A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 71

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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One literary development of moment in Brooklyn was the increase in the number of public libraries. The Mercantile Library As- sociation, organized in 1857, got together a large collection of books and its classes and lectures were for years features of the higher social life of the city. In 1867 the Brooklyn Library was housed in its commodious build- ing in Montague street, where it now has a collection of 150,000 volumes, including a spe- cial collection of 3,000 reference works. The Library of the Long Island Historical Society dates from 1863 and now numbers 62.340 vol- umes. Brooklyn of the present day, while it contains no single institution which can take rank as a great library, is abundantly provided with institutions of a thoroughly practical sort, so that the citizens so inclined can really com- mand the world's current literature free of any cost. The free library of the Packer Institute

In February, 1899, the library came under municipal authority, and Mr. Arthur E. Bost- wick, who was formerly chief librarian of the New York Free Circulating Library, was placed at its head. Mr. Bostwick is a gradu- ate of Yale College and has taken the degree of Ph. D. He is well known in library circles, being extensively affiliated with library inter- ests. He has twice occupied the Presidency of the New York Library Club, and is now President of the Long Island Library Club.

The library is the product of the Brooklyn Public Library Association, the association in turn being the outcome of the interests in free library extension, as upheld and proclaimed by the Woman's Library Association, of which Mrs. Mary E. Craigie was chief pioneer.

At the time of the city's assumption of the library it consisted of the main branch, at 26 Brevoort Place, and the Bedford Park branch. Since that time there have been added five

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branches: Williamsburgh, 380 Bedford ave- nue; East, 29 Pennsylvania avenue; South Brooklyn, 1147 Fourth avenue; and Flatbush, 5 Caton avenue, opened as Flatbush Free Li- brary, and transferred to Brooklyn Public Library in January, 1899. The latest branch established is Prospect Branch, at Litchfield Mansion, Prospect Park, used at first as a sta- tion for the traveling library department : it later became of the same character as the other branches. The situation of this branch, which is an important one, is but temporary, the site chosen for its permanent quarters being at Sixth avenue and Third street.

Originally the library contained some 20,- 000 volumes ; to-day there are 50,000 volumes. The library's worth is best judged by the city's recent appropriation of $80,000 for its next year. This is twice the amount appropri- ated in 1899. To this $20,000, conditionally available, may be added, to be used for main- tenance of established free circulating libra- ries, when they shall be acquired as branches of the Brooklyn Public Library. The libraries alluded to are New Utrecht, Fort Hamilton, Bay Ridge, and Union for Christian Work.

Throughout the library the open-shelf sys- tem prevails, and is considered by the librarian to be the most desirable method, particularly where the borrower's interest is concerned. The loss, in his estimation, which is a natural outcome of such a plan, is in every way com- pensated for by the actual good accomplished.

At the main branch, which is also the build- ing of administration, there is a most success- ful children's department, situated on the ground floor. The building is modern in its appointment and most attractive. Each branch, in so far as possible, is conducted, especial re- quirements of localities being considered, upon the model of the main branch, the children's department included, even when it is only pos- sible to reserve a corner of a room for them.

The Traveling Library Department, which is at the main branch, is under the direction of Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, Assistant Librarian.

The privileges of this department for schools, literary clubs, etc., are just beginning to be realized, and will be more used by them as the advantages become known.

It is the directors' object to co-operate more and more, not alone with schools, but with all institutions of learning and progress. It is a matter of great encouragement that the reception of the library branches has been most enthusiastic, the borrowers being all the time on the increase ; and whereas ordinarily in the establishment of a free institution gifts of money, etc., are a proof of progress, the great- est possible evidence for the future success of the library lies in the ability of the people to appreciate their own needs ; the consequent de- mand being best supplied and strengthened by one who, having already been helped by the in- stitution, in turn becomes interested. An actual gift of money from one not appreciative of the library's privileges does not voice to the same extent the people's progress in culture. Mr. Bostwick is an advocate of complete organiza- tion in the administration of the library.

