Show COCKERILLS LETTER Ij 1 Dr Parklmrsts War on Vice in F I Gotham TROUBLE IN THE FOUR HUSDRED Archie Gnnter Blossoms Oat in Opera and Promises to Make Both Jlonoy t I and Fem For THE SUNDAY HERALD Copyright < 3dl The good Dr Parkhursts war upon vice Jn this city has born considerable fruit Ve linvo obtained from one grand jury aVery a-Very sweeping and welltimed presentment of the vices which sap and undermine our community have cad a lot of dispossess i suits started against people who conduct Immoral establishments have had a closing clos-ing of saloons to some extent on Sundays and have had a change in thfc police agency which promises to bear good fruit For three years at least Superintendent Murray Mur-ray was absolutely unable to giro necessary attention to the police department and Inspector In-spector Byrnes naturally hampered by the limitations of the pro tern intendency could do nothing decisive Now that we have Byrnes at the head of the police department de-partment hn will be nble to carry out I think some needed reforms His first decree de-cree shifting the various police captains to new districts is a wiae and judicious performance per-formance The tendency on the part of long stationed poUce captains is to become absolute autocrats of their districts They naturally form close friendships and inspire in-spire bitter enmities Removing thorn to unfamiliar sections of the city has a ten dency to break up ootaries of lawdefiers deflects a great deal of temptation and begets be-gets a wholesome regard for the the mutability muta-bility of human affairs One of the results of this systematic effort at general reformation refor-mation is that hundreds and perhaps thousands thou-sands ol depraved women are being driven from the open haunts of vice into private and secret avenues A gentleman told me yesterday that he had been compelled to remove his family from an apartment louse uptown because three women of bad character char-acter had succeeded in establishing themselves them-selves there The general impression is that in pursuing this policy society doe not cure itself of its vlciov < i abscesses but merely scatters them Inspector Byrnes used to have a theory in dealing with the criminal and vicious classes of tho community commu-nity tho best thing that could be done was to keep them in one particular quarter of the city Decent people would have no call to visit that section and the contamination would naturally bo much less than if the whole mass of abandoned and degraded humanity hu-manity were scattered indiscriminately This idea cannot Do said to be a new one in dealing with this most serious problem of great municipalities When James L came down from Scotland to take charge of the British throne he found London about as wicked and depraved as Sodom and Gommcrrah combined In his shrewd Scotch way Lo arrived at the conclusion that the bet thing to do for the tjwn was to coop up all the thieves scoundrels and wicKed women in one section and keep them under restraint That old part of London known as Whitefriars was tho district dis-trict assigned to the offcolored population Alma of constabulary surroundeu the district dis-trict and so long as the crooks stayed in bide of what was called Alsatia nobody cared not even sublime translators of the I Bible in St James palacewhat ihty did or how they did it According to tie ver I aciouH chronicler of The Fortvies of hgcl the outcasts of Alsatia hua a sort of independent government within their lines jurisdiction They bad chief who settled thoir ordinary disputes and they seemed to get along pretty well It was only ben they attempted to make sorties for burposcE of plunder that they got themselves them-selves into trouble I suppose the time came when the coodygood people of London Lon-don of high reformatory impulses concluded that it was their duty to disperse all this wckednoss and divide it with the community commu-nity I dont know now the system worked in the olden time but I do know ttat today there is not a city on the face of the globe where there is so much open shameless and repulsive vice as can bo found in London Lon-don day or night Aud that too in decent semirespectable sections Whether Dr Puruhursta efforts will be productive of lasting good or not I am not prepared to say He has certainly stirred tee stagnant I pools of corruption and the odors that permeate per-meate the community are not pleasant I suppose things will rectify themselves in due time As the old western philosopher used to say When things are bad they never get much belter but when theyre darnoa bad they just cut loose and better I themselves A FAIR AMEHICAN PKECEDEST Mine Georgino Wolters who has just recovered re-covered a verdict of 2o000 for a breachof promise to marry < bids fair to be the heroine hero-ine of a famous American precedent Jurists Ju-rists and counselors for a generation will no doubt be talking about th i verdict in the caso of Welters vs Schultzthat ie if tho court of appeals allows theveruict to stand and a legal authority who has followed the case pretty