USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 63
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VICE PIU. PLUIRNT JOHN ADAMS
VICE PRESIDENT LEVI P. MORTON OF NEW YORK
STATES
STATES CONNECTICUT DELAWARE
GEORGIA MAITLAND MASSACHUSETTS
NORTH CAROLINA, NEW JERSEY PERNAYLATLA RHODE ISLAND ROU TH CAROLINA. VIRGINIA
ALABAMA, ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DELAWARE FLORIDA ODROIN ILLINOIS INDIANA JUWA KANSAR KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAISE, MARYLAND MANLACHUNETYS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA-MAUSSUBIFFT MISSOURI MISIONERA NEVADA/NEW HAMPSHIRE SRWOKRABY - NEW YORK NJIH CAROLINA 0)00 ORUKAW MANINYLVANIA FRODE LILAND SOUTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE DUAS VERMONT WIRGINIA WISTVIRGINIA WOLONDIN
UNDEN ACT SIGNED
SOUTH DAKOTA
ALANKA, ARIZONA
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
a living reality. Yet history has some disagreeable lessons. Nations are not cast in bronze. They change with their development, and are not always what they were.
In 1889 was celebrated the inauguration of Washington, with the scene, to a certain extent, revived; that is, with President Benjamin Harrison landing at the same spot (the foot of Wall street) and in the same way, by boat, and passing thence with the great procession to the place indicated by history-the present location of the statue of
RI COMMEMORATE THE FOR
RYMDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OFAMERICA BY
CHRISTOPHER COLVMEYS
COMTUTTLEVOL-ONE
YORK
THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION MEDAL.
Washington. So far historical; but what a representation of our own day! The naval parade, the great procession through dense mul- titudes compacted into one citizenship from many nations; a pro- cession comprehending governors of States, an immense military display, scenes typical and imposing, a tableau holding the eye for hours, yet which found its culmination of interest in the splendid marching of hundreds of children from the public schools! Fittingly the occasion has itself been commemorated in more lasting form by the erection of the fine marble arch on Washington Square. The same magnitude of design, the same allegory and pageant, has also characterized the late celebration-October 12, 1892-of the landing of Columbus; during which, also, a statue of the celebrated navigator was unveiled at the southwestern entrance to the Central Park, and, in the absence of the mayor, accepted by the editor of this work on behalf of the city. Moreover, what a spectacle was the funeral of General Grant, in 1885, at which the two ablest living generals of the war (Sherman and Johnston), once well-matched opponents, rode peacefully together in mutual tribute to the great silent soldier. And we are building his monument and tomb, to be always before the eye of the future and to recall his historic deeds. These have been the grand commemorations of the period. But more than ever before, as VOL. III .- 38.
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an indication of advanced thought, we have been adorning our streets and parks with works of art representative of men and events worthy to be remembered. Above all, as permanent "eye-teaching," and a permanent monument of the period, of its taste, its munificence in both collecting and giving for public uses, we have the admirable Metropolitan Museum, opened in 1882.
There is always another side. Civilization does not advance equally all along the line. The grand army has its ignoble and cowardly camp-followers. It must be an unusually healthy tree in the forest that has no with- ered leaves to shed, no dead branches, no parasitical fun- gus at the root. If our streets and parks show growth in the direction of the ideal, in statu- ary and ornamentation, there is to be seen in them statuary of another kind far from or- namental. Especially in City Hall Park, the very focus of city life and activity, close by Printing House Square with its night and day activities, with Franklin and Horace Greeley in full view to set them thinking, and many a newsboy earning his own decent living, there they sit upon the benches, almost as permanent as statues, and the ST. JAMES CHURCH. more remarkable for the con- trast they present! From the park to the poorhouse in winter; from the bench to the saloon, the lodging-house, or to beg; such is their life. They are the "dead-beats" of the community, and its parasites. To this they have come, illustrating nature's law of de- generation alongside of activity, growth, and development. To this their nature is now limited. Like the hermit-crab in its shell, they live in the cast-off clothes of other people. Tailors' bills, grocers' bills, homes of their own, duties, they have none to trouble them. They are simply parasites; they feed on others. Begged and given a ticket for a lunch, a few pennies for a drink, something for a va- grants' lodging-house, and such like, and the day's sum total is made up. Laziness and filth have become their normal condition. A worn-
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out, broken-down horse is respectable; he has worked for his living, and borne the cuts bad fortune has bestowed upon him with patient endeavor. When he dies there will remain something useful besides his bones. As to these others, nothing, not even their shoes. It is the other side of the picture of progress, not ideal but actual.
