The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-08-04
B R o A D w A Y

Here straat-the name of many streets in Holland
as Ior instance, the magnificent Heeregracht, in
Amsterdam-meaning the street of the gentry. was
heard no more. In 1871, above Chambers street
IL was known as 'Great George street," in 1902 it
was called the 'Middle Road" and only in 1904
extent. w 4' -"
American history exhibits remarkable develon-
ment OF cities like Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago and
SC' Louis; but OF all the wonders achieved by in
91ustry, energy, and imagination, the growth of
~ears od n tne In 1920 lady eighty
the site OF the present st. Paul's Church was
wheat field; an old man, of nearly the same aue
remembered when boats could pass freely over the
space OF the Battery now covered with large trees.
AT that time there were few streets paved Broad
way and all the other streets had their cutters in
the middle. The Oswego market was in Broadway.
opposite Liberty street.
In 1877, Rutgers orchard was on the site of the
present Hospital and this was the extent of BROAD
way. In l767, the inhabitants kept their COWS in
the town, and the cow pastures were upon limo
with the present Grand street. In 179l the houses
clustered thickly around the Battery, which was
then what the Fifth avenue is in our DAYS tbe nlace
Of residence of the wealthy and fashionable. The
governors house stood opposite the Bowling
Green, the name of the pleasure ground where
the sturdy Dutch, played at bowls and skittles,
and where on pleasant evenings their buxom
wives and rustic bellies joined the merry rev
eel; while the old Governor, smoking his
long Dutch clay pipe, watched from his win
COW, with a species of phlegmatic diplomacy.
the. the movements OF the people, taking care
tnat nothing seditious should be going on
Those were happy days for the Dutch; the Irish
still remained in Ireland, and Yankees had not
yet made their appearance in Broadway. Jan had
IL all MS own way In l19l, and quaint old-fash-
Toned way it was As Jan looked from the Bow
ling Green toward the East river, he could almost
fancy himself on the Boompjes of Rotterdam or
the FRINGE Gracat or Amstel of Amsterdam, or
even IN the snug, damp, cosy little hooks of the
tt. Gift
Nyvrous, or Myjouvrou, or Myiongeiouvrou on the
steps of the house in the Battery, with plenty of
pipes and huge cups and monstrous bowls of tea
and coffee he might really have fancied there was
no such foolish thing the Atlantic ocean, no such
perplexing puzzle as civil and religious liberty and
that ne was again sitting upon the steps of his
own good house in dear old Amsterdam But af-
ter 1871 these dreams were gradually broken up.
AT that time the buildings beyond Trinity Church,
as far as st: PauPs Chapel, were not yet thiclly
placed, and it required but little time to get from
thence to the broad, free country the rural aspect
OF the street being diversified by gardens, fields,
orchards, and swamps, with here and there pub
lie house. But hardly fifty years pass by and Jan
has become obsolete. His progeny, the Knicker-
bockers, as they are called, appear speck in the
ocean to the mass of Irish, Yankee, German, Eng
llsh, and miscellaneous nationalites which, like so
many avalanches, have burst upon Broadway, built
houses, and stores, and hotels, and theatres. and
saloons, and museums, upon the fields, orchards
and swamps of 1871, until, in 1S48 the old Heere
STRAIT looks already very much like combination
of the London Strand and the Paris Boulevard
Bonne Nouvelle
From lS4S to this day, Broadway has again been
transformed. Hardly one of the land
marks OF fifteen years ago remain. With the ex-
ception of the Astor House, the Hospital with its
green, st. Paul's, the City Hail. Stuyvesant Inst-
tute, and one or two more antiquities, there is
change OF houses perceptible in every block The
increase of business such that trade encroached
everywhere, until at this day, excepting number
OF private dwellmg-houses beyond Prince street,
the whole of Broadway has become vast gallery
OF Stores theaters, saloons, and hotels while
with the exception of Trinity and St.
PauPs, and private residences, have all been re-
moved to the upper part of the town. Those which
have not yet been removed are in a fair way to be
so. Trinity and st. Paul's Churches are well nigh
deserted, and the Tabernacle, the old spot so en-
deared to reformers, is more.
The aspect OF broadway in 1858 presents many
striking features, with elements so mixed in char
acter, that comparison with the great thorough
fares of European capitals could convey correct
idea OF it, Early in the morning the street begins
to I'LL with carts and vehicles, bringing supplies
from the country to the market. From all the by
streets which connect Broadway with the rivers,
crowds of men and women, and wagons and horses
emerge from the Brooklyn, Hoboken, Williamsburg.
