Ho 2(1 i£x HtbrtH SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this hook Because it has heen said "Ever'thing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned hook." OLD YORK LIBRARY — OLD YORK FOUNDATION Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Shepp's New York City Illustrated Scene and Story in the Metropolis of the Western World How Two Million People Live and Die, Work and Play, Eat and Sleep, Govern Themselves and Break the Laws, Win Fortunes and Lose Them, and so Build and Maintain the New York of To-Day. The Business and Social Capital of America Portrayed by Pen and Camera, in all its Phases, from Palace to Hovel and from Millionaire to Tramp. Elegantly Illustrated with about Three Hundred Half-Tone Plates, Made in the Highest Style of. the Engraver's Art, from Photographs Taken Expressly for this Work. James W. Shepp and Daniel B. Shepp Authors of "Shepp's Photographs of the World" and "Shepp's World's Fair Photographed," two of the most famous books of modern times. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY . PUBLISHED BY GLOBE BIBLE PUBLISHING CO. Dearborn Street, Chicago, 111. Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. CLASSICS F Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1854, By D. B. SHEPP, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. AH rights reserved. The Illustrations in this Book are from orig- inal copyrighted rhotographs Copying them in any form is unlawful, and notice is hereby given that persons guilty of infringing on the copyright will be immediately prosecuted. PRESS OF ALFRED M. SLOCUM CO. PHILADELPHIA, PA. PREFACE. TIME immemorial great cities have embodied witliin themselves the interest, the wonder, and the glory of the world. It is through them and by them that we . remember the empires of old. The broad plains of Assyria and Babylonia, the fertile expanses of the Nile bottom-lands, the hills and valleys of Judea have no such place in contemplative memory as do Nineveh, and cloud-hung Babylon, and hundred-gated Thebes, and Jerusa- lem, "the city of the Great King." Who knows what the lands of northern Africa were three thousand years ago ? But who has forgotten Carthage ? All the mountains and plains and forests ond seas of Hellas are as nothing by the side of Athens, and the most stupendous empire the world has ever seen lives chiefly in the one imperial city, Rome. Nor are these conditions greatly changed to-day. To what true Frenchman is not Paris, France; and all France, Paris? Fittingly did Lowell, adapting Goethe's matchless simile, say that in the heart of London he could hear the throbbing of the ceaseless loom of time. It is to the great cities that ambitious young men instinctively turn " Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father's field, ' , And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn, Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn ; And his spirit leaps within him, to be gone before him then, Underneath the light he looks at, in among the throngs of men — Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new. That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do." It is this intensity and concentration of human life and human activity that invests the great city with interest so surpassing. Whatever of knowledge and culture man has attained is there to be found. There are 4 PREFACE the triumphs of art and invention. Literature and music there find their home. Benevolence and religion, too, there have their most devoted agents. Or, if we turn to lighter fancies, fashion and pleasure and amusement, and all the luxuries that wealth can afford and appetite enjoy are there more abundant than elsewhere. Or yet again, to look to the darker side, there vice and crime run riot, and evil holds its fullest sway. An epitome of all the world and of all humanity is in each great metropolis. What wonder, then, that all the world turns to it, and centres round it? Every such city, moreover, has its own individuality, according to the land and time. Athens was a concrete expression of the art and poetry of Greece; Rome, of the laws and martial prowess of the Roman Empire. Paris well reflects the temperament of the French people, and London is the embodied genius of the British race. In the chief city of the western world, then, at the close of the nineteenth century, what shall we expect to find? Surely, above all others, this city must be "the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time." We must look for the most advanced civilization of these latest years in this, the most ingenious and progressive nation under the sun. We must look for a composite city, since this is a composite nation; a city made up of men and women from the uttermost ends of the earth, with their own peculiar habits and customs, all blending together into a more or less homogeneous whole. Two million people, with another million clustered close around, and well-nigh seventy millions more tributary — these form a theme for contemplation immeasurably vast. New York is not, moreover, in its material being unworthy of such exalted rank as that to which its history and place entitle it. Its very position is most impressive, at the head of a vast harbor of surpassing beauty, and at the mouth of a noble river which furnishes an unrivaled highway of trade inland. One harbor only in all the world, perhaps, that of Rio de Janeiro, is comparable with this in splendor of natural setting, PREFACE but it is insignificant indeed when we see the works of man on land and sea at New York, the vast city and its environs, and the argosies that ride the waters of the bay and river. "I, too," wrote Whitman— " I, too, saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water. Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams. Looked on the haze of the hills southward and south-westward, ' Looked on the vapor as it flies in fleeces tinged with violet ; Saw the white sails of the schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor. The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride of the spars. The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender, serpentine pennants, The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses. The white, wake left by the passage, the quick, tremulous whirl of the wheels. The flags of all nations—" Even his graphic pen could do but scant justice to the wondrous panorama of the harbor. Then there is the view of the city from afar; the spires, the towers, the domes; by night the sky-painting blaze of light by day the tremulous haze of smoke ; the mountain-masses of buildings, the soft green expanses of the parks ; a picture unrivaled, bewildering, indescribable. But greater yet, by far, is the city when we tread its streets and mingle with its multitudes. It appeals to every sense, to every sympathy. The ear is bewildered by its babel of sounds, the roar of the streets, the clang and whir of machinery, the myriad voices. The eye is dazzled by the kaleidoscopic panorama, buildings great and small of infinite variety, show-windows gorgeously arrayed, the ceaseless procession of the streets, well-nigh as motley and varied as the gathering of tribes at the Judgment. The nostrils are greeted by a thousand odors, sweet or vile, such as woodland and meadow never knew. The palate is surfeited with strange meats and drinks. The nerves of touch tingle with the impact of ten thousand jostlings in the hurrying throngs. And who shall learn the secrets of this city? Who shall see all its sights and know all its manifold phases of opulence and squalor? The visitor who comes to it for the first time to spend a day, thinks he can 6 PREFACE get a bird's-eye glimpse of it all in that time, but at the day's end his chief thought is not how much he has seen, but how much still remains unseen. If he prolongs his visit, his feeling of personal insignificance and the city's immensity is increased tenfold by the end of the second day. A week passes, every hour crowded with sight-seeing, and he then only begins to realize the greatness of the task before him. If he dwells here a whole year, he even then feels that much of the city is still unseen, and that new buildings and new insti- tutions have sprung into perfected being since he began his observations, making it necessary that he should turn back and begin his work over again. In truth, no one man can fully know New York by personal observation. Should he devote his life to the task, there would never be a day in which he would not discover something that to him was new. He would find the city- constantly growing beyond his reach, getting ahead of his studies. And so the curious anomaly comes to pass that a stranger, living afar, may really know the city better than the actual resident, for he will depend, not upon his own limited powers of observation, but upon the collected results of m.any men's observations. It is the purpose of the present volume to furnisn, both to the stranger and to the New Yorker himself, such a collection. As New York is a miniature of the world, so this volume is New York in epitome. We have striven, with the assistance of our special artist, Mr. A. L. Simpson, to present life-like views of all phases of the city's varied activities and existence. By aid of the camera's facile art, one may in these pages behold hundreds of scenes, to observe which with his own eyes would be a task of weeks or months. He may here read the record of many pens, inspired by many attentive eyes, telling the story of the great city, its business and its pleasure, its law-keepers and its law-breakers, its poverty and its wealth, its sunshine and its shadow. Here are portrayed the mansions of the rich, and the " Four Hundred " who dwell therein, and the shoddy aristocracy which vainly strives to emulate them ; the great middle class, happily not yet extinct ; the army PREFACE 7 ■f of labor and its daily toilings ; the homes of the poor and all the pathos that invests them ; the reeking slums and their scarcely human denizens. Here one may visit the famous Bowery and its typical resorts, the almost innumerable clubs, the theatres, the Patriarchs' Ball, the notoriously popular French Ball, and all the places of amusement and diversion, indoors and out, with which the great city abounds. One may learn how the city is governed, and how its police-force suppresses crime, and its w^onderful fire department extinguishes conflagra- tions ; how the bunco-steerer and the green-goods man and the burglar ply their trades, and the tens of thousands of the ''frail sisterhood" pursue their feverish career; how politicians "pull wires" and manipulate the public interest for their own ends ; how the great newspapers record the doings of the day in all the world; how the great markets supply the city with food, and the hotels and eating-houses of every grade furnish from a five-cent meal to a sybaritic banquet such as Lucullus might have envied. All this and more we have endeavored to lay before our readers. It is neither an allurement nor a warning. The throng of sight-seers and fortune-seekers will continue as before to press on to this Mecca, and their fate here will be as it ever has been. But to the myriads who never may see the metropolis of the western world, and to the myriads more who, having seen it, would know more of its wonders than their own eyes have seen or can see, this work is offered. Who does not remember Carlyle's inimitable picture, in " Sartor Resartus," of the rare old German philosopher sitting at midnight in the upper chamber of the house, looking out over the great city at his feet, and musing upon the innumerable scenes of comedy and tragedy which were being enacted beneath those roofs? Such a view, and even more, with some actual lifting of the roofs, we have endeavored to give to our readers. Map of New York City. