USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Warwick's Keystone commonwealth; a review of the history of the great state of Pennsylvania, and a brief record of the growth of its chief city, Philadelphia > Part 24
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George Frederick Cooke met with so successful a tour in this country that he was followed in 1819 by William Wallack and subsequently by Junius Bru- tus Booth, Edmund Keen, William C. Macready, Charles Matthews, Tyrone Power and the Kembles. There was no actor of note that came to this coun- try in those days that was not introduced to a Philadelphia audience by War- ren and Wood. The prices paid for admission were one dollar in the boxes, seventy-five cents in the pit, and fifty cents in the gallery. On cold nights there was always a very slim audience present because there was no arrange- ment for the heating of the building, and the people could not carry to the theatres, as they did to the churches, the well known warming pans or foot stoves.
In the spring of 1820, the Chestnut Street Theatre was burned down and Warren and Wood lost all they possessed, the carnings of twenty years. They at once, however, leased the new theatre at Ninth and Walnut streets which originally had been erected for use as a circus, but after some alterations, it was made suitable for dramatic performances.
At this time in Philadelphia there was published a journal called "The Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor." It was published by the Bradfords and edited by Stephen Cullen Carpenter, an Englishman who had a keen ap-
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preciation of dramatic art and whose criticisms were very incisive and of a high standard.
The plays produced, as a rule, were of fine quality. The English actors of note appeared in Shakesperean roles, while the Stock Companies produced such plays as Douglas, or The Noble Shepherd, The Rivals, The School for Scandal, Wild Oats or She Stoops to Conquer.
On the twenty-seventh of November, 1818, an announcement was made that "a young gentleman of this city" would play the part of Young Norval. The young gentleman so introduced was no other than Edwin Forrest, who was then fifteen years of age, destined to gain the reputation of being the greatest actor that ever trod the boards of the American stage. It is a grave question, however, whether or not his robust and strenuous acting would suit the taste of this age as it did that of our fathers and grandfathers. The inci- . dent heretofore referred to, in which he threatened to whip an interrupter, had not killed his dramatic aspirations.
The people of Philadelphia in those days were fond of fresh air and fine clothes, and resorted in great numbers to the public gardens in and around the city. The Gardens at Gray's Ferry for a long while were held in popular esteem, then came the Lebanon Garden at the southeast corner of Tenth and South streets, the Lombardy Garden at Market and Schuylkill Eighth streets, the Centre House Garden at Broad and Market streets, the Tivoli Garden on the north side of Market street, between Thirteenth and Centre Square, and the Vauxhall Garden at Broad and Walnut streets. Pantomimes and short plays were presented at these places of resort. Concerts were also given, as well as exhibitions of fire works. A favorite entertainment was the ascension of balloons. In the State House was Charles Wilson Peale's Museum, consist- ing of stuffed birds and quadrupeds, skeletons and wax figures. At the old South Street Theatre, barnstormers held the stage and pleased its audiences with terrible and soul harrowing situations. There were shows, too, where were exhibited monstrosities, as well as learned pigs, trained elephants and dancing monkeys, while traveling jugglers and mountebanks pitched their tents in every available spot and performed their antics to delighted crowds.
Cape May and Long Branch became popular summer resorts, and stage coaches at stated intervals conveyed passengers to the shore, or, if one desired to go by water, sailing packets left the wharves of the city almost every day. In the summer of 1801 a stage started from Cooper's Ferry every Thursday and reached Cape May the next day. It returned to the city on the following Tuesday, thus giving an opportunity for visitors to spend the week end at the seashore, and in 1822, such progress had been made in the matter of transpor- tation that by leaving at sunrise, a four-horse coach reached Cape May on the evening of the same day. Surf bathing, when indulged in by the ladies, was at appointed hours in the morning and in the afternoon, and during these times it would be considered quite an act of impropriety for any man to stroll along the beach. The dresses worn were of flannel or other woolen material and reached from the neck to the ankles. What would our staid old ancestors say could they witness the bathing hour at Atlantic City in these degenerate days?
