davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
BY ARTHUR B. MAURICE.

q ONE day that familiar line of
- Longfellow's Lost Youth" may
recall to the habit harnessed
New Yorker the early years when the
trip to Coney Island involved the
water journey to Bay Ridge and
thence the shaky Jaunt in open cars,
with face famed by salt breezes, to a
spot where there was a real beach in
stead of the garish, tinsel merry go
round Of modern times.
The memory and the suggestion of
the following lines, "the Spanish SAIL
ors with bearded lips and the beauty
and mystery of the ships and the
magic of the sea-" may spur him to a
voyage OF discovery. from which he
Will return with a knowledge of the
amazing variety OF the water front of
New York, and the realization that to
find the flavor of his favorite poets
and romancers 1t is not at all neces-
sary to travel to remote lands.
To borrow the Kipling phrasing:
all unseen, romance brings up the
five-fifteen." Here at hand is the at
mosphere of his Balzac or bis Steven
son. his Dickens or his Dumas. 1t is
merely matter of his receptiveness
of spirit. And for the full effect it is
perhaps best for him to assume tenn
porarily the mental attitude of the
stranger confronting the city girded
for battle.
To begin with a Balzacian note.
Eventually the understanding will
come that they have a thousand diff
ferent aspects and angles and moods
that vary with the changing seasons
and as the days lengthen and shorten.
But on the stranger the first likely
impression is that these "wharves and
slips and sea tides tossing free" are
the symbols of challenge. In time the
swarming beehive behind will absorb
him and stamp him in it's own image,
but never to the point of entirely for
getting that first aspect Of hostility, of
defiance, Of call to combat, to come
and conquer or be conquered. No
matter what the avenue of approach
may be the city's water front is its
battle line.
1t is in the best known OF all the
novels of the Coincide Humanine that
a character climbs to the heights of the
cemetery OF Pcro LachaiSc, from there
TO contemplate the stretch of Paris be-
low, as one surveys an enemy position,
and to announce to the stars that
henceforth the struggle is on. "a nous
deux, maintenantl" Is Rastignac's cry,
shaking his fist at tho city that he has
found so pitiless. There IS not a night
that that cry does not find its echo
here. In the spirit that was Rastig-
macs many a venturer, shaking to the
roots OF his being by the city's ap-
parent coldness and disdain. is making
his way to the middle Of one Of the
great bridges that span the East River
TO gaze down at the black current
then at the brooding waterfront, and
then, with head proudly erect, at the
myriads OF lights glittering in the tall
towers of steel and masonry. Cried
aloud in the shadows OF whispered be-
tween clenched teeth is the message
conveying defiance and the promise OF
ultimate conquest.
Then strengthened in purpose by
uis sense Of coming to grips with the
adversary. the stranger has plunged
again into the labyrinth toward the
bare room that had an hour before
been pressing In on him like prison
walls.
That mood charges; that impression
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
traits of All New Yorks Mayors Since 1889 in City Hal
Not All Are Very
High Art. but
Each Has a His
toric Interest of
Its Own Three
by John Trumbull
TT WO hundred and seventy years
have passed since Gov. stuy-
vesant proclaimed New Am

TT WO hundred and seventy years
have passed since Gov. Stuy-
vesant proclaimed New AM
sterdam a city, but 1t was not until
1889 during the incumbency of James
Duane that the custom started of hav-
ing his Honor's portrait painted and
hung in the City Hall.
To judge by the pictures that do
hang there archaeology would have
gained more than art had the custom
obtained during the terms of the forty
ante Revolutionary Mayors who pre-
ceded Duane in office, for not all the
portraits which now are preserved
merit the consideration due to works
Of art A few do. The others are in
teresting for different reasons.
From the Revolutionary period to
1915 John Trumbull was the painter
frequently employed to commemorate
the features ofsthe citys Mayors. His
name signs so many canvases repre-
senting sober, elderly gentlemen in
stock and jabot that he well might be
called the court painter of his day. At
least three of his subjects offered the
qualities which it may be presumed
portrait painters like to find in their
subjects, and all the subjects of his
brush appear picturesque to modern
eyes The three Trumbull portraits
notable in the City Hall are those Of
Richard Varick, Edward Livingston
and Marinus Willett. He painted two
portraits of the splendid De Witt Clin-
ton, one in full length and the other
a three quarters. but these pictures do
not show the artist at his best.
Modelling Gave Advantage.
For although the conventions of
portrait painting as they existed in
his day were observed faithfully by
Trumbull, and like the painting OF
the eighteenth century portraits of the
time seem uniform to us, there are to
be found in these three portraits a
quality which gave Trumbull a dis
tinct advantage over his contemporary
artists. This is the quality of model
ling. Whereas 1t seemed to be the
habit of portrait painters OF the begin
ming of the nineteenth century to
FLOW in" the faces of their clients
without regard to the bony structure,
so that the cheek and brow too often
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
Marinus Willett's
Was Longest of
Mayoral Noses
City Halls Walls
AreNowSurfeited
With Portraiturea

