Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-09-16
squatter Life In New York.

trasts OF splendid intentions and mis-
carried achievements. Princelness of
space and brilliance of architecture are
confronted by dilapidation and un-
cleanliness, and even on Murray hill.
that pinnacle of all earthly ambition.
disreputable little taverns and tene-
ments exist in sight of the fashionable
mansions with their carved balustradeg
and ample porticoes. But these con-
trasts, which have led one writer 10 de-
scribe New York as Paris with touch
OF the backwoods, and another 10 say
that the city is more like a savage, the
resplendence of his trinkets, war-paint
and chromatic blanket only half cover
ing bis abundant dirt-these anomalies
are nowhere 80 apparent as above the
southern borders of Central Park.
Reaching as far as Manhattanville on
the west, and TO Harlem on the east, the
land has nearly all been graded, and
many streets have been laid out, and In
some instances paved, curbed and IL
Illuminated. Ten years ago or more,
when the imperial Tweed was seated
with apparent firmness on the municipal
throne, this region, with the splendid
park as a center, was seized upon by
real estate spectators, and predictions
were made that in a very few years it
would be covered with handsome
dwellings. But the tide of success
turned another way, with what ef-
feet, as concerns Tweed and his ambi-
tions, is well known; and though on
the east side some of the vacant spaces
have become populous, and some nota-
BILE churches, hospitals, arrnories and
houses have been put up, the west side
has altered so little that il has seemed
TO be lifeless. The new museum of
natural history. with its imposing
facade looking over the hill and dale of
the park, glances from its rear upon q
neighborhood which, in my experience,
is quite unique. 1t is not TO be precisely
described as city, nor as suburb, nor as
the unsettled but broken territory that
outlies most cities while waiting to be
absorbed in their advance. The antici-
pations that led to the grading
and paving Of the streets have had a
very limited fruition In isolated rows of
pretentious and rectangular brown
stone fronts" which seemed oddly out
OF place. Here and there a vestige of
old times remains in a pre-metropolitan
homestead, with an impoverished
orchard around il, or in a grand mansion
with classic front of Doric columns.
and a genesis far antedating
Fifth avenue. But 1t is not
the new buildings, premonitory
OF the city's advance, nor the old ones
rejecting the past, nor these two in
contrast, that give the region its charac-
teristics and peculiar interest. All
down in the hollows between the graded
streets. and in spaces where, no streets
b avIng been opened, the gray Lauren
tian rock etands with but n superficial
layer of soil upon it, thousands of acres
are under cultivation by squatters, and
without other inclosure TO the land than
the embankments formed around the
hollows BY the trap-rock foundations Of
the streets. Agriculture is carried on
with primitive simplicity of life and
under n picturesqueness Of condition
that set an artist on the edge Of desire.
Many square miles are green with vege-
tables. You see the gardeners with their
wives and mothers bending 10 their
work; you hear the querulous call of
geese and the contentious Of pigs; and IL
you could shut out from the view the
immature streets and the precursory
dwellings, you would never realize that
you are within the limits of the city. or
that immense steamers are loading with
grain by the riverside q quarter of q
mile away, and that the buzzing which
vibrates In the air comes from an ele-
waited railway.
The holdings are OF various proper
tions, sometimes being limited 10 an
irregular strip, and sometimes embrac-
ing three or four blocks in. possession of
one man. II Is not an occasional load,
the product of one patch, that goes to
Washington market. but a large pro-
portion of all the green stuff consumed
In the city Is grown in these hollows-
the lettuce. the parsley, the celery, the
cabbagcs, and the potatoes. But though
one man trebles the quantity bis neigh
Dor produces, he Is no better Of nor
more ambitious In the matter Of archi-
lecture than the poorest; and IN the
corners, or In the center Of the hollows,
or perched high up on the wintry
gneiss, is found = grotesque variety Of
makeshift dwellings, mere concessions
to exigencies in many cases. which By
no means indicate the pecuniary re
sources Of the occupants. Some Of
them are simply squalid, but upon
others the sunshine and the rain have