OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12897, 31 August 1907, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

_ 9 _ (FIIOM OUR SPKCIAJ- COR RESPONDENT.) NEW YORK, July 13. THE CITY IN MIDSUMMER. Midsummer in New York, and with the usual quantity of heat and humidsity, mercury anywhere from 90deg to lOOdeg., and percentage of moisture in the air anywhere from GO to the precipitation point. It is this humid, sticky-weather that makes the metropolis almost intolerable, and vet for one with plenty of money to spend and no necessity for basio of movement, there is uioro comfort in Now York than in many another torrid soot, for here are all tho luxuries of civilisation without mosquitoes—those pests of American country life—and with excellent serrico of every description if one chooses to pay. I Midsummer—with its shop, ck.ed at 5 p.m. and at noon on Saturdays, with everybody out of town who can bo over Saturday and Sunday, with its high-piled caravans of baggago bound for trains and steamers, with ite throngs and crowds of perspiring humanity on the streets and in the open ears, with all sorts of "summer girls," more or less picturesquely attired; with its funny little hats for the horses to prevent sunstroke, with ite picturesque streets through tho residential sections with all doors and windows shaded by hooded awnings of various stripes and tints, frith its sweltering tenements where tho poor die in noisome squalor, with its innumerable children who don't know what to do with themselves during the long two month . vacation, with tho school yards dcv.-ted to hammocks and swings for mothers and babies, with tho parks thrown open at night for thos© who cannot sleep at home permitted to seek comfort on the sod. with the dripping ice-carte alwayß besieged and the smallest chunks that would pretend to cool a humble refrigerator never less than ton rains, with occasional torrential thunderstorms, with the bathing beaches full by day and night, and with tho roof-garden theatres devoted to shows which generally outvie the silliest conceptions of 'the silly season." Midsummer came suddenly in tho hitter half of June and the "hot wave*" have been, as usual, increasing in intensity since. Thus it will continue until September, for often the hottest fortnight of the summer is in the first half of the ninth month. The President has gone to his summer home at Oyster Uav, Long Island. Mark Twain has gone to Europe, and if you ask for anyone to make an arrangement about anything more important than an ice cream or soda you will, m tho great majority of cases, be requested to postpone it till the fall. NAVAL .MATTERS. Tho leading sensation of lnt-e has b_?n the announcement that the flowei and strength of the American Navy arc to be diverted to tho Pacific Oc?an. This has c_i_od much Jinjjo talk about war with Japan, but m view cf the length cf the voyag. to Manila, whnrc thnro is only largo dry deck, rcc-wsifcatinc tho docking of but one ship at n tinvo, and with no adequate base of supplies -Ten triers for the pretention of ft modern n_.v_J war, to say nothing of tha »cnreltv el" coal In tho North Pacific, if; la rory evident that tho admint«tratln;i has no idea of hft-tlly courting haetlllti<w with tho Mikado. In orctop to provide on much coal CJ3, passible W tha An:cfl;_n Pacific: Ocas, and f.t Ha waii, k&vav&v, U:a tfnii-d M/u_s Navy Departtjwint h_u latajy «h*rtar_i » nmnbor of foreign -learners to carry

coal from Baltimore and Norfolk, Va., which is distinctively by law a domestic trade and therefore legally reserred to American ships, but as there w«re not enough American vessels available for such a purpose the Government, which denies all ench rights to it*, citizens, did not hesitate to arrogate to itself the pririlege. It was held that even it" tlie Supreme Court should order the Government to condemn and confiscate the cargoes, it would under the circumstances make no difference once they had reached the desired destinations. LEGISLATION. Most notable of the legislation accomplished at the lost session of the New York State Legislature was tho Bill for the appointment of a State Utilities Commission, to which Mr W. It. Willcox, for the past few years New York City Postmaster, has been appointed chairman at a salary of 15,000 «Wlars per annum. One of tho most far-reaching :nensurc6 ever passed by a State Legi. .nture. the measure creating the Utilities Commission, gives the Commissioners absolute supervision over public service corporations. The functions of tho Commissioners will be: —To compel all corporations to give •?afe and adequate service at just and reasonable rates; to prevent all rebates unci discriminations in rates between different classes of shippers or passengers or kinds of traffic; to compel all common carriers to have sufficient cars and motive power to meet all requirements for tho transportation of passenger? ; to pee that every common carrier be held specifically liable for lose or damage due to delay in transit occasioned by nogligenco. The creative Hill further provides that there shall b? no passes except in limited instances; that no franchise 6hall be ovcr-copitalificd in e_ce_> of tho amount actually paid to the State as consideration for the grant of the franchise; that tho capital stock of a corporation formed by the merger or consolidation of two or more corporations shall not exceed tho sum of the capital stock of tho corporations so consolidated at their par value, or such sums and any .additional sums actually paid in cash; that no corporation shall purchase or hold stock in another such corporation or common carrier unless authorised by Hie Commission. This Commission ha 6 already organised and begun to work. VARIOUS ITEMS. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, one of the most famous hostelries in this oountry, has been sold by the Amos R. Eno Estate to a syndicate of capitalists, headed by Henry MoTganthau. President of the Henry Morganthau Real Estate concern, for 7,250,000 dollars. When the lease of the present tenants expires a year from next October, the structure will be razed and a twenty storey offico building erected on its site. In 1855 the lend sold for 260,000 dollars, and tho hotel was built upon it. The wholo affair, land and building, sold in 1900 for 4,250.000 dollars. Today it is worth about 6,000,000 dolilars. The brown stone building adjoining the hotel on West Twenty-third «t.eet, and the Madison Square Theatro on West Twenty-fourth street-, were included in the purchase. Tho hotel, which now, after almost a half century of life, gives way to tho up-town march of business interests, was built in 1859 by Mr Eno on the sit© of an old twostorey tavern. From the moment of its opening the house was a suco_». Men of noto from all over the world made it their headquarters when they cam© to New York. All the Presidents stopped there. When tho Prinoe of Wales visited New York on his American tour in 1860 ho stopped there. Baseball and its customary demands to "kill the umpfre" is again in voguo. iV typical instance occurred the other day at New Haven, Conn., the 6«at of Yale University. Croker, an umpire of the Connecticut League, was attacked by the crowd after declaring a game forfeited by New Haven, and pounded with hats. Several of hla teeth were knocked out, his face gashed and his body bruised. He 'lost his senses, but was qniokly revived after the New Haven players rescued him. Captain Hayward a_d Assistant Captain Fitzpatrick were pounded by the mob so badly, that Mrs Fitzpatrick fainted as she viewed the pummelling from the grand stand. The police were late in interfering, amd mado no attempt to arrest anyone. Croker awarded the game to Springfield after New Haven refused to use a particular ball he put into play. Canada's immigration is not only increasing in volume, but the quality is superior to former years. There is a large increase in immigration from the British Islands. • ine total immigration for the month of April was 44,051. as compared with 35,313 for April or last year, an increase of 25 per cent. For the ten months, July to April 30th, the immigration was 168,718, compared with 124,031 for the corresponding months of the iteoal year, an increase of 44,687, or 36 per cent.