Year: 1876

| correspondence New Northwest.


| New YORK, July 49, 1876.


THE EXTREME HEAT


The intense heat of the past two weeks


is now happily over, at least for a time


On Tuesday afternoon the city was visited


by the heaviest storm of thunder, lightning
and rain known for years, which lasted
from three IN the afternoon, with rare
intervals Of cessation, TIL long after ten at
night. The city was absolutely drenched,
and the air was deliciously cool thereafter,
a happy contrast to the sitting heat of the
past three weeks.
The heated season has been the most
severe that has been known in the city for
eighty years. The thermometer has gone
to 104, and stayed there for days, taking
occasional excursions down the scale to 93,
and at midnight or later, down to S5. OF
course there are days as hot every year,
but to have them continue three weeks,
without cessation or let up, IS something
unprecedented. Every morning there has
been column or more of casualties, of
men falling in the street, of horses lying
down and dying, and of children perishing
in their sitting garrets. If it was terrible
for the residents Of roomy and spacious
houses uptown, what must it have been
for those compelled to occupy garrets.
without air or ventilation, and subjected to
the sitting smells of the tenement houses
Frhacn oil 4Io 20
the damned, and thousands of them died.
The mortality among children has been
dreadful, aud it's extent will never be
known.


1t was nothing uncommon during the
three weeks past to see strong men stagger
in the street and fall prostrate-" drunk"
some would say, but the policemen knew
better. 1t was sunstroEe and the ambu-
lances provided by the city would drive up
and carry the sufferer off to the hospital
provided for the purpose. Of the cases of
sunstroke, one-half die, and very few ever
recover their health in full. The city
medical authorities have given the most
minute directions for avoiding this terrible
casualty, but yet not half or very few
observe them. A wet cloth in the crown
of the hat is certain and sure preventive,
but nevertheless not one in ten take this
simple preeaution.


THE PILL MEN.


There is something the matter with the
pill men. Helmbold, the Buchu man, is
still in an insane asylum, and now James
c. Aver, the proprietor and manufacturer
of cherry pectoral and dozen other pro-
prietary medicines, has gone insane and is
an inmate of private asylum near New
York. He made his escape the other day,
and got into the city, and conducted him
self SO like sane man-that is. he borrow
that he was insane till his physicians got
on his track and brought him back. His
insanity was caused by over-work. For
thirty years he has made and pushed nos
trums, for the sole purpose of making
money. He made millions, but it all did
him no good. He attempted to get recog-
milton as public man, but the fact that
he had made his money in pills was against
him, and he was compelled to give way to
men who, probably, were no better
than himself. His friends, as were
those of Helmbold, were Of the class of
toadies who were willing to eat his dinners,
and so he finds himself at an advanced age,
with millions of money and nothing else.
And the worry of all is, that he has nothing
to spend his money for, and with body
and mind over-tasked in the getting of it,
with nothing under heaven to do with it,
he goes mad, and will doubtless end his
days in an asylum. Money is a good thing,
but you want to be careful how you get it,
Don't make it ont of pills or pectoral
Swindle the people as a railroad lawyer,
and when you get to middle life, you may
be as lucky as Tilden is, and be nominated
by the Democracy for the presidency.


THE TEA MARKET.


The depreciation in the prices of goods
is shown as much in such articles as tea as
anything. There are hundreds of houses
in the city that have made immense for
tunes in tea and coffee, but they have been
very industriously losing their accumula-
tions in the last four years. There has
been steady depreciation in the value of
this staple, until at the present time it is
long way below the before-t -the-war prices.
In 1859, the price of the best young byson
was so cents per pound at wholesale. In
'72, it got up to 73c., but to-day it is
drug in the market at 80. And the other