Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-09-06
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
GOSSIP From GOTHAM.

good advice TO any young man VINO -
out Of employment and has his eyes
turned longingly towards the metropo-
lis as the Mecca Of his hopes. The
newspapers swarm with advertisements
Sor situations. and the streets swarm
with idle people hunting for something
70 do. The dull times have thrown
out Of employment thousands OF
statesmen, clerks, merchants, and
professional men, and being unused
10 manual labor, they cannot turn thor
hands to digging a cellar or carrying
hod. The consequence is that large
class OF respectable persons who once
considered their positions permanent
must now be content with pittance.
A Young fellow who little while ago
was earning $500 a year as
book-kceper is now receiving s5o
a month as a clerk. A Geographic
operator who, couple Of years ago,
was superintendiug an Office at salary
of two hundred dollars a month. is now
manipulating a key for two dollars a
day. An officer during the war, who
subsequently earned from twenty-five
to forty dollars week in doing odd
journalistic work, is now tramp,
and happy if he gets enough to keep
him in board and clothes. Wherever
there is vacancy hundreds stand
ready to make a grab for it, and if one
occurs a merchant don't dare to adyer-
tjsc the fact from fear of the rush. lie
therefore receives his applications by
mail. and must choose ~ best he can.
So | repeat. " Don't come to New York
in search Of employment.
vENTUROLI.
A sad case Of destitution, which pc
riodically comes to the front, is that of
venturoli, once famous premiere dan
scuse in =" The Black Crook" but now
a helpless imbecile and paralytic.
Years ago the city editor Of the Herald,
receiving a note from some kindly-dis-
posed person announcing her misiOr-
tune. sent a reporter to investigate the
circumstances. The latter found,
among the sQualid lodgings on the east
side of the city, little family consist
ing of Vcnturoi, her old Italian mother,
and a child. A dish of bones picked
out of the garbage barrels on the street
told how near they were to starvation.
A relief fund of two or three hundred
dollars was quickly raised, but when it
was exhausted the poor dancer became
street beggar. Not acommon one, by
the way, in the usual acceptation Of
the term. because there is some
thing in the bent and shriyellcd form,
the distorted face, and twisted
neck. the tOttering limbs that can
move only few inches at time. and
the great lu,trouS, dark ewes. which
never fails to appeal to the charitable,
and many j. the dime dropped into her
ShrunkCn and useless hands. She never
asks for gift, and, having lost the
power Of articulation, can only humble
her thanks IN word or two OF Italian.
II is hard case, and there are
hundred of similar ones, only We
don't hear of them; but if they
were known. it takes so much "intiu-
ence " TO get relief from public inSti-
tuition that the suferC"s frequently die
before the red tape can be unlooSed. 1t
seems pity that so much money is
sent into the hands Of harpies by peO-
ple in their wills only to be wasted in
flt salaries and rich living by the men
and women who make its dis
bursemcnt trade. This condo.
ming with the Almighty for ones mean
ness during life by leaving big lega
cics to fashionable charity may look
very nice in the obituary notices. but
even the half dozen fancy preachers
who turn the funeral into a show know
that it IS all rot. The lawyers gene
rally follow the ministers, and if the
really deserving ever get the leayings it
is because they have slipped through
somebody's fingers.
DID HE SCI TIE SOUL?
4 week or two ago an incident was
related in these notes concerning a sol
der who. after having his leg ampu-
tated during one Of the battles around
Richmond. felt an intolerable torture in
his missing foot until DR.. Sussdorf. the
division surgeon, ordered the limb to
Be di>interrcd, washed, and reburied.
a handful Of gravel having been found
between the toes. Now a story comes
from the West and they never tell
anything but the truth ont yondcr)
that scientific explorer has witnessed
the movements Of an absent hand
through a microscope Of some peculiar
construction. and even seen the passage
from a body Of a departing soul. Given
the amount Of fiction with which the
tale Is invested, Sir Charles Bell, ia
nous physician, in his " Treatise on
the Hand, written fifty wears ago,
suggests the same idea--to wit. that as
there is no vacuum in nature, every cell
and fibre in the system being vehicle
Of life as far a. il j, known to natural
or microscopic vision, II Is reasonable
to suppose that what we may not see
with the naked eye or the instrument
still exists. and consequently that st.
Paul was not 80 far wrong when he said
with reference TO the day of reSurrec-
tion. snow We see through glass
darby. but then face to face Put
the four thing toscther--the trouble
some toe, the soul-hunter's story, the
observations Of Or. Sir Charles Bell,
and the remark OF ST. Paul-and it does
look little queer, don't 1t:
LITTLE THINGS.
Speaking of microscopes, you would
be Surprised al the extent to which
they are coming into popular use, and
how much they enter into the recrea-
tons Of business men. Thousands of
leiSons of both sexes are engaged in
experiments and Investigations, and
microscopes, ranging in price
from twenty-five cents TO dollar /
on two, are pocdled on the streets.
{ hCice instruments cost from fifty to /
four hundred dollars, and there is /
steady demand for literature that treats !
Of tie interesting subject. At a recent /
gathering IN This city the company read I
GRAY Llegy, containing thirty-twO /