The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-05-23
ouR.LE7TeR FROM eRoADBRIM.

louR.LE7TeR FROM BRoADBR,M.
Newspaper Notwithstanding Retrospect
-New Revelations Of Rascality-Gen.
Grant Contradfcfs a Sensational Rn,nor
Terrible Accidents-AcquittalO Of Dick
Short-Other Criminal Items-Rapitl
Transit and Church Squabble in Brook
lyn.
NEW YORK, May IS, 1885.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Opposite the Park, on the corner of Beck
man street, mighty building is being
reared on the site of the old World Office,
the building of which was destroyed by fire
about two years ago. On the other end of
the block is the Office of the New York
Times and sandwiched in between are adj
vertising agencies for religious and scien-
titic papers, patent agencies, etc, etc. It
may be called the centre of that busy hive
which is sending forth its messages and
messengers day and night to all quarters of
the world. Near at hand and towering to
the sky are the Offices of the New York Tti-
bune and Sun; within pistol shot to the
south are the Offices Of the World, the Mail
and Eapress and Evening Post. the Her
aid, the Telegram and others; but the block
er1y occupied by the World, as l said at
first, is the center of this Whirlpool the
waters of which never rest night or day.
Here the newsboys center, and from here
swift wagons dash, followed by hundreds
of clamorous young Arabs, when the morn
ing and evening papers are issued. On
this block, forty years ago, sheltered by tall
elms and NAPLES, stood the church of Rev.
! Gardner Spring, a giant in Israel. whose
pulpit eloquence is still remembered with
grace and thankfulness by thousands.
Around the church lay the honored dead,
whose graves antedated the Revolution. It
was quiet place and the home of great
and aristocratic congregation, which num-
| bered in its vestrymen, trustees and deacons,
| some of the Oldest and bluest blood of Man
haitian. Even in those days, this grave old
| church found itself in strange company;
| scarcely fifty yards away was Tammany
Hall-and whatever faults the Tammany
Hall of to-day may have, it rs the pink of
aristocracy compared with the TRnnany
Hall of 1910 or 1875. The Empire Club was
then in it glory and prize fighters and soap
locked fire laddies ru ed tho city with rod
of iron. In front of the church was Clinton
Hall, q famous meeting place in those days
for all sorts of free thinking people. 1t
was here that Lloyd Garrison and Wendell
Phillips thnndered against slavery, and
around its doors came bowling thousands,
thirsting for their blood because they dared
to speak for freedom. Close by Clinton
Hall was the old Park Theatre, the great
fashionable amusement centre of the city
whose stage had echoed with the tread of
George Frederick Cooke, Edmund Kean
and Junius Brutus Booth. A grand old
manager was William Simpson, favorite
with the elite of New York, whose most
honored representatives could be found
every evening around the hospitable
table OF William Windust, whose beautiful
tomb is one of the glories of Greenwood.
The World and Times we're not yet born;
the Tribune, founded short time before,
had then only q local reputation and its.
great editor was more noted for his whims
and his cranks than for the ability which !
afterwards distinguished him. New York |
then had population of about 3OO, 600, and
was about one half the size of the present |
city of Brooklyn. To realize the change !
which has taken place, one feels as if he
was looking back thousand years instead !
of forty. Cornelius Vanderbilt was then |
successful steamboatnia1, nothing more,
and few suspected that he was worth more
than one or two hundred thousand dollars. |
Russell Sage was unknown in finance; Mr..
trap; James Fisk was bare-footed farm
er's boy in Vermont; Stewart, the great |
dry goods king, had a single store on Broad
way, of no very great pretensions; the Pa
cific railroad was only dim vision in the |
brain of Mr.. Whitney, who died, like the |
prophet of old, in sight of the promised
land, but never realized his dream; Grant |
was West Point cadet, and Bob Lee
Lieutenant in the armies of the United |
States. Douglass was just coming into |
public notice and Lincoln was only coun-
try lawyer in Illinois with limited loca,
reputation. The Senate of the United |
States still echoed with the majestic thun-
der of Webster, the persuasive eloquence of |
Clay, and John Quincy Adams having
served as President of the United States |
considered it no degradation to represent
old Massachusetts as a member of the
lower house.
But find myself wandering away from
Gardner's Springs old church. The con-
gregation dropped off by twos and threes.
the drift of fashion swept up town, and at |
last it was resolved to sell the old church |
and follow the congregation. The proper
ty was sold and the remains taken rev.
erently from the graves and some of them |
found their way to Greenwood, then rural |
suburb of the city of Brooklyn.
After the New York Times became an es-
tablished success, the Times Company |
bought portion of the property. When !
the Times undertook the gigantic job of |
breaking up the Tweed ring, the company
was served with notice that if they did
not desist in their attacks, they would be I
driven from their property a I'd ruined. |
There was some force in the threat, as
they packed the juries with their creatures. |
and the judges high and low were their alb
ject slaves; hired bullies crowded the streets
at night assaulting and manning decent cit
izens without remonstrance from the leath-
er-heads, as the old police were called. But
the Times fought the battle through to the