A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 77

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

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 77

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In this connection it must be considered that the difference between apparent cost and value of manufactured product as presented cannot be taken as a correct indication of manufacturers' net profits, because many other items of expense enter into the mercantile por- tion of the business not within the scope of the census inquiry.

Expenses of selling are excluded, because the reported value of product is its selling value "at the shop or factory." The cost of depreciation of plant in excess of the expense for ordinary repairs is not included, because the information obtained by the inquiry is not sufficient to form a basis for accurate computa- tion for the respective industries.

497

TABLE 2 .- DETAILED STATEMENT FOR 1890 BY IMPORTANT INDUSTRIES.

CLASSIFICATION OF INQUIRY.

Boots and shoes, fac- tory pro- duct. (65 estab- lishments.)

Chemicals. (36 estab- lishments./

Coffee and spice, roast- ing and grinding. {13 estab- lishments.)

Confec- tionery. 1197 estab- lishments.)

Cordage and twine 13 establish- ments.)

Foundry and ma- chine shop products. (169 estab- lishments.)

Furnishing goods. (67 estab- lishments.

Paperhang- ings. '5 establish- ments.)

Slaughtering and meat packing. (63 estab- tishments./

Sugar and molassers refining. (8 establish- ments./

Capital employed-aggregate.

$1,327,119

$8,483,835

$2,963,392 $2,923,509 $2,256,400 $13,725,518 $1,507,853

Hired property-total ..

366,230

275,000

306,300

1,047,500

1,473,750

377 650

303,482

380,560

255,622

Plant-total ..

385,934

4,888,250

546,696

1,028,053

1,854,300

6,046,228

427,420

401,946

918,400

1,821,000

Land .

56,700

1,196,800

198,400

251,085

303,000

1,617,500

110,100

31,500

317,550

399,000

Buildings .

113,400

1,532,821

194,350

311,225

701,000

1,362,670

142,550

121,584

346,752

527,500

Machinery, tools and implements. .

215,834

2,158,629

153,946

465,743

850,300

3,066,058

174,770

248,862

254,098

894 500

Live assets-total.

574,955

3,320,585

2,110,396

847,956

402,100

6,205,540

702.783

1,084,693

821,862

1.922,888

Raw materials.

137,612

1,365,535

721,678

207,660

175,600

1,182,099

312,438

61,890

114,907

186,214

Stock in process and finished product. .

154,802

878,468

930,671

269,041

60,500

1,525,807

142,902

186,974

197,490

335,016

Cash, bills and accounts receivable, and all sundries not elsewhere reported.

282,541 $1,032,547

1,076,582 $1,140,477

458,047

371,255

166,000 $650,256

3,497,634 $5,641,132 $1,203,461

247,443

835,829 $445,510

509,465 $532,120

$330,558

Average number of hands employed dur-

2,050

1,848

294

2,237

1,612

7,753

2,218

832

623

596

Males above 16 years. ..

840

1,295

477

1,387

1,012

6,868

868

660

607

583

Females above 15 years.

326

289

552

600

485

146

Pieceworkers ..

860

233

307

276

41.א

855

Materials used-aggregate cost.

$1,432,934

$7,329,134

$11,047,538 $1,833,791 $4,352,638

$5,125,183 $1,443,218

$1,067,697

$11,769,741 $14,816,112

Principal materials. .

1,381,752

7,050,313

10,711,647

1,738,998

4,206,138

4,626,489

1,389,325

1,042,362

11,637,737

14,412,045

Fuel.

3,888

195,545

14,752

25,621

105,000

210,767

27,893

18,045

32,256

100,342

Mill supplies .. .

9,206

20,656

3,835

47,386

10,308

290

15,986

All other materials

47,294

74.070

300,483

65,337

6,000 35,500 $63,180

240,541 $799,912

$84,811

$300,754

$130,096

$227,760

1.450

22,110

21,445

73,320

117,888

26,441

22,000

34,252

20,450

Power and heat.

3,720

900

3,800

120

14,664

600

900

Taxes. .

4,494

48,950

11,439

9,981

10,140

60,267

4,429

15,863

13,902

21,877

Insurance.

4,4220

29,190

11,382

5,050

7,540

36,223

10,573

7,343

9,490

21,397

Repairs, ordinary, of buildings and ma- chinery . ..

5,842

149,644

6,635

5,730

74.565

9,502

1,500

8,387

29,171

Interest on cash used in the business ..

1,549

43,651,

13,462

22,009

1,895

61,833

3,691

65,449

All sundries not elsewhere reported. .

