USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 54
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This period saw the beginning of the gaunt and dizzy " sky- serapers." It is an obvious fact that in a city like New York ground is very dear, increasingly so as business and population increase. But there can be no embargo of cost laid on the air, and above the 100 x 100 feet of some invaluable city lot, story after story might be added with only the cost of building, until the tower of Babel were eclipsed in altitude. Two circumstances combined to make such sky-scraping feasible. First there were the improvements in manufacturing stoel, rendering that product much cheaper; and now it became the practice to constrnet buildings of steel and stone together, a framework of steel inside being supplemented exteriorly by walls of stone or brick. There was practically no limit to the strength of a building thus put together, and it could be carried to any elevation. But this would
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TRINITY CHURCH.
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have been no advantage withont the elevator, which was simultane- ously developed in the directions of swiftness and safety, and was gradually perfected so as to be able to run continuously to any height. Hence we find upon the streets of New York those enormons and ungainly office buildings, one seeking to outrival the other in the member of stories. One of ten is now a very low affair; fifteen, twenty. even twenty-five stories are not uncommon on Broadway and in con- tignous downtown streets. They hopelessly bury the city's steeples. In earlier days one climbed to Trinity's ntmost stretch of stairs to see the surrounding city. Now a person standing on its very cross would stare point blank into the eighteenth or nineteenth story of some near neighbor; having very likely a story or two to spare besides. And Trinity's fate is shared by a good many churches even further up- town, some of which have hotels or business buildings by their side whose roofs, with a surface of thousands of square feet, are quite as high or even higher than the tapering points of their steeples.
Churches were now rapidly going up on both sides of Central Park. particularly the west side, and in Harlem. At One Hundred and Tenth Street between Columbus (Ninth) and Amsterdam (Tenth) ave- nues, on the site of the former Leake and Watts' Orphan AAsylum. it is proposed to build a magnificent Protestant Cathedral. The concep- tion is Bishop Potter's, whose wish is to make it not merely an Epis- copal Church, but the expression, in a form worthy of a great and wealthy city, of the general religious sentiment. Two towers are to flank the front and a massive dome and steeple to rise from the inter- section of nave and transepts. On December 27. 1892. the corner- stone of this unique edifice was laid with impressive ceremony, at which it does not appear that representatives of the other denomina- tions called upon to interest themselves in its erection were given any active part. The name of the church is to be St. John the Divine. In 1894 a magnificent present was given to Trinity Church, as a memorial of John Jacob Astor by William Waldorf Astor, in the form of three bronze doors with two leaves each, and six panels representing in re- lief various biblical and historical scenes. The cost was $100.000. The main or east door, fronting Wall Street, is designed by the sculp- tor Carl Bitter, the scriptural scenes bearing on the general theme: " Thou didst open the Kingdom to all the believers." The north door is from the hands of the sculptor J. Massey Rhind, the six scenes il- Instrating the leading thought: " I am the door of the sheep." the de- liverance, refuge, resene, help, that as such the Saviour affords to men. The south door is by Charles Henry Niehans, and represents six seenes in the history of Trinity Parish: 1. The consecration of the present building on May 21. 1846; 2. Washington entering St. Paul's Chapel after the Inauguration. April 30, 1789; 3. Henry Hudson on board the Halfmoon, off Manhattan Island, September 11. 1609; 4. Dedication of the Astor Reredos. June 29. 1877; 5. Consecration of
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four Bishops at St. Paul's, on October 31, 1832; and 6. Dr. Barclay preaching to Indians in the year 1738.
The Salvation Army movement, which was begun by the Rev. Will- iam Booth, an English Methodist preacher, in 1861, found its way to Philadelphia in 1879, but its headquarters were soon removed to New York, and are now to be found on Fourteenth Street near Sixth Ave- nue. It was seen that the American metropolis furnished as many
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CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.
cases for the peculiar operations of the Army as the worst purlieus of London. Ballington Booth, one of General Booth's sons, was sent over to take command of the American contingent, and with his wife, became exceedingly popular. They adapted themselves to the pecu- liar necessities of their new situation, and cordially accepted the modifications which the work as developed in this country seemed to suggest. Mrs. Booth especially won hosts of friends, and succeeded in commending her cause in the parlors of some of the most cultured and affluent homes of the city. Indeed, daughters of men prominent
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in highest financial and social circles lent themselves to the work among the lowly. This Americanization of the movement, attended by some inevitable independence of spirit or ideas. displeased the General-in-Chief at home; and in 1896 a split occurred in the ranks, Ballington Booth contiming his methods as adapted to the American environment, but organizing a new body calling itself the " American Volunteers.'
