lEx ICibrts SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this hook Because it has heen said "Sver'thing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned hook." Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library WONDEI|SOFAGRE/rClTY: OB THE SIGHTS, SECRETS AND SINS OF NEW YORK Being a ^MondettMl portrayal ol tYve varied pYvases ot Ule m tieatest oity oi R-mexica. Gi^mg Pen Pictures ot "KeMJ XotV: City " ---its Men and \fdom.en-, iiOM\i and ^Ainexe tiiey ii^j:e-, t^eir raannexs and customs-, "ivoAW tiiey speculate, txade, cYieat and get G\\eated-, and in tact a ptiotograpYv as true as can ■pe made ol five Great BaPei oi tiie THestern continent, AJM"!n.ere all sorts ol tilings are done, aiding a true picture ol Hsam TorVs inner lite, sucli as lias ne^er \)etore tieen pu^Plislied. EDITED BY MATTHEW HALE SMITH, The Renowned "Burleigh" of the New York and Boston Pres? PROF. HENRY L. WILLIAMS, Editor, Author and P*utlisher. RALPH BAYARD, The noted Mew York Journalist. ilegantly Embellished with over forty full page Engravings, each one a gem ol artistic workmanship. ^Sold only by our Authorized Agents.^ CHICAGO: PEOPLE'S PUBLISHING COMPANY, 15 Washington Street. COPYKIGHT, 1887. 'EOPLE'S PUBLISHING TO. Publisljers' Preface. This volume, while replete with historical matter, does rjot purport to be a history of New York. It is a compilatioq of sketches, wherein scenes and incidents attendant upon life in the metropolis of tlje New World, are faithfully portrayed. There has been rjo attempt at coloring or sensational writing, and, while the truth has beer] told, it Ijas been presented in a chaste but uiuid manner The subjects treated, from be- ginning to end, are those believed to be equally in- structing and amusing. This work was designed by tlje late Matthew IjoJe Smitt], who, under the nom de plumie of "Burleigh," contributed largely upon New York topics to thjC leadiqg journals of the United States, and wrote a volume entitled "Sunshine and Shadow." flt Mr. Smitti's demise. Professor M. L Wil- lianjS; a prominent New York journalist, was engaged to finish tf]is work. He, however, speedily followed his predecessor to the tomb. Commencing where deathj concluded the labors of Mr. Smjith apd Profes- sor Williams, lijr Ralph Bayard, (now engaged or] the editorial staff of the "New York Daily Graphic," ) has happily succeeded in completing the "Wonders of a Great City." THE PUBLISHERS. chapter 1. THE CITY OF NEW YORK. GeograpHcal Description of the Metropolis of the New World — The Prin- cipal Streets — New York as a Place of Residence — Its Beneficence — An Example— The Ministry of New York 26 CYi- -)ter 11. METROPOLITAN HIGH LIFE. The Class of People who suffice to make up its Legion — Conspicuous Ab- sence of the Knickerbockers — A Sample High Life Ball — Cocking Main in a Fifth Avenue Parlor 39 CYiapter 111. WALL STREET IN OLDEN TIMES. Early Speculations in the Street — 1670 and 1870 — Sharp Financiering — Fed- eral Hall — Fashion in Wall Street — George Washington — Costumes — Odd Customs— Wall Street Religion— Wall Street and the Brokers. .47 Cliapter lH. MODERN WALL STREET. The Most Notorious Thoroughfare in the World — How Stocks are Bought and Sold — Wrangles of the Bulls and Bears — Operators on the Street — The Stock Exchange and its Lesser Adjuncts — In the Clearing House — How a Tight Money Market is created—Black Friday 65 GYiapter H. SPECULATION AND ITS FRUITS. A. few Observations as to the Causes which induce men to enter Wall Street — A Case in Point — No Moral Principle— The Infatuation — Sharp Practices— The Street on the Outside— One Noted Fraud— Perils of Speculation. — Honesty Leads 87 vi Contents. Ctopter Yl. TWO FINANCIAL TrPHOONS. The Panic of 1873 and the Disastrous Outcome of the Grant & Ward Fail- ure — The Moneyed Center Shaken — Houses Blown Do^vti — The Man- hattan Bank on the Crisis — The Great Crash — Tne Revulsion — Return- ing- Confidence— The New Styles and the Old— The Trust Company on the Heights— Fisk and Gould— A Sadder View— The Panic of 1884— A Day of Terror— Prominent Men Ruined— Ferdinand Ward's Victims— Graphic Pen Pictures — Ward's Treachery to General Grant 109 Chapter 'Xril. A NIGHT ON THE BATTERY. The Battery as it was — A Suicide — A Dark Story — The Temptation — A Rescue — Forced Loans — Traffic in Flesh and Blood — Maddening Ex- tortions 133 Ctiapter ^111. BLACK-MAILING AS AN ART. Methods of Raising Money — A Widower Blaclonailed — A Minister Falls Among Thieves — Elaclmiailers at a Wedding — A Bride Called on — Another Mode — Blackmailer Foiled — Hotel Registers and Blackmail. 141 CYiapter IX. SUNDAY IN NEW YORK. A Specimen Sabbath Morning — The Church Goers —The Pleasure Goers — A few Religious Peculiarities — Foreigners and Sunday — Sample Sunday Amusements — Varied Notes 152 Chapter X. THE NEW YORK POLICE. The Old System of Protecting the City — How the Metropolitan and the Present one were Created — Organization and Methods of the Depart- ment — Brave Men — The Police at their Work — Always on Hand — Station House Scenes — The Bureau of Information .158 CJTaapter XI. THE DETECTIVE FORCE. Its Origin — Inspector Byrne, Prince of His Profession — Qualifications of a Detective — How the Thief takera do their Work— Why Rogues go Contents. vii Clear — The Arrest of a Pickpocket — An Old Man in Trouble— A Min- ister in Trouble— A Sea Captain in Difficulty— Stories of Adventure by Members of the Corps— The Rogues' Gallery 183 Chapter Xll. THE TOMBS. History of Gotham's Famous Prison — How it Looks Outside and In — The Management — Prisoners known to Criminal fame, who have been con- fined within its Walls — A Court Scene — Divine Service — Ludlow Street Jail 202 . Chapter Xlll. THE FIVE POINTS. A Scene at Five Points — Ladies' Five Points Mission — Origin of the Work — ^The Field Selected — The Nationality of the Lowly — The Mission begun — A Walk Around Five Points — The Mission of the Beautiful — How the Work is Supported — Success of the Mission Work — A Remarkable Meeting 221 Ctiapter XIY. THE BOWERY. The Flashiest of all Flash Streets in the Metropolis — Its Appearance on Sunday — ^The Persons who Inhabit it — Lager Beer Gardens — A Walk up the Avenue 233 INCIDENTS IN CITY EVANGELIZATION. The New York City Mission — Origin of the Work — Thrilling Incidents — Temperance in a Rum Saloon — Rescue of the Destitute — A Soldier in Trouble — A Young Man's Story — Not Easily Discouraged — A Mission- ary's Daily Work — A Fool Answered According to his Folly 238 Cb.ap\,er XYl. BUSINESS REVERSES IN NEW YORK. Mirage of Wealth — Railroad Conductor— A Railroad King— Saratoga BeUe —Rock in the Channel— Success a Coy Thing— Old Merchants 248 Contents. Chapter XYll. FAST LIFE IN NEW YORK. Recreations of the Fast Class— A Ruined Man, once a Financial King— The Fast Men at the Club Houses— The Club Houses, and How They Live There— A Startling Case 262 NEW YORK'S BLIGHT. The Alarming Prevalence of Prostitution — Statistics of the Lost Sister- hood—Houses of the First Class— How they are Filled— Agents and Runners— Startling Facts— A Night Encounter— A Mayor's Experience — Hopeless Classes — Houses of Assignation — Women on the Pave — Sad Sketches .• 270 Gb-apter XIX. CLUBS OF THE CITY. Some of the Institutions where Weary Men Seek Quiet and Recreation — The Union League, Manhattan, Blossom, Century, New York, Union, Lotos, Coaching, St. Nicholas, Lambs and Author's Clubs — Pet Hood- lum Organizations 299 CYvapter XX. NEW YEAR'S DAY IN NEW YORK. Its Antiquity — The Preparation— The Table— The Dress of the Ladies — The Reception— New Year's Night 312 CYiapter XYvl. CENTRAL PARK. Origin of the Greatest Free Park in the World — How it may be Reached from the Business Section of the City — Objects of Universal Interest— The Menagerie and Museums— Cleopatra's Needle— The Mall— Gates and their Titles— Riverside Park and General Grant's Tomb 318 C\\apteT XXU. THE GAMBLING HOUSES. Handsomely furnished Parlors Where the Tiger is more Relentless than in his Native Jungle — How Some of the Principal Houses are Arranged — John Morrissey's Connection with Gambling —Day and Night Games— The Plucking System— Female Gambling Houses— Pool Rooms, Policy and Lottery 338 Contents. ix THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. How the Present Excellent System Supplanted the Old Volunteer Organiza- tions — Strength of the Department — The Engines, Horses, Men and Methods in Vogue— Government of the Force 374 FIRST DIVISION NATIONAL GUARD. Formation of the Division — The Military as a Police Force— The Military and Riots — The Seventh Regiment at the Astor Place Riot— Mayor Wood's Riot — An Episode — Tlie Finale — First Division and the War — Presidential Reception — The Parades 381 GYiapter XX'^T. LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. Homes of the Impoverished — A Night Tramp — Barefooted Beggars — A Street Boy — A Sad Scene— Genteel Suffering — Park liodgers and their Methods — Homes for Seamen — The Beggar's Revel .394 THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM. The Jews in New York — The Svnagogues — Innovations — The Feast of tiie Passover — Jewish Sunday Schools 414 Gliapter XXYll. UNLUCKY MEN. Old Superstitions — Wizards on the Street — Lucky and Unlucky Days- Lucky and Unlucky Men — Hospital for Decayed Merchants — Illustra- tions of 111 Luck— The Devil 421 CYiaptex XXYIU. PANEL-THIEVING. A System of Robbery which is Seldom Punished — Operatives and Victims — How the Fly is Lured to the Spider's Parlor — The Disgraceful Game in Detail 427 CD Contents, POLITICAL MACHINES. The Political Organizations of the Metropolis as Mammoth as its Business Enternrises — Halls and Factions~Hu\v a Campaign is Conducted — The Use of Money in Elections 431 FORTUNE'S EBB AND FLOW. How Money is Lost and Made in Speculation— The Wealth of Wall Street — Poor Boys and Rich Men — A few Blui^^trations of the Methods by which Operators can Successfully Def}' Fickle F ortune — A glimpse at the Otjier Side of the Subject— Infatuated Women who desire to Dabble in Stocks — A Successful Greenhorn 439 Clciapter XXXI. FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES. A New Synonym for Crime in Yogue in Speculative Circles — The Peculiar Atmosphci-e of New York's Fatal Maelstrom — Some of the Immorali- ties of the Street — How the Money Goes — The Gray and Ketchum Methods— Human Wrecks 456 Claapter XXXU. THE SAWDUST GAME. How Persons from the Rural Districts with a few dollars and an all consum- ing Desire to bccom_e Speedily Rich, are Shorn — Counterfeit Money in Name Only — An Interview with the King of Bogus Currency Swind- lers 475 Chapter XXXlll. CONFIDENCE OPERATORS. Devices which Lure the Dollars from the Pockets of the Confiding — Some of the Number Exposed — Plin White's Remarkable Career — Property of Orphans and AVidows — Bogiis Auctions — Sham Jewels and Subscrip- tion Lists — Petty Swindles 481 Contents. xi THE CRIMINAL CLASS. Statistics of the Pirate Element of the ^Metropolis — Professional Thieves a,nd their Methods of Making- a Turn — The Bank Burglar — Thieves and their Relations to the Modern Vidocq's — Night Hackmen who Rob their Fares — Reformation Practically out of the Question 509 Chapter XXXU. BOODLE ALDERMEN. The Disgraceful Sale of Broadway to a Street Car Corporation by the City Council — A Part of the Bribe-Takers in the Penitentiary and the Re- mainder in Canada — Waite's Case 534 DISHONEST DEVICES. Gift Swindles and Lottery Enterprises of the Metropolis — Tlieir Extent and Plans of Operation — The Prize Ticket, Circular and Medical Schemes — Some Sample Letters 541 Chapter XXXTTll. SKETCHES HERE AND THERE. Sharp Men and Sharp Trade — The Dangerous Practice of Imitating Signa- tures — Tricks to get ]\Ioney — Exj)erts — Sold out of House and Home — Jacob Little and Morse in Wall Street — Shadows on the Street — A Reasonable Request — Religion in the Street — Lady Brokers 552 Chapter XXX^lll. PUBLISHER ROBERT BONNER, His Early Career and Removal to New York — His System of Advertising — The Value of a Name — Mr. Beecher and the Ledger — Bonner's Horses — Personal Traits 568 Chapter XXXIX. THE ONLY BARNUM. Sketch of the Man Wlio Has in His Time both Humbugged and Amused the World — His Early Career — The Theory of Success — Unhappy Re- verses — Some Personal Incidents 579 Contents, JAMES FISK, Jr. The Architect of His Own Fortune— Sets Up For Himself — Mr. Fisk as a Business Man — The Opera House — The September Panic — Run on the Tenth National Bank— Murdered by Stokes 590 COMMODORE VANDERBILT. Vanderbilt and Collins — The Hudson River Railroad — Vanderbilt's Re- venge — Vanderbilt iu His Office — Personal Incidents — Railroad Slaugh- ter — Personals — Vanderbilt and His Horses — The Vanderbilt Property 607 STEWART, THE PRINCELY MERCHANT. The Down-Town Store — Early Career — Sensational Advertising — How Stewart Did Business — Stewart at His Work — Running the Gauntlet — An Autocrat — A Napoleon in Trade — Shrewd Investments — Personal of Stewart— His Death 621 Ob.apter XI^lll. JAY GOULD. The Man who has Made Many Millions by Watering Stocks and Wrecking Railroad and Telegraph Companies — His Early Career — Operations with Fish— Questionable Transactions— An Unenviable Record 637 Chapter XUY. THE METROPOLITAN PRESS. Printing-House Square— A Brief Bit of History — How Morning Journals are Made — Night Work — Stereotypes from the Forms — How the News is Collected and Distributed — Editors and Journalists — The New York Press — Bennett and Greeley — Editors of To-day 651 HENRY WARD BEECHER. Brief Resume of the Life and Works of the Late Plymouth Pastor — His Personal Magnetism — His Belief one of True and Loveable Christianity — Occasions When His Character Stamped Him the Prince of Modern Teachers— Dark Moments — Closing Scenes 674 Contents, edit DASHES HERE AND THERE. A Hobby Among Women for Cosmetics — Burning their Faces in Order to Improve their Complexion — How Families Thrive on Canal Boats in Winter — Melting Down Millions of Silver — Minor Topics 699 MANHATTAN CAUSERIE. The Photographic Craze — Type- Writing Put to a Bad Use — The Messenger Boy — Central Park Ambulances — The Morgue — Flower Mission — Titled Americans — Moonlight Pic-nics — Metropolitan Moonshiners — Statistics of Immigration 738 TALMAGE AND THE TABERNACLE. Portrait of the Popular Brooklyn Divine — His Career and Success — The New Tabernacle — The Night Side of New York — Talmage's Trial — The Sensationalist Abroad — Talmage as a Lecturer 777 Chapter XUX. NEW YORK IN SUMMER.; How the Tired and Heated may Ferret Out Cool Spots — Delicious Glen Island — Long Branch and Rockaway — Coney Island Down The Bay — Some of the American Brighton's Attractions 783 Chapter li. THE ELEVATED RAILWAYS. Rapid Transit — The Metropolitan Elevated Railways — How the Roads are Constructed — The Stations and Equipments — Upper New York — Im- mense Advantages of the Roads to the City 793 Glvapter 1^1. MEAT FOR THE MILLION. How the City is Fed— Sources of Supply— Stock Yards and Slaughter Houses — The Metropolitan Markets— Washington Market in the Morn- ing — Restaurants and Cheap Eating Houses — Millions to Feed Millions 798 ayiv Contents. THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE. Postal Sen-ice Years Ago— The New Post Office— Business of the Office- Expert Clerks — Checks and Safe-Guards — A Busy Place 807 GYiapter 1^111. METROPOLITAN AMUSEMENTS. The Old Park Theatre— Other Old Theatres— Modern Places of Amusement — Stage Epidemics — The Theatre of To-day 811 HOTELS IN THE CITY. The City Coffee House — Shakespeare Tavern and Washington Hotel — The Modern Broadway Houses — Some of the Grand Up-town Hotels — Means and Appliances of the Present 816 0\\apter \JSL. PECULIARITIES OF GOTHAM CHURCHES. Clerical Repute — Fluctuations of Places of Worship — Grace Church — Way- side Worship — Treatment of Strangers — Trinity and its Vast and Wealthy Estates 820 QUEER INDUSTRIES. Strange Avocations by which Hundreds of Persons Contrive to Make a Living — The Sauer Krant Cutter and Cat Meat Man — Street Vendors of Cooling Drinks — Fakirs, Artists and Musicians — Sandwich Perambu- lators—The Time Peddler 831 Clcvapter Ia^II. THE BIG BRIDGE. The Suspension Bridge Over East River — Length, Strength and Size of the Structure — The Approaches — Methods of Transportation — Opening Day Scenes 846 Contents. XV THE BARTHOLDI STATUE. One of the Modem Wonders of the World erected in New York Harbor — The Gift to Free America of a Liberty-Loving Frenchman — Description of the Statue 849 CYiapter "UIX. MAYOR HEWITT'S CRUSADE. Successful War Ordered A.ublic charity, while three hundred and odd religious and benevolent societies, collect and pay out annually over two and a half millions. The City of New York. 29 NEW YORK AS A EESIDEISTCE. Something like forty years ago a man in Vermont proposed to visit New York. He made his will, and had prayers offered in the chm^ch that he might be kept from peril in the wicked city to which he was o^oino;. Those who live at a distance, and know the city only through the papers, suppose it to be as wicked as Sodom and as unsafe as GomoiTah in the time of Lot. As a home it has few attractions to a stranger. Its babel and confusion distract and almost craze. Its solitude is distressing. In the midst of a crowd the stranger is alone. He might live or die without any one's knowing or caring. The distinguished man, or well-to-do merchant from the country, has no deference paid to him. He is jostled by the crowd, trampled down by the omnibus, or run over by the market vans. He stands in the vestibule of a fashionable church till his legs tire and his lady faints from indignation, and when he has a seat, it probably is a back one. A short I'esidence in New York changes things wonder- fidly. Order and harmony seem to come out of the confusion. Families find themselves as well protected and as comfortable as in a smaller town. The loneli- ness and solitude find a compensation in the independ- ence which each family and person secures. A man in New York can live as he pleases — dwell in a palace or in an attic, dine at night or not at all, keep a dozen servants or none, get up early or late, live in style or be old-fashioned. No one will meddle with or trouble him unless he undertakes to make great display. On change, in business, in the social circle, or at church, the style 30 Wonders of a Great City. of a man's living and doing harms him not. There is a warm, Christian, benevolent heart in New York, a frank and generous sociability, when one can command it, that is delightful. The family who "would not live in New York if you would give them the best house on Fifth Avenue," after a year's residence are seldom willing to live anywhere else. The climate is delight- ful. It is not savage and rasping. It is not enervating, like Philadelphia or Baltimore. East winds do not trouble the feeble. Clear, bracing Avinds come daily from the ocean, bearing health on their wings. The winter is short, and seldom severe. The spring and autumn are long and delicious. The weather for eight months in the year is exhilarating, and gives a charm to life. Broadway is a perpetual panorama. Its variety never tires. The windows are filled with the richest and most elegant goods. Gold, silver, jewels, diamonds, silks, satins, and costly fabrics flash under the plate glass for miles. The pavement is the great promenade where the eminent men of New York can be seen daily, while ladies of fame, fashion, and elegance, in the richest and most fashionable attire, crowd and jostle each other up and do^vn this great thoroughfare. In no city in the world do ladies dress so elegantly and with so much expense, for the street, as in New York. Dressed in their gayest and most costly attire, their broad skirts of the richest fabrics, sweep the dirty side- walks, while the abundance of their flashing jewels attracts attention. The carriages of the wealthy roll up and down this favorite thoroughfare, and add to the bi-illiancy of a bright day in New York. Everything that is manufactui'ed, or that grows in The City of New York, 31 any part of the world, can be purchased in this city. You can have a tropical climate if you can pay for it — fruits that grow at the equator, and products fi'om every part of the world. A New Yorker need not go abroad for amusement, recreation, or health. The eminent men who visit America never pass by New York. Distinguished artists come here to sing and perform. Orators, musicians, and men on whom na- tions like to look come to the very doors of residents of this city. MORALITY OF THE CITY. Sound morality and business integrity have a market value in New York. The city was founded in religion. The colony that bought the island of the Indians was a religious colony. The early settlers, scattered all the way from the Battery to West Chester County, met on the Sabbath for worship. "The Half Moon" cast her anchor in the North River, and the little company withdrew to an island and spent their first Sabbath in thanksgiving and praise to God. After the toil of Saturday, companies came from beyond the Harlem River to reach the chm-ch before the dawn of Sunday, that they might not break the Sabbath. Starting after midnight on the Sabbath, the little company would walk all the way back, beguiling their path with sacred song, and reach home in season for Monday's work. The spirit of these devout Dutchmen lingers in the city. No place of its size is more secure, is freer fi'om crime, or has law better administered. A large city is worse than a small one, because bad men can hide themselves in its solitude. They find scope for theii' talent and genius. 