As now pertaining to actual life in the city, and its development on the better side, during the period before us, we turn to the subject of schools and education. There has been a noticeable change since 1879. It will probably not interfere with anything written in previous chapters to refer to the past and its schooling. There are some yet remaining who went to school in Ex- change Place, in Pine street, in Cedar, A.s S. HEWAS or in Nassau, where now stands the Equitable building; and, later on, in Murray street, at Anthon's famous gram- mar-school, which for so many was the gateway into Columbia College. No private schools now linger in those lower regions, which once were to school-boys regions of pains and penalties. In the younger days of the century, about 1815, there were several Irishmen in the city who had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin, had been con- cerned with the Emmets in the proceedings of the United Irishmen, and as exiles had taken up teaching for a living. Their vocation was drill, especially in the classics, at the time the essential part of schol- arship. And, certainly, they made scholars well grounded and capable in the classics and such other branches as they taught. It is to be said, however, that they did not confine themselves to drill as a means of implanting solid and correct knowledge. They kneaded it in with their hands, and faithfully used "physical culture" by means of the strap, the favorite implement of that day. Nor was it gentle culture, as of tender juvenile vines; on the contrary, and frequently, a good top-dressing at their hands was harrowing. A Philadelphia lad, who had left school with the blood running down his back, made a vow. Returning forty years afterward, a man of wealth and standing, he hunted up his old teacher. Times had changed with him, and the vow was superfluous. But such were-not with these only, but in general-the methods of teaching early in the century. The largest and most successful of these schools, we may add, was that of Joseph
1 Abram S. Hewitt was born July 31, 1822, re- ceived his education at Columbia College, practised law in New-York, and later became a partner in the firm of Cooper, Hewitt & Co. For twenty-five years he has, as secretary of the board of trustees, directed the educational and financial affairs of the Cooper Union. In politics a Democrat, he was one of the organizers of the County Democracy in 1879. Elected to Congress in 1874, he served con- tinuously, with the exception of one term, until
1886, when he was elected mayor, receiving 90,552 votes, against 68,110 for Henry George, and 60,435 for Theodore Roosevelt. His administration was noted for a rigid enforcement of the laws. In 1876 he was chairman of the Democratic National Com- mittee, and the same year was elected president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. His report on "Iron and Steel" at the Paris Ex- hibition in 1867 met with approval, and was re- published at home and abroad. EDITOR.
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Nelson, known as the " blind teacher," and on that account worthy of special mention. His eyesight had failed him as a student at Co- lumbia College. Nevertheless, he was already able to understand any Latin or Greek book by simply hearing it, and his sisters were likewise classical scholars, who could read to him. Therefore he determined to teach.1 His own department was the classical, the other branches he left to assistants and a monitor.2 And teacher Nelson, like the rest, was wondrous good at drill and flogging, made excellent scholars, some of them after- ward well-known men. Blind as he was, he never missed the right one, but would spring out, collar, and flog him; flog for a false quan- tity-making no er- rorsof his own in the matter of quantity! His rule seemed to be: to sharpen the wits of a boy, strap him on the legs! Of FOURTEENTH STREET, WEST FROM UNION SQUARE. course, they eagerly watched his finger as he felt along for the hour-hand on his silver watch-there might be time for one or two more floggings! But he was as precise about the hour as he was about the grammar. After- ward appointed a professor at Rutgers College, New Jersey, his por- trait is there, with his finger still on the watch.