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The New York of To-Day, 17 Panorama from East River Bridge, 18 View of New York and Harbor, ig New York Bay and Governor's Island, 20 New York and Hudson River, 20 Looking North from Washington Building, 21 Brooklyn Bridge, •. . 22 Footpath, Roadway and Cable Cars, 23 Harlem Bridges, 24 Second Avenue Elevated R. R. Bridge, 25 Third Avenue Surface Bridge, 26 Washington Bridge, 27 High Bridge, 28 Viaduct and Bridge, Washington Heights, 29 Telegraph and Insurance Buildings, ......... 30 East River Park, 31 Jeannette Park, . " 32 The Mall, Central Park, 33 Bowling Green, Park, . 34 Wall Street, 36 Jumel Mansion, 38 Statue of Liberty, 40 CHAPTER 2. The Environs of the City, 41 Hudson River from Riverside Park, 41 Castle Garden and New York Bay, 42 West Street, 44 Hell Gate Channel, 45 South Street, 46 . Governor's Island, 47 Castle Williams, Governor's Island, 48 Sectional Dry Dock, 49 Ellis Island, 50 Fort Hamilton, . 51 Fort Wadsworth, 52 Willett's Point, . . 53 Fort Tompkins, 54 Miantonomah, U. S. N., 56 Philadelphia, U. S. N., 58 The Narrows, 59 South Ferry, 60 Cortlandt Street Ferry, 61 New York End of Brooklyn Bridge, 62 Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn, 63 CHAPTER 3. Through THE Heart OF THE City, ... 65 Lower Broadway, 66 Bowling Green, 67 Telegraph Office, . 68 General Post Office, 69 Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall Station, 70 A Large Retail Establishment, 71 Washington Statue, Union Square, 72 Grand Central Depot, 74 Train Shed, 75 Switch Tower, 77 Riverside Drive, 78 Grant's Tomb, 79 lO CONTENTS A Chicago Flyer, o2 Curve of Elevated Railroad, One Hundred and Tenth Street, 83 Fifth Avenue Reservoir, B5 CHAPTER 4. Strangers Within the Gates, .... 87 Grand Central Terminal, 87 Interior Waiting- Room, Passenger Station, Jersey City, 88 Fulton Ferry, • • 9° Wall Street Ferry, 91 Hamilton Ferry, 92 Hoboken Ferry, 93 Hoffman House, 94 On Ellis Island, 96 Interior Main Building, Ellis Island, 97 Interior Detention Quarters, 9^ Group of Immigrants, Ellis Island, 100 CHAPTER 5. Mansions of the Rich loi Fifth Avenue at Madison Square, 102 Fifth Avenue, North from Forty-second Street, .... 104 Art Gallery of a Millionaire, 106 Interior of a Fashionable Residence, 107 A Corner in a Fifth Avenue Palace, 108 Residence of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, . 109 Dining-Room in a Palatial Home, no Residence of Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, m Bed-Room of a Moneyed King, 112 A Luxurious Sitting-Room, 114 Residence of Mr. H. O. Havemeyer, 115 Hall and Stairway in a Private Mansion, 116 Residence of Mrs. William Astor, 117 A Private Library, 118 Music-Room, Uptown Residence, 120 Parlor of a Society Leader, 122 A Cosey Library, 125 Residences, Eighth Avenue and Eighty -fourth Street, . 127 CHAPTER 6. "The FOUR HUNDRED," 129 Fifth Avenue on a Sunday Morning, 131 Homes on Riverside Drive, I33 North End of Riverside Drive, i34 Music-Room in a Riverside Residence, ...... 135 Riding Meet, Central Park, 136 Coaching, ^37 Dining-Room of One of the Four Hundred, 139 Parlor in a Fifth Avenue Residence, 141 Dining-Room in a Fifth Avenue Residence, .... 143 CHAPTER 7. Codfish and Shoddy, 145 Broadway, at Madison Square, i45 Fifth Avenue, North from Forty-eighth Street, .... 146 Zoological Garden, Central Park, ... ...... 147 Elephants, Central Park, 148 Sheep and Lambs, Central Park, 149 Terrace, Central Park, 150 Bethesda Fountain and Lake, 151 Bridge of Solid Rock, Central Park, 152 , Bridge and Lake, i53 Dakota Flats, I53 Greeley Square, i54 Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue, 155 Steamer Day, 156 CHAPTER 8. The Middle Class, 157 Battery Park, i57 Coentis Slip, 158 Elevated Railroad near Coentis Slip, i59 Broadway and Post Office, 160 Fourth Avenue Tunnel, 161 Fourteenth Street, East from Sixth Avenue, ... .162 Whitehall Street Terminus, 163 Terrace and Fountain, Central Park, 163 Third Avenue Elevated Railroad, : • • • ^^^4 CONTENTS Nurse Girls, Madison Square, 165 Tliirty-third Street and Broadway, 166 CHAPTER 9. The Army of Labor 167 A Large Retail Store, 167 West Broadway, 168 Evening School for Working Classes — Calisthenics, . 169 Elevated Railroad, Forty-second Street, 170 General View of Park Row, 171 hiterior of a Sweater Shop, 172 Operating-Room — Telephone, ■. . . 173 South Street and Shipping, . 174 Under the Elevated Railroad 175 Evening School for Working Classes — Working in Clay, 176 Sugar-Refineries, 177 Evening School for Working Classes — Designing, . . 179 Evening School for Working Classes — Sewing, ... 181 Evening School for Working Classes — Gymnastics, . 183 CHAPTER 10. The Homes of the Poor 185 Five Points, 186 Tenement Yards 188 Mott Street, 189 Exterior of Tenements, 192 River Front Scene, 193 Swimming in the Harlem River, 194 Shantytown, 195 A Large Shanty, 196 CHAPTER i[. In THE Slums. 199 Mulberry Street, showing Bend, 199 Squalid Negroes, Thompson Street, 201 The Growler Gang 202 A Street Bum, 203 Dock Rats, 204 Italian Rag-Pickers, A Woman Peddler, Soda-Water Venders, . Old Clothing Store, Pest House, North Brothers' Island, CHAPTER 12. The Bowery, . . . Bowery, North from Grand Street, Bowery, North from Canal Street, General View of the Bowery, Chatham Square , Chatham Street, , 'Interior Cheap Lodging House, Bowery Colored Dude, .... A Hot Night near the Bowery, CHAPTER 13. Foreign Colonies, Baxter Street, Jewish Quarter, Bayard Street, Squalid Italians, Mulberry Bend, Chinese Quarter, Mott Street, Group of Chinese, Thompson Street, Barge Office and Battery, CHAPTER 14. Clubs and Club Life Union League Club, Manhattan Club, '. Lotus Club, Arion Society Club House, . . . Masonic Temple Herreshoff Yacht, Gushing, U. S. N., Ocean Steamer, . ... . . . Smoking-Room, Ocean Steamer, Billiard-Room, 12 CONTENTS CHAPTER 15. WORSHIP AT MANY Shrines 251 Trinity Church, 252 Interior Trinity Church, 253 Churchyard, Trinity Church, -255 Broadway near Grace Church, 256 Grace Church, 258 St. Paul's Church, 260 Interior of St. Paul's Church 261 St. Paul's Churchyard, 262 The Little Church Around the Corner, 263 John Street Church, . 264 St. Patrick's Cathedral, 265 Interior St. Patrick's Cathedral, 266 Italian Church, Mulberry Street, 266 Jewish Synagogue, • • 267 Dr. Parkhurst, 268 Woodlawn Cemetery from Depot, 270 General View of Woodlawn Cemetery, 270 CHAPTER 16. INTELLECTUAL LIFE. . . • ...... 27I Fifth Avenue, 271 Columbia College, 272 Normal College, 273 St. Francis Xavier College, 274 Cooper Institute, 275 Interior of a Business College, 277 Lenox Library, 278 Reading-Room, Lenox Library, 279 Art Gallery, Lenox Library, 280 Museum of Natural History, 280 Metropolitan Museum, 282 Interior of the Art Museum, 283 Schoolship Minnesota, 284 General Interior, Metropolitan Museum, 285 Newspaper Educators, 286 Men-of-War, 287 CHAPTER 17. The Business of the Streets 289 Bootblacks, 289 Bootblack Business, 290 Banana Peddler, .291 Suspender Man, 292 AU-Night Lunch Wagon, • 294 Blind Organ-Grinder, 295 Italian Organ-Grinder, ' 296 Oyster Stand, 297 Flower Stand, 299 The Fakir, 30o Fruit Stand, 30i Pretzel Man, 302 Knife Sharpener, 304 Flower Girl, 305 Night Hawks, • 3o6 CHAPTER 18. FROM A FIVE-CENT DINNER TO AN EPICU- REAN FEAST. Plaza Hotel, 291 Savoy Hotel, 292 Murray Hill Hotel, 293 Windsor Hotel, • «... 294 Delmonico's 296 Fifth Avenue Stage, 298 Washington Memorial Arch, 299 Worth Monument, 30^ Egyptian Obelisk, 3^4 CHAPTER 19. EVENING AMUSEMENTS. Mr. Ward McAllister, 305 Vanderbilt Mansion, • 307 New Residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 309 Mr Wm. C. Whitney, 311 Riverside Residences, 3^5 Sixth Avenue and Forty-second Street, ....... 319 CONTENTS 13 CHAPTER 20. Among the Play-Houses. Madison Square Garden, 322 Metropolitan Opera House, 323 The Casino, 324 Eden Musee, 325 Koster & Bial's, 325 Atlantic Garden, 326 Interior Atlantic Garden, 327 Augustin Daly, 328 Ada Rehan, 328 CHAPTER 21. Out OF-DooR Diversions, 453 O cean Yacht Race, 454 Under Full Sail, 456 Tomahawk and Minerva, . . 457 Riverside Yacht Club House, 458 Dauntless, 460 Atalanta Boat-House and Float, 461 New York Yacht Club, 461 Suburban Day 462 New York Athletic Club, 463 Coaching in the Park, 465 Lawn Tennis, 468 Base-Ball, before the Game, 470 Base- Ball, the Game, . 472 Children in Central Park, 474 May Party, Central Park, 476 Boat House on Lake, 477 Skating in Central Park, 479 Swimming Bath — Exterior, 481 Swimming Bath — Interior, 483 CHAPTER 22. How THE CiTY IS GOVERNED. Mayor Gilroy, .• 343 City Hall, 344 Chambers Street Court House, 345 Chief Bonner, 346 Engine House, 347 Night Alarm, 348 Hitch-up at Night, ^ 34^ Going to the Fire, 351 Fire Patrol, 352 The Fire, 355 Engine after the Fire, Fire Engine on Duty, 358 Water Tower at Work, 35^ Water Tower on Parade, 360 Ruins of a Fire, 361 Presentation of Medals for Bravery, 362 Fire Boat, "New York," . 363 Ludlow Street Jail, 365 The Tombs, 353 CHAPTER 23. The METROPOLITAN POLICE. Superintendent Byrnes, 36Q Police Headquarters, 370 Police Parade, Policeman on Duty, 3^3 Police Boat, 374 Black Maria, Seventh Regiment Armory, 377 Eighth Regiment Armory, 3^^ Twenty-second Regiment Armory, 381 Seventh Regiment Parade, 332 Naval Brigade Parade, ^3^ CHAPTER 24. The Criminal Classes. Street Beggars, ^35 Landing Prisoners, Blackwell's Island, 387 Blackwell's Island from New York, 383 Almshouse, Blackwell's Island, 33^ , Workhouse, Blackwell's Island, 3^0 14 CONTENTS Interior Workhouse, 392 Penitentiary, 393 Interior Penitentiary, 395 House of Refuge, 39^ Infants' Hospital, 400 CHAPTER 25. The Social Evil. A Famous Establishment, 402 Egyptian Room, 4^5 Spanish Room, 407 Essex Market Court, 409 Jefferson Market Court 410 The Morgue, 412 hiterior of the Morgue, 4^3 Potter's Field, 415 Burying Paupers, 416 CHAPTER 26. POLITICS. Bird's-eye View of City Hall, 417 Department of Docks, 421 Tammany Hall, 423 Richard Croktr, 427 Thomas H. Piatt, -429 Chauncey M. Depew, 43 1 CHAPTER 27. MOULDING PUBLIC OPINION. "Herald" Office, 433 "World" and "Tribune," 435 "Mail and Express," 437 "Evening Post," 437 "Staats Zeitung" Building 438 Printing House Square and Franklin Monument, . . . 439 Greeley Monument and " Tribune" Building, .... 440 Charles A. Dana, 44 1 ISewsboys Receiving Papers, 443 Newsboys Selling Papers, 445 Newsboys Selling Papers, No. 2, 446 Greeley Statue, Greeley Square, .......... 447 A Franklin Square Publishing House, 448 A Famous News Stand,_ 448 CHAPTER 28. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, Wall Street, .• • • • 45° United States Sub-Treasury, 45 1 United States Custom House, 452 Broad Street 454 Stock Exchange, 455 Interior Stock Exchange, 456 Produce Exchange, 460 Interior Produce Exchange, 461 Cotton Exchange, • 462 Park Bank, 464 CHAPTER 29. HOW THE PEOPLE ARE FED. West Washington Market, -465 Washington Market Stands 466 Washington Market, 468 Fulton Market, 469 Fulton Fish Market, 47 1 Fulton Fish Stands, 472 Fulton Oyster Market, 473 Essex Market 475 Tompkins Market, 477 Old Clinton Market, 480 CHAPTER 30. CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS. New York Hospital 481 Presbyterian Hospital ' 482 Foundling Hospital and Asylum, 484 Catholic Orphan Asylum, 485 CONT Charity Hospital, Blackwell's Island, ........ 486 Women's Hospital, Blackwell's Island, 487 Homoeopathic Hospital, Blackwell's Island, 488 Bellevue Hospital, Exterior, 489 Bellevue Ambulance, 491 Ward 6, Bellevue Hospital, . 