The apprentice class in connection with the library, while it is under the control of the librarian, is more directly under the supervi- sion of Miss Theresa Hitchler, the library's chief cataloguer. It is an institution of merit. Six months' free service to the library entitles the applicant, after passing civil service, to take competitive examination for entrance on the force of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Beginning with the main branch, each library will eventually contain an art and a music department. Unity of purpose and de- termination in pursuit of the highest interest of the institution committed to their charge is upheld to the entire force of the Brooklyn Pub- lic Library by its chief librarian.

The aims and scope of the Brooklyn Pub- lic Library have been treated at some lengthi here because they are so perfect and far- reaching as to make the institution a model one and worthy of careful consideration by all engaged in such work or planning a similar

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design of municipal usefulness. Just as this volume is about to go to press, however, the munificent gift of $5,000,000 by Andrew Carnegie to establish a group of popular li- braries throughout the Greater New York has been announced and the problems occasioned by the princely donation are being thought over by the local leaders in library work. So far, as seems likely the main policy to be adopted will be a unification of all existing public libraries under the management of one central body and the erection of what may be termed "Carnegie library" buildings through- out the municipality. Brooklyn, of course, getting her share. Manhattan's great libraries -the Astor and the Lenox-are already united, and with the money left by Samuel J. Tilden as a perpetual endowment, will have their headquarters in the New York Public Library Building now in course of erection by the city (and at the cost of the city) on Fifth Avenue and Forty-second street. This will likely be the heart of the entire library system of the Greater City, and when these details are perfected the work of the Brooklyn Public Library may be changed somewhat, but mean- time it carries on its beneficent mission to the best of its ability and present resources, re- gardless of what the future may have in store, or rather confident that the future will only bring progress and improvement.

It is impossible within the limits of this work to attempt to follow with any degree of detail the progress of its churches during the time covered in this section. It was a time of great spiritual activity in all directions and the churches were represented in every move- ment. Pastors and people were drawn to- gether in all walks of life and in all pursuits, and the clergy were no longer a class who dwelt apart, but men who boldly grappled with all the questions of the day, questions con- cerning local and National government, the war, the claims of peace, and the regeneration of the Republic after its baptism of fire. In

this Henry Ward Beecher led the wav and set the fashion, and it was his intense, throbbing sympathy with men around him and in meas- ures of even passing moment that made the platform of Plymouth Church become a forum of the people as the pulpit had not been since the days when John Knox thundered from that in St. Giles' Church in old Edinburgh and de- nounced and defied his sovereign Queen-the unfortunate Mary Stuart. The activity of the clergy in all that pertained to the war was most marked, and especially so in all the meas- ures tending to brighten the lot of the boys at the front or to alleviate the sorrow and hard- ship of those they left at home. To rehearse even that story, to chronicle even those deeds of active interest and loving charity, would alone require the space of a large and portly volume. In these circumstances we must be content with selecting three representative names as illustrative of the rich array of preachers who in this era made the words spoken in Brooklyn pulpits literally ring throughout the world.

In 1860 the Rev. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler was called to the pastorate of the Park Pres- byterian Church, then but recently organized. He was born at Aurora, N. Y., in 1822, was educated at Princeton and was minister of the Market Street Dutch Church in New York when he accepted the call to Brooklyn. There his success was immediate and the congrega- tion had to erect a new structure on Lafayette avenue to carry on the work, and even that had to be enlarged. Dr. Cuyler's success was remarkable in that, while not unmindful of the stirring events of his time, he never forgot that he was first of all a minister and that his first duty was to win souls to Christ. His services were purely evangelistic, and all the work of the church, and a royal working church it was, was directed to that prime duty. But he used the religious press to show his standpoint on passing events and especially upon such matters as temperance, charity and missions. He was a graceful and ready writer,

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one who could plead with his pen as effectually as with his tongue, and dencunce shams and hypocrisies and evils with a degree of force which he would not have been thought proper in the pulpit. He wrote many books, mainly religious, all of which enjoyed a large sale and made his name known throughout the land, throughout the religious world in fact. In 1890 he retired from the active pastorate, but