closely tolls me that the record will in his opinion show no error grave enough to warrant a reversal Bardell vs Pickwick has since the immortal Pick wick Papers first made their appearance been the best known brecchofpromisu case The plaintiff there too got her damages But she was no such looking woman as Miss Welters And as this estimable es-timable young lady fill she nill she is to become a character in the legal history and literature of the country something about herself and her family and the jaw suit they compelled her to bring will be interesting inter-esting The Wolters cigar shop Is well known to men about town but the fair plaintiff bcs only been identified with it for a short time It Is on Sixth avenue just below the Eighteenth street elevated station sta-tion and is owned and managed by Mr Wolters Sr When his son who used to assist him in the shop got married and setup set-up in business for himself Mr Wolters got his daughter Georgine to come down from the living apartments upstairs and assist him behind tho counters Wolters Sr is a figure in German life In New York Ho belongs to a number of associations audis aud-is president of several clubs and organizations organiza-tions of his countrymen When his fellow members began telling him to look out for Schultz and the defendants friends began telling Schultz to look out for old man Wolt rs the elderly and highly respectable respecta-ble tobacconist Inquired into his daugater a love affair and got the Impression that all was well and that his daughter as is by no means unusual in German circles was although al-though poor In this worlds goods about to marry a very rich man who thought none ths leas of her for working in her fatnera shop Louis Schultz the gay bachelor of forty seems to have neon not unlike Baby Buuttng Arbuckie the rich Brooklyn bachelor of forty who has also been the unsuccessful defendant In a celebrated action ac-tion for damaged heart There must be something in the mental atmosphere of a bachelor of forty which inspires him to scoff at the pleadings of susceptible female affections Mr Schultz chose to scoff Pooh l he is sold to nave exclaimed when lie was warned that tho Wolters family would call him to account for his trifling Pooh Old Welters has no money I can buy him off for a thousand dollars But Mr Schultz didnt reckon on the sturdy respectability which Is co eminently characteristic char-acteristic of the middleclass German menage The Wolters father and brother I compelled Miss Georgine to bring this breachofpromise suit although she shrank from the notoriety involved and the verdict of 23000 in her favor already causes Mr Schultz to sing a very different tune Miss Georgino Welters Is an attractive attrac-tive looking woman of about thirtyone years of age tall dark handsomely proportioned pro-portioned and thoroughly well qualified to make a good man a good wife GUNTER IN OPERA SOW I am pleased to know that Mr Archibald Clavering Gunter has scored a success with his new opera of Polly Middles The rise of Mr Gnnter In the world of literature litera-ture bas been one of the marvels of our times We have all heard of his advent in New York and his unappreciated career of nearly ten years as a playwright and author au-thor He camo here from California It was only when he had begun publishing his > own stories that money began to roll in I I upon him and now he is radiantly independent inde-pendent His opera ha told mo was a pet fad which he had cherished fqr seven or epht years The stories of his tribulations tribula-tions in finding a man who could write melodic music arc very amusing The discouragement dis-couragement which he met with at the hands of children of musical genius were enough to drive a man insane But ho held to the idea that sooner or later ho would put Polly Middles on the stage One of of his pet theories was that in many of the vast failures of operatic compositions there must be considerable valuable matter and so hA went prowling around New York for several years in old secondhand book and music stores looking for forgotten and discarded dis-carded ncores Ho purchased every old volume of operatic music that ho could lay hands on and carried it off to his musician to be sifted and selected from One old volume struck him at containing a grout deal of fat and when his musician begun to play some of its airs on the piano he was reminded very forcibly of Der Freis chuetz Thin mystified him considerably When he began to investigate the matter i he found tbat the old opera in his possession posses-sion had been written by Weber and had failed and that he afterwards wrote Der Frieachuotz Introducing much of the music of his discarded opera aud so achieved lasting success Mr Gunter I believe is of English extraction Ho is a short stocky built manfond of conversation and good company possessing enormous capabilities for work and gifted with that quality which alone can make industry valuablepersistency Ho is a most companionable com-panionable man and while ho has u very modest estimation of himself be believes implicitly in