The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-12
25Oth Anniversary
 of the New York
 Aldermanic Board

Nv York's city fathers will observe today the 250th anniversary of the AL 1 deranic Board of the American me- | tropolis. As a feature of the day, a new city flag will be hoisted over 1 City Hall. The flag consists of per
 pendicular bars of blue. white and or i ange, the coIors of the original Dutch
 flag, with the city's seal in blue on 1 the white bar.
 At the time of the creation of the A1dermanic Board, New York had a population of about 1,500. In 1864, just half 8 century after it's founding l by the Dutch, the English occupied New Amsterdam and changed it's
 name to New York. The English
 form of municipal government by a 1 mayor and board of alderman was
 adopted. The British occupation did not continue unchaIenged, for in 1873 a Dutch fleet of seven vessels, with 1,600 men, arrived off Sandy
 Hook. The Dutch opened fire, and 1 after returning a single shot from Fort James. Capt. John Manning surren- | dered the town to it's former owners.
 The Dutch rechistened the place New 1 Orange, and the form of municipal government was again changed. Early l the following year, however, New l Capt. Manning, who had surrendered l the town, was tried by court-martial and sentenced to have his sword brok- en over his head.
 When the AIdermanic Board was constituted two and a half centuries
 ago, the municipal problems present. ed to the authorities were of a quite different character from what they i are today. In 1865 the people of the 1 future metropolis still believed in Eeved in witchcraft, and in that year one Ralph Hin and his wife were ar
 rested, Ralph being charged with practicing sorcery and black arts, and
 Mary accused of being a witch. The jury found nothing considerable against them,'' and they were re1eas- l ed with warning. Five years later l another woman. Katherine Harrison,
 who had been banished from Con- ] necticut, was arrested on the com plaint of citizens and charged with
 witchcraft. The court ordered her
 release, but the neighbors made it so
 uncomfortable for her that she had
 to leave.
 The servant problem was as acute
 in the New ork of those days as now, and many housewives had to do their l own work because servants and ne- gro slaves were so scarce. Slaves,
 mostly from Barbadoes, were at a
 premium, and commanded from $150
 to SITS in the open market
 The b1oated fortunes of today were
 
 worth from $2,5oo to $5,0oo was es-
 teemed a merchant prince.'' Min 1 isters were scarce and religions
 many, and every variety of faith and unfaith was represented. The city I fathers took good, care of the poor, and beggars were unknown.
 New York was protected against
 foreign enemies by Fort James, a l square stone structure with four bas- 1 tions. mounting forty-six guns About
 fifteen vessels. averaging 100 tons each
 traded with New York each year
 from Old and New England. The
 imports of English manufactures for
 the whole province amounted to about 1 $25O, 900 a year
 1 After 1873 there was monthly post between New York and Boston. l Whaling was then one of the leading industries of New York, and during l the spring of 1869 no less than score
 of whales were captured in New York lharbor. New Workers had to get
 along without newspaper for sixty i years after the English occupation, l as it was not until 1725 that William Bradford laid the foundation for the \ metropolitan press by issuing the New York Gazette The yellow press 1 got it's start eight years later when 1 John Peter zenger founded the Jour-
 nal, in which he bitterly attacked the
 municipal and provincial authorities,
 for which he was imprisoned nine
 months.