32 Wonders of a Great City. The crime of England is concentrated in London. Barricades in Paris toucli public security in the re- motest provinces of France. Bad men locate in New York, fix thei'e theii' headquarters, and reduce roguery to a system. They have their banks, expressmen, ai'tists and a2:ents. These men dwell in the dark recesses and hidden chambers of the city. But to New York come also the most talented and best of men. The talent, ability, integrity, shrcAvdness and sharpness which make a small fortune in any other place, make a large one in New York. The best ability in the nation finds scope in the city "whose merchants are princes, Avhose trafiickers are the honorable of the earth. " Large societies, whose streams of humanity and religion fer- tilize the earth, have their fountains here. Colleges, seminaries, schools, in the new and sparse settlements of the land, are built by New York beneficence. The lamp of religion, which burns in the dark islands of the sea, is fed by the hands of the bountiful in our city. The feet of the swift runner on the mountains of bar- barism, who carries the good tidings of salvation to the dwellers in the habitations of cruelty, are made strong by the cheei-ful gifts of our people. In no city are churches more elegant and numerous, congregations richer and more liberal, j^reachers more learned or eloquent. La^vyers who have become famous elsewhere join the New York bar. The shrewd- est merchants of the land, energetic, far-seeing, and successful, find full scope for their ability in this great centre of commerce and trade. The inexorable law of business for half a centur}' demands integrity no less than talent, if one Avould have success. Thousands of The City of New York. 33 men have commenced business in New York witt the motto, "All is fair in trade," who are "as honest as the times will allow. " None such have ever had permanent success. A man might as well steer his bark in a dark and stormy night, on a deep and treacherous sea, by a lantern on his bowsprit, rather than by the light-house on the fixed shore, as to expect business success with- out commercial principle. Success in New York is the exception, failure the general rule. One can count on his fingers the firms who have had a quarter of a centmy's prosperity. Such have been eminent for their commercial integrity, for personal attention to business, to the inflexible rule that the purchaser should carry away the exact article he bought. ATT EXAMPLE. In a little room in one of the by-streets of New York, up a narrow, dingy flight of stairs, a man may be found doing a little brokerage which his fiiends put into his hands. That man at one time inherited the name and fortune of a house which America delighted to honoi*. That house w^as founded by two lads who left theii' homes to seek their fortune in a great city. They owned nothing but the clothes they wore, and a small bundle tied to a stick and thrown over their shoulders. Their clothes were homespun, were woven under the parental roof, and cut and made by motherly skill and sisterly affection. Their shoes were coarse and heavy, and they walked the whole distance fi'om tlieir home to the city towards which they looked for ])Osition and fame. They carried with them the rich boon of a mother's blessing and a mother's prayers. They were honest, 34 Wonders of a Great City. industrious, truthful, and temperate. They did any- thing they found to do that was honest. They began a little trade, which increased on their hands, and ex- tended till it reached all portions of the civilized world. Their credit became as extensive as our commerce. They identified themselves with every good work. Education, humanity, and religion blessed tlieir muni- ficence. The founders of the house died, leaving a collossal fortune and a name without a stain. They left their business and their reputation to the man who occupies the little chamber that we have referred to. He abandoned the principles on which the fame and honor of the house had been built up. He stained the name that for fifty years had been untarnished. Between two days he fled fi'om his home. He wandered under an assumed name. Widows and orphans who had left trust money in his hands lost their all. In his fall he dragged down the innocent, and spread conster- nation on all sides. A few years passed, and after skulking about in various cities abroad, he ventured back. Men were too kind to harm him. Those whom he had befriended in the days of his prosperity helped him to a little brokerage to earn his bread. In one of our cities a granite store was built. It had a fair, strong outside show. The builder said it would stand if filled with pig-lead. The building was filled with valuable merchandise. In the midst of business one day, the floors gave way, carrying every- thing into the cellar, the inmates barely escaping with their lives. Deep down among the foundations, under an important pillar, an unfaithful workman had put an imperfect stone. The exact pressure came, and the The City of New York. 35 wreck was complete. New York is full of such wrecks. THE MINISTKY OF XEW YORK. As a great city draws toward it, the leading men in all the sciences and arts, it is not to be wondered that where the flocks are most numerous, shepherds should be most plentiful. Accordingly, ministers of nearly every denomination are to be found filling the pulpits or speaking from the platforms in the half thousand places of worship strewn through the broad avenues and narrow by-ways of the metropolis. The Protest- ants are in a very large majority, including Episcopal- ians, Eeformed (Dutch) Congregation alist, Presbyter- ians, Lutherans, Methodists and Baptists, while smaller seats are the Quakers, Unitarians, Universalists and Swedenborgians. The various Protestant churches are estimated to have property and endowments to the amount of $32,000,000, while about $20,000,000 will cover the wealth of Greeks, Jews and Catholics. The Dutch Reform has priority of mention, as being the first Christian church in New Amsterdam. It is almost coeval with the first arrival of the sturdy PIol- landers. It easily and quickly gained land and liber- al support otherwise from the earnest Reformers, who generally did everything well and thoroughly. Several of their churches are among the finest edifices in the city, and the ministers of this church have taken a front rank for piety and learning. The Dutch Reform had scarcely reared their first plain church, before the more aspirant Episcopalians came in with the red cross of St. George. It rapidly increased in numbers and wealth, until to-day it num- 36 Wonders of a Great City, bers some fifty churches and lesser theological edifices, supported by an enormous revenue. Amons: its many fine edifices may be named Trinity, overlooking Wall street, noted for its fine music and its tuneful chime of bells ; Grace Chm-ch, on Broadway, near Tenth street, built of a white granite which looks like marble and wears better ; it has a very graceful spire and hand- some parsonage ; like several other Episcopal churches, it has two organs, one grand the other smaller, for choir chanting. Perhaps St. Thomas ranks quite as highly as Grace in every respect ; it has a more dark, not to say sombre, appearance inside and out. But the "Little Church Around the Corner," looms up in popular regard above and over all the more costly edi- fices. Being very low gives it an appearance of little- ness, but it is quite a spacious place, sweetly laid out and ornamented, and looks like one of the better class of English rural churches; being surrounded by a God's Acre, overrun wi^h foliage and creeping plants. It obtained its odd name of the Little Church Ai'ound the Corner in this manner : When a Mr. George Hol- land, an old actor of the city, died somewhat suddenly, the incumbent of the Church of the Atonement, a very towering Ej)iscopal edifice, was requested to have the obsequies in his church. The rector, however declined, but informed the applicants that possibly in the Little Church Around the Comer, actor's funerals sometimes took place. Accordingly Mr. Holland was laid to rest from the little church, which, from that time, has been a favorite church with the profession and people of liberal ideas. The Lutherans are a very numerous and estimable iic OTiginal letter ol Geo. "^asMngton to t^e Ma^or aivd oUioials ol HeMa Xoxt City. .^^^T^l^^ll^^ ^^^'^Cff^^^^f^/'^^^-^K^ .cst-<;'^-S> j::Z.y2^ <2*;-^^t2-«_ ^^'^^--i- (i^II^^o^ ^^S-^;^-.^ Yultoii's Yixst Steani\3oat---T:Yie "CleTmont." The City of New York. 37 body. They own a score of excellent cliurclies, and are quite well provided witli endowments for pastors and churclies. The Presbyterians, including: its various divisions on minor church rules, have near one hundred churches, many of them of exceeding beauty; one costing more than one hundred thousand dollars. The Baptists, like the Presbyterians, were not kindly wel- comed to New York, which like some more ancient cities, appeared to have a fondness for stoning the prophets. But since the days of persecution, prior to 1725, they have multiplied in numbers and increased in wealth. The Methodists have increased w4th amaz- ing rapidity since their little chapel in John street was first opened. The Friends, or Quakers as they are sometimes named, are a very conservative body of plain people, who make no efforts to increase their numbers, but their evident honesty and sincerity ought to bring a great increase to their church. Their wealth is great, and their benefactions in keeping with their abundant means. The Unitarians do not increase very rapidly, which is somewhat strange as they are generally blessed with pastors of high character, as well as profound learn- ing, and manifest a lively interest in all that concerns the well-being of humanity. The Roman Catholic Church, although about the last to erect a church edi- fice in New York, has now the greatest number of at- tendants. Although the bulk of the congregations of its numerous churches is coi:ii posed of foreigners, still large numbers of the most opulent and respectable citi- zens and their families flock to the magnificent altars planted in their glorious churches, many of which are 38 Wonders of a Great City. unsui'passed for Avonclei-ful ornamentation, and the grandeur and sweetness of their music. The Cathedral of St. Patrick's recently erected, is one of the most divinely beautiful churches on this continent, and occupies a site every way worthy of its 1)eauty. Although two millions of dollars have already heen paid out for its construction, it is deemed that half a million dollars more will scarce suffice to thoroughly finish it. \ CHAPTER II. METROPOLITAN HIGH LIFE. THE CLASS OF PEOPLE WHO SUFFICE TO MAKE UP ITS LEGION — CON- SPICUOUS ABSENCE OF THE KNICKEllBOCKERS — A MASKED BALL — COCKING MAIN IN A FIFTH AVENUE PARLOR. NOT MANY years ago the leaders of society were men and women, who without education^ and of the coarsest manner, still by industry or some lucky speculation found themselves elevated to affluence, and perhaps to their own surprise, looked up to by all in their set, nor has this state of affairs changed much, for it is as difficult for a stranger, who has only money as a passport to enter into a certain clique, composed of brains and intellect, as it is easy for ignorance with a golden key to unlock the entrance to what is popularly sup- posed to be the social circle of New York. Imitating the English, we have clubs, the finest Fifth Avenue residences being used for this purpose furnished luxuri- ously and comfortably; they are well worth a visit. Like private balls, etc., these clubs are of different standing, for at some, entrance cannot be bought, and good character and learning are indispensable to be- come a member. In as large a city as New York, it is difficult to say who is really wealthy, for fortunes 40 Wonders of a Great City. charige owners rapidly, and a man, who to-day gives a gorgeous entertainment, may to-morrow have the auctioneer's flag flying from his door, and he will have disappeared to make way for the next. The young men here have clothes, boots, etc., of the English make and style, and yet when a genuine "Britisher" appears how different they look, for our visitor seems old- fashioned, and yet his garments are of the latest. Every year nnds the women more and more like their English cousins, as it is no uncommon sight for stout women to be seen in every family, showing that the race of "sallow-thin" Americans is fast passing away, in spite of what other nations say. With balls, theatres, etc., the winter soon passes and the fashionables then get ready for Europe or some re- sort at the seaside, of which there are many near the metropolis, the mountains and the hills ; and the houses which were so gay in the winter and spring are de- serted until cool weather again comes and New York resumes its whirl of dissipation. Like all large cities. New York can show all styles. Looking from a hand- some carriage one will see a sweet refined face ; next will come one that suggests a cook who has taken her mistress' place for a day's outing — for many make a for- tune and move into a handsome house with everything that wealth can give, but its owners need that polishing which no money can give. And so one will see in the fashionable high life of a large city, strong contrasts in looks and manners. But the real select circle are apart from the shoddy, never encouraging them to pass a slight, but ch how strong, boundary line. The old families do not visit or notice in any way the mush- room company that have sprung up in a few years. Metropolitan High Life. 41 Representatives of higli life in New York must be divided into two classes — persons wlio have inherited wealth and wearied of the customs of select and fashionable society plunge into the latter day shoddy stream of easy reckless dissipation, and those who have fortunately amassed gold, are not blue-blooded and so go in for expenditure and display, flattering themselves that they thus become the salt of the earth. The old Knickerbockers have nothing to do with the loud modem element which goes to make up high life. The Astors, Iselins, Roosevelts, Wolfs, Fishers, Morgans, Arnolds and other old-time honored families are never seen in conjunction with the lower, lesser circle, to which the only passport is money. At the French balls, the Hoffman House bar, Delmonico's main dining room, in the boxes at the theatres, gaudy turn-outs on street and road, at entertainments to third or fourth rate English snobs and wine suppers to vaudeville actresses, may be found the living embodiments of this repulsive class. A SAMPLE HIGH LIFE BALL. A young Boston lady, by an eligible marriage with a princely merchant, became the mistress of an extensive mansion in Madison Square. While in France she captivated the emperor by her superb dancing and graceful skating. His majesty sent her a costly present. At Saratoga and Newport she drove her own dashing team with her footman behind, and became the most conspicuous of the visitors at those gay places. She resolved to give a fancy ball, and all the elite were in a fever of excitement. Brown, of Grace 42 Wonders of a Great City, Chm'cli, had charge of the invitations, and five hundred were given out. All the guests Avere in costume. Three-foui'ths of the guests ^voYQ masks. The dresses were rich, elegant, and costly. Suits were ordered fi^om Paris and London. The hostess appeared as the God- dess of Music. Her dress AN^as short, and her boots scarlet and trimmed with small bells. On her head was a lyre, from which issued brilliant jets of burning gas. Stock brokers, men in high life, and fast New Yorkers, appeared in various characters, among which the representatives of a monkey and of Satan attracted the most attention. The mansion was superbly fitted up. Thousands of dollars were spent in floral decora- tions. Plate of gold and silver, china from beyond the seas, adorned the table. Servants in brilliant gold and silver liveiy waited on the guests. Hidden bands sent music through the mansion. The supper lasted till Ave in the morning. The last strains of music for the dancers closed at six. The counting-rooms were thrown oj)en, the hammer of the artisan was heard, carmen and laborers were at their work, before the festivities ended and the door closed on the last departing guest. ONE rORM OF AMUSEMEOT. Apart from yachting, horse racing and boxing bouts, cocking mains are the chief amusement of Gotham high life. Only a few weeks ago, the writer was afforded an opportunity to witness one of the largest mains of the season, which, strange to relate, came off in the parlor of a Fifth Avenue mansion instead of in the basement of a beer saloon or the loft of a livery Metropolitan High Life. 43 stable. The o\vner made a fortune in the North- western iron mines last year, and he has since "lived like a prince." He paid $130,000 for a house on Fifth Avenue above Thirty -fourth street. Being a bachelor, without kith or kin, east of the great lakes, he had just about as much use for a metropolitan residence as a wagon has for five wheels. It was during one of his champagne bouts that he first concluded to give a cock- fight in his parlor. He consulted with a few blooded friends and they pronounced the project not only original but highly proper. About four score invita- tions were issued by the blooded host and they ^vere responded to at ten o'clock on the evening of the main by six dozen of the recipients in person. The library and back parlor were used as reception and lounging rooms until everything should be in readiness for the series. The large folding doors between the front and back parlors were securely closed. Among the gay company were a few women, presumaljly as fast as the male members. At half-past ten o'clock the host an- nounced that the fun would not begin until eleven o'clock, as some of his theatrical fi^iends, naming a couple of queens of bm4esque and comic opera and a popular comedian or two would be unable to arrive before that hour. Champagne, however, floAvecl fi^ee in the interim and the company, the males out of deference to the gentler sex, united in smoking cigar- ettes. In due season the expected friends arrived and then after languid hand-shakings, a few introductions and stereotyped greetings and weather comments, the folding doors were thrown open, revealing the parlors transformed into a cock-pit completely, surrounded by six rows of seats, rising one above another. 