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 FIRST CIT-i H\LL 
 
 OIvD NEW YORK. 
 
 By James Grant ^yILSON. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the commercial metropo- 
 lis of the western world had its ori- 
 gin in the pursuit of commerce, there is 
 about the early history of New York a 
 certain romantic and picturesque interest 
 not perhaps found in that of any other 
 American cit3^ Boston was settled by 
 the stern Puritan ; Philadelphia by the 
 broad-brimmed Quaker ; Baltimore by the 
 gay cavalier, but New York was cosmo- 
 politan from the first. Stolid and deliberate 
 Dutchmen, volatile .French Huguenots, 
 witness-bearing Quakers and Anabap- 
 tists, Swedes from the Delaware, Con- 
 necticut Yankees, Maryland cavaliers, In- 
 dians and African slaves formed the bulk 
 of her population two centuries ago. Later 
 
 came the Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians 
 —almost all the nations, so that in more 
 or less heterogeneous mass may be found 
 within her borders representatives of 
 scores of principalities and powers — 
 
 " lu one strong race all races here nnite." 
 
 Her government — too often it must be 
 admitted no government — has been equal- 
 ly varied and original in type. First, 
 under that brief nondescript — Occidental 
 in organization, Oriental in dreams — the 
 Dutch West India company, her unhappy 
 settlers lived under laws framed by a body 
 of self-seeking merchants, administered 
 by directors whose bigotry or ignorance 
 or incapacity were so great as to lead us 
 
 Tames Grant Wilson, the son of the late poet publisher Wilham Wilson, of 
 Pou't'hkeepsie New York, after completing his studies travelled in Europe and 
 vvastor a time associated with his father in business. He was among the many 
 young cavalry officers who distinguished themselves in the civil war, and was a 
 favorite with General Grant, with whom he seri'ed at Vicksburg and elsewhere. 
 General Wilson, who was promoted in March 1S65, was for some time in command 
 at Port Hudson, but during the same year resigned from the army, since which 
 period he has resided in New York. He has written several books and contrib- 
 uted many articles to magazines, and edited the Cyclopedia of Amencan Biog- 
 raphy He is at present engaged on a history of New York from its farst settle- 
 ment to the yeari892, and the illustrations that accompany the present article are 
 taken from nearly 1000 which have been collected for use in that work. 
 
314 
 
 OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 to infer that they were chosen 
 for their unfitness rather than 
 for their fitness. After Eng- 
 land captured the cit}-, in 1664, 
 the qualit\' of the laws was 
 improved, Init the navigation 
 laws and port charges were 
 intended to destroy, or at least 
 restrict, her conuuerce, while 
 most of the English governors 
 were impoverished favorites 
 whose exchequers must be im- 
 proved at the expense of the 
 people they governed, or sol- 
 diers of fortune whose services 
 on the field entitled them to 
 fill their purses from the rev- 
 enues of a province. Under 
 the republic for a time her government 
 was pure and honest ; to describe that of 
 later years other adjectives must be used. 
 Nevertheless her situation renders her 
 peerless among American cities. On a 
 long, low narrow island, Avashed on the 
 west by the broad Hudson, on the east by 
 the narrow estuary of the East river, with 
 the unrivalled and beautiful bay before 
 her, Providence seems to have intended 
 
 GOVERNOR 
 
 THE " STRAND."' 
 
 New York for the port of the nation. Al- 
 read}- she is aspiring after statehood, and 
 her population approaches that of several 
 of the smaller states combined. 
 
 The discovery of her bay and site in 
 1524 was accidental. 
 
 The finding of a passage to India 
 through or around newly discovered 
 America was then as much the dream of 
 bold navigators as is the discovery of the 
 North pole to modern adventurers. The 
 Florentine Jean Verrazano was on this 
 
 quest when earl 5^ m 1524 "^-^x^^y'^-"' '■• 
 he discovered the bay and 1 "'" 
 