to paint: his extraordinary featured
instinct with vivacity, lent a momens
tary inspiration to artist Inmail. This
painter enjoyed high consideration In
New York and should have earned
tidy income by his brush. He was as
indefatigable as Sir Joshua, and In
many a quiet parlor still furnished In
the black walnuts and reps Of the early
forties, the face Of a staid founder OF
family, perpetuated by this artist,
looks out In arnazement and disappro-
val Of the things that go on in this fast
twentieth century.
Frederic r. Spencer, who was a Ma
tional Academician, is represented by
portrait of Mayor Robert Hunter
Morris Other members Of the same
respectable organization are repre-
scented by portraits they made of May
ors. Samuel Waldo's sitters were
Mayor Cadwalader, David Golden and
Mayor Stephen Allen. A most delight
full subject was found by Robert Wal
ter Weir in Mayor Walter Bovine, who
was the last of these officials to be ap-
pointed from Albany. This scion Of a
famous Flushing family had, or 80 1t
would appear from the way the artist
has limned him, all the sternness and
Observation-Disclosures said to be char
acteristic of that race.
The secessionist Mayor.
Charles Loring Elliott had a dis
tipct opportunity to win renown when
Fernando Wood, the "secessionist"
mayor of the Civil War period, who
had previously served term in this
Office in 1885, sat to him. The rather
characterless portrait which hangs in
the corridor Of the Mayors room
would indicate that he had failed to
grasp It. He did his work, however,
in Woods first term and before the
extraordinary type he represented had
been fully recognized. Not that this
is an excuse for Elliott for it is the
painters privilege to see traits before
they are to he read by all who run.
The group of portraits which were
painted after the Civil War are an
Improvement, or at least are different,
for the style of portraiture had
changed from that in vogue in the
early Victorian days and this change
from the ever recurring three-quarter
length, plush chair, red curtain and
sunset sky affords relief.
In the latest additions to this munic-
ipal portrait gallery the portrait of
Mayor Gaynor is disappointment,
while that of Mayor William L.
Strong. presented to the city by
Gen. Coils, is veritable portrait, one
painted with cleverness and under
standing. 1t hangs in an out of the
way corner, but 1t is well lighted.
A surfeit is surfeit, either OF
cruel or terrapin. and when it is in
the form of paint the stroller in the
City Hall finds too many mayors.
Charles lis gallery of beautiful
women in Hampton Court, while not
nearly so numerous, gives the visitor
the same feeling of repletion. 1t is
in consequence of this feeling, per-
haps, and not because Of anything that
can be attributed to their honors or
to the artists who painted them that
ones impulse is to criticise the collec-
ton from a rigid standard Of art,
which would be a mistake. These pic
lures are best taken as kind of pub
lie document
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31

The latter Mayor, dressed in black
with a simple white stock, has the
distinguished air which gives TO the
portrait look of Van Dyck, but this
aristocratic appearance is doubtless
inherent. In the portrait of Richard
Varick, either by happy accident or
fortunate design, the spectators at
tention instantly is focused on the
eyes, which are so deeply black, lum-
nous and full Of what is called soul
that one looks at them, or rather into
them, and ignores the poor drawing
and inferior craftsmanship. 1t was
thus the great portrait artists wrought
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31

