The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-05

IT, al the approaching charter election, the
citizens of Hoboken agree with the citizens of
Jersey City that union is best for them. then
shall we know that thenceforth Hoboken
shall be no more. 1t is perhaps as well that
Jersey City should attempt to be something,
and the miserable condition of Hoboken
suggests that anything will be an improve
ment on its present situation. Long has the
war been waged and bitter the fight. There
was once millionaire named Stevens. who
looked down from Castle Heights upon
Hoboken, and Hoboken, as il then was, called
him its lord. Under his influence Hoboken
began to grow. The children of Teutonia
settled upon it, drank beer and prospered. In
time Stevens, who had little in
fuence at Trenton, induced the Legis-
lature to cut off Hoboken's water front
on the Hudson River for him, and call it
Weehawken, though everybody knew that
Weehawken proper was up the river. The
Hoboken Land Improvement Company came
to be terror TO Hobokenites. The streets
could not be opened down to the river, and it
was evident that Hoboken must either die of
inani.ion v or annex ITSELF Several times
in this session even it attempted at Tren-
ton to force its way down to the North River.
but the Land Improvement Company always
managed to- defeat the scheme. Despair
mounted with ivid lips upon Hoboken's aspi-
rations, and its representative at Trenton said
to himself Jersey City or humiliation. +"
Years ago Hoboken had rejected the embrace
of Jersey City. Since then it has rejoiced
that it was independent of the city that
owned Bumstead. Now. however,
it cries, Better Bumstead, better any
thing, than euthanasias under Wee
hawken's lords The Hoboken representative
introduced the bill, and it was passed by the
Legislature as the best joke of the session
He saw the point Of it, however. jersey City
and Hoboken once consolidated the united
forces could move down upon the waterfront
absorbers and wrench the prize from their
grasp. Hoboken would be only the Seventh
ward Of Jersey City, but prosperous.
Before she blots herself out let us just
ponder what sentimental loss Hoboken as
an entity will be. It is almost seventy years
since the busy plotting Aaron Burr and the
dignifed statesman Alexander Hamilton went
out one July morning to the Fields and set
tied their political differences over pistols and
coffee. Hamilton was killed, and Burr might
Just as well have BEEN Over this ground, in
deed, was it that many another duel was
fought But duelling moved further South,
and occasionally the civilized prize fight took
it's place. The dog fight, too, had its day
there. Signs of better times for Hoboken
were looming up. New York was grow
ing into the monster that it is, and
in the interval between the time when the
Battery was the Rotten Row Of New York and
the epoch marked by the opening of Central
Park Hoboken was the place for promenades.
Who that can look back for thirty years will
not remember many q pleasant afternoon
spent in strollings by the river side and over
the Elysian Fields, or to the Sibyls Cave and
the dropping wells Soft nothings were
whispered, and as the sun went down and the
moon rose young hearts beat in unison along
the russo paths. For many years it enjoyed
its sentimental prosperity. On Sundays what
crowds emigrated from New York to Hoboken
to take in the fresh breeze! There went to live
Louis Napoleon in his poor days, before his
imperial crown looked . probability. He left
behind him, it is said a souvenir in the shape
Of an unpaid lodging bill. The great English
cricketers came over and played there, and
there on the fine afternoons New York developed
the muscle of it's youth in base ball. The evil
days were fastening on. King Stevens was
anxious to build up and settle the wastes.
The mild demon of lager beer began his rule
over Hoboken. 1t was rapidly becoming what
New York once was, Dutch town. AS every
body came to Hoboken, and nearly everybody
was thirsty, the Germans proposed to offer
lager beer in cataracts. Every resident was con-
poetry fed from that side of the Hudson. The
gatherings that .traversed the Elysian Fields
were henceforth anything but select. The
cheerful picnic was giving place to the after
moons swilling Crime set its red foot on the
green fields. Murders startled New York from
what once was Eiysium, and q free fight was
the constant report from its bosky places.
Darker suspicious fitted over the Fields.
The beer trade was thriving and Hoboken
growing, but the vanishing Fields
were obtaining worse and worse reputa-
ton. 1t was thought to be con-
elusive sign of Hobokens Generalization
when Methodist church was dispossessed by
the Corporation. 1t has ever since been
thought that the chief cause Of opposition to it
was that it was not attached to brewery.
People, notwithstanding this questionable
character, began to make Hoboken their resi-
About six years ago an event happened which
made it more beery than ever. The Excise
law which shut the front doors of the liquor