492 Bellevue Hospital, Operating-Room, 493 Bellevue Hospital Grounds, 496 CHAPTER 31. Men OF Millions AND Favorite Sons. Russell Sage, 498 Astor Tomb, Trinity Cemetery, 500 Gould Mausoleum, Woodlawn, 502 NTS. Cornelius Vanderbilt, 506 George Gould, 510 CHAPTER 32. Summer In Town and Out. Bird's-eye View of Coney Island, 513 Iron Pier, Coney Island, 517 Brighton Beach, Coney Island, 518 Brighton Beach Hotel, 519 Manhattan Beach Hotel, 520 Surf-Bathing, ' 522 On the Beach, . 524 Bathing at Rockaway Beach, • ... 526 The Plunge, • 528 I ! I f ! CHAPTER I. THE NEW YORK OF TO-DAY HE NEW YORK OF TO-DAY— what is it? What it has been, historically, the world knows well, since the days when the prow of the " Half-Moon " first cleft the waters of its harbor. Nor has its history been unworthy of being known, either in earlier or in later years. The Dutch headquarters, the British Tory stronghold, the first capital of the Republic, the metrop- olis of the Western Hemisphere — these salient features outline a career of more than ordinary interest. Yet all that is past seems insignificant when compared with the tangible reality of to-day. ^ What is New York? What is New York to-day? You may ask tfie question of a thousand men, and get from each an answer different from all the others, yet all true. The chief city of the American Continent, says one ; and the second or third city of the world, another. This one thinks of its commercial supremacy, that one of its manufacturing greatness ; this one reckons its importance by the number of its inhabitants, that one by the number of dollars in its bank vaults. Yet none answers fully. What is New York? The politician tells us it is the place that holds the balance of power in National campaigns. The business-man calls it the governing centre of trade and industry. The mortgage-burdened western farmer sometimes thinks bitterly of it as the home of that Mammon-god who grinds men's bones for food. The ambitious young man turns to it as the Mecca of success, where fortunes are to be made in a day, little i iiimfflr-i-liiiiiti'iM Panorama from East River Bridge. The New York of To-Day. View of New York and Harbor. recking that they are also to be lost in an hour. The moralist sees in it only a teeming sink of iniquity. The criminal seeks it as his chosen ground for plun- der. The damsel of fashion reads in the letters of its name countless operas, balls, and all the brilliant pageantry of pleasure. The man of the world recog- nizes in it the place of all places where wealth can purchase what the heart desires, and life be marked with great- est ease and elegance. The man of letters or of art finds in it more and more the centre of his chosen world. And so, as in olden times, all roads were said to lead to Rome, now all men turn to New York, each seeing it with different eyes and measuring * it by a different standard ; yet not one, of himself alone, giving complete and perfect answers to our question. New York to-day is more than a place, more than a city, more than a capital of commerce, industry, society, politics, intellect. It is an institution, combining all these, and more. It is the wodd in microcosm. Within its limits the universal race is represented, the universal drama of human life, be it comedy or tragedy, is played. No other city in the world is so cosmopolitan, no other affords to every one of its innumerable elements such scope of freedom there to live the life indigenous to whatsoever distant land. ^6 New York Bay and Governor's Island here meet and mingle as nowhere else in all the world. Its Corporate Limits. Within the corporate limits of this city are miles of the most stately and luxurious palaces ever reared for kings of gold to occupy; and there are other miles of tene- ments so squalid that Pity itself revolts against their teeming miseries. There are miles of towering warehouses, whose wealth - is reckoned by hundreds of millions; and The Nhw York of To-Day. The Chief Port of America. It is true that New York is the chief port of America, but it is also true that it is the largest Irish city in the world. Within its borders are to be found the most ad- vanced triumphs of modern mechanical and manufacturing ingenuity; and in its Italian quarter, tons of macaroni are made for export to Naples 1 Along its streets flow such hu- man tides as never the Roman Forum saw, such as even the Strand of London does not see. East and West, Old and New, New York and Hudson River. The New York of To-Day. 21 there are other miles of meadow and woodland and stream, where the unreckoned wealth of nature lies free to the hand of rich and poor alike. But the corporate limits of the municipality do not confine New York. The harbor, and its great ocean- gate, and the two vast arms of tide that encompass the city; the other great cities clustered close around, and all that in them is; the towns and villages that dot the country here and there for miles; the summer seaside homes of rest and pleasure, all these and more are tributary to New York, and, what- ever names they bear, they are logically a part of this one stupendous institution. It is fitting, however, to begin with New York itself, strictly speaking, in the technical sense of the term. Of the whole city, about one-half the area is on Manhattan Island, and one-half on the main land north of the Harlem River. Let us call it, roughly, six- teen miles long from north to south, and its area forty-one square miles. In the main it is grounded upon a rock, for geologists tell us that Manhattan Island is a part of the l^^*^'"^ ^^'^^^ Washington Building. arch:£an crust of the continent, a primeval mass of gneiss and mica-schists, mixed, tumbled, twisted, metamor- phosed in the strangest manner by convulsions of nature so long ago that the mind staggers beneath the load of figures that express the time. Venice is built on islands of the Adriatic, Rome is built upon seven little hills, St. Petersburg in a vast quaking swamp. But New York rests upon the very framework of the globe. Brooklyn Bridge. The New York of To-Day. . 2^ Into this very framework, indeed, in many a place men have hewed and cut, to level it and make it fit for the streets of a great city. Everywhere are visible the wondrous records of the rocks, the marks of glacial action, the relics of the long-ago ages of ice-drift. At the southern end of the city the rocks dip steeply down into the great "terminal moraine," which may be traced across the country continuously from New York to Minnesota. Accordingly we find a deep mantle of sand above the rock, the deposit of bowlder-drift, and upon this bed of sand, ten, twenty, a hundred feet deep, many of the largest buildings of lower New York are standing. Nor are they less secure than those that rest directly upon the rock ; perhaps they are more secure, for once, when an earthquake shock passed underneath the city, all those large buildings which were rock-founded, trembled, and many cracked their walls; but those which rested on deep sand, forming a cushion between them and the vibrating; rock, were unshaken. Without entering at all upon historical reci- tals, it may be observed that the New York of to-day — still speaking in the strict sense of the term — comprises many once separate towns and villages which the growing giant has swallowed up. As all men know, the original settlement was at what is now known as The Battery, extending thence along the East River. Broad- way, the chief street, was a road running northward to the village of Bloomingdale, some miles away, and thence forming part of the great post-road to Albany. There were besides Bloomingdale, on Manhattan Island, the villages Foot=Path, Roadway and Cable Cars. 26 The New York of To-Day. of such places into a Greater New York would give us a city approximating three million five hundred thousand, almost rivaling; London itself. Foreign Commerce. The foreign commerce of the port of New York amounts in value to con- siderably more than a billion dollars a year, and we usually think of it chiefly as a great commercial city. Its suprem- acy above other American cities in manufactures is, however, almost equally marked. According to the federal cen- sus of 1890 there were in New York city no less than twenty-five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine manufacturing establishments, with $420,238,602 capital, employing three hundred and fifty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty seven hands, and paying them $228,^37,295: wages annually. The value of materials used was $3^7,086,30^, and the value of product turned out was $763,833,923. The article manufactured most largely was clothing, in which sixty-two thousand five hundred and twenty-three hands were employed, the goods sold having a value of $110,000,000. Printing and publishing employ nearly fifteen thousand persons, with a value of product of $31,000,000. Slaughtering and meat-packing take $3^,194,188 raw materials, and dispose of them for $39,^14,108. Other large manufactures are those of iron and steel, refined lard, malt liquors, sugar and molasses, tobacco and cigars, musical instruments and pianos, millinery and lace goods, jewelry, furniture, hats and caps, furnishing goods and Third Avenue Surface Bridge. Washington Bridge. The New York of To-Day. 29 Systems of Local Transit. To afford communication between the various parts of so great a city, elaborate systems of local transit are necessary. A large proportion of the streets and avenues are traversed by passenger railroads, variously propelled by horse-power, cable-power and electricity. On most of these roads cars run at intervals of from one to five minutes during the day, and at longer intervals all night, at a practically uniform rate of fare of five cents for each passenger. There are systems of transfer by which a passenger for a single fare of five cents is passed from one line to another, and taken to almost any part of the city he may desire. Besides the street cars, there is one L line of omnibuses traversing Fifth avenue from Bleecker street to Seventy-second street. One of the most important means of local transit is furnished by the elevated railroads, of which there are four lines traversing the city from north to south. These we have described more fully in another chapter. But even all these routes of travel seem insufficient to meet the requirements of the viaduct and Bridge, Washington Heights. metropolis, and various other plans of underground and overhead roads are at the present time in contemplation. Bridges and Viaducts. Being divided into two nearly equal parts by the Harlem River, the highway systems of New York com- prise, of necessity, a number of bridges. Beginning at the south, the first of these is at Second avenue, a plain iron structure for railway purposes. This bridge connects the East Side Elevated Railroad System with 30 The New York c Telegraph and Insurance Buildings. the Suburban Rapid Transit lines of elevated railroads north of the Harlem. At Third avenue is an enormous iron drawbridge for general traific. It is traversed by wagon - roads, horse-car lines and sidewalks for pedestrians. This is the structure generally known as Harlem Bridge, and is the one most used by the general public. At Fourth avenue is the bridge of the New York & Harlem Railroad, used also by the New York Central & Hudson River, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Roads. Over this pass the hundred or more trains daily leaving and entering the Grand Central Sta- tion. Another bridge spans the Hadem at Madison avenue, and a little beyond it is Central Bridge, better known, perhaps, as McComb's Dam Bridge. This last-named connects the popular driveways of Central Park and Seventh avenue with those