Two of the most picturesque run from
the lower end of Manhattan respec-
lively to Hamilton street and Thirty
ninth street in South Brooklyn. From
slips and houses that are now dingy,
but which were regarded as the last
cry in waterfront magnificence and
enterprise in the days when after the
theatre parties gathered for oyster
suppers in restaurants around about
Fulton Market. the old boats with
reminiscent names churn past the
round, red, ivy covered fort of Govern
or's Island
When the boat has nosed into the
moldy slip and has been made fast
to the rafting of rusty chains, and
the air has been clamorous with in
vective as the horses drawing the
trucks are urged up the incline like
a battery being dashed into action,
there is the journey toward the Erie
Basin by the cent Van Brunt street
trolley line through a veritable city
OF the sea. 1t is impossible to get
away from the flavor OF the sea, for
the merchant who is not himself pur-
veylng to the needs of ships and sail
ors Is dealing In necessaries to those
who are. Then beyond is the basin,
a great noisy city in itself. whose mag
nitude may be indicated by the simple
statement that one company alone
controls docks covering thirty five
acres and employs more than 5000
men; a complex, twisting, battling
city, to the lapdsman as awkward
to navigate as the deck OF a plunging
In l. =
by as many parts Of seagoing craft
as Kipling puts into "The Ship That
Found Herself" There are points in
the basin where the tangle of ropes
and masts and cables is so thick that
! the effect is that of great wire
screen. Through this screen one
watches the hammering at the plates.
the hurrying and scurrying of figures
that in the middle distance seem squat
and gnome like, the whole giving the
effect of the setting Of the scene Of
some colossal opera, staged to the &C.
compartment OF pandemonium.
Recrossing the ferry, old New Am
! sterdam is in the stretch of the Man
haitian waterfront from the beginning
of South street TO the Brooklyn Bridge
"a New Amsterdam Of smudgy, dull
brick, sloping roofs and gable win
dows, Here and there the line is
broken by a square, slate colored.
fortresslike structure suggestive OF
Dickens's London in yellow fog. On
the dingy signs and the discolored let
tering have beaten the suns of many
decades Of summers and the storms of
as many winters With a dimness that
Is almost supiciously furtive signs and
lettering tell of sail makers, of canvas
supplies, of sings, rope, net, cattle,
coal and ash bags and specie. Behind
the unwashed windows are pulleys,
rusty chains, anchors. coils OF wire
and even wooden shoes.
] Nevertheless 1t is pleasanter to cross
South street and beyond the tangle of
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
MsSAARlhDS YILIETT, mayor OF. new YORK,
1907 OS. BORN ~ lZ4o. PAINTED BIZ JOHN
TRUMBUlL, l756- l94S =.

resemble nice pink and white surfaces,
in the presentments of Varick, Liv-
ingston and Willett the painter de-
parted from custom. Had the other
two shown so pronounced a type as
Marinus Willett one might suppose
that nature, by a certain eXtrava-
gance in the supply of bone, had die
tated the departure. But the strong
and narrow features Of this Mayor,
who we'll nigh vies witt Francois Pre-
mier for the honor Of the longest nose
in history, are not repeated in the
countenance of Livingston or of Var
lex.
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31

their spell, by concentrating on one
magnificent feature.
Three or four quietly interesting old
faces. but negligible portraits look out
between the fine portrait Of Marinus
Willett and William Paulding. The
latter was painted in the red chair lit
figures over and over AGAIN. by Sam
uel f. B. Morse when Pauldlng was
in his second term of Office in 1926.
Also the great inventor OF the tele-
graph is represented In his role of
painter by a gigantic canvas OF the
Marquis of Lafayette which hangs in
the Mayors reception room. Provided
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
philip
SDNSA HtSEG I925- lS26,
NANOGRCHN, ITO 1852

that in these two portraits Morse set
down naught in malice, then he had
for sitters two of the plainest men of
their TIME. They have no possible in
terest to the observer, except what
grows out of the inventors fame.
A portrait of a higher class is that
Of Philip Hone, Mayor from 1925 to
1925, painted by John Vanderlyn, who
was born in 1916 and died in 1852. In
this picture of our doughtiest and
testiest (before the days of Strong and
Gaynor) Mayor the influence Of Gil
bert Stuart is perceptible. 1t is a
handsome face, full of strong char
acter and strongly, if artificially,
painted. The artifice is due to an ac-
emulation of unexplained high lights.
These are darkening and improving
in the process.
Inman's First Mayor.
AS we turn to the portrait of Cor
nelius Van Wyck Lawrence 1854
1897. who was the first Mavor to be
elected by the citizens Of New York,
his predecessors having been appointed
by the Governor of the State, we read
the name of Henry Inman for the first
time in connection with these Mayors
portraits. He painted several which
rank high in the collection, including
that of Aaron Clark, 1887, and Isaac
L. Varian, 1S41. The portrait of Aaron
Clark energies from the dead level of
mediocrity in vivid manner but
again comes the impression that the
effect is to be attributed more to the
subject than to the artist. Clark was
a man Franz Halls would have cared
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31