his resources 1 have watched his evolution with considerable interest When first heard of him he was known as A C Gunter When I came to know him his friends called him Archie Gunter Ho has well earned and well deserved all the success that has come to him and were it not for the inconvenience I would be glad to see him add three more joints to his name as well as the title of Bachelor of I Arts HAWTHORNES GREAT STOny 1 ECO that a cheap publishing concern in I this city is reprinting Nathaniel Haw thornes story of The Scarlet Letter I have always regarded the name of Nathaniel 1 Na-thaniel Hawthorne as the foremost in American literature His genius seemed to combine in a degree that of both Scott and Dickens His powers of observation were marvelous and back of all were a sweet and lovely integrity and nobility of thought which made everything that he wrote almost classical The Scarlet Letter Let-ter was undoubtedly his master piece It was first published in 1850 The copyright copy-right lasted but twentyeight years and a renewal of fourteen years is permitted Thus The Scarlet Letter has been before be-fore the American public for fortytwo years and the demand for it now will be I great because it can be put into popular I form A few years ago when we were printing a series of standard stories complete com-plete In the Sunday World I endeavored to obtain the privilege of reprinting The Scarlet Letter Mrs Lathrop the daughter i daugh-ter of Mr Hawthorne in which the copyright copy-right vested referred me to her publishers publish-ers in Boston They declined to have the story printed although they knew that their protection would last only three years longer I learned then that the sale of the book was only a few hundred copies a year and I endeavored to convince them that by publishing it in a newspaper the interest in it might bo revived aud a new demand created They had their own views I see now that they have prepared the story in a cheap paper form and arc going in to compete with the other dealers in cheap literature Just why it never occurred to put a 25 cent edition on the market is something some-thing I cannot understand but I presume the pride of the house was involved and I suppose long as they controlled the copyright copy-right they wished to keep the story out of the hands of the general public by publishing publish-ing it in high priced form Indeed the ways of publishers are past finding out The sane Boston publishing house owns the copyright of Uncle Toms Cabin which expires next year The first copy of this famous story as I remember It was bound in paper and sold for less than fifty cents Cheap editions of it now flood the market but 1 question very much whether the demand for it will bo great Our civilization civi-lization has passed it by and the walling of the slave no longer vexes the aentimental ear The old play of Uncle Toms Cabin has made a fortune for several managers and it still has a hold upon the public but I I think it is the trained dogs the song and i dance Topsy and the comedy of Lawyer Marks which fascinate the populace in and around the onenight stands rather tfcvn the woes of Uncle Tom or the angelio sweetness of Eva MR HILBANXS INTENTIONS Some of the newspapers of late have contained con-tained cable references to Mr H Vane Milbank the professional English duelist who came over here recently with the young roue Borrows to carry on some kind of warfare with Mr 1 Coleman Dray ton Since returning to England Mr Mil j bank It Is stud has announced publicly bit intention to return to New York soon for the purpose of settling his accounts with certain New York editors who failed to appreciate ap-preciate him during his brief but somewhat luminous visit to thin shore It is possible that I may be one of the persons destined to enjoy Mr Milbanks sanguinary attentions atten-tions When this swashbuckler turned up hero as the hired bravo of a debauched young man who had broken up the family of a rather conspicuous citizen he naturally natur-ally became an object of interest to tho newspapers In an interview with a reporter re-porter for the Recorder he admitted that ho was a terrible professional fighter aud he recounted with evident gusto a number of duels ho had engaged in on account of his illicit amours in different parts of Europe His whole manner was that of a boastful creature in whom there was not one latent germ or gentility The whole affair was I offensive and it seemed to ms to merit the contempt shown by all intciigent Americans Ameri-cans Tho publicity which this fellow gave himself entitled him to public criticism and after waiting for somo time for toe American public to express its opinion I undertook to put it in concrete form I am pleased to know that my effort was a success suc-cess in that It received the very hearty in dorsement of that very large element of every community which despises ruffian I ism and blackguardism Mr Milbank did not manifest any displeasure so far as 1 can learn before leaving these shores and there is some surprise now that he should think it worth