The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1889-08-24

porate, owing the same, as other debts OF
like amount are by law recoverable.
-----
BROADBRIM'S N. Y. LETTER.
The other morning I took a run down to
ConeY Island to-get sniff of pure air and
perchance to pick up an interesting item
for my letter. Coney Island is like good
many other islands-it has two ends; one
end is very swell, and the other end-weE,
you might call it ''shadY." OF course
Broadbrim went to the swell end. AT this
end is the Oriental hotel, the nobbiest place
along the beach, and to get in there you
have got to haye not only the cash but ped
igree. AS got off the cars and fastened
to the beach the sea was aliye with bathers
and their costumes were all the colors of the
rainbow. Much has been said and written
during the past few seasons of the style of
the costumes at Coney Island, but this sea-
son their is very little to talk about; in fact
some of the costumes are not worth men
tioning; they reminded me of the Court Gus
tune of a Madagascar chief that met down
there in 1851 it consisted of a necklace of
sea shells surmounted by paper collari
noticed that there was the widest excite
ment among the lookers-on, and it seemed
to me as If every bald-headed and white
headed sinner on Coney Island was down
upon the beach, or in the water. All eyes
were fixed upon a bather who rolled and
tumbled in the brinY as though she were an
ocean nymph or fairy. None of your airy
fairies, made up of fog and smoke and
clouds; no, no,-not that kind of fairy;
but good solid one hundred and eighty
FOUNDER, and she looked as if she would not
have parted with an ounce of her en- bong
pong for thousand dollars. The dress was
red and blue, and it fitted her magnificent
figure tight as her own skin, leaving moth
ing to the imagination whatever. Who is
she? said to myself, as the beautiful face
came back to me like a long g-forgotten
dream. Yes, could not be mistaken-it
was the wife of General Belknap, once Sec
blasted and who was forced to resign hur-
riedly TO escape impeach,nent, many said,
by the indiscretions of this woman. Gen
eral Belknap, poor country lawyer from
Iowa, suddenly found himself translated
from obscurity and poverty to be Secretary
of War in the city Of Washington. The
sudden rise turned his head, and his bride,
beautiful country girl as suddenly found
herself one of the first ladies at the Capital
only two ladies in all the land taking pre-
cedence over her-the Presidents wife and
the wife of the Chief-Justice of the Su-
preme Court. General Belknap had no
money, and was entirely dependent on his
salary as Cabinet officer, which was
scarcely sufficient to pay his house rent and
his cook. His beautiful wife wanted dresses
and diamonds, and she got them, it was
said, from the parties who were awarded
fat contracts by the War Department She
died, and General Belknap married her
lovely and accomplished sister, and then
the scandals of the War Department be-
came so fragrant and dsgraceful that an
investigation was ordered by Congress,
when General Belknap hurriedly resigned
and escaped impeachment 1t is but just
ice 10 General Belknap TO say that those
who know him best never believed that he
profited personally by the countless thous-
ands that were squandered in his household
by his family. 1t was his weakness in clos
ing his eyes to the fatal vanity and extra
vagance of his beautiful wives that wrought
his downfall and ruin.
The family fed from Washington, and
for several years were lost sight of; at last
General Belknap drifted back to Washing
ton, and, procuring some Post-Office con-
tracts, has been able to sustain himself and
keep his family in Europe The syren that
caused all the trouble was the Venus saw
bathing in the surf. Fourteen years have
sat lightly on her While the soft and. glrl-
ish lines ofbeauty which distinguished her
in Washington fifteen years ago, have dis
appeared, her figure has now become more
massive and matronlY, but there is enough
OF her left yet TO make a fellows heart go
pit-a-pat, as she stood there dripping upon
the sand One thing / always admired
about General Belknap--he never sought
shelter OF excuse for himself by laying the
blame upon his wife; he never said, at
was the woman did it," like another old
cowardly scallawag who helped to get us
all into a scrape; but like true Knight
Errant faced hopeless ruin for the true wo-
man he loved, and endured social death
rather than betray her.
1t has been my good fortune TO see most
of the great art collections of the world. /
have roamed through the galleries of the
Pitt Palace and explored the wonders of
the Vatican; Paris know from end to end,
and the miracles of art in the Royal Acad-
emY in London, the South Kensington Col
lection and British Museum are as familiar
TO me as my school books. My waYward
feet have roamed through Berlin, Vienna,
Madrid, st. Petersburg and Moscow. 1
have seen the noblest .statuary that ever
came from the seulptor's chisel from Phid-
las and Praxiteles- down TO Thorowalden,
Canova and Powers. i haYe seen Venuses
of all sorts-sitting on clouds, diving in
the sea, perched on rocks or standing on
their headD; Phebes, Chloes, Ariandes,
Psyches and Dianas; have reviewed them
by the hundred, whose rayishing beauties
were unconceaied by fg-leaf; but of the
whole pack, after the most careful consid-
eration, most emphatically declare that
this Coney Island Venus takes the cake
Oh, Pm going 20 Coney Island again,-"a
thing of beauty is joy forever" I'm
going TO be around there in the early NOR
ming bathing just as sure as you are born.
As anybody got an opera glass to spare!