44 Wonders ^jJat City. These were almost instantly filled by the excited spectators ; the game-keepers set sharply to work, and boys, each with a game-cock under his arm, went about hm'rying fi'om tier to tier, attracting attention and se- cm-ing bets on Staten Island or Long Island bii'ds, as the case might be, for a main of cocks was to be de- cided between these two celebrated breeds. Presently the hilarity of the betting subsided, and the judge of the main walked forward with a stately step and as- cended to his place in a sort of pulpit-looking aif air that somebody said was bought at the sale of the Morgan collection. The pit by that time was vacated except by two game-keepers, to whom was entrusted the prep- aration of the combatants. At a signal fi'om the judge they placed the champions on the ground and retired. Three battles passed off ^vithout exciting extraordinary interest, but the fourth was a struggle declared to be unrivaled in the history of mains. To the surprise of all, the next bird upon whose glittering gafEs hung the glory of Long Island was not the brown-red beauty that breed usually manifests, but a dull, dingy feathered fellow, awkward too, and with a shabby, neglected tail. He had not yet attained his proper stature, nor his limbs their just proportions; even his spurs had not more than protruded through the skin of his ankles. Nevertheless, his step was firm and his bearing fearless, and he answered his keeper's caress with a look of proud self-confidence. The champion of Staten Island — magnificent pyle — viewed his unprepossessing antag- onist with unmistakable disgust. It was evident he regarded him as a common barn-yard fowl, be- neath the contempt of an aristocratic game-cock. But on reflection he resolved to punish him for Metropolitan High Life. 45 his rash presumption. Thus determining, he dropped his head and tail to a level with his back and darted across the pit, aiming a death blow at his devoted head. There was something traly admirable in the manner of the Long Island champion as he roused him- self from the contemplation of his golden spurs and squared himself for the onset. Like a great general who knows the poverty of his forces, he stood quietly on the defensive imtil the sword was raised to strike the blow, then ducked and disappeared, leaving the enemy to digest his surprise, while he was dealing a counter-blow wath bloody effect in his unprotected rear. Staten Island turned and began another furious attack, and this time the Long Island champion maintained his position and returned blow for blow. It was not a bat- tle ; it was a hurricane, blood and feathers flying in all directions. The sound of sharp strokes alone broke the stillness, until a dismal cry was heard that even dis- turbed the fighting birds, although it proceeded fi-om neither of them, but from an actor, who, in his desire to see the battle, had come close enough to receive a clot of blood on his immaculate shirt-front. The struggle was renewed, and a succession of skirm- ishes followed, in which Fabius tried to outwit Hanni- bal, and the energies of both were well nigh exhausted. At length, overcome with fatigue, they abandoned the spur and took to the beak, in the use of which the Long Island knight, whose crest was low, had the advantage. In this hand-to-hand manner the battle went forward until the pyle, weak from loss of blood and weary from exertion, thrust his bleeding head under the enemy's wing. The other vainly tried to dislodge it. 46 Wonders of a Great City. and then, as if regarding him as a cowardly skulker, the Long Island champion stretched forth his long, f eatherless neck and uttered a shrill cock-a-doodle doo. That was his death cry ; his cumiing opponent, who had suspended the strife until he had, in some measure, recovered his breath and strength, now saw his oppor- tunity, suddenly darted from beneath the sheltering wing, and set upon him with the fury of annihilation. Seizing him by the back of the head, he dealt blow after blow in quick succession upon the bleeding breast, and when his hold gave Avay, the Long Island bird staggered back a few paces, swayed fi^om side to side, and tumbled lifeless on the ground. The night's entertainment was concluded in the back parlor by draining a few more baskets of champagne, and a minuet dance, which for downright lewdness, would put the Bowery concert hells to shame. Such is high life in New York. CHAPTER III. WALL STREET IN OLDEN TIMES. EARLY SPECULATIONS IN THE STREET — 1670 AND 1870 — GEN. WASHING- TON IN WALL STREET — SHARP FINANCIRING — FEDERAL HALL— FASH- ION IN WALL STREET — CURIOUS COSTUMES AND CUSTOMS — SLAVERY — WALL STREET RELIGION — THE STREET AND THE BROKERS. THE EARLY inhabitants of the city were in fear of an invasion from the restless, energetic peo- ple, who lived in New England. The Indians came to their very cabin doors and scalped the victims in sight of their friends. As a defence, it was re- solved to build a wall at the northern boundary of the city running from river to river. The wall was composed of stone and earth. It was covered with salt sods. It had a rampart. It was protected by a ditch and double stockades. The wall was topped by palisades composed of posts twelve feet long and six inches thick. These posts were sunk three feet into the ground and pointed at the top. The rampart behind the wall, called the Cingel, was prepared for cannon. The entrance into the city was through gates, which were wooden and very heavy. The gates were closed at nine o'clock and opened at sunrise. The opening and shutting of them was announced by the discharge of guns. Along this line of fortifications a new street was laid out in 48 Wonders of a Great City. 1685, when "Dougan was Gouarnor Generall of his Majesties' Coll. of New Yorke." "The saide street being laide out thirty-six foot in bredth ; — this service being performed the sixteenth day of December." The city was guarded by watchmen composed of "good and honest inhabitants." They were on duty from the hour of nine till daybreak. They patrolled the city once in each hour with a bell in hand, proclaim- ing the weather and the hour of the night. The street laid out by the side of the wall took the name which it has borne to the present time. It was the extreme northern limit of the city, and soon be- came a favorite residence of the uptown aristocracy. The territory west of Broadway and stretching north, was known as the King's Farm. Beyond the wall at the north and east of Broadway, were high and pre- cipitous hills occupying the site of the Maid's Path, as Maiden Lane was then called, Beekman street and the site of the City Park. Cattle herded in the streets, and Broad street and New street were famous as sheep pastures. The city was full of tan-pits which were early voted a nuisance and ordered to be removed to the "swamp," beyond the gates. SHARP FINANCIERING. Over Wall street the genius of speculation seems early to have hovered. The very soil was friendly to sharp practice. The street had hardly been laid out before shrewd men commenced operations. They purchased large tracts for speculation. Against a powerful opposition they took the Town Hall, the cen- tre of authority, from the Battery and brought it to Wall Street in Olden Times. 49 Wall street. Where the Treasury building now stands the City Hall reared its imposing front. Trinity Parish was induced to plant itself in the new uptown location. Authority, fashion, and religion united to give an early celebrity to a street that has become so famous in all parts of the world. For two centuries the tower of Trinity has chimed the hour of prayer and tolled the passing bell at the head of the short, narrow thorough- fare, which for centuries has been the financial centre of the continent, and made and marred the fortunes of thousands. In 1670 as in 1870 land was more valua- ble in Wall street than in any other part of the city. History does not go back so far as to indicate when the money changers began their operations in this famed locality. In every period of the history of New York, Wall street has been pre-eminent. As it is to- day, so it always has been. The richest men in New York are Wall street operators. Men who live in the most costly dwellings hail from Wall street. In Cen- tral Park the gayest equipages, and the most extrava- gant turnouts, belong to brokers. The most costly parties, brilliant receptions, elegantly dressed ladies, the gay and extravagant at Saratoga and Newport, are connected with stock operations. In Wall street will be found the sharp, decisive, keen, daring intellect of the nation. Its influence is felt in every portion of the land. Men who "corner" stocks in Wall street, corner wheat, flour, and pork ; cotton, produce, and coal. They can produce a panic in an instant, that will be felt like an earthquake, on the Pacific slope, sweep like a besom of destruction over the great Lakes; be as irresistible on the seaboard as the long roll of 50 Wonders of a Great City. the Atlantic beating with giant strength its rock-bound coast. A Wall street panic comes suddenly like thunder from a clear sky. No shrewdness can foresee and no talent avert it. A combination without a mo- ment's warning can be formed that will sweep away the fortunes of merchants in an hour, shipwreck specu- lators, ruin widows and orphans, make farmers grow pale, and harm every industrial and mechanical inter- est in the land. How this is done ; how fortunes are made and lost; who loses and who wins, will be shown in this book. FEDERAL HALL. Where the imposing granite building of the United States Treasury now stands, brilliant in painting and gilding — stood the humbler building of olden time, known as the City Hall. It was built of brick. The first story was open, like a market paved and without stalls. In the second story was a receding portico adorned with brick columns which faced Broad street. This building was the seat of authority. Here the Courts were held, and justice administered. Its gar- ret was a prison for debtors. Its dungeons, dark and dreary, were for criminals. It had cages for the des- perate. In and around the City Hall were instruments of punishment peculiar to the age. The whipping- post, the pillory and the stocks, occupied a conspicuous place in Broad street. The gallows was packed away in the basement with other implements of civilization. Where the Bulls and Bears now rage, culprits were tied to the tail of a cart and whipped up and down the street. This was a favorite punishment inflicted on the Quakers. They were also fastened to a wheel- Wall Street in Olden Times. 51 barrow and compelled to do menial work about the streets. A degrading punishment was riding in public a wooden horse. The first culprit on whom this in- famous punishment was inflicted was a woman named Mary Price, and she gave her name to this mode of torture. The victim was lashed to the back of a wooden horse which was placed in the bottom of a cart. Be- side the public exposure the populace were privileged to greet the procession with any vile missiles that were handy. While the British held possession of New York, the City Hall was crowded with prisoners who were under the charge of a brute, named Sarjeant Keefe. On the entrance of Washington into the city the prisoners were filled with alarm, supposing that they would all be butchered. Keefe was more frightened than all. As he was fleeing from his charge, the prisoners asked him: "What is to become of us?" "You may all go to H — 1," was the gruff reply. " We have had too much of your company in this world," they answered, "to follow you to the next." The City Hall soon assumed the name of Federal Hall. From the balcony, fronting on Broad street, the oath of ofiice was administered to Washington as President of the United States amid the shoutings of assembled thousands. In the building where the Dutch ruled ; where that rule was transferred to the English ; where the City Government absorbed the authority of the town ; where the Colonial rule gave place to the United States, — there the American nation began its marvelous and irresistible career. 52 Wonders of a Great City. FASHION IN WALL STREET. Wall street early became the fashionable centre of New York. The establishment of the Federal Gov- ernment there made it the Court end of the town. In the immediate vicinity lived the officials, and the fash- ionable families clustered around them. Washington did not live in Wall street, but it was the centre of public promenades. Ladies and gentlemen rode on horseback. There were few coaches at that time. It was regarded as a mark of very great prosperity to set up a one-horse chaise. Three houses are memorable as having been occupied by Gen. Washington. On the crisp morning in November, when, as General of the victorious army, in company with Adams, Hamilton, Knox, and others, he moved through Broadway to the City Hall and took possession, Washington had his headquarters in the building still standing on the cor- ner of Broad street and Pearl. The room remains in which warriors and eminent Americans offered Wash- ington a crown. A dark cloud hung over the Ameri- can people. Geographical disputes raged intensely. Parties were numerous and pursued each other with intense bitterness. No Government, it was said, could be formed. The black gulf of anarchy yawned to re- ceive the young nation. "George the first," who had led the people to victory, could alone control them. He was in supreme command. He was the idol of the army. He could rule as beneficently as a king as he had done as a warrior. The crown was within his reach. He had but to stretch out his hand and take it.. As he placed it on his head, the nation would Wall Street in Olden Times. 53 ratify the act with acclamation. Washington spurned the insulting proposal with an indignation he did not care to conceal. Congress, he said, was the source of all power, from whom Government must proceed. Lest he might be tempted, on that day, in the very room where the proposal was offered to him that he should accept the throne, he wrote that memorable letter in which he returned his commission to Congress, sheath- ed his sword, and retired to private life — to be called back to more than kingly power. After his inauguration as President, Washington re- sided in the building now known as No. 1, Broadway. Clinton had his headquarters in that house. In one of its small rooms Arnold had his first personal interview with Andre, — and like Judas at the Palace of the High Priest, named the price of his treason, and struck hands with the enemy of his country. After he fled from West Point, Arnold resided near the headquarters of Clinton. He was despised and insulted by British soldiers. His house was protected by troops. When he appeared in the street he was guarded by an escort. He was known in the city as the " Traitor General." While in this refuge he met an American officer. " What would my countrymen do to me if they caught ,me ?" asked Arnold. The officer replied : ' ' They would cut off your limb wounded in the cause of liberty, and bury it with the honors of war. The rest of your body they would hang on a gibbet." State dinners and levees were held in the Franklin House, at the head of Cherry street. Tea, coffee, and cake were handed round, and here the first American court was set up. At the levees, Washington wag 54 Wonders of a Great City, scrupulously exact. He wore a dark silk velvet coat of the old cut, ruffles at the wrist, lace cravat, ruffled shirt, breeches, black silk hose, low shoes with silver buckles. He wore his hair powdered and in a bag. A small dress sword completed his costume. He gave the key-note to fashion. His habits were very simple. He rose at four o'clock in the morning. He retired at nine at night. On Saturday he rode out in state. Then he used his coach and six, partly for style, partly fi-om necessity. It was the most splendid looking car- riage ever seen in New York. It was very large, and gave the six Virginia bays attached to it all they could do to draw it. It was of cream color, globular in shape, and ornamented with cupids, festoons and wreaths arranged along the pan el- work. The win- dows were of the best plate glass. The President fre- quently rode on horseback about the city, but more frequently took his recreation on foot. Even his state dinners were very simple. In a preserved letter we find an invitation from the President to a dinner. A bill of fare was then unknown. But the party invited was notified of the repast that awaited them. " A ham, roast beef, small dish of greens, pies, if the cook could be made to understand that apples will make pies," were promised. It was the President's practice to eat of but one dish. In the absence of a chaplain he himself said a very short grace. After the dessert one glass of wine was passed round the table and no more. No toasts were drank. Immediately after the wine was passed, the President arose from the table, the guests followed, and soon departed without cere- mony. Once a week Gen. Washington attended a 4 3* Wall Street in Olden Times. 55 small theater in John street. The whole concern, the State-box and all, could have been placed on the stage of the Academy of Music. Mrs. Washington's levees were very fashionable. Mrs. Adams wished to intro- duce at these levees of state the French custom of an- nouncing visitors. Mrs. Washington consented with great reluctance, for she knew the repugnance of the General to any attempt to ape the airs of European courts. It was agreed that the custom should be tried for once, and Mrs. Adams undertook to engineer it through. Servants were stationed at proper dis- tances from the main entrance, up the stairs, along the corridors to the chamber of audience. Jefferson arrived. His name was announced at the door. Sup- posing some one was calling him he responded: — ''Here !" He heard his name announced on the stairs. He cried: — "Coming!" He heard it announced be- yond the corridor. Annoyed at the pertinacity with which he was called, he shouted: — "Fm coming, I tell you, as soon as I get my coat off; can't you wait a minute?" The simplicity of Jefferson covered Mrs. Adams with confusion. The President positively for« bade the repetition of the ridiculous service. An Englishman had expressed a desire to see the Sovereign of this country. He was standing on the steps of Federal Hall, conversing with an American. "I think you have desired to see our President," said the New Yorker. "Do you see that tall gentlemac coming this way ? That is Gen. Washington." " Can it be possible, and all alone? Why he has no body guard," said the Englishman. He had never seen a sovereign in Europe who was not surrounded by a 56 Wonders of a Great City. guard to keep his subjects from being too familiar with his anointed person. " Gen. Washington has the most numerous body guard of any sovereign in the world," said the American. "Where is his body guard, I don't see it?" "Here," said the New Yorker, placing his hand on his breast, "here in my heart, and in the heart of every loyal American." Hamilton's residence was on the site of the old Me- chanics' Bank, on the north-west corner of Wall and Water streets. Here he wrote his contributions to the Federalist The Mansion, down whose steps he went to fight the duel with Burr, was on Broadway, just south of Wall street. His garden ran down to New Street. Burr lived near Wall street, at the corner of Nassau and Pine. Mrs. Arnold ran her brief, dashing and ruinous career in this neighborhood. She was not a suitable woman to make a poor man's wife, and a poor man Arnold was. Goaded by her extra^vagance, he struck hands with the enemy, and attempted to sell his country for gold. It was the custom to arise at dawn and breakfast immediately. The dinner hour was twelve exactly. The teakettle was set on the fire and tea punctually furnished at three o'clock. There were no dinner parties. Going out to tea was very common, and visitors came home before dark. In the shades of the evening, families sat out on their stoops, saluting passing friends, and talking to neighbors across the narrow streets. The gutters ran in the middle of the street. Serving women wove short gowns of green baize and petticoats of linsey w^oolsey quilted. "Tea water" was expensive. Everything had to submit to scrubbing and scouring, and dirt was Wall Street in Olden Times. 