26,138

318,364

29,633

87,330

20,500

462,296

31,371

192,015

60,374

68,516

Goods manufactured-aggregate value .. .

$2,813,209

$10,467,109

$12.2.17,162 $3,731,202 $5,625,792

$15,350,776 $3,315,691

$2,143,023

$13,317,789

$16,629,982

2,770,689

10,425,949

12,044,967

3,721,071

5,622,912

14,222,090

3,268,994

2,143,023

13,118,331

16,623,134

All other products, including receipts from custom work and repairing ....

42,520

41,160

202,195

10,131

2,880

1,128,686

46,697

199,408

6,848

99,748

287,739

Miscellaneous expenses-aggregate.

$73,249

$612,809

$84,334

$194,993

Amount paid for contract work

12,000

Rent.

25,636

THE SPLENDID CLOSING RECORD.

$1,790,121

$2,120,822

$3,999,510

1,401,658

Wages paid-aggregate. .

ing the year. . .

Children .

15,692

7,000

25,000

Principal product. .

$479,036 $1,096,252

CHAPTER XLII.

"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

LITERATURE AND THE DRAMA -HIGHER EDUCATION-NATIONAL GUARD-THE NAVY YARD-ARCHITECTURAL PROGRESS-WALLABOUT-PUBLIC STATUES -THE PASSING OF BROOKLYN CITY.

B UT we must turn away from statis- tics. Though necessary, they are by no means interesting and are apt to become tiresome. But those we have presented form a splendid and significant synopsis of the great progress which Brooklyn made during its last quarter of a century. It was a metropolitan city in fact if not in name, and while growing in wealth was almost daily adding to its posses- sions in all that an educated, progressive and hospitable city holds most dear.

In literature the first place as representa- tive of the city was still held by the news- paper press. "The Eagle" still sustained its supremacy, and in 1892 vacated its old prem- ises which so long had been a landmark at the bottom of Fulton street and moved to a pala- tial structure at the corner of Washington and Johnson streets, the site of the ill-fated Brooklyn Theater. The "Standard" was first published in 1884, but after some three years it consolidated, and "The Standard-Union" as such commenced in 1887, and was in reality a survival of several papers, including "The Argus." In 1886 the "Brooklyn Citizen" commenced its issue, and under the editorship of Andrew McLean soon became noted for its literary ability and won a recognized place as a family newspaper. During the time here treated the publication of weekly papers con-

tinued to be a part of the privilege of every man who had a cause to advocate or money to waste ; sometimes, it must be told, the amuse- ment of men who had neither. Hardly a month passed without a new weekly being "established," but as a rule the careers of these organs were brief. When the city became a boroughi, however, there were twenty-nine of these weekly publications in Brooklyn, as fol- lows: Baker's Journal and Deutsche Ameri- kanische Baecker Zeitung, Bedford Home News, Blade, Life, Courier, East New York Advertiser, Flatbush Press and Kings County Gazette, Greenpoint Independent, Greenpoint Weekly Star, Kings County Journal, Ledger, Nordiske Blade, Nordisk Tiende, Oesterns Haerold, Post, Record, Reform, Reporter, Re- view, Revue, Saturday Journal, Siirtolainan Supervisor, Svenska Amerikanska Pressen, Transcript, Uptown Weekly, Weekly, and Williamsburgh Democrat.

In 1893 an effort was made to establish a new daily,-the "Chronicle,"-but the effort ended in failure in three months,-a few days more. It was organized apparently to "boom" the consolidation scheme, but the people did not need any special organ to enlighten them on that point and so "The Chronicle" came to an untimely end. Since then no real effort has been made to establish a new daily in the City of Churches, and the Eagle, Times, Standard-

499

"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

Union, Citizen and Freie Presse (German) have the field to themselves and meet every re- quirement ably and well.

But in the higher walks of literature, Brooklyn continued to be as little of a centre to the end of her separate history as she was when her position in the world was only that of New York's bedroom. Her story had been written by Dr. Henry R. Stiles and written with a degree of thoroughness that made the work a model in the way of local histories and every line seemed penned with a degree of pa- tient care and loving industry which has made it the text book of all who have since studied the subject, and Thomas W. Field had written an account of the battle of Long Island, while Spooner, Onderdonck, Murphy, Bergen and others had treated of the past with the un- wearied carefulness of typical antiquariės and sometimes with the infinite grace of the man of letters, but these things, useful and valuable and inspiring as they are, are not literature ; rather are they the foundations for literature. Shakespeare wrote his "Macbeth" with a story in Holinshed's "Chronicles" as a basis. "Mac- beth" is part of our literature. Holinshed's "Chronicles" is not, but we could ill afford to lose it. So far as reading, study and the lit- erary gift were concerned Brooklyn might be regarded as a literary producer; but the trouble was that as soon as a man began to acquire eminence in letters he found it necessary as a result of his calling to move across the river or to some other place where the maker of books could weave his thoughts or arrange his fancies or ideas, or formulate his theories or his dog- mas with all the processes and agencies at hand for reaching the public. A case in point is that of Prof. John Bach McMaster, whose "His- tory of the People of the United States" prom- ises to rank as an American classic. That work is printed in Brooklyn, but is published in New York, and people speak of him as "the eminent Pennsylvania writer," although he is a native of Brooklyn and in Brooklyn received the educational training which fitted him for

