History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 19

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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the particulars of this adventure. Great was his wrath. He ordered Jerome to depart immediately for his kingdom, and Pigault-Lebrun and X were forbidden from having anything to do with organ- izing the court of Westphalia.

Another Bonaparte (Joseph, ex-king of Spain) came to Philadelphia some years later, about 1815. He is said to have lived in Capt. John Savage's house, on Ninth Street, and subsequently in John Beale Bord- ley's house, No. 7 Union Street ; but his residence of a permanent character was at Lansdowne, the coun- try-seat of the Binghams, on the west side of the Schuylkill, the grounds of which are now included in Fairmount Park. Samuel Breck records in his diary, under date of April 20, 1816, that he was informed that " the ex-king of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, had hired Lansdowne House for one year and was already established in the mansion." He must have remained there for more than one year,-probably for two years. Breck records, under date of Sept. 1, 1817, that Julia Rush, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who after- wards married Henry J. Williams, informed him that she had lately dined at Joseph Bonaparte's. After this he leased John Dunlap's house, at the southeast corner of Market and Twelfth Streets, where he lived until 1825. He had purchased in the mean time some land near Bordentown, N. J., where he built a fine mansion as a summer residence. This place, called "Point Breeze," was tastefully arranged, and the house contained many valuable works of art, stat- uary, paintings, etc. It was destroyed by fire in 1820. The people in the neighborhood rendered every pos- sible assistance in the effort to save the property, and Mr. Bonaparte afterwards sent a letter of thanks to one of the magistrates of Bordentown, in which he bore grateful testimony to the kindness and honesty of the people, declaring that-

"all the furniture, statues, pictures, money, plate, gold, jewele, linen, books, and, in short, everything that was not consumed, has been most scrupulously delivered into the hands of the people of my house. In the night of the fire, and during the next day, there were brought to me, by laboring men, drawers in which I found the proper quantity of pieces of money, medals of gold, and valnable jewels, which might have been taken with impunity."

Another Frenchman, very little in sympathy with the Bonapartes, made Philadelphia his home in 1805. Gen. Jean Victor Moreaux, banished from France for an alleged participation in the plot of Pichegru and Cadoudal against the life of the first consul, was held to be the greatest general of the French republic next to Bonaparte, and even by many considered his equal. His guilt, stoutly denied by himself, was generally doubted, and his disgrace was attributed to Bona- parte's jealousy of the hero of Rastadt, Etlingen, and Hohenlinden. Soon after his arrival the citizens of Philadelphia gave Gen. Morean a public dinner. He petitioned the Legislature of Pennsylvania for per- mission to hold real-estate in the commonwealth. This request, refused at first, was subsequently granted, and Moreau purchased part of the Robert

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

Morris property at Morrisville, in Bucks County. On the 17th of April, 1811, Gen. Moreau entered his declaration of becoming a citizen of the United States, in the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court at Phil- adelphia. Whether he became fully naturalized is a matter of doubt, but Gen. Moreau returned to Europe in 1813, upon the invitation of the czar of Russia and the kings of Sweden and Prussia. While standing near the Emperor Alexander, at the battle of Dresden (Aug. 27, 1813| he had both of his legs broken by a cannon-ball from the French batteries. He died five days later. In 1816, Moreau's property in Morris- ville was sold for account of his wife and daughter, and it realized fifty-two thousand dollars.

JOHN DUNLAP'S HOUSE. From an original drawing.

About the same year (1805) David Parrish, of Ant- werp, established himself in Philadelphia as agent of the Hopes, bankers, to effect a transfer to Europe, under the American flag, of silver which was on de- posit in Mexico. Ile lived in fine style at No. 228 Walnut Street, then at No. 152 Walnut Street, Sam- son's Row and finally in the fine house No. 1 York Row, at the southwest corner of Walnut Street and Columbia Avenue, now called Washington Square, which was afterward occupied by Dr. MeClellan and Josiah Randall. In the United States he operated through the mercantile houses of Willing and Fran- cis and others. Stephen Girard was at one time correspondent of the llopes and the Barings.