No school of the past, however, has had the repute of Anthon's grammar-school. It was what its name imported-a school of rudi- mentary drill, but one of a higher grade and more comprehensive scope than any of the preceding. Although educated for the bar, Professor Anthon was by nature and aptness of mind a linguist and teacher. A college professor at twenty-three, incessantly at work on dictionaries, grammars, and critical editions of classical works (ulti- mately to the number of over fifty volumes), in 1830 he added to his labors this school, in which he was both rector and the teacher of its highest linguistic department-the first Latin. Our review concerns
1 A remarkably energetic blind man was seen by the writer in 1880. Piloted by his wife and son, he was going over a Swiss pass, not by the regu- lar, even road, but by short cuts wherever avail- able. His object was to reach Chamouny, and make the ascent of Mont Blanc, in order to show
how much a blind man might do !- apparently, taking the moon by his teeth, and an attempt more to the purpose if made on level ground !
2 Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Vermilye, the still living senior pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Church, was one of Nelson's boy monitors.
-
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
principally methods and advances in teaching. But Professor Anthon was, personally, the motive lever of his school. Up, himself, at four in the morning, and busy with his books and exact criticism, he insisted upon industry and thoroughness in his pupils. He gave instruction, but insisted upon education. Nor was he satisfied with a grammar knowledge of words, sentences, and their construction, but in transla- tion it must be the best word and an elegant translation. By means of Latin and Greek he thus shaped the thought, the mental habits, and English style of many a small boy, whose individual proficiency, moreover, decided his daily place in the class, up or down, and the weekly report to his parents. Such was his method, and his eye was everywhere. That itself was a stimulus. Dr. Anthon greatly ad- mired the celebrated Dr. Rich- ard Busby, of England, who had educated more men eminent in church and state than any teacher of his time, who refused to pay deference to the Prince of Wales in the presence of his pupils be- cause before them he could ac- knowledge no superior, and whose panacea for all delinquencies was the rod!' And assuredly, in his own domain, Dr. Anthon had no superior. There, with his elegant and athletic form, his fine head and imperial manner, he was a veritable Jupiter on his mountain, or a Taurus in his constellation-a teacher whom grown men recall with a certain gratitude, if they MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. feared him as boys. For Dr. Anthon, like the others, believed in the rod: with this only change, from the crude and hard ferule and strap to the more genteel and limber ratan ! He had his favorites, the always diligent and good boys, who escaped-like the present distinguished dean of Columbia College, Dr. Drisler. But for the dull, the careless, or the lazy there was no escape. For all such the ratan was as con- ducive to education as pepsin to digestion. Not so easy or pleasant to take! With certain figures marked upon a slip of paper, which the stalwart and jocose professor of mathematics down-stairs well under- stood, and which he was to count upon the fingers of the boy; to march into the midst of thirty other boys as audience and spectators;
1 Dr. Busby's portrait is included in the Harvard College collection.
.
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to be grasped by the wrist and stand with extended palm; to rise on the tiptoe of expectation, whilst the professor playfully dallied; to take impromptu steps which were not the stately minuet, whilst the mobile countenance bore witness to the correctness of the professor's advancing count; and then to return with tingling fingers and the receipt for a flogging! There was but one of the parties concerned who enjoyed it-the stalwart and jocose professor. It refreshed him as a beautiful piece of applied mathematics; it was his lunch for the day. Such were the educational processes of the largest and best grammar-school of the city fifty years ago.
To come now to our assigned period. Learning, it is certain, has dropped from her list of stimulants the exhilarating ratan. Her hook
"TIMES," "TRIBUNE," "SUN," AND "WORLD " BUILDINGS, PARK ROW.
