Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-02


celebrating at that period We do not an
ticipate that anything like a crowd will
call at the JOURNAL AND COURIER Office to
confirm our superstition.
William Townsend, who agreed to trim
and keep the lamp at the corner of Court
and State, kept grocery store there for
many years-first in a two story building
where the Niagara laundry now is, then in
a similar structure that stood where John
son & Brother dispense all sorts of luxuri
GUS things at present. Court street was SO
narrow there then, and for q long while
later, that an old fashioned load of hay
would sweep the clapbeards on either
side. One of our most vivid rec
elections of that corner relates to a
cider-pressure man, with copious flow of
unorthodox language when irate, baggy,
homeapun trousers, great appetite for
twiet tobacco, and club feet. Mr.. Frost,
with infinite difficulty and frequent re-
verses, had at last succeeded in erecting q
lofty pyramid Of empty flower barrels on q
shackly hay-rigging, and breathlessly held
in his hand coil of rope to make all
secure ; when the blast of a horn from
passing canal boat startled his vivacious
steers and they wildly dashed across the
DrluSo, sCf6Wluk tuo StEoob VIII uylDR
Stats and whirling barrels, and vanished in
scumble of dust down by the "Old Mu-
seum,"-Mr. F. hopeless second in the
race, but doing his level best.
A decade or so less than seventy years
ago there was not store on the east or
west side of State from Court to the old
Pinto place at Elm Cords pharmacy now,
but ute squeezed from its original pro-
| portione); but on the east side six spacious
| old double dwellings, having porticoes and
| stone steps leading up to their wide halls,
| and In the rear pleasant gardens sloping
down to the old canal. The names of the
| owners of all these old homes have been
carved for years on monumental marbles
Of one. once of the dry goods firm of
| McCrackan & Merriman and after
ward bank cashier, it was said,
as the climax of an eulogistic
editorial obituary: Gle was sincere
] Christian and could tell counterfeit bill
| at a glance" which was true, but some
what of an odd jaxtsposition. Next door
to the cashier lived Edward Huggins, a
crockery dealer On Chapel street-at what
a premium some of his goods would sell
for nowl-whose advertisements always
attracted notice on account of a woodcut
representation of lady made up of the
outlines of different articles In which he
dealt; this and an aerial pony and postboy
bearing "News!l" fascinated youthful eyes
then, we think, more than the innumerable
pictures In the oppressively voluminoua
New York Sunday World do the same eyes,
grown older, now. We think Mr.. q, was
one of the early captains of the ssGrays, y
and we know that he owned fine large
Newfoundland dog he thought the world
of, and had habit of lightly touching the
knob of the old iron cannon that stood OF
/ kha Tohy Niop11 oil l.
passed to and from house to store
and that, one morning, he rushed into the
corner grocery with white face and fire
flashing eyes, crying latter the manner Of
that English ''orook" to whom was award.
ed the title of 'Old Dick the Three'D-':Ar
axe! An axe! Give me an axel"
| Across by the cannon aforesaid his pei
dog was engaged in a fierce fight with
brindled bulldog, a regular slaughter
butcher who had halted his blood crusted
cart to enjoy the battle; and it was wher
"Don" was likely to be worsted in tht
fray that Mr.. e. hastily decided that ar
axe would be a desirable feature in tn.
contest-and we thought then, and, afte1
half century for reflection, think now
| that 1t was lucky for all concerned that NJ
axe was available just at that moment a
pail of cold water ended the combat
''the twa dogs'' trotted away with theil
masters little the worse for their meeting
the ring dissolved, and Mr.. Higgins guar
dian angel lowered away.
Then came the house of Samuel Hug
gins, wholesale wine merchant corner o.
Cherry-from dark nook in whose Gel
lar after his decease, a neighboring mer
chant, at auction, bought dingy quarter
cask, for joke and a quarter, we believe
which was found to contain six or eieh
gallons of long forgotten Madeira, pro
nouneed by those who held 1t to the igh,
and enjoyed its sparkle and aroma il
counting rooms thereabout, as memorably
superb.
Along next was the residence of Johr
H. Cook, who had a family of ne-lookini
daughters, one of whom became the wife
of the venerable and beloved, Rev. DR.
Vibberts, and a con who was for {
number of years organist at tn.
Mr.. Dan Cooper, ''iife seems like {
dream when I think that I'm the oldes
store-keeper on State street-why, 1t wss
only the other day I was the youngest
, How's thats The Jared Bradley you ash
about-he had large house and wide
grounds right here where this Winthrop
Hotel stands, and the 'Foote Boys stables
cover a email part of the deep garden
Later along the Rev Judson Root kept 9
day school for young ladies here. When ]
first came to New Haven, boy, lived
with Automatically next door" Rlancino
through sida window, $50, you see, I've
swung round to about where began"
The Abraham Bradley alluded to may be
recalled by a few "a rich, for then, re-
tired merchant Owned the corner where
the Yale National bank lea short, COM
Portable, horid faced, bland, old-school
sort of gentleman, who carried gold
headed cane (Or. B., his grandson, will
built and lived in the most elegant and
picturesque mansion in town. lingering
idea of which one gets from the ornate cor
nice, handsome windows, and graceful col
umns yet appearing above Nesbit's
meat market and the 'Banka Ital-
lana" If we were forced into the
Vanderbilt ranks, we should, in these days
of reversion to early architectural styles,
get our friend Dave Brown to reproduce
that antique front on Orange street, Whit
ney avenue or Prospect street. Harry
higgins. an old time Chapel street mer-
chant, lived in a fine brick house on the
corner of State (his son Henry T. was a
noted campaign orator in Wing party days.,
afterwards occupied by James Brewster
and DR.. Foote, and then moved back, and
turned in moving-quite an engineering
fsat-to mako way for Todd's block, and
now fronts on Elm, where it commands a
view of the most magnificent elm tree in this
City of Films. We do not doubt but that the
author of 1.-THE Last Leaf" who has al
ways been an ardent tres-fsncier, if his
aged eyes could behold that tree, would
Enthusiastically" pronounce it ga very
| pleasing vegetable" Town-bo Henry
Howe, too, who some years since wrote an
interesting series of articles about the green
and the elms, and the historic folks asso-
ciated with them, for this psper-Henry
Howe, who devoted the closing years Of
his life to the ssupendous task of re-
| writing his "History of Ohio" and recent
/ ly died broken-hearted because he received
| such slender return from the psople of
| the state for his enthusiastic labor-he,
| too, would have been delighted with
the majestic symmetry Of that tree.
On the northwest corner of State
lived Abrsm Bishop, the site of
his house now covered by Kello1g's block,
and part of his large garden by the
brown stone club house and connecting
Harmonic hsll-who was collector of the