John Dunlap's house was one of the finest in the city, and had connected with it almost a square of ground, extending from Market to Chestnut Street,

and from Eleventh to Twelfth. South of it, on . Twelfth Street, were two dwelling-houses, in one of which Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, lived and died. The other was occupied by Paul Busti, merchant. John Dunlap's house was built in 1790, and the roof covered more distinguished resi- dents than almost any other house in the city, as the following list of some of the tenants will show :

1791. Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General of the United States.

1792. Chevalier Jean De Ternant, minister of the French Republic to the United States.

1793. Citizen Edwin Charles Genet, minister of the French Republic to the United States,

1794. Joseph Fanchet, min- ister of the French Republic to the United States.

1795. M. Adet, minister of the French Republic to the United States.

1797. Capt. John Dunlap.

1815. Baron De Kantzow, minister from Sweden to the United States.

1817. Joseph Bonaparte, Count De Survilliers, ex-king of Spain.

1824. Charles Lucien Bona- parte, prince of Canino and Mussignano, son of Lucien Bonaparte, with his wife, Prin- cess Zenaide Charlotte Julie, daughter of Joseph Bonaparte.

1825. Dr. John Y. Clark, husband of Baroness Lalle- mand, a niece of Stephen Girard, with that lady. Girard then the owner of the house.

1829. Stephen F. Nidelet.

After the death of Ste- phen Girard the Dunlap house was torn down and the whole square improved under direction of the Girard Trust.

In 1808, Richard Penn, Lieutenant-Governor before the Revolution, returned from England, whither he had gone at the beginning of the war. He brought with him his son William and his daughter llannah, and remained a little over a year in Philadelphia, looking after his landed interests. It was during this visit that young William Penn married a beautiful girl, Julia Catherine Balabrega, a native of Philadel- phia. Though perfectly respectable, the bride's pa- rents were of a lower station in life than that held by the Penns, and great was the scandal among those who entertained aristocratic prejudices. But William had consulted only his own happiness. Ile let so- ciety deelaim about his mésalliance, and took his young wife to England, where they lived happily until his death.

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

Many travelers . visited Philadelphia in the early part of the century, most of whom published their observations. Robert Sutcliff, an English Quaker, who had a brother and a cousin living in Philadel- phia, came to examine the resources of the country, and was so well pleased that he went back for his family, and brought them over in 1811. Unfortu- nately, he died in the same year; but during his first visit he had not been idle, and in the year following his death his manuscripts were published under the title of "Travels in Some Parts of North America in the years 1804-6." Sutcliff was a man of correct judgment and little given to exaggeration ; his com- ments are sensible, and his narrative interesting.

Charles William Jansen published " The Stranger in America" at London, 1807. His observations em- brace the period from 1793 to 1806. Jansen, in his title-page, styles himself "Counselor-at-law, late of the State of Rhode Island."

Vincent Nolte, a native of Leghorn, resided some time in Philadelphia, aud was connected with David Parrish. He had traveled extensively, and was called " a restless cosmopolite," having resided alter- nately in Asia, Europe, and America. In his work entitled "Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres," pub- lished in 1854, he relates several anecdotes in connec- tion with his residence here.

John Melish published "Travels in the United States of America," in the years 1806-11 ; " A De- scription of the United States," in 1816; and " A Statistical View of the United States," in 1822. He was a native of Scotland, and after traveling exten- sively through this country settled in Philadelphia, where he engaged extensively in the publication of maps and geographical and statistical works. He died in Philadelphia, Dec. 30, 1822.

Felix de Beaujour, for some time consul-general of France in Philadelphia, wrote in French a very im- portant work, illustrated with tables and valuable statements, concerning the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of the country. His observations of Philadelphia society are written in a spirit of fairness and impartiality. His book was translated into English, and published in London in 1814, under the title of "Sketch of the United States of America, from 1800 to 1810."

Heury Ker wrote a very fair book, "Travels through the Western Interior of the United States, from the year 1808 to 1816."

F. Cuming published in 1810 " Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, Down the Ohio," etc., com- menced in 1807. Commencing his trip at Philadel- phia, he says nothing of the appearance of the town, because, he alleges, "he did not think it worth while to describe the city, which had already been very fully described by others." As, however, be had to cross the Schuylkill by a bridge, he described it pretty fully, as well as the floating bridge at the upper ferry.

