The National tribune., 1901-06-06
Curious Relics Unearthed in New York City.


New York City is to have an under
ground railroad for rapid transit clear up
Manhattan Island, and hundreds of Ital-
ians are at work excavating from the
City Hall north. through the old city,
that, while not going back to Dutch times,
was occupied during the Revolution.
The diggers in the City Hall Park and
Elm street sections of the tunnel have
found many curious and interesting relics
during the weeks that active digging has
been in progress. A more varied collec-
ton of articles of all kinds than the one
now in the section Office at Worth and
Elm streets would be hard to find. Bayo-
nets and bolts are there, human bones and
buttOnhOok5, swords, sabers and scab-
bards, whole or in fragments, cannon
balls and copper and silver coins, chains,
knives, tools and pieces OF old cedar water
pipe laid by Aaron Burr
The find which has aroused the most
interest was uneaTthed in the deep ditch
at Elm and Pearl streets. In an old brick
wall which helps to support an adjacent
building there is wedged an iron cannon
crusted with dirt and rust. It's muzzls
commands that section of the digging as
if defending its ancient resting place. And
the contractors say it will not be dis
turbed. Near by on the same block a
spade turned up half human skull and
some fragments of bones. The brain case
of the skull was shattered, though the
teeth were perfect. A few yards off half
a chain shot with a dangling link or two
was found.
1t is not improbable that some connec-
ton between these objects once existed,
and thereby might hang a tale il a teller
could be found. The coins that have been
turned in land the majority, it may be
supposed, have not been) are of many ma
tions and denominations and number about
L.-r all Tlnr9
pieces except Canadian 1O-cent piece
dated 1925. An Irish copper bearing the
head of George ~, and dated 1905, IS
among them. The newest found is q
Spanish centavo of 1879. The other dates
range back to 179S and the pieces are
from the mints Of Spain, France, Bel
GUM, Sweden. England and the United
ly the most complete, and contains nearly
all the specimens Of the big cart-wheel
cents of the eighteenth century.
Those connected with the firm of con-
tractors have preserved the more inter-
esting of the relics. The old iron win
probably soon find its way to the junk
shop as unfit for the collectors cabinet.
But the foremen say that of late they
have had to keep sharp watch on their
Italian workmen to prevent them from
carrying away the objects that they find.
The men are evidently beginning to rea-
lie that these bits of corroded metal and
dirty bones that they thought were of no
account are worth something TO the curl
Gus, and consequently they are adopting
the plan of ''findin's is keepin's." The
wary foreman now makes an instant
pounce upon any man that stops and
fumbles in the sand or slips something
into his pocket. Sometimes he gets il
and sometimes he doesn't The bronze
tablet from the City Hall plaza that was
for some time the only evidence that the
tunnel had been begun now lies in an
obscure corner Of the section office, its
occupation gone, while the crowds that
used to stare at it now feast their eyes
on the real thing.