The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-02-11

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seem to depend largely on the CON
stderasion which the beet sugar grow
ers receive at the hands of congress
in the coming tariff session 1t Is a
matter of record that the seaboard
refineries, the so.called trust, are In
favor of reduction which would be
snfficient to cripple or destroy the
sugar beet industry On the other
hand this industry has shown such
great gains in the last ten years and
Its possibilities are now being SO
strikingly illustrated that with prop
er encouragement still greater expan-
sion seems assured for the future.
The present situation affords a pars
ticularly striking illustration OF a
possible change In the center Of com
mercial dominance from Wall street. 4
Has Remarkable Past.
But while The Wall street of the
future may show many such striking
changes, they will be more remark
able than those of the past. Probably
not one person In ten thousano
knows that the famous street follows
the line Of what was once brush
fence to keep cattle out. The famous
wall" which gave the street its
name replaced the fence In 1868. The
wall was not much of fertilization,
only stockade about nine feet high,
with small ditch and an earth en-
bankment. The wall" stood for
thirty-two years, the defense of the
town. though it never defended any
thing and when the English came In
1914 New Amsterdam surrendered
without resistance.
It was not the wall" which really
made Wall street. but the parade
ground which old Peter stuyvesant
had laid out behind 1t, hundred feet
wide, which became quite the thor
oughfare Of the town. Seventeen
houses stood there when Sir Thomas
Dugan, the British governor, in the
year 1856, proceeded on most ap.
proved modern plan of civic improve
ment
First Sir Thomas sent out a
dummy one Captain John knight,
who bought land adjoining the wall
on the north side for 1000 feet of It's
length, with such claims as the title
might hold on the parade ground 70
the south. The next day Dugan or
dered surveyor to lay out Wall
street in the parade ground and with
in another twenty-fours the surveyor
reported that the work was done So
the townspeople awoke enc morning
and found that they had new street.
The street was not a hundred feet
wide, as it has been supposed to be,
but only thirty-six and the Cover.
nor's 10. thus became 124 feet deep
instead of the 80 feet he had bought
and paid for. So Wall street came
into being by one of the prettiest
municipal steals" of American his
tory.
For half century a slave market
stood at the foot OF the street. 1t
was only removed when the Mercn-
ants Coffee House adjoining, which
was frs. resort OF pirates, became
like many modern
tough" resort and objected to the
smell of the slave pens.
Two wells were open in Wall street
in the middle of the way. furnishing
water at spot where It is said wat,
er of another sort is still abundant.
Indeed. the first regular trade done
in the street was he selling OF wat
er-though the inhabitants saw moth.
ing prophetic of modern finance IN
the peddling of Htea water"
Rapidly Wall street became the
residence street OF New
York and in 1899 the city hall was
built facing the head OF Broad street.
The common council voted in ITO
that the stocks, pillory, cage ann
whipping post "be removed from In
front of the city hall to the upper
side Of Broad street little below the
city hall"-which would have placed
these institutions almost exactly in.
front Of the present site Of the stock
exchange.
In 1874 four relocated soldiers.