The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-02-05
COMING NEW
Joseph Coult's Prophecies
Of the City's Progress
In Fifty Years.
BOARD OF TRADE DINNER
Review of the City's History and
Tales of lis Extraordinary
Growth.
BOARD OF TRADE DINNER

Oto ~ ~ Aeo1
following entertaining speech
We are approaching the beginning of a
new century. Some of us. now active in
business and interested in public affairs,
will be unable to attend the annual dim
ner of his Board which will be given in
the month of January, 1850, engagements
elsewhere will probably prevent as from
being present. except in spirit. / thought
that it might be interesting to have an
authentic report of this entertainment
1850. and learn from it something of the
| condition of affairs then existing. | have,
fortunately been able to obtain an ad-
vance copy of the Newark Morning
| Chronicle of the day following this in
teresting event, and will read to you an
extract from the extended report of the
proceedings of the meeting, which l ind
in the columns of this enterprising jour
nal-which, by the way, | see claims to
have a circulation exceeding 500, 1000 copies
daily.
The Board of Trade dinner of 1850 took
place last evening. 1t was served in the
banquet hall of the Board in the Kinney
building, corner of Broad and Market
streets. The Board has recently fitted up
the entire %twenty-ffth floor of this inn
mense building for the accommodation OF
its members. There was a very large at
tendance. and many distinguished guests
Were present. 1t was. in many respects,
a notable event. The dinner exceeded in
the richness and variety of the delicacies
provided anything ever before under
taken. The hall was brilliantly lighted
and handsomely decorated.
At the close of the feast the President,
in his opening address, reminded those
present that we had reached the middle
of the twentieth century. and he called at
tention to the wonderful changes, i'm
provements and advancements made dur
ing the last fifty years.
At the beginning of the century, he
stated. the city of Newark extended from
what was then known as the Waverley
Fair Grounds on the south, to the Second
River on the north, and from the Passaic
River on the east to the township line of
the old township of East Orange on the
west, embracing a strip of land a little
more than half a mile in width and about
four and one-half miles in length on the
west side of the Passaic River. 1t then
contained a population of about 100000. 1t
embraces now the entire territory OF what
was then the county of Essex, and con-
tains a population of nearly 4.000, 600. The
annual expenditure for local government
at that time did not exceed $4,000, coo, While
now $50, 900, 600 are required for this pur-
pose-sach has been the increase in terri
tory, in wealth, and in the value OF prop
erty. The changes wrought in the APP
pearance of the city have been I'M
surate with its territorial growth. Within
the memory of our older citizens the Pru-
,..4:, so~,naa,,e b,,i1dfpos IN Epn9d
street stood up like a towering monument
in a country churchyard, dwarfing every
other structure along this notable high
way. Now, the lofty buildings which line
our principal t~horoughfares look down
upon the old Prudential with the same
contempt that it manifested toward the
structures of that day. At the beginning
of the century the problem of sewerage
and drainage was unsolved, and the wa
tiers of the Passaic were so polluted and
foul that serious apprehension of its eff
feet upon the public health were enter
tanned. 1t is evident, the speaker stated,
that our fathers, about the close of the
last century, were beginning to apprehend
the necessity of making provision for the
future. They procured a water supply of
about 80. 900. 900 gallons daily at a cost of
Sc 900. 900. They replaced their antiquated
public building by worthier structures
the old High School building No. =, the
proudest effort up to that period, was
completed in the year 1898.
A commission had been created, with
authority to secure lands for public
marks. and Newarkers We're looking timid-
1 w toward several of the enterprises since
achieved.
We smile when we read the account OF
the distress occasioned to many of our
former citizens when they contemplated
the burden and responsibility which these
provisions would entail upon them and
their children. So
At the time I am speaking of, the Presi-
dent continued, between the confines of
our city and the city of New York, lay
the wide waste of unreclaimed meadow
land, unoccupied, except by a class OF
manufacturers, the character of whose
business prevented them from locating
nearer the city. Here those famous mos
o%uitoes, about which we read and which
so troubled our fathers, were cultivated.
Here they fed on the foul odors which at
that time so distinguished us that it was
said, in passing from Newark to New
York. as many distinct smells could be
as SOleiluSS uieSoNCiCo -
the city of Cologne. According to the ac-
counts of this period of the stenches from
the meadows and the smells from the pol
luted river, the lines Of that well known
author seem to describe the situation
with great accuracy
sIn Coin, a town of monks and bones
And fanged with murderous
And hays and rags and hideous w%enches,
+ counted two and seventy Stenches,
4 All well defined, and several stinks.
Ye nyinphs that reign Ger sewers and
sinksi
The River Rhine, it is well known,
/ Doth wash your city of Cologne,
But tell men. nymphs, what power divine
Can henceforth wash the River Rhine?'
Now, the great sewer system of the
Passaic Valley has been perfected, by
which the drainage and sewage not only
of his city, but of all the towns and
cities within the drainage area, has been
provided for and disposed of. We are
told that before this great work was I'm.
dertaken the waters of our beautiful
river, now so clear and pure that 1t is
the pride and joy of all our people. We're
so foul that they could not be used even
for the purpose of bathing, that no hsh
could live therein, that oils and dye-stuf1s
aoated on its surface, and noxlous gases
dubbed up from the 6oze along its mar
gin.
How long and anxiousiy those who pre-
ceded MS worked over this problem of