USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 68
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of the Executive-chiefly by French merchants-strongly biased to French interests abroad.
The Daily Penny Press-Nothing is like this rapid improvement in offering cheap information to the People-It was deemed a perilous adventure, when the Ledger first began its career, fourteen years ago-Then all the daily papers of Philadelphia printed but 7000 copies to subscribers-now the Ledger alone prints off 40,000 impressions-Other cities now have well-supported penny papers- To this, add the fact, that all our youth are to be educated at the public expense, and surely we shall become the greatest readers in the world !
Our once Wooden Country.
Not long since, our woods were so abundant, as to be deemed an incumbrance-It sold in the cities at low rates for fuel-And Mulbery and Maple for use for furniture, was scarcely looked at or regarded -Now pine for combustion, and white pine for all kinds of construc- tion, are rising in prices and alarmingly becoming scarcer and scarcer-Ironis beginning to supply the place of many things formerly used in white pine-Coal is supplying the place of fire wood, a happy discovery in a needed time-Rags and paper having become scarce, we have now discovered fibrous plants and wood as a capital substitute. Truly, the human mind, enlightened, is competent to provide for all its actual wants Our heaviest inconvenience, is provision for our luxuries-These give us constant annoyances-in inflated expenditures-adverse " balances of trade" &c., The world is made up of wrong doers .- And the proud, as well as the poor, are always with us.
Politics.
Politics as a profession and employment, steadily advances-It is seized as the road to advancement. It is looked to, by active men, as a means of living and support. They aim to divide us as a people, and to keep us in opposition, that they may severally divide the spoils. There needs some great, national, cheap paper, sustained by disinterested, able and patriotic men, to show us truth, and to show the sinister designs of all selfish politicians-Such a measure, can only be effected by a combination of able, disinterested men,- Men free from the tramels of party, and nobly aiming at the good of the whole. Shall we not yet see this ? The press as it now operates, will not publish anything against those who are liberal contributors for advertisements, &c., They are not willing to dis- oblige such.
Elections,-These are now made affairs of display and excitement wholly different from the quiet of former times .- They had nc music, placards or banners, as now ; and no such thing as omnibuses
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to pick up voters-No taverns for assembling in wards -- and no stump orators, travellling round districts to win proselytes and partizans .-- We are worked upon by every contrivance-which selfishness, if not patriotism, can devise !
Luxury and Wealth.
Are daily presenting new forms of display-in furniture, dress, equipages and table indulgence. All old forms are passing away. -Nothing of the revered past, is allowed to remain. Think of ladies dresses now costing 1200, to 1500, dollars ! and the wives of Commoners, having jewelry to the amount of 15,000 to 20,000 dollars, and more .- Evening parties, too, among such, to be boastfully paraded at an expense of 1,000 dollars for a night ! We are certainly a fast changing people. Whether for weal or woe, posterity shall judge.
It is often observed, that the young, in fashionable life, are far more arrogant and assuming in companies of display and exhibition, than they used to be .- They are far less reverent to the aged than in former times,-pushing them aside, from counsel or controul. Former shame-facedness of youth, is regarded as awkard mauvaise honte and not to be tolerated in " good society," so called. Europeans even now, among us, wonder at the unrestrained freedom of talk and action, of our young females .- They now have their social Soirees to themselves,-all young together.
The increase of Wealth, produces an abundant overshare of Pro- fessional men-in Law, Physic, and Army and Navy. It is greatly needed to exalt the character of Tradesmen (so called) so as to lead many of good means to enter therein-especially to elevate the class of architects-of carpenters and shipwrights-manufacturers of metals-of machinery &c .- great room now exists for educated Farmers .- The Clergy serve by call.
Extravagance in Dress.
