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Show I SAYS GOTHAM IS 1 VERT GLEAM CITY H Not a Regular Sink of Iniquity, Hi ,as Many People Now H Believe. I THERE ARE VICES, OF COURSE. MANY, IT IS TRUE Rut the Metropolis of America I Is Said to Be in Fine I Condition. I BY RALPH JOHNSON. I By Leased Wire to The Tribune. NEW YORK. Oct. S. Every onuo iu I so oflen it is deemed necessary iu some I quarters to. start up a crusade against j gambling and other vices in New York, j anil' the awful wickedness of the city is duly exploited. We have been go.ing J through one of these periods, and the : impression is created that Now York ; is a. regular sink of iniquity. As a f matter of cold fact New Y'ork is one t of tho cleanest cities in the world. There is gambling and other vioo hero, ' Jbut from a fairly intimate ac- quaintance of New York and other f cities, I venture to say that by comparison com-parison (hero are few cities in tho United States, and noun outside it, where conditions are betler thau (hey aro here. All Sorts of Politics. We arc having all sorts of politics in New York these davs. Colonel Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt can afways bo dependod v upon to make things interesting wherever he may be. "When, therefore, he undertook to'tako charge of the .Republican .Re-publican party in Now York it was dollars to red apples that thero would be something doing, and there has been. The screams of the ox-bosses k who felt, the big stick have subsided I into dull moans, and the colonel is hav- I ing the time of his life. I . Banks Have Plethora Money. 1 "Despite opinious to tho contrary held in some quarters, business in the financial centers never was better thau it is at present." declared George 3 Decker, banker, of Minneapolis. "The I banks in the northwest are lending '( money freely to those who deserve I credit, as they arc in all sections of the p country, and tho whole financial out look is excellent. Some have said that becauso deposits of the -New York f banks decreased $75,000,000 .between j .Tune .'JO and September 1, financial con- fi ditions were uot as good as they might . be; but, on the contrary, those who are better informed believe that the de-" de-" crease in deposits indicated a souud state of affairs. At the same time .that deposits of the' New York banks decreased tho deposits in Chicago, St. Louis and other large cities fell off iu corresponding degree. "The real reason for the falling off of deposits in tho banks," said Mr. ft Decker, "is the tendency at that time of the year for tho banks to clean ' house, as it were, with their accounts. J .Many loans were settled during that p time, and this had a tondenev to dc- crease the volumo of deposits. Au il-lustration il-lustration of this is easv. A man bor-w bor-w J rovve(1 $10,000 from his bank. In CS August hq paid the loan (o the bnnk fH with a cheek on his account. The dc 3 posits of the bank were decreased just that much. It was so with most of' the U So.OOO.OOO decrease in tho New York W . banks, and in other banks of the coun- 6 try in July and August, ffl "Crop conditions are excellent all I -over the country. In Kansas the farmers farm-ers have harvested a fine wheat crop, and in other parts of the northwest and middle west the harvests have .Jbcen good. Iu Oklahoma they arc now 'harvesting a bumper cotton crop, and . the corn crops iu tho middle west aro in splendid condition." Has Living Lower. , "The city of Pisa-liasn t anything on bononia county. Cal., says R. K. Parrott. who lives near Sania Rose in that state. Pisa has her leaning tower, and wc ' have a living one. This tower is 100 feet high and stands on the top of a r.j 300-foot hill. The .remarkable feature - of it is that the supports. of tho tower rl arc four voting redwoQd trees. These . stand exactly at the corners of a fif- j teen foot square. Thev could not have been placed more accurately if (hey J had boeri planted for the purpose. Thev J! w,irc originally about IoO feet high ij but the tops were, cut off J00 feet j ' firom the ground in order to form a sup-tl sup-tl port for tho upper platforms, which H also serves as the roof. Ij "The tower is divided into six sto-- 1 ics. each surrounded by a substantial E .railing such as is usel on verandas. H The floor of each story rests .on beams K anchored to' f ree trunks by cables and H bolts. A stairway leads 'from one floor H to the other. The steel columns which hold this tower are covered with vines which adds to its picturesque appearance appear-ance From the top tho visitor has a view ol tho surrounding country for many miles. Tho tower is one of the show places of that part of the conn try." Violators of Law Find Fortune, "One of the richest strikes in recent years in Alaska resulted from the efforts ef-forts of two prospoctors to evade the officers of tho law," said Thomas L. Jcssup of Portland, Ore. "These lucky fellows were prospectiug on a large scale. They were proceeding along the Yukon river in a fifty-foot steamer that looked more like u house boat than a crudely constructed river vessel. It was a flat bottomed, side wheeler affair, af-fair, and it was certain to bo held up by any boat inspector with two eyes in his head. Thcso chaps knew this, i i it.-.. .. i c- uui. uju.v wurc utiwng a uiniiice. on when a friend brought-them the tip that the inspectors wore coming, they did the only thing left they ran away. They ran their ramshacklc boat into the Intokc river, and from that into one of the smaller streams that fed (ho Intokc. In-tokc. Here they tied up to wait for the inspectors to get out of that part of the country. Being very energetic gentlemen, they proccded to do a lit tie prospecting to pass away the time. In a day or so they struck a paying streak of coarse shot gold. It was a great find, and they staked out chums for themselves them-selves and the men who wore interested with thejn in the expedition. "Bcforo last winter set in there was at least 2000 prospectors on the scene, and more of them have been going there this summer. Tho new camp is about 700 miles from Fairbanks. There may be a moral iu this incident, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. But it's pretty certain that if those prospectors hadn't violated the law they wouldn't have found a fortune. Freight Oar a Library. "It is a common thiiig to see families living in abandoned freight cars along the lino of au3r railroad," says J. B. Gafylortl of Dubuque, In. "But not many of these cars arc luxurious. In Dubuque, though, one of tho most prominent prom-inent citizens has turned an old freight car into a comfortablo den. .Judge M. C. .Matthews has taken an old freight car to the "rounds of his suburban home and fitted it up as a library and lounging loung-ing room. When he is not in tho courtroom court-room he can be found there surrounded by his books." Harahan to Retire. In spite of a semi-official statement that J. T Harahan would remain president presi-dent of the Illinois Central, until his retirement under the pension rules would become necessary, it is rumored that he may put in his resignation to take effect at the close of the present year. His .term as director ends next month and.it is said that possibly at his own rcaucsf he mav not be re-elected at the election on tho 10th. The general gen-eral feeling is that as the loqica candidate can-didate W. L. Park, vice president, will be elected his successor. |