 was probabl}' the first European to enter 
 and explore it. Nearly a centur}-, how- 
 ever, elapsed before an attempt was made 
 b}' an}' European nation to utilize its com- 
 mercial advantages. This was at length 
 done b}' Holland, then the foremost com- 
 mercial power of Europe. Certain shrewd 
 Amsterdam merchants in 1615 secured 
 from the states general a char- 
 ter for a trading company and 
 the exclusive privilege of 
 trading to New Netherlands 
 for the space of three j'ears. 
 Their object was trade, not 
 settlement. They were suc- 
 ceeded a few 3'ears later — 1621 
 — by the "West India cora- 
 pan}- ' ' — a private corporation 
 with sovereign powers, and a 
 monopoly of trade for Amer- 
 ica, the Atlantic coasts of 
 Africa and the isles between. 
 It announced that it would at- 
 tack Spaiai — then at war with 
 Holland — in its American de- 
 pendencies, but its real object was gain. 
 A small trading post was established by 
 this company on Manhattan island in 
 1624, and in 1625 a larger body of emi- 
 grants with cattle, seed and agricultural 
 tools were sent out, and landing on Man- 
 hattan island in May 1626 founded the 
 city of New York under the name of New 
 Amsterdam. They were in command of 
 the first governor, Peter Minuit of Wesel 
 in Westphalia, who a few weeks later ac- 
 quired an honest title by purchase from 
 
 9 
 
 ^ 
 
OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 315 
 
 i.' Fartnteuw y4mlier^'(>f7e^Manha^^'. Ci'S<S><f*^^J ^S^ ^*»*^~ ^ 
 
 the tribe which then owned and occupied 
 the island. When, in 1875, the writer 
 asked the late Queen of the Netherlands 
 if sixty guilders was not an exceedingly 
 moderate consideration to give for Man- 
 hattan island, being about one-tenth of a 
 penny per acre, her majesty, unaware that 
 the trifling amount was not paid to the 
 Indians in gold or silver coin, promptly 
 replied, making the following clever de- 
 fence of the thrifty Dutchmen, " Well, if 
 the savages had received a larger sum for 
 their land they would simply have drank 
 more firewater. With sixty florins they 
 could not possibly purchase enough to in- 
 toxicate each metnber of the tribe ! " 
 
 The Dutch dynasty thus founded lasted 
 until 1664, when England seized the prize 
 she had long secretly coveted. During 
 this period it was governed by the West 
 India company through its directors. 
 These latter had supreme power, ex- 
 cept that their subjjects could appeal 
 to the home company, and as a court 
 of last resort to the states general. 
 There was also a council of five ap- 
 pointed by the director, which had 
 advisory powers onl3\ The history 
 of the city at this time is little more 
 than a record of attempts of the peo- 
 ple to gain power, of oppression of 
 the Indians and retaliatory massacres 
 on their part, of the gradual growth 
 of a civilized community in the midst 
 of the wilderness. The people gained 
 a great victory when in April 1652 
 
 the first city charter was granted, which 
 was modelled after that of ancient Am- 
 sterdam, and gave the people the right to 
 elect two burgomasters and five schepens 
 to assist the director in the government. 
 The city then contained about 1500 in- 
 habitants. Stuyvesant, the director, how- 
 ever, did not permit the people to elect, 
 but appointed the new officials. 
 
 An English fleet, under command of 
 Colonel Richard Nicolls, captured New 
 Amsterdam in August 1664. Nicolls at 
 once named the city New Yorl» in honor 
 of his master, James the Duke of York, 
 to wliom this same year the Dutch ter- 
 ritories had been granted by his brother, 
 Charles 11. 
 
 Except for a brief period, from 1673 to 
 1674, when the Dutch recaptured and held 
 the citv, England governed New York 
 
 THE FIRST STREET ON EAST RrVER. 
 
3i6 
 
 OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^■O^ 
 
 until the success of the revolution ended her power over 
 the thirteen colonies. In many respects the city's con- 
 dition was improved. Her growth was certainly much 
 more rapid. She was ruled b}^ governors as before, but 
 the people were given a voice in the government. They 
 could elect a legislature to look after their interests in 
 the province and a ma3or and common coimcil to repre- 
 sent them in city affairs. A code of laws, much more 
 liberal than Stuyvesant's, was framed, and trial by jury 
 and a justice court for each town established. Instead 
 of being the slave of a commercial monopoly, surrounded 
 by provinces unfriendly to her. New York became one 
 of several colonies, under the same general government, 
 having the same language and common interests. 
 