the honored position he now holds among the country's historians. Rossiter W. Raymond was long regarded as among the most indus- trious of Brooklyn's professional litterateurs, and in Brooklyn much of his life work was done, but the world generally regarded him as a Manhattan worker. Will Carleton, the poet, whose "Betsy and I Are Out" has per- haps been as widely popular as any production of its size that has appeared in recent years, is never spoken of as a Brooklyn poet although his home has been in it for many years; and the same might be said of Wallace Bruce, a man with an international reputation as a lec- turer and poet, who set up his home in Brook- lyn when he returned to America after repre- senting the United States as Consul at Edin- burgh for four years. Henry George, the pub- licist whose "Progress and Poverty" has proved a new gospel to a large group of earn- est, thoughtful men and women who are try- ing to improve life by removing poverty and laying bare its cause, is never regarded as hav- ing had any connection with Brooklyn, al- though his home was at Fort Hamilton for many years before his death in 1897 during the contest for the mayoralty of New York in which he was one of the candidates. Dr. John D. Ross, who has made a special study of the life and works of Burns, his great poet and countryman, does his literary work in his Brooklyn home, but Brooklyn is never heard in connection with it. It seems a pity that the literature that really ought to be rightly cred- ited to the city, be regarded as a part of its work for the world, should find its sponsors elsewhere.

Possibly one exception might be made to this in the case of the Ford brothers, whose literary work somehow, no matter where print- ed, has always been associated with the city of Brooklyn. Their father, Gordon Leicester Ford, was a resident of Brooklyn for over 40 years, and as a collector of internal reve- nue, as business manager of the "New York Tribune," as well as in various other import-

500

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

ant capacities, was one of its most widely known citizens. A man of many grand qual- ities, an active and conscientious citizen, a fearless supporter of whatever he deemed to be right, a sturdy partisan yet tolerant of the views of others, he carried with him in his "daily walk and conversation" the hearty good wishes of an ever increasing circle of personal friends. In all the literary and higher social life of Brooklyn he was particularly prominent ; and in the affairs of the Historical Society, the Brooklyn Library and similar institutions he was particularly active and helpful. His own collection of books, manuscripts and auto- graphs was in itself a wonder, and long be- fore his death, in 1891, it was regarded as the largest private collection in Brooklyn. It was especially rich in Americana, and for over half a century he had been patiently collecting books, pamphlets, manuscripts, portraits-any- thing in fact that threw even a slender side light on the story of the land. At his death he bequeathed his literary and artistic treas- ures to his two sons and they have largely added to them and turned them to practical value in their literary work.

The eldest, Worthington C. Ford, who was born in Brooklyn in 1858, edited "The Writ-' ings of George Washington" in ten volumes, and several other works treating of the "Father of his Country," while his younger brother, Paul Leicester Ford, born at Brook- lyn in 1865, has issued the Writings of Thom- as Jefferson, also in ten volumes, and quite a host of books from such pamphlets as one on "Who was the Mother of Franklin's Son," to solid contributions to historical study and works of fiction which have been sold by the thousands on both sides of the Atlantic.

Brooklyn has been, and is rich in book col- lectors and in some of its homes are to be found the largest and choicest collections of rare books to be found anywhere in America. To mention the contents of such collections as that of Mr. Daniel M. Tredwell, author of "A Plea for Bibliomania." "Literature of the Civil War," and a number of other interesting

monographs, or that of Norton Q. Pope, or that of Prof. Charles E. West, or that of Will- iam Augustus White, or that of C. H. Moser, would be to enumerate a succession of gems enough to fill a goodly sized volume.

