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| Grover Cleveland |
GOV.
CLEVELAND INAUGURATED.
The
State Legislature.
The inauguration
of Mr. Cleveland as Governor of this State took place Monday in the Senate Chamber at Albany. Many
spectators were present. The ceremonies were simple. After the oath of office
had been administered, Governor Cornell delivered an address of welcome, to
which Governor Cleveland replied. The latter praised the administration of his
predecessor. After these ceremonies Governor Cleveland held a reception in the
Executive Chamber.
At the caucus of Democratic
Assemblymen in the evening Alfred C. Chapin, of Brooklyn, was nominated for
Speaker and Walter H. Bunn, of Otsego, for clerk. Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, was nominated for Speaker by the
Republicans, and E . M. Johnson for clerk. Mr. Chapin was elected by a vote of
84 to 41 for Mr. Roosevelt. Walter L, Bunn was elected clerk. The Democratic
Senators met in caucus to determine upon the advisability of turning John W.
Vrooman out of the Senate clerkship to which he was elected a year ago, and it
was unanimously resolved that this should be done were there no legal obstacles
in the way. A committee was appointed to look up the law in the case.
Erie Canal.
From this time forth the Erie
Canal is an entirely free water-way. It can be used by any one without fee or charge,
in the same manner as Lake Erie or the Hudson River, which it connects. The
State of New York will, hereafter pay for all of the repairs and will see that
the canal is usable when not blockaded by ice. This canal was opened in 1825.
The first boat carried ninety barrels of flour; the regular cargo of a barge at
present is 900 barrels. This canal has made a mighty metropolis of New York
city for it has brought to that great seaport the productions of the fertile
West.
Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals of this State
has just rendered a decision which vitally concerns all men and women within our
borders who meditate divorce. The question submitted to the Court was the
effect of the marriage of a person in another State against whom a decree of
divorce had previously been granted in New York. The laws of New York forbid
the marriage of a person against whom such a decree has been granted during the
life-time of the complainant. But suppose that the decree of divorce being
granted in New York, the person against whom it runs marries again in
Pennsylvania—are the courts of New York to regard the Pennsylvania marriage as
valid or void? The Court of Appeals, reversing the decisions of the courts
below, holds that it is valid.
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| Kate Field |
Correspondence of THE NEWS.
New York, Jan. 2, 1883.
The failure of Kate Field's
Co-operative Dress Reform establishment did not create much of a sensation in
the metropolis, nor is it such a bad failure that anybody is likely to lose
much. It is a failure to succeed rather than a failure in the usual financial
sense. H. P. Claflin & Co. are the largest creditors, and Miss Field
herself comes next, having advanced $15,000 in cash from her private means.
Miss Field bears her misfortune
with great calmness, in fact. I may go a bit farther and say that she seems not
a little impressed by the importance of having failed for more than
$250,000 on paper. What a monstrous fizzle the Co-operative Dress Association
has been. Everybody now says that the thing was inevitable; that no woman did
ever carry on such a vast commercial enterprise, and consequently no woman ever
could do so.
There is no doubt that most men
will believe this decidedly ungallant and certainly ridiculous course of
reasoning. Experience has gone a long way toward supporting it. Time and again in
New York women have started out boldly in one way or the other, made a great
stir, been widely written up, strongly supported and heartily encouraged. They
have subsequently cut their hair and assumed manners calculated to impress
feminine admirers with the idea that great brain power lurked beneath the short
hair. After this stage things went on quietly until suddenly the smash came, and then the short-haired
woman lectured for a living. It has been so with the great charitable enterprises, musical
enterprises and banking
enterprises. I use the word
''enterprises" because women are fond of it.
The
above remarks are, I am aware,
atrociously discourteous. Undoubtedly
they will stir many valiant women
up to an indignant denial, and
in all human probability some champion of outraged womanhood will write a
letter to the editor signed “justice.” Don’t. I don’t advance any opinion on
the subject. I simply report the facts. Women have not been successful as
managers in New York. [Bottom of news page is ink-smeared and illegible—CC editor]
…some of the streets’ paving stones are piled several feet high, making sinuous alleyways which the hurrying crowd
have to squeeze through. Putting down
the pipes was the beginning of the nuisance, but it is not the last
of it. Every day there is a new leak and the neighborhood
is filled with clouds of steam as impenetrable as a London
fog. Within the last week the nuisance has developed a new feature
that is quite alarming. One of the mains burst in a crowded thoroughfare throwing stones and mud into the air
with the force of a geyser and hurling the debris into shop windows. A driver who
was passing the spot was astonished by having his wagon knocked to pieces. If
these pipes are to give way in this manner frequently, men who do
business down town will never know that they are not going to be blown
the next moment sky high, which is quite as unpleasant as to have
nihilists plotting against your life.
Nevertheless, the steam-heating
companies go merrily on their way and are hopeful of making money. The first
experiments in steam-heating were made at Lockport, in this State. It was an
invention of Holly, the noted hydraulic engineer. Several visionary men, with scarcely any money, went into the scheme
with him, which proved a success and made them all rich. Because it proved successful
in a country town, however, it does not follow that it will meet with good results
here. It is likely to prove a nuisance from first to last.
The street car companies, in
accordance with the law, have been filing the annual statements of their
business— the receipts, expenditures, and profits—with the authorities at
Albany. The figures as far as they have been made public, are exceedingly
suggestive. When the elevated lines, for instance, went into operation it was
supposed by some gloomy financiers that the surface roads on many of the lines
would be compelled to discontinue the running of their cars. Well, one street
car line running almost parallel to one of the elevated roads reports that
during the past year it received in five cent fares the enormous sum of more
than eight hundred thousand dollars. This almost imperial revenue shows that
there is still some profit left in the surface road business. No one of them
has gone into bankruptcy or thrown up its charter.
The fact is the city is growing
at a pace almost unequalled, and there is room enough for all. If the elevated roads
were managed with some regard to the interests of the public, the surface roads
probably would not be so prosperous.
Notwithstanding the unfavorable
outlook at the beginning of the season there has been a fair holiday trade in all
lines of goods, and an unusually large business in Christmas and New Year's cards,
gift books, etc. Piles of "Zigzag Journeys" and other illustrated and
instructive children's books disappeared from the counters of retail stores
like magic. Some dealers who had laid in large stocks of prize cards sold out
before the middle of last week and have had nothing but common stock on hand
ever since. Salesmen could not wait on the crowds of customers fast enough, and
the windows were stripped of their showy goods to satisfy the demand. These
things not only went to homes all over the city but the mails were laden with
them, destined to all parts of the country. Such loads as were piled upon the postal
coiners! It was simply enormous. Well, Christmas comes but once a year.
By the way, it is true as
reported, that Oscar Wilde was fleeced by a confidence operator the other day
out of a check for $1,050. But Oscar has made enough in this country by means
of his little aesthetic game to be able to part with some of it.
KNICKERBOCKER.
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