 Her history during this period contains elements of 
 the romantic and picturesque that an able historical 
 novelist might turn to account. Voyages to the Red sea 
 and East Indies were 
 made and brought 
 great wealth to the 
 city ; vessels of vari- 
 ous kinds began to 
 crowd her wharves. 
 Snows, ketches, 
 brigs and ships from 
 Barbadoes and Cu- 
 ra^oa, colonial ports 
 and the mother 
 country, were there 
 discharging cargoes 
 of manufactured 
 products, sugar, mo- 
 lasses and rum. The 
 privateers too — 
 swift, rakish craft 
 called into being by 
 the various wars — • 
 were numerous . cornklius steenwyck, the first dutch 
 Not a few of these, 
 once on the high 
 seas, turned their guns upon the craft of every nation 
 and thus became pirates. Their favorite cruising ground 
 was the Red sea and Indian ocean, where they capti:red 
 and rifled the rich argosies from India and Arabia con- 
 stantly traversing those waters, and either transferred 
 their cargoes to their own holds or carried their prizes 
 to a stronghold they had built in the island of Madagas- 
 car, where the cargoes were taken and brought home by 
 vessels despatched from New York for that purpose. 
 The pirates were most numerous in the reign of Gov- 
 ernor Benjamin Fletcher (1692-1698), who, indeed, was 
 accused of harboring and protecting them. While their 
 day lasted they lent an oriental air to the city. They 
 spent money freely, they were fond of appearing in pub- 
 lic clad in rich stuffs of the East that formed a striking 
 contrast to their bronzed and bearded faces. The city's 
 warehouses too, in those days, were burdened with rich 
 
 MAYOR OF NEW YORK OF WHOM A POR- 
 TRAIT IS EXTANT. 
 
OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 1^1 
 
 treasures of the East 
 — silks and shawls 
 from Persian looms, 
 rare perfumes and 
 costly ointments, 
 while gems and jew- 
 els of choicest work- 
 manship in gold, sil- 
 ver, pearl and ivory 
 were worn by the 
 merchants' wives 
 and daughters. 
 
 In the midst of 
 this profusion and 
 display there ap- 
 peared in the harbor 
 one day a vessel 
 called the Adventure 
 Galley, commanded 
 by one Captain 
 William Kidd, a 
 shipmaster well 
 
 known in the city, 
 having been for many years in the Lon- 
 don trade, who had been furnished by five 
 English lords of Ligh degree with a ship, 
 and commissioned by the king to go in 
 search of and take pirates wherever he 
 could find them. Kidd beat the town for 
 recruits, sailed away to the Indian ocean 
 with a large crew, turned pirate himself, 
 and became among the most notoricuo of 
 the guild. 
 
 The English governors were fond of dis- 
 play and of all the trappings of royalty. 
 Their entries were attended with great 
 state and ceremony. The city militia, 
 drawn up in arms, and the mayor and 
 common council were at the landing place 
 to receive them as they disembarked. 
 The company saluted the governor <■ ' with 
 
 THE WHITE HALL, GOVERNOR STUYVES.\NT's CITY HOUSE. 
 
 acclamation and firing," a procession was 
 formed and marched to the fort, where the 
 council chamber was thrown open and the 
 governor's commission publicl}^ read, af- 
 ter which the governor administered the 
 oath, to his council. After this the pro- 
 cession re-formed and marched to the City 
 Hall, where the new governor was pub- 
 licly proclaimed and his commission read 
 to the people, which was received with 
 "more firing and acclamation,." and the 
 ceremonies concluded with a grand ban- 
 quet in the evening. The birthdays of 
 the royal family and anniversaries of 
 great events in English histor}' were com- 
 memorated by banquets, speech making, 
 parades, the firing of cannon and illumi- 
 nations. 
 
 NEW YORK IN A.D. I704. 
 
3i8 
 
 OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 i^S; 
 
 THE NEW NETHERLAND, THE FIRST SHIP BUILT IN 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 During Governor Fletcher's adminis- 
 tration Trinity church, the pride of all 
 good citizens of New York, one of our few 
 churches of historic fame, was founded. 
 Fletcher contributed largely toward build- 
 ing the first church ediiice, which was 
 opened for worship in 1696, giving, among 
 other things, the revenues of the King's 
 
 THE CANAL IN BROAD STREET. 
 
 farm for a period of seven years. This 
 first church was replaced by another in 
 1737. It was destroj-ed in the great fire 
 of 1776, which followed the evacuation of 
 the cit}^ by the Americans ; was rebuilt 
 in 1790 and this structure replaced in 1846 
 by the present beautiful edifice which 
 stands like a sentinel at the head of Wall 
 street. 
 
