The Donaldsonville chief., 1885-06-20

where the bones of A. T. Stewart do not lie.
Vanity of vanities! saith the preacher, all
ia vanity! Look on this splendid mauso-
Ieum and the words of the prophet come
with hundred-fold force. Here was
man who labored increasingly from child
hood to old age for gold. Like Midas,
everything he touched was changed to the
shining metal. He was married, but no
children blessed his union, so he plodded
on solitary and alone. He had few COM
panions and no friends; men and women
spoke of him as rich, but none loved him
and he loved no one. His employees dreaded
his presence and trembled at the sound OF
his voice. Living, he had no time to think
of charity. Once or twice vague visions
crossed him, but they perished, still-born,
in his brain. He had but one intimate
companion, a man, austere and unlovable
as himself, and passing the poor and suf-
foring by, he died and left him the princely
Gift of a million in solid gold; no such be-
quest has been made by man to man in an
cient or modern time; not Croesus with all
his wealth could rival it. When his gold
was fleeing from his grasp and earth was
vanishing, one solitary idea possessed him,
and that was to perpetuate his name. The
colossal power which had ruled the dry
goods market with rod of iron for years,
and whose pathway to success was streWn
with the wrecks and ruin of thousands was
to be continued by his legatee when his
hands could hold the reins no more. The
firm of A. T. Stewart & Go. was to live
when A. T. Stewart was in ashes, and over
the ashes should rise mausoleum ecllps-
ino the proudest shrines of his own land
and more splendid than the monuments OF
Sel;m or Omar. Vanity of vanities! the
breath was hardly out of his body than the
mighty firm that he had founded with fifty
years of labor crumbled and fell to pieces
His poor old bones we're hardly committed to
the tomb, temporarily, awaiting the finish
ing touch on the magnificent crypt that
was to hold them to the resurrection day,
when the ghouls descended on the grave
yard at night and bore them away, no man
knows whittier, nor will know till the arch
angels trump shall sound. The splendid
pageant of Tuesday last may swell the
pride of the living, it can bring no thrill to
the pulseless heart of the dead. Mrs. Stew
art and Judge Hilton have done we'll. Un-
der the fostering care of the Episcopal
church, one of the grandest of the chris.
tan sisterhood, an institution of learning
will rise which will be an honor and bless.
ing to the land, We, therefore, join the
Te Deum, Laudarnus and Gloria in Excel
sis Dso, that the bread thus cast upon tht
waters hath returned after many days.
Watchman, tell US Of the night. Ths
watchman may not be good Judge OF thu
weather, and SO his opinion may be of lttl'
value. Oh, for some prophet who coule
give us some forecast of the political sky
The President was in town on Monday, bu
did not call on General Grant; Governo
Hill was in town on Sunday, and foun'
time to call on Hugh Mclaughlin in Brook
lyn. Murmurs fill the air-the clans ar
hungry. The Navy Yard has been cleaned
out preparatory to the new deal, but the at
tempting prize of the District Attorney
ship, made vacant by the retirement of MI
Tenny, is still untitled, and dozen sell
sacrificing patriots are fighting for tn
place. The Collectorship of Internal Rev
enue, another rich plum, hangs like Nc
hammed's coffin between heaven and eartl
but nobody seems to have any pull on !
There is growing discomfort among th
politicians and fifty applicants for every O
fee. Some of the faithful are bound to b
among the outs.
Another bank cashier skipped-decidel
conservative and eminently respectable.
there such thing as an honest man? Ho
are we to Judge of men? Iflong and faitl
full service and knowledge of man
, daily life, of his out outgoings and incon
ings, are not to be our guides in our judi
ment of character, what are We to go BY
Mr.. Scott, the paying teller of the Mania
tan Company's Bank, had been in its on
ploy twenty-five years; he had grown up
the institution from boy, and had work.
:, his way up by straightforward honest q
deavor from the lowest round of the ladd'
to the highest; his honesty was unique
!, toned, and yet in an evil hour he yield
y to temptation, and till the grave clos
over him he will live branded as thief al
a rascal, and as the meanest kind of ra
: cal, who robbed his con6ding friends al
. left them to suffer the consequences OF
= crime. This eminently respectable pers
cot away with 100000 in three months.
d he had continued at the same rate for ye
he would have bagged the respectable su
. of s64o, 600, but 100000 is not a bad he
~ for the times. Fortunately for the pub
and the bank, the institution is an old o
and can stand it; after putting the loss
70 the proper side of the balance sheet tt
- have nearly million in reserve. Fol
y wonder, no poor man suffers by the larce
~ of this monumental thief, and the
III spectacle old fogies who pocket the i
'e have only to curse their Own folly that Il
Is did not count their cash more frequently
IS Tho mystery of the drug clerks mur'
10 is still as cloudy as ever. There appears
ul be an unwillingness on the part of eve
ID body connected with him to say anyth
"A about his former history. As far as at p
~ sent known, the man was entirely corr
"a In his habits, trusted implicitly by his {
Id ployer, who had known him for many yes
ha 4 kind husband, an affectionate father ,
good citizen. The only reasonable the
III is that the man was murdered by robt
and the cutting of his throat was an al
1T act to give the appearance of suicide.
- few days work by the reporters may
II the mystery to light.
X. The air reverberates with the sound
m wedding bells. More marriages have tai
place within the last thirty days than in
u previous six months. The floral decorati
n have been the most costly and lavish I