BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11132, 1 December 1890, Page 2

BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

[Special to the Chronicle.] Onco more at the head of my lotter como the ugures of an even hundred. This by no means represents the number of letters I have written in continual succession for nearly fifteen years. This volume of letters was begun just after the close of tho Groat Paris Exposition of 1878, twelve years ago. My letters, of volnmo firat, were commenced some yeara previous to the Centennial Exposition of 1876 at Philadelphia, and continued to the close of the Exposition at Paris in 1876. I never approach a new hundred without asking myself if I shall be allowed to compete another centennial figured Sure as tho coming light must arrive when I will not be. How far ia that day off ? "Aye, there's the rub." Still I feel grateful, heartily grateful, that I have been permitted to hold weekly converse with so many through all these yesrs, and whilo dark shadows have fallen across my path and- cares and shadows have besot mo, from you I have heard naught but kind words of comfort and cheer which have brightened my course with sunlight and dispelled the gloom. So, cheerfully and hopefully I take tho new centennial number up, aiid if .in God's providence I am not allowed to complete it, as the sba'lows lengthen and the light goes out, the happiest memories to oheer my final hour will be those spent in telling the story of life in this modern Babylon with all of its glory and shame. This week, has been full of startling incidents, following each other in quick (Succession and keeping the town in a blaze of excitement. Early in the week came the confessions of the midnight assassins who wrecked the trains' upon the New York Central, and who placed in deadly peril over two hundred lives. When it was discovered that tho conspirators were not outsiders, as claimed by the , strikers, but active members of the Knights of Labour, it covered the order with such infamy tuat further maintenance of the strike became impossible, and on Wednesday it was formally declared off by Mr Powderly, and then came a break-neck race of all the old hands to got back. They had been deceived by their leaders with promises of abundant aid which never came, the families of many of them were reduced to starvation, and all this time some of ■our finest hotels were quartering walking delegates and head centers who live on the very fat of the land, and labour representatives who sported diamond studs in their shirt fronts and smoked twenty-five cent cigars to soothe them after dinner. Every day the poor dupes were told to hold on, and that to-morrow they would hear something startling, and they did, when the trains were wrecked near the town of New Hamburg, but the promised aid from without never came. Great was the disappointment on- Wednesday when the men, maddened by want, found themselves deserted by the leaders they had trusted. They crowded and surged about the office doors of the Central road like a pack of famished wolves, and with teare in their eyes begged to be taken back, but there was no room for them — their places had all been filled. At . last the scene faocame so painful that Mr Depew fled from his office, unable to bear the strain of the harrowing appeals from the starving and sorrowful crowd. And so ends one of the most formidable strikes that New York has ever seen within its limits. Though lasting only forty'days, it has cost the Central Kailroad Company many hundreds of thousands 6? dollars, but that is nothing to what it bas cost the poor labouring people of New York* All sorts of provisions have been raised in price, and the poor have beon made to suffer. Then again, it has been accompanied by serious loss of life, many homes have been plunged in mourning, and the innocent have been made to suffer instead of the guilty. Now .comes the aftermath in the punishment of the strikers and the suffering through a long and dreary winter of their wives and children. It is terrible to contemplate, but a price must be paid for every crime. At midnight, without a moment's warning, they sought to strike down, one of tho best governed and most liberal corporations in the land,' and to paralyze the business of two great cities, involving suffering and privation to 'hundreds of thousands, such as no mortal pen can paint. They called murder and mob violence to their, aid, and failed; thanks to the love of law and order, which are the very corner stones of our safety. To the magnificent organization of our police, and the manner in which they have been handled : by acting Commissioner Burns, we are indebted for the suppression of lawlessness and violence, which has been so "disgracefully ' conspicious in other places, where the vote of the strike was an important political factor. And so in tho language of Mr' Webb the great strike of 1889 becomes a back number, and sinkin to history among the most sorrowful and disastrous memories of the year 1890. Nothing in the way of sensationalism in the wildest dream' of Zola or any of the novelists of tho modern French school can equal the suicide of a young German. actress, and an artist named Gnstave Koch her lover. ' There is an unwritten chapter in this history which may yet come to light, but' for the piesont it is an inscrutable mystery. " ' The artist was young, handsome, and as far as known a very estimable, upright and industrious man. He has been in the employ of the celebrated photographer Falk'for a number of years, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his employer. He had been unfortunate in his marriage'; his wife hadbeeh betrayed by his dearestfriend,' and' the Courts had' granted hiiii a divorce. Two 'years ago he met'Emils Rossi, a young actress engaged at the Ainberg Theatre. Mr Koch and Miss Rossi became [warmly attached to each other, and -when 'Miss Bossi returned to Germany Mr Koch followed her. Ho wanted .to marry her, but her mother opposed the match, and a violent quarrel ensued between the mother and daughter. A few weeks ago Mies Bossi returned to the United States to'fulfil an engagment in this city. The intimacy was immediately renewed, and it was understood at the house whore she hoarded that they were engaged to be married. So far as known there wero no obstacles in the way except the mother's consent, and girls bent on marriage seldom think of that, especially when the mother is three or four thousand miles away. But whatever the cause, it appears they resolved not to marry, but to kill themselves in. the sight of each other. Sbo lived at ft house on the Bowery, exactly opposite the station of the Third Avenue Elevated "Road. The young man left his lodgings about five o'clock in the morning, and. coming down town took his station on the platform right opposite his lady love's window ; he waited patiently- for over an hour while the day was breaking j pres w ently a window^ was thrown up by a woman who waved her hand, the young man placed a pistol to his head and tho next moment he lay on the platform a lifeless corpse. Almost ab tho same instant another shot was heard, and a short time after the proprietress of the house coming down the stairs saw the door of her younstboarder'srooinopenjsheenteredand found her lying dead od the bed. The two lovers had crossed the dark river together. It was her dying request that her body bo cremated, and this request was complied, with by Manager Amberg. The details are painful and shocking, and the denouncement one of the most tragic that has taken place in a decade. If the evil and sorrowful example shall end here I shall be surprised. Lot us hope that it may end with the unfortunate actors who are now beyond tho reach of praise of blame. - Dion Bouiiicanlt is dead, struck down by ti seveije attack of acute pneumonia onrly in the week, and after a brief struggle he gave up the ghost on Thursday. Hia death was not unexpected ; it has been evident to those who saw him during the past year that he was a very sick man, and he himsolf felt that the end was not far off. Ho will long be remembeved as one of tho most prolific and successful play-wrights of the age in which he lived, a man who has furnished amusement for many millions of people in all parts of tho globe, and having said that you have said all that can truly be spoken in Dion Boucicaulfs commendation. Ho had the instincts of a literary pirate, and he appropriated the creations of others' genius with as little compunction as a footpad niches a parse. I'he man was morally, unbalanced/ .naturally vicious and dopraved.the slave of his appetites and passions, without a single redeeming

