The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-26
NEW YORK LETTER.
Stray Topics From the Empire State
Cleaned at Random.

New ork, May 22-Mayor Gaynor
is working hard to make a record for
himself. Some persons are inclined
to believe that he is ambitious and
is prompted in his actions by the de-
sire to win distinction and thus lay
the foundation for higher honors,
while others think that he is merely
obeying the strenuous instincts of his
nature and is innocent of any ambi-
tious thoughts of the future. How
ever that may be, Mayor Gaynor does
not seem afraid of piling up a big load
of responsibilities in addition to that
resting, as matter of course, upon
the chief executive official of large
city. Now he has taken it upon him
self to constitute himself a censor Of
morality standards as indicated by
stage productions. THE Girl With
the Whooping Cough" a farce which
like a great many others of that kind,
depends for its drawing power upon
its "suggestiveness,' was the first
play to fall under the ban of the self
constituted censor. Upon the order
of the Mayor the run of the farce was
stopped and when the producer of the
nasty play appealed to the courts of
an injunction, the renewal of the Ii
cense of the theatre in which the
play was given was refused by the
authorities. The Mayor has express
ed his determination to put a stop to
all vulgar and indecent shows wheth-
er they are given in one of the big
theatres along Broadway or in one of
the minor show places scattered all
through the city. Theatrical man
ayers are now beginning to sit up
and take notice.
The invention of Typography
some time in the fifteenth century
has undoubtedly been a great bless
ing to humanity in many respects,
notwithstanding the fact that the art
has often been most shamefully
abused. We're it not for the art of
printing from type the world would
probably be poorer by many a useful
production of mans literary genius,
but it is equally certain that it would
have been spared an enormous mass
of literary trash and useless printed
matter. 1t is astounding what a lot
of superfious stuff is put into print
nowadays. One of the medical jour-
nails published an article the other day
upon the subject of How the Motor
Car Helps the Doctor" One has but
to read the daily papers with their
long list of automobile victims to I'M
derstand, without diagram how the
motto rear helps, not only the doctor,
but also the undertaken. Isn't it I'M
necessary cruelty, sort of rubbing
it in," to print an article of that kind?
One of the New York morning pa
pers with a reputation for being well
edited is evidently cultivating a tone
of extreme politeness to members of
the burglar fraternity. while alb
sent on a professional call yesterday
afternoon burglars broke into the
home of DR.. Mott D. Cannon -"
thus began the opening sentence of
that papers account of a sensational
burglary and double murder commit
ted the day before. This is probably
the first time that burglars following
their criminal vocation were spoken
of as being absent ION a professional
call Even Lord Chesterfield could
not have improved upon such polite
ness,
The recent death of a policeman
bold emo Ig1 to cross the d ,a3line
drawn .y the notorious Gel ba:D
gang infesting the district around
Ninety-se zenith street and Second ay-
enue, seems like an anacronism. 1t
reminds one of the days Of yore when
certain parts of the city were con-
plete controlled by gangs of GRIMM
ais whose rule of terrorism the po-
lice seemed unable to break. Prob
| ably no man did more to put an end
to this gang rule than Inspector
| Byrnes, who died the other day and
was buried in Calvary Cemetery.
/ There was a big crowd at the funeral
but, strange to say, not a single rep
resentative of the present police de-
partment. Considering the fact that
it was Byrne who made New York's
pOliCt uepdl IlltuJ Wudl 10 hOW 10
supposed to be and that no man ever
| did more for the department than he,
the failure of the police commission
ers to be represented at the funeral
of the famous chief showed not only
deplorable lack of grateful appre-
citation but of tact and common de-
cency as well.
How deeply rooted certain super
stitutious notions are an dhow tenaci-
ously they cling to many persons in
shown by the dread of many individu-
ais of Friday. especially when it hap
pens to fall on the 18th day of the
month. In the early part of this
month an Italian was tried for kill
ing another Italian during a quarrel
over a woman. The prisoner did not
seem to mind being found guilty of
manslaughter in the second degree,
but when the Judge before whom he
was tried announced that he would
pronounce sentence on Friday, the
18th, the man became frantic. So
great seemed his fear of the combina-
ton of unlucky elements in that day,
that the Judge changed the date to
Thursday, the 18th.
A recent incident at a meeting of
the Montclair, n. j., town council
proves beyond disputes that a man
n ~ !. l.