Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-11-12
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Visit of Sir Edwin Arnold the English
Poet.
Dogs-New York and the Conven
tion -Princely Bluff.
eeial eorrespondence Of rhe chronIeIe.

| lie 0YerI0WS with e0rdlalltY. lie reminds
those who remember Dickens visits to
this country, of the great novelist. His
manner in reading is exquisite and his
method perfect in sympathy and finish.
His voice is highly cultivated and natu-
rally eharmingly musical. He reads
; selections from his own poems. He has
made an excellent impression.
Sir Edwin is likely to become the next
poet laureate of England, and there is
no one who more deserves the honor
He is consistent and avowed Tory, and
for thirty years has been editor of The
Daily Telegraph, of London. He has
found time from his editorial duties to
write much sweet poetry, including the
famous epic, "The Light of ASIA" and
the less famous "The Light of the
World"
One of the pleasantest things, both to
the participants and to outsiders, of Sir
Edwin's visit, was his call last week on
the "Good Gray Poet" Walt Whitman,
at his Camden home. The two poets are
/ Hdl III AONClS anu w IlI-
] man is 73 years of age, and maintains
strict literary secluSion at his home. Ar
/ Lsld's visit was delightful surprise to
him The two singers conversed togeth-
er like boys, and Arnold recited Whit
mans poem on the death of Lincoln in
way that brought tears to the authors
eyes. After leaving Sir Edwin spoke
thus of Walt Whitman, "Great, good poet
that be is; he stands next to Emerson"
Arnold, by the way. thinks that Emerson
was our greatest man, and in this the
great mass of Americans will agree with
him.
***
A number of New York gentlemen
have subscribed funds for the building
at Amsterdam, Holland, of ship which |
is to be in all particulars reproduction |
of the Have Maane, in which old Hen |
dirk Hudson discovered and named the |
Hudson River in 1909. AS an incident !
of the celebration of the 400th anniver !
sary of the discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus, the vessel is to be
brought to New York in June, 1892, un-
der convey of Dutch man-ofwar. The
subscribers are descendants of the de-
lightful old New York Dutchmen OF |
Washington Irving. The cost of the
ship complete, fully manned and equip
ped, including expenses of crew for four
months, will be about $4,000. With
shrewd Dutch business tact. the pro
jectors of the scheme have plan to
get their money back. They will charge
an admission fee to persons visiting the
ship, and the receipts above the expenses
will be devoted to the erection in New
Y York of a bronze statue of some Hol
lander of the seventeenth century.
***
To the lay mind it would seem positive
ly impossible to make valid, court
proof will, when so able, acute, Gear
minded and far seeing a lawyer as Sam
uel J. Tilden, aided by the best legal ad
vice that New York affords, was unable
to express his intention in way which
the courts could not interfere with. 1t
shows that there is something lcose some
where.
***
A census has been made of the dogs in
New York, with the result thai S6,50S
dogs were found in the city, while of this
large total only 3,377, or less than 10 per
cent, are licensed. The dog tax is 81 an
nually. If the owners of all these dogs
could be made to pay that much for each
one, the city would derive handsome
revenue from that source. As it is, the
dog tax is practically a farce. No dog
over is ever punished for not taking a
license, and the only danger he incurs is
that of having his dog seized by the of
fetal dog catcher, and killed by the off
cial dog killer. But the official dog killer
is as lax in his duties as the official fool
killer, an if we have not as many dogs
as fools it is not the fault of the official
killers.
~
New York has made little effort to Sc
cure the National Republican Conven-
ton, and the indications are that she
does not want it, or at least does not
want it badly enough to bid for it. New
York, except as to the requirement of be-
ing centrally located is the ideal eonven
ton city of this country. She has more
places of amusement and points of inter-
est than any other city, and she can stow
ha ny-Ic |
But the people are Indifferent. They
seem to have enough to do without it.
Newspaper men supposedly would be
the most benefited by the convention, but
they really do not want it. a prominent
city editor said, 81 doubt if there is sin
gle newspaper Office in New Y Ork where
a single man can be found who would
like to have the convention held in New
York. To the newspaper men, it means
two weeks of the hardest kind of drudg
cry for each convention. Every paper in
New York would be obliged to detail an
enormous corps of men to secure reports
in and out of the convention. With the
held at Chicago or Cincinnati
or St. Louis,no New York paper thinks of
sending more than three or four men to re-
port the proceedings, because we have the
benefit of the proofs of the papers in
those cities. For my part, hope the
convention will not be sent to New York. i"
Manager Villas, of the Fifth Avenue Ho-
tel, voices the sentiment of Gotham's
landlords By saying, "The hotel men of
New York care very little whether or
not the national convention comes to this
city. We have so much steady, regular
and conservative custom now that the
disturbance and turmoil of conventions
IRE not courted." So it is quite unlike