The second representative selected was a man of different stamp but whose name was even more popularly known-in time-than that of Dr. Cuyler. Indeed for many years his name was popularly bracketed with that of Beecher as a leader in the local church world. In 1834 a Presbyterian church was organized on Schermerhorn street-the Central. It dragged on, doing good work in a quiet way,

TALMAGE'S LAST TABERNACLE, BROOKLYN, L. I.

has continued to reside in Brooklyn and main- tained his literary work so that he is still an active power for good. He preaches occasion- ally in various churches in whose midst he may be sojourning, but his life is spent mainly in his study where he keeps a close watch on the passing events of each day and never fails when the occasion demands it to issue a note of warning or of approval or point a fitting moral to any story which strikes his fancy.

until 1869, when it issued a call to the Rev. Thomas DeWitt Talmage, who accepted, and with his advent the church became a power. He was born at Bound Brook, N. J., in 1832, and his first charge was the pastorate of the Reformed Dutch Church at Belleville in his native state. From 1862 he was pastor of a church in Philadelphia, but while his ministry there was a successful one it was not start- lingly so. Some one has said that Talmage

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needed the environment of Brooklyn to bring out the qualities which won for him his pre- eminent position. However that may be, there is no question of his immediate success in Brooklyn. Within a year the Central Church became too small to hold the throng of wor- shippers, and in 1870 the congregation built a new edifice, with a seating capacity of 3,400. Even this proved too small and so it was en- larged to accommodate 500 more. This edi- fice was burned Dec. 22, 1872, and a new structure rose from its ashes, a magnificent Gothic building with a seating capacity of 5,000, the largest Presbyterian church in the country. It, too, was destroyed by fire, on Oct. 27, 1889. Another new "tabernacle" was erected for Dr. Talmage, but it in turn was consumed by fire, May 13, 1894, and with it ended his pastoral labors in Brooklyn. The regular congregation seemed unwilling to enter upon the burden of erecting a fourth "taber- nacle," and the story of the negotiations showed that not one of these buildings for the congregation had ever been a paying invest- ment ; that Dr. Talmage had for years received no salary; that there was a heavy load of in- debtedness. The regular members were com- paratively few, and while each service was crowded with worshippers the collection bask- ets were poorly filled, and, as one puts it, "the church could not get along with a weekly in- come of a penny a seat." So the church was abandoned. Dr. Talmage subsequently ac- cepted a call to Washington and that city has since been his home. His popularity as a preacher is undiminished, while as a literary worker the demands made upon him and suc- cessfully responded to, indicate that his inor- dinate capacity for such labor does not weaken with the advance of years.

A typical Brooklyn citizen, an Irishman, a Roman Catholic priest, a Republican in poli- tics, and a loyal American clear through, may be spoken of about here as our third represent- ative Brooklyn clergyman. The Rev. Sylvester Malone was born in Trim, county Meath, May

18, 1821, and came to America in 1839 and at once entered on a course of study to qualify himself for the priesthood, and was ordained August 15, 1844. He was then assigned to the pastoral charge of the little congregation at Williamsburgh. His ministry was a success from its very beginning. Within two years he had filled the benches in the little church building with worshippers, paid off a heavy burden of debt which lay upon it and had started a movement to erect a new and more fitting place of worship. He was a most active man in those early days, his parish was the most extensive, in point of territory, of any near New York, he attended closely to all its parochial needs, and he lectured, visited and planned for the good of his people continually. He early became known as a man of liberal spirit, a sturdy adherent of his own church, but at the same time an admirer of all churches which had for their purpose the salvation of souls. A doubting, an agnostic, "a modern thought" community he had no patience with, then or thereafter. His first principle next to faith was sincerity, and when he found a man sincere he had no trouble in honoring and re- specting him, no matter how far .their views as to church questions might diverge. These sentiments early won him the love of all classes in the community and that love deepened into reverence as time went on.

