The San Francisco call., 1906-08-19
1855 TIE COUNTRY Boy Vic
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Tn the afternoon we visited differ
ent parts of the city. He predicted
that In few years business would
push north of Union square, for al
ready plans were oat for erecting
monster tavern in Madison square, to
be called the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The
site Is really in the midst of open
fields and unpaved streets, and many
are predicting its speedy collapse when
open. Mr.. Lake says the hotel will not
only make business, but that stores
and shops will soon follow. And yet
all seems visionary to me, for George
Lake said 1t was not many years since
fields and orchards just north of
Bieecker street, where he once boarded,
that he might have good air and a
pleasant view Of the country.
However, the future can only be
judged by the past. Failure was pre-
dicted for the great st. Nicholas and
Metropolitan hotels when they were
opened above Grand street But they
drew business. and now theaters are
opening still farther, tup Broadway
nearly to Fourteenth street. Winter
Garden and Niblo's, near Houston
street are the center of extreme up
town amusements.
Il have never been in theater in
my life. At present it is too expen-
sive. In Utica we pay only 25 cents
Tor good seat at the circus; here
they charge SO cents at Niblo's and the
same price at Burtons Theater. the
fashionable place OF amusement in
Chambers street, where Romeo and
Juliet, with Jane Coombs as Juliet is
charge as high as a dollar for the
fashionable stalls, covered with red
and gilt George Lake says the per-
formances are fine. Mrs. Hoey is the
star, and Agnes Robertson and Mr..
Boucicault are announced to appear
soon.
II had keen appetite when
reached my new home in Cliff street
after our long walk today. The more
l see of George Lake the better ! like
him. He Is fine young man of en-
terprise and principle. / predict his
success. (Note by the editor Later Mr..
Lake founded the firm of Lake & Nc
Creery.)
Saturday Night.-What a wonderful
busy week, Have written home all
about 1t. Uncle will be pleased. Am
just In from Saturday half holiday.
Went with young Lake to see the SUI
burbs. We visited the places where he
used to hunt quail and rabbit. away
up on the west side between Thirty
fourth and Forty-Second streets
GOATS IN HERALD SQUARE.
and Sixth avenue, recently opened
(now the site of the Herald building)
we saw a great rock forty feet high,
with three or four comical looking
goats percheds thereon like sentinels.
Broadway runs on one side of the rock
and is only country road apparently.
Yet miles above, at Fort Washington
there are historical old homes great
houses and noble country seats to
charm visitors who have courage to
make so long trip. | fear. however,
that that part of the island will re-
main unchanged, for not in a thousand
years could the real city reach those
faraway heights. The entire western
part of the island stretching along
Broadway is a mass of rocks, cliffs and
bluffs, covered with goats, with only
now and then house In some shell
tered nook where there is barely
enough fertility for a garden and a
few trees, but for the most part 1t Is
a wilderness, and the banks of the
city could not pay the expense OF
blasting out sites for improvements
and buildings there.
''All the business in New York worth
talking about Is below Leonard street
Only hotels and theaters are pushing
their way above that point
"A Week Later-Again half holi-
day. Lake and l now spend our spare
hours together. Today we walked to
the country through Fifth avenue.
stopping at the wonderful Crystal
Palace, where the Worlds Fair Is the
attraction. It's by the reservoir, at
Forty-second street and Fifth avenue.
Beyond this the thoroughfare is little
more than a wagon road-a great con-
trast to the splendid boulevard extend
ing through the city miles below.
George Lake says he hopes to be
wealthy enough some day to own
house there, even IL he has to live as
far UP town as Twenty-first street"
(Note-Mr. Lake did buy house In
Fifth avenue years later, but near
Sixty-third street, few doors from
the Metropolitan Club, opposite the
Park.)
"As we stroiied toward the country
today but few houses were visible
most of them typical country houses
above Thirty fourth street, and but for
the Worlds Fair at Crystal Palace l
doubt if the avenue would have been
paved to this day above the site Of the
Fifth Avenue Hotel. North OF Forty
second street we found no pavements
or sidewalks to speak OF, scarcely any
buildings, and from Fffty-ninth street
northward the country stretches away
in a veritable wilderness of forest,
rocks, lakes and glens.
George Lake said the old proposal
to have a pleasure park along the
had been abandoned for the project
now under way--laying out a tract to
be called Central Park, a strip two and
half miles long and half a mne wide.
embracing the wild lands between Fifth
and Eighth avenues and extending from
Fiftyninth street some eighty blocks
northward. We took q three or four
hours ramble over the tract, got lost
once or twice, saw some wild game
while crossing over to Eighth avenue,
where stage line makes occasional
trips to Manhattanville, near the be-
ginning of the Harlem fats
Il am naturally sanguine. but cannot
imagine the wilderness of the after
noon ever being transformed into a
city park. George Lake says money
can do anything. and he expects to see
a veritablc dreamland in a few years,
modelled after the pleasure gardens of
Europe. My friend has up 20 date
ideas, obtained from chum OF his,
who buys silks for his firm and goes to
Europe every year for their annual
importations OF foreign goods.
HE MET PETER COOPER.
December 21.--Another day of mar
vels. Friend Lake Is rising man. He
seems to know everybody worth talk