The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-03-15
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Some Mere Early History Boats
Propelled by Horsepower Broad
way the Old Stage Road to Albany
and TrOy-News Items Compiled
and Boiled Down by Tramp.
fFrom Our Special Correspondent

IFrom Our Special Correspondent
NEW YORK, March D, 1883.
The stranger who visits New York
for the first time, especially if he
comes at night, by the Pennsylvania
Central railroad and crosses the Hud-
son river by the CORTLAND street fer
ry, looks almost with wonder
upon the activity on, the broad river
spread out before him. Here, there
and everywhere are, great steamers
and sailing craft lying at anchor in
the centre of the stream; here are
tugs propelling fats loaded with
freight cars, and yonder is another or
perhaps dozen towing a long
line of canal boats, and in
every direction immense ferry boats
are shooting across the river like
rockets, and perchance just ahead of
him will pass great steamer carry
ing from 1000 to 5000 immigrants
fresh from the old world. As he
gaZeS upon this scene and the cities
of New York and Brooklyn spread
out before him, he will be daZed with
the brilliancy and activity that sur
rounds him on all sides. and when he
remembers that but 100 years ago
little or nothing of what he sees or
can see was here, and that the two
million souls within ten mi eS Of him
did not exist, he will very naturally
come to the conclusion that there has
been good deal going on in this
country that he had nothing to do
with and is in no way responsible for.
Perhaps he will be more than ever be-
fore impressed with the benefits that
have come to the world from the in
vention of steam, and he may rejoice
that he did not live in the days of the
fathers of his country when the only
means of transportation between this,
city, Philadelphia and Boston, etd.,
was by stagecOach, or by water on "a
craft propelled by horse power, the
animal going round and round on
| the deck of the boat as grain Is
| threshed and ground i'll the west and
south. There are several people NV
ing in this city now ranging in ages
from % to ia, who remember to have
ridden on the horse power boats, and
some of them say that in childhood
they walked across the Hudson on
the ice, hence we may infer that our
winters are no colder now than
were they a century ago, when
the Old Alcalde, Dan McGary,
and a lot of other bad boys, used to
go cooning and foraging for water
melons by moonlight. These old peo-
pie q don't mean Coy. Roberts an
Uncle DanieD tell us much that is in,
teresting about public men and eN entA
of long ago. One of them remembers
seeing Washington mounted on bay
horse, and of finding a bundle of
clothes that had been stolen from
him; another, the servant of Judge
Chase, tells about the fine dinners he
used to set for jefferson, Madison,
Jackson, Monroe, Harrison. Adams
and Daniel Webster. Another wit
messed the trial trip of the little
steamboat Robert Fulton up the Hud-
son, which was the wonder of the
age, and caused nervous people to
stand far back from the river, us she
passed breathing fire and smoke.
Another tells us that in 1872 Jersey
CITY had but few cabins and one
tavern, and that the up town limit of
this city was Waken street, distant
from the battery Qower end of the
city, but one mile, and Bowling
Green, a little triangular park near
the battery, was a pond, and from
there east to Fulton ferry and the
Brooklyn bridge there was nothing
but mud and drift. Pearl street,
which begins at the lower end of the
city, runs and circles around to the
northwest and intercepts Broadway
above Chambers street, w9S in early
days AN Indian path. Now the ele-
waited railroad uses this street and
sends its trains laundering along
over the path that 150 years ago the
red man used to tread loaded
with pelts to sell to the white
traders who had their cabins on the
shore at the battery, and who were
visited by sailing craft from across
the seas but four or five times year
As late as 1885, the old canal that
passed from East to North river along
what is now Canal street, was used
and the great Broadway of to-day was
before the railroad era. the old stage
road to Albany and Troy. This &C
counts for the fact that Broadway is
not a straight street, and crosses Fifth
avenue at Madison square, and Sixth
avenue at ThirH- sixth street. A visit
of Gen. Late to this city after
J his brilliant Ee5e is also given u:
by one of th9HeE5nSS. He was giveI
J ball at J5SS on Chatham
Est, and 4iIs ever ! to s E,
launched. The city was crowded
with people to see the distinguished
French general, and there was firing
of guns and great enthusiasm.
Your New York CORRESPONDENT, il
will be observed, is giving the STATES
MAN reade rs brief sketches of history
and descriptive dots of the nationa
metropolis. 1t will be his aim to ia
miliarize, as far as he can, those who
read the STATESMAN with interest
| ing bits of history and topics of gen
}. eral interest, and to occasionally al
lude to public men of this city ant
Brooklyn. He will also endeavOr t
: keep them posted in the great i'm
proyements, enterprises and growth
of the city, and later he will have
something to say about the sea-sid
J summer resorts adjacent to New
J York. In this letter he also intro
duces the feature of compiling mis-
cellaneous city news, boiling it dow
to the smallest possible space,