In 1892 the city's attention was forcibly called to another religions movement, entirely indigenous to America, started in a very humble and unobtrusive way, but now leaping into prominence before the metropolitan public and astonishing it and the world by the colossal proportions it had attained. This was the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. The Rev. Francis E. Clark was the founder of it. starting a society among the young people of his church in 1881. Ou July 7, 1892, the ammal Convention gathered representatives in New York from over twenty-one thousand societies scattered all over the United States and Canada. No less than thirty thousand delegates were in attendance, and the presence of such an immense army of bright young people of both sexes made a great impression upon the general public. The press cordially welcomed their advent, and vied with each other in giving full accounts of the various meetings. These continued during fom days, from Thursday, July 7. to Sunday, July 10, and were held in the great auditorium of Madison Square Garden. The delegations from the varions States were assigned to different hotels, which bore upon their fronts upon strips of canvas the names of the partienlar States whose young people were entertained there. this facilitating for each group the finding of their quarters in a city so extraordinarily vast to many of them. The gay and thoughtless metropolis seemed converted into a religions camp. and was forced in spite of itself to take notice of and reflect upon the happy significance of this phenomenon.
Madison Square Garden was opened just in time for the accommo- dation of the vast assemblies brought together at the exercises of this Convention. It was an ideal building for vast assemblages. No other city contains its like. In every city where the Christian Endeavor Society has since met. Cleveland. Washington, and others. these great gatherings had to be held in several tents. In 1890 the space formerly occupied by the depot of the Harlem and the New Haven railroads, and later by Barmm's Hippodrome .- a somewhat crude adaptation of the previous structures to the nses of a cirens, partly covered by canvas,-was inclosed within a vast building of light brick. ornamented with white terra cotta trimmings. The whole area measures 200 x 425 feet, consisting throughont of masonry, iron, and glass. Seats rise in steep tiers on three sides, and galleries to the third or fourth story on all of the four sides. The center furnishes a fine space for cireus exhibitions, or the Wild West Show, now world-
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famons. The tan bark arena can be flooded with water four feet deep and furnish aquatic shows. It is utilized for the purposes already mentioned, for political meetings, for poultry, dairy, horse shows; for walking contests, and bicycle races .- in short an infinite variety of such affairs, which require great areas, not otherwise so safely guard- ed against the vicissitudes of the weather. Concerts by large bands are also successfully held here. Near the southwest corner rises a campanile tower 300 feet high, surmounted by the figure of Diana twanging her bow, as a weathervane. On the other corner snugly stowed away, so as to make no sensible diminution in the interior space, is a theater. Complaints have recently come to the ears of the public that there is no money in the enterprise, and that the Gar- den may be abolished. It would be a distinet loss to the city to have this occur.
