Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-19
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Good Comes From the Most Evil Wind
Notes of Current Life.

IT is curious how even great calamity will
work to the advantage of someone The rail.
roads and the hotel keepers and others in this
city have certainly obtained an increase in
their receipts as an indirect consequence OF
| the terrible disaster on Diamond street. In
| the crowds which have ever since Wednesday
of last week surrounded the tottering shell of
Weldin's stores have been many strangers.
Yesterday 1 encountered gentleman from
Altoona at the corner of Wood and Diamond
streets, and he told me that he had come to
| Pittsburg to take look at the tracks of the
| cyclone. When expressed some astonishment
! at this he told me that dozen or so of his ac-
| quaintances had been drawn to Pittsburg by
the same attraction. Probably hundreds if not
! thousands of people residing in neighboring
| towns have paid Pittsburg visit just to see
| for themselves the ruins where SO many human
| lives were sacrificed.
Another odd circumstance of the Wiley
| building collapse was that from the very first
the disaster was underestimated. Rumor
usually magniies the facts but it did the re-
verse in this case. One of the doctors who was
summoned to the SPOT tells me that the boy
who brought the news merely told him that a
man had been hurt by the fall of a building on
Diamond street.
Pittsburgers who were away from home the
day the accident occurred had a Door chance to
realize the magnitude of the massacre IN the
Chicago papers. for instance, on the morning of
Thursday the Reading silk horror dwarfed the
Pittsburg catastrophe, although to-day we
know that SO far as the loss of human life is
concerned the latter was fully as destructive.
H4r
THE congregation in an East End church
few Sundays ago noticed with some dismay
that their pastor preached a sermon half an
hour longer than usual. After the service one
of the elders of the church took the liberty to
remark to the preacher: "That was very
good sermon, Mr.. c., but wasn't it little
too long?"
The minister laughed as he replied
"Yes, 1t was exactly Is minutes too long. l
had my watch in front of me and I mistook the
time when looked at it, and the congregation
had to suffer for my error"
~
ONE day last week lady who resides in Chi.
cago, on the Southside, advertised for serv-
ant. The first applicant who came in answer
to the advertisement was pretty and neat
young girl, evidently but recently from Ireland.
After some little talk the lady asked the girl if
she had any references.
"Oh, yes, Maam," the girl replied, and
handed over sheet of note paper, on which
was written the following legend:
To ho 1t moi consarn:
Rally and thruly she be good gurl. she Kin do
ginral work. She lived with me swim months.
She be me cussin.
MRS. POLICE OFFICER " BRIEN.
The reference did not get the poor girl a
place then and there.
So
IF you want to understand what an offense
and stencil the present jury system is to those
who know its working best, call upon few
lawyers and get them to relate their expert
ences and express their opinions. 1t is not
exaggerating the situation at all to say that
there is hardly lawyer at the bar to-day who
has not known jury, grand or petit, to be
bought
The lawyers generally seem to favor THE
DIsPATCH's suggestion to place the Jury Com
missioners directly within the control of the
bench Fortunately Allegheny county has no
cause to doubt the honesty of her judges and
the lawyers who are as deeply interested in
the proper administration of justice as anyone,
and perhaps more interested in the matter than
their clients would almost unanimously ap-
prove of a law that would wipe out the present
system and set up new commissioners ap-
pointed and removable by the Judges