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Saratoga and Bedford Springs were fast becoming fashionable summer resorts for those who had the money to spend and the time to spare.
The favorite outdoor amusements in winter were sleighing, sledding, coasting and skating, and in the milder months votaries of the rod and line found great quantities of fish in the Schuylkill, striped bass giving the keenest kind of sport to the angler in the autumn, while every brook was full of speck- led trout. In the spring, fishermen spread their nets for shad which were taken in great quantities, four hundred and thirty-nine, it is stated, having been caught by Godfrey Schronk in one haul of his seine. This was in the Schuylkill River, but the catches in the Delaware were much larger. The nets in those days did not differ in any particular from those that are in use in our time.
The games indulged in by the boys were shinny and town ball. In many of the Inns were to be found shuffleboards, skittle, pool and billiard tables, while in every tavern yard teamsters pitched quoits or horse shoes for drinks. The race track, too, had its devotees, as well as fox hunting, and the cruel sports of cock fighting and bull baiting were not neglected.
The field sportsman could still find an abundance of small game such as quail and woodcock, in the surrounding counties in close proximity to the city, and in the interior of the State, ruffed grouse and wild turkeys also could be found in numbers, while deer, bears and panthers were frequently brought to bag. Great flights of snipe settled on the meadows in the spring and fall, and at times wild pigeons passed over the city in such numbers that it seemed as if a cloud obscured the sun. Men and boys shot them from the roofs of tall build- ings. The ponds, rivers and bays teemed with wild fowl of every description.
The gun, or fowling piece as it was called, was a muzzle loader, the flint and flash pan still taking the place of the percussion cap. The gunner carried over his shoulder a powder horn or flask, and a shot pouch.
The sleighs in early days were nothing but square boxes set on runners, but gradually they assumed more graceful forms, resembling in a measure the outline of a swan, and these were known as jumpers. The occupants were covered with robes made of fox and bear skins. The horses wore belts of sil- very bells of the same style and tone as those of today. When the Delaware and the Schuylkill were frozen, their surfaces were crowded with racing teams, and on land after a snowfall, joy parties traveled to the Road Houses where hot drinks, luncheons and suppers were served and sometimes a dance was in- dulged in before returning to the city, a violin and a piano was furnishing the music.
Skates originally had wooden runners and were called "dumps," but the wood was soon supplanted by steel, which was turned up in front and the end adorned with a small brass ball, resembling in many instances an acorn. They were strapped and not clamped, as is the custom today, to the boot or shoe. Some of our most distinguished citizens were expert skaters, but from all ac- counts none of them surpassed Captain James Page of the State Fencibles. He was at this time quite a young man, of good height, fine figure and most graceful in every movement, and executed the forward and backward roll which was called "High Dutch" in a fashion unsurpassed. The well dressed
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young men of the day wore, while indulging in the sport a red coat and buck- skin tights.
During this period the city was making many improvements in the way of building streets and bridges, thus not only adding to its appearance, but also aiding materially in the matter of travel and transportation. A writer in an article which appeared in the "Portfolio" for May, 1818, said: "It must be gratifying to every liberal minded man to see the gradual improvement of our city. The buildings which have been erected and the streets which have been paved during the last ten years will far surpass the most sanguine calculations of former days. Vine street is built and paved as far as Ninth street. Race
THE "CENTER SQUARE" WATER WORKS, ERECTED IN 1800. THE CITY HALL. Now OCCUPIES THIS SITE.