many waterfronts there Is divided
interest and divided allegiance? AS
good place as any to begin the pill
grimage is Pier a, just to the west
and north of the old Castle Garden,
which has gained more fame from the
fact that one Jenny Lind once sang
there, than from the fact that few
millions have passed through II in the
process Of taking on new nationality.
1t is at Pier A that the Dock Com
mission meets and the police patrol
boat lies.
To that patrol boat one formerly
turned for the flavor OF New York
underworld romance. That was the
way to a city analogous to the city
which Eugene Sue introduced in THE
Mysteries of Paris" or the town
nearer home which Admiral Porter in
vented as the background of his
nearly forgotten Allan Dare and Rob-
ert le Diable.'' That boat was sup
posed to hunt interesting river thieves
and flash its lights on bodies being
dropped through the trap doors OF
East Side wharves. But 1t doesn't
seem to go mystery hunting any more.
ent function has been to fly a thou
sand strips of bunting. each about as
inconspicuous as the flag of Spain,
and thus decorated, and with band
blaring on its deck, to side up 20 the
incoming transports. Which, though
less exciting, is right and proper and
significant of better age.
A Primrose by tho Harbor's Brim.
But the patrol boat and its obvious
duties are only by way of diversion.
The point to be emphasized is the at
titude of the men OF the Dock Com
mission toward the waterfront. To
them the waterfront is the harbor and
nothing more. Within the harbor
water tugs, floats laden with freight
cars, shapeless scows, river boats,
stately oceangoing steamers, are tenn
porarily their charge. But once pass
ing into the Hudson or the East River
or disappearing into the horizon, tugs,
scows and all depart forever from ia
terest and ken. For us the water
front is the harbor. Do you want any
figures about the harbor? We can
supply them all Maybe, as you say,
there is some waterfront over the
other side of the Battery up the East
River. What OF it?"
Not only are there many water
fronts, but single continuous water
front Is likely to change surprisingly
in the course of its stretch. Take, for
example, West street, as 1t moves
away from Pier A. To revert to the
bookish note; at its southerly end
where 1t breaks from Battery Park,
despite the undermining effect of the
tall Whitehall Building, which occu-
pies the site of the old Reunion House,
there is flavor suggestive OF the
town which Robert Louis Stevenson
found when he landed here as an ANA
teur emigrant in the summer OF 1879.
Issuing from West street, sitting on
some straw at the bottom of an open
baggage wagon. with the rain beating
down miraculously'' were Stevenson's
words describing the journey which
carried him and his companion to Re
union House. No. 10 West street, one
minutes walk from Castle Garden, the
Steamboat Landings. California Steam
ers and Liverpool Ships; Board and
Lodging per day dollar, single meals
20 cents; no charge for storage OF
baggage; satisfaction guaranteed tc
all persons; Michael Mitchell, Pro-
prietor."
Although the actual structure thai
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
Along Our WaterfrOnts Are "Wharves
And Sill ps and Sea Tides Tossing Free

