The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-08
MR.. G. P. LATHROP'S LETTER.
The Evolution of Social Life in the His
tory of the City of New York.
The Swell of the Metropolis, and His Ante
type-Pay Dirt in Dramatic Literature
-Depew's Grant-JohnsOn Story.
Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.


NEW YORK, Nov. 5.-Now and then we hear
diatribes against horse-racing delivered from
the pulpit, but they are always based on the sup
posed demoralizing effect of betting and the
other excitements connected with the turf. 1t
never seems to occur to any one to criticise
racing as sport that leads to a brutal disregard
of human life. Yet at Jerome Park there Is
part of the track which is recognized as very
dangerous by its narrowness and the shortness
of the turn; and since Paul Potter's mortal hurt
there it is called ''the fatal bend" The horses
being crowded, three or four of them went down
in heap, throwing their riders; and one of the
swift-footed flyers" stepped upon Jockey
Potter. He died from his injuries. The
American Jockey Club holds an extra race this
week for the widows benefit, and very little
more is thought of the matter But this is only
one case out of a number. Last summer and
this summer horses and men have been killed
in considerable number on the various tracks,
and we bid fair to establish in this country
form of open-air sport bloody and brutal as
the bull-fght of Spain. We do not set out de-
liberately to kill animals, with now and then a
man to be slaughtered in the course of the game,
as the Spaniards do. Our sport has little more
excuse to cover it, but it is good deal the
same The risk of death adds to the enjoyment
1t is little queer that when we are SO very
tender about allowing men to pound each other
in the prize ring where death seldom ensues,
we should pay no attention to the fact that pub
lie shows are going on in which men and horses
are entered with full knowledge that the contest
may result fatally.
The social history of New York is plainly
marked by layers which run across the island of
Manhattan and mark the growth of the city very
much as geological strata show the construction
of the earth.
Forty years ago rich men invested their slowly
acquired wealth in substantial homes in that re-
gion the center of which is Washington square,
and which remains to this day the most beauti-
full part of New York, pcturesquely speaking.
The houses built at this time were mostly of red
brick, unadorned with the thin slice of brown
stone. which fewyears later became Questionable
necessity. Then came the war, when ignorant
men found themselves suddenly rich, and began
to for themselves homes along upper Fifth
avenue and the streets which cross it above
Union square. This region running from Four
teenth street to Fiftieth street. marks the epoch
In New Yorks history which began with the
flush times of the war and ended with the killing
of James Fisk. jr The rows of hastily built
brownstone fronts, many of which have been
torn down and replaced by more substantial
ment to what may be called the Jim
Fisk Period" 1t is notable fact that
the fortunes of nearly all of the men who
became rich at that time crumbled away as
quickly as their houses The succeeding group
OF rich men followed the uptown movement,
building houses north of Fiftieth street, which
far surpassed in splendor and elaboration any
thing known in the city before The "Jim Fisk"
stratum is assuming commercial aspect as the
fiimsy browns stone fronts give place, one after
another, to shops and apartment houses. It
will not be long before Fifth avenue, as far up as
Forty second street, will be occupied exclusive
ly by stores.
And the men who figure prominently in these
successive periods of Our history bear distinct
resemblance to the houses which they built.
Who were the swells of the days before the war9
There are a few of them left. old beaus who look
as if they ought to wear ruf1ed shirts and dark
blue swalow-taied coats with brass buttons.
saw one of them tottering down the avenue yes
terday and noted the air of gallantry and defer
enceswith which he saluted gray-h haired lady
who alighted from her carriage. They seemed
strangely out of place among the crowd of mod
ern fashionabes who jostled him on the pave
ment. He had long outlived his day and gem
GRAFTON. The swell who elbowed him out of
fashion twenty years ago was a very different
sort of creature. He was vulgar He was
loud, both in manner and dress, and Haunted
his wealth in the faces of his betters with an air
of superiority which must have been extremely
CALLING to those who had adorned tie society of
the city long before he and his kind were ever
dreamed of. Fisk himself was a swell of the
period which he helped to create. 1t was his de-
light to drive slowly and solemnly Up town with
a carriage load of brazen women beside him. or
to array himself in an admirals uniform and 90
down to the North river pier, there to start his
sound steamers on their way to Fall River. In
those days he was surrounded by an obseduious
LhrODQ. hapnilv
his vulgarltieS would not be tolerated.
The swell of to-day, though unworthy of com
mendatlon, or even of serious thought, is an i'm
provement on his predecessor Nevertheless, it
will be great many years before he can evolve
himself into vertable swell of high degree
For there are and have been in the world men
who obtain to a certain degree Of consideration
account of their Sweetness" no matter how
vicious their mode of life may be. The late
Prince Demidoff of Russia, was splendid dis
solute swell So was the late Prince of Orange,
heir apparent to the throne of Holland, and
known in Paris and every European capital as
"Citron," a sobriquet which he won by his rather
piquant mode of life. The Orleans princes arc
breeding, and the position which their family
has always maintained in France It is scarcely
necessary to mention the Prince of Wales
as type of modern English swelldom,
can society to belong to the Princes
set" Our swells owe their claim to the
title-at least the most prominent of them do
to their money Therefore Mr.. Vanderbilt is a
heavy swell, and, am bound to say, an unob-
trusive and respectable one too. Certainly the
men who have achieved wealth and position by
their own shrewdness are entitled to much more
respect than should be shown to the pretentious
young tops who harass respectable people with
their docies of speech, manner and dress.
At present the most profitable kind of literary
work is that of play writing, and the reason why
dramatic authors are so highly recompensed is
because the ability to construct a successful
play is extremely rare. A dramatst should
unite with literary skill an intimate knowledge
of those minute details Of stage business and
dramatic effects and climaxes which are
essential in the theater Nearly all mod
ern plays are .,; written eltner Dy literary
latter it may be said that they are apt to fail
in thsr efforts because they think too much of