Year: 1876

/


Eclipse-Amusements.


New York, March 81, 1876.


TO the Editor Of the Observer


"A recent most revolving out


rage, perpetrated under cover


Of the Revised Statutes, has


raised a storm about the mall
administration of "Crowner's


quest law" as it is called. A
| respectable woman losing her


way in a stormy night walked


off the dock into the East Riv-


er and was drowned. Her body


was discovered next morning,


but in accordance with the tra-
ditions of this absurd law, no


one was allowed to take it from
the water till the coroner gave


permission. Even the woman 5


husband, frantic with grief and


indignation, was forbidden by
the police to touch it, and for
twenty-four hours was obliged
to pace the dock near which the
body of his wife floated in the
full gaze Of the gaping crowd,
until at last one of the four la
zy and heartless officials who
hold inquests upon New York ;
unfortunate dead at $4,000


per year apiece, made his ap-


pearance, and the shameful
spectacle came to an end. 1t Is
seldom that the big and busy


city gets so reused over any
thing not affecting itsgeneralin-
terests, and as the investigation
which has been set on foot, re-
veals unlimited brutality and
abuse, it will go hard but some
Of the official heads tumble in
to the basket. a change in


the law covering such cases is


also strenuously advocated.


And yet again, does the Ele-
waited Railroad trouble obtrude
itself upon our attention; not
the new one proposed for the
East side this time, but the one
already established on the West
side. In preparing to put down
new- switch on Greenwich
street, the company's men have
broken through into the coal
vaults of a hotel, which mishap
acted as the straw which broke
the camel's back. The hotel
men, backed by other property
owners, turned out force sui,
feient to clean out the railroad
party and the few policemen
who intcrfered. Brickbats flew
and crowns were cracked, un-
til the arrival Of more police
averted what might soon have
become a serious riot. The
property-owners have got ont.
an injunction against further
work. They would evidently
like to see this enterprise share
the fate Of the pneumatic rail
way, the tunnel for which vas
dug under Broadway years ago,
and when the scheme was aban-
doned on account Of opposition
and lack Of means, was closed
up till it was almost forgotten
by New Workers themselves
Some months ago, however, some
born Yankee got possession of |
the hole, and made thereof a
rifle range, which is now large
ly patronized to his great gian.
The tunnel is a circular iron
tube cased in brick, some eight
feet in diameter, and running
under Broadway from the new
City Hall down to the Post
Office. Standing at the shoot
crs' place and looking away off T.
through the thin blue smoke to
where, hundreds Of feet distant,
the white target glimmers in the
light Of strong refectors it is
not easy to realize that we are
in the heart Of a great city,
Only the distant thunder Of the
rumbling vehicles overhead |
bears witness to the locality.


As may be supposed, the de-
tonation of the gun in this con-
fined space is almost overpow-
ering. It is like being shut up
in a big hogshead with a gigan-
tic fire-cracker, and to a ner-
vous person would be sufficient
to deter him from this amuse-
ment. The thought that men
and women were to have been
shot up and down this tube from
one end Of town to the other,
like peas from a pop-gun, goes
far toward reconciling the be-
holder to the failure Of the en-
terprise, 1t is true that tae
elevated railway would have
been a snail to it, but then there
as such q thing as too "ranid