At this time a fashionable dry goods store advertises, a lace scarf for 1500 dollars ! Another, has a bridal dress for 1,200 dollars --- Bonnets at 200 dollars are also sold. Cashmeres, from 300 dollars and upwards, are seen by dozens along Broadway. And 100 dollars is quite a common price for a silk gown .- Think of such a scale of prices for " un-ideaed" American women ! Can the pampering of such vanities, elevate the character of our women? Alas! the women who live for such displays-who give their whole attention to diamonds and dress, are fast becoming unfitted for wives or mothers -and are operating the ruin of husbands and parents .- Do we not greatly need voluntary sumptuary laws and restraints ! History records, that when the Roman matrons fell into similar extravagances the Empire itself, felt the deterioration, and fast fell into its decline
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Will any consider ! One serious consideration is, that prudent thought- ful men, cannot engage in matrimonial alliances-In this, the ladies themselves will become sufferers :- And men themselves, driven from hopeful marriages, will be induced (several of them,) to resort to concubinage. What a fearful extremity for the future! Let the really elite of " upper tendom," reform this thing. as a patrictic measure, and all the lower world will follow-Who will consider ?
At Christmas, in New York, an Opal breast pin, set in a circle of diamonds, was bought for a lady for 4,500 dollars ! A leader, in the Pennsylvania Inquirer and the Public Ledger of the eighth of November, 1856 are strongly confirmatory of all these remarks.
The Pennsylvania Inquirer, of the thirtieth of June, 1855, thus notices " Popular Extravagance :"-
" Our Christianity and our love of Country should put us upon fitting remedies for some of the alarming habits of extravagance which prevails among us. One of the sources of this manifold evil has been fairly put in the following remarks of a wholesale merchant and importer, as given in the Annual report, of ' The American Woman's Education Society :'"
" You have got hold of a great matter, sir, I hope you will succeed. The women are wrong, sir. They are not educated rightly. They are going to bankrupt the country unless there is a change .- More is thought of show than substance. We pay scores of millions annually for ladies ornaments, which are of no use. We cannot afford it. It is worse than sinking the gold in the sea ! We are paying more duties on artificial flowers than on railroad iron! God help you to elevate the position and the aim of woman."
"The fact that a store in this city, employed in the sale of laces and other superfluities in that line, pays a rent of ten thousand dollars a year, is a significant comment upon this speech. There is no cure for such an evil, though it threatens ruin to the country, and greater ruin to Christian character, but in something that shall divert the ambition of the female mind to something better worthy of rational and immortal beings, than this rivalry in expensive dress and outward show."
Hoops Again !
We had hoped that our ladies would never again be brought to use such ill-looking, useless and deforming appendages to their dresses -They are, as seen along our streets, a Misdemeanor. They are so suggestive of immodest thoughts, both while worn and also when seen dangling from stores along the streets, just like so many par- aschutes. One feels as if they must be scanning them, to conjecture how and where the limbs therein could be found ! They are too, so annoying and engrossing of place and room in omnibuses-Rail Cars, and in church pews and aisles-and why all this ; but as spell hound subserviants to some foreign spell-one feels scandalized
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for " the Land of the Free !" Nor is this all-Ladies who profess to be christians and communicants too, pledged " to renounce the vain pomp and vanities of the world, and not to be led thereby," go up to the sacramental altar, showing before the eyes of all beholders- an unseemly vanity !
When we think of " the human form divine," as fashioned in the purpose of the Creator ;- when he gave us also, our abiding appre- ciation and sense of the beautiful, so fully expressed in the Grecian models, so universally adopted by all subsequent Sculptors and Artists : And think also of that same human form as prevalent in the year 1800 and afterwards, and as then universally approved by the whole Beau Monde. What must be the feelings of the former beaux and other beholders now, at this modern expose of a " monstrous novelty and strange disguise !" Women then, presented as they ever should, specific notices of individual figure-such as Heaven made and designed them ; and the present artificial rotundity and expan- siveness, were just the kind of personages, who then carried themselves at a discount-Don't many remember !
Presents at. Weddings.
This has lately come up, as a fashionable extravagance, to the amount of many thousands of dollars-The practice with the haut ton now is, for the Bride to have them set off for display in a guest room, where the articles are paraded for exhibition, with appended notices from the Donors-Both the bride and the Donors, obtain their shares of renown and report, on such occasions .- All of the invited, very naturally become contributors, and some feel the tax thus imposed, somewhat unwelcome-on some ultra occasions. 15,000 to 20,000 dollars are said to have been contributed-But after that, comes the reaction ;- for those thus cheered by benefactors, must come in their turns to disburse all their gains in equally ambitious gifts to after marriages in their circles. (Some of these are shrewdly suspected of being loaned from jewellers at high fees !)