But we may here recall one noted collector who certainly turned his treasures to practical use before his death on Feb. 2, 1900. This was James A. H. Bell, who in June, 1899, pre- sented several thousand of his rarest volumes to the Brooklyn Library. He was born in New Orleans on June 4, 1817, and when three years old his parents died of yellow fever. The boy was discovered between the bodies of his fa- ther and mother, and was taken to a hospital, but he never contracted the disease. He was subsequently sent by the Mayor of New Or- leans to Brooklyn, where his uncle, Augustus Graham, resided. Mr. Graham was the found- er of the Grahanı Institute, which became the Brooklyn Institute, and is now the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Graham cared for his nephew for some years and event- ually he was adopted by his housekeeper, a Mrs. Taylor.

Mr. Bell was for some years engaged in the brewery business in Manhattan. When only 14 years of age he began to take a great interest in books and this interest never lagged. During the last forty years he had been a de- voted collector. When his collection had grown too large for him to care for, owing to his advanced age, Mr. Bell presented the most valuable books in it to the Brooklyn Library. This collection is kept in a separate room and is distinct from the regular library. One of the interesting parts of the collection is the in- dex which comprises thirty-six volumes. The index is in detail and is all in Mr. Bell's hand- writing.

After he made this present to the Brooklyn Library Mr. Bell found that he had too much time to himself and he began to make another collection. At the time of his death he had succeeded in getting about 2,000 volumes for his new library.

Mr. Bell's home at 45 Sands street had

"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

501

been occupied by him and his family for over a half century. When he first took possession of it the house was one of the handsomest in Brooklyn. .

Possibly the nearest approach to a literary cult in Brooklyn was due to the establishment

lution, and one of interest to the students of the personal life of George Washington. But with the publication of the last named, in 1889, that branch of the society's usefulness has apparently come to an end. It is housed in a handsome building at Clinton and Pierrepont

LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING.

of the Long Island Historical Society, but with the passing away of its founders that in- stitution seemed to lose much of its earlier in- spiration. For a time its publication fund promised to enrich local literature and did en- rich it with four volumes, three of which are of great importance as contributions to the story of Brooklyn and of the American Revo-

streets, which it had erected for its own use in 1880, it has a library of 43,000 volumes which is steadily being added to and its museum is a marvelous storehouse of curiosities,-birds, stones, Indian relics, manuscripts, deeds, pic- tures,-relating mainly to Long Island. Its literary and other treasures are freely placed at the service of all who are interested. The

502

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

other Brooklyn libraries have already been referred to and it is needless to enlarge upon any of them at this writing as the entire sys- tem in the Greater New York is steadily un- dergoing radical changes.

The literary tendency of the people has shown itself in the great number of literary clubs which have flourished in the city. The Writers' Club, organized in 1895, is mainly composed of professional people : the Brooklyn Catholic Historical Society, founded in 1891, explains its purpose clearly in its name, which is more than can be said of most of the others. But many and varied as are these coteries they are far outstripped in numbers and extent of membership by the musical organizations. The Oratorio Society of Brooklyn, founded in 1893, has a membership of 250; the Arion Singing Society, 600 members ; the Harmony Glee Club, 250 members ; the United German Singers, 1,400 members; Amateur Musical Club, 200 members, and so on through a list of about 100 organizations. The most prominent composer associated with Brooklyn is Dud- ley Buck, for many years organist in Holy Trinity Church and who resigned in 1902. In 1871 he became organist in the Music Hall, Boston, and attracted the attention of Theo- dore Thomas, and he was associated with that famous musician and leader for several years. Many of Buck's best compositions were first produced at Mr. Thomas' concerts, notably the music for Sidney Lanier's centennial can- tata, which was given at the opening of the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. In 1878 Buck became choirmaster and organist of Holy Trinity and resided in Brooklyn until the end. His religious compositions have been much admired and are to be found in all mod- ern books of praise. As a teacher of music he stands at the very head of Brooklyn's instruc- tors.

From music to art is an easy step; but a large volume might easily be written on Brook- lyn's artists and art collections. It has long been the home of J. M. Hart, the famous land-

scape and cattle painter, of Wedworth Wads- worth, whose illustrations to Shakespeare, Cooper, Tennyson and others, as well as his water-color sketches have been highly praised; of Carleton Wiggins, and of E. H. Blashfield who studied under Gerome, won a medal at the Salon in Paris and was one of the decorat- ors of the Chicago Exhibition. The famous "Gibson Girl" might also claim to be a Brooklyn lass, for her designer, W. Hamilton Gibson, has been a resident of Brooklyn more or less steadily since he was a child and was educated at the Polytechnic.

