The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-08-11
~ M.TsVzELAS
CAPSULE NO. n.

THERE are those times when the life Of a community moves on saeh even
/ keel that but few events rise to ina Importance wheret they as worthy
Of being recorded. Such periods are naturally of more frequent occurrences in
communities which are small. obscure and Isolated There are. indeed. tho.
towns Boosting but ne distinct n striking event, to which he citizens may
point back with pride This happy instance becomes the basis for a nw local
calendar. Thus why. that happened about the year IF the big wind I re-
member hearing m grandfather talk If it many times" or Let's see he town
burned dow in 4s; hat must have beena about ten years later" And so on
But Newark was neither small mol isolated Tor obscure. 1t "a anything but
any of thsse depressing things And yet this rapidly growing city furnished
just suh a commonplace period. From 1sot O 1851 there was very little stirring
in the life OF thu city which would MAKE ar exciting story. This statemen is
not made to behtte HI citizens of Newark in that particular decade of its his
tory. Far from it. It is justa a well that there are some easy going stretches
unmarked by n causes for celebration beyond tn regular annual Fourth of
July noisefst Such blank spaces. are annoying only to the historian. Also IT
is very probable tina few Newarkers of thatd lay lost N sleep because they
we're not dofng anything startling enough to aus their period later to b e m
balmed in undying history.
There a ample reason for this season of quescence It is probable that
here is ample reason for everything. 1t is necessary to sink a shaft to discover
said reason for ome things. In this case 1T is 50 near he surface that a nns
placer mining ncove it, Since his PAM AM its resulting period of hard times
had parayzed Newark Industries. then eve when the tide turned, there a
a large n varied assortment of caution displayed by those who
sought to take advantage of it, They were playing safe. To many he panic
had been as a Dto tut o a clear sky, and they had been taught the essOn that
the unexpected is IN active roundsman, n may drop AROUND any ttme so
ofd depression was over by 1so The clouds began to roll way nd y iaa there
a but a suggestion of. them left me city buckled down to make up for lost
time n lost business. Prosperity could not resist such a fighting spirit and
soon Newark was a beehive OF activity again. But IS the business depression
had been general through Ill tn States D. he Unon, here were put compara-
lively few additions made to the manufacturing plants here 1t va a tins
when established businesses which had weathered the storm turned in to re-
uieve dwindedf fortunes, an lot a period when industries We're founded to n
or decided extent. Yet he return of prosperity renewed n feshened
and polished HI lure which thu town extended the outside individual In tho
year of he panic, 1884, it will be remembered hat Newark lost 1000 of her
10000 inhabitants. The population grew 50 rapidly from 1913 to 1s57th at in the
latter year it had reached the high water mark of $4,000 Phenomenal is a word
too ofen used to descrbe he merely unusual This mistake is SO regularly
made hat the word will not be used here in onnecton with this jump in popu
aion figures. To say that this jump vas but little short of phenomenal how
ever is digmfed and conservative to say nothing of being safe and sane. It
must be remembered that this vas no mushroom growth of a mining town.
Newark was III years sold at the beginning of thisp period of arvelousg growth
When te returns we're In it helped a lot There is nothing civic pde fattens
or like growing population figures Census returns which show a loss after ten
years of strife and strain are sometimes fatal to the ambition of a town which
has not ute struck it's gait BY the sam token, with the reverse English o L,
Newark citizens were almost prepared to perform miracles when they saw in
black n white HI tharc city was rapidly becoming very large n important.
II ws al excellent omen, ant so fr as things of this kind were concerned they
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