is baited, the rather, with glittering prizes. On the other hand, the curriculum is larger and more ambitious. The modern languages and other subjects dispute for the hours and the place once, by common consent, assigned to Latin and Greek. Moreover, to "fit for college" (male or female), and in the shortest possible time, has become with schools an important aim; it affects their grade and numbers. And this requires more books, more pages to be read at a lesson, more hurry, with less time to be devoted to drill and the rudiments. A few questions put to pupils of different schools will show this. Is it an advance over the past ? There is, indeed, a demand for "higher educa-
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
tion." But " higher education," like a house, must begin at the bottom, with the foundations, the rudiments, and proceed with equal care to the top. Professor Agassiz was wont to give a beginner a lobster, which he was to study minutely, with glass in hand, for six months. Chancellor Kent in his old age said to the writer that what- ever reputation he had gained in life he owed to the fact that when he studied law he had but one book. That book was Black- stone's Commenta- ries; and having no other, he studied it thoroughly and un- til he had mastered the principles of law. It was in 1782, when THE TERRACE, CENTRAL PARK. there were no American law books and no reports of American deci- sions, and when law itself, as applicable to American institutions, had not been shaped. Those first studies, afterward built upon, enabled him to bring order out of confusion in the State Supreme Court, and later, as chancellor, in the Court of Chancery ; so that when, after nine years, he retired, they likened him to Lord Nottingham, who had founded the equity system of England, and was "enabled in the course of nine years to build a system of jurisprudence and jurisdic- tion upon wise and rational foundations."1
*
We must recognize the fact that the day and its conditions are dif- ferent; that under any method the larger part will only make fair progress; that eminence is the attainment of but few; but that even a peep into knowledge may be helpful. There are schools and schools in the city, from the thorough to the "fashionable"; the latter, or at least some of them, as like to the former as is the bird Taurus (the "hollow-sounding bittern" of Goldsmith), all legs and wings and feathers, to the noble ox whose lowing it was thought to imitate. Whatever is desired can be had. And for "higher education " there is increased provision. For instance, Columbia College has many de- partments besides (in the freshman and sophomore years) a regular college course. Gradually these are thrown open to the student as
1 The chancellor had just received a bust of himself. He did not like it. "It makes me look so cross, and I am not cross," he said. In fact, his old age was genial, active, and playful. His son,
Judge William Kent, in preceding him down the long steps into the yard, took a leap over the rail- ing. "Oh, I can do that too," said the chancellor; and over he went himself.
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"elective" studies. In the senior year everything is "elective." And thus at an earlier date than formerly the student may get down to the specialty he may wish to pursue, with every advantage of apparatus and instruction at hand. He is not marked from day to day as for- merly, but must study, or bear the penalties incident to a report as "deficient." Such is the change of method at Columbia-an in- stance merely of the changes through which the university, like Columbia and other colleges, is passing. So far as it marks an advance in study, it must react .upon the schools. On the femi- nine side, Barnard College, char- tered in 1889, is and is not a de- partment of Columbia. It is not supported by its funds. Its reci- tations are separate but on paral- lel lines, which, upon completion, . entitle the graduate to a Columbia diploma; and thereafter, if she so chooses, to the privilege of at- THENemadie tendance upon certain of its "elec- tive" studies. The number of students is as yet not large; and still smaller the number of those who avail themselves of what may be called an educational aftermath or after-grass. It has to compete with such popular institutions as Bryn Mawr, and Smith, and Wellesley, or Vassar and Wells. In a city whose first educational impulses came from Holland, among whose earliest and best scholars were women, it is but still following the example of three out of four of the Dutch universities-of Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam-to throw open doors of learning to women, some of whom, as in the past, may prove great proficients.