57 not endured. Green tea and loaf sugar came in as luxuries together. It was considered vulgar to dis- solve sugar in tea. A lump was placed by the side of each guest, and a piece was nibbled off as the tea was drank. One custom was to tie a lump of sugar to a string suspended from the wall, which was thrown from party to party, each taking a nibble as it passed around. Well-to-do families cleansed their own chim- neys, prepared their own fuel, and bore homeward the meal they were to use for bread. The first houses built in Wall street were mostly of wood, very rude. The chimneys were made of board and plastered. The roofs were thatched with reeds, or covered with canvas. These yielded to houses of Dutch brick, many of which were glazed and ornamented. Nearly every house stood with gable end to the street. The windows were small, and in the better class, the room was ceiled with oaken panel- work, which was well waxed. Many of the dwellings had brick ends, the sides being constructed of planks and logs. The gutters extended into the street, and poured their contents upon the travelers, for there were no sidewalks. Maiden Lane, originally known as the Maid's Path, obtained its name from the custom of young women going out into the fields to bleach the family linen. The furniture in the dwellings in Wall street in the earlier time, in the common houses was very rude. Plain people used settees and settles, the latter with a bed concealed in the seat. Pillows and blankets were exposed as ornaments in the corner of parlors. Each house contained an iron-bound chest for linen. The 58 Wonders of a Great City. settle maintained its place of honor in the chimney- corner. In better times the chimney was ornamented with Dutch tiles. Pewter mugs supplied the place of cups. Settles were used to guard the back from wind and cold. In wealthy families, small silver coffee and teapots were used, with a silver tankard for toddy. Gilded looking-glasses and picture-frames were un- known. A huge chest of drawers ornamented the parlor, reaching to the ceiling. These contained the household treasures, and were overhauled before com- pany. No carpets were used, but silver sand drawn into fanciful twirls by a broom, adorned the floor. Dipped candles in brass or copper candlesticks lighted the room. The walls were not papereo^ but white- washed. COSTUMES. The men and women were stiffly corseted, with waists unnaturally long ; hips artificial ; shoulders and breasts stuffed ; and immense hoops. The women wore no bonnets ; high-heeled shoes, dresses open in front, displaying a stout quilted petticoat, sometimes of silk or satin, usually of woolen, were common. The " Queen's night-cap," as it was called, the style always worn by Lady Washington, was in general use. White aprons with large pockets, often made of silk, and of various colors, were fashionable. The shoes were of cloth. When very stylish they were of calfskin. Ladies wore no veils. Masks were common in the winter, with a silver mouth-piece, by which they were retained. Umbrellas were unknown, but ladies and gentlemen wore "rain-coats." Visits of Wall Street in Olden Times. 59 ceremony by ladies were performed on foot, or at best on a pillion behind some gentleman. The style of a gentleman's dress was a cocked-hat and wig ; large cuffed, big-skirted coat, stiffened with buckram. The beaux had large wadded plaits in the skirts, and cuffs reaching to the elbow. Fine cambric linen stocks were secured by a silver buckle on the back of the neck. Ruffles for the bosom and sleeves were worn. Boots were unknown, and shoes were adorned with buckles. Gold and silver sleeve buttons were set with paste of divers colors. Boys wore wigs, and in dress were miniature men. As a mark of wealth, large silver buttons were worn on coats and vests, with initials engraved on them. The coming in of French fashions in 1793 made sad inroads upon the simple customs of ancient Wall street. OLD CUSTOMS. The merchants of the olden time were content with small shops, slenderly stocked. A shopkeeper took down his own shutters, swept his warehouse, and was ready for trade by the time gray dawn broke. A bride and bridegroom had their hair arranged, 'by the hands of the barber, the afternoon preceding the mar- riage, and usually slept in arm-chairs that it might not be disturbed. All marriages were duly published three weeks beforehand. Courting in Wall street was a very primitive matter. It was done in the presence of the family, and the lover was compelled to leave when the bell struck nine, without a private adieu to t.he damsel. Doctors went on foot to visit their pa- tients, and were allowed to charge only a moderate 60 Wonders of a GrejlT City. fee. Women did not attend funerals. A portion of the burial service consisted of handing round hot- spiced wines in the winter, and wine and sangeree in the summer. Bowling, dancing, and drinking were common pastimes. Swearing and cursing in the streets were punished by fine and imprisonment. Ladies never wore the same dresses at work and on visits. They were very economical. A young lady, dressed gaily to go abroad or to church, never failed to take off her dress and put on her home garb as soon as she re- turned. On New Year's Day, cakes, wine, and liquors were offered to callers. Punch was offered in great bowls. A slave market stood in Wall street, near Water. It was a portion of the block-house. Here negroes and Indians were offered for sale. Slavery was a sort of serfdom. It was a domestic institution. There were no field negroes and no negro quarters. The slave was a part of the family, scrupulously baptized and religiously trained. The blacks were very free and familiar, sauntering about the streets, joining the whites at mealtime without removing their hats, and entering familiarly into the conversation of those around them. They were treated at times with much severity, publicly whipped if out late at nights, or if out after dark without a lantern, noisy in their gam- bols, or caught gaming with copper pennies. Thirty- nine lashes was the limit allowed by law. The public whipper had twenty -five dollars a quarter for his ser- vices. Every time a slave was whipped his master had to pay three shillings to the church warden as a fund for spreading the Gospel. The slave market was Wall Street in Olden Times. 61 voted a nuisance and an offence to the passers by — the rendezvous of the worthless and the offensive, and was removed by order of the council. The streets were narrow, crooked, and roughly paved. There were no sidewalks. The gutter ran in the middle. This, together with the darkness, made locomotion perilous. In 1697 an attempt was made to light the city. Housekeepers were ordered to put lights in their front windows. During " the dark time of the moon, every seventh householder was to hang out a lantern and a candle on a pole every night." The tradition is, that on the issuing of the order, par- ties hung out a lantern without a candle. The law was then passed that a candle should be placed in tho lantern, but it was not lighted. The law remedied this defect by requiring the candle to be lighted. The lantern, with the candle lighted, was hung out one night and then taken in. Then came the statute — "every night." The " Profession " were greatly an- noyed by the inroads of " vile quacks and base pre- tenders, who obliged true and lawful doctors " to go to the wall. The young roughs of the city disturbed the peace of the dwellers in Wall street, by their pranks and lawless acts in stealing knockers, and run- ning off with signs. Marriages were announced by describing the character of the parties married, and assuring the public that the bride was an "agreeable young lady, possessed of every good quality calculated to render the marriage state completely happy." The navigation of the East and North Rivers was very perilous to life and limb. From New York to Brook- lyn the boats were mere scows, the passage often con- 62 Wonders of a Great City, sumed an hour, and was often taken by way of Gov- ernor's Island. Passengers were kept out all night, and nearly frozen. Disreputable persons dwelt in what were then known as "Canvas houses," cheap, tem- porary dwellings, with canvas roofs. Fortune-tellers drove a brisk business. Conjurors, using spells and incantations, were very popular. Fortunes were sought, luck tried, men searched for hidden treasures, and dug for buried gold, as foolish and as credulous as their successors are in the present age. The Wall street men believed in ghosts, were scared by dreams, and terrified by witches. Riotings were common. Jay's treaty with Great Britain was es- pecially unpopular. He was chased through Wall street by the excited populace, who accused him of betraying his country to the British. On the steps of the City Hall he was wounded in the head by stones thrown at him, and was rescued only by the great popularity of Hamilton, who stood by his side and calmed the turbulence of the mob. A terrible riot was raised about the doctors, and the cry rang: — "Down with the doctors!" During the existence of slavery the people were in great terror from fear of the uprising of negroes and Indians. Slavery in Wall Street was a slumbering volcano. The alarmed citi- zens formed a patrol or vigilance committee, and kept guard with lanterns. Grain was not allowed to be distilled. If a drunken man was seen coming out of a tavern, the innkeeper was fined. WALL STREET RELIGION. Religion followed in the wake of fashion and moved up-town. In spite of all resistance, the Dutch Church Wall Street in Olden Iimes. 63 in the Fort made an upward move, and was located near where the Custom House now stands. Trinity Church placed herself on the commanding eminence which she still occupies. The Presbyterians took their position between Broadway and Nassau. The humble churches were content to locate on the outskirts. The early clergymen were very formal in their ofl&cial dress. To perform service without gown and bands, or to appear at a wedding, unless in full clerical cos- tume, would have been regarded as a great indignity. The early clergymen were very poorly paid, and school teaching was resorted to, with other employ- ments, to eke out a scanty living. The morals of Wall street were no better, in the estimation of the people in .those days, than they are now. An official letter, sent to the Bishop of London in 1695, draws a sad pic- ture of religion and morals at that time. According to that report the city was given up to wickedness and irreligion. Few persons attended public worship, and those went to see the fashions, to show their vain per- sons and dress, and not to worship God. The city was filled with civil dissensions. The wages of workmen were turned into drink. They idled their time in taverns with pot-companions, in sottish debauch, ca- rousing and gaming. Extravagance and idleness abounded, and marriages, being performed by a Jus- tice of the Peace and not by a clergyman, were not considered binding, and were thrown off according to the whim or caprice of the parties. Wives were sold, exchanged, and abandoned, and, if the report is to be believed, general immorality prevailed. 64 Wonders of a Great City. WALL STREET AND THE BROKERS. It is difficult to ascertain when Wall street became the financial center of New York. In 1792, the Ton- tine Coffee House was erected on the site now occu- pied by the Bank of New York. It was erected as a sort of joint-stock concern, for the benefit of merchants, who held their gatherings in its parlors. Long before that period, however. Wall street was the center of the early financial operations of the city. Govern- ment, fashion, trade, industrial arts, religion, and finance, from the earliest times, have had their head- quarters in Wall street. But the banker or broker of less than half a century ago would not recognize the old street, which has almost wholly been rebuilt with some of the most magnificent business edifices in the city. The Custom-House, formerly the Exchange, the United States Treasury and Assay-Office, the Drexel building, numerous banks and splendid blocks have made the street an avenue of money palaces; and close by, in lower Nassau street, are the handsome structures of Brown Brothers and other bankers, and the new buildings of the Bank of Commerce, Conti- nental Bank, and others. Down-town New York has undergone as great a change within a few years as any part of the city. CHAPTER IV. MODERN WALL STEEET. THE MOST NOTORIOUS THOROUGHFARE IN THE WORLD — HOW STOCKS ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD — WRANGLES OF THE BULLS AND BEARS — THE STOCK EXCHANGE AND ITS LESSER ADJUNCTS — IN THE CLEAR- ING HOUSE — HOW A TIGHT MONET MARKET IS CREATED. HE most notorious thorouglif are iu the world is I Wall street. According to Henry M. Stanley, the celebrated journalist and explorer, a couple of American missionaries on the Timbuctoo or some other classical African stream, fell into the hands of a ferocious and hungry-looking tribe. The missionaries apprehended that their captors were cannibals, and this apprehen- sion was heightened by the manner in which members of the tribe would feel of their limbso Finally one of the prisoners appealed to the chief in the language of that region: "We are American missionaries and have harmed no one; let us go our way in peace and we will ever remember you. " To this petition the Mogul was mute, and the poor spokesman cried in manner half frenzied : " You don't intend to devour us ? " " Yes, " was the reply; "just like they do in Wall street?'^ Wall street starts from the east side of Broadway, opposite Old Trinity, and its silver-toned bell, and runs in an easterly direction to the East River Until Ex- 66 Wonders of a Great City. change Place is readied the descent is quite marked, but from that point on the slope is gentle. It is almost as narrow as an alley and does not look at all inviting. Many streets in the city are more handsomely built up. The prominent buildings on Wall street are the United Bank, or "Fort Sherman," northeast corner of Wall and Broadway; the Stock Exchange Wing, be- tween New street and Broad, the United States Sub- Treasury and Assay office, northeast corner of Nassau; Drexel Banking House, southeast corner of Broad; Custom House, bet^veen Exchange Place and William ; Bank of New York, William and Wall; Brown Brothers' Banking House, the Union Bank and the Old Tontine Building. It would not be a bad idea to take a couple of the streets on either side of Wall and re- christen them Wall street annexes, for everything they are they owe to Wall street. The apartments of the heaviest operators are on the annexes, and so are the regular boards and gathering places for operators who are excluded from the regular market. In the early morning. Wall street is as quiet as Broadway used to be of Sundays, before the "Boodle" Aldermen sur- rendered that street to street car companies. At ten o'clock, however, the neighborhood seems to awake and the day's feverish whirl begins. Business men come in droves and from every direction and locality. Some- thing like one-half of those who do business in Wall street live in Brooklyn, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Long Island, and up the River, half way to Albany. The new style of operating is very marked. The old brokers and speculators were content with small cham- bers, back rooms, and even with dens and cellars, bare Modern Wall Street. 67 floors, with hard furniture, coarse and without orna- ment. Dark and dingy offices were lilled by the heaviest operators. The richest men, and the most daring in speculation have no office of their own. Each has one broker, some several, and when down town these millionaires make theii' homes with those who buy and sell for them. THE NEW AND THE OLD. As business opens Wall street is full of coaches, hacks, and cabs. As it draws to a close, the street is occupied again by vehicles. The new race of brokers adopt style. Some come in their own elegant turn- outs, with servants in livery. Others hire coaches and cabs, and ride to and from Wall street. Many do this who are as poor as rats, who, if they have five dollars spend half of it for a cab, and the other half for a lunch at Delmonico's. They often borrow this sum. They go home to sleep in an attic or a room in a tene- ment house, and remove from week to week to avoid the payment of rent. The Chancel style, as it is called, in Wall street, is a modern thing. An old broker, who had made his fortune in prudent and honest specu- lations, and was content with his small den and green baize table, left his business with his boys and went to Europe. On his return he found "his house" in ele- gant chambers, adorned with costly carpets, plate windows, mirrors, magnificent furniture, walls frescoed in oil, and all the paraphernalia of modern style. The merchant was excited and indignant. He denounced the extravagance. The idea of doing business in a counting-room elegant as the chancel of a church was 68 Wonders of a Great City, preposterous. But since the old broker has found him- self at home in his Fifth Avenue palace, he takes things more quietly. Besides Wilton carpets, mirrors, and paintings, modem brokers who maintain style, set an elegant lunch at a cost of $5,000 a year. To this their customers are invited. Loafers, hangers-on, and soldiers of fortune, are always ready to help them- selves. Even fifty years ago, business in New York was very unlike what it is now. Men in mercantile life went into business as apprentices at a compensation of $50 a year. Wholesale merchants were few. Broad, Wall, and Pearl streets, w^ere the business portions. Porters carried goods in their hands, at a shilling, be- low Canal street, twenty-five cents above. Stoi'e boys were sent with goods above Canal street to save cost. The youngest boy went to his master's house for the keys in the morning to open the store, and returned them at night. Customers came to the city to trade four times a year, and traders knew when to expect them. Merchants used the most rigid economy, and were their own salesmen, book-keepers, and bankers. They built the front of their dwellings with one ma- terial, and saved a few hundred dollars by building the rear with a cheaper one. Fifty years ago there were not a dozen two-horse carriages in New York. The city was compact, and there was little use for them. Above Fourteenth street was beyond the "lamp district." It was not lighted or policed, and people had to take care of themselves. Merchants who bought goods at auc- tion obliged their clerks to take them home on their shoulders to save portage. Less than sixty years ago, « STOCK EXCHANGE, BROAD STREET, Modern Wall Street. 