Lieut. Francis Hall, of the Fourteenth Light Dra- goons, published "Travels in Canada and the United States in 1815-17." His book is entertaining and fair in judgment. The North American Review said of him, " He has good sense enough to think that a country is not to be judged by its tavern-keepers and hostlers, and too much good humor to rail at a whole people because he meets with occasional instances of fraud and churlishness."

Of a different temper was Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a London surgeon, who visited this country about 1816-17. He was evidently prepared to criticise and denounce everything he saw. His observations were printed in " A Narrative of a Journey of Five Thou- sand Miles through the Eastern and Western States of America." His work created a great deal of irri- tation in this country. Even the London Monthly Review noticed his " tone of ill-temper," while Syd- ney Smith, who was no lover of America, was com- pelled to admit in the Edinburgh Review that Mr. Fearon was " a little given to exaggerate in his views of vices and prejudices."

John Palmer published in London in 1818 "A Journal of Travels in the United States of North America and in Lower Canada in 1817." Sydney Smith said of him, " He is a plain man, of good sense and slow judgment." Palmer came from Lynn, Nor- folk, England.

William Tell Harris wrote " Remarks made during a Tour through the United States of America," a fair book; and Emma Howitt, a lover of nature and a member of the Society of Friends, published some interesting "Selections from Letters written during a Tour through the United States in the Summer and Autumn of 1818-19."

Baron Von Humboldt, the celebrated naturalist and traveler, made a flying visit to Philadelphia, in 1804, with his friends Von Bonpland and Montufar, with whom he had explored South America and the Andes Mountains. The travelers were on their way to Washington, where they called on President Jef- ferson, who received them with great distinction.

A great excitement in literary circles was created in 1804, by the coming of the poet, Thomas Moore. He had received the appointment of registrar of the British Admiralty in the island of Bermuda, but after taking possession of the office, he found that his du- ties might be performed by a deputy, and did not re- quire his personal attention. He determined then to return to England by the way of the United States, for to a man of his temperament residence in the quiet island of Bermuda was little better than exile. Moore remained about ten days in Philadelphia, and if he had a poet's weakness for praise and flat- tery he must have left more than satisfied. The poetical squad connected with the Portfolio lauded their foreign confrère with so much exaggeration that their praise might have been mistaken for satire. The flattering attentions he received in Philadelphia

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

were so pleasing to Mr. Moore, that he made this city an exception in the general condemnation of things American. His preconceived opinion of the United States reveals itself in a letter to his mother, dated Baltimore, June 13, 1804, when he says,-

" I shall leave this place for Philadelphia to-morrow or the day after. I shall see there poor Edward Hudson, who, if I am rightly informed, lina married the daughter of a very rich boukseller, and is taken into partnarship by the father. Surely, surely this country must have cured him of Republicanism ""'

In a letter dated Philadelphia, June 16th, he says,- " I have seen Edward Hudson. The rich bookseller I had heard of is Pat Byrne, whose daughter Hladson has married. They are, I believe, doing well."

THOMAS MOORE.

Some days later he wrote her from Passaie, as fol- lows:

" Among other things, my reception at Philadelphia was extremely Battering. It is the only place in America that can boast of a literary society, and my name had prepossessed them mor- strongly than I de- served. But their affectionate attentions went far beyond this defer- eace to reputation. I was quite caressed while there, and their anxiety to maka me known by introductory letters to ull their frienda on my way, and two or three little poems of a very flattering kind, which some of their choicest men addressed to me, all went so warmly to my heart that I felt quite n regret in leaving them ; and the only place I have wenn which I had one wish to pauac lu was in Philadelphia."

In a letter from Saratoga, dated July 10, 1804, he says that the poem. " Alone by the Sehnylkill a wanderer roved," was written after he left Phila- delphia, and that he was not very certain as to the situation or course of that river. Ile says,

"Dear mother I knew son will be pleased with the little poem I wrote on my way from Philadelphia. It was written very much an a return for the kin'h oss I met with there, but chiefly in allusion to a very Charming Httle w .mal -Mr . Hopkinson who was extremely in- tere sted by my mong . m Fwb flattered me with many attentions. You must observe that the schuy 1501 Is a river which runs by, or (I believe, through), Philadelphia. '

Nearly a month had elapsed since Moore's depar- tare from Philadelphia, when the Portfolio mentioned his visit, and published " Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer roved." To the passage in these verses,

" Like eyes that he loved were her eloquent ayes, Like them did they soften and weep at his song,"

was appended a note in which it was stated that those lines alluded to the circumstance that in a certain company where Moore sang a song, " a lady wept." This lady was Mrs. Joseph Hopkinson, whom Moore mentioned in the letter above quoted.