while to cross the ocean again to make war upon tho entire American Ameri-can press For that is precisely what his proposed campaign over here means If his sensitiveness to newspaper criticism is as great as it appears to be now he will certainly I cer-tainly extend the area of his disquietude by invading the United States for tho pur pose of correcting tile policy of tho New York press One newspaper here has announced an-nounced within the last few days that Mr Milbank was actually a fighting mercenary paid to accompany Mr Brrrowe to this side oLtho water and protect him in his shameful shame-ful controversy with a man whom ho had cruelly and despicably wronged If this be true the magistrate for the North Riding of York will have great difficulty in posing in any part of the world as a man of honor or even decency TROUBLE IN THE FOUR HUNDRED It having been announced by Ward Mc Allister who ekes out an existence during the dull season by betraying social secrets to the newspapers that Mrs J Coleman Drayton w to return in the fall aud resume her place in society a very interesting season sea-son Is predicted Persons in the uwim intimate in-timate to me that the season will not only bo interesting but exciting There will be music in the ambient atmosphere For my own part I am prepared to BCD the season develop a monkeyandparrot I time There has always been considerable jealousy of Mrs Astor as tho head and front of New YOlk society and her rivals there are about dozen of themwill make use of the scandal which attaches to her daughters name to overthrow her supremacy suprem-acy In view of this it Is well enough to lookout for breakers Tho Astors are determined de-termined that society shall accept Mrs Drayton as if nothing had happened aud are depending upon their money and subservient subser-vient Ward McAllister to see that society does it So far as Butler McAllister Is concerned con-cerned this will bo tho severest test that has yet been placed upon his social leadership 1 and gravo fears are entertained that It will not be equal to tho awful strain The but I lor has already marked out his plan of campaign cam-paign Taking young Borrowos solemn declaration that nothing wicked ever occurred oc-curred between himself and Mrs Drayton I the butler will go before the four hundred hun-dred and plead the case with tears in his eyes if necessary He will show that Bor rowe knows exactly what he is talking about and that there is nogoing behind the Borrowo returns as it were He will elucidate I elu-cidate that Borrowe would know about this matter there was any thing in it and that young person having crossed his heart and solemnly declared that there is no foundation for nil the ugly stories that have been said and sung and painted it becomes the duty of society to accept this positive and convincing testimony It is intimated that the butler will go even turtber and apply the Scriptural test which is that only those without sin are in a position to bo critical There is every chance that society will divide on this rock and perhaps go to pieces In any event there is going to be a vociferous if not a halcyon timo iu New York society this winter A sad feature of the situation is the posibiiity that Ward McAllister is likely to incapacitate his intellect in mien deavor to adjust matters with happiness to all concerned In the meantime Bryan McSwyny the shoemaker continues to forge ahead as the leader of the only element ele-ment of Now York society that is worth ones while to bother about ME EVART3 MISFORTUNE A great many people have wondered why Senator Evarts during the latter part of his term in tho Senate did so little to connect con-nect himself with the current of affairs This is largely explained now by tho announcement an-nouncement that Mr Evarts is almost blind and is unable to perform any work which cannot be done by dictation He has practically withdrawn from professional and social life Some three years ago I bad occasion to call upon Mr Evarts in his oldfashioned home over on Second avenue He inquired with much sympathy concerning concern-ing a well known gentleman whoso eyesight eye-sight at the time was failing and ho then told me of his apprehensions concerning himself He said that ho had been for some time unable to read with comfort and he had great fear that his eyes were permanently per-manently falling I recall very well the distressful tone in which he referred to his misfortune and the feeling way in which he characterized blindness as the next calamity to fiesta ilseit since toni time Mr Evarts has tried all the specialists and has left nothing undone TO PRESERVE HIS EYESIGHT but his son Sherman in on interview recently re-cently said that he had about abandoned hope Mr Evarts intellect I learn is as clear as it ever was and he takes as much interest in worldly affairs as most men of acute minds He is still vigorous enough physically to put in ten more years of hard work but of course his misfortune now will remove him from tho conflict Since the days of Mr Soward the office of secretary secre-tary of state