69 one of our wealthiest mercliants of to-day debated witli his brother whether it would be prudent to pay $350 rent for a dwelling house. Yet his business then was very good. THE JSTEW YOEK STOCK EXCHANGE. The fountain spring of Mammon is the Stock Ex- change. It is an imposing looking building of white marble and extends back to New street with an L to Wall. Its four stories are massive ones, for the roof towers above the six story buildings of the neighbor- hood, while its basement holds over two hundred mil- lions of dollars in stocks and securities, the property of members. It is no wonder that this basement is guarded day and night by a squad of policemen. Two hundred million dollars would tempt even the avarice of a So- cialist! This vast wealth is contained in about nine hundred small safes aiTanged in tiers. Each safe is eighteen inches square, and is the property of some in- dividual member during his connection with the Ex- change. During the daily sessions of the Board, the stocks and bonds are accessible to their owners, who may barter them as sweet fancy may dictate. When it was removed, some three years ago, during the last Wall street flurry, which was precipitated by that Na- poleon of modern finance, Ferdinand Ward, that Jay Gould was on the verge of bankruptcy, the Exchange appointed a committee to investigate the report It was composed of such men as Cyrus W. Field, D. O. Mills and Henry Clews. They visited the great rail- road wrecker and he showed them his private office littered with two hundred millions of listed securities. 70 Wonders of a Great City, Clews surveyed the pile for a few moments in silence and then waggishly remarked : " Gentlemen, I move that we report in favor of making Mr. Gould custodian of our Stock Exchange basement, we retaining this aggregation of stocks and bonds as a guarantee that he ^vill faithfully discharge the duties of the office. " The Stock Exchange building is occupied by the Ex- change proper, the Mining Board, Government Board and Long Room. The most popular department of the four, is the Long Room. It is devoted to the ir- regular sales of stocks, and any person on payment of $50 can secure an annual ticket of admission entitling him to the privilege of buying and selling independent of the regular board. The Long Room is reached by the Broad street entrance, being situated on the first floor. For six hours a day it is a miniature bedlam. Hundreds of persons in every condition of life, seem- ingly from millionaire to paupers, are elbowing and jostling intent upon buying or selling some stock, a score of which are changing hands every instant. The irregular proceedings are unintelligible to the novice, })ut the experienced seem perfectly at home amid the din and feverish confusion. There are no enforced laws in this department, and buyer and seller must take chances on receiving a square deal. Let it be said to the credit of the Long Room element, however, that there is very little downright swindling. Above the Long Room is a mammoth richly fur- nished, well ventilated and lighted hall. At one end is a gallery capable of holding a couple of hundred per- sons. At the opposite end is a platform with desks and blackboards. On the floor, twelve or foui*teen Modern Wall Street. 71 hundred persons could, by dint of squeezing, find stand- ing room. This hall is the home of the Exchange Board with a membership, authorized by the laws of the State of New York, of one thousand and sixty. The cost of a membership ranges at the present time, all the way from $12,000 to $30,000, owing to the wealth of the pm^chaser and the necessities of the seller. A sale of membershi]) can only be made with the consent of the Exchange, and then only, to persons of sound financial worth. The control of the Board is vested in a council of forty, of which the President, Secretary and Treasurer, are ex-officio members. The council largely make up the Committee on Admission. When a member dies, his seat is sold, and after the set- tlement of Exchange claims and dues, the remainder goes to his estate. When a member fails, his certifi- cate is sold for the benefit of his creditors. The meth- ods of no banking house are stricter than those of the Stock Exchange, and no stocks can be listed for sale until they are pronounced legitimate securities by the Examining Committee. There are two sessions of the Board daily — at 10:30 a. m., and 1 p. m., and the order of proceedings are invariably the same. Two lists of stocks, regular and free are called each time, the regular having precedence. It is divided into five parts: 1, Miscellaneous Stocks; 2, Railroad Stocks; 3, State Bonds ; 4, City Stocks ; 5, Railroad Bonds. The Vice-President, who has $7,000 per annum, calls the session to order, the Secretary reads the minutes of the previous day, and ihen the work begins. Offers to sell and purchase are yelled lustily on every hand, and the Vice-President notes all such and communicates 72 Wonders of a Great City. them to tlie Secretary. How lie does it is a mystery. The bids and sales are posted on the blackboard and the next moment they are flashed all over the country by the telegraphic ticker system. The Vice-President settles all disputes between buyer and seller, and assesses fines upon the infractions members. One clerk, ^vho is called the roll keeper, sits by the side of the Vice- President and does nothing except enter up fines. It is no exaggeration to state that the average broker pays five hundred a year in fines, called forth by persistent noisy demonstrations during the session and Board in- fringements. Interrupting during a call of stocks is punishable by a fine of twenty-five cents ; standing on chairs or table, one dollar; smashing a hat, one dollar; indulging in cat calls, hisses or gi'oans, punishable at the Vice-President's option. The Government Board is on the second floor. It is not so large as the Exchange Room, but is fitted up after the same design, and its method of procedure is very similar. This Board deals only in bonds and se- curities of the General Government. Interruptions in this room are also punishable by fines. As a rule, the members of the Exchange are fairly well behaved. Wlien a new member is admitted, his first appearance is made the occasion of a pic-nic. He is tossed around like a ball for a few minutes, and generally has to go liome in a hack for a new suit of clothes. September 15th is "White Hat Day." On Hat Day, woe be unto the absent-minded member who dares come doAvn town with a white or straw tile. He never re- turns with it. The Clearing House has much in common with the Modern Wall Street. ?3 Stock Exchange, as it f iirnislies the status of the city banks. The Clearing House Association is located at No. 14 Pine Street, has a membership of three score banks — every banking concern in the city- — represent- ing a capital of sixty millions. It is the medium of exchange for the various banks. The main room con- tains a desk for each bank which is represented by two clerks. One receives and signs all the checks of his bank, Avhile the other distributes them to the houses entitled to them, or upon which they are di^awn. They also furnish exact statements of their banks to the Clearing House manager. The daily transactions of the Clearing House, range from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five millions. S o nicely balanced is the system of exchange, that three millions daily set- tle the difference. Each bank indebted to the Clear, ing House must send in its check before half-past one o'clock. Creditors receive the Clearing House check at the same hour, and daily business is squared and all ac- counts closed by half-past three. Every bank in the city is connected with the Clearing House by telegraph, and the mornins: work of clearing one hundred millions only consumes ten minutes of time. Long before a clerk could reach his bank by walking from the Clear- ing House, its ofiicials know the exact state of their finances, and what loans may be granted or refused. Through the Clearing House, every bank in the city is connected, and if a doubtful check is presented or paper to be negotiated is not exactly clear, the facts are ascertained by one clerk, while another is examining the check or paper in question. The operations of the New York Clearing House amount to over sixty per cent. 74 Wonders of a Great City, of the total exchanges of the twenty-three Clearing Houses of the United States. It boasts that no error or difference exists in its records. Heavy failures are always foreshadowed by the Clearing House, and when it communicates the intelligence of one to the Stock Exchange, a flutter is created. BULLS A^fD BEAES IN CONFLICT. One class of brokers have stocks to sell. They re- sort to every means to advance the price. They are called Bulls. Another class have stocks to buy. They resort to all sorts of schemes to send stocks down. These are Bears. When men come in conflict in the street. Wall street is a scene of great excitement. When it is known that a contest is to take place, the Stock Exchange is filled and the Long Room i^j packed almost to suffocation. Stocks are sometimes cornered and forced up or down many points during a morning or afternoon session. During such contests, a broker's office is a suggestive place. The crowds outside at times are so dense as to almost blockade vehicles and pedestrians. The wildest rumors are cm'rent. Great concerns and possessors of millions are said to be going under, and quite frequently men at a single stroke have been completely "cleaned out,'' and are left without money enough to buy a lunch. In the room some rail like mad men ; others walk the floor, snap their Angers^ knit their brows, shake their heads, and mutter threats. Others in silence look at a particular spot on the floor, and pay no attention to the mad throng rushing in and out. Beyond Wall street, and beyond broker's offices, the movement of Bulls and Bears carries disaster. Modern Wall Street. 75 Alarm spreads through the city. Large houses reel, and small ones totter down. The entii^e business of the country is at the mercy of a few recldess men. Shrinkages in dry goods stores produce ruin. Money taken out of cii'culation tightens the market, and men who borrow have to pay from ninety to three hundred and sixty-five per cent, for without money merchants cannot do business long. The new mode of doing business intensifies the ex- citement of Wall street. Stock operators have their brokers, as business men have their banks. Vander- bilt had no ofiice in Wall street. He was seldom there. Yet he was one of the heaviest operators. He had a legion of runners who bought for him while he sat in his little room in Fourth street ; he bous^ht in silence and no one could track him. Drew had a little den of a room in the third story of a building, to which he retired when he wished to be alone. He could gen- erally be found in the ofiice of his principal broker, sitting on a bench dozing, or sound asleep. Formerly, to fill an order brokers attended the Stock Board in person and watched the market. Now they sit in their elegant rooms, and communicate by telegraph, or give a quiet order to messengers who disappear and make the purchase. There is very little talking in a broker's ofiice during business hours. The rooms usually are crowded. Every click of the machine carries fortune or ruin to some one. Men get up, sit down, look out of the window, walk out of the door, walk back, smoke, go out, take a drink, discuss the chances, pull their hair, whistle, slap their hands, or break out in abrupt expletives. Outside, in stirring times, men are 76 Wonders of a Great City. quite as excited. One day a large crowd gathered in Wall street. Tlie central figure was a well known operator in Clique Stocks. It is said that he has made and lost more money in speculations than any other man in New York except Jacob Little. He was in the middle of the street, hat ofE, face flushed, coat thrown back, gesticulating with his hands, following a well known locker-up of greenbacks, and was shouting: "There goes Shylock! What's the price of money, Shylock ? What's the price of money ? There he goes, look at him, look at Shylock!" The shouting, and the excitement called all heads to the windows and filled the street with the rabble, that followed the parties several blocks. The man who was shouting "Shylock," was one of the coolest, most self-possessed of men usually. The man attacked was a tall, slim, fine look- ing person, very slightly moved by the assault. "What's the price of Erie, Dick?" "What's the price of Hud- son ? " was the response. HOW STOCKS AEE BOUGHT AND SOLD. The present style of business in the street enables a man, with a very small sum of money, to do a very large business. With $1,000 he can purchase $10,000 worth of stock. With $10,000 he can purchase $100,- 000. He leaves his order with the broker, puts up his "margin," and his stock is bought and carried for him. The broker can well afford to do this. He is perfectly safe, for he has the stocks and the margin as protection. He has every motive to induce his customers to buy largely. He gets the interest on his money and a com- mission for buying and selling. As his commission is only $12.50 on $10,000, he must do a large business to Modern Wall Street, 11 make anything. Wlien men buy two millions of stock the commissions amount to something. The better class of brokers are not willing to have customers who cannot back up their sales. It is troublesome to have to watch the market, and it is unpleasant to sell a customer out. As the stock falls, if buyers do not keep their margin good, the broker must protect him- self by selling the stock, and using up the money de- posited. Immense sums of money are sent into the street from outsiders, who, because they have been successful in dry goods, and other branches of trade, think they can turn $50,000 into $100,000 in the street as easily as they can draw a check. In nine cases out of ten all such investments are lost. Brokers of course get cus- tomers where they can find them. A man in a successful dry goods trade sends down a check with an order to buy a hundred shares of a named stock, and to carry it thirty days. The stock begins to go down. More margin is called for. A sudden failure in a mercantile house tells the story. The other day a merchant called upon a broker in Wall street, handed him $50,000, and asked him to invest it in a stock named. "I will do so, if you wish," said the broker, "but I advise you to take a good look at your money, for you will never see it again. I have been in business in Wall street thirty-eight years. During that time ninety-eight out of every hundred who have put money in the street have lost it." Gamblers in stocks and bonds are usually outsiders. They are the class who speculate in lots, in flour, pork, and coal. Men who make "corners," or try to make them, are model merchants, princely 78 Wonders of a Great City. traders, large donors to philanthropic institutions, stand higli in society, and preside on the boards of religious and reformatory meetings. These men, Bull and Bear stock, make merchants tremble, increase the price of tlie poor man's coal, lay a heavier tax on every ounce of liread the laboring man eats, and ruin small traders. These men produce the panics of the day, and not the brokers. Brokers fill orders, and regular houses do as legitimate a business as is done by any department of trade in New York. OPERATORS ON THE STREET. The street operators may be divided into three classes. The first are regular brokers. In any other business they would be called commission merchants. They purchase stocks for their customers and are paid a regular commission. They do not speculate on their own account. As a class they are honorable, high- minded, liberal, and successful. Their business is safe and profitable. When they receive an order to buy from a customer, a margin of ten per cent, is put up and a regular commission paid. There is no credit in stocks. Some one must pay cash when they are pur- chased. The broker pays the cash, holds the stocks as security, and with a small margin is safe. A sound house will not accept less than ten per cent, margin. Except in extraordinary times, brokers can protect themselves. In some well established houses the business in stocks is immense, especially those that have the confidence of the street. A young banking house which has been remarkably successful, adopted at the start a few rules. One was never to carry stock Modern Wall Street, 79 without a margin ; never to speculate in stocks, and to do honestly a legitimate commission business. If that led to wealth or led elsewhere, the house would accept it. A celebrated capitalist gave an order for the purchase of a large amount of railroad stock. "Do you wish us to carry it?" said the broker; "if so, you must put up a margin." "A margin," said the millionaire, "I am worth a hundred times that amount." "I have no doubt of it," said the broker; "we have but one rule in this office for rich and poor. We would not carry stock for William B. Astor with- out a margin. " The man went out. Hangers-on shrugged their shoulders. "We know that man," said one ; he is the heaviest operator in the country; you have lost a splendid customer. " Before three o'clock a deposit came up of $50,000. The next day the capitalist appeared in person. "Young men," he said, "I like your rule. You have begun right. Do business on that basis and you will succeed. My money is safe here; you shall have my business and my influence. " Brokers who are permanently suc- cessful, and move steadily on to fortune, are those who are simply brokers and not speculators. Speculators ai'e the customers who employ brokers. They are either adventurers who come into the street to try their luck, or men who make trading in stocks their business. Speculators do not make money except by a turn as rare as good luck at a gambling table, unless they make stocks their business. Of the count- less thousands who throng Wall Street from year to year, the great mass of speculators are ruined. Every broker on Wall street has an entirely new set of cus- 80 Wonders of a Great City. tomers once in three years. To trade in stocks suc- cessfully, men must be able to keep their margin good to any extent or they are ruined. A fii'm in Wall st. agreed to carry for a customer $600,000 gold. A margin of $250,000 was put up. Gold ran up to $1.65. The house called for $250,000 more margin. In one hour after the additional margin was put up, gold drop- ped to $1.30. The dealer swung from ruin by his ability to keep his margin good to a profit of $180,000 in that transaction. Men who buy long and hold what they buy, reap golden fortunes. Tliey defy the fluc- tuations of the street. A combination of such men can corner stocks, lock up greenbacks, tighten the money market, and produce a panic in an hour that would shake the continent. Vanderbilt was one of this class — the only railroad man in the street, it is said, that made money for him- self and his stockholders. He went into the market and bought what he chose. It was a common thing for him to buy five millions of stock. He paid cash for all he bought and then held it. In the language of the street, he kept his stock in his tin box. He had no credit, and was admitted to be the sharpest specu- lator in Wall street. He bought a controlling interest of any stock he wished to control, and held it; con- trolled the Central, Hudson River, and Harlem rail- roads, and these were called Vanderbilt stocks. Men who operated for him were counted by thousands. Daniel Drew bought in immense quantities. He had no office, but operated through brokers — their name was legion. He did nothing himself on the street. He bought and sold on his own judgment, but Modern Wall Street. 