5 feature in his character. PorhaDS he was not altogether responsible for this, an his moral defects were a terrible case of heredity. His father before him, who besides being one of the moat distinguished scientists of his time, was also one of the most notorious letehers and debauchees in England or Ireland. Dionysias Lardner JUoucicault was the natural son of Professor Dionysius Lardner who graduated > with high honour at Trinity College, DuMin, in 1817. He continued his connection with Trinity College till 1828, and having entered in holy orders acted for a time as chaplain of the college, but his life became so notorious in Dublin that ho was compelled to drop the title of reverend, and was ever afterwards known as doctor or professor. "While he was chaplain of the college he became acquainted with a Swiss woman named Borcecort, and took up his quarters with the family. . It was during this time that Dion Bouiicault was born in 1822.' Doctor Lardner continued a member of the Borcecort household till 1828 when he went to London to accept a professorship in the London University. He was followed a few years afterwards ,by his son, whom he placed at Doctor Hessey's school at Hampstead. He continued there till his father ran away from England with the wife of Captain Heayyßide, of the British Army, in 1840. ' Communication was net as easy fifty years ago as it is to-day. There were no fire day and a half steamers, and no ocean cables, bo that it was some weeks before the news of his escapade reached Neir York. «In the meantime he had introduced Mrs Heavyside as his wife, and was received by the late A. T. Stewart and Phillip Hone, at that time one of the leaders of society in Mew York. When tho news reached hero there was a terrible explosion, and Doctor Lardner was driven from the city. He wandered about the country for five .yearg, earning a precarious living by lecturing and writing, and in 1845 returned to Europe and settled in Paris, where he died in 1857. Captain Heavyside recovered damages against him to the amount of forty thousand dollars, so he died an exile never daring to set foot in England again. Meanwhile his son, deserted by his father, was compelled to leave. Dr ■ Hessey's school and wandered up to London. There for a time he suffered much „ privation, when he met John Brougham, ' one of the finest specimens of an Irish gentleman that this country has 'seen. He was a man of large heart and generous impulses, and feeling the keenest sympathy for his unfortunate young countryman, introduced him to his friends, and wrote the greatest part of the comedy "London Assurance," which. Boucicault afterwards claimed entirely as his own. The play was an immense success, apd the poor Bohemian became a recognised power in the theatre. In 1852 he was a stage manager of the theatre in Glasgow. Charles Kean and his wife Ellen Tree were playing an engagement there, and with them was their adopted daughter Agnes, who alwas accompanied. Mrs Kean to the theatre. She was the daughter of a dead friend, ahdtheKeans adopted her. She was a lovely 1 innocent girl with no guile in her heart. Djion Boucicault took advantage of the, opportunities afforded him while the-Keans were on the stage, and one day "the young girl was missing and Dion -Boncicaulfc also. The blow nearly killed Mrs Kean. Like his father before him, he fled to the United States, and in 1863 Agnes Eobertson appeared at KimbalTs Boston Museum, her business manager being Dion Boucicault. She. created' an immense sensation, and. the muSemnima packed for weeks'. The pajwrs^wrote whole columns about herj she was a standing toast at the clubs, and all the young bucks went wild over her, for at that time she was supposed to be a young girl. At the end of her engagement, however, Dion Boncicault appeared before the curtain and returned' thanks on Mrs Boucicault's behalf. She remained his true and loyal. wife for thirty. years. She-ivas the mother of the children that bear his name. Through abuse, cpntumely, slander and privation, she hid her sorrows and her tears and citing to Him for the sake of her children, ' They grew to honourable manhood and womanhood, children of whom any father might have been proud j but this man at the age of nearly seventy branded .'his wife as a harlot and stamped ignominy and shaineon the brows of his o\ni c children. There is.no crime baser or more .dastardly tban this recorded in history. • He was v followed to hia grave by doctors, lawyers, T literateurs.and actors, Most of whom neither knew or cared about his, history. Orations may be pronouced filled- with , gilded lies,' and literary Bohemian's may cover with the mantle of silence his shameful record, but the infamous crime again st his wife and hia children will nevej? be condoned or forgiven till the' Judgment Day.— Yours truly, :- * * "v. „