 Sy 1765 protests, fier}^ denunciations 
 and threats of resistance heralded the ap- 
 proach of the revolution. In that great 
 struggle New York was not behind her 
 sister towns, although several of them fill 
 larger space in the annals of the conflict. 
 Nowhere did the Stamp Act of 1765 en- 
 counter greater opposition. The first 
 Colonial congress at which resistance was 
 hinted met in her City Hall in October 
 of that year. On October 2Ty, while the 
 congress was still in session, the ship 
 Edwards arrived with the stamped paper 
 in her hold. She was received with hisses, 
 deriding cheers, menacing looks and ac- 
 tions. The docks swarmed with people 
 and the harbor shipping displayed flags at 
 half mast, as if liberty were dead. That 
 night men stole like shadows through the 
 city streets, in spite of the rattle watch, 
 and afiixed to trees and house fronts bill- 
 boards and placards which warned any per- 
 son who distributed or used the stamped 
 paper to take care of his house, person and 
 effects. The vSons of Liberty organized. 
 The people held open-air meetings in what 
 is now the City Hall park, at which fiery 
 speeches were made and defiant resolu- 
 tions passed. 
 
 Sometimes, it is 
 said, a pale young 
 student from Colum- 
 bia college named 
 Alexander Hamilton 
 climbed upon the ros- 
 trum, and electrified 
 the audience by his 
 eloquence ; and again 
 they listened to the 
 persuasive oratory of 
 John Jay, then a law 
 student in the city. 
 On the 31st of Octo- 
 ber the Stamp Act 
 was to go into effect. 
 " The last day of lib- 
 erty," the patriots 
 called it, and they 
 
OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 319 
 
 
 ushered it m willi the tolhng of bells and 
 with muffled drums beating the funeral 
 march. The country people appeared in 
 large numbei'S ; sailors came from their 
 ships ; the citizens joined them, and all 
 marched through the streets, threatening 
 vengeance against any who should dare 
 use or vend the obnoxious paper, and sing- 
 ing patriotic songs in which the king, the 
 governor, the troops and the Tories were 
 mercilessh' lampooned, and the future of 
 America glowingh' depicted. In the even- 
 ing 200 merchants engaged in trade with 
 England inet, and after patriotic speeches 
 passed spirited resolutions to import no 
 goods from England while the vStamp Act 
 remained unrepealed, to countermand all 
 orders for spring goods already sent, to 
 sell no English goods on commission and 
 to buy none from strangers that might be 
 sent out. This preceded similar action on 
 the part of Philadelphia merchants by 
 fourteen days, and of Boston merchants 
 by thirty-eight days. 
 
 Boston has claimed the first blood shed 
 in the revolution, 3-et it is in evidence 
 that the distinction belongs to New York. 
 On January 18, 1770, a collision between 
 the troops and the citizens took place, fol- 
 lowing the tearing down b}' the former of 
 a liberty pole which the Sons of Liberty 
 had raised in the commons abreast of the 
 soldiers' barracks. The quarrel was re- 
 
 tOLl Mlil\ LOI I LGt IN 1754 
 
 newed the next da\ and ended m the de 
 feat of the soldicrv In the melee a num 
 ber of citi/cns \\ere \\<nindtd V sailor 
 was thrust through with a bayonet and 
 fell. A Quaker named Field, while stand- 
 ing on his own doorstep, was cut on the 
 cheek. Several others received bayonet 
 thrusts. This antedated by nearly two 
 months the famous Crispus Attucks af- 
 fair in Boston. 
 
 The Boston Tea party is one of the 
 notable events of history. New York held 
 hers some three months later. News of 
 the passage of the Tea Act w^as received 
 by the patriots of New York with the 
 declaration ' ' that tea commissioners and 
 stamp distributors were alike obnoxious," 
 
 THE WATER GATE, WALL STREET. 
 