81 through liis agents. He bought by the hundred thousand dollars in stock, and gold by the million. He was very unlike Vanderbilt. He was not as shrewd, sharp, or successful. His gains were enor- mous, but his losses terrible. He very often had to draw his check for $250,000, and even as high as half a million, to cover his losses. He was not popu- lar, like Vanderbilt. He had no special line of oper- ation. He Avas a bull or a bear, as his fancy or judgment dictated. Another class of operators are brokers who unite speculation with their regular business. It is an unsafe combination — one in which a broker in a crisis must sacrifice himself or his customers. Usually the last, sometimes both. The experience of a quarter of a century does not point to a single house that joined speculation with a commission business in stock that has not gone under. A large house in the street was reputed to be very wealthy. The chief of the house was one of the most honored men in the country, the head of religious and benevolent institutions. He built him one of the most costly mansions in the land — at an outlay, it is said, of a million 'and a half of dollars. The head of the house was the treasurer of a great railroad corpora- tion. He deposited the money of the road with a house of w hich he was a member. The house failed — failed disastrously — some said disreputably. Men were ruined right and left. Had the United States treasury failed, it would hardly have produced greater consternation. The treasurer of the road could not make good the loss sustained by the failure 82 Wonders of a Great City, of his house. All the road obtained was a mortgage on the splendid mansion for $850,000. A little later the mansion would not bring a quarter of a million under the hammer. This house, a few years ago, was considered one of the strongest and wealthiest on the street. The disasters of that terrible crisis could not have been foreseen or anticipated by any shrewdness. When New York Central went humming down from one hundred and ninety to one hundred and forty-five, two-thirds of the capitalists of the city reeled under the blow; when even the clearing house was driven to a temporary suspension, this great house tottered and went under. HOW A TIGHT MONEY MARKET WAS CREATED. Large dealers in stocks have power to create a panic by making what is called a tight money mar- ket. They lock up greenbacks and gold, and produce general distress and ruin. It requires a large com- bination to do this — men of heavy capital, of great resources, who watch the market and strike together when the right time comes. Ten men combining, who could control ten millions, would agitate the street. But a combination able to control twenty millions would tighten the money market and pro- duce a panic. Money is limited. The clearing house daily indicates the amount of cash in circulation. All banks are required to keep twenty-five per cent, of their deposits and circulation in the bank. The cliques who propose to tighten the money market understand that. Some banks are wicked enough to lend themselves to such a combination. When Modern Wall Street. 83 tlie sclieme is ripe a well-known party goes to a bank and inquires, "How mucli money have you got?" "Two hundred thousand dollars," is the reply. "I want to borrow a million." A million is borrowed of a bank that has but two hundred thousand dollars to loan. The interest is paid on this million for one, ben, or thirty days. A certified check is taken by the borrower and is locked up. A million is taken from circulation, for the bank can make no loans, as the certified check may turn up at any minute. Nine- teen men are doing the same thing with nineteen other banks. Twenty millions of greenbacks are locked up. The money is not taken from the bank; it is understood that it shall not be. The bank with two hundred thousand dollars receives the interest of a million of dollars, keeps the money in its own vaults, and has parted with nothing but a certified check. Speculators who have bought stocks cannot hold them, for they have no money ; the banks cannot discount, money cannot be borrowed except at ruin- ous rates. The cliques who have tightened the mar- ket often ask as high as one per cent, a day for money. Speculators have to throw their stock on the market, the market tumbles and the combination buy at their own prices. Another method of tightening the money market is, by a combination which wears a different phase, though the result is the same. In this combination, $50,000 controls a million. Twenty or thirty men conspire to make money scarce. A party borrows of a bank $50,000 on one, or ten days. Interest is paid and a certified check taken. The money re- 84 Wonders of a Great City, mains in the bank — it is effectually locked up, the bank cannot loan it, for the certified check may be presented at any moment. This check is taken to another bank and $50,000 borrowed upon that. No money is removed, but a certified check taken and placed in another bank with like results. So the party moves from bank to bank, till he has locked up a million with his $50,000. Each member of the clique is doing the same thing, and a panic in stocks follows. A third method is, to draw greenbacks from the bank, seal them up and keep them till the market is ripe for taking off the pressure. An illus- tration of the power of a clique to propose universal ruin may be found in the famous "black FRIDAY." The 24th of September, 1869, must always be a memorable day in the history of Wall Street. On the day preceding, three hundred and twenty-four millions five hundred and twenty-four thousand in gold was sold at the gold board. On Friday, the sale reached the high figure of over five hundred millions. In seventeen minutes — from 11:50 to 12:07 gold fell from 1.60 to 1.30. In these seventeen min- utes tens of thousands of men were ruined. The ruin swept through New York — up the river — up and down the Atlantic coast — over the great lakes and prairies — carrying away fortunes like chaff before the gale. One man who stood talking with a manager of the gold board, in those seventeen minutes lost $300,000. Without a word he left the room and presented a certified check in payment of Modern Wall Street. 85 tlie loss before two and a half o'clock. The combi- nation was a small one, but one of tbe most bold and daring that has ever been known in the street. It was not the work of brokers in the street, with one exception, nor of regular dealers. The scheme was planned and executed by outsiders. In nine cases out of ten men outside of the street are the gamblers in gold and stocks. No campaign was ever more skillfully planned, or gave greater promise of success, than that which marked Black Friday. It seemed to possess all the elements of triumph. It had its tools and confederates in the very treasury itself. The clique possessed, or supposed it possessed, the secrets of the government, and even its future inten- tions. Agents loitered about the public buildings in Washington — dined and wined prominent men — held some officials in their hands, who, while they washed their fingers of all complicity with the com- bination, had made nice little arrangements to profit by the rise in gold. The Presidential Mansion was invaded and an attempt made to involve the family of the President in the unholy alliance. Govern- ment matters taken care of, the next step was to tighten the money market. The banks in this city not only kept on hand the twenty-five per cent, in gold and currency which the law demanded, but also a margin of thirty millions additional. The clique locked up the money in the way mentioned in the paragraph above. Cash could not be obtained even at the enormous rate of three hundred and sixty-five per cent, a year. A large political organization were in the ring which sent gold up to its destructive 86 Wonders of a Great City. height. Millions of the city money were locked up, a large bank controlled, and the individual members many of them wealthy, and more of them influential, united with speculators in the terrible work of that day. The combination boasted that on the morning of the 24th of September it controlled the mighty sum of over two hundred millions; more than the Rothschilds ever controlled in one year. The mighty men of the Wall street of to-day are not legion. They can be readily named. Jay Gould heads the list. He operates through his broker, Wash. Conner, and his money-making son, George Gould. The Vanderbilts dip in now and then for a few millions. Cyrus W. Field is always on hand, he and Go aid practically absorbing Western Union stocks. Sam Sloan, of the Lackawanna; Sidney Dillon, of the Union Pacific; John W. Mackay, of bonanza fame, with his telegraph schemes; Russell Sage, Addison Commack, Henry Clews, Roswell R Flower, D. O. Mills, Norm. Ream, W. I. Hutchinson, W. R. Grace, George J. Seney, C. P. Huntington, D. E. Sulley, Austin Corbin, W. L. Scott, A. B. Stockwell, and the Armours. There have been no great corners of recent months, and Wall street has consequently been in a semi-comatose condition. But at any moment the storm is liable to burst. There is naught but fancied security for the speculators in stocks and bonds. CHAPTER V. SPECULATION AND ITS FRUITS. A FEW OBSERVATIONS AS TO THE CAUSES WHICH INDUCE MEN TO ENTER WALL STREET — A CASE IN POINT — NO MORAL PRINCIPLE — ONE NOTED FRAUD — PERILS OF SPECULATION. IN ALL new departures there must be an incentive. The experiment is not tried for the momentary pleasure of the triaL There never was a person so ad- venturous that he would plunge headlong into a new field, without first determining the cost and the possible benefits to be derived by the plunge. So it is with every human bark which has dashed to pieces in the fearful Wall street maelstrom. The haste to be rich by a lucky whirl of fortune's wheel, first lures men to the field of gold, where bulls and bears do endless con- flict. It is no exaggeration to say that scores of victims move into the street daily to try their fortune, each and every one confident that he or she, as the case may be, has only to make the attempt and rich remune- ration will be the reward. Money earned in the western mines, on the cattle ranges, the great water and iron ways of the country, or from the store, shop or ship, goes into the same channel. The surplus of a successful season in trade, the hard earnings of a clerk 88 Wonders of a Gee at City. or mechanic whose wife wishes to swell about a bit at Long Branch, Newport or the Springs, the wife's dower that should be put down in government securities, the pittance of the orphan — by which it is hoped that one thousand will increase to ten, if not to hundreds — are hazarded in stock speculations. However honest and regular as a class brokers may be, the gambling mania centering in Wall street sweeps like the simoom of the desert over every section of our land. The whole busi- ness of the country has been shaken and blown fi'om its center, and trade generally partakes of the excite- ment and fluctuation of stocks in the market. A man who goes into Wall street to do business, goes mth his eyes open. He knows, or may know, that he is at the mercy of a dozen unscrupulous men who can swal- low him up in an hour if they will. Among the thousand small brokers of the street, there is a perfect understanding that any one of them may go home pen- niless before night. The same combinations that lock up greenbacks and corner railroads in the street, strike trade in every direction. Wheat and corn are subject to the same fluctuation and uncertainty that attends stock. A speculator in the street gets a private tele- gram that grain is scarce, or corn heated, or some news that affects the market. He goes immediately to the Broadway Exchange and bulls and bears grain as he would stocks. The same men monopolize coal. The market is entirely bought up, or the miners are paid daily wages to go on a strike. A CASE m POINT. Dry goods are as sensitive and as much subject to Speculation and its Fruits. 89 the gambling mania as money. Extravagant hotels, aris- tocratic groceries, from which goods are delivered by servants in livery, enormous drinking places fitted up like a royal palace, bespeak the extravagance of the age. In the vicinity of Madison Square a snobby spec- ulator, some time ago, set up a then princely mansion. It was brown stone in front, and radiant in gold and gilt. It was furnished sumptuously with gold gilt rosewood furniture, satin coverings woven in gold and imported from Paris, carpets more costly than were ever before laid in the city, and all the appliances of fashion, wealth, and taste, were included in the adorn- ment. It was a nine day's wonder of the city, and, like other experiments of the same sort, it came to an end. The furniture was brought to the block and the family disappeared from among the aristocracy of the city. A new sensation awaited the curious. The splen- did mansion was to be turned into a first-class dry goods store. It would outrival Stewart and Claflin, and nothing to equal it would be found in London or Paris. The whole front was torn out and the building fitted up with plate glass, and made gorgeous as the reception room of a sovereign. Rumor ascribed to the firm untold wealth, so that should they sink one or two hundred thousand dollars in establishing trade, it would not embarrass or discourage the house. The opening day came, and such a sight New York never saw. All the stories were thrown open. The business was in apartments and gorgeously fitted up. An army of salesmen and clerks were in their places, arrayed in full evening dress, wath Avhite gloves. All New York poured in, as it would have done to have seen the pro- 90 Wonders of a Great City, prietors hanged — and then turned away as fashionable New York will, leaving the concern high and diy like a vessel on the beach. A disastrous failure followed, and the ruined speculators, satisfied that New York was not a theatre for their genius retired. Three hundred thousand dollars could not have been lost more artistically in Wall street. NO MOKAL PEmCIPLE. Gambling and moral principle are not yoke fellows. The very style of business done in the street blunts the moral sense. When Swarthwout embezzled the Government funds and gave his name to a system of swindling which has become so disgracefully common, he stood alone in his disgraceful eminence. To-day gigantic frauds, embezzlements, and robberies, are so common that but little attention is paid to the revela- tions. The papers are full of instances of trusted and honored men who commit great fi^auds. A small por- tion only of such crimes come to the sui-face. The afEair is hushed up to prevent family disgrace. A cor- poration threatened wath the loss of one hundred thou- sand dollars or more by the roguery of an ofiicial, had rather take the money fi'om a friend than lock up the criminal. Thousands of companies sprung up during the oil speculations. Full tw^o-thirds of these Avere frauds, and dupes and victims swindled on the right and on the left, were counted by thousands. Men who went to bed supposing that they were worth a quarter of a million, awoke in the morning to find that they had been swindled out of all their money, and were beggars. Speculation and its Bruits. 91 The spirit infects nearly all the officials of the gov- ernment to-day. The money stolen by men in public places is lost in Wall street or squandered at the gaming table. Not long since one of the best known business men was suddenly killed on a train of cars. No man stood higher in the church or state. He had immense sums of trust money in his hands belonging to widows and orphans, and religious associations ; for he was thought safer than any savings bank. He was a fine looking man, cheery in spirit, agreeable in man- ner. He was supposed to be the embodiment of in- tegrity and fidelity. His sudden death brought his affairs to the surface. He was found to be a defaulter to an immense amount. He had taken the funds of widows and orphans and sunk them in the maelstrom of Wall street. Instead of leaving his family a princely fortune, he left his wife and children dishon- ored and ruined. In the olden time, a merchant would no more have used trust money in his own business than he would have committed any other great crime. At the head of one of our largest and most successful banks was a gentleman who for a quarter of a century had the established reputation which high honor, business talent, and honest devo- tion to his pursuits, give. His habits were simple, his house modest, and his style of living much below his position. He left the bank one night at the usual time, bidding his associates a cheery good evening. He did not return ; he has never returned. On exam- ining his accounts, it was found that he was a heavy defaulter. Not content with his salary and his busi- ness, anxious to secure a fortune which could be had 92 Wonders of a Great City. for tlie taking, he put himself into the hands of stock gamblers. He squandered his own money, and the fortune of his wife, sold bonds placed in the bank for safe keeping, and speculated with and lost the funds of depositors. He carried nothing with him, but fled from his home a poor as well as a disgraced man — bankrupt in fortune, integrity, and all. The frequent and glaring crimes connected with stock gambling do not alarm the community. Some regard the revelations as a good joke, or a sharp hit. Men wonder how much the party made, and often consider the criminal a fool for not doing better. Bets are fre- quently put up as to the amounts taken; if the robbery runs up to a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars, then the speculation is as to how much the defaulter will return to have the matter hushed up. To show how little public morality there is, take an incident : I was present not long since at a convention held under the auspices of one of the leading religious denomina- tions of the State. A prominent pastor of this city accused another of stating things that were wholly false, both on the floor of the meeting and outside. Other emin- ent men confirmed the statement, one of whom said that the pastor was notorious for his "conspicuous inac- curacies." The whole thing was treated as a good joke. The party accused was covered with confusion and could not reply. The convention were very merry over his embarrassment. Twenty-five years ago, had a New York pastor been accused of falsehood in an assembly and confessed it by his silence, the whole religious world would have been agitated. One of our banks was robbed, and it put its loss at twenty- Speculation and its Fruits. 