Wearing of Beards.
Looking at numbers of men who now wear beards, and seeing; of course, their countenance with many, one cannot but look back upon a time in our youth, when not worn by any citizens ; one can- not but remember a time, when the Tunkards and Menonists of inland Pennsylvania used to come to the city, wearing their beards -They were then a repulsive spectacle to boys and ladies, universally -and it required no little resolution in the wearers to bear them as they then did, for Christian profession sake-Now others do the same thing cordially for fashion's sake ! " Les fous font les modes."
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Opera Music.
Such as men once used with human voice, is greatly altered -natural voices and tones, such as nature impressed, are passing away, for unnatural efforts, making strange display-such as proceeds from Opera singing-by strained efforts-All of our singers, in social circles, now show much of affectation .- That it is not according to man's nature and bias, is abundantly proved by the plaudits every where bestowed upon Poblic Singers, who burlesque the others, and sing with good voices, natural airs-Such as the Virginia and Orleans Minstrels-the Hutchinson family &c., Some itching ears, have even introduced affected singing into churches ! So did not Luther, who was himself a good musician-he adapted all his tunes to their subjects-Solemn, grave, severe, or gay.
Tho' musical I am-I never could Fall into raptures o'er Italian singing ; Songs without words I never understood, Tho'soft and sweet as " harp of houris stringing-" Nor would I ask a lady for a song Unless the poetry has beauty in it.
Our artificial Music, considered-We having before stated how much we spoil our music by artificial refinement, we have set down a confirmation, given by another hand-to wit : " All music that paints nothing is only noise ! and were it not for fashion, which unnatures every thing, it would excite no more pleasure than a sequel of harmo- nious and finely sounding words without any order or connection-" " Those airs which paint images-and called speaking airs, will always surpass the most labored refinement of art-such as 'Roys wife,' 'John Anderson &c.,'-fascinate the soul, because they are melodies of nature." Mr. Barnum has created a new era in public excitability-He uses the press with such dexterity to puff himself and his exhibitions, as to make himself the focus of all that is popular . -all to make his own fortune !- None but himself could have ventured on such a great amount of money to Jenny Lind for her visit- Think of so much being awarded for singing ! Is it possible that it is, indeed, so super-human and exalted as to be really worth the contribution-or is it excited phrenzy ! The very splendor of her reception at New York is to forestall public opinion, and to come eventually out of the peoples' pockets ! See her at Irving house having there for herself, a parlor, drawing-room, dining room, and two bed- rooms-all newly fitted up in a most gorgeous style, at a cost of 7,000 dollars ! One really sighs at such extravagance in republicans-225 dollars is bid for an admission ticket ! and at Boston, the first ticket bid off at 625 dollars, and her suite of rooms cost for decorations 13 000 dollars !"
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Our Manufactures-of all kinds.
Out improvements and inventions, in all things needful for our use and, comfort, is boundless-Formerly we depended for every thing upon importation. Now we fabricate every thing needed for clothing, in cotton and wool,-and all kinds of metallic implements and iron- mongery. In chemical, and articles of materia medica, the quantity home made, is wonderful-our productions in glass, iron and metallic substances are very great and very perfect.
The changes already effected, would fill a volume in enumeration. Now we make Wall papers, carpets, paints-(See a book now publishing by Freedly, on this subject.)
The Chemical productions-as now got up by our manufacturers, would if told in extension, make a curious and interesting work- They have so cheapened the prices of drugs, and paints and colours, before imported, and had so many obstacles to surmount, to gain favour and beat down prejudice, that their history in popular style, would be quite entertaining .- Almost everything in this department was formerly imported. I have myself endeavored to procure facts. but those concerned, make money too fast to spare time for detail, for my use and notice !
The Casting of Iron, is undergoing vast improvements -from once being extremely rough and unsightly, we now see beauty of castings in all forms .- Our Pine woods are used far beyond repro- duction-other woods must hereafter supply-The Pines of North Carolina &c., are now using for camphine fluids for lamps &c, The for mation of gas-for lighting streets and houses, is a modern affair :- and it is supposed that water will some day be found to supply its place ! The introduciion of the use of India rubber and Caoutouche, for all manner of things-as for clothing &c., is wholly a new affair of wonder.