street is paved as far as Broad street. Arch street is built ont entirely to Twelfth street with beautiful houses and is paved to Eleventh street. Market street is paved to Schuylkill Sixth street, and is entirely built up as far as the Centre Square, and is partially built up on all squares between Broad street and the river Schuylkill. Chestnut street is entirely built up nearly as far as Twelfth street and is paved and partially paved as far as Schuylkill Seventh street which is two squares west of Broad street. Walnut street is nearly built up to Eleventh street, is paved as far as Twelfth street, and will shortly be paved up to Thirteenth street. Spruce street is built up to Eleventh street and is paved to Broad street. Pine street is built and paved up to Ninth street. South street is partially improved as far as Broad street and is paved to Ninth street Broad is paved frem Centre Square to Vine street. All the Streets running north and south as far west as Eleventh street, and most of the inter- mediate and secondary streets are paved in whole or in part according to the extent of the improvements. What has very much contributed to the great
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extent of pavements, within the last few years has been the enterprise, or, if you choose, the calculating spirit of some of our citizens, who, in order to procure pavements in front of their property before the regular period arrived at which they would be made by the public, have loaned the money to the Councils free of interest for such a term as would be likely not to make them a public burden before their regular turn. Thus, for the pavement of Chestnut street, west of Broad street, the money was loaned by the owners of the prop- erty interested, for fourteen years without interest, for the pavement of Wal- nut street between Eleventh and Thirteenth streets the money was loaned with- ont interest for seven years and so of other streets." This shows a great pub- lic spirit upon the part of the citizens. The material used for the paving of the highways was gravel and cobble stones. In many instances, the paving was confined to the middle of the street and did not extend from curb to curb, but anything was a change for the better from the rutty, muddy and dusty condi- tions that had prevailed.
The water supply was also receiving attention. A new system was introduced and the wooden trunks laid in the beds of the streets were supplanted by iron pipes.
The lighting of the city claimed public attention, and many experiments were made for the purpose of introducing illuminating gas. About 1800, each street pump was surmounted by a lamp, but after Schuylkill water had been introduced the pumps were gradually removed and posts were set up in their place bearing a lantern. Whale oil was used as an illuminant. In 1811 there were eleven hundred and thirty-two street lamps, which were lighted every night at dusk, except on those nights when the moon was shining. Experi- ments were being made in the manufacture of gas, and at length a Dr. Kug- ler gave an exhibition of gas at Peale's Museum at the State House, and with great astonishment people saw "lamps burning without wick or oil." So suc- cessful was the experiment that Warren and Wood installed a plant in their theatre and on November twenty-fifth, 1816, publicly announced that the Theatre thereafter would be entirely lighted with gas, the plant being under the inspection and direction of Dr. Kugler. The managers also stated that they "are happy to be the first to introduce this system of lighting theatres and flat- ter themselves that its superior safety, brilliancy and neatness will be satis- factorily expressed by the audience." The proposed introduction of gas, how- ever, met in some quarters with considerable opposition. It was said that the works would be a menace to public health and safety, that they would emit a stench that would be not only unpleasant but would prove unwholesome, that the lights consumed the oxygen of the air and in time would affect the lungs and the breathing apparatus of the people and that an explosion of the works would carry with it death and destruction. One writer in denouncing the pro- ject, went so far as to contend that "common lamps take the shine off all gas lights that ever exhale their intolerable stench, that to introduce gas would be folly-unsafe, unsure, a trouble and a nuisance."
Under the inspiration of Josiah White, an energetic and enterprising Quaker, plans were set afoot to make the Schuylkill River navigable from Reading to Philadelphia by means of dams and canals. There was much oppo-
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sition to the project at first, but it gradually won its way and at once was opened the means of conveying quantities of hard coal from the centre of the State. Virginia had supplied vast quantities of soft coal, which had been used in manufacturing purposes. Especially had it been utilized at the engine house in Centre Square until the "trees and houses adjacent looked as black and gloomy as those of Pittsburgh."
While developing the coal beds in the Schuylkill Valley, efforts were being made to find a market for the coal of the Lehigh district. Bituminous, or soft, coal was easier to ignite than anthracite and it made a hotter fire, although it did not have the staying qualities of the latter, but gradually the many advantages of hard coal induced its general use for domestic purposes. "The first advertisement for the sale of anthracite coal," says Thompson Westcott, "appeared in the United States Gazette in January, 1819, which an- nounced that orders would be received at 172 Arch street "in quantities of not less than one ton, between the first of April and the first of December, at thirty cents per bushel of eighty pounds." This advertisement was inserted by Jo- siah White, and to give an example of the coal in ignition, he stated that "it may be seen burning at the above place." About this time Lehigh coal could be purchased in Philadelphia at seven dollars a ton, and Schuylkill coal was selling at a much cheaper figure.