The United States had long been a convenient dumping- ground for European countries to deposit their incapables and de- generates in mind or character. In more than one instance States or' cities have actually paid the passage of these creatures, in or- der to get rid of them, and popu- late with them these wild and waste shores. But at last the Re- public rose up in wrath against this abuse of her hospitality. In 1882 Congress passed an act for- bidding convicts, lunatics, idiots, and paupers to enter the United States. The steamship compa- MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. nies conveying such were com- pelled to take them back at their own cost, thus compelling them to aid in the effort to weed out undesirable people from the emigrants seeking passage on their ships. It can hardly be believed that with this provision perfectly well known in Europe, and with the steamship companies on their guard for their own interest, yet up to 1893 no less than eleven hundred people, mostly panpers, were annually sent back. Within these later years a decided change is apparent in the proportion in which certain nation- alities are represented among the multitudes still flocking hither- ward, and arriving at the port of New York. Up to 1860 the Irish largely predominated, so that they formed three-fifths of the foreign- born population. Gradually the Germans forged to the front. and
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now the people chiefly in evidence among the new comers seem to be the Italians. We do not see that in the rongher kinds of labor upon the streets or buildings the majority of the men engaged are Irish as in former days: such work has fallen ahnost entirely to Italians, while the Irish are now found in a more exalted condition, having risen to the rank of bosses, commanding these gangs of Italian laborers. A greater variety of nations now also send forth their subjects: Poles. Bohemians, Russian Jews, Hungarians, have come over in large mim- bers recently. A curious feature of life in New York City is the tend- ency of these people of various nationalities to colonize different dis- triets of the city, especially those who do not speak the English lan- guage. There are blocks upon blocks on the east side of the city, from the Bowery to the East River, where the inhabitants are all Germans. In another portion, notably First Avenue from One Hundred and Seventh or One Hundred and Eighth Street to One Hundred and Tenth Street. and beyond, stretching westward well toward Third Avenue, there are to be seen only Italians. So there are Swedish neighborhoods, of French, or whatever nation sends out a sufficient number to make such conditions possible. Many individuals strictly keep themselves within these bounds; while many, even if they do emerge at times, have so little occasion to employ any but their own vernacular that they do not pretend even to make an effort to acquire the English. They have newspapers in their own language, their vote is elicited by pandering to their national prejudices, and speakers are assigned during campaigns to address them in their mother-tongne. Thus they live a life apart from the American people, and those who by a knowledge of their language have access to some of their inner circles have learned with regret that frequently they hold in bitter contempt the land which gives them their bread, and the English- speaking element, whose push and enterprise made this country the eldorado whither they were eager to escape from oppressive or de- pressing conditions in Europe. It is true that this contempt is often as foolishly and groundlessly returned with interest by Americans; but this is never so biting and ill-natured.
No especially prominent occurrence invites attention, which in any way indicates noteworthy advancement in the amusement or enter- tainment of New York society. Theaters kept on multiplying, and more particular mention will be made later of one or two such edifices as particularly illustrating the appreciation of the art to which they minister. A number of years previous to the period now in hand a curious phenomenon in theatrical life was the popularity of the comic opera of " Pinafore." whose bright. sweet. catching music, innocent raillery and capital hunor, held all New York captivated, so that for an entire season it was played simultaneously in a score of theaters. For three successive sea- sons, also, up to 1894. the beautiful and pathetic play of " The
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Old Homestead," presenting incidents of homely, everyday, mod- ern life, drew crowded houses night after night; a record closely followed by another drama of contemporary American life en- titled the " County Fair." It would seem as if managers might draw the lesson from these facts, that it is quite as profitable to place upon their boards plays pure in sentiment and elevating in moral ef- fect, as those that pander to degrading passions and depraved tastes, and whereby they draw down upon themselves the ill-will and antag- onism of good people. In this connection it is also to be observed that New York had grown to be a most attractive summer resort. In the sixties and early seventies, the ocean was as near as now, and cheap excursion boats conveyed people to Coney Island to breathe the salu- brious air. But Coney Island was a sandy waste. Here and there stood rows of rude bathing houses, with an occasional shaded plat- form where people could eat the lunches they brought with them, and perhaps purchase drinks more or less soft, as well as the harder kind. It was not till after the centennial year (1876) that capital turned its attention to this vicinity and began to create attractions here for the New York public, at the same time bringing it within easy access to the city. A hotel 660 feet long and four stories high was erected: the beach in front was converted into a garden, a music pavilion was built, and the finest musicians in the United States, under the direc- tion of P. S. Gilmore, engaged to discourse the best of music there afternoons and evenings. A railroad was constructed, the rails and rolling stock of the railway (narrow gauge) that ran in the grounds of the Exposition at Philadelphia being ntilized. The spot thus wonder- fully improved was called Manhattan Beach. Another more exclu- sive hotel-the Oriental, has been built further east along the shore. The music pavilion has developed into a seaside theater or concert hall. The original railroad was abandoned and the tracks merged with those of the Long Island Railroad. Soon after Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach was created, also with an immense hotel. Then West Brighton arose, developing into a fair-a perpetual and characteristic Vanity Fair, the continual dread and horror of moral- ists, needing great watching, yet affording a play-ground for persons of the serving classes with tastes not all too elevated. The original Coney Island still has some of its old primitive features, westward of all these later attractions. In a brief hour the population of New York, according to the degree of its culture, may find itself trans- ported to this seaside resort of fourfold character. Here may be en- joyed the most rollicking and roystering kind of cheer. Here may be heard the most classic music that the great masters ever produced, discoursed by orchestras conducted by an Anton Seidl, or other kings of the baton. Here again may be heard the finest band-music, popular as well as classic. Here pyrotechnics unsurpassed combine with scenic effects to please and instruct the mind, or comic opera by
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the best artists pleases and rests the mind bent on a summer vacation. Thus the dweller in New York has the advantages of a seaside resort at his very doors. After business hours a quick run to the seashore gives him a chance for a dip in the ocean, and offers him entertain- ment of the highest excellence (if he seeks this) to wipe the cobwebs ont of his brain. Surely life in the city can not be deemed quite nnen- durable under such circumstances.
