The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-13
A ANNIVERSARY OF NEW
 YORK ALDERMANIC BOARD

Today is the 254th anniversary of the establishment of New York City's Board of Aldermen. At the time of its creation, New York had a popula- ton of about 1900. In 1864, just half a century after its founding by the Dstch. the English occupied New Amsterdam and changed its name to New York. The English form of mu
 nicipal government by a mayor and a board of aldermen was adopted. The British occupation did not con-
 tinue unchallenged. for in 1763
 Dutch fleet of seven vessels, with
 1,600 men, arrived off Sandy Hook. The Dutch opened fire, and after re-
 turning a single shot from Fort
 James, Capt John Manning surren-
 dered the town to its former owners.
 The Dutch rechristened the place
 New Orange, and the form of munich
 pal government was again changed.
 Early in the following year, however,
 New Netherland was restored to
 England. Capt. Manning, who had
 surrendered the town, was tried by court martial and sentenced to have
 his sword broken over his head.
 When the Aldermanic Board was
 constituted 254 years ago, the mu-
 nicipal problems presented to the
 authorities were of quite a different character from what they are today. In 1865 the people of the future me- tropolis still believed in witchcraft
 and in that year one Ralph Hill and his wife were arrested, Ralph being
 charged with practIcing sorcery and black arts, and Mary, his wife. was accused of being a witch. The jury
 found nothing considerable against al h
 a warning. Five years later another
 woman. Katherine Harrison, who had been banished from Connecticut, was arrested on the complaint of citi- zens and charged with witchcraft. The court ordered her release, but the neighbors made 1t so uncomforta- ble for her that she had to leave. The servant problem was as acute | in the New York of those days as now l and many housewives had to do their | own work because servants and negro slaves were so scarce. Slaves, mostly from Barbados, were at a premium, and commanded from s150 to S175 in | the open market.
 The b1oated fortunes of today were then undreamed of. A merchant
 worth s2,5OO to s5,OOo was esteemed very wealthy. Ministers were scarce and religions many, and every va riety of faith and unfaith was repre- sented. The city fathers took good
 care of the poor, and beggars were unknown.
 New York was protected against foreign enemies by Fort James, a square stone structure with four bas-
 tions mounting 40 guns. About IS vessels, averaging 100 tons each,
 traded with New York each year
 from old and New England. The inn
 ports of English manufactures for the whole province amounted to about s250,000 a year.
 After 1873 there was a monthly post between New York and Boston. Whaling was then one of the leading industries of New York, and during the spring of 1869 no less than a score of whales were captured in New York harbor. New Workers had to | get along without a newspaper for | SO years after the English occupation, as 1t was not until 1725 that William | Bradford laid the foundation for the
 metropolitan press by issuing the New York Gazette. The yellow | press'' got its start eight years later
 when John Peter Zenger founded the | Journal, in which he bitterly attack.