Necromancy and Magnetism, &c.
Necromancy, Fortune-telling &c., by advertising men, professing to be philosophers, and proceeding by Nativities &c., is a new affair and seems to find employers .- Slight of hand, by Blitz,-the man of Ava, &c., are new and very successful enterprises-" wondering for their bread !" They are really wonderful in concealment and decep- tion; but by their honest confessions of illusion, serve to do away former conceptions of Demoniacizm.
Witchcraft is gone-exploded, and the nearest approach and illustration of former deceptions, seem now developed in Animal magnetism ; and the powers possessed, by manipulation and passes, to influence the actions of others, compelling them to sit, stand, walk and do, according to the will of the operator. Operators, too, work- ing from powers in nature, and used by honest men, on other men . sincere and true as themselves.
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Increase of Wrong and Outrage.
Really my country, is so much increased in crime of all kinds and characters, as makes me feel heart-sick to think of its progress-and the state of society to which I am to leave my heirs .- It really makes life of far less value to live it-and almost makes one sigh for a change into another and better world.
Combinations of Wicked Boys-These combinations of lawless - lads in the cities of Philadelphia and New York, under indicative names-signifying outlawry and mischief,-is wholly a new manifes- tation of progress :- Such as have made " houses of Refuge" indispensable for the security of Society against their crimes and encroachments. The good people of the Olden time, had no such disturbers of their peace-All boys worked at something useful in their times. Cheap Theatres and Comic allurements, are now their visited night schools.
" Because inquity shall abound. The love of many shall wax cold."
The year 1852 has been a season of most appalling crime -- so many gross murders-rapes-cruelties, See the book, Hot Corn of New York. Excessive destruction of life, by " Accidents," &c ...- One who fears God, may well fear his judgment,-unless we repent and turn .- There has been a morbid sensibility for criminals-a desire to screen them from the merited gallows-This encourages wicked. ness-Religion itself, seems not to have the same hold and influence on the mass-Men grow up by example to forget God.
Objections to Capital punishment, is a new thought, gaining ground fast .- It is made an affair of religious obligation-It may be expected to prevail for awhile-but probably not permanantly-Because its tendancy will be to encourage crime. God, who is unchanging, once declared that-" thine eye shall not spare or pity, the murderer," and the new Testament, said, " the sword of justice, was not used in vain," and St. Paul, said, " he was willing to die, if he committed things worthy of death," meaning thereby, that some offences were sc regarded by him. Legislators exempt from death, (by executions' even while they fine our sons, for not serving in military duty to kill our enemies-So inconsistent are we! A better rule is,-" Society shall shake its encumbered lap, grown weary of the load !" It is a weary load to find imprisoned homes for lawless criminals. Will not another age restore Capital punishment ?
What became of John Fitch ..
The above is the heading of an article and letter in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, of March, 1853 ; as given in the following
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words-which go to confirm, what I had before published-to wit : Letter from Alexander M. Mc-Dowell-
Demopolis, Alabama, July 6, 1852.
" As it is to this day an unsettled point, of what city of the East had the glory of being the birth place of Homer, so it has been equally undetermined as to the place in the great West, where the mortal remains of one greater than Homer, have their resting-place ; I mean the great embodied genius of Steam ;- the indigent, friendless machinist John Fitch-the co-worker and adviser of Rumsay and Fulton. &c., &c., &c., The writer of this having occasion some twenty-five years ago to bury a little nephew at Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky-and having discovered in the crowded little protestant graveyard, near the County jail, an open space of twenty or thirty feet square, not occupied by graves, commenced digging the nephew's grave there ; when he was stopped by the aged sexton Mr. Alexender Mc Keown, who said that spot ' contained the bones of John Fitch, the great Steam man'-and that the space was left thus large to build a monument to his memory by the State of Kentucky. The Hon. Ben : Hardin and Doctor Burr Harrison, of whom inquiry was made, corroborated the statement of Mr. Mc Keown, and states that a resolution to erect a monument over Fitch had passed the Legislature of Kentucky, of which they had been members, but that no appropriation had ever been made to carry the resolution into effect. The aged Sexton must long since have passed from earth, and it is probable there are now few, even in Bardstown, who could point out the grave of John Fitch.