From the piazza of one of these hotels might have been seen in
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APARTMENT HOUSES OPPOSITE CENTRAL PARK.
October, 1893, the finish of an exciting race, engaging the enthusias- tic attention of two great maritime nations. In a previous chapter has been told the story of the winning of the Queen's Cup by the American schooner yacht America, in 1851, sailing against the entire British Squadron. It was not till 1870 that the English yachtsmen sent over a yacht for the purpose of winning back the trophy, called now the America's Cup. This was the schooner Cambria. Sailing against the American Squadron, one of its yachts, the Magie, won the
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day again for America. The third race was tried in 1871, in which the British schooner Livonia sailed against a single American champion, the Columbia, fortune again favoring the American yacht. The fourth race was not sailed till 1876, the Countess of Dufferin vainly seeking to wrest the Cup from its defender, Madeline. In 1881 there was a change in the character of the racer, thus beginning the era of the " single-stickers." or sloops with one mast. This fifth race, be- tween the Atalanta, for England, and the Mischief, for America, re- sulted in the same way. Four years intervened before Great Britain was disposed to try again, when, in 1885, and in two immediately suc- cessive years, 1886 and 1887, the Genesta, the Galatea, and the This- tle vainly contended with the Puritan, the Mayflower, and the Volun- teer. Evidently discouraged by these failures, six years elapsed be- fore another champion offered to bring back the America's Cup to England. In September and October, 1893, these races occurred, the British boat being the Valkyrie, and the American the Vigilant. In the first day's race the Vigilant won; the second race went to the Val- kyrie: so that everything depended upon the third day, October 7. The finish could be distinctly seen from the beaches along the south shore of Long Island, on Coney Island and at Rockaway. On came the two swift racers, now one seeming ahead. now another, distancing all other craft and approaching the goal alone and undisturbed. Two clouds of canvas, without visible hull or mast, seemed to be floating along the surface of the water. Suddenly one of these clouds ap- peared to burst, and to be reduced to half its size, whereupon the other clond forged ahead and passed the line a couple of minutes be- fore the collapsed one. It proved that the silken spinnaker sail of the Valkyrie yielded to the excessive strain at the last moment and split from top to bottom. Thus again was the Cup safe for America.
This was also the period when the newspapers began habitually to furnish information for the eye as well as for the mind, by liberal il- lustrations in rude outlines of the events described in their columns. At the same time there was a great increase in the number of illus- trated monthly magazines, some of them even becoming as frequent as weekly in their issue. The pictures were all most attractive, while the price went steadily down. The monumental monthlies, the Har- per's. the Century, the Scribner's (revived in 1883), with their highly artistic wood-engravings, were sold for twenty-five cents or thirty cents. These later additions to the list of illustrated periodicals. although apparently as beautiful and costly in their make-up. were placed on the market at twelve cents, ten cents, and even at five cents. This sudden facility for presenting cuts in newspapers, and illustrating magazines at low cost, was due to advances in the photographic art. It had been made possible to photograph directly upon zine or copper plates, prepared chemically so that the photograph was etched or engraved at once upon their sur-
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face, whence the impression could be transferred to paper. There were two kinds of this photo-etching: For the rough cuts upon the common paper of the daily journals a pen picture had to be made, which was easily effected by drawing lines over part of a negative and allowing the rest to bleach away. From this line-picture the line-etching was secured upon the plate. The half-tone picture was produced upon the finest-sized paper, after being etched upon the plate directly from nature. When these processes were once perfected printing aud photographing could go hand in hand, the one not much more costly than the other, and each capable of multiplying copies for the publie ad infinitum.
