St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-04-05
Ole GaIeduniam.
LETTER FROM BROOKLYN.
Boarding House Life.--Some Remini-
sciences of the Great Storm in the City
of New York.--St. Johnsbury's Dead.
I r 90 -

tunate day when America began to
live in "hats" the institution known as
the boarding house has steadily de-
clined, until satirical writer insists
that none but the poor, the sick and
the shiftless now inhabit it. Among
these, and the brilliant exceptions our
cynic failed to record, l live move and
have my being. Mr.. Beecher once
said that if the choice came to him be-
tween the sidewalk and a boarding
house he should not hesitate minute
to take the boarding-hOuse. If l saw
these 1.-TWO horns" confronting me
should undoubtedly grasp the latter,
though not without estimating the
chances for comfort and Hcloset room"
of the former.
Boarding houses vary slightly in
detail but the family features are al
ways discernable. The furnace is al
ways lacking in public spirit, never in
the receptive, teachable days of her
youth working in the fields of the
Emerald Isle, and brings to her new
vocation a taste and touch which COM
bine to make the fruit of her hands a
perpetual menace to the laws of diges-
ton, while the maker herself violates
the civil law by obtaining money I'M
der false pretences. The proprietor
desires to have the gas sing at short
metre, the bOarders insist upon having
it long and discord is always the re-
suit. The people who have seen "bet-
ter days and are ever recounting
them like the poor we have always with
us; the fascinating man whom legiOns
of women desire to marry "never fail
eth )" the maiden of certain years and
uncertain though most aristocratic rel
atives usually sits near one of the cas-
tiers and leans her genealogical tree
against it tri daily. 1t is a fortunate
house that escapes politician of fiery
temper, or Il woman who sits daily at
the "doOr of the temple" tormenting
the clergyman with her attentions and
inflicting her subscription book upon
the just and unjust, and on the evil
and good, who considers everybody
who prefers to edo aims in some other
way as worse than an infidel and her
self as one of the very elect.
Quite recently the mind cure fanatic
~ nd
with doubtful logic and shady gram
mar, first proclaimed the superiority of
mind over all disease and then assert
ed that disease did not exist at all.
Whatever may be lacking among the
viands of the table, you can rely upon
the sure presence of the tender and
succulent falsehood. 1t may be served
from "broken pitchers" or may flow
as smoothly as cotton seed oil from the
olive oil bottles, but it never fails to
appear. During the winter just past
have sat opposite representatives of
Minnesota. We felt that loyalty to
our native states required that we
should converse largely upon the top
ic, upon which dust never settles,
which is gifted with immortal youth,
the ever interesting theme of the
weather. 1t mattered nothing to US
that there are people paid to make OBJ
servatiOns on the subject, we rendered
our services gratnitOusly and with as
charming a freedom from exactness as
the weather bureau itself | piled q
snow Ossa on a snow PeliOn. | sub
tracted cubits from the statue of my
thermometer, but [ never stopped for
a fresh start that "blizzard" from
across the table did not drive away
my snOw-piles and blow up my Their
mOmeters.
Though we have fought it out on the
snow line all winter and frozen the ears
of our hearers with the intensity of our
elOquence, at last our tongues have
been silenced. March IL, 1888, our
fellow bOarders found us speechless.
My snow piles did not rise, my mercu-
nv did not fall. The billiards. blew
not a note. Vermont and Minnesota
sat down with dropping plumes, and
New York waved her white banner
triumphantly over their diminished
heads. | was once abroad chow my
fellow bOarders have regretted it) and
was amazed to find how utterly I'M
prepared all foreigners were for any
emergency. With infinite self esteem
| thought of the American foresight
After seeing the helplessness of this
people in the late storm one feels that
humility is sometimes virtue. Brook
lyn absolutely stagnated. Not a car
was in motion save those on the one
elevated track. Hardly a carriage
horse was allowed to risk it's valuable
life by going out. Dry goods stores
were absolutely empty of shoppers.
The girls were sent home or to hotels
in the delivery wagons. A few women
started out but speedily returned cry
ing and generally demOralized. A very
small quota of men reached the bridge,
where one car slowly served them. At
one time ten thousand were waiting
there.
The stores withdrew their ADVERTISE
ments of novelties since they could
not compete with the unique display
in leggings. They will be long remem-
bered in Brooklyn and they certainly
did credit to Yankee ingenuity. There
were towels tied on over the ankles
and shoes by shawl straps, with the
fringe just below the knee, ham COW
ers, tied with white or red strings,
strips of rubber tied around the legs
by clothes-lines, jute bagging and in
grain carpeting were mustered into
service the effect of pair of plaid
shawls tied around the huge feet of ayI
ancient negro, after the style of the
French Impressionist school, was start
ling; the pillow case leggings had a
fOppy appearance and, as a saleslady
would say, were not tasty; hunting