The Masonic Temple looked upon as one of the architectural features of the city, located on the north side of Chestnut street, between Seventh and Eighth streets, was, on March ninth, 1819, destroyed by fire. It was a cold night, one of the bitterest of the season and the ground was covered with snow. The Assembly was about to give a dance in one of the rooms and al- ready a number of the ladies had arrived with their escorts, when suddenly the flames burst forth from the centre of the building and spread rapidly in all directions, and it was with some difficulty that the ladies were rescued from the burning structure. By strenuous effort, the flames were prevented from spreading to adjoining properties, but the Temple itself was burned to the ground. The loss was said to be in the neighborhood of thirty-five thousand dollars. A new building was erected upon the same spot and opened in about a year after the conflagration, by a great ceremony, the Masons, to the number of a thousand, marching through the city in a procession. A number of fires occurred about this period, which induced the people to believe a band of in- cendiaries was at work, and rewards were offered for the apprehension of the guilty. A number of men were arrested, tried, convicted ,and sent to prison for long terms. The Chestnut Street and the Old South Street Theatres were burned to the ground, and the State House was also threatened with destruc- tion, but fortunately the fire was stayed. -
One of the most disastrous and terrifying conflagrations that occurred was the burning of the Orphans' Asylum, located in the outskirts of the city in Cherry street. The fire broke out about two o'clock in the morning, in Jan- ary, 1822. It was bitter winter weather. The neighborhood was some distance from the built-up section of the city and it was difficult to spread the alarm. When the city was aroused, however, and the firemen came to the rescue, the weather was so cold that the water froze in the hose and all the efforts made
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to stay the flames were useless. The institution was filled with inmates and a number of rescues were made, but notwithstanding the risks that were taken by the citizens and the firemen, twenty-three of the little ones perished.
So many were the fires occurring about this time in different sections of the city, that it was decided to give the alarm from the State House by the ringing of the bell, the number of strokes giving the direction in which the fire lay. For instance, North, one stroke; South, two strokes; East, three strokes ; West, four strokes; Northeast, one stroke and after an interval three strokes ; Northwest, one stroke and after an interval four strokes; Southeast, two strokes and after an interval three strokes; Southwest, two strokes, and after an interval, four strokes. In case of a general alarm, the bell, after giving the direction, would strike rapidly one stroke after another, and there are many citizens living today who can recall the excitement that was aroused in the city by the ringing of the bell. If the fire was of any magnitude men rushed from their homes to the scene of the conflagration, and a general alarm, struck at the dead hour of night, would terrify the staunchest heart and make children cower in their cribs.
Dr. Caspar Wistar was one of the most distinguished physicians of his day and a man of great acquirements. He was for many years vice-president of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1815 followed Thomas Jefferson as its President, holding that office until his death in 1818. Ile resided at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust streets, and in his home, once a week from November until April he gave a stag party consisting of fifteen to thirty persons, men of distinction drawn from every calling in life. Well known people who visited the city from abroad were among the guests as well as the leading men from every section of our own country. These gatherings were called "the Wistar Party," and were continued after his death even unto the present day. Those who formed the association immediately after the death of Dr. Wistar were William Tilghman, Professor Robert M. Patterson, P. S. Du- ponceau, John Vanghan, Reuben Haines, Robert Walsh, Zaccheus Collins, and Dr. Thomas C. James.
The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin Institute came into existence during this period.
