Our New York Letter.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 938, 21 February 1890, Page 8

Our New York Letter.

| A. bitter wail of grief and despair went up last week from a lltt.le coterie of gambling snobs when the news got abroad that Jerome Park had closed its gates as a racecourse for ever. It was the most eminently respectable of all our racecourses, and tiiei-e was a flavour of the dlite fottr hund-ied about it that kept it 3 flag flyiilg long after bankruptcy stared it in the face. There Is a wido difference in this world between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, though there are many people who can’t see it. The fellows who bet on horseraces at Guttenbnrg and Elizabeth are gamblers ; the persons who did the same thing at Jerome Park were sporting gentlemen. Larry Jerome was a sporting gentleman, and it was rnaioly by him the Park was founded, and for a time it captured whatever we havo of sporting arisfeooracy in New York. It was to ordinary racecourses like Monmouth Park or Sheepshead Bay what Monto Carlo or Almack’s would have been to John Chamberlain’s or Daly’s. All of our fine ladies went out there in their drags, drn.sk yS and landdus whenever there Was to be a run of celebrated cracks, and it was thought nothing out of place to take a little flyer on the flyers, and sometimes when cash ran short a diamond bracelet or a pair o solitaires testified their faith in their fleet-footed favourites, and many a flue lady, after some of the big race 3, came back home metaphorically on her uppers, though really saved from humiliation by being the owner of her own turnout which fortunately had not gone up in the general ruin. The stock was owned by a close corpora tion, and waa ooafidered a bonanza to which there was no bottom. It was a nice plum for the insiders to be reaping every year from twenty to fifty per cent, . when government bonds at three and a half per cent wore commanding a heavy premium. How was this heavy interest got ? was it by anything that was produced? anything that was created for the benefit of mankind ? Not a bit of it. It was gambling pure and simple, and nothing else. You were told at Jerome that everything was done on the dead square. No jockeying, no pulling, no tricks of any kind, but the fastest horse was sure to win every time. What of it ? The games of faro dealt at John Morrissey’s, Chamberlain’s or Daly’s were just as square as the races at Jerome Park, but it was gambling nnd nothing but gambling all the same. Its very tone of respectability made it all the more dangerous, for many a man, ani woman too, staked their last dollar on t.he 10-ing horse, who would no more have been inside of a gambling house than they would in a brothel. Jerome Park waa the first great patron of American steeplechasing, which has cost more lives and broken limbs than all the athletic tournaments and battles in the prize ring put together. On one great racing day I saw six riders go down in a heap, one was killed outright and several were more or less maimed or injured. Did this slight accident interfere with the amusement of these gentle savages ? Certainly not. It was only a jockey killed, nothing more. The grief of the stricken mother when her son, who. left her full of life and hope and strength a few hours before, was brought home dead, was nothing What was it to them ? Clear the course of the ddbrie, and quick bring out more horses ! Croesus and Midas have the call. But the phenomenal success of Jerome begot rivals, Long Branch, Coney Island, and lastly the new racecourse at Westchester, which helped to complete its ruin, and last week it ran its flag of distress up half-mast and closed its gatec> with a deficiency of one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. I am no mugwump or moralist 011 races ; I love a good horse uext to a good dog, he seems to be man’s most natural companion of all the brute creation, but when the noble creature was doing his very bsot, as I have seen him do on many a racing day, as ho turned the homestretch and dashed towards the string, every time the whip fell on his reeking flanks I could feel my own flesh tingle and came as near using cuss words as you would naturally expect from the superintendent of a firstclass Sunday school. So goodbye, Jerome. The trial of the sugar swindlers, of whom I gave an account some time ago, was brought to a sudden end by the confession of the two female conspirators, Mrs Howard and Mrs Friend. Professor Friend professed to have discovered a new process for refining sugar, by which millions of money could be made. He failed, however, to make any progress with his scheme till he met one Howard,—a clergyman and a good smooth talker, who undertook to float the stock. Howard went down to Wall-street with specimens of refined sugar, and it was not long till he had men of capital interested in the business. The stock was eagerly grabbed up. Professor Friend moved from hi* dingy quarters in Harlem to a palace down towu ; liveried servants waited on him, splendid equipages stood at his door ; wealth rolled in upon him in a mighty stream and the world was at his feet. His contract with the company was so much stock and so mnoh cash, on the condition of his furnishing so much refined sugar per day, but the secret of the manufacture was to be retained by him. Thousands of dollars were subscribed for a building and thousands more for machinery. It seemed difficult to arrive at a commercial supply, though samples were furnished in abundance. The professor’s laboratory was triple locked and no one was allowed to enter but Mrs Friend and Howard and his wife. At last Professor Friend died and then his wife and Howard became the sole depositaries of the wonderful secret. They bled the sto -[’holders for several thousands more, and when discovery became inevitable they fled carrying their plunder with them, ft then appeared as soon as the laboratory was broken open that they ran the crude sugar which was furnished them by the company down into the sewer and filled the paekage with, refined sugar made by the Havomeyera and smuggled in as machinery. It took some time to locate the swindlers,