The colonizing of nationalities is matched in New York City by that of various kinds of business or industries. In certain streets or sec- tions we look only for certain kinds of goods. Maiden Lane aud John Street have their jewelry stores, their goldsmiths' aud silversmiths' wares. Along the blocks west of Broadway to West Broadway. and from Worth to Canal, we look for drygoods houses. Wholesale gro- cery dealers affect West Broadway, and Hudson Street from Chambers to Franklin Street. Dealers in fruit, produce, vegetables, cluster near Washington Market along Washington aud Greenwich Streets, The leather district announces itself to sight and smell as we traverse the Swamp, dank and low. skirting the huge stone approach of the East River Bridge, and descending the hill from Printing House Square and Park Row. Wholesale drug houses are strong along William Street. Even the publishing houses seem to feel the need of each other's company. The Harpers cling to their old quarters. But the Appletons, after migrating from lower Broadway to Bond Street, and the Seribners, after trying two stores on Broadway below aud oppo- site Astor Place, joined their brethren of the craft who had been set- tling along Twenty-third Street, and on Fifth Avenue below that street. So one might go through the city and locate the larger con- cerns quite successfully in special districts. Au observation-trip along Broadway from Chambers Street to Fourteenth Street would reveal another peculiarity in the business world of New York. From a reading of the signs of the shops, great or small, and presenting a great variety of articles, mostly in the way of clothing and furnishing goods, one could easily be induced to imagine himself passing through a street in Berlin or Hamburg. There is scarcely an American name to be seen, while the preponderance of German names is overwhohn- iug; perhaps here and there a French one, and also a few Jananese and Chinese occur.
In 1893 there was due a periodical panie, to keep up with those of 1873 and 1884. And sure enough it came. It is supposed to have becu due to the suspension of the free coinage of silver by the Government of British India. There was a distressful time, especially in indus- trial stocks, in the New York markets. Partisans attributed the bad
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NEW YORK HARBOR-A STEAMER OF THE INMAN (LATER AMERICAN) LINE IN FOREGROUND. -
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times to the resumption of the Presidency by Mr. Cleveland. There was a financial panic, at any rate, whatever produced it, " in some re- spects the most distressing on record," says a recent historian. Mines were closed, factories ceased work or were reduced to half time, banks suspended or failed. and trade was paralyzed. But on the other hand this same year witnessed an event calculated to put hope once more into the hearts of those who had watched with wistful eyes the departure of the carrying trade from our ships, and the inordinate multiplication of passenger and freight steamships, lining with their docks the Manhattan and Jersey shores of the North River and flying only flags of powers transatlantic. By a special act of Congress two foreign-built steamships of the Inman line. the City of New York and the City of Paris, were admitted to American registry and allowed to fly the United States flag. This company had gradually passed into the possession of American capital, and finally, in 1886, an appeal was made to Congress that the two steamers then building might be registered as American ships. Not until May, 1892, however, did the bill anthorizing this become law; as there was nothing partisan about the measure it met with no opposition whatever. The conditions were that the vessels admitted must attain a speed of twenty knots an hour, and that over 90 per cent. of the ownership must be in Ameri- can hands. The ships were not designated more particularly, but the requirements could apply ouly to these two at that time. The date selected for the transfer of the flags was Washington's birthday. 1893. The City of New York, now to be known as simply New York, was anchored off the Battery, and near her lay one of the United States cruisers, the Chicago, in holiday trim, ready to blaze away sahites. The President had been invited to perform the ceremony of raising the flag, and he had cordially assented to grace the important event with his personal presence and active participation. In response to Mr. Bourke Cochran, the originator of the bill and the orator of the day. as he was about to raise the flag. Mr. Harrison made a short address in which he said that he was proud to further the hopes of the Nation suggested by the occasion, and he made bold to date from the event of the day the restoration to our merchant marine of " the work of carrying on share of the world's commerce npon the sea." Better than this, there followed soon the two sister ships St. Panl and St. Louis, not built in England, but upon the Cramps' yards at Philadel- phia, whence so many fast ernisers had proceeded. The building of the new navy had encouraged the procuring of a plant there which enabled these shipbuilders to compete with those on the Clyde. The time of these ships between Southampton and New York is about six days and a few hours. The old Canard line, however, has still kept ahead of all modern competitors. Her two great ships, the Lucania and Campania, are the largest and the swiftest steamships afloat. They register a tonnage of 12,950, and the indicated horse-power is
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