The Portfolio of July 28th contained five poems by Thomas Moore : "When Time, who steals our years away ;" " Thy song has taught my heart to feel ;" " Dear, in pity do not speak !" "Good-night! good- night ! and is it so?" and " When the heart's feeling." On August 11th was published "Loud sung the wind," and "The sorrow long has worn my heart." Everybody went into raptures over these songs, and the Portfolio said, by its editor, Dennie, Aug. 25, 1804,-

" The ardent admirers of Mr. Moora cherish n lively hope that tha fascinating friend and the sweet poet, after enjoying the hospitality of his countrymen in the British provinces, will shortly return to gladdan the social and literary circles on the banks of the Delaware, Tha editor will greet him with that warmth of welcome which the presence of auch n friend inspires : and many an Horatian spirit will exclaim,-

"* Hinc tibi copia Manabit ad plenum benigno Ruris honorum opulenta corau,' etc."

A short time after several pieces of poetry in lauda- tion of the " Translator of Anacreon" were published in the Portfolio.

But the American public at large, who might have shared the Philadelphians' admiration of Moore, were greatly disappointed when the " Epistles, Odes, and other Poems," by Thomas Moore, were published in 1806. This volume of poetry contained notes to some of the compositions, which referred to the author's experience in the United States in a manner little palatable to the sensitive American miud. Philadel- phia, as we have already remarked, escaped his cen- sure. He said, in reference to his visit here,-

"Tu the society of Mr. Dennie and his friends at Philadelphia I passed the only agreeable moments which my tour through the States afforded me. Mr. Dennia lins succeeded in diffusing through this elegant littla circle that love for good literature und sound politics which he feels ao zealonsly himself, and which is so very rarely the characteristic of his countrymen. They will not, I trust, accuse me of illiberality fur the picture I have given of the ignoranca and corruption that surround them. If 1 did not hate ns I onght the rabble to which they are op- posed, I could not value ns I do the spirit with which they defy it; and in learning from them what Americans can be, I but see with the mora indignation what Americans are."

Many were the sharp replies of the American crit- ics, and some very uncomplimentary things were said to and of Mr. Moore. Of a different temper was the ingenious revenge of a eritie in the Literary Magazine, who published the following choice morceau as if writ- ten by Muore himself; until the hoax was discovered the Philadelphians were indignant :

" Philadelphia is the most dull, monotonous, uninteresting city on the face of the globe, whose positive advantages it would take a Solomon to discover. The negative catalogue, however, is not so seanty. It wants more churches, markets, and coffee-houses. Its churches, few as they are, want aleeples, and their steeples want bells. They also want audi- ences, and their audiences want zenl. Their choirs want singers, and

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

their singers want voices. Their markets want space, air, and shelter, and their coffee-housee want room, dignity, and convenience. The streets want variety, being too uniformly wide and straight. Of the only curved streets, one is too narrow and the other ie too wide. In the one the houses are too high, and in the other they are too low. Where the honses are dissimilar they are too dissimilar ; where they are alike they are too much alike. The city wants more hotels. The few there are are dirty, noisy, dark, and inconvenient. The streets have too many trees, but little shade. Their foot-pavemente sre smooth where smooth- ness is least wanted, and their carriage-ways are rough where rough- ness is most troublesome. In a town of eighty thousand people many must go a mile to market, and as far to church. The best and most busy streets are twice a week crowded for half a day together with horees and carts. The principal street is lined all the year round with wagons, which serve the purpose, while moving, of ships; while stand- ing, of stalls and inns. And the street lias all the furniture of a stable- yard.

"Philadelphia has two theatres, one of which is very much in the style of a barn, is placed in the dirty and obscene skirts of the city, and is at least a mile from the habitatiou of two-thirds of the inhabitants. It is only opened occasionally, on the arrival of a company of mounte- banks, jugglers, or rope-dancers. The other is opened half the year, and ahout one in two hundred of the people frequent it each night of exhibition, which takes place twice or thrice a week.