north of the Harlem, and in pleasant weather is traversed by an almost endless procession of vehicles of all sorts. The New York of To-Day. ?3 How the City is Liglited. The lightino; of the city streets is done by means of a double system of gas and electricity. The principal thoroughfares, such as Broadway, Fourteenth, Twenty-third, Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets, and the great uptown avenues are lighted by huge electric arc lamps, often supplemented by gas lamps. The less important streets depend upon the old-style gas lamps, which are scattered along them numerously. Another feature of the general sup- ply of the city is found in the great establishments for providing steam-heat and power. There are several enormous buildings chiefly occupied by furnaces and boilers, and connected with elaborate systems of iron pipes laid under the streets. Through these pipes steam is sent for use in office buildings and fac- tories to furnish heat and power. These pipes, together with gas-pipes, electric wires, water-pipes, etc., form a great network under all the principal streets, The nail, Central Park. and the need of relaying or repainng them frequently causes the pavements to be torn up and the streets put in an untidy and almost impassable condition. Telegraph and telephone wires are now chiefly under ground in sub-ways constructed by the city for that purpose. Jumel Mansion. The New York of To-Day. 39 M. Stephen Jumel was one of New York's first merchant princes. After an adventurous youth, which included shipwreck and other woes, he reached New York Harbor, engaged in business, prospered, married a lovely girl, bought the mansion in 1810, and fitted it up with magnificent expenditure, calculated to make the eyes of the plain old Dutch burghers start from their sockets. In 1832 he died, and then his rich and charming widow married the famous Aaron Burr. Since her death the house has been variously occupied, but is now, and bids fair long to be, the home of descendants of the Morris family, its builders and first owners. The old mansion is crowded with history, romance and mystery. There are secret passages, cupboards and doors, and there is a ghost chamber as well as a ghost. In the great council chamber at the extreme end of the vast hall was enacted, a century ago, a strange scene. One day Washington was slowly pacing up and down this room, dictating to one of his aids. Putnam, Hamilton and Burr were present. Suddenly the doors were opened and two hundred Indians slowly tiled in, in all the bravery of paint and feathers. In their hands they bore wreaths of laurels which they had brought from the adjoining forests. These they solemnly laid at Washington's feet, saluting him as the " Great Father," and then as slowly and solemnly filed out. In the banqueting-room every nook and corner tells a tale. Yonder stands the table which Madame would not permit to be disturbed after a feast. From one New Year's day to another it stood just as it was left, with its empty bottles and crushed rose leaves. When the New Year dawned, the debris was removed and the table freshly spread for the evening's revel. Near that narrow door stood an immense carved buffet. There was scarcely passage-way for two people to walk arm in arm. Tradition has it that when Jerome Bonaparte dined with Madame and they came to this corner both stopped. Bonaparte bowed and motioned Madame to lead the way. But the lady would not take precedence of a prince and the prince would not precede a lady, and both courtesied and bowed again and again. Next day, it is said, Madame ordered a second and larger door cut through to avoid any further like embarrassing situations. CHAPTER 11. THE ENVIRONS OF THE CITY. j HERE IS PROBABLY 10 city in the world more favorably situated than New York, whether for beauty, for health or for business. Its land environs are picturesque and attractive, and it is girt by noble bodies of water con- necting it directly with the ocean. it is to these circumstances that it owes its com- mercial greatness, and the favor with which it is regarded as a dwelling place. The Hudson River. On the west it is bounded by the Hudson river. This remarkable stream rises in the Adirondack mountains, and at Albany is of sufficient size to afford pas- sage to large boats and ships. Thence it flows in an almost straight line through Hudson River from Riverside Park. r Castle Garden and New York Bay. 44 The Environs of the City. fellows. And now and then there lies in mid-stream in sombre majesty a ship-of-war, with huge cannons frowning from its port-holes. The East River. At the other side of Manhattan Island is the East river, which is really not a river but an arm of the sea, or strait, connecting New York Bay with Long Island Sound. Where this strait joins the sound lies a cluster of islands. David's Island is a station of the United States Army where soldiers are recruited. Glen Island close by is a delightful pleasure resort daily visited by thousands during the summer. On Hart's Island is the pauper burying-ground of New York, and other branches of the city's Department of Charities. As many as two thousand unknown or pauper dead are buried there each year. City Island is occupied by a pretty village largely inhabited by boat-builders and fishermen, and is famous as the spot where oyster culture in America was begun. Eastern Coast Defenses. After passing these islands, we come to a narrow and winding passage between fortified shores, the Eastern defenses of New York Harbor. Here is Willet's Point, a high bluff occupied by the engineer corps of the United States Army. The entire channel opposite this point is undermined and dotted with torpedoes West Street. The Environs of the City. 4^ which would quickly destroy any invading ship of war. On Throgg's Neck near by is Fort Schuyler, a powerful fortress begun in 18^3. It was originally built in old-fashioned style with massive stone walls, but is now being remodeled in accordance with modern principles of fortification, and provided with the heaviest artillery known to science. Here the shores are lined with towns and the outlying wards of cities. Whitestone and College Point, and then Long Island City, are on the one hand, and on the other Port Morris, Morrisania, and the other towns which have been incor- porated into New York at the northern end. The channel winds among various islands, chief among which are Ward's and Randall's, which belong to New York city and are occupied as asylums for the insane and for paupers. Hell Gate Channel. Next comes the famous portion of the channel known as Hell Gate. This name has not the ominous meaning it ap- Heii Gate Channel. poars to havo, being derived from an old Dutch name, meaning " Beautiful Gate," in reference to the picturesque scenery which formerly abounded on the shores. It was, however, in olden times a very perilous passageway, owing to the innumerable rocks and shoals and eddies and strong currents, and many vessels were wrecked there. About 1870, however, the United States Government took the matter in hand. For many years hundreds of men were employed under ground and under the bed of the channel cutting mines and galleries in every direction until a 'vast area was completely honeycombed. The galleries were then heavily charged with powerful explosives. At an appointed 46 The Environs of the City. time the waters were cleared of all shipping and the mine was fired. The shock was almost like that of an earthquake. Millions of tons of rock were displaced and a vast quantity was removed from the bed of the channel by grappling and dredging. This great work made Hell Gate almost as easy and safe to navigate as any of the waters about New York. We now enter the East river proper, and find it solidly lined on both sides, here by New York and there by Long Island City and Brooklyn. It is not so straight as the Hudson river, and less than one-third as wide. For a considerable distance it is divided into two channels by the long and narrow Blackwell's Island, which lies in the middle of the stream, and is occupied by the City Penitentiary, Almshouse, Work- house, Charity Hospital and similar institutions. On the Long Island shore are great and ill-smelling oil refineries, sugar refineries, soap works, chemical works, and other manufacturing establishments. Then in the angle formed by a sharp bend of the river, lies the United States Navy Yard, the largest and most important owned by the government. Beyond this, to the- lower part of New York City, both the New York and Brooklyn shores are crowded with shipping, and the narrow stream is even more thronged than the Hudson river. At almost its narrowest part the river is spanned by the graceful and gigantic Brooklyn Bridge. Beyond this the Long Island shore is South Street. 4B The Environs of the City. defense of New York Harbor, and various forts and batteries were constructed upon it. These still remain, antiquated and almost useless, but picturesque. At the centre of the island is Fort Columbus, an extensive structure of stone and brick, with some modern earthworks. South Battery is a small triangular fortification at the southern extremity of the island. At the west is Castle Williams, a stately edifice of brown stone, with rows of frowning apertures for cannon in its walls. It is the most conspicuous object on the island, and is one of the landmarks of the harbor. But it was built in 1811, in accord with military notions of those days, and would be of slight value in modern warfare. From its parapet a cannon is fired every day at sunset. Many other buildings are scattered about the island ; the houses of the commanding officers, the barracks of the soldiers, two or three arsenals, a chapel, an extensive library and museum, etc. Here also are vast stacks and pyra- ^ mids of cannon-balls, and rows of cannon lying like logs in a lumber camp. Most of the island is beautifully shaded, and forms one of the most attractive spots in -the vicinity of New York. Emigrant Station. Ellis Island, a dozen acres in extent, lies about a mile and a half southwest from the Battery. It also belongs to the United States Government, and was long occupied by a military magazine. But in 1891 Castle Williams, Qovernor's Island. The Environs of the City. At the southern extremity of the Bay is Staten Island, a lovely suburban residence region, and between its towering shore and the almost equally lofty Long Island shore, the strait known as the Narrows gives passage to the Lower Bay and the ocean. The Narrows form the real gateway to New York, and, as is fitting, the gate is well guarded. Indeed here we find the commencement of the real fortifications of the port. Water=Approaches and Fortifications. In these days of advance in naval and shore preparations for defense and offense, it is natural that the subject of fortifying the water-approaches to New York city should receive particular attention, as a blow struck at New York would hurt not only this city, but the whole country. In the source of her wealth, the sea, lies also the chief danger of foreign attack. The capacity and depth of her sheltered harbor and the good anchorage which now attract to her the treasure-bearing fleets of the world would furnish an excellent operating place for hostile men-of-war. For defense against such a contingency, nature has done much unaided by man. She has thrown a sand-bar, Sandy Hook, out toward the ship channels leading into the Lower Bay. There are also the Dry Romer Shoals in the Lower Bay before the Nar- rows can be approached. For the defensive armament of Sandy Hook, the new twelve- inch steel breech-loading mortars are now considered the best