Staten Island and New Jersey ferries. 1t is still
very early in the morning, the shops are still
closed; only here and there an omnibus makes its
reluctant appearance. it's horso5 and driver not
having yet shaken off the sloth of the night.
mere are also some carriages stopping before
the Astor House, st. Nicholas, MetropoIitan and
other hotels, with load of travellers Just coming
in from east, north and west, or from European and
California steamers. At this early hour Broadway
looks thoroughly respectable, like big ballroom
which, after the revel of the evening is used by
the lady of the house in the morning for thrifty
purposes. But as the morning advances traffic in
creases. The ferries disgorge their human cargoes
The sidewalk begins to swarm with women and
men employed in business. Newsboys appear upon
the Of action Dp,pihucac ban ~
The rush OF emgrants sets in. Spruce clerks ap-
pear at the corners of Prince, Canal and White
streets, however limited their means, here they
are, hailing the omnibuses, fresh, rosy and we'll
dressed. Tradespeople of all nationalites crowd
the vehicle.
French and German dry goods jobbers, Bremen
merchants, Jew tinanciers, Southern, Eastern and
Western spectators and peculators, auctioneers
men of straw and of substance; New York.
New Orleans, Hamburg, Liverpool, San Francisco,
Boston and Cincinnati are huddled together in a six
cent omnibus pee-mele with st. Louis, Lyons,
Charleston, Manchester and Savannah all rushing
to-Wall street, Broad street, Pearl street, Front
street, South street. This gives character to
Broadway. Beside this crowd of passengers there
are the locust-swarms of city-bound pedestrians
Marketing has isappeared-businessh has begun; the
smell of meat fruit and vegetables gives place to
fragrance of cotton silk goods and groceries. The
stir inside the stores begins In the street the excite
ment increases. Small knots OF Travellers boarders
loungers and smokers, begin to congregate before
the principal hotels. 1t is about a. IN. Business
who dine out and rise late, journalists who come
who belong to the Broadway rear-guard, ap-
pear. Yet Broadway has already lost its rigid bus
mess aspect. After nine or ten, new elements
added to its life. Lawyers, professional men, and
leisurely men of business appear on the sidewalk,
and, the day advances, comedians, theatrical
managers, itterateurs, clergymen and artists min
gle with the crowd. Soon ladies make their ap-
pearance If the weather is ne the ladies continue
-, tha hou aHu TIo
lady vehement of Broadway is one of its most daz-
zing features. This lady element is rather of
mixed character. There is always small sprink-
ling of lady-ike women shopping, or taking an
airing, or employed in honorable labor; but there
are considerable number whose character does
not bear much esthctcal analysis, and also in
Broadway, as in Regent street, and on the Boule
wards great number of undomesticated ladies, not
necessarily of doubtful character, but ladies unat-
tached, whose affections have been crossed, and
whose aspirations blighted, and upon whose
bleeding hearts the excitement of Broadway acts as
a sedatve.
This floating population is sweed by many fe-
male day dreamers, lounging women, or She loafers,
whose hopeless vacancy of mind calls for the stimu-
liant of the noise the shops the DUST the variety of
faces, of the Kissing, seething street. There is
something there to lure them away from the monot-
ony of their aimless life, and gradually they are
fascinated by Broadway. They cannot live with
out it. They become part and parcel Of Broadway
They dress for it, as if to irt with its pavement
There are female faces which haunt Broadway for
a whole generation. The stranger who has seen
such face, with Broadway flush, at the begin
ming of the nineteenth century, may chance to meet
the same face again, with Broadway wrinkles, to-
ward the middle of the same century.
Towards midday Broadway has lost altogether
its Ludgate hill and Cheapside character In fine
autumnal days it partakes of the dazzling features
of the Boulevards of Paris, of the volcanic turmoil
of the Strada Toledo of Naples, of the lesurely
aspect of the Hamburg Maiden lane and the Berlin
Linden, of the tornado rush of the London Strand,
and of the elegance of Picadilly. But Broadway
partakes, such occasions, of all the elements in
dicated, without coming specifically under any class
While up town is rushing down town, and in the
when the rehux toward home sets in the
street has London Fleet street and Cornhill look
while the sidewalks resemble rather the avenues
of Paris, Brussels and Hamburg.
At times, the mixture of races, of German, Irish,
French, English, Scotch Scandinavians, Poles,
Hungarians, Italians, Negroes, Jews and Indians,
with the hundred varieties of Yankees Westermers,
Pennsylvanians, Californians and Southerners, re-