The Portland daily press., 1897-07-06

awaken and develop the mental powers,
provided there were any such to develop.
But my present purpose is to record few
"reminiscences of New York City as I
have known it.
1t was in August, 1885, that 1 arrived
in this city, after voyage of forty eight
days in the packet ship Sampson, Capt.
Chadwick, from London. l was landed
at Castle Garden. Being a stranger, &C
cepted the cleaneSt out of many cards
that were eagerly thrust into my hands
by runners for different houses. The
man took me to Frankfort street, nearly
opposite the City hall, and / spent my
Johns hall. Before retiring the waiter
cautioned me to be every careful OF the
light" adding that | might ''hear the
alarm of fire before morning" and he
was right. Before morning my room was
lighted up by flames caused by large
fire at Nassau and Ann streets. Much
property and one old church edifice-I
think it was the South Dutch Church
were destroyed; but it's memory was soon
eclipsed by the ''great fire. which &C.
CURED on the night of December 16 of the
same year, 1885. Perhaps few people are
now living in New York who remember
that terrible night-one of the coolest on
and at the hydrants; firemen had their
hands and feet frozen, and though they
battled bravely with the flames, their ex-
ertions failed utterly to arrest their raw
ages The mayor and other officials were
consulted, and the use of gunpowder was
determined on, as the only means of saw
ing the business part of the city yet re-
naming. Building after building was
blown up, and by such means the fire was
stayed at what is now No. 40 Pearl
street.
There those who will take the trouble
may see a beautiful sculptured figure
which seems to represent the stricken city
mourning over the calamity that had be
fallen her children. Beneath this figure,
and forming the pedestal on which she is
seated, is a heavy granite slab, from the
inscription on which we learn that be-
sides other casualties, $50 buildings, con-
tanning merchandise to the value of
$50, 600, e0C, were destroyed-elual to
about one-third of the wealth of the city
at that time. Yet it is fact both curious
and strange that not one or more than a
score of persons to whom have spoken
of this memorial, had ever seen or even
heard of it and, stranger still lit seems
to meg doubt if one of them has seen it
yet. So busy with the present. or SO anx-
ious over the future, they have no time
to look backward.
city of today quite as much in its person.
mel, it's business methods and its social
life as in its geographical area and its
physical aspects. Sixty years ago many
perhaps a majority, of our business
men" had their dwellings over or in close
proximity to, their stores. They were in
dustrious, frugal, ploddinS, and preserv-
or store as late as they had any hope of a
customer Plain in their dress and en-
tirely unostentatious in their manners
they followed their daily vocations, wear
ing an aspect that seemed to say, "this
one thing / do.'' Avoiding the snare
that always disturb and often ruin those
who "make haste to be rich," they were
we'll content if, after twenty or thirty
years of close application to business, they
found themselves able to retire with a
competency, to spend the evening of lief
in the bosom Of their families, or to enjoy
quietly the society of their friends and
neighbors.
AS to amusements they were simple and
inexpensive. The older persons found
them in connection with certain prevail
ing customs in their religious life-chlrch
tea parties, etc. while the young men
and maidens often spent pleasant even
ing at one of the 'tea gardens, the most
famous of which was ''Vauxhall Gar
den,' located between the Bowery and
Broadway, near Eighth street. There
were but few theatres, and these derived
meagre support from the class of which /
have been writing. The park, which
stood in Park Row, between Beekman
and Ann streets, was the resort, almost
exclusively, of the elite. Some of the
most distinguished of foreign actors and
actresses including the Kembles-ap-
pearedson its boards, land our own inimita-
BILE Hackett-'' Jack Falstaff''-was to
the theatre goers something of house.
hold idol-even non theatre goers, rich or
poor, had to see him once "just once,''
they would say. The Bowery and the
Chatham were theatres belonging to the
many young people especially, who, per-
haps, could hardly afford the money SO
spent. But, as a matter of course, all
theatres depended for support chiefly on
the rich, and the rich were small mi
nority at that time.
"a Were the former tines better than
these? No; emphatically no. Not better
simply different. Let pessimists croak
as they may, and always will, 1t will
still remain true that these are the best
times the world has ever seen True,
there is much still to be desired. The
millennium, political as we'll as religious
and spiritual, is yet far in the future,
perhaps, but, if we will
open our eyes we may see today people
better housed, better clothed, better fed,
and better educated than ever before
This is a better world today than it was
sixty years ago, but it will be better
further on.
e 4 Ii,