Signed, Alexander M. Mc Dowell.
Such are the facts as given by Mc Dowell, and it frets me while I write, to think how little the public will give heed to what we have severally written to bring the remains to storied, monumental fame- President making, and Foreign Artistes, are more engrossing !- McDowell, would doubtless like to know what I have done in the same object. I wrote to him per mail and heard nothing-
Romanist Religion among Us.
The Romanists are, at the present, establishing themselves through- out our whole land, and we mean to state the fact as it is without reproach .- This is done by erecting churches, schools, and nuneries, (by aid of Foreign funds,) in all places. Many are disturbed by their presence. But the press will be too free and expansive to allow them to take undue ascendency and domination, and will urge their conductors also to divest themselves of many of their assumptions and pageantries, as fostered and indulged in foreign countries. Rom-
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anist people here, cannot be governed with absoluteness, as abroad. The result may be, that Romanism, will be improved, and true Religion, among themselves, will be better diffused .-- It may come to take the type of Puseyizm(a new thing)and both together may catch the affections of those who desire pomp and circumstance in splendid Religion and love the imagination to be exercised in “ decent ceremonials," dramatic displays, Opera singing and music, &c.,
The Treaty Elm.
There was taken as a scion from the treaty tree, by S. Coates, a young tree, which sprung up from the roots of the fallen tree, which he planted in the grass lot, Westward of the Hospital Wall on Ninth street. It there grew to be a large tree (high as the three storied house)-but when they opened Clinton street, it left that tree standing out in the street, two feet beyond the curb-At my request of the lot owners it stood there awhile after the pebble pavement was made- but now I see they have cut it down as an incumbrance, alas ! how little many care for our antiquities ! It is vain to argue with money interests-It stood about the sixth house, North side, from Ninth St. -I have just learned from Mr. S. D. Bowers, that there is now alive a large Elm tree, upwards of sixty years of age, standing on the street, at the place long known as the dwelling house and ship yard of his father, taken by his father, Samuel, when a young man, sixty- five years ago, as a shoot, from the celebrated Treaty tree .- There ne nursed and cherished it, during all his life-time, and at this time, it is now in full vigour. Long may it survive, as a grateful historical remembrance! It is indeed strange, to be so little generally known. It stands a little South of where the British had their River battery 'n the Revolutionary War, and on the river street, "Penn" as then there. (Samuel Bower died in 1834, at seventy-five years of age.) The tree stands on the West side, fronting Rowland & Co- Iron works,-and is midway between Maiden on the North, and March or Poplar on the South. Before the death of Samuel Bower -- a limb of fifty feet across the street, got broken by a storm-It was strengthened and stood a few years, when another storm broke it off -The tree now spreads sixty feet.
Consolidation of Philadelphia.
This is indeed, a wonderful event-effected by mutual concessions of various included towns and districts-It will be a very benificial improvement. By working as a Unit hereafter, it will unite many former seperate interests. The full history of the means used by which the measure has been effected, would make a book of itself .-- Even political parties, laid aside, for the occasion all of their local interests ; and patriotism and disinterestedness was allowed for the
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special occasion, to govern for the good of the whole ! The men of my youth, never looked forward to such a growth of their city-It is a wonder !
Germantown Changes and Improvements.
When I had succeeded to influence many to plaster the fronts of their houses-I next came to stimulate lot owners to pave their foot ways.
I began this article to say, that we are indebted to Robert H. Thomas, for the impulse, first given by him, to increase the houses and population of the place. He proved by his own success, in laying out new streets, and selling lots and building cottage houses, that he had a power to attract business men, and men of money, to seek a residence for Country air, &c., He began his first operations some twelve years ago along Centre street ; next he bought, and laid out the lots on Kelly's farm-His example set the two Prices-Eli and Philip-to buy the grounds of Wunder, and to lay out Price street, -where I live .- Germantown now, is no longer, Germantown as it was ! It now goes on in building fancy cottages for city business men, &c.,
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