The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1886-03-20
BTOadbrin'S New York Letter

houses or ships, but men who few
years ago were the central figures in
our financial and commercial life.
make no account of the Fishs' or the
Wards, the Seneys, or the numbers of
others who went out of sight in the late
financial cyclone. They went the way
of all flesh and for them there are few
regrets, but there are. hundreds Of 9TH
ers, worthy men-men who have fought
the battle of life as well as they knew
how, and yet have been caught in some
passing. financial hurricane and have
sunk to rise no more. Almost every
day l meet an old gentleman OH Broad
way led by young girl. They are both
very poorly clad, and there bave been
plenty Of days this winter when l have
seen her shiyering in her light summer
wrap as the old man tottered along at
her side. Twenty years ago he was one
of the foremost men on the Street, and
his name was spell TO conjure with,
and his check was good for a million;
but 1t Is all gone. Yet he carried away
from Wall street what thousands have
not, his. honor spotless and unsullied. /
saw poor Heath few days before he
died. Heath you will recollect was the
great Wall street broker that old Morris
ini cast into prison, accusing Heath of
defrauding him of 100000. The blow
broke poor Heath's heart, and he never
raised his head after he came out of
Ludlow street Jail. What a man he
was. for years he was one of the central
figures on Change. l have seen him
when the Street was shaken from tur-
ret to foundation stone; when death
was in the air and ruin all around him,
stocks neutrality-suspicious. in an hour,
chaos on every side; yet there he stood
like rock, cool as an iceberg, his whole
fortune as 1t were staked on the turn of
a card, and yet without the tremor of a
nerve. | don't know how much money
passed through his hands-ne executed
the largest orders on the Street for wears
perhaps hundred millions or more,
yet last week he died n wreck almost
alone in his little. room, deserted by the
summer flies that for years had fattened
on his bounty. While poor Heath was
grubbing his life out here, Mrs. Heath
was living in regal style in Paris. A
couple of faithful friends stood by his
bedside when he was dying, they were
all that were left of the army that sur
rounded him only a year ago. The late
{. X. Garrison was another notable eX-
ample. He was hard, tough man, al
ways rushing, always driving; if any
thing stood in his way he walked right
over and never paused. lie seemed to
be made of steel and India rubber and
to bear charmed life. He went to the
lsthmus of Panama when the deadly
fever was killing among the foreigners
nine men out of ten. He was always
the tenth man and came through with
out scratch. He bought steamship
lines and railroads; he was connected
with mighty enterprises all his life,
nothing seemed to daunt him, but when
he broke the chord snapped suddenly
and he fell into hopeless ruin. Jesse
llOyt broke down the same way, and for
months before he died was q pitiable
wreck, exciting even the commiseration
OF those who hated and despised him.
| heard conversation between a prom
lnent railroad director and a gentleman
who was riding in ono of his cars, which
was illustrative of our present daily life.
The passenger wanted to know why
trains did not make sixty miles an hour.
The director replied that we could not
hNf
If we did, he said, it would be at the
cost OF our road and our rolling stock,
for IN little while they would shake
them all to pieces. Poor Heath vas
shaken all TO pieces; still he was not
NIFTY years OF age, and under favorable
circumstances ought to have been in the
very prime of life.
In Brooklyn only a couple of weeks
ago well known society man suddenly
disappeared from homo. Anxious in
qulrles were made for him by his friends,
and in few days he was found in the
lunatic department of the County Poor
House, lie was fine gentleman. No
man was better known in our sister citv
for the last twenty years. He had served
with distinction in the war; he was for
years q prominent government official.
nent associations. A famous amateur
actor, quite distinguished as public
reader, a general favorite everywhere.
yet his overloaded brain breaks down
and the man Is a ruin and dead at fiftv.
we are going too fast; this sixty miles
an hour is shaking us TO pieces. Every
thlng seems TO have such an element of
wild excitement about IL in the sudden
N at ial s,.t al.
board when business Is lively and il is
hard to believe that YOU are not in n
madhouse with the lunatics all broke
loose. II is the same in the Produce
Exchange or the Cotton Exchange.
Where Oy the way there was a slaughter
OF the innocentS last week. II would
seem as II there was nothing unusually
exciting about eggs and butter, and yet
lhere are plenty of days every week
when casual observer would think that
all the eggs in the world were smashed,
and all the butter was melted. In all of
these places the great body of the men
who make them up have palcf hard.
careWorn loOk, and they never seem at
case. Here and there YOU meet a fat.
sleek, comfortable looking person, who
eats well and DRINKS well, and sleeDS
tANy pNioiiS " ~ NldSS WHICH like
the good cat comes down on its feet
every time. John Mccullough broke
down the same way, and the life of
William ii. Vanderbilt was snuffed ont
like the light of a candle. Oh, these
colossal fortunes, they are purchased al
terrible cost. Jay Gould is a very rich
man but he walks with a spectre at his
back, and when he leaves his pala.' al
home In the morning he is by no u ca IS
certain that he will reach il alive at
night; few love him, thousands execrate
his very name, and it is not improbable
that some desperate wretch 6rooding
over his losses and his ruin, may some
day send him to the happy hunting
grounds. For years old Morisini was
his body guard, but now the old
man stands in need of body guard of
his own. Since tho death of poor Heath |
he Is hated almost as much as Gould. |
and of the two, SC heling his coaehman |
Son-in-law who is a car conductor is the |
most thought of by the majority of de-
cent men.
The Morgan sale showed shoddy at its
best, Here were a lot of men who knew