weapons. Mounted as it is proposed to use this powerful artillery, in groups of four, four mortars in each group, thus making sixteen mortars which i* could concentrate their fire on a ship, the eihs island. ■Ml The Environs of the City. . first welcome to New York's shores could be made an enthusiastic and hot one. As to the Dry Romer Shoals, artillery officers who have studied the bay thoroughly with a view to its capabilities for defense, think that a great steel turret, with modern heavy rifled cannon, would be a valuable aid there, and that it is practicable. They also favor the occupation of Norton's Point on Coney Island. Forts Hamilton and Wadsworth. But towering above all these places, in a commanding position and with a magnificent free range seaward, rise the swelling, grassy mounds known as Fort Hamilton. Opposite is another strong place. Fort Wadsworth, on Staten Island. Here between the upper and lower bays, nature has placed a gate; a narrow pass through which vessels must go to reach New York. Each ship which passes is covered by the guns mounted at the top of those natural fortihcations which rise high above the sea level. Many years ago, in what may now be called the primitive times of artillery, man thought that by his aid the strong place had been made impregnable. In 182^ the construction of the square pile of heavy masonry which is still known as Fort Hamilton was begun. This was, however, not the first attempt which had been made at fortifying the place, for in 1812 earthworks had been thrown up there, while on the islet in the Narrows where Fort Lafayette now stands, a picturesque tumble-down mass of brick and stone, log fortifications were erecte(^. With the erection of the stone fort, however, the history of the place properly begins. The fort is Fort Hamilton. 54 The Environs of the City. Fort Tompkins. Straight, short twenty-four-pounders which recline peacefully in a hoary corner of the patched-up parapet. The guns which still peer out of the walls here and there belong also to the same era which pierced the walls for musketry. They are rusty and cumbersome, and would give way, in case of need, to Hotchkiss and other rapid-firing guns. The largest gun in the fort is the great twenty-inch cannon. It is of the old cast-iron kind and is not often fired. Of course there are many things which the ordinary visitor is not allowed to see in a fort, and Fort Hamilton is no exception. The few things which have been enumerated do not comprise the resources of the ^8 The Environs of the City. arriving at the port in infected vessels. The other, a mile south, is Swinburne Island, on which are hospitals for the reception of persons actually suffering from contagious diseases. Nearby also is anchored the hospital ship Illinois. The health officer in charge of Quarantine has his residence and office on the Staten Island shore at Clifton. The Lower Bay is a favorite yachting and fishing ground, for which popular sports it affords unsurpassed facilities. At the southeastern corner of it is Sandy Hook, the long narrow peninsula which forms the northern extremity of the sea-coast of New Jersey, and within the Hook is the Horseshoe Cove, a noted an- chorage ground for yachts, where a fleet of graceful pleasure-boats may be seen any summer day. The point of Sandy Hook is the property of the United States Govern- ment, and an elaborate series of fortifications for harbor defense is being constructed there. There also are the grounds on which great cannons are tested. Two lighthouses stand on the Hook, to guide vessels coming to port at night, and a lightship, called the Scotland, is anchored a few miles out at sea. The most notable beacons about the harbor, however, are the twin lighthouses on the Navesink Highlands, a few miles south of Sandy Hook. Here, on the summit of a bold cliff, overlooking the ocean, stands a stately edifice of brown- stone, from which rise two massive towers, one round, the other square. In the top of each is a powerful Philadelphia, U. S. N. The Environs of the City. S9 Fresnel light, easily visible at a distance of thirty-five miles. The scenery about the Highlands is surpassingly beautiful, including within close compass, mountain, forest, river, bay and ocean. Nearby is Atlantic Highlands, a summer resort on the Lower Bay, while southward for many miles along the New Jersey coast runs an un- broken series of watering-places, including Seabright, Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and many others. Suburban Connections. At the western extremity of the Lower Bay the Raritan river enters. North of that, as we return to New York, lies Staten Island, divided from New Jersey by Staten Island Sound and the Kills. Staten Island is a beautiful bit of country, just hilly enough to be picturesque and thickly dotted with charming villages. At the North of it lies Newark bay, separated from the upper New York bay by Bergen Neck, on which is the rather straggling city of Bayonne. North of Bayonne, and directly across the river from the lower part of New York, lies Jersey City, a large place of great manufacturing importance, and the terminus of numerous trunk railroad The Narrows. 6o The Environs of the City. lines. Part of it lies on low ground, along the river, and part on a high rocky ridge, forming the southerly continuation of the Palisades. Through this ridge the railroads pass, through deep cuts and tunnels. North of Jersey City lies the smaller city of Hobo- ken, closely resembling the former in all respects, save that the bulk of its inhabitants are German. Along the crest of the Pali- sades are various villages and pleasure resorts. To the west lie the Meadows, some- south Ferry. times Called the Hackensack or Passaic Meadows, after the rivers that traverse them ; sometimes the Newark Meadows, after the great city that lies just beyond them. Newark, Elizabeth, Orange, Passaic and Paterson, a noble line of prosperous cities, all tributary to New York, are on the western side of the Meadows, and beyond them stretch the hills and valleys of northern New Jersey. Recrossing the Hudson River, we find the metropolis bounded at the north by Westchester county, a region of rare natural beauty, now densely populated. Immediately north of New York lie the cities of Yonkers and Mount Vernon, and beyond them are the fine flourishing towns of White Plains, Tarrytown, and New Rochelle, while still farther north are Sing Sing, Peekskill, and all the glorious array of towns and farming land and lakes and mountains of the " Hudson river counties." The neighboring municipalities on the other shore of the East river would require a volume for description. The Environs of the City. 6^ Long Island City, formed by the union of Hunter's Point, Astoria, Ravenswood, etc., is noteworthy chiefly for its manufactures. But Brooklyn is one of the great cities of the world, with a million inhabitants, enormous manufacturing industries, and a vast foreign commerce, which latter, however, belongs to the port of New York. Beyond these cities is Long Island, with numerous tine towns, such as Flushing, Jamaica and Garden City, and its great array of watering places on the Atlantic. steam Railroads. With these environs New York has numerous avenues of communication. With Westchester county and New England it is connected by railroads. With other regions the city is connected " by ferries. A great number of ferries are found at Whitehall street ; at the eastern side of the Battery. Here the elevated railroads have their southern terminals. There are ferries to Governor's, Ellis and Bedloe's islands ; to St. George, Staten Island, and the cortiandt street Ferry. railroad system centering there; to Bay Ridge and the Manhattan Beach and Coney Island railroads; to South Brooklyn (Thirty-ninth street) to Hamilton avenue, Brooklyn, and to Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn. At the foot of Wall Street is a ferry to Montague street, Brooklyn. At Fulton street is the most famous ferry of all, to the foot of Fulton street, Brooklyn. At Catherine street is a ferry to Main street, Brooklyn. At James's Slip and at the foot of East Thirty-fourth street are ferries to Long Island City and the Long Island railroad station. From Roosevelt street, from Grand street and from East Twenty-third street, ferries run to the foot of Broadway, Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn. CHAPTER III. THROUGH THE HEART OF THE CITY. HE HEART OF NEW YORK IS BROADWAY. It is not only the heart, but the brain, the spinal column, the great nerve-centre, the chief artery. As New York is the world in microcosm, Broadway is an epitome of the whole city. In almost every particular, this famous street is surpassed by some other in New York. The Bowery and the uptown avenues are wider. Several avenues are longer. Other streets have perhaps finer buildings. Elsewhere there is a greater concentration and display of wealth. But taking all things together, Broadway is absolutely unrivaled, easily and incomparably supreme. Broadway the Great Thoroughfare. Nor is it supreme only in this city, but probably in all the world. No other street plays so important a part in its city as Broadway does in New York, and no other street anywhere possesses quite so unique and commanding a personality. Mention Piccadilly or the Strand or any other great London street, or some famous boulevard of Paris, and instantly the name of some rival street in the same city arises, and you hesitate between the two. Perhaps the Prater in Vienna, and Unter den Linden in Berlin, occupy places more nearly akin to Broadway than any other streets. But even they are insignificant in interest compared with it. There is but one Broadway in all the world. Bowling Green. The beginning of this famous street is near the southern end of Manhattan Island. The extreme southern point is occupied by the park called, in memory of its ancient uses, The Battery. Immediately adjoining this, 68 Through the Heart of the City. great steamship lines and express companies, and consulates of foreign governments, and brokers' offices for changing foreign money. The sidewalks are thronged with immi- grants from every quarter of the globe, in outlandish garb, chattering in strange, alien tongues; and with the wide- awake agents of railroad companies, and boarding-house runners, and other gentry ready to greet the strangers and to take them in, in more senses than one. Presently the scene changes, as we approach the corner of Wall Street, which runs eastward from Broadway, a quarter of a mile north from Bowling Green. In this region are many noteworthy buildings: The Consolidated Exchange, a vigorous rival of the Stock Exchange; the Union Trust Company's building, a singularly handsome edifice; the Manhattan Life Insurance Company's, the tallest in the city, twenty-two stories high; the Boreel, the United Bank building, and the Equitable Life Assurance building, a vast structure which is a city in itself, with hundreds of suites of offices, shops and stores, restau- rants, a law college, and numerous other forms of industry, all under one roof. Directly opposite the head of Wall Street, on the western side of Broadway, stands Trinity Church, the Through the Heart of the City. 69 foremost of the Protestant Episcopal faith in all the city. It is a stately gothic edifice of dark red sandstone, with a spire two hundred and eighty-four feet high, and a tme chime of bells. Around it lies a graveyard, in which are the tombs of Alexander Hamilton, Captain Lawrence of "Don't give up the ship!" fame, and many other great men of the last century. A fine monument to the American patriots who died in British prisons during the Revolutionary