Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-03-18
THE PELT MARKET.
A Suffering Victim who Is Glad TO
Learn that wall street Has n Very
Much-AIive Competitor Up Among the
SnOw-Clad mis- of Vermont.

SnOw-Clad mis- of Vermont.
The following letter was written by Jno. H.
Flagg Of New York to his friend Carroll $ Page
Of Hyde Park, acknowledging the receipt Of
one OF the wideawake ex Governors green
calf-skns" calendars for the current year. The
theme is a suggestive one in Mr. Flagg's hands.
and his bright thrusts and his good humored
"j1llying" will be appreciated and enjoyed by
the friends both Of the writer and the recipi.
ent of the letter
Hon. CdrroU S. Page, Hyde PARK, w.:
Nh Dear GorcrHOr:-Accept many
thanks for the excellent halftone portrait
Just received; also for the artistic calendar
for 1898 which has been hoisted to
conspicuous place in my office. II takes
up considerable room, but helps me to
even up with the landlord to whom pay
eXorbitant rent. 1t will be glanced at fire.
quently and will serve to nudge me to
realization of the rushing tide Of time that
waits for no man, and tend TO compose me
when ! am behind with my work and
scratching hard to catch up. 1t is also
welcome as reminder that you are an ac-
tive competitor with Wall street in the pelt
business yourself. Heretofore | have dis.
posed of my epidermc growth to Wall
street alone, furnishing at regular seasons
both "lamb skins and green calf skins"
exclusively to this market. With no com
petitor l have had to accept whatever
terms | could get from an eager, but only,
bidder.
In one of the most celebrated cathedrals
Of Europe a marble effigy was long ago
erected to good old Saint Bartholomew,
who, the Greek writers tell us, was skin
ned alive. Posing as a martyr he supports
the skin taken from his body as a mantle
on his shoulder, triumphant over the pain
full ordeal to which he has been subjected.
have never quite seen the prOpriety of
! thus singing out this old saint for special
| distinction. Any of us sinners here in
| New York, accustomed to the vCissi-
tudes Of speculative experience in Wall
! street, can outdo him. He, after being
! skinned, managed in some way to hold on
to his pelt and thus save that much out Of
! the catastrophe, while the Wall street ten
derfoot is not only dexterously skinned,
! but despoiled Of his pelt as well and then
left naked to the Implying gaze Of the
Bazi Bazouks who captured and fayed
him.
Furthermore, there is comfort in know
ing that there is competition in the bone
market also and that you furnish it.
| When a fellow is successfully skinned, and,
on feeling around, finds that both tail and
tallow have gone with the hide, there is
| vet consolation in knowing that purchas-
er exists for his bones. Hitherto, these
! articles have been "throwu in to the other
fellow without charge, the same as when a
boy up in Vermont hunk OF liver used tC
be thrown in by the butcher whenever he
sold pound or two of Indifferent beef ol
So, hereafter, | shall prefer to patronizt
the Vermont market rather than that o
"the street which long ago became thu
colossal sepulcher of the continent, ST
great, in fact, that Proctor, even unde
the inspiration of a government contract
could not furnish marble enough TO desig
nate the graves OF those who, every darl
night, are dragged of to the Wall stree
morgue for financial burial without mourn
erS.
SO, for the suggestion of economic ad
vantages, your literature has been most &C
ceptable, and the revelation it contains o
a commercial rivalry hitherto supposed tC
have no existence will not be readily for
gotten.
In conclusion, let me wish you, my deal
Governor, even at this belated hour, tn
compliments of the New Year and the
continued success which your enterpris
and push so greatly deserve.
Cordially yours,
JNo. II. FLAGG.
New York, Feb'y, 1898.