religion and Ii
centiousness arise together
*x*
Mapleson has decided this year that he
will not play his opera company in New
York again. That is the decision the colo
mel arrived at after his spring season here.
and his son told me just before the Maple
son family sailed for England that the
scheme would be carried out next year. It
would seem that Mr.. Mapleson has gone
over his books and found that he has lost
money by his New York season regularly
every year since '76. He invariably makes
money on the road, only to lose it when he
gets to New York. Allof the prestige that
New York successes can give his company
italready has, and he calculates that his
present reputation will carry him through
three or four years without ever appearing
in New York. ''This season" the son said
to me before his departure, ''has made the
thing so very plain that the governor will
no longer continue to run against it. In
Chicago, Boston, and indeed every big city