War, stands in the northeast corner, opposite the head of Pine street, placed there, it is said, to prevent the city authorities from extending Pine street across Broadway and through the churchyard. This part of Broadway is thronged by bankers and brokers and their clerks, and lawyers and railroad and insurance men, and in the middle of the day presents one of the busiest scenes in all the city. At Maiden Lane and John street we skirt the edge of the wholesale and manufacturing jewelry region. At Dey street is the Western Union Telegraph building, the greatest of its kind in the world, and at Fulton street are the General Post=office. buildiugs of the " Evening Post " and " Mail and Express " newspapers, ushering us into the centre of communication with all parts of the world. Here, at Ann street, is the old home, now a branch office, of the " Herald," on the site of the famous old Barnum's Museum. General Post=Office. Just beyond, at the junction of Broadway and Park Row, is the huge Post-Office building, modeled after the Tuileries. It is triangular in ground area, occupying what was formerly the southern corner of the City Hall y8 Through the Heart of the City. the sun's declining rays light up the western heaven. The panorama of the colors, glowing in rich brilliancy or stretching away in benign mellowness, is one to arouse a love for the beautiful even in a clod. Riverside Drive is not an ordinary city avenue, but a park. The Department of Public Works has no juris- diction over it, the sole control being invested in the Board of Park Commis- sioners. This gives the direction of the Drive and the Park to a single body, which can therefore improve the two in harmony with each other. The Drive is simply a pleasure thoroughfare, and it is governed by the rules which apply to Central and the other parks of the city. No heavy wao;ons or trucks are allowed on it, and driving at a gait faster than seven miles an hour is prohibited, in consequence of this rule, and also because of the ups and downs of the Drive, men who wish to speed their horses avoid the place, finding the Boulevard better suited to their purpose. It is needless to say that the Drive loses none of its attractiveness, especially to women and children, on account of the absence of "flyers" which are trying to shave a quarter of a second off their records. The spring and fall of the year are times when the display of equipages is finest in Riverside Drive. In the season there are spick and span carriages, with handsomely attired occupants, well groomed horses brightly trapped out, and faultless English coachmen galore. Many feel that a drive through Central Park is incomplete Riverside Drive. Grant's Tomb. Through the Heart of the City. 8^ Immense Traffic in Human Freight. In those three days fifty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four cars were used on eleven thousand six hundred and eighty-eight trains. On the Third avenue line alone on the concluding day of the celebration, one thousand four hundred and twenty-two trains were run, with a total train mileage of eleven million one hundred and twenty-five thousand and seventy-eight, and a total number of cars reaching seven thousand and fifty. This stands a world's record in every feature, in keeping with the celebration and with the city. Vice- President and General Manager F. K. Hain, in tribute to the services of the men, issued a special order commending them for their expertness in accommodating such a multitude without friction. And yet this perfection is the result of less than a score of years. Old-timers recall the public discussions that in the early '60s agitated the town, all looking in the direction of a rapid transit. Rapid Transit a Necessity. Harlem was then but tenanted here and there, with a house and a garden attacn- ment. It was a speculation in the real estate world. People recognized its value, if it could be reached, but trips by stages were not suited to men who had come to New York on the business of life. They were ambitious spirits. There was plenty of land in the towns and countries they had left. They had come to be factors in the business mart, and could not afford to be Curve of Elevated Railroad, One Hundred and Tenth Street. hourS away frOm where they WOrked. Fifth Avenue Reservoir. CHAPTER IV. STRANGERS WITHIN THE GATES. HAT WE HAVE already said of the extent of New York beyond the strict geographical boundaries of the city, applies with equal fitness to its population. If one should take a census of the city at noonday, and another at midnight, a dozen hours later, he would find a vast difference between the two. He would find that at noonday New York contained tens, scores, perhaps hun- dreds of thousands more persons than at midnight. And this daily rise and nightly fall continues with rhythmic regularity, six days in the week, fifty-two weeks in the year. The cause of this phenomenon is not difficult to discover. One has only to visit, morning or evening, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Grand Central railroad station, or any of the score of ferries along the water front. New Grand Central Terminal. Interior Waiting=Room Passenger Station, Jersey City. 9^ Strangers Within the Gates. transferred to Ellis Island, where a huge barrack-like pile of buildings had been erected for the purpose. The size of these buildings may be imagined from the fact that more than four million feet of lumber entered into their construction. On the ground floor are railroad, baggage and express offices. On the second floor are the examination and registration offices, where a dozen clerks are able to examine from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand persons a day. There is here a gallery, which extends completely around this floor. From this the immigrants can be inspected by the public or those interested in them, without coming into actual contact with them. Detention-rooms are provided also on this floor in abundance. There are rooms for paupers, another for lunatics, another for those suspected of being contract laborers, another for women and children, and so on. The telegraph station, money exchange, postal station, information bureau, railroad and steamboat ticket offices are all arranged so as to give the newcomers the least possible inconvenience. How They are Provided For. It has been frequently remarked that the poorest immigrant who arrives at this port is more carefully looked after, more zealously protected from fraud and imposition of any kind, than the wealthiest cabin passenger, foreign-born or American citizen. The latter may easily become the victim of a cabman or a baggage-sharp, but the immigrant is pro- tected against loss of this kind and almost of every other. All rates to him are low, fixed, and adhered to with scarcely an exception. On Ellis Island. Strangers Within the Gates. 97 Sleeping-rooms are provided on tlie third floor, and while it is the constant effort of the immigration offi- cials to send forward the immigrants as fast as possible to their places of destination, yet when some of them are compelled to stay one night, they are not forced to sleep on benches, much less on the floor. None of the officials live on the island except the surgeon. His quarters are in a separate building, the one formerly occupied by the gunner when the island was a storehouse for explosives. Adjacent to tlie surgeon's quarters are the boiler and dynamo rooms. The artesian well is near here. A little to the east of this stands the detention pen, for the use of immigrants adjudged unfit to land. They are kept there pending their transfer to the ship or ships for deportation. The hospital service has a supplement in the shape of a huge bath on the western side of the island. This is for the use of those whose appearance indicates the need of it, and is employed in such cases whether desired or not. They can have, however, warm or cold water. This bath-house con- tains also two rooms for steaming filthy clothing. Some interesting details concerning the vast hosts of immigrants that annually come into America through the gateway of New York may be gleaned from the statistics of a recent average year, in which the number of alien arrivals by steerage was 428,618. The nativities of these strangers were as follows: Ireland — 3^,904; males, iB,4c;3; females, 17,4^1. England — 22,68^; males, 14,83^; females, 7,850. Wales — 432; males, 305; Interior Main Building, Ellis Island. 98 Strangers Within the Gates. females, 127. Scotland— 4,949; males, 3,310; females, 1,639. Germany— 79,2^0; males, 4^,823; females, 33,427. France— 3,9^7; males, 2,2^4; females, 1,703. Russia— 49,624; males, 30,236; females, 19,388. Poland— 27,997; males, 17,608; females, 10,389. Switzerland— 6,308; males, 4,036; females, 2,272. Sweden— 32,414; males, 18,92^; females, 13,489. Norway— 10,647; males, 6,682; females, 3,96^. Belgium— 2,71^ ; males, 1,793; females, 922. Holland— 4,278; males, 2,588; females, 1,690. Italy— 65,434; males, 53,329; females, 12,105. Spain— 135; males, 116; females, 19. ' ~ ^ ^ ' . ^ — ^,1 Portugal — 1,889; males, 1,092; females, 797. Denmark — 9,029; males, 5,554; females, 3,475. Hungary — 25,201; males, 18,164; females, 7,037. Aus- tria — 27,701; males, 19,337; females, 8,364. Bohemia— 8,066; males, 4,297; females, 3,769. Finland— 4,113 ; males, 2,909; females, 1,204. Armenia— 820; males, 786; females, 34. Australia — 14; males, 10; females, 4. Turkey — 70; males, 57; females, 13. Arabia — i. Greece — 1,042; males, 994; females, 48. All other countries, 3,493; males, 2,598; females, 1,345. The total number of males was, 276,092; females, 152,526. Of the whole number of alien passengers landed, 76,553 were under fifteen years of age; 304,528 were between fifteen and forty, and 4j,^^j were over forty years old. The destinations of the immigrants were in all parts of the country. About one-half, however, i Interior Detention Quarters. Fifth Avenue North from Forty-second Street. A Corner in a Fifth Avenue Palace, Dining=Room in a Palatial Home, Bed-Room of a Moneyed King. Hall and Stairway in a Private Mansion. Parlor of a Society Leader. A Cosey Library. Fifth Avenue on a Sunday Morning. Homes on Riverside Drive. Coaching. Parlor in a Fifth Avenue Residence. Fourteenth Street, East from 5ixth Avenue. Evening School for Working Classes — Designing. Jewish Quarter, Bayard Street. Interior of 5t. Paul's Church. 1 i CHAPTER XVII. THE BUSINESS OF THE STREETS. HE INTERMINABLE rows of stately ot^lce-buildings, and stores and shops of various kinds, vast as are the industries they house, by no means contain all the money-making enter- prises of the city. A whole army of men, women and children earn their living, and some of them accumulate snug fortunes, at occupations carried on almost entirely, or perhaps entirely, on the streets, their offices literally ''under their hats," their stocks in trade carried in their hands, or trundled about in push-carts, or piled on a little stand, placed through sufferance at a street corner, on the curb-stone, or against the wall of a building. Many of them have a fixed place of business, where you may find them any day the whole year round. Others are constantly "on the move," tramping along the streets, now on Broadway, now on the Bowery. Their labors and the commodities they sell are innumerable — blacking your boots, or adorning your coat with a flower, selling you a newspaper, an article of clothing, or a bit of furniture, a bird, a dog, or a theatre ticket. Bootblacks. The Business of the Streets. 