But the painter who has done most to de- pict Brooklyn and Long Island on canvas is Charles Henry Miller. In reviewing an exhi- bition of his works given in 1901 a well known New York critic wrote as follows:

. Mr. Miller has followed the adage that beauty lies about one, and need not be sought afar. As Whistler painted and etched the Thames before his Chelsea house, so Miller found his pictures on Newtown Creek and at Hell Gate, at Creedmoor, and Roslyn. The mill belonging to the famous local bard, Blood- good Cutter, appears in two of his composi- tions. Sometimes he went as far as the Hud- son and penetrated the Highlands even into Peekskill; and again he would make a tour of his beloved and always grateful Long Island and paint the "graveyard of ships" at Port Washington, or visit the marshy solitudes of the Great South Bay, linger near the Shinne- cock Hills, and reach the. remote hamlet of East Hampton -- when East Hampton was not only remote but a hamlet. There is evidence that he has trod the soil of New Jersey; for here is a grove of tall trees at Weehawken with a glimpse of New York in the deep dis- tance.

But for the most part his own little corner is his world, where he paints with evident gusto such townscapes and landscapes as "The Queen's Church," "Springfield Road at Queens," "A Gray Day on Long . Island," "Landscape at Queens Park," "Queens Barn- yard at Sunset," "Queenlawn Homestead," "Sunset at Queens," "The Queens School," "Queens Corners," "Oaks at Creedmoor, Queens." Like the old Dutchman, like Con- 'stable, and some of the French landscapists

50g

"THE END OF AN AULD SANG."

of 1830-1860, he is a. philosopher on the ques- tion of novelties, preferring to give all his strength to an endeavor to paint what is at his doors, instead of roaming abroad for the stim- ulus that new scenery might bring.

At the same time he has not lacked foreign travel. He has studied at Munich and visited other countries besides Holland and Germany. He has been an Academician since 1875, and won medals at expositions in Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans. In the course of time his paintings has changed very consider- ably. Where it was muddy and without sun- shine it has become alive. If he has not reached great skill in rendering the delicate differences in atmosphere, some of his later works show the effect of modern struggles with the problem of sunlight and air. Take as an instance No. 56, "A Frosty Day on Long Island." The remains of a cold fog are indi- cated well by the trees and by the cattle com- ing into sight in the hazy air, down the level road, toward the observer. This is a very different style compared with his earlier work like "Manhattan from Long Island," where the painting is dull and turbid. "A Cloudy Day in Spring," which was part of the American exhibit at Paris last summer, has a quiet truth to nature that is often lacking in older work. "New York from Newtown Creek," painted in 1876, and "High Bridge from Harlem Lane," are pieces for a historical society rather than for a museum of art ; for the value lies in the subject rather than their artistic force.

About a score of paintings here, about one in four, hold one through the beauty of their coloring and the sturdy value of their compo- sition. Easily first stands the big canvas, "Autumn Oaks at Creedmoor," a serious and even grand landscape, large in composition, simple and impressive as to mass, and fine in coloring. A number of landscapes in this style, but not quite so impressive, indicate the strongest vein of the painter.

In 1882 Brooklyn possessed an educational department that was justly regarded as a model. Its resources were ample, its teaching staff was able and enthusiastic and its school rooms were even better appointed than those on Manhattan Island. Its school board com- prises 45 members and its system of primary, grammar, evening and industrial schools was

complete. In 1882 William H. Maxwell was appointed Associate Superintendent, and Su- perintendent in 1887, and from then onward until the close of 1897 he was the real admin- istrator of the affairs of Brooklyn's public school system and administered them well. The city in 1896 voted $2,564,263 for the maintenance of the schools. Possibly no de- partment of the city government was regard- ed with more pride than this, but somehow since consolidation that feeling is not so gen- erally apparent.

As has already been remarked Brooklyn · has never managed to have a recognized uni- versity in its midst, but the opportunities for what is called the higher education have been liberally provided even since the days when it was thought that education should consist of something more than a knowledge of the three r's. The Polytechnic, however, is in reality a college and in 1890 received from the Regents of the State University a charter which con- ferred on it "all the rights, powers and digni- ties given by law and the ordinances of the Regents to the college." The Polytechnic, how- ever, had an existence since 1854 and as early as 1869 its work was of such a high stand- ard that the Regents gave it the authority to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts. Its present building was completed in 1890 and not only has commodi- ous class rooms, studies, laboratories and gym- nasiums but ample accommodations for the splendid Spicer library, a collection for refer- ence works collected by Capt. Elihu Spicer at a cost. of $35,000 and presented to the Poly- technic as a memorial of his son who was one of the pupils. It is a technical and commercial school and has about 700 students each year and 50 instructors.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 77

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