320 
 
 OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 NOVA HEI-GICA SIVE NIEUW KEDERLANDT. 
 
 and they passed votes of thanks to mas- 
 ters of ships wlio had refused to charter 
 their vessels to transjjort cargoes of tea. 
 When the first tea ship arrived (the Nan- 
 c)-, Captain Lock3-er, reported off Sandy 
 Hook April i8, 1774) the pilots refused to 
 bring her any further than Sandy Hook, 
 and b}- agreement a deputation from the 
 Sons of Liberty boarded her there and 
 secured her boats that the crew might 
 not escape, and thus afford her captain a 
 pretext for not carrying her and her 
 cargo back to England. Captain Lockyer 
 was also guarded by this committee, and 
 permitted to visit his consignee and pro- 
 cure stores, etc., for his return voyage, 
 but was not allowed to visit the custom 
 house to enter his vessel. In answer 
 to the committee's demand Captain Lock- 
 yer agreed to sail on his return on Sat- 
 urday-, April 21. Placards were at once 
 posted all over the city asking every 
 friend of his country to attend a conven- 
 ti«n of citizens to be held on the wharves 
 on Saturda}' morning at nine o'clock, that 
 the capfain might see with his own eyes 
 
 "their detestation of the measures pur- 
 sued b}' the ministr}^ and b\^ the East 
 India company to enslave this countr}'." 
 The bells were to give notice an hour 
 before he embarked from Murray's wharf. 
 At the hour of nine on the appointed morn- 
 ing a committee waited on the captain at 
 his lodgings in Wall street to escort him 
 to the wharf, where a sloop had been 
 moored to convey him to the Nancy. The 
 street was already crowded with citizens, 
 called together by sound of bell an hour 
 before. The ceremony began by the com- 
 mittee leading the captain to the balcony 
 of the coffee house where he lodged, that 
 he might look upon the people and they 
 on him. His appearance was the signal 
 for shouts from the multitude, and a band 
 struck up " God Save the King." Then 
 the committee and the captain took their 
 places at the head, and the procession of 
 citizens, to the sound of martial music, 
 passed down Wall street to the dock. 
 There captain and committee went on 
 board the sloop, and were conveyed to the 
 Nancy (which during this time had been 
 
OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 321 
 
 riding at anclior in the lower baA"), ever}- 
 bell in the cit}' save two — the official bell 
 on the City Hall and that of Columbia 
 college — ringing triumphant peals, the 
 shipping showing their ga^^est bunting 
 and the liberty pole on the common ga^' 
 with flags, while artiller}- at its foot accen- 
 tuated the victory of the people. 
 
 Before the Nancy could sail, however, 
 another tea ship, the London, Captain 
 Chambers, arrived. The latter positively- 
 denied that he had tea on board, and as his 
 manifests revealed none he was permitted 
 to come up to the Q.\\.y. The committee, 
 however, had received word from the Phila- 
 delphia committee that tea was on board, 
 and a delegation boarded the vessel at her 
 dock, and told the captain they were pre- 
 pared to open every package in his hold 
 in order to satisf\' themselves that his 
 manifest was correct, whereitpon the cap- 
 tain confessed that he had eighteen chests 
 on board. The committee retired to de- 
 liberate. That night, about eight o'clock, 
 a band of Mohawks visited the ship, 
 hoisted up the cases of tea, broke them 
 open, and after empt5dng their contents 
 into the river dispersed without injuring 
 the ship or interfering with the rest of the 
 cargo. 
 
 New York's part in the revolution has 
 been so fully detailed that it seems imnec- 
 essary to dwell upon it here. The citj's 
 great distinction and chief claim to the 
 regard of patriotic Americans is that here 
 the great instrument which made us a 
 nation, the compact between the states, 
 the Constitution of 1787, was conceived, 
 discussed, formulated, and in spite of jeal- 
 ousies, individual, municipal, state and 
 
 THE FIRST CHURCH AND GOVERNOR'S HOUSE. 
 21 
 
 THE FIRST BRICK HOUSE IN THE CITY. 
 
 sectional, and of the intrigues of land 
 syndicates, speculators and disunionists, 
 adopted ; that here the first president was 
 inaugurated and the republican court in- 
 vStitxited. 
 