In a city history it is impossible to overlook the public schools. They reach the largest numbers, especially the poor, in all parts of the city; and if the present compulsory law does not actually secure an education to all, it is at least fairly well enforced. Our period, from 1879, covers the incumbency of John Jasper as city superintendent of schools, and has certainly been one of advance. Of this one evi- dence is patent enough in the gradual consolidation of smaller schools, till lately in crowded and inconvenient buildings, and placing them in those newer ones planned to accommodate from two thousand to three thousand pupils, and provided with the best sanitation and con- veniences. Even with this consolidation, and with whatever ineffi-
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
ciency in the action of the compulsory law, the number of grammar and primary schools, or separate departments, has grown, since 1879, so as to require seven hundred more teachers, or 3496 in all, for an average daily attendance of 137,849 pupils. These schools, again, have been supplemented by evening schools having two grades of junior and senior, with elective studies in the latter for pupils not under sixteen years of age, whilst in the junior or regular department the ages may range from thirteen to eighteen years. These, in 1892, had 28,537 registered pupils, and a nightly average of 9376; and, in addition, are four evening high schools, with an average of nearly 3000. Moreover, whilst it is evident that the efficiency of a school must depend much upon the teaching or executive power of both principal and teachers, there has been steady pro- gress in school work since 1879. What- ever change has been fairly tested and proved advan- tageous has been adopted. Of espe- cial importance has proved the introduc- tion, first of man- PARK AVENUE, NORTH FROM THIRTY-FOURTH STREET. ual-training schools, and then, in 1890, the introduction into all the schools of the course of study therein found so useful. This edu- cational course begins at the lowest primary grade, and goes through to the highest grammar grade; goes from the kindergarten, with its "eye-teaching" for the least, up to the high school. In all it is re- garded as a living principle of education, to be applied wherever prac- ticable. And, indeed, among such a population, so circumstanced, what can be more efficient than a course of instruction which includes the body as well as the mind! How excellent, again, the law of the State which requires in its common schools attention to such subjects as physiology and hygiene! For this, also, provision is made, through talks by the principals, outside of the regular studies. That the stan- dard of scholarship among the teachers must be good, is evident. In- deed, to secure a requisite proficiency, the standard of licenses has been raised in 1892 from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent. But with a Normal School of 2000 pupils to draw upon, to secure the best for the purpose should be no difficulty.
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During this period has also been tried the experiment-an experi- ment in this city-of having female members upon the Board of Education. Since of the three chosen to the office none has been re- appointed by the mayor, it must, for the present at least, be deemed a failure. The number suited by tact, temperament, and training to the position is necessarily small, and, whether in the board as a legis- lative body or in the schools, it may easily become
- a trying and unpleasant one in view of the many subjects which may arise and distract opinion. It stands an experiment discontinued by the will and judgment of the appointing power, the mayor, although it brought into service upon the board women of well-known character and capacity, and experi- ence in various phases of city work.
How well approved, upon examination, is the work of the public schools, a late incident may show. Let it here first be said that they are intended in their various districts to reach even the poorest and all nationalities. It is a notable fact that the best scholars are Jews, both in deportment and learning; their parents require of them profi- ciency in such matters. The next are Germans, whilst the Irish, with different traits, have produced from these schools bright specimens of what, with education, they may become. Even some of the poorest among them, seeing what the schools have done, entertain for their children this greatest desire-an education! The incident is, that one who knows this work and has attained wealth through a large clientage among the poor, and desires to return them something of what he has received, has arranged a plan by which twelve pupils now pass yearly from the public schools into the city college, and will do so till the full number of sixty is reached. That number is to be maintained, and will cost him the sum (for which he has al- ready provided) of $20,000 annually in perpetuity. His one condi- tion is that they shall be poor, capable, and desirous of an education. If one is disposed to do good, even a penny paper may furnish the abundant means.
This beneficent act brings us naturally to the subject of charities. The public schools are not charities. They are a tax for the good of the whole, by which the state seeks to protect itself against the dan- gers of ignorance and vice. It recognizes them as its best means of self-preservation. Charities, on the other hand, are, or are mainly,
1 Franklin Edson was born in Chester, Vt., April 5, 1832, and comes of Puritan stock. Mr. Edson's early days were spent on his father's farm, and he obtained his oducation at the Chester Academy. Settling in Albany in 1852, he entered into business with his brother, remaining in that city for four- teen years In 1866 hc removed to New-York, be- came a commission merchant, was elected three times to the presidency of the Produce Exchange,
and devoted much attention to the transportation and grading of grain, and labored assiduously to secure the reduction and abolishing of the canal tolls, a result finally accomplished. Always a Dem- ocrat, Mr. Edson served as mayor of New-York in 1883-84, and infused new thought and life into all branches of the municipal government. He is a director of the Bank of New-York, and has oe cupied other offices of importance. EDITOR.
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
voluntary organizations for different humane and Christian purposes. New-York has over a hundred of such. They represent not the riches of the rich alone, but vastly more that cannot be computed in money-the time and devoted labors of an army of workers, some of whom give, in proportion to means, veritably the "widow's mite." Churches, Sunday-schools, family training, and a diverse multitude of Christian influences all contribute to this charitable work. If there is evil in the city, there is also immense good done. More than fifty
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