OF hostility vanishes. No longer docs
the waterfront scowl with malignant
enmity; reapproaching the city the
lights cease to be sullen flares mark
ing the outpost of foe. OF no i'm
portance is the particular point of OBJ
servation. 1t may be the deck of an
incoming ocean liner making its way
up through the Narrows, or of a white
painted river boat numbering down the
Hudson, or Of a Sound boat winding
cautiously between the islands as 1t
approaches the city from the northeast.
or of a red or yellow ferryboat churn-
ing past tugs and barges. There is the
twinkle of welcome in the lights.
The stranger of yesterday surveys
them no longer with brooding sus-
picion. but in a new found spirit of
comradeship. This time his voice is
not that of Rastignac, but the rough
sympathetic, understanding voice OF
Whitman:
City OF ships!
ooh. the black ships oh. the fierce ships!
Oh, the beauty of sharp bowed steam
ships and sailships).
City OF the world. (For all races are
here).
All the lands of the earth make con-
tributlon here.
City of the sea! City of hurried and
glittering tides
Variety Is Infinite.
1t is not one waterfront that the
New Yorker on his voyage of discov-
cry will encounter, but a dozen water
fronts, every one unlike all the others.
The Staten Island shore. rising into
hills that are green or snow covered,
according to the season, is one water
front, the first to confront the visitor
from the Old World, and with its bu-
collie aspect. to mystify him when he
is informed that he is beholding a part
Of the much heralded city of New
York A stately residence crests the
first of these hills to come within close
vision, and its owner, when travelling
IN Europe, was in the habit of giving
his United States address as "Ameri-
ca, first house on tho left"
Even before that Staten Island
shore has doomed near to the incom-
ing transatlantic liner there had been
II ulSlddll glimpse VI dhOlHSi wafer
front, the fantastic line OF Coney ISL
and, with its spangled temples and de-
vices for garish joys. These soon give
place to a third waterfront and a
fourth-the northern shore OF The
Narrows, and the sea wall at Staple
ten.
These are only the advance posts.
How many more there are beyond!
The Battery Is a waterfront bearing
absolutely no resemblance TO such
others as the Erie and Atlantic Basins
in South Brooklyn, the grim ware
houses at the foot of Columbia
Heights, the far inreaching Navy Yard,
the strip of old New Amsterdam that
stretches from the South Ferry to the
arch Of the Brooklyn Bridge. the gas
house region that lies just beyond
where the width OF Manhattan is
greatest. the section In the shadow OF
the Queensborough Bridge, where,
from lost terraces that run perilously
up to the very edge of sharp declivitles
one LOOKS down upon Blackwells ISL
and with Its prison and hospital and
poorhouse buildings and surveys be-
yond the oil factories OF Hunters
Point; or, across the city, on the North
River side, the great Chelsea Docks
and the sweep OF aristocratio River
side.
Is-n to DO wondered that with 80
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31


buildings differing little from the hum
BILE hostelry which you entered
through long barroom, thence
passed into a little dining room and
thence into a still smaller Kitchen"
where 1.-The furniture was of the plain
est; but the bar was hung in the
American taste with encouraging and
hospitable notices"
From n. l.. 8. to Mohammed All.
Abruptly the mood and the aspect
OF this particular waterfront change
and one is likely to forget all about
the Scotchman with the Paris Fon-
tainebleau Saranac-California South
Sea Islands affiliations Back of the
wharves and the slips and the sea
tides the East is mysterious in the
faces that peer from open doorways or
are to be seen at table in tiny, unin-
wiling restaurants, or are turned up
ceilingward. submissive under razors
that seem to flourish menacingly.
This stretch is tho western frontier
and the seacoast OF the city's Syrian
quarter. which reaches back to Wash
/ ington street. There are two or three
blocks here where the visitor, by keep
ing the eyes riveted upon the expanses
Of glass and the activities within, may
move in the atmosphere of the Levant.
Transportation is alluringly offered
through the medium of such firms as
'Mohammed, Ali, and Co." Then a
glance to the west and north dissi-
pates the pleasant dream. The red
ferry houses are belching forth the
commuters from the New Jersey hills
and lowlands; and not Asia Minor but
Hudson River ports and cities of New
England and the South Atlantic sea-
board are blazoned and extolled in the
huge letterings over the approaches to
the wharves.
Then long wharves become longer
still. When the Chelsea docks were
built It was with the idea that they
could accommodate the biggest of
Transatlantic liners. But already a
stern here and there overlaps, pro-
truding fifty or a hundred feet into
the river. There was no other spot
in New York where the world war
seemed so close. Passing from the
sunshine Of West street into the bust
ling gloom of the great sheds 1t was
easy In imagination to hear the echo
OF the guns in France. Now again as
the thick smoke pours from the
tunnels hooped with the markings of
Cunard or White Star or Compagnie
Generate Transatlantique the baggage
laden taSis snort through the cavern
like openings, and there Is once again
excited chattering and farewclls where
the tears are merely conventional and
superb cabin stewards, I'M
worried except about the tip TO be
forthcoming at the journeys end, are
| assuming charge Of unsearched trunks,
and there is in prospect no furtive
dash with screened port holes and
darkened decks.
or all the waterfronts OF New York
the Battery is Oldest and richest in
tradition. There are only a few
wharves and slips there, but the sea
tides are tossing free. To-day II your
ears are selectively hardened against
the clang and clamor 1t is a pleasant
place 10 dawdle, TO prowl for an hour
in the aquarium, to study the dere-
licts on the park benches and from the
sea wall to watch the ships go by.
Where History Fingers.
J Along other Now York watertronts