93 five thousand dollars. The community didn't believe a word of it, and the community were right. Another bank, which had lost heavily by a defaulting cashier, made an official statement that its loss would not ex- ceed one hundred thousand dollars. A few years ago such a statement signed by bank officers would have received implicit credit. Not only the press placed no reliance in such official statement, but the discus- sions in the banks and on 'Change showed the want of confidence in such matters. In this age of demor- alization, wdien everything is unsettled morally, and everybody is at sea ; when checks, notes and bonds have to be examined with a microscope to see whether they are forged or altered, when the recklessness, infatua- tion and madness of Monaco pervade every depart- jaent of business, it is no Avonder that so many go wrong. They would scarcely be flesh and blood if they did not. Were all honest under such surround- ings, it would be time for the millenium. THE IlMFxVTUATION. Men who have had a taste of the street cannot be kept from their favorite haunts. I sat in the office of a gentleman the other day, who, six months ago, was a rich man. For twenty-five years he has done a suc- cessful business, and at no time has known financial embarrassment. He lived in luxury in a city and country home. It was his boast that he never gave a note, incuri'ed a debt, or failed to have his check hon- ored for any amount needed. A nice little scheme was presented to him by some confidential friends. It w^as a time of general excitement. The specula- 94 Wonders of a Great City. tion was such a nice one, and the gain so certain and large, that the man placed his name at the disposal of the combination, and, of course, was ruined. It took him twelve hours to scatter the labor of twenty- four years. Some spiritualists got hold of a capitalist not long since. He had half a million to invest, and he did it in original style. Having great confidence in Webster and Clay while they lived, he thought they might have a better acquaintance with financial matters in the spirit land than they exhibited when they lived. Through parties competent to do it, he opened communications with those distinguished statesmen. They seemed very ready to assist him in his speculations. They wrote him long communica- tions through his mediums, which he read to his friends. It was observed that Clay's intellect seemed to be a little shaken since his departure, and Web- ster was more diifuse and less compact and senten- tious than when in the land of the living. It was also very apparent that these distinguished gentle- men in the spirit land did not know much about the affairs in this world, for the speculations proved most ruinous. They tied up the good man's fortune, and well nigh beggared him. But his confidence in the ability of Webster and Clay to guide him to untold wealth is unshaken. How uncertain specu- lation is may be learned from an answer given by one of our oldest and most successful brokers to a friend. "I have fifty thousand dollars to invest," said the man to the dealer in stocks, "what w^ould you advise me to do ?" The broker pointed his finger at a donkey cart going by, loaded with ashes. "Go Speculation and its Fruits. 95 and ask that man driving the ash cart," said the broker ; "he knows as much about it as I do. " When the oldest, the shrewdest, and the most successful operators lose from fifty thousand to half a million at a bluw, what can small speculators expect? Yet the infatuation continues. Seedy men hang around their old haunts, waiting for something to turn up. There is an old man nearly eighty, who can be seen daily in Wall street, who is as infatuated as any gam- bler in the world. He was accounted a millionaire a few months ago. Naturally cool, selfish, and self- reliant, a mania seemed to have possessed him. He promised over and over again to leave the street. Everybody saw that he was going to ruin. One morning he came do^\ai, made a plunge, lost every- thing, and has gone home to die — a type of tribes who dabble in stock. SHAEP PRACTICE. The sudden collapse of fortunes, closing of elegant mansions, the selling off of plate and horses at auc- tion, the hurling of men down from first-class posi- tions to subordinate posts, is an every day occurrence in New York. In almost every case these reverses result from outside trading, and meddling with matters foreign to one's legitimate business. The city is full of sharp rogues and unprincipled specu- lators, who lie awake nights to catch the unwary. None, it seems, are more easily ensnared than hotel- keepers, and this is the way it is done : A well- dressed, good-looking man comes into a hotel and brings his card as the president of some great stock 96 Wonders of a Great City. company. In a careless, indifferent way he asks to look at a suite of rooms. He has previously ascer- tained that the proprietor has a few thousand dollars in the bank, waiting for something to turn up. The rooms shown are not good enough. He wants rooms that will accommodate certain distinguished gen- tlemen, whom he names, who happen to be the well- known leading financiers of the great cities. A better suite is shown the president. The cost is high — one thousand dollars a month. But the rooms suit ; he must accommodate his friends ; a few thou- sands one way or the other won't make much differ- ence with his company. So he concludes to take the rooms. The landlord hints at references ; the presi- dent chuckles at the idea ; but if the landlord wants one or two thousand dollars, he can have it. "Let me see," the president says, very coolly, "I shall want these rooms about six months, off and on. I may be gone half the time, or more. If it's any accom- modation to you, I will give you my check for six thousand dollars, and pay the whole thing up. " Of course the landlord is all smiles, and the president takes possession. Before the six months are out, the lion's share of the landlord's money goes into the hands of the speculator, and a lot of worthless stock is locked up in the safe of the hotel. Another scheme is equally successful. The rooms are taken, and the occupant is the most liberal of guests. Champagne suppers and costly viands are or- dered without stint, and promptly paid for. Coaches with liveried drivers and footmen, hired for the occa- sion, leave imposing cards at the hotel. The obse- Speculation -and its Fruits. 97 quious landlord and well-fed steward pay especial attention to tlie wants of tlie liberal guest. Wait- ers fly at his command, and tlie choicest viands are placed before him. Picking his teeth after break- fast while the landlord is chatting with him some Saturday morning when it rains, he expresses a wish, rather indifferently, that he had ten thousand dollars. His banker won't be home till Monday — don't care much about it — get it easy enough going down town — wouldn't go out in the rain for twice the sum — indifferent about it, but evidently annoyed. The landlord goes into his office and examines his bank account, and finds he can spare a few thou: sand without any inconvenience, till Monday. Glad to accommodate his distinguished guest, who is going to bring all the moneyed men to his hotel, he hands over the money, which is refused two or three times before it is taken. On Monday morning the hotel man finds that his distinguished tenant has put a Sabbath between himself and pursuit. Such tricks are played constantly, and new victims are found every day. THE STREET ON THE OUTSIDE. Men who visit New York, and see nothing but the outside aspect which it presents, imagine that success is one of the easiest things in the world, and to heap up riches a mere pastime in the city. They are familiar with the name and history of the Astors. They know that Stewart began life a poor boy, kept store in a small shanty, and kept house in a few rooms in a dwelling, and boarded his help. 98 Wonders of a Great City. They walk through Fifth Avenue, and look on the outside of palaces where men dwell who left home a few years ago with their worldly wealth tied up in a cotton handkerchief. They stroll around Cen- tral Park, and magnificent teams, gay equipages, and gayer ladies and gentlemen, go by in a constant stream ; and men are pointed out who a short time ago were grooms, coachmen, ticket-takers, boot- blacks, news-boys, printers' devils, porters, and coal- heavers, who have come up from the lower walks of life by dabbling in stocks, by a lucky specula- tion, or a sudden turn of fortune. So young men pour in from the country, confident of success, and ignorant that these men are the exceptions to the general law of trade ; and that ruin and not suc- cess, defeat and not fortune, bankruptcy and not a fine competence, are the law of New York trade. Nothing is more striking or more sad than the commercial reverses of this city. They come like tempests and hail storms which threaten every man's plantation, and cut down the harvest ready for the sickle. Few firms have had permanent suc- cess for twenty-five years. In one house in this city twenty men are employed as salesmen on a salary, who, ten years ago, were called princely merchants, whose families lived in style, and who led the fashions. Men who embark on the treacherous sea of mercantile life are ingulfed, and while their richly-laden barks go down, they escape personally by the masts and spars thrown to them by more fortunate adventurers. One house in this city, quite as celebrated at one time as Stewart's, who, in imi- Speculation and its Fruits. 99 tation of that gentleman, built their marble store on Broadway, are now salesmen of establishments more successful than their own. New York is full of reduced merchants. Some of them bravely bear up under their reverses. Some hide away in the multitude of our people. Some take rooms in ten- ant-houses. Some do a little brokerage business, given to them by those who knew them in better days. Some take to the bottle, and add moral to commercial ruin. THE SCHTJTLEE FEAUD. One of the most successful railroad men of New York boarded at one of our principal hotels. He was an unmarried man. He was accounted an emi- nent and successful financier. His reputation and standing were unquestioned. He was connected with the principal capitalist in the city, and was one whom New York delighted to honor. In a small house in the upper part of the city he had a home. Here he lived a part of his time, and reared a family, though the mother of his children was not his wife. Down town, at his hotel, he passed by one name, up town, in his house, he was known by another. It would seem imj)ossible that a prom- inent business man, reputed to be rich, brought into daily business contact with princely merchants and bankers, the head of a large railroad interest, could reside in New York, and for a number of years lead the double life of a bachelor and a man of family ; be known by one name down town, and another name up town ; yet so it was. At his hotel 100 Wonders of a Great City, and at his office lie was found at the usual hours. To his up-town home he came late and went out early. There he was seldom seen. The landlord, the butcher, the grocer, and the milkman transacted all their business w^ith the lady. Bills were promptly paid, and no questions asked. The little girls became young ladies. They went to the best boarding-schools in the land. An unexpected crisis came. A clergyman in good standing became acquainted with one of the daugh- ters at her boarding-school. He regarded her with so much interest, that he solicited her hand in marriage. He was referred to the mother. The daughters had said that their father was a wealthy merchant of New York; but his name did not ap pear in the directory, he was not known on 'change. The lover only knew the name by which the daugh- ters were called. The mother was affable but em- barrassed. The gentleman thought something was wrong, and insisted on a personal interview with the father. The time was appointed for the inter- view. The young man was greatly astonished to discover in the father of the young lady one of the most eminent business men of the city. He gave his consent to the marriage, and promised to do well by the daughter, though he admitted that the mother of the young lady was not his wife. The clergyman was greatly attached to the young woman, who w^as really beautiful and accomplished. He agreed to lead her to the altar, if, at the same time, the merchant would make the mother his wife. This was agreed to, and the double wedding was Speculation and its Fruits. 101 consummated the same night. The father and mother were first married, and then the father gave away the daughter. The affair created a ten days' sensa- tion. The veil of secrecy was removed. The family took the down-town name, which Avas the real one — a name among the most honored in the city. An up-town fashionable mansion was purchased, and fitted up in style. Crowds filled the spacious par- lors, for there was just piquancy enough in the case to make it attractive. Splendid coaches of the fashionable filled the street ; a dashing company crowded the pavement, and rushed up the steps to enjoy the sights. These brilliant parties continued but a short time. The merchant was rotten at heart. All New York was astounded one day at the report that the great railroad king had become a gigantic defaulter, and had absconded. His crash carried down fortunes and families with his own. Com- mercial circles yet suffer for his crimes. The courts are still fretted with suits between great corpora- tions and individuals growing out of these transac- tions. Fashionable Kew York, which could overlook twenty years of criminal life, could not excuse pov- erty. It took reprisals for bringing this family into social position by hurling it back into an ob- scurity from which probably it will never emerge. LODGINGS IN A TENEMENT HOUSE. A few summers ago a lady of New York reigned as a belle at Saratoga. Her elegant and numerous dresses, valuable diamonds, and dashing turnout at- tracted great attention. Her husband was a quiet 102 Wonders of a Great City. sort of a man, attending closely to his business. He came to Saratoga on Saturdays, and returned early on Monday morning. The lady led a gay life, was the centre of attraction, patronized the plays, and was eagerly sought as a partner at the balls. After a very brilliant and gay season she disap- peared from fashionable life, and was soon forgot- ten. One cold season a benevolent New York lady visited a tenement-house on an errand of mercy. Mistaking the door to which she was directed, she knocked at a corresponding one on another story. The door was opened by a female, who looked on the visitor for an instant, and then suddenly closed the door. The lady was satisfied that she had seen the woman somewhere, and thinking she might af- ford aid to a needy person, she persistently knocked at the door till it was opened. Judge of her sur- prise when she found that the occupant of that room, in that tenement-house, was the dashing belle whom she had met a season or two before at the Springs! In one room herself and husband lived, in a building overrun with occupants, crowded with children, dirt, and turbulence. Mortification and suffering, blended with poverty, in a few months had done the Avork of years on that comely face. Her story was the old one repeated a thousand times. Reverses, like a torrent, suddenly swept away a large fortune. Her husband became discouraged, disconsolate, and re- fused to try again. He lost his self-respect, took to the bowl, and became a drunkard. The wife fol- lowed him step by step in his descent, from his high place among the merchants to his home among the Speculation and its Bruits. 103 dissolute. To furnish herself and husband with bread, she parted with her dresses, jewels, and per- sonal eiJects. She pointed to a heap in the corner, covered with rags, and that was all that remained of a princely merchant! PEEILS OF SPECULATION^. The speculating mania which pervades New York is one of the rocks in the channel on which so many- strike and founder. Shrewd, enterprising men, who are engaged in successful business, are induced to make investments in stocks and operations of various kinds, and are thus at the mercy of sharpers. Their balance in the bank is well known. Speculators lay snares for them, and catch them with guile. A man makes money in a business he understands, and loses it in one he knoAvs nothing about. One is a success- ful merchant, and he imagines he can be a successful broker; one stands at the head of the bar, and he thinks he can lead the Stock Board. He is a broker ; he adds to it an interest in railroads or steamboats. Men have a few thousand dollars that they do not need at present in their business. They are easily enticed into a little speculation by which they may make their fortune. They get in a little way, and to save what they have invested they advance more. They continue in this course until their outside ven- tures ruin their legitimate business. Stock com- panies, patent medicines, patent machines, oil wells, and copper stocks have carried down thousands of reputed millionaires, with bankers, brokers, and dry goods men, who have been duped by unprincipled 104 Wonders of a Great City. scliemers. Fortunes made by tact, diligence, and shrewdness, are lost by an insane desire to make fifty or a hundred thousand dollars in a day. The mania for gambling in trade marks much of the business of New York. The stock and bond gam- bling has brought to the surface a set of men new to the city. The stock business, which was once in the hands of the most substantial and respectable of our citizens, is now desperate and reckless. Any man who can command fifty dollars becomes a broker. These men knoAV no hours and no laws. Early and late they are on the ground. No game- sters are more desperate or more suddenly destroyed. The daily reverses in Wall street exceed any ro- mance that has been written. A millionaire leaves his palatial residence in the morning, and goes home at night a ruined man. It is a common thing for speculators who can afford it to draw checks of from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars to make ujD their losses in a single day. A man rides up to Central Park one afternoon with his dashing equipage ; his Avife and proud daughters whirl the dust in the eyes of well-to-do citizens who are on foot. The next day this fine team and elegant mansion, Avith store full of goods, go into the hands of his creditors. He sends his family into the country, and either disappears him- self or is seen on the outskirts of the crowd, waiting for something to turn up. The reckless mode of doing business leads to a reckless style of living, extravagance and dissipation, which no legitimate business can support. The mania touches all classes. Speculation and its Fruits. 