BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 11485, 14 September 1889, Page 2

BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

I ■ * [Special to Chronicle.] A case has recently been (Hfcided in our j Courts here which affords one of the moat '■ roiiiiirbiblo examples of wholesole perjury over heard or seen in a Court of ' Justice. Three years ago a Spaniard by tho name of Montjo procured a dif&rce from his wife on the usual .statutory grounds, and tho Court awarded him the custody of his children. Three years have passed, and a short time ago Mtb Montjo appears before the Court, and demands that the caso be re-opened wh'ioh j in the "trial had gone by default, the j defendant failing to appear, nor did she j take the advantage of the statutory time | of appeal which is one year in the, .State of Now York, but without remonstrance she allows three years to pass by, ' and now she comes into Court^ And thereby hangs a tale. ' The husband replies , that , she riot only did not defend, the suit ' against hor, so conscious was she of "net guilt, but that immodiately.after he was divorced from her she went to .Philadelphia • accompanied by one Solomon, to whom she was married in. that city" by a police magistrate. The magistrate; who identified Solomon, and his son, who was tho clerk and made out the marriage certificate, fully indontified the woman. Now Mrs Montjo comes into Court and swears point-blank that she never .was in Philadelphia with Solomon in her life, and moroover she never was married to Solomon or any other man except Montjo, . • and Solomon swears that he never ""inius life was married to any one, Mrs Montjo or anybody .elso._ Just in the, nick of time up steps the janitor of a flat house , who rented a flat in New York to Mrs Solomon, whom he now recognizes as Mrs Montjo, and that he made receipts, out to her as Mrs Solomon. Mrs Solomon „or Montjo, as the case may be, is willing to swear on a stack load of Bibles, as high, as as a barn that she never rented a flat of him or anybody else — tbatshe never ,paid any rent' or got any receipts,' or'was called Mrs Solomon by him' or anybody else. Now this is what may. be safely called double extra superfine first class lying. The Judge," befo'ie whom" the case was tried, was almost paralyzed, ' and . he roundly declared that for good old' Hard adamantine r cheek that particular ' case took the cakV-^-the bakery, the' ground the bakery stood on; with a first mortgage on the waggons, horses/ pies, and ovens. Mrs Montjo was thrown, out of Court, the Judge declaring that he was satisfied, notwithstanding Mrs Montjo'B oath, that she was married .to. Solomon in ■ Philadelphia, and consequently she was a perjurer. j : yt The demagogues: who passed the' CotLtract Labour Bill in Congress are ri»w beginning to find that their chickens come home.,to roost. The labour, .organisation's are iiiade jip and largejygo verehed by foreigners' who having possession'^ 'the Promised ' Land 'were desirous of ."keeping, 1 all, the milk .jiricj honey of the newly discovered .province to themselves,, .and . of^excliuung'tWr poor countrymen from any participation ■ in their good luck.' They aid not legislate . against the ignorant hordes that are a ' CUI'SG to tlio country, but only a.ga.insb the importation of brains and intelligence. The first fruits of this nefarious act was ' the stDppage at our national gates pf the Rev Walpole Warren . who was brougbjb 1 over from England to fill the pulpit' of • one of the most influential .Episcopal • clmrches in New York. They adjudged . this minister of Christ to be. a contract labourer subject to a penalty of one thou--1 sand dollars for landing on our shores.' i The Church compromised by paying one i hundred dollars, and the revereneit gentleman preachers here to-day, but L every right thinking man . cannot' but • regard it as one of the most disgraceful ■ and humiliating transactions that the' . Government was ever .connected with.'' 1 ' Then comes the great university of Qali-. forniii to which Governor Stratford has • donated thir-toen millions of dollars, and ■ the'Qreat Catholig -University at Georgei town for which several millions ,hav^r' i. been raised which will undoubtedly make • it the foremost Catholic institution of learning in tho world. Now that the • work is already under way the President and Trustees are' met at the threshold;, with the iniquitous law which forbids vs 1 ■ to import intelligence and education, but permits the importation of ignorance and' crime. . ..-.,' A few months a,go a gentleman oil thtj. Hudson imported a gardener who ' wQt\l<i beautify his estate, and make it more lovoly to look upon or more valuable to soil. Tho man was seized at Castle Garden and sent back to England as though he had been a sentenced felon, his only crime being that he knew • too much of gardening, for on the same ship wore a lot of stupid, dirty, ignorant labourers, and they were allowed to land; The series of outrages perpetrated under the contract law culminated this week, in sending back tho' bookkeeper qf a N.e'w' York business house. T;h,e fjrm conducts business ju L.qndon and New York-, and th,e books of the New York house cafe ba,dly tangled. Their ' bookkeeper ■[ London was an expert and understoWr their business thoroughly, so they induced him to come over to their 'New-' York house and take charge of their " books. As soon as he, arrived at Castle Garden he was seized by. the sapient i authorities as a ' contract labourer and" was adjudged to be sent back on the same steamer on which, he arrived.' The" 1 samo class of logislatiqi} iw.h,ich TOwqere,.. to the prejudices, of" the most, worthies??) olass or, the community by bidding, for '•;, their votes, has brought purj.Sdafes,-" prisons to the verge of ruin, aiid .mutihyY by shutting down on the labour' contract, 1 and thereby depriving thecoiiviots of 'an^ opportunity to work. The whole of -this" class legislation is a. disgrace ;and should bo forever swop't from our statute-books. As of old all roads led to Borne,, so ■ iq. i tlipsq h\ttev days. I ,am reminded!.. th#t.; scarcely' a thing happens anywhere in ( the United Statos but directly ,or in directly it effects New York. It matters" very little whether it is a prize fight in ' Mississsippi or Louisiana or the purchase ' of Millet's great masterpiece in Paris; the' " Angelius;" tho purchase of a thousands miles of railroad by Henry Villard, or the '• perpetration of the njost gigantic sv^nqie '• qf tfyeagehj Wai'd.; n.ll aoon'ov or- late? come to New York. -. This is impressed upon me more powerfully by.-, the death of John N. McGinnis, who last week was ' killed by lightning in New Orleans. A t tho mention of his name I am carried back to one of the most remarkable "- episodes in our history. . About eighteen years ago Mr McGinnis had married Wm. - M. Tweed's oldest daughter, a.ud, h.is, " brother Artluir Ambuosp'feil ifl love wi^ Mary, Twoed's youngest daughter, who was to him as the apple of his eye. Whatever faults Wm. M. Tweed may havo had, he was a kind husband and an affectionate father ; and more than this, < ho was a' faithful friend ; faithful even « unto death, for he died behind prison bars rather than beta-ay the men who served him, for ho might have, escaped. I punishmbnt himself if ho had given up '■ his friends to the savage and vindictive • vengeance of his foes. Seventeen years ago this summer the Twood ring thieves wero in the zenith of their glory and power. They held both branches of the Legislature with the grip of death. The Supreme Court of the State, Cordoza, Barnard and McCnnn were tlieir fybjepij slaves', rqady $ do' then; bidding.'- The, Mayor of the city was their creature j sheriffs, constables and city judges were all their paid servants. The controller was a thief, and so was the city treasurer, and Wm. M. Tweed at the head of the Board of Public Works was busy dividing nearly thirty millions of money, stolen from the city, among his hungry henchmen. All New York felt his power, and on tho day that his youngest daughter was married New York made it a special holiday. All the great mer- \ chants and manufacturers were anxious to court the favour of tho king; l N.eVw