 Since that day the growth of the city 
 has been continuous and unchecked, de- 
 spite the evil of occasional corrupt gov- 
 ernment administered for its own in- 
 terests by a great political organization 
 which derives its power from the dregs of 
 the cit3-'s population. This remarkable 
 growth has at times been greatly accel- 
 erated by opportunities which her mer- 
 chants were quick to grasp, or by the ac- 
 complishment of the designs of sagacious 
 and far-seeing statesmen and capitalists. 
 Among the former were the opening of 
 the China tea ports to trade and the dis- 
 covery of gold in California. Among the 
 latter the invention and development of 
 the steamboat, the canal and the railroad 
 as common carriers. Fulton's first suc- 
 cessful steamboat, the little Clermont, 
 pushed her wa}' up the Hudson on her 
 first voyage in 1807, pioneer of vast fleets 
 of similar craft. The Erie canal, how- 
 ever, up to a comparatively recent date was 
 the city's chief feeder and the principal 
 factor in her remarkable growth, ^he 
 success of steamboats on the Hudson prob- 
 ably first turned men's thoughts to the 
 
322 
 
 OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 project of a waterway from Buffalo to Al- 
 bany which should connect the great lakes 
 
 with tidewater and give to New York the 
 
 commerce of the West. On July 4, 1817. 
 
 ground was first broken for the canal at 
 
 Rome, midway between the two termi- 
 nal cities. B_v 1S25 the entire canal was 
 
 completed and great preparations were 
 
 made for appropriately celebrating its 
 
 opening. This event was quite unique 
 
 and poetic in character. 
 
 At intervals of eight or ten miles along 
 
 its route cannon were placed, and also 
 
 along the banks of the Hudson to New 
 
 York. At ten o'clock on October 26, 1825, 
 
 water was let into the canal at Buffalo 
 and a pioneer fleet of canal boats started 
 on their journev to the metropolis. Their 
 departure was announced in New York by 
 the relay's of cannon at 11. 21 a.m., one 
 hour and twenty-one minutes from Buf- 
 falo. One minute later Fort Lafayette 
 began the return fire, which reached Buf- , . . 
 
 falo at 12.50 P.M., having made the circuit boarded the leading boat, and an alder- 
 in less than three hours.' The boats passed man welcomed the visitors to the city. 
 across the state, and were received at Some hours later a long procession of 
 every important town with salvos of ar- shipping was arranged and moved down 
 tillery and the acclamations of the people, the river and bay amid salutes of cannon 
 They reached New York on the morning to the Narrows, where Governor Clinton, 
 of November 4, where great preparations standing on the bow of the foremost boat, 
 had been made to receive them. The cor- held aloft a keg of lake water which had 
 poration steamer Washington, with a com- been brought from Buffalo, and poured its 
 mittee of the common council on board, contents into the ocean, declaring that 
 
 THE DAMEN FARMHOUSE, NOW THE SITE OF THE EQUl 
 BUILDING. 
 
 was the reply, whereupon the committee 
 
 hailed them, and asked, " Where are you 
 from, and whither bound?" "From 
 Lake Erie, and bound to Sandy Hook," 
 
 THE FIRST MAP OF THE CITY. 
 
 the act was intended to indicate and com- 
 memorate the wedding of the mediter- 
 ranean seas with the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 The canal would have been a greater 
 factor in the city's growth but for the 
 development of the American railroad. 
 For some years its chief office has been 
 to keep freight tariffs low from fearof 
 its competition. And yet the first rail- 
 road in New York was not opened for 
 traffic until 183 1. The Erie railroad, 
 the first great trunk line, was opened 
 in 1854 as a through line between the 
 great lakes and New York. The city's 
 maritime growth kept pace with and 
 was in part the result of the develop- 
 ment of the inland trade. It stirs one's 
 pulses even now to hear veterans tell of 
 the maritime victories of 1 8 1 6-1 850. The 
 needs of transatlantic traffic in the ab- 
 sence of steam caused the establish- 
 ment of lines of swift packets that very 
 soon drove the clumsy old merchantmen 
 out of the passenger carrying business. 
 
OLD NEW YORK. 
 
 323 
 
 The first of these was the Black Ball line, 
 founded in 1816, with four, and later twelve 
 packets, sailing regularly on the first of 
 every month. This proved so successful 
 that in 182 1 the Red Star line was estab- 
 lished, also sailing to lyiverpool, which 
 caused the Black Ball line to add four new 
 ships to its fleet, and despatch a vessel 
 twice a month — on the first and sixteenth. 
 The graceful and swift-sailing clippers 
 succeeded the packets, driving the latter 
 from the ocean as passenger ships, as the 
 packets had the merchantmen. The clip- 
 per vShips originated in Baltimore, and 
 were first built to meet the demands of the 
 China trade, in which speed was preferred 
 to capacity, the tea deteriorating greatly 
 in quality b}' a long sea voyage. 
 
