The New York herald., 1922-01-08
New York in the Good Old Times
An Opmist Compares Life in the City of Sixty Years
Ago With the Improved Conditions of To-day.

1t is not surprising some Of your cor
respondents hold that the old times were
far better than the present. while others
maintain contrary opinion. The truth
is we have gained in some things. in
many things. and we have lost in others.
Conditions surrounding housing and
transit. at least so far as poor persons
are concerned, have very much i'm
proved. The present generation has no
appreciation of the squalid and unsani-
tary condition of the rear tenements of
fifty years ago or of the horrors of the
shanty towns where the squatters re-
sided These dotted the city in dozen
or more locations, on the upper East
Side and the upper West Side and in
Harlem. Thousands of men, women and
children, with goats and possibly pigs.
lived huddled In the rudest shacks.
patched over with discarded tin roofing
and burlap
In my boyhood days there was no
systematic street cleaning or waste rub
bish collection. aside from the fashion
able sections of Fifth avenue and the
squares. Washington. Madison and Union.
and Murray Hill. Many househo.ders
as late as the sos combined and paid
to have their streets cleaned.
In looking back / wonder why the
city was not afflicted by pestlence more
often. AS it was, we had recurrent epi-
denies Of typhoid fever and diphthera,
and / can well recall two scourges OF
yellow fever and l think three Of small
pox. In years have not seen the face
of a native New Yorker pitted with
smallpox which was common spectacle
in my boyhood.
Few persons in those days. even
among the wealthy. INDUCED in the now
almost universal practice of a daily
bath. In many fine residences there was
no running water above the first floor.
Saturday night was tub night; portable
up stairs In buckets.
1t Is not pleasant for a man of my
years to be Jostled and jammed in a
crowd or to hang on to the end of a
strap In an elevated or subway car, but
l fairly lose patience when / hear the
young men and women of to-day COM
plain Of this phase of the transit prob
lem. Now we have clean, we'll lighted
cars running at frequent intervals. Fifty
years ago we were crowded just as we
are crowded now, into dimly lighted
evil smelling horse drawn cars. or we
risked life and limb in bounding, plung-
ing omnibuses or stages.
In winter the floors of these vehicles
were covered with straw. muddy sloppy
and i'll smelling. And it was pitiful to
! en- 10 cf np hn hpr In
dragging these overcrowded conveyances
1t was harder upon the dumb animals In
summer than in winter, and on one hot
summer evening 1 recall seeing seven
dead horses in the street on a ride in
Third avenue car from City Hall to
Yorkvile.
The present generation Of New York.
ers snarl over the slightest delay In a
| trip to Harlem or beyond. What would
they think of It IL they had to make
the journey by boat? And yet that is
what many of us did from choice forty
| or fifty years ago. remember the
boats well; they were the Sylvan Dell
Sylvan Stream, Sylvan Grove, Sylvan
| Shore and perhaps one or two other
Sylvan things. They started from Peck
slip. adjoining Fulton Ferry. and con-
veyed their passengers to Harlem
Bridge Smaller boats piled the Har-
lem River to High Bridge and Spuyter
| Duyvil.
The stages were frequently stalled
for hours together in the traffic Jams
and men and women had often to COM
plete their Journeys on foot. The only
pleasant memories I have of a Broad.
way stage was when as a lad I mus.
tered sufficient courage to initiate my
mates. climb UP on top and sit by the
driver. 1t required an acrobat to climt
up and lot OF endurance to cling tc
ones elevated perch, but it was fine
experience for a boy.
! New York was badly lighted at night
the streets were often muddy and dirty
and the main thoroughfares were dis
figured by unsightly telegraph poles and
strands Of telegraph wire. 1t is my