The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-11
GOSSIP OF NEW YORK.
The Recent Warfare Of Cranks
on the Millionaires.
HELEN ooulD's CRAZY sulToRs.

The Return Of Patti. with Black Hair
"Bill and Joe"-walt Whitmsn's
Flannel Shirt.
NEW YoaK, Jan. Especial Core
spondenee. Every schoolboy knows the
old maxim, "Whom Fortune wishes to
destroy she first makes mad" 1t is so
many hundreds, perhaps thousands. of
years since 1t was first uttered that nobody
knows to whom it is to be attributed. But
in all countries and In all times it is con-
stantly evident. Of course. no sane per-
son can be in sympathy with the cranks
who just now seem bent upon removing
multi-millionaires to some other sphere of
literal Occupation" But the terrible fact
obtains that these cranks are at large, for
but one of them has been killed, and two
or three only have been caught and con-
signed to lunatic asvlums, where they be-
long. Another uncomfortable fact
is the ever-existing mass OF dis
.gruntled, disconnected people, particu-
larry in large cities, who believe that no
one has the right to be rich while they re-
main poor. These disconnected people
are, to say the least, affected by the widely
published performances Of the cranks.
The press, the police, the millionaires
themselves, as Immediately interested in
the matter. suggest all sorts of precautions
and projections against such onslaughts
upon rich men, who are in danger of their
lives simply and only because they are
rich. 1t would be absurd to say that there
SO WI IL -,
subject. But it Is perfectly true that re-
cent events have prompted some very seri-
Gus thinking With this in view-taking
only a common sense view Of what lately
has occurred and of what might happen,
in spite of the well-directed energy
and vigilance Of the guardians pro-
vided by law-lt Is an exceed
ingly bad time for people whose
chief claim to prominence, or even consid-
GRAFTON, is their wealth, to set up claims
for exclusive privileges, to be awarded
to them by law. One would suppose that
prudence would prompt these people to re-
fraim from pronounced, and particularly
from offensive, prominence at present.
And yet two conspicuous displays to such
prominence-attempts to secure exclusive
privileges for would-be exclusive class
are unpleaeantly, perhaps uncomfortably,
conspicuous just now.
The Madison Avenue Protest.
The first was the open attempt, by no
means yet abandoned, to prevent the con-
struction of an underground transit
through Madison avenue. viii it be be-
lieved by sane people outside of this town
that rich property owners on the threat
ened avenue were reinforced by rich men
from Fifth avenue, and that concerted
howl went up against the proposed accom-
mediation of the public on the ground
that the rattle OF trains through
tunnel would disturb the serenity
of the rich inhabitants along the line,
and might crack china teacup or
two? And to think that these prot
est&nts against public accommodation in
their" avenue-''theirs," they assume it
to be-should in their indignation meeting
declare that they warmly favored any
scheme of rapid transit in Fourth avenue
near byl That is, the gridiron roads, in
which some OF these Madison avenue mill
ionaires own well-watered stock, from
which they draw big dividends, may
darken the windows and destroy the BUSH
ness of an entire avenue. provided it is not
their" avenue. A mans business may
go to smash, but nota single teacup on
their" avenue must run the risk of being
cracked. Let US give these people credit
for courage. That they dare to stand up
In public meeting, even meeting of
their own, and talk such stuff is an almost
admirable audacity. At first sight it would
seem compliment to the protective
power of an efficient and well-managed
and directed police. Next it would
appear as an indirect and quite uninten-
territorial tribute to the conservatism and
seif-control of the great mass of citizens
who are not millionaires. But the truth
is this-this same mass which
includes everybody excepting the
wouid,be exclusives, cares nothing
for the frothy vaporings or pro-
tests OF the millionaires, from the simple
tact that what the public wants in this
town the public will have. If the public
convenience requires an underground,
overground, cable road. or other more
rapid transit through Madison avenue
that public convenience will compel it, II
a tunnel is wanted it will be constructed
II 1t caves In every coal vault and wine
cellar along the line. That is the entire
story-the end of the matter, as it were.
Pessimlsts who pretend to despair of the
Republic" may coniidentially assure them
selves that in this town the people rule.
Right upon top of this absurd Madison
avenue protest few fools in Fifth avenue
gravely propose TO petition the legislature
TO convert what they consider their own
domain into a modern Faubourg St. Ger
main, as that sacred and exclusive pre-
clnct existed in Paris before the French
revolution. | mildly call these petitioners
tools. Their petition, in the face of the
present widely prevalent public opinion
and feeling, would warrant considering
them victims of paresis-unfortunates
whom not Fortune, but their own "for-
tunes had made crazy. These preten-
tious people actually propose that law
shall be enacted forever setting apart Fifth
avenue from Twenty-Iifth street to One
Hundred and Tenth street as a boulevard.
FROM this reservation by law all vulgar
travel is TO be excluded. No carts. draws.
milk wagons. or bushes. vehicles of any
sort Will be permitted TO intrude. 1t must
De repaved, of course, at the public expense:
that Is, by all the taxpayers of the city.
with wooden asphalt covered roadway
tor tine carriages on their way to and from
Central park or for calls" from one pal
atial residence to another along the fau-
bourg. While the puffed-up petitioners
gTayely propose that an ariStocratic fau-
oourg shall be established Ivy law in this
always overwhelmingly democratic city,
the immense humor Of the whole idea is
not apparent TO these people.
Where the Fun Come. In.
The first joke appears in the fact that
the petition viii come before what the
court Of appeals has made Democratic
legislature. To be sure, the people of the
state, by vote of $1,000, indicated pref