 The discovery of gold in California in 
 1849 added greatl}' to the clipper service, 
 since return freight as far as San Fran- 
 cisco, half the distance to China, could be 
 secured. As California freight was bulky 
 .in character the capacity of the clippers 
 constructed for this service was greatly 
 enlarged, some of them, such as the 
 Challenge and the Invincible, averaging 
 2000 tons. They made some remarkable 
 vo3-ages* For instance, the Surprise, be- 
 longing to A. A. Low & Brother of this 
 city, made the vo3-age to San Francisco in 
 ninety-six da3-s, carrying iSoo tons of 
 cargo and making on one day a run of 
 284 miles. The Honqua, another clipper, 
 made the run from Shanghai to New 
 York in 185 1 in eighty-eight days, the 
 shortest voyage that had ever been made, 
 
 and on a return trip sailed 328 miles in 
 one day. But steam and the war together 
 drove these beautiful sea couriers from 
 the ocean. 
 
 New York is today completing her third 
 century of existence. She is the centre 
 of great and diverse interests, a republic 
 •in herself The population massed within 
 her narrow boundaries exceeds that of 
 many a large state. Nearly all the trades 
 and processes known to civilization are 
 carried on within her limits. She is the 
 financial centre of the Union. Her great 
 publishing interests have made her the 
 largest literary mart of the continent and 
 among the largest in the world. Her 
 wealth and population are increasing as 
 never before. In 1626 the whole island, as 
 already stated, was purchased for twent}-- 
 four dollars ! In 1890 land for residence 
 purposes on the Fifth avenue was sold at 
 the rate of twenty-seven dollars per square 
 inch !• and her real estate was assessed at 
 11,398,290,007. In 1890 the duties collect- 
 ed on her imports amounted to 1153,900,- 
 052. During the same period more than 
 5000 vessels, with a gross tonnage of 6,- 
 258, 222 tons, entered the port. Her foreign 
 exports for the same period amounted to 
 $389,289,482 and her imports to $562,73=5,- 
 987. 
 
 The metropolis has committed many 
 mistakes, and is confronted by some 
 problems. These her best citizens believe 
 the future will solve, and in a manner 
 conducive to her continued prosperity, 
 usefulness and glor3\ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DUMPTY. 
 
 Adam Bede." 
 
 WHAT shall we have for the next club?" 
 That is what the committee alwa3-s said 
 at its first meeting. You see, the club met every 
 other Saturday evening through the winter, and some sort of entertainment, either 
 of sense or nonsense, had to be provided by a committee in charge. These unfortu- 
 nate persons paid a lieavj- penalty of work and worry for their two weeks' importance, 
 and then, to reward them for their labor, they were allowed the privilege of naming 
 their successors ; and it was really a great satisfaction when the fun was over, and 
 the supper was about ready, to clap hands, bring silence out of the livelv talk that 
 always springs iip when nothing else, is going on, and then by a few woras consign 
 four happy, careless members to the misery of inventing something new and getting 
 it up for the next club in the short time of two busj^ weeks. 
 
 Some members are wicked enough to try to dodge their plain duty when their names 
 are read out on the committee for the next meeting ; they saj^ they are going to 
 Washington or something equally irrelevant. The thing to do with such perfidious 
 ones is to talk to them beforehand, and invite them to a sleighing part}^ or to a 
 dinner for the Friday before the next Saturday evening meeting ; and then if they 
 
 accept and say nothing about Washing- 
 ton, put them on the committee. Other 
 members have the bad habit of allowing 
 their names to be put on the committee, 
 and at its first private meeting insisting 
 that they are too busy to do anything 
 bi^t pull up the curtain when the enter- 
 tainment is given, and the committee 
 generally makes such backsliders do er- 
 rands in town, go to the costumers and 
 wig-makers and carry many bundles back 
 and forth. 
 
 It was my unhappy fate to be named 
 on a committee some time ago, along 
 with Miss Wheigh, Miss Howman and 
 INIr. Barker. None of us being imagina- 
 tive in the waj' of excuses, we simply 
 accepted the appointment, said we would 
 do what we could, and lost our appetites 
 MERELY ii.\KKEL Hooj's. fot supper. Bcfore going home that