In his own congregation he was decidedly popular long before the people of Williams- burgh understood him, and this popularity found tangible evidence in the rapidity with which his plans for erecting a new church was carried out. The corner-stone of the new edi- fice was laid May 30, 1847, and on May 7 in the following year the building was opened for worship. To it was given the name of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, and it at once became a centre of religious and educational activity. It had a congregation numbering 5,000, a parochial school with capacity for 1,000 scholars, a religious library and various church societies, all engaging with enthusiasm

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in various details of religious and missionary work.

Thereafter his life was bound up with his church, and his devotion, his eloquence, his sterling Americanism, made it one of the most talked of congregations in a city that has had more famous chur ches than any other in Amer- ica. Perhaps the most significant honor paid him was in 1894, when he was selected as one of the Regents of the New York State Univer- sity. He was equally the friend of Beecher and Storrs, of Mayors Low and Schieren, of Theodore A. Havemeyer and Silas B. Dutch- er, of Rabbi Gottheil and Dr. Charles Cuth- bert Hull. He retained his popularity to the end of his life's journey and much genuine grief was expressed throughout Brooklyn when it became known, on Friday, Dec. 29, 1899, that Father Malone had passed to his rest at an early hour that morning.

The cause of Father Malone's popularity may best be understood by citing a few ex- tracts from some of his public utterances. Speaking of the New England Pilgrims at a public celebration of Forefathers' Day in 1877, Father Malone said :

The Puritans were the representatives of the principle which forms the nucleus of our present civilization. I remember paying a visit to Plymouth, in company with two Catholic priests. We had not long to stay and it was raining when we arrived at that spot. In spite of that fact we went to the rock and I re- member, in all the wet, we knelt down and reverently kissed that blarney stone, thinking that it would do us good to pay that tribute to the memory of the founders of this coun- try. The spirit of liberty which imbued the Pilgrim Fathers has built up the country to what it now is. That same spirit was mani- fested when we asserted the independence of the nation at large, shaking off the fetters of oppression. It was that same spirit which called us to preserve our liberty during seces- sion. But for the New England element dur- ing the late Civil War. we would never have preserved the Union. But for the New Eng- land element the Pacific coast would have gone in with the secessionists. It is my honest con-

viction that it was the Puritan spirit which car- ricd the struggle to a successful ending. Of course, all other nationalities aided us, but their struggles would not have amounted to anything had it not been for the energy of the Yankee. As a lover of that liberty which im- bued these patriarchs and imbues our present Government, I am delighted to be present with you to-night. I thank you for the warm recep- tion you have given me and I thank you that I have had the opportunity of expressing my sentiments.

An ardent lover of his native land, he had no tolerance for some of the forms which love of Ireland assumed in this country. Speaking with reference to St. Patrick's Day parades, lie once said : "What insanity is it that brings St. Patrick from his niche in God's temple to the streets to be made the subject of laughter and derision ? Silver-tongued orators fire your enthusiasmı; but, harken ye, you are no better nor worse than the people of any other nation. It is true that the Irish have as their characteristic a love even to death of their faith. It seems, in God's good providence, that they are the instruments He uses to coun- teract the effects of the work of the Reforma- tion in England ; for go the world over, where the English tongue is spoken, and there you will find Irishmen. Does this apply to the Irish Catholic politicians, who for their own preferment bring their religion and their race into politics? If you are politicians be Ameri- can politicians. Your religion and its saints and the apostles of the land dear to you and your ancestry do not need street pageants. Flock to your church, for there alone is the place to give honor to St. Patrick; and there alone you will gain the strength to walk through this world with honor to yourself, your religion and Ireland."

In his "jubilee" meeting, October 16, 1894, surrounded by a host of the brightest men in Brooklyn, men of all shades of religious faith, political complexion and social class, he turned aside in the course of his address from an acknowledgment of the many tributes paid

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him to eulogize the American volunteer sol- dier : "It was the American soldiers who won for us the proud pre-eminence of being the safest and most trustworthy civil organiza- tion as a free nation that the world has ever

ful services for fatherland in times of war as in times of peace. The American citizen being the shield in war and the industrious, peace- ful member in a great and prosperous nation in times of peace, we can always trust this

REV. DR. SYLVESTER MALONE.

