The sun., 1902-10-05
OFT FROM THE YNGROWN AGE.
4 Forecast Of What New York VIII Look
Like to the Learned People OF 4. ID. 4OO2.

! 4 b IsOs, which should be of more than
| passing interest 10 all New Workers. The
article as dict ued by the clairvoyan,, runs
| as follows:
Simplar Fulishcus delivered the first OF
I his lectures on the result Of his recent ex-
cavations at New York in the Futnria Audi
| torium last night
There is no doubt the professor said,
I In the course Of his remarks. that the
! inhabitants of this ancient city belong
to the 'ingrown or 'topsyturvy' age. That
Ia to say they belonged to people who
instead OF building their cities, dug them.
They lived almost entirely underground
True, there are some evidences Of brick
and stone walls above the ground level of
old New York but this later form OF civili-
zation seems TO have made but slight in
roads at. the time Of the great collapse in
! 2te7 A. d.
Let us take Broadway, the principal
residence rut for example Al the hover
end, where the homes Of the wealthy were
for the most part situated, We find remains
Of dwellings from forty to fifty feet deep.
Allowing for the filing in that must
have taken place during the past $50 years
we can &c, some idea Of the great depths
to which these ancient 'lngrowns' carried
their excavations
Between the two rows OF dwelling holes
we find deep roadway, at about the level
Of the second stories Of the houses, count.
ing down, OF course.
A curious fact il that all Ingrown road
ways were covered with somewhat crude
mosaic roofs, ingeniously constructed Of
cobblesto ones and clay, cemented over with
asphalt
"This would seem TO show thai he In
crowns, like the Chinese of a much later
civilization, greatly feared the rain. This
accounts for their underground existence.
Along the sides Of this subterranean
roadway were found every necessary for
primitive mans living Traces Of sewer
pipes are still 10 be seen as are also wires
for telephone aud telegraphic commu-
ncstion.
In front Of some Of the most palatia
holes on lower Broadway rut We find huge
metallic chests or vaults extending far
out into the roadway We may infer from
| this that the aristocrats had no intercourse
with the tradespeople.
The ioeman butcher, or elect rician
as the case might be, would simply leave
his wares in the vault, where the inmates
could crawl up TO get them al their leisure
In one respect we have much 10 learn
from these primitive people their method
Of distributing mail They dispensed with
| letter carriers entirely, ! may relate an
amusing mishap which befell my learned
colleague, SignOr Assininiti,
-PeerinR into the mouth Of a large tube
al the lower end Of the city he behcld some
interesting papers stuck III crerice or
the lining To reach them II vas necessary
for him 10 climb into he tube. He had no
sooner done 40, however, than phh' -
he disappeared from sight Immediately.
ladies and gentlemen, you will hardly
believe me when tell you that eight hours
later, after digging urN way through almost
| impregnable debris, we found the Signor
calmly sitting in pile Of undelivered
ingrown newspapers al The other end OF
the Hs R,pS. had been .no, through three miles
of the Ingrown Pneumatic Mail Tube, and
he assured Us that he had been awaiting
our arrival for the last hours and 80
| minutes
Having looked at the residence quarter
| of ancient New York let MS now turn 10 the
| chief business 'horo, gnfare.
Fort avenue rut IL q splendid example
| people. In the early days OF their city
| they dug their two lines OF residence holes
| along Fortavenue and burrowed their usual
road rut between them But as the town
became larger and business kept growing
| they found that this rut was not wide enough
/, TO meet the demands made upon II.
Here was a pretty problem. They
| could not widen their rut without going TO
| the enormous expense and Inconvenience
OF filing in one line Of residence holes and
redigging them farther back. Did they do
this' Not bit of il,
From Thirty-fourrh nut 10 Forty-sec0nd
| rut, a distance Of almost half a mile, they
followed out a second roadway under
meath their original tunnel. This last, Of
! course. could b" used more conveniently
than the original rut by all those whose
business was beneath the top two stories
Of heir holes
A word now a. TO how Fort avenue r,It
got its name. he enemies OF the In
crowns were evidently people who dwelt
above the ground. AZ we do, For in the
roofs OF all the road ruts We find Al frequent
intervals large, round loopholes for the dis
charge Of dynamite, coal gas and other
explosives. In times Of peace these loop
holes were covered with round iron discs
TO afford he residents protection from the
much-dreaded rain.
"The commercial quarter Of the CITY, con-
tanning most Of the wealth. would naturally
be subject to the most at acks. Therefore
particular care was given TO the detences
along this ru' Hence the name, Fort ave-
nue..
THAT many hard-fought battles did AXE
place along upper Fort avenue il evidenced
by the huge piles Of debris and human
skeletons found in several places. The
explosions. in order TO cause such havoc
must have been terrific.
"The pictorial art Of the Ingrowns. though
primitive AFFORDS us much valuable insight
into their characteristics The galleries,
long fance-like structures, We're built above
ground SO that the pictures might receive
better light,
They lined great stretches along he sides
of the rut way roofs. The picture. "A large
part Of them portraits were reproduced
on paper by some mechanical device, and
then pasted on these fence-lke galleries
From these portraits We must infer
tha, the tnRrowns were a boastflil, bll-
'erng people. who took an almost childlke
pride in their petty vices.
For example, we found in fair state
of preservation innumerable pictures Of the
greatest Ingrown poets, pbidn'hrOpists
statesmen and dramatic artists In every
case the subject is represented ~ inhaling
the fumes Of some particular brand of
tobacco, or elsA III the act Oi drinking some
favorite brew of ~ rong spirits.
We were not able to gather anything
from the newspapers which we found that
would throw much light on the way in
which the lngrowns were governed. We
only know that the city was divided into
E,., l,,,nuhs 4, hnr,uub nrnhuhly 70