27^ and his trade activities. But of course he does not confine himself to this "Exchange," advantageous as it is. When he hnds it pre-empted by a too numerous concourse of fellow-fakirs, he strolls down Wall Street, perchance turns into New, or, farther down, into Broad, or he may wend his way up Broadway to Fulton street, where he is likely to find competition as warm as it was under Trinity steeple. The same condition he will encounter if he passes Fulton street and endeavors to "open for business" in front of St. Paul's, or even on the opposite side of Broadway, or on Park Row. But " open " somewhere and with slight delay he is sure to do, trusting to the attractiveness of his wares or to the persuasiveness of his tongue. The cheapness of his goods is his mam reliance for sales, and extraordinary the cheapness often is. One wonders that anything having so good an outward sem- blance could be prohtably sold for a price so paltry. Not seldom the articles are indubitably good, and one may happen to Banana Peddier. know that the very same things are sold in stores for double the amount asked by the fakir. So it puzzles many people to know how the street-merchants get the goods which they are able to sell at such "cut prices." The " Boss " Fakir. Of late years there has grown up a class of men created by the wants of the fakirs and existing to supply those wants, and, it may be added, becoming rich in many instances by doing so. These men are middlemen between the fakirs on the one hand and manufacturers, importers and jobbers on the other. Their 276 The Business of the Streets. especial function is to look out for "bargains" and snap them up when they appear. They frequent auction sales, and especially sheriff's sales, and are often able to take out of the wrecks of the business of some manufacturer or importer, large lines of the goods that fakirs deal in, at prices far below cost. Then, again, it often happens that manufacturers get up "novelties" which do not strike the fancy of their customers and which remain upon their hands. They are glad to "unload" these at almost any price, and the "watchful boss fakir" (as he sometimes humorously styles himself) is on hand to receive a ^ suspender Man. maximum quantity for a minimum of cash. Moreover, it is of frequent occurrence that a large wholesale dealer will find that he has overstocked his establishment with goods for which there is a fair demand, but which occupy space to the exclusion of other goods for which there is a brisker demand. To make room, therefore for the better selling articles, he will often sell his surplus stock at a great sacrifice, and he knows just where to find an immediate purchaser — the fakirs' middleman. In addition, manufacturers and large jobbers will often use the "boss fakir" to get certain novelties before the public. They will sell at a small profit, or at cost, or even below cost, a certain quantity for exhibition and sale on the street. The "boss" fakir's business has, indeed, become so large that he is a factor in trade whom manufacturers and importers no longer despise. They compete for his custom, and sell him goods at a larger discount than they allow any one else. The Business of the Streets. 279 class whom he rather contemptuously described as "suspender-men" — those merchants who stick to suspenders or shoestrings and a few concomitants the year around — and from the fruit-venders, who seldom depart from that line. It will surprise most readers, who probably fancy that nearly all peddlers are foreign-born, to learn that a majority of "fakirs" are natives of this city, although usually of foreign extraction. Nat Sanders says nearly all his "boys" were "born and brought up" in the lower wards of the city. Those who are not native are mainly Irish and German. Sanders gives the " fakirs" a good character. He says they are honest and sober, as well as sharp, audacious, and persistent. They do sometimes, he admits, deflect from the straightest path of decorous conduct, but that is only because they are human, not because they are "fakirs." Most of them are married and have families, and they work hard for a very meagre living. Perhaps the nearest approach to friends the fakir finds after the "boss" fakir, who lets him have goods to sell on commission, are the Wall Street brokers. They are, at any rate, his best customers. He can count upon An=Night Lunch wagon, them to buy liberally of his newest and most hideous mechanical monsters — his squeaking frog, his coiling snake, his racing alligator, his perambulating spider, and other deadly surprises for weak nerves. The brokers, who pride themselves upon being practical men, like to spring these things on unsuspecting friends. Next to the brokers come, in approximate friendliness, rural visitors. These are so imbued with awe of the metropolis that they cannot regard even a metropolitan fakir with any other feeling than profound respect; and the wonderful automatons he exhibits, deepen the feeling. On the whole, considering that the city recognizes the 28o The Business of the Streets. fakir's occupation as a legitimate one, and makes him pay a license-fee and buy a badge, he receives an entirely unlawful amount of contumely and hindrance. The fees required of them at the City Marshal's office are one dollar for a "basket license" and five-dollars for a push-cart license, either of which is renewable yearly for fifty cents. For the official badge the Marshal demands thirty-five cents. Of licensed street venders of every description, there are probably nearly ten thousand in the city. Fakirs' Bargains. Some items taken at random from Nat Sanders ' memoran- dum-book illustrate the "fakir's" bargains, in anticipation of a certain election, a supposedly ingenious idea was embodied in what were called "political playing-cards." An unhappy litigation arose over them, so that they were finally left on the hands of " Puck," on the very eve of the election, for sale cheap. They had been manufactured to retail at twenty-five cents a pack, but "Puck" gladly unloaded twenty-six thousand packs on the "boss fakir" at two cents a pack, and Nat's "boys" sold them on the street for three cents. Another enterprising party manufactured campaign-buttons at a cost of Blind Organ=Qrinder. ^20 a thousand; but after a short campaign with them, he let Nat have the whole lot for ^2 a thousand. The maker had expected to sell them for ten cents apiece; Nat's "fakirs'" sold them for a cent. Then there was a certain Japanese syndicate manufacturing company which failed to prosper, notwithstanding it set up on Broadway, and the consequence was that the "Zepo" boy, originally held at ^7.^0 a gross, was let down to the "boss fakir" at ninety cents a gross; and, whereas they were to have been sold for ten cents apiece, they amused children at a cost to parents of only two cents The Business of the Streets. 281 apiece. The Owaji-box at the same time became salable on the street at ten cents each, although its former price was $2 a dozen, and about twenty cents apiece. Japanese snakes in like manner have coiled down from twenty-one cents apiece to ten cents. The Tammany Tiger — which some intelligent persons will not be surprised to learn is really alien to this country, having been exclusively manufactured in a land of dawning civilization, to wit, Japan— was likewise reduced from ten cents in the store to five cents on the street. Cornering the " Poker=Chip " flarket. An achievement of which the "boss" fakir is very proud is "breaking the combination of poker-chips." Certain persons tried to corner the poker- chip market, but unfortunately for them the opportunity came to the "boss" fakir to buy five million chips at a price which enabled his "boys" to sell them on the highway for twelve cents a box. They had cost fifteen cents a box to manufacture, and the "com- bine" had counted on retailing them at twenty-five cents a box. Another transaction in gambling implements which causes the "boss" fakir perennial satisfaction was the purchase, through rare ill luck of the manufacturer, of one million " black diamond dice" at cost, namely, $1, $2, and ^4 a thousand for four sizes respectively. The maker had had hopes Italian Organ-Qrinder. The Business of the Streets. 283 the fragrant beans and leaves. They also show gaudy tin cans with certain brands of goods, and the reds and yellows add to the symphony of bright colors on the street. There is also a candy store whose whole front may be removed. Many of the stores are arranged in that way, and the majority of Vesey street business may be described in a word as "street trade." A toy store overflows on the sidewalk with rows of books, dangling groups of dolls and mechanical toys of all sorts. Hard- ware stores are another feature of the street. They always set many of their wares out on booths next to their windows, and display in baskets or boxes of uniform size every- thing in the metal line. They are always surrounded by groups of men looking at bargains in knives, rulers, nutpicks, brooms, picture cord, hooks, and things unmentionable because of their variety. The clothing trade is represented by a store where men's complete outfits are sold. There are places for the sale of rubber and wire goods, cigars and pipes, stationery, supports for cripples, drugs, trunks and bags, electrical contrivances, and many more. There are stalls where yellow cheeses add to the number of colors, and basements, carrying a stock of pickles in green, red and white, have pushed their contents out to the level of the sidewalk. Sometimes good-looking gids preside over these acidulated morsels of peppers, Flower Stand. 284 The Business of cucumbers and onions, and if you buy a pailful of the odor- ous compound they will present to you a shining tin pail. The upstairs of Vesey street is different from its first floor or street trade. One need only read the signs on the hall directories to see that. Here is a place where all sorts of writing and typewriting supplies are dealt in; there a burglar alarm is on exhibition for timid house- owners. Engraving, painting and lithographing flourish, and one jewelry manufactory which makes a specialty of those ancient "novelties," sea-bean and alligator-teeth jewelry, retains its sign to that effect. Book-slates are made in one place, weather strips and axle-washers in another, flags and banners in a third. A lawyer's sign is the only one of its kind in one large building, despite the fact that misery loves company, and the estate of some man is administered in another. One firm sells grate- bars, another tricycles, still another corks. A place where band instruments are kept denotes the fact by a case of banjos, accordions and flutes set outside. Pictures and picture-frames occupy a case on the steps of another building, and that feather-dusters are to be found within a certain "third-story front," is shown by a row of them swinging from a bar which projects from the window. The Business of the Streets There is almost too much street trade to allov/ one to stop, for the small traders look suspiciously at any one who loiters, and think a pencil and note-book with a reporter attached are almost as great a curiosity as a Kodak. To close the upstairs business, there are some advertising agents, and at least one paper is published here, while the central office of a newspaper syndicate represents the world of letters, in a street whose daily inhabitants look as if they were little acquainted with anything so civilizing. Women Fakirs. But most of the picturesqueness of Vesey street lies Fruit stand, in its street trade and traders. The men and women rival famous jugglers in piling up wares on almost no base at all, or in keeping large stocks of china and fragile things, flat on iron steps, with little or no breakage. A number of women stand