known. Let, then, the American citizen sol- dier be forever honored who has done his work so well, and, in doing so, has left to posterity an example of self-devotion and pa- triotism which will ring joyous notes down the ages, so that American patriotic citizens may always be relied on to do good and faith-

citizen soldier who takes to war because it is. in the line of duty, and is at home in peaceful pursuits just for a similar reason. Duty in both spheres of activity gives the citizen a place in the warm affections of the family, in the confidence of the community and in the admiration of the country for which he feels

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and bleeds. There may be degrees in my charity, but I am not ashamed to say it, that, all peaceful as is my natural disposition, and is also the nature of my calling, my soul awakens to the highest regard for the soldier of the Union who laid down his weapons of war when peace was proclaimed and went back to the plow and his counting house and the other pursuits which were in his line of duty before he answered the summons to shoulder his musket and be drilled for the ter- rible conflict."

Perhaps no man ever more truly painted his own character than Father Malone deline- ated his own in the words with which he closed the address from which the above quo- tation was made, and with these few words from his own lips this all too brief record of a lovely life may fittingly close. He said:

"I give you an inside view of the workings of my soul for the last fifty years. It labored for God and revealed religion; and in doing so the children of God were never for a mo- ment forgotten and the children of God with me would include even Ingersoll. No one can be beyond my most earnest sympathy. I love to do the most good where it is most needed. Such has been my life in the past- · the same it shall be in the future. And while a merciful Father will bless me with health and understanding, I will ever be with Him, always showing mercy, blessing the weak and strong alike, the Jew and the Gentile, the Protestant and the Catholic, the Democrat and the Republican. And you, dear friends, and all who have taken an active part in this cele- bration, will be remembered by me in time and in eternity."

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE CIVIL WAR.

THE TROOPS IN THE FIELD-THE ENTHUSIASM IN BROOKLYN-BROOKLYN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NAVY.

N THE beginning of 1860 the military resources of Brooklyn included a little over 1,150 officers and men, with vague notions of discipline and rather picturesque ideas of drill and duty. They were good men, most of them, in a fighting sense, but for many years all ideas of fight- ing had been abandoned, real war was some- thing that might only be encountered in picture books, and the principal aim of the soldier was to wear an original sort of uniform: the more original and outre the more gallant a soldier was he. The Thirteenth Regiment had 250 men on its roll, the Fourteenth had 150, the Twenty-eighth had 400, and the Sev- entieth 350.

The Thirteenth was in point of years a historic command, for, although only organ- ized in 1847, it was a gathering together of several military companies, some of which could trace a descent, more or less direct, to commands which were ready to do battle on the earthworks in 1814. They included the Brooklyn City Guard, the Pearson Light Guard, the Washington Horse Guard, Oregon Guard, Jefferson Guard, Williamsburgh Light Artillery, and the Brooklyn Light Guard. All wore different uniforms: some had white coats, some had red, and one was rigged up in fac-simile of the old Continentals when the latter were on dress parade. In 1858, when a gray uniform was ordered by the State to

supersede the various fantasticalities, it nearly disorganized the command and the strength of the regiment was greatly reduced. The Fourteenth Regiment came into existence in 1846, and was also made up of a number of separate companies each wearing its own uni- form. It was originally known as the Brook- lyn Chasseurs, probably for no other reason than that the name sounded much more heroic and dignified than light infantry would have done. In 1861 it adopted the zouave dress, which it wore during the war. This garb won for its wearers the title of "Red-legged Devils," a compliment to the fighting qualities they constantly and gloriously exhibited. The Twenty-eighth Regiment was organized in 1860, when it seemed certain that war was about to be the outcome of the trouble be- tween the States, and when war was inevitable and the North began to put its military force in order it was deemed advisable to disband the Seventieth Regiment. It was a nonde- script body, half artillery and half cavalry, and in that form not easily handled. But the men were not lost to the State. The artillery portion organized what was known as .the First Battalion of Light Artillery, and ren- dered good service in manning the forts in the harbor, while the cavalry formed the nucleus of a regiment of horse.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 71

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188