Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-12-17
EDWARD G. DANA
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.


! !
New York is nothing il not gorgeous
aud h.rSe.f, At mag liiicent dinner
given there til. other night by the
winner of II $500 election bet, the
terrapin. the canva backs, aud all the
! other choice luxulieS of ths season
had he,n disposed of by the guests,
who were chiefly prominent turfmen,
and who sat around horseshoe table
laden with the rarest flowers, with
| menus il saith boxes, lrrounded by
figures of horses IN g,ld. Then when
tn. c.ga were being pufel, AMI
music was being discoursel, curtains
were flung aside an in walked the
host, leading II beautiful AMI we'll
groomed horse. The animal was led
around the tuble un into the hollow
of the horseshoe, wher,' he procee led
| to devour the banks of towe,s. These
demolished, he turned his attention
| to the big bowl Of champagne that
was poured out for him. He quatfel
the sparkling liquid like connois-
seur, and then stood patiently wait
ing for the next number on the p,o-
gram. The climax was reached when
a stockbroker leaped uron the no ses
back aud posed in elective style. 1,
was great night for the turfmen and
the occasion WAS thoroughly New
Iorkesque.
1t is IL solemn warming which Mr..
w. 4. Roeblng, engineer of the
Brooklyn bri lge, gives to the public
in regard to the overloaling of that
structure. "The margin OF safety
says Mr.. Roebling. ''has suffered a
material re,luction.' He cites the
numerous additions to the weight of
the load in the shape of telegraph
cables, pneumatic tubes, heavy rails,
etc, but "the climav of overloading."
he declares, was reached when the
trolley took possession of the roadway
and began tor,ln in de!ia ice OF all stip-
ulations, as regards weight of ears and
distance apart" In addition to the
trolleys, some of the Brooklyn ele-
vated railroad trains run across the
bridge, and arrangements are being
made to run still more 1t is said
that the accident of horse dying ON
the roadway, there being not room
for two vehicles to pass, caused re-
Gently blockade of trolley cars and
othet traffic which multiplied by three
the live load which Mr. Roebling orig
inally set as the safety limit. 1t
would seem that the scare caused last
summer by the buckling Of the bottom
chords OF the bridge has had little ef-
feet.
A tifteen-story building in this city
burned down like a wax candle to the
eighth floor the other IL ght, and there,
the first tlooy the iiremen could reach,
| the fire was extingnlshad. So much
for the sky-scrap-r. But they viii
| 60 on being built just the same.
any readers OF advertisement in
big newspapers will be sorry, ulso, 70
hear of the destruction OF the Rogers.
Peet g. Co building, which caused
this costly sky-scraper to point
n moral for future tall structures. For
the Rogers& ~ Peet eople have amut d
all New York by the jolly "cnts" that
some clever draughtsman has made to
attract the eye and canse smile on
the might-be purchasers $ countenance.
Let us hope those queer little boys
and those animated articles of apparel
which have advertised this firms
wares so laughably have not disap-
peared in smoke forever.
That's potentially celebrated case
now in the courts here where the fair
defendant, who is accused of having
worked the badger game, is so wonder
ously beautiful that it has been
deemed prudent to shield the jury
from her in order that they may not
succumb to her personal charms. The
particularly be witchiny feature about
her is her eyes, which are said to possess
the power not only to fascinate, butto
hypnotize, those upon whom the pos
SCISSOR fixes her gaze. 1t is announced
that the jurymen who are to sit in
judgment on her are all men of the
world, and that they could not be
made to yield to her fascinating in
fuence even if they were permitted to
get peep at her.
A civil engineer figures out that to
clean the streets of New York county
of foot OF snow in "a hours would
require the service of SO, $40 cartu,
418, $50 shovels, 119, $50 horses and
873, 864 men. "Divide 41S, $50 by
1872 49," says the Sun. "and you get
Alice in Wonderland"
"If twice a thousand shovel men
Shoveled for half year.
Doyou believe, the walrus said,
"That they could get 1t cear?'
II doubt II" said the carpenter,
And shed bitter tear.
There is deal of rugged eloquence
In the remark OF Mr.. Riley, the bath
ing master at Coney Island, where
Miss King, now Mrs. Chamberlain,
performed her bogus drowning act in
/ September: "Mrs. Chamberlain can
live at the Waldorf, but me, the man
that was ruined by her silly trick, can
| live in bathhOuse and eat snowballs.
l guess not" Notwithstanding the
present prevalence of snow, he brings
suit for 100000
| Chief Bonner of the New York fire
department improves the occasion of
| the latest big fire to observe that $50
feet ought to be the outside limit to
the height OF buildings. This one
loomed up to a height of 20) feet, and
the iremen had to let it burn till it
got down tothe vicinity of where they
could reach it. Then they put it out