was seen such bridaL presents at v% , wedding in the United States before nor since. The room set apart for the presents looked like a section of Tiffany's great 'store; numbers of the presents were worth from $1,000 to $5,000. Tom' Fields and his wife gave a set of diamonds worth five thousand dollars ; Ton! died & fugitive from justice in Canada, "■ and his beautiful T/ife died a drunkard in the street gutter; Jim Fisk, then in the height of his glory, was killed by an assassin ;' Mike Norton who presented a set of silver, worth three thousand dollars, "died a pauper the other day, and a •fcenefit waa given to bury him. It was a brilliant company and a brilliant night. i 'Great lawyers, doctors and clergymen were proud of an invitation to a wedding where the .bride wor« diamond buttons in; her' hoots, arid they almost beggaredj .'themselves to pay tribute to : tbb. young princess'. 1 Poor girl, she died; about a year and a half ago broken-! hearted aridwrecked by her father's ter-j rible downfall, a father whom sho tenderly! loved, as well she might, for he wasj -naught but good to her. . ! "' Peter B. Sweeney, the brains of the' thieving ring; is here after years of exile 1 in France, he having purchased immunity Jfor his thefts by returning a portion of the plunder. The rest are scattered to the four, winds of heaven or dead. The nanWs iof the men who figuredproirinently 'on'Miat eventful' night now lie on the desk before me — lot them rest, to rscall them can .do no good. A few days age I was jwssing pen--aively'through Greenwood, ttiat beautiful city of the dead, whose sod covers so. .pmch^ead love and .virtue comingledi •with withered hopes and crime and tears.j The flowers were all in bloom, nature more lovely,' the .joyous, birds sang^weetly among the trees. I; raised my eyes and before me rose a ..grand. granite shaft — .",,!; :■ .-' .To the memory of . H {; ... , - Wm. M. Tweed. „ Near him> under a sweet bank of flowers ; lay,,. his darling little Mary, whom he loved so well. The storm was over, sweetly, sho, sleeps.,-" nor steel, nor poison,' malice, domestic, foreign levy, nothing • can tbu'ch' them further." — Requioscat in pace. (.I!-,;,-:-: Yours truly, • . Broadbrim.