The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-03-23
For The CeCl u H.,
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LITTER,

For The Cecil Whis
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LITTER.
A RAMBLE AMONG OLD TINE TANNERs-
REMINI> CENCEs OF HERMINIUs KLoCK -
OUR GREAT LEATHER TRADE-wHAT NEW
YORK Is DOING r. REMARKABLE SUICIDE
ELoPEMENT FROM BRooKLYN-oDDsA AND
ENDS.
| To day | thought | would take a stroll
among the tanners, whose abiding place is
down in the Swamp. There is nothing OF
the incnnocast in me. dislike to see the
old iandmai ks disappear, aud even the
onward march of public improvement
scarcely reconciles Tue to the change. ]
would have broken Dowsing's head with u
! club, as he broke the church windows and
affairs, if | could have rescued wooden
angel, or saved a baptismal font from deS
ecration. In fact, my habtual reverence
for ancient things was constant source OF
! annoyance to that excellent woman, my
/ mother, whose savage assaults on my
| favorlte museum were freq uenrly supple
/ mented by big black strap, which often
led me to e1ecrate the memory of the man
who first invented leather.
! From the block which is made up by the
SIN office, the corner of Franklin street
! and Printing House Square. and the Trt
! 6une office on the corner of Spruce street,
| the hill runs down with sharp decent to
! what is known as the Swamp, where the
tanners aud curriers' dwell. Why it is
called so would puzzle your modern geo
grapher, for long rows of substantial brick
houses line its well paved streets, where
less than hundred years ago was swamp
( OF mile in circumference. And if here
and there some ancient landmark puts furth
"a claim TO our reverence, they are only eX-
ceptions. which the destructive iconoclasts
have forgotten in their fury to destroy.
Nearly two hundred years ago Terminus
klock the oldest son of Johannes klock.
whose mill stood on the banks of kIock's
Pond erected here a tannery down in the
swamp, with IA little wind mill to grind his
own bark; and he was the father of thai
grand old lace of tanners which has held
possession of the Swamp from that day to
this. Klock's Pond reached from little
| distance below the City Hall. along the
line of Center street, taking in IA goodis
| portion of Canal street. A small stream
| crossed Chatham street at Pearl, emptying
its sluggish waters in the muddy bosom OF
the swamp; and this stream was spanned
by the Lovers Bridge. where rural New
York did much on those long Summer
nights when a stroll through the green
! fields of the Bowerie Lane seemed like tn.
high Post road to Elyslum. A stout old
burgher was Hermipius Klock. combining
the trade of butcher with that of a tan
ner-no uncommon thing in those days;
and wonderful stories are told of his mar
| velous prowess his pulling in reirac
tory bull by the horns, and of his knocking
! him down with his fist. He believed there
was nothing like leather, aud always up to
! the day of his death went clad in suit Of
his own tanning. Leather breeches were
the fashionable wear of the old Dutch
burghers, and stout leather jerkipgs wert
not uncommon even for Sunday adjourn
ment. kiock'S tannery stood near the
corner of Rose and Frankford street, on
the site of which is shaky old brick
house which has occupied its present site
! between sixty and seventy years. klock's
/ pretty daughter Frederick was the pride of
her fathers heart, and presided over his
household like queen. The knowing
| ones said that he had leather bags full of
! guilders and Spanah doubloons hid away
| in the tannery, which were to be the fair
| Frederka's DOVER when her father could
| find a man worthy to be her husband; but
one day she eloped with an English suitor
and the next poor Terminus was found in
the bottom of one of his own TAM watts
| The ruling passion being strong in death.
he no doubt wished to illustrate, in his own
proper person, that there is nothing like
| leather.
| Times have changed since then. The race
that followed stout Terminus became great
and opulent merchants, some of the most
| substantial representatives of the leather
trade being found in the Society of Friends.
| Every guild has its own oraces and saints,
and it is not astonishing that names should
| be held in afectionate reverence by the
tanners, the owners of which have devoted
their lives to improving the soles of their
fellow men.
| In the narrow circle of half mile is
done business exclusively in leather
amounting to many millions Of dollars, and
! croakers about our national decline are
here met by stubborn facts which prove
conclusively that every day We are adding
to our substantial elements of wealth,
and are growing with rapidity that few
i'except those who make accurate statist les
| their business seem to be aware. In 1870
New York shipped leather to foreign ports
to the value of $i31, 37S; the shipment,
thoagh not large, was disastrous to the
shippers, even that small consignment en-
failing serious loss. In II it exceeded
million ard half, and in 70 it had ex-
ceeded that by over two millions of dollars;
in 1873 it had reached the handsome sum
of nearly eight millions of dollars-being