but they were finally found in Michigan. It w&S a toiigh fight and Mrs Friend, the professor’s wife, was particularly bold and defiant. The Reverend Frank Howard was tried first and sent to States Prison for nine years. The confession of Mrs Howard and Mrs Friend ends the case, and as the District Attorney recommended them to the mercy of the court the presumption is that t hey will get off with a nominal punishment.

The eleven tribes of Israel and, Judah hatfe been having an inniiags this week and have made, a most Bplendid showing. Never in ifis palmiest days has the American Institute building appeared to such advantage as at the great Hebrew Fair now in progress. The interior has been converted into a fairy bower and the man’s heart must be adamant who can wander about among the booths and not feel it go pit a pat faster than a railroad train. Oh, such Ruths, Rachaels and Rebeccas. 1 don’t wonder that all the young Abrahams-, Isaacs and Jacobs are nearly SraZy> for a more beautiful collection of women I never saw. The fair is given by the United Hebrew Charities for the benefit of the Hebrew Technical Institute, and it is proposed before it is ended to raise a quarter of a milion cf dollars.. Many people who only see thb Jew in his office or his store ate apt to regard him simply as a rtioney getter. But if you want to understand the other side of him, appeal to him for any worthy or charitable cause. It is notorious here in New York that there are no charities better administered or better cared for or more generously and liberally supplied than those supervised by the Hebrews, and to their honour be it said that there has never been a deficiency or a defalcation in the administration of their charitable funds. But the fair fairly eclipses everything ever attempted by them before* and the lavishness with which they have expended their money in its support is attested by the magnificent receipt of fifty thousand dollars on the opening night. There is hardly a respectable Jewish family in New York ot Brooklyn or the vicinity which is not represented in money or in person. The curious traveller who ventures into this gilded sea with a full pocketbook will find his way beset with shoals and quick sands which threaten him with present financial ruin. It is impossible to withstand the appeals of those Hebrew witches ; if you onoe look in their eyes you might as well surrender your pocketbook at ouce. Night after night the vast hall has bean thronged with thousands and thousands of high and low degree. The widow's mite is received with as tiiuch thankfulness as Croesus’s princely gifts, for it ia all given in the blessed name of charity. It is a fitting beginning to the Feast of Passover hich is now close at hand, and reflects honour on the Hebrews of New York.

All Brooklyn aud New York is on abroad grin at the discovery of the historical accuracy which is to be attached to the Rev. Dr. Talmage’s letters from abroad. The , reverend Doctor stood in the Coliseum nt t Rome and surveying its crumbling arches in the soft moonlight, drank in the splendid inspiration that this magnificent ritin suggests. He gave his exuberant fancy rein till be heard the screams of the Christian martyrs and the exulting shouts of the fierce Roman populace thirsting for Christian blood. No wonder his frame shook like an aspen leaf and his soul was stirred with horror, for he says that he stood beneath the very box where the savage Nero looked down upon the sacrifice- Not bad that for the Doctor, hut unfortunately for his historical accuracy, the poor old scallowag, Nero, was in a suicide’s grave several years before the first foundation stone of the Coliseum waa laid. Nero died a.d. 68. Vespasian, who built the Coliseum, did not succeed as emperor till two years after Nero was dead, and it was several years after his accession that he built the Coliseum for the Roman populace to celebrate his own victories and those of his son Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem. Explanations are now in order ; we wait with awe and patience. Broadbrim.