" Everything in this city is in a state of revolution. The only house which deserved the name of a genteel or fashionable residence was lately turoed into a tavern. The house occupied by Washington and Adams in the days of their sovereignty underwent the same fate. A house de- signed as a palace for the Governor of the State has lately become a college, and the hall of the Revolutionary Congress is now a depository for stuffed birds and beasts.

"The ouly magnificent buildings are characteristic of the genius of the place: they are money-shops, vulgarly called banks. One of them is a mass of hewo marble, disposed most ridiculously into the form of a Grecian-Ionic temple, thus exemplifying the most preposterous incon- gruity between the form and the purpose. The other is not liable to thie objection, but is built, in the interior, of such materials that a ran- dom spark would soon reduce the whole into a heap of ruins."

Whether the stranger in Philadelphia, coming with good introduction, mingled with the "best society," and could observe closely the beauty of the women and the manners of the men, or, being of a philo- sophical and practical turn of mind, gave his atten- tion to facts and figures, and prepared statistics for publication, or being a mere wanderer, unknown and unwelcomed, he passed unnoticed through the crowd, he must have found subjects for amusement, and often for wonderment if he came from a distant clime, in the street noises and sights that greeted his ears and eyes at every step. Early in the morning, in the period between 1825 and 1835, he would be startled by the blasts of a horn, followed by an effort at vocal music, in which he might catch the words,-

" Charcoal by the bushel ; Charcoal by the peck ; Charcoal by the frying-pap, Or any way you leck !"

Looking out he would see "Jimmy Charcoal," the New Jersey man, sitting on his long, narrow wagon, all grimy with the dust of his merchandise, yet look- ing out with a bright eye for the housemaids, who hastened to the door at the well-known sound of the horn. For wherever stone-coal was used charcoal was the proper thing, and if it was summer the housekeeper preferred the charcoal furnace for out- door use to the kitchen stove, which heated the house unpleasantly. The charcoal venders always came

from New Jersey, and Jimmy was, of them all, the most popular with the maids, because of his engaging manners, pleasant jokes, and musical talent. The blowing of the horn, however, became a nuisance, and was prohibited by an ordinance of the City Councils, which was adopted principally in consequence of Paul Beck's exertions. Charcoal Jimmy persisted in using the proscribed instrument, was arrested and made to pay a fine. He considered himself an aggrieved man : how was he to announce his approach if he did not blow his horn ? Suddenly his countenance lighted up; if he did not exclaim " Eureka !" it was because he did not know the meaning of the word, and be- sides he wisely kept his own counsel. The next day the loud ringing of a bell in the street brought all heads out. Jimmy alternated his ringing with this improved version of his song :

" Charcoal by the bushel ; Charcoal by the peck ; Charcoal by the barrel, In spite of Paul Beck."

There was no law against bell-ringing, and Jimmy was permitted to use in place his substitute for the " blasted horn."

Scarcely would the charcoal-man's song die away, when the cry "Sweep, oh ! Sweep, oh !" reminded the housekeepers that they would have to pay a fine of forty shillings if their chimney took fire in conse- quence of their neglecting to have it swept once a month. If it did take fire notwithstanding the sweeping, the master-sweep paid the fine for having done his work negligently. The sweeps were gen- erally negroes, upon whose dusky faces the soot did not show. The master-sweep had generally about half a dozen boys for his aids. These little blacks went up the whole length of the chimney, scraping and brushing the soot on their way, and when they reached the top popped out their woolly heads, pro- tected by a coarse cloth cap, and shouted their cry of triumph.

In the street below, as if to remind the sweep of the ablutions he would have to go through and the amount of scrubbing it would take to get the black dust off from his tattered garments and his ebony skin, the soapseller's melodious voice would respond, "Soft-soap ! soap ! soft-soap !" and the hardy colored man would look up at the grinning little black face, with teeth of dazzling white and merry eyes, peeping from the chimney-top, nod and resume his march, trundling his wheelbarrow upon which stood the heavy barrel of soft-soap. The brick-dust vender, generally an old negro man or woman, followed, car- rying, poised upon the head, the small tub of fine- pounded " salmon" brick, used to clean knives and forks and all sorts of brass implements. A frequent companion to the brick-dust seller was the sand-man, whose melancholy voice invited you from afar to "Sand your kitchens ! Sand your floors !"

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 19

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992