Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-19

listened to the plashing tide-''the waves
hoarse with a repetition of their mystery
where he watched the great ships standing
out TO sea or coming home richly laden, and
where as the court end of town, everybody
famous in the world of fashion, art or itera-
ture might be seen sauntering along its shady
walks and alleys green.n
Rightly enough, the neighborhood of the
Battery has been called 1.-The cradle of New
York, for it is the home of some of the ear
lest traditions Of the great city. 1t was
probably here that Henry Hudson landed
from the Half Moon in 1909 and distributed
the rum among the natives that resulted in a
royal revel, and, if the legend be true, led to
the adoption by the Indians of the name
Manhattan signifying 1.-The place of
drunkenness" Who knows that old Peter
Minuit, the first governor, did not select this
spot when, with true Dutch thrift and con-
scientiousness, he made the famous trade
with the original owners of the soil, in which
for 60 guilders, or S25, the entire island
fifteen miles in length and from quarter of
a mile to two miles in breadth, comprising
q, 600 acres of land, became the property of
the Dutch West India company.
A recent stroll on the Battery brought
these thoughts, and more, to mind. It was
one of those glorious Sunday afternoons in
which the people like to get ont into the sun
shine and HE away to Central park or the
suburbs, and one could not but remark how
many went to this old historic spot Time
has strangely metamorphosed the place. The
handsome residences that once adorned its
outskirts have either disappeared or been
transformed into tenement houses, shipping
lich ~,
are time stained, and the windows seem to
have shared the lot of eyes in mortals and
grown dim with age. Here and there is a
mansion with its pillared portico, looking for
az world as if it were leaning on half a
Jzen giant crutches. 1t reminds one of
specimen of faded gentility-a sort of noble
old aristocrat welded TO a plebeian pauper
and wearing an aspect quite forlorn and
cherries.
Within some of these houses the great
rooms have settled down into kind of leth-
argy and look dissipated, for the beer seller
and boarding house boss have taken posses
sion and the walls are blotched as if mission
airy maps were bursting out of them.
A few years since, among the historic resi-
dences of the neighborhood within biscuit
throw, was the kennedy house, at No. l
IL was blIJ III liUp DIV ATcll-
bald Kennedy, then collector of the port of
New York. In colonial times it was the CEN
ter of the fashion of the colony and was sue
cesSively the residence and headquarters of
Lord CORVALLIS, Lord Howe, Gen. Sir
Henry Clinton and Gen. Washington. Talley-
rand lived there during his stay in this coun-
try. On its site now stands what is known
as ''The Field Building lofty edifce
erected by Cyrus w Field, who is famous
in connection with the laying of the first At
lantic cable. 1t is one of the most complete
''offica" buildings in the city, and from base
ment to roof, some fourteen stories, is occu-
pied by solid business men. many of them
representing great corporations. At No.
Broadway was the residence of Benedict Ar
mold, at No. IL Gen. Gates had his headquar-
tiers, and in 1853 it was the site of Butch
tavern. That row of six old fashioned brick
buildings at the foot of Broadway now con-
tanning so many offices of consuls, steamship
companies and what not, was in 1855 the site
of Fort Amsterdam, then capacious enough
TO contain the governors residence, a church
and garrison of 500 soldiers