OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 147, 22 June 1911, Page 6

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

<From Our Special Correspondent.) NEW YORK, May 13. DESCENT OF SUMMER. With the customary sudden transitions of the seasons at this point New York is beginning to experience summer -weather again, although the first fortnight of May has been exceedingly backward, and even maying parties in the parks have in consequence heen delayed. The •baseball eeason has been in full Bwing for some time, and the crowds that block the streets in front of newspaper bulletin t»oa*ds every afternoon testify to the fact that the game has lost none of its national popularity. Children axe out again in short socks and tare legs to an extent that, in some cases, causes remarks about them "being big enough for their mothers to know better." Straw hats are, of course, once more in evidence. Churches and theatres will soon again close for the season. Trans-Atlan-tic passenger liners are carrying crowd's of tourists, who will take part in the Coronation ceremonies in London next month. Business seems to be normally active in most lines, 'but without enterprise, and collections reported slqw all round, -with predictions for a dull summer. A NEW CITY BUILDING. The latest new building, which will soon attract attention in the iheart of the city, on the opposite side of Broadway from the Post Office and City Hall, will toe of 55 stories, and is to be completed -within two years. The total ■height from the pavement will be 750 feet, the next highest buildings in sight being 700, 612, and 560 feet respectively. Tb,e ground area of the new structure is 152 feet on Broadway, 198 feet on one eide street (Park Place), and 193 feet on the other side (Barclay-street). There will be 34 elevators. More than twenty thousand tons of steel will be used in the structure. The architect says that the lights on top will he visible 96 miles at sea, bat oculists andi navigators say such a thing is impossible. The president of the company owning the 'building laid the foundations of his fortune -with, a chain of five and ten cent stores, which are still conducted in his name. NOVA SCOTIANS; GOOD AND BAD. The indictment of Charles H. Hyde, who ihas been city chamberlain under the Mayorship of Mr. Gaynor, has been the principal recent sensation in civic affairs. Hyde's salary was 12,000 dollars a year. •Hβ is a nephew of Geynor's first "wife, and formerly practised law with, him. The indictment was for accepting 13,800 dollars' bribe from the Carnegie Trust Company for manipulation of city funds. This trust company is now closed, and its president under arrest. 'Hyde has resigned, and a new chamberlain, with a long and unimpeachable record in the banking line, itas been appointed. Hyde is a man of forty, who was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, and never saw anything of life until he came to New York. There ecems to be as many adventurous spirits among the Nova Scotians as the old Scotsmen. A recent provincial paper stated that there had not been a -war in the last fifty years, including the Central Armenian revoltrtians, in which Nova Scotians were not shooting at each other. One of the gentler ccx, however,, may, perhaps, entertain your readers next year, if she goes to the 6outhern Cross- section with the show she has helped make famous. This is Miss Christie Mac Donald, of Pie--ton, 2JJS. Mr C. St. Joan Denton, of the Australian firm, oi Denton, Bode, and MacKenzJe, theatrical managers, has signed contracts with Wgrha and Luescher for the Australian rights to the "Spring Maid" (Miss MacDonaM's opera) for production at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne, and it is understood also in New Zealand. 'Hal. Ford, an. English musical comedy actor, ias been engaged for the. role of Prince Aladar. A JOKE ON CANADA. New York newspapers have got a laugh, on Canada that is likely to last. The- Canadians have for years been trying to repudiate the charge that theirs iis as exceptionally cold climate. They indignantly resented Rudyard Kipling's reference to their country as "Our Lady of the Snows," and even Montreal abandoned its winter carnival with ice palace features because it tended to advertise the frigidity of the -climate. Quite lately, however, the people oi a north-western province became alarmed at a threatened migration to their midst of a lot of negroes from a southern State. They rose en masse to petition against such an invasion, and one of the indiscreet sections of the petition was to the effect that the climate was too severe for such people, so that they -were likely to become public charges. The admission that the climate was 100 severe for anything proved a fatal one. CHILDREN WITH FIREARMS. Whether or not the next 4th of July may be much less productive of fatalities than previous ones, owing to restrictions in the sale of fire crackers, remains to -be seen, but certainly the number of disasters through use of pistols by children is on the increase. It is a common sight to see children dressed up as Indians chasing each other around the street in the residential sections, and pointing pistols in each other's faces. ■Generally, of course, these firearms are of the toy variety, but often are big enoujih to do damage, and the worst of it is the habit of carelessness the youngsters get into by handling such things. A nineteen-year-old girl in Brooklyn the other day shot iher seventeen-year-old 'brother dead with a, revolver, which she did not know was loaded, but playfully pressed it against his temple, and pulled the trigger. The crime of pointing a weapon at another should be liable to severe punishment. It is a good old motto not to hit anyone unless you want to knock him down, and then hit him as hard as ever you can?

WOMEN CIGARETTE-SMQKEBS. That tie enormous total of 657,000,000 cigarettes, out of 8,800,000,000 sold in the United States in 1910 were consumed by 1,800,000 women, was tile statement made recently by the sales manager of one of the largest cigarette manufactories in the -world, having selling 'branches in all cities in the country. According to this esi{»crt's figures out of the total 95,000 New York women smoked 34,674,000 cigarettes in 1910. Being asked to analyse his figures, he said that the beginning point in his calculation was that one adult woman in every ten smokes. "This may sound startling," he continued, "but I believe that if any error exists, it is on the side of conservatism." IjECTURXNG A BIGAMIST. In sentencing a youth to four years' imprisonment for bigamy, a New York judge the other day discoursed thusly: "That you were performing a meritorious act in marrying a second time was not only a fallacy but a felony. The first i time you married you were courageous and commendable. The second time you were contemptible and criminal. Your excuse is that you were intoxicated prior to your second marriage. That ig not the intoxication incidental to matrimony of which the poets sing, and the intoxication of which you were guilty in no way palliates the crime of which you were guilty. You have done a grievous wrong to both women." THE PORTABLE FORGE. The New York City Fire Department has inaugurated a system of taking a portable forge around to each of the engine houses for the shoeing of horses. By owning such a forge and keeping it constantly o n its rounds it is found that much better service and a gTeat saving in money is effected from the old plan of taking the horses to the nearest blacksmith's shop. The idea has impressed some enterprising young farriers that they are starting out men with portable forges to establish regular routes around the country. DANGERS OF THE OILED ROADWAY. The New York Bureau of Highways has now under consideration the question of whether oiled roads are dangerous. It appears that a fatal accident has occurred through a trolky car being unable to stop owing jto oil on the tracka. This caused a collision with a carriage and the death of two women. The man in charge of the Automobile Club's Bureau of Tours says: "This accident is the first of this particular character which has been called to my attention. Oiling preserves the roads and makes them better, not only for the automobilist, but for the farmer and all others who use them. If oiling roads where trolley tracks are in use is a menace, I do not think the officers of this club would object to stopping the practice. The point is that we have had no previous complaints of trolley accidents resulting from ailed roads."

A MAYOR'S SLANG, Mayor Gaynor is not averse to slang occasionally, as evidenced in the following letter which he wrote to a child actress to whom he had granted a special permit: — My Dear Little Friend, —I should lie most glad to go and see you play, but you know I have so many things to do that I cannot go everywhere. lam glad that you are as happy .as you say. Everybody ough T t to be happy. It does no good to be any other way. When anything discouraging or annoying happens, just say to yourself: 'Well, it is all right. The next time something good will happen,' and then you will feel bully.—Sincerely yours, W. J. Gaynor, Mayor."