In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the city had undergone many changes. Market street, west of Sixth, which had been a fine residential section, was gradually encroached upon by business houses and shops. In the erection of buildings, the balconies and porches which had been characteristic features of every dwelling, gradually disappeared. Window glass had been set in leaden frames, and the windows opened inside the dwellings like doors, but now sashes of a more modern type were used. The stores, too, began to in- troduce bulk windows in which the goods were tastefully and attractively dis- played, and at night illuminated by whale oil lamps. At the beginning of the century, sun-dials were frequently seen on houses to remind the people of the hour of the day, for town clocks were scarce and there were but few people who carried watches.
The introduction of coal deprived many chimney sweeps of their occu-
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pation and they gradually disappeared from the streets, although a few lin- gered upon the scene, with their cheery call, even into comparatively recent times. Houses were now heated by plate stoves or by the Franklin open stove. Upright cylinders were used in the churches and public halls for the purpose of heating, thus doing away with the foot warmers, which had been such a comfort to worshippers in the past during the long drawn out sermons of the preachers. The charcoal man, who came across the river from Jersey, with his great tall, grimy wagon heaped up with charred wood, was not deprived of his occupation by the introduction of anthracite, for the householders, not yet being familiar with the use of hard coal, used the charcoal for the purpose of igniting it, and in the summer, plate stoves as a rule were abandoned by housekeepers and the charcoal furnace set up, out of doors. The introduction of stove coal did away, in a great measure, with the services of the wood saw- yer, who had for years been so familiar a figure upon the streets.
At the beginning of the century, only the wealthy could furnish their homes with carpets and rugs but now these articles were gradually being intro- duced at comparatively a cheap figure, and the old custom of sanding the floors was dispensed with, and the sand man, losing his vocation, gradually disappeared from the highways. The walls and ceilings of all the dwellings heretofore had been whitewashed, but the introduction of wall papers, did away in a great measure, with the services of the white-wash man.
Although lotteries were still in vogue, they were now beginning to fall under public censure, for thoughtful people saw on all sides the immoral fea- tures of the institution. They recognized the fact that it was a mere game of chance and that it created a taste for gambling. The earliest mention of a lot- tery in Philadelphia was in 1720, when a citizen by the name of Charles Reed advertised to sell his brick house on Third street by lottery. The money for the erection of Christ Church steeple was secured by this means and the draw- ing took place in March, 1753. Funds were also raised in the same way for the erection of a steeple for the new Presbyterian Church, at the northwest corner of Third and Arch streets, in 1753. In 1754 five thousand tickets at four dollars each were sold to raise a fund to complete the City Academy on Fourth street. St. Paul's Church also was finished by money so raised. The passion spread out in every direction. Men disposed of their property, real and personal, by the sale of chance tickets. Public bridges were paid for in this way, while a Lighthouse at Cape Henlopen was erected by this means, at a cost of twenty thousand pounds. There were also lotteries for the Second Baptist Church, the Universalist Church, the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, for the Surgical Institute at Baltimore and for the Lower Dublin Academy.
An Act was passed by the Legislature to restrain the sale of tickets, but it seems to have been a virtual dead letter, for the sale still continued and for almost every purpose under the sun. The most flaming and inducing adver- tisements appeared in the newspapers, and the names of the successful were always heralded abroad, thu's inducing others to indulge in the game. The sell- ing of tickets became a business in itself. Firms were established, advertised extensively and opened their offices to the public, and men indulged in the
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passion as they do today in stock speculation, or in gambling on a horse race. "$15,000 for $6,00," was an announcement made by a broker named G. W. Waite, whose office was located at the southwest corner of Third and Chest- nut streets, and who stated that he had sold and paid in prize money a sum amounting to six million dollars. Hope and Company was also a leading firm engaged in the business, with extensive offices on Chestnut street. These firms sold tickets not only for drawings in Pennsylvania, but also for those in other States. People of all classes took a chance, high and low, rich and poor. The drawings frequently were made in the State House. The wheel was set up, and boys dressed in uniforms, the sleeves of their jackets made tight to their arms to prevent trickery, drew forth the tickets, handed them to the manager who held them up in public view. Occasionally fortunes were made by one turn of the wheel, some receiving prizes as high as twenty-five or thirty thou- sand dollars.
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