The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-11
CHANGES WROUGHT
In ONE CENTURY
New York City as II Was One Hundred
Years Ago.
TALES A ceNTHNARIAN MIGHT TELL
From 100000 to 100000 Popuia-
tion.. What Was Considered Great
Wealth at the Beginning of the
Present Century, Other Dramatic
Compurisons.
From the New York Sun.

Comparisons.
From the New York Sun.
The last census showed that New
York had at least four centenarians
among her inhabitants. Should one OF
these attend the proposed Charter Day
celebration he might tell an interesting
tale of the city's growth. when he
was born New York was the national
capital, with a population of 10000 who
lived mainly below the canal, which,
at it's intersection with Broadway, was
crossed by a stone bridge. In his boy
hood there was where the Clafin ware
house now stands in West Broadway
a large orchard in which duels We're
fought. John Jay the first, who lived
in College place, had just returned
from treaty making abroad, to the an
ger of Spain, to which government no
treaty had been offered. Consequent
ly, concurrently with the return of Jay
to receive the plaudits of his fellow
New Workers, there had also arrived
Don Diego Gordoqui-an imposing-ap-
pearing Castilian-as Spain's first min
lister to the infant republic. New
Workers were then disposed to be
friendly with Spain, where lay their
nope Oh SneT11eS, SeNllle oranges, anu
olive OIL Don Diego was heartily well
coined by President Washington and
taken into the house of representatives
by Secretary of State Hamilton and
duly received.
If the New Yorker had friends to
visit in Brooklyn at the close of the
last century he took n rowboat at the
river stairs at the foot of Wall street.
If he walked up Broadway from the
Commons he would pause to admire at
Astor place and Great Jones street a
row of young French ,,oplar trees
freshly imported as a compliment to
the land of Lafayette, the recent guest
of New York. If he paused to take
breath at the head of what we now
know as Franklin street he would see
on either hand. east or west, steep de-
clivities-remains of which can still be
observed, Notwithstanding much grad
ing. From that vantage place on
Broadway he could see at the foot of
the hill at the point where now is the
Criminal courts building, large pond,
on which canoes would be skimming
along in summer, or If it were winter
with groups of skaters on it. That
pond was then known as "The Col
lect." 1t was fringed with trees and
bushes and thither the laundresses
would repair to do their washing on the
tanks Of the pond.
AT CENTURY'S BIRTH.
When the new century begar New
York city boasted of 10000 residents
and was fast arousing new jealousies
in Boston and Philadelphia. Duane
and Reade streets had just been laid
out, and a race had set in on the east
and the west sides of the island be-
tween Washington street and Cherry
in their progress northward In 1900,
where now stands ]. p. Morgan d Co S
banking house in Wall street stood a
night-watch house. Where is now the
Mortimer building at Wall and New
streets stood Becker's tavern. Oppo-
site to where is now the Sun building
stood Grenzebacks delicatessen shop.
Where is now the Tribune building
stood a low frame building running
along Nassau street and known both
! as Martling's long room and the Tam
Il many Wigwam.
If the centenarian as q schoolboy
J wished to treat a little sweetheart to
ice cream he would take her to a
garden opposite the park kept by John
H. Contoit, who subsequently in
amassed a fortune which a son of his
who recently died increased largely and
divided by will between a daughter of
the late Recorder Hackett (who mar
ried Contoit's step-daughter) and "Ned"
Hall, a clerk of the court of sessions
Where the Astor House stands then
resided Vice. President Aaron Burr and
Mayor Livingston, and in later years
Mayor Philip Hone also resided on the
same site. AS Columbia college boy
no doubt the centenarian Joined in the
grand procession got up by the Column
bian Order or Tammany society for
the burial with honors of the bones OF
the 1000 Colonial and Revolutionary
soldiers who were imprisoned by the
British on the prison ships anchored
off the Wallabout or where the navy
yard Is now. Congress had failed Ia
make an appropriation to disinter and
rebury the bones under a monument
although it had been widely petitiOned
to do so; wherefore the Tammany soci-
ETY. raised the money. The cornerstone
of the monument wes laid on April 49,
1903, after a procession in which the
Tammany society led and military
companies and citizens Joined. Joseph
d. Fay, prominent New York lawyer
he who was the law preceptor OF
Charles O'Connor-delivered an elo-
quent and impassioned Grafton. His
opening sentences We're these:
upon this day we lay the corner
stone of tomb and monument sacred
10 the memory of the II 900 patriot
martyrs who fell victims to English
greed and oppression. Hitherto then
ashes have been blown about like sum-
mer's dust in whirlwnd. But here
what remains of those ashes shall re-
pose and over them shall rise a marble
column to tell to future ages the story
of those who chose death in preference
TO political slavery. Moreover, the cur.
ious mariner shall, as he passes at a
distance, point hither in silent admira-
tion, and posterity shall call it the
Tomb of Patriots"