The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-05-28
NEW YORK's ANNIVERSARY.

On Tuesday the great city of New
York celebrated the 250th anniversary
of it's incorporation. There was no
great exposition to draw the populace
of the country and the world to the
gates of the city in honor of the
event, but rather was the passing of
the two and one-half centuries mark
attended by simple observances lin
keeping with the ripe age of the
municipality. With the centennial of
the Louisiana Purchase and the ad-
mission of Ohio to the union engag
ing public attention, it seems like an
oient history to look back over 250
years to the day when the Dutch set.
Element at the mouth of the Hudson
put off its swaddling clothes and arose
to the dignity of the name, City of
Amsterdam AT that time Paris
with a population of half million,
was the greatest capital in the world,
the population of London and its su-
burbs being less by quarter. Since
that time London has become first
among cities, and the Dutch village,
which in 1868 had a population OF
about l 1000 souls, now stands in the
second place,
After 1868 the tide of immigration
set toward the new city and it is re-
corded that as many as /, 1872 or about
a present immigrant shipload, arrived
between 1857 and 1864 This would
seem small today, but for those times
it was extraordinary From the
middle of the century to 1,700 the
growth was relatively rapid and in
the latter year the city's population
was 4, 20D. 1t was not until 1920,
however, that New York became the
metropolis of the new world, for dur
ing the eighteenth century and the
first two decades of the nineteenth,
Philadelphia, and at times Boston, was
in the lead.
In 1900 New York had a population
of 60, 4S9, in 1880. 203, 007. in 1910,
312, 10, in 1850, 515, 547, in 1860, 800,
Col, in 1870, 942, 292, in 1880, 1905,
800, IN 1890 1855, 3O1, in 1900 (all
boroughs), 3, 1877, 202. Since the CEN
sus of 1900 the increase in the popu
lation, according to every indication,
has been at an unusually rapid rate,
and the Municipal Art Society in its
recent report to the mayor seems JUS
titled in looking forward to the time
when New York will be a greater
centre than the world has ever seen.
1t may be pointed out that if the
present immigration continues, ex
ceeding in volume all past records
New York will have, before many
years, an Italian population greater
than even Rome or Naples contains.
Already there is in the city Jewish
population greater than any evel
massed together. and at its present
rate OF increase, natural and by 8
flood of immigration, it will include
at the end of a generation something
like a quarter of the whole number
of Jews in the world.
From the beginning New York has
been cosmopolitan and already there
has gathered about it's harbor com.
munity in which is mixed the races OF
mankind in variety and to an extent
never before known in the history OF
the world. The growth of New York,
however, has not been apart from the
evolution of the United States in any
particular, for what is true of the
development of the city in matters Of
population, wealth, commerce and
everything which has tended to make
it typically American, is also true of
the country at large, and the city and
nation will continue to grow together
just as in the past.