grinding horseradish just outside the curb, and if any carts attempt to usurp their places or drive too near, there is an angry war of words, the women's shrill tones always getting the best of it. One woman, standing on a corner, has arranged on the end of a soap-box a stock of matches, shoe-blacking and dirty-looking castile-soap. She can maintain her place there all day, though no one knows how except the initiated. She stands with her box right on the edge of the curb, and there will be more than one blockade in the streets with rearing horses, locked wheels and swearing drivers, but she will not be rooted. If you but glance at her she will say: "Here you are, parlor matches 1" Now a man steps up, around whose neck hangs a queer-looking bundle of dried stuff, very savory, as one's nose at once discovers. He calls out, "Thyme and sage, lady!" to each woman who passes, but though 286 The Business of the Streets. they remark, "How good it smells 1" they do not often buy. The thyme-and-sage man in the fall is sup- ported by the man with wreaths and bunches of shining Christmas greens. Another enterprising peddler has his clothes-basket full of bunches of ferns, whose roots are stuck in balls of moss-covered soil. He, at least, is patronized by the ladies, and his basket will not hold the glossy fronds very long. An egg-dealer has piled up his wares with a toy rooster standing over all, and near him is a stall, like others on the street, where a young fellow presides over cheap notions and fancy goods, including red and white lamp-wicks, bandanas of every size and hue, pocketbooks, buttons, stockings, suspenders and many other things. If one looks in his direction he is ready with a nasal, " Can I sell you any- thing to-day?" A woman who is arrang- ing her wares similar to these, shakes out a bunch of chil- dren's black hose, pounding them against the top of a con- venient barrel to remove the dust. One man has a stock of eye-glasses, some cravats, collar-buttons and a square white cushion stuck full of scarf-pins. There are pink and white popcorn-balls; there are trunks and traveling-bags. A Pretzel Man. man with his stock of peacock feathers tied in bunches and spread out on newspaper, stands next to another whose variety of canaries in little wooden cages has attracted a crowd. Driving a Bargain. On the platform of steps leading to a large building, a man has spread his supply of second-hand silver and cutlery. There are a few dozen knives, forks and spoons, but little else except a worn-out butter- dish or two. A young woman dressed in a dull-colored gown 288 The Business of the Streets. chatter amicably as they set out their stock The cliina dealer puts hers fearlessly on tiers of boards just over iron g''atings, and she seems to be able to keep most of them from breakage. Passing up the block nearest Broadway, one sees on the right the office of the rector of Trinity Church ; also St. Paul's School and clergy office in a plain, nice-looking brick building with stone trimmings. Then begins the "city of the dead," ending where the brown walls of old St. Paul's Church front Broadway. There, in ground almost priceless because of its site, rest a host of distinguished and undistinguished dead. Perpetual care keeps the sod fine and well-trimmed, the shrubs and trees in good order, and the weather-worn headstones erect. The high iron fence next to Vesey street keeps out intruders, but the broad stone coping on which it is fastened furnishes a resting place for many weary trav- elers, and the side of the graveyard is uninvaded with traffic save for an old applewoman's stand at the corner. Flower Girls. A recent and decidedly attractive addition to the busi- ness of the streets is seen in a small army of flower- girls. These are employed by a company formed for Knife Sharpener, the purpose of selling flowers in the form of small button- hole bouquets. There are hundreds of the girls, ranging from sixteen or seventeen to twenty-three or four years old, and almost invariably very pretty in face and form. They are dressed in a dark blue uniform, and each carries a little basket filled with nosegays, which they sell at five cents apiece. Not only do they sell them on the streets, but they invade business offices, restaurants, etc., on their errand. Their best business is done on Wall Street, among the brokers, but they derive a profitable trade wherever they go. Few men can. The Business of the Streets. up cheap 1" In their noisy competition for the stranger's patronage, they surround him and crowd upon him as though they would carry him off by force. Now all these men are licensed, and are forbidden by law to charge more than certain fixed fees, which must be stated on a card displayed in each vehicle. For a one- horse cab, the legal fare is, for one or more persons — as many as the vehicle will properly hold — fifty cents for the first mile and twenty-five cents for each half mile thereafter; or, if one prefers to pay according to the time consumed, one dollar and a half for the first hour and one dollar for each hour thereafter. For two-horse carriages the fare is one dollar for the first mile and forty cents for each half mile thereafter; or one dollar and a half for the first hour and seventy five cents for each half hour thereafter. Let it not be imagined, however, that the driver will be satisfied with such payment. Ask him in advance how much he will charge to convey you to your desti- nation, and he will name a sum about twice as great as the legal fare. If you demur, he will, abate a little. If you enter the cab without first making the bargain, when you reach your destination he will make the same ex- orbitant demand; and if you refuse to pay it and offer only the legal rate, he will bluster, threaten and insult you, unless your size and appearance indicate that such a pro- ceeding would be unsafe. But he can almost always be brought to terms by simply saying to him, "Very well, take me to the City Hall." For there, at the office of the Mayor's Marshal, he would be compelled to be con- tent with the legal fee, and would in addition, be fined Nlght= Hawks. Dining=Room of an Epicure. CHAPTER XXI. OUT-OF-DOORS DIVERSIONS. RECENT YEARS have witnessed a remarkable development of interest in athletic games and all manner of out-of-doors sports, among the American people. Time was when such things were enjoyed by a few but frowned upon by the many, as beneath the notice of a serious people. We have learned better, now. We have, or take, more leisure, and put into practice the theory that there is a time to play as well as a time to work. To-day America probably leads the world in out-of-doors sports. The situation of New York city makes it a natural centre for such forms of entertainment. The waters adjacent afford such opportunities for yachting and boating as scarcely any other city enjoys, while on the land are ideal spots for racing, and for all manner of games. Moreover, the vast population, the wealth, and the leisure of the metropolis conduce greatly to the encouragement of all wholesome and manly sports. Here are the great yacht clubs, and the great race-tracks. Here are the most noted athletic clubs. Here are some of the most famous boat-crews. The New York base-ball club always ranks among the foremost players of the National game. And when a specially important match is to be played by two rival college organizations, they seek to have New York the scene of the contest. Yachting. Conspicuous among all out-of-doors sports, as the most expensive, therefore the most exclusive, and yet in point of interest one of the most popular, is yachting. There are more than one hundred yacht-clubs in Ocean Yacht Race. 4^0 OuT-oF-DooRS Diversions. and the waters about Coney Island. For the glorious bluetish, one must go to the great South Bay, and hire a cat-boat; or if you want the finest sport of all, go clear outside to the open ocean. You charter a thirty-foot cat-boat, of the extreme "skimming dish" model, with one huge sail, and with a crew of a m:in and a boy; the former to manage the boat, the latter to comment sarcastically upon the hsh you do not catch. You "pole" down the creek two miles to the bay, through clouds of mosquitoes and green-headed tlies; then seven miles across the bay, and through the inlet to the open sea. The breeze freshens into a gale, the green and white waves break clear over the boat, the big canvas bellies and strains at the mast, and while one gunwale is under water, by looking over the other you can almost see the centreboard. A mile to northward gulls are making fierce plunges into the water. That means a shoal of men- haden ; and a shoal of menhaden means a hungry, devour- ing legion of bluefish in close pursuit. Head toward them, and out with the lines; and the foaming water hisses past more fiercely, the twenty fathoms of line are taut as a bowstring, and the heavy squid hook skims the surface like the dorsal fin of a shark. Now the gulls are close at hand. Swish! The line is jerked from your nervous fingers and runs out like mad until brought up by the cleat to which, luckily, you fastened it. Hand over hand you haul in. You don't care that the spray is ruining your clothes. There's a fish on the line! No matter if the straining whipcord cuts your fingers to the bone. There's a fish on the line! When Dauntless. OuT-OF-DooRS Diversions. 461 he grabbed the hook and jerked the line from your fingers, he weighed a hundred pounds. When you got him hauled half way to the boat he weighed a thousand. When he was within a boat's length your aching muscles and bleeding fingers were sure he weighed a ton. But when he came Atalanta Boat House and Float. with a swish and a flop over the gunwale, your miserable spring- balance showed him to be only a bare seven-pounder. Never mind ; you have him anyway. Better a mummychug in the boat than a whale in the sea. Again the line goes over, and is tightened by a something that pulls and whirls and plunges, and finally comes panting and snapping into the boat, until you stand knee deep in a scaly, glit- tering mass, and reluctantly, though with blistered neck, aching arms and bleeding hands, turn toward the inlet, the creek and home. Horse=Racing. Horse-racing, both in harness and under saddle, has long been one of the leading summer sports of New York. The chief running New York Yacht Club. 462 OuT-oF-DooRS Diversions. race-tracks in this vicinity are at Slieepsliead Bay, in Broolrary Edition, marbled edgres (Binding: shown outside back of the Prospectus) 5-75 Full Russia de I^uxe, grold centre, back stamp, Royal Edition, g:old edg-es (Binding: shown outside front of the Prospectus) 7.00 SPECIAL, EDITION— Sealskin Eeather, padded sides, with the Title on the side only, stamped in g:old, also title on the back. A superb book. Special Binding-. No equal for beauty. (Binding: not shown in the Prospectus) 10.00 This great and valuable book will never be for sale in the book stores, and those desiring it must purchase from the Agent who exhibits this Prospectus. AGRSBMEl^^T: -We, the Snhscribers, on the following pages to "SHEPP'S NEW YORK CITY IJCT.USTRATED," hereby agree to take the number of copies set opposite our respective «<-i//ies, and promptly pay the speci&ed price on delivery of the same, IE EQUAL TO SAMPI^E SHOWN. Delay m delivery shall not invalidate this Agreement. » SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE ■ ■■■■■ ■ i SUBSCRIBER'S NAME ^ ^ No. of Copies r== = Style of Binding RESIDENCE « SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE 1 r SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE SUBSCRIBER'S NAME No. of Copies Style of Binding RESIDENCE it i I i 1