The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-12-26
Christmas at New York, 177s.
Eugene Lawrence in Harper's weekly.l

upon New York chill, bleak, dishearten-
ing. Around the beleaguered city, al
ready menaced by the patriot armies,
the ice and snow of December gathered
with its usual severity. 1t was not SO
cold winter as the next, when the
Hudson was frozen over to the Jersey
shore, and the English sentinels watched
carefully at nights lest Washington
might cross the river as he had crossed
the Delaware at Trenton. But the sea-
son of 177S-79 was sufficiently severe to
cover the fallen city with want and
pain. 1t was, in fact, almost desolate
waste. Two great fires had ravaged its
fairest regions. The ruins of Trinity
Church, the blackened sites Of the fine
houses on Broadway, the destruction of
the stores, warehouses, around White
hall, had left little trace of the gay and
wealthy city which Kahn, in 1749, de-
scfibed as one of the fairest he had seen.
From st. Paul's Church to the Bowling
green, almost to the East River, spread
waste, ruined, abandoned, where the
fire of 1776 had swept away the homes
of the wealthy, and left behind desert.
But the scene was not solitary one.
Among the ruins had clustered the poor
and miserable, the fugitives and GRIM.
inals. Here they had built themselves
tents, huts, any thing to shield them
from the biting cold. 1t was the saddest
spectacle of New York hundred years
ago to wander amidst these ruins along
Broadway, hear the wild shouts of
drunken revelry, the groans of the sick
and sad, the profanity of despair.
There was another spectacle almost
as sad, enlightened only by the fiery
CLEAN of heroism. The prisons were
crowded with the patriot soldiers; a
huge building in Liberty-street con-
tanned in 1776-77 several thousand. 1t
was tall chill edifce, bare, bleak, un-
comfortable; the winds pierced through
its shutterless windows, crevices, floors
the rain and snow beat upon its helpless
inmates. They had no fires il the
fiercest cold, scarcely clothes to shelter
them, mo lights, and food so scanty and
foul that it seemed the aim of their cap
tors to destroy them. They pined and
perished in the dismal winter; they
wasted away with fearful diseases, un-
tended; they sometimes dreamed soft
dream of home, and died. Thousands
were shut up in prison-ships on the Long
Island shore; here, too, they lived, per
ished, without lights or fire in the pitt
less winter cold, were famished, carried
off by diseases; the bones of the dead
may be found in heaps on the silent
shores. When the fierce winds sswept down
from the Highlands over fields of ice
it bore with it disease and death to thou
sands of the hopeless prisoners. They
were often the flower of the youth of 6
prosperous land. Fair and stalwart
young men from the Jerseys, the chill
dren of wealthy farmers, merchants; the
active volunteers from Connecticut
patriots of New York; soldiers from al
the Northern armies-flled the British
prisons and tasted the unknown horror
of captivity. They might have been Sc
| free, have hved at ease, could they hav'
sold themselves and their honor; the,
might have Joined the foe. They pre-
ferred imprisonment, death. A match
less heroism glowed in the chill prisol
in Liberty-street that should make it
| site immortal. It's prisoners died for us
Looking down upon New York in tn.
winter of 177S-79, one would see lin
of intrenchments stretching along tn
heights at Grand-street; the sentrie
pacing steadily amidst cold and snow
the encamped forces guarding the uppe
part of the island; single road, no1
the Bowery, leading out into the wilder
ness of farms and country seats tina
stretched from river to river. The Ell
virons of New York were beautiful, bu
| no longer safe. A party of patriot
penetrated to Colonel Delancey's hous
at Bloomingdale, and drove the famil
to take shelter in the woods. The Bal
onesss Riedesel trembled in the mids
of her fine apartments on the Ea!
River. Above the fortified lines th
country seat on Murray Hill, Richmon
/ Hill and even what is now Fourteenth
street, were far away in the country
beautiful, hidden in summer in blossom
and flowers, but always visited, Barone
Riedesel tells us, by acute ague an
fever. Sarcely any one escaped the di
ease. Once nearly her whole famil
were stricken down, but she RENAME
we'll enough to nurse them. Below tt
intrenchments the country, fields al
farms, reached to what is now known
the Park. With st. PauPs Church, ar
St. Georges in Beekman-street, begs
the thickly settled part of the cit
, Wall-street, Pine, William, had escape
| the flames; the best houses were seiz'
/ | upon by the Tory leaders. For tie eli
, | zens of New York hundred years a.
, there was little ease or peace. MAJ
we're ruined by the fires, confscatior
, | taxes; royal officers were auartered up'
e all those who were still in good circul
a stances; but the great cost of livil
compared to the happy past, the Mi
| | price of food, dress, the difficulty
getting wood, fuel of any kind, the
, tense cold. the broad waste of rui
= covered the citizens with lasting glool
y Christmas came no longer as it once b
. done, rich with abundance, with
. turk eys and heavy chimes of beef, wi
! sausapes, olyceoks, waffies, the flow
good cheer, and pleasant congratu
q tions. Poverty, intense and pitiab
q prevailed in many household. Wal
terrible and unknown before, hid annie
:, the huts of Canvastown; the appeals
charity were incessent. The "rebe
!, families would find little tenderness
. the hands of the ruling faction;
their own adherents, the sufferers in t
"cause," the Tories showed often Ia
ish generosity. Plays were perform
r bv the British officers for the benefit
It the widows, orphans, the sufferers OF t
y loyal party; collections were taken
n in the churches. Yet even the triuml
a ant forces suffered endless privatio
s and Baroness Riedesel shiyered for ws
st of fuel in her spacious apartments.
g The Tories were fanciful, impetuo
n often intelligent; they lived in d
It world of the medieval past; their mil
t were filled, like Andres, with dreams
K tournaments. knights, chivalry; tn
Or heroes were the barbarians of the d'
le of the Tudors and Stuarts; they W
IS often sincere the intense loyalty of
Tory families to the traditions of
re English monarchy was as fixed a
Of truthful as any conviction can be. !.
st the aid of the British army they /
er hoped to scatter the Americans l
is leaves; they could scarcely understa
ii how the rebels could for a moment
10 Hl,,Ao- Hnua h n