has had no keener more dignified dig-nified or more sagacious occupant than William Maxwell Evarts It was the custom cus-tom a few years ago to berate him in certain cer-tain political circles because he had accepted ac-cepted an office at the hands of Mr Hayes about whose election there was something of u difference of opinion But it certainly cannot be denied that Mr Evarts was an ornament to the Hayes administration and whatever personal character it had was largely due to himself and Mr Schurs The trouble with Mr Evarts has been that while his tastes wero in the direction of statesmanship he has been compelled to dabble in the pool of politics and ho never was a shrewd designing politician Ho suffered in alibis contact with nurely political polit-ical life His fame perhaps will rest more upon his ability as a lawyer than as either a statesman or politician A CUSTODIAN OF SECRETS William S Ryan who was once John Kellys private counsel or one of them as well as a near and trusted triend and confidant con-fidant has boeu in New York for a few days There is no doubt in tho world that what Mr Ryan knows about John Kelly the Tweed ring and Tammany Hall in general gen-eral would come under the heads of inside exclusive sensational news of the very kind so much in demand along Printing Rouse square The man does notli wehosv ever who can say that ho ever got one of John Kellys or Tammany Hulls nocrets from Ryans lips He did not go near the newspaper offices in the course of his sojourn so-journ here although J happen to know that at least one journal made him the offer of a handsome sum of cash for what he is supposed sup-posed to carry around locked up in his bosom Nor did his presence cause a ripple of excitement when he walked across City Hall square In tho fifteen years that have elapsed since ho figured as an influenco hereabouts time and the boys have changed Ryan came to Now York from Indianapolis where his father was a banker and a rigid Roman Catholic The influence of the Catholic Irish hierarchy was enlisted en-listed in his favor when he reached the metropolis Ho soon became a favorite of John Kelly and rode on the top of the wave until Kellys death Then ho lost his grip with the machine became a stqrekeeper at Blackwells Island and finally emigrated to New Mexico whero he is now gold mining min-ing successfully In Lincoln county DEXTER MEETS IVEE I saw on Broadway just in front of the old St Paul church a strange meeting between be-tween two men who yesterday passed as strangers but two years ago wore at each others throats The one young almost sallowlooking spectacled garbed in spotless spot-less Easter raiment was Henry S Ives Almost against his shoulder brushed astern a-stern sedate personage so straight he almost al-most leaned backward as solemn aa a Presbyterian Pres-byterian Sabbath and in raiment clerical enough in both cut and hue This was Julius Dexter whose father used to be a rectifier of whisky in Cincinnati My grandfather used to buy his whisky 1 remember for harvesting and mechanical purposes Ives looked twenYyavo the Cincinnati man fifty yet the younuer gave the elder points in the great Cincinnati Hamilton Dayton railroad fight Dexter comes from Cincinnati to New York every month or two He did not appear to recognize recog-nize Ives whom ho had done more than any II other one man to imprison And if IVls knew bin prosecutor 1 didnt see any signs of it The C lie D road by the way is to vote on u proposition early in May to issue 10000 shares of new stock and sell them for money to build a second track with BENNETT AND illS NEW DEPARTURE James Gordon Bennetta option on tbo Manice property the famous triangular block at the intersection of Thirtyfourth street Broadway and Sixth avenueha7in expired at a cost to him of 5000 that energetic en-ergetic gentleman who is thu nearest approach ap-proach to a Czar in his methods of any American I know is com polled to look elsewhere else-where for an uptown site for his newspaper newspa-per In the meantime he has cabled to Auctioneer Harnctt to sell the Herald building at Broadway and Ann streets at auction and has thus disposed ot the very last piece of a very valuable lot of real estate properties of which he was once tho owner in fee The site ou which Mr Bennett Ben-nett now has his eye on is dpchired by real estate men to be the old nrmory building on Broadway above Fortyilfth street just above tho Barrett house That would seem to be going uptown with a vengeance and Printing House square will stand aghast when the Herald takes ito flight The fact that Mr Bennett has been steadily stead-ily selling off his real estate in this country while Pulitzer is picking up property hero and thero creates some commont but it IB explained that Mr Bennett is putting his estate in such a shape so that he can practically prac-tically administer it on hmself The Herald is etrtainly making more moccy now than at any time in its existence Its advertising advertis-ing business was never better and its circulation cir-culation Is improving all the while JOHN A COCKEIULL |