105 Women and ministers are not exempt. One pastor in this city is a good specimen of the power of this speculating mania. The demon got possession of him. He made a little money. He started to make five thousand. He moved the figure ahead to the little sum of a quarter of a million. The business transformed the man. His face became haggard ; his hair disheveled ; he could not sleep ; he bought all the editions of the papers ; got up nights to buy extras ; chased the boys around the corners for the latest news ; Avas early at the stock market, and among the last to leave the Windsor Hotel at night when the Board closes its late session. Whether a quarter of a million is worth what it costs, this gentleman can tell when he gets it. A lady in this city came from New England. She was the child of a sailmaker, and was brought up in humble circumstances. A wealthy man, whose repute was not high, and whose disposition was not amiable, offered her his hand. She did not expect love, nor hardly respect, Init he offered her instead a coach, an elegant mansion, and costly jewels. She found herself suddenly elevated. She lived in com- manding style, with her furniture, plate, and servants. She bore her elevation badly, ^nd looked do\\Ti with scorn upon her old friends and associates. Her hus- band engaged deeply in speculation; it proved a ruinous one. To help himself out of a crisis he com- mitted forgery. He Avas sent to the State Prison. His great establishment was seized. Her house was sold over her head by the sheriff. Her jewels, valued at fifteen thousand dollars, were spirited away, and she never saw them more. She was suddenly elevated, 106 Wonders of a Great City, and as suddenly hurled down to tlie position from which she had been taken. HOT^ESTY LEADS. The men who are the capitalists ' of New York to-day are not the sons of the wealthy or successful merchants of the city. They are men whose fathers were porters, wood choppers, and coal heavers. They did the hard work, swept out the stores, made the fires, used the marking pot, were kicked and cuffed about, and suffered every hardship. But they jostled and outran the pampered son of their employer, and carried off the prize. The chief end of man is not to make money. But if one imagines that it is, and that a fortune must be made at once, then he w^ll barter the solid ground for the mirage, and leave a successful business for the glittering morass — trade that insures a handsome competence for wild specu- lation. The hands on the dial plate of industry will stand still while men grasp at shadows. In New York, two kinds of business greet a comer, one bad, the other good; one easy to get, the other hard ; the one pays at the start, the other pays but little ; perhaps the position itself must be paid for. If one wants money, says he has his fortune to make and cannot wait, he will take what turns up and wait for better times. Disreputable trade, questionable business, a tricky house, a saloon or bar room, are open to a reputable young man, and if he have a dash of piety, all the better. But such touch pitch and are defiled ; they seldom lose the taint of the first business in w^hich they are engaged. Men can be Speculation and its Bruits, 107 good or bad in any trade. They can be sound lawyers or pettifoggers ; a merchant of property or a mock auctioneer ; a physician whose skill and character endear him to the best families in the land, or a doctor whose "sands of life have almost runout;" a preacher who says, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel," or a minister who, like some in the olden time, said, "Put me, I pray thee, into the priest's office, that I may get me a morsel of bread." There is no permanent success without integrity, industry, and talent. In trade there are two codes that govern men. The one is expressed in the mottoes, "All is fair in trade;" "Be as honest as the times will allow;" "If you buy the devil, you must sell him again." The other acts on business principles ; sells a sound horse for a sound price ; gives the customer the exact ar- ticle that he buys. The few houses that have been successful, amid an almost universal crash, have been houses which have done business on principle. In cases where honorable tradesmen have been obliged to suspend, they are Minister of Babylon. Some of these men went from the store to compete with the ablest statesmen of the world. Some left their patients on a sick bed to measure swords with vete- ran commanders on the battle-field. They met on the seas naval officers of highest -rank, and made them haul down their flags to the new banner of our nation. They sounded out freedom in the Declara- tion of Independence ; the bugle-call rang over hill and dale, crossed oceans and continents, into dun- geons, and made tyrants tremble in their palace 108 Wonders of a Great City. homes — building a nation that no treason could ruin and no foreign foe destroy. Like the Eddystone lighthouse, the Union, sometimes hid for a moment by the angry surges, still threw its steady light on the turbulent waters, and guided the tempest-tossed into the harbor where they would be. These Old School men ate not a bit of idle bread. They were content with their small store and pine desk. They owned their goods, and were their own cashiers, salesmen, clerks and porter. They worked sixteen hours a day, and so became millionaires. They would as soon have committed forgery as to have been mean or unjust in trade. They made their wealth in business, and not in fraudulent failure. They secured their fortunes out of their customers, and not out of their creditors. Not so Young America. He must make a dash. He begins with a brown-stone store, filled with goods for which he has paid nothing ; marries a dashing belle ; dele- gates all the business that he can to others ; lives in style, and spends his money before he gets it ; keeps his fast horse, and other appendages equally fast ; is much at the club room, on the sporting track, and in billiard or kindred saloons ; speaks of his father as the "old governor," and of his mother as the "old woman;" and finally becomes porter to his clerk, and lackey to his salesman. Beginning where his father left ofE, he leaves ofE where his father began. CHAPTER VI. TWO FINANCIAL TYPHOONS. THE PANIC OF 1873 AND THE DISASTROUS OUTCOME OF THE GRANT AND WARD FAILURE — THE MONEYED CENTER SHAKEN — HOUSES BLOWN DOWN — PROMINENT MEN RUINED — FERDINAND WARD's YICTIMS — GRAPHIC PEN PICTURES— ward's TREACHERY TO GENERAL GRANT. ABOUT once in ten years New York is visited by a great financial revulsion. It usually begins in Wall street, and sweeps, like a tidal wave, over every part of the land — paralyzing every interest, and ruin- ing men by the thousands. Every country has a great moneyed center. All attempts to get the great capital- ists out of Lombard street have failed. From a little city, two miles long and one wide, London has spread out until it is ten miles square. For over a hundred years efforts have been made to change the moneyed center of that city. But all attempts have been futile. Daily half a million of men are poured into the city before ten o'clock. Near Lombard street is Thread and Needle street, where the Bank of England stands — a low-walled citadel, impregnable as a fortress. In this vicinity are the Lord Mayor's mansion and Guild- hall ; the banks and bankers of the metropolis, the im- mense w^arehouses of trade, and the palaces of mer- chant princes. Land is fabulous in price. An acre of land could not be bought in the vicinity of the bank if covered with gold sovereigns. 110 Wonders of a Great City, What Lombard street is to England, Wall street is to America. Here, where the old houses stood, and the old New York merchants lived, is located the great center of American finance. For years specu- lators, ring politicians, and interested parties have attempted to change the financial headquarters to an upper location. But all such efforts have been put to rest. The great sale of land on the corner of Wall and Broad, for a banking house, setttles the question for a century. Startling as the price is for which land has been sold on fashionable thoroughfares up town, the immense price paid for the land alluded to, throws all other sales in the shade. It shows that Wall street is the most valuable property of the continent. To this center the great capitalists of the country gather. Merchants from Maine to Florida, from Sandy Hook to the Golden Gate, have their bankers in New York ; Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, have their banking houses on this street. The huge crops of the AVest cannot be moved till the gold room gives per- mission. Not a railroad can be built in any part of the land unless the bonds are disposed of in the city. Men who make a fortune of $10,000, $20,000 or $50,- 000 in the country, bring their gains to this field, where only full scope can be given to their talents. The country banks, and banks in the smaller cities, must have their checks cleared in New York. As tlie gates of the Temple of Janus, open or shut, indicated peace or war throughout the world — so, as Wall street is, so is the country. When the bulls and bears arc at peace^ — when money is plenty, when the Tivo Financial Typhoons, 111 Stock Exchange shows a brisk market and the sales are regular; ^dien the street is healthy — then it is known that peace, prosperity, and success cover the land. But ^vhen Wall street is excited, every part of the nation is affected. Here is the seat of commercial bi'ain. The nerves agitate every part of the l)ody when this is disturbed. It is the headquarters of operations, and the alarm reaches the farthest picket and the most solitary sentinel on guard. A panic may begin in Wall street. Two or three men may create it, and do it from the basest motives ; to add a few thousands to their already plethoric purse ; to bull or bear a certain stock; to create a corner; to lock up gi^eenbacks, or sending gold below soundings, or kiting it into the air — whatever may be the motive, the panic will carry ruin through the country, and strip men of their fortunes in an hour. When the Stock Exchange is excited, every stock will be touched. Interest on the street will run uj) to 1 and 2 per cent, a day. The banks will feel it and begin ^to curtail. Then the merchants will stagger ; the laborers get no work; the factories lock out; and the misery will spread all over the land. Wall street is the throbbing heart and the whole nation is the body through which the agitation flows. THE FINANCIAL TEEEOE OF 1873. The financial barometer is the most subtle thing m the land. Nothing is so sensitive. Old Probabilities cannot predict, with half the accuracy, the coming storm. There is something in the very air which men of forecast feel. In the spring of 1873, men said: 112 Wonders of a Great City. "This tiling can't last ; this wild speculation will lead to ruin." "There' are half a dozen men in the street Avho are bent on mischief;" "You will see a greater crash than ever was known before. " For a year there had been no money made on the street. Merchants complained that there was no profit in trade. Nobody seemed to have any money. Builders refused to make contracts; the rates were high, which indicated a sense of insecurity. Money could not be collected. General gloom and mistrust and fear hung over the business world like a pall. All at once the crash came. A menagerie in a thunder storm, or a lot of wild beasts let loose, would not have been madder or more excited than w^ere men on the fatal Thursday. Leading oj)erators are seldom seen on the street. Buying and selling are done by middle men — by boys, half -grown lads — green-looking, ill-dressed per- sons, Avho do not appear to be worth a dime. These buy and sell by hundreds of thousands. On the breaking out of the j^janic, which seemed to be known by instinct. Broad street was full of distinguished operators. The heaviest men were around. Stout, fat men, who generally take their leisure, tore in and out of the offices where stocks are bought and sold. Wilted by perspiration and covered with mud, ]nillion- aires could be seen in every direction, rushing this way and rushing that, while the wildest confusion reigned everywhere. THE MANHATTAN BANK ON THE CRISIS. While everything was running in the usual channel, the sky clear and the sea smooth, and no storm in the Two Financial Typhoons. 113 horizon, certain slire^nl men saw specks of trouble here and there. It was announced that one of the great trust companies of the city w^as in difficulty. Interviewers, on visiting the banking house, found everything lovely. The clerks were at their posts ; business ^vas proceeding lively ; and the concern never seemed sounder or more prosperous. The President of the company was in Europe. Gus Schell, the Vice-President, sat in the elegant rooms assigned to the directors, as pleasant as a May morning. He laughed at the idea of any trouble in tJiat institution. Still the financial barometer indicated a storm. It was rumored that the Manhattan Banking Company knew something about the shaky condition of the Trust Company. The startling rumors soon condensed into a palpable fact. It turned out that the Trust Company had gone down to the bank and demanded two millions of greenbacks, on certain securities offered. The Scotch firmness, and cool forecast and indomitable corn-age of the President, Mr. Morrison, served the bank a good purpose. "I cannot let you have this money," said Mr. Morrison. Out of the whole street he was probably the only man who suspected the real state of things in the Trust Company. He knew this only by certain little indications here and there that he put together. As yet nobody foresaw a commercial panic. "I cannot let you have this money without harming every patron of the bank. I am here to protect the stockholders and the customers of this institution. I shall peril both if I comply with your request. " " But we are customers of the bank," was the reply. "Our im- 114 Wonders of a Gee at City, mense business has been done througli your house. We have been the most prolific patrons of your bank. This is a crisis with us, and we must be accommo- dated. " The President was immovable, and the par- ties retired in the deepest indignation, with an ominous shake of the head, as if hereafter the Trust Company would select a bank more accommodating. This little affair did not mend matters. An excited throng made a rush for their funds. The Trust Com- pany paid all comers in certified checks on the Man- hattan Bank. These were refused, the quiet President simply remarking : "The Trust Company have no funds here: when they have we will honor their checks. " So the Manhattan Bank was preserved from ruin by the keen intellect and indomitable firmness of its President. This course saved the bank, but made the panic a fact. THE GREAT CEASH. As if some great calamity had fallen upon the nation, business came at once to a stand-still. Every- body that could was crowded into Wall Street. Wherever there was a bank there was a run upon it. The banks soon suspended on greenbacks, and paid in certified checks. These nobody would take. The ex- ample set by Manhattan was imitated by all business New York. The railroad companies ordered their carmen to deliver no goods on certified checks. Ex- press companies did the same. A man who deposited $1,000 in greenbacks in a bank, would get next day only a certified check. All Avho had money held on to it. All who could draw out any placed it in their Trro Financial Typhoons, 115 private safe It was rumored that Jay Gould drew out five millions and Vanderbilt had a pile of green- backs that would have made a respectable haycock. In ordinary times business is very loosely done. Banks are very accommodating, and if a large depo- sitor overdraws his account $10,000 or $15,000, nothing is thought of it. One of the most eminent bankers, one who, for years, had an unsullied name, overdrew his account $220,000, and instantly stopped payment. But when there is an excitement in the street, and the screws are put on suddenly things snap. The Stock Eoom was a scene of wild confusion. It was jammed to sufEocation. House after house went down, and the announcement made in the Stock Room was received with howls that were terrific. A month before Jay Cooke failed, many regarded his house as insecure. A leading merchant who has never failed — who has saved himself by a rule never to sell what he has not got, nor to buy what he could not pay for, — remarked. "I should have been ruined in '57 if I had not owned my stock of goods, and been out of debt. I closed my doors, and waited until the storm blew over. " Confidentially he was asked by a friend about the house of Jay Cooke & Co., "Have you any money there?" "Yes, $5,000." "What are your collaterals?" "Nothing." "(Jo and draw your money. The house is too gigantic. If anything happens it will go to destruction. " Side by side stood the elegant rooms of Cooke, and Fisk, and Hatch. On Friday the shutters were put up, the curtains drawn down. A few unemployed clerks hung round. 116 Wonders of a Great City. The solitude of a funeral reigned within, while the surging crowds outside were kept back by the police. THE EEYULSION. It is estimated that at least 20,000 operators were ruined by this crisis. At least $20,000,000 have been lost. The Vanderbilt stocks, which were supposed to be good as gold — for it was said the Commodore could not afford to let his stock go under — ran down 10, 20 and 30 per cent., and with a suddenness of which nobody could be prepared, ruining thousands. It was confidently expected that the Commodore would save the Union Trust Company. He was debtor to the company to the amount of $1,700,000. This sum was borrowed by his son-in-law, Horace F. Clarke, then in the interest of the Lake Shore Road. But as the money was not due under six months ; as the Com- modore did not borrow it and had nothing to do with it, except as president of the road; he declined to interfere. His confidential henchman, Schell, begged the Commodore with tears to save the institution from ruin. He declined to interfere. On the morning of the failure he drove down to the bank. The immense crowd gave way to let him pass through. It is said that he had with him $10,000,000. What he would have done nobody will ever know. The Trust Company failed fifteen minutes before Vanderbilt arrived. The panic was mainly in railway stocks. Vander- bilt was the heaviest owner in the country. He probably found his securities depressed at least $20,000,000. That he could bear such a pressure and Two Financial Typhoons. iir not shrink or throw his stocks on the market, demon- strated the financial strength of the man Money was sent on to him from every quarter. Millions were offered from Boston capitalists, if he would pay the high rate demanded, which he refused. Some time before the Commodore concluded to lay a third track on the Central. He placed $15,000,000 of bonds on the English market. He deposited $10,000,000 in the Bank of England in gold. When the crisis came on, he ordered that gold home and with it aided the Government in relieving the financial troubles of the country. The heaviest operators and the wealthiest men, the shrewd and the simple alike, reeled under the blow. It was simply impossible to get money. The Government could not get it. No trust company could; no stocks or securities availed. No matter what the rate was, no matter what the security, there was no money for anybody. A million was offered for $10,000, at 2 per cent, a day. Jay Gould, Fisk and Hatch, Hemy Clews, Howe and Macy, and other houses that suspended, had collaterals enough, in or- dinary times, to pay all their obligations, and have a million over ; but the securities were of no more avail than a cartload of pumj)kins. Since Wall street had a being the Stock Exchange had never been closed till the panic of '73. No stocks could be transferred, no contracts completed while that institution was shut. But for this not a bank, nor a mercantile house, nor a broker could have stood. It was a stern necessity. The result showed the wisdom of the measure. Had men been pressed to a settlement, as they would have been, universal 118 Wonders of a Great City. ruin, tliat would have spared no factory and no ham- let in the land, would have swept the country. The closing of the room not only held the contracts in abeyance, but gave the heavy operators time to cool, and time to settle. When men who were counted to be worth twenty millions, forty millions, and even eighty could nob meet their contracts, what were common tradesmen to do ? Sunday, September 21st, 1873, wiU be ever a mem- orable one in our history. The nation seemed on the verge of financial ruin. The churches were deserted. Men jammed the Fifth Avenue Hotel as they jammed* Wa]l street the previous day. President Grant came up from his cottage at Long Branch to meet the merchants in council on Sunday night. The meeting of the President with the Secretary of the Treasury, and the great capitalists of the nation, indicated the gravity of the hour. Men as familiar with finance as with their alphabet — accustomed to handle millions — and whose nod or finger on 'Change had hitherto raised or allayed panics, stood face to face with the Soldier President. It was Grant's custom in the Cabinet, as in the field, to initiate measures he pro- poses to adopt. He did not ask, "Mr. Secretary of State,, what shall we do with this?" Nor, "Mr. Secretary of War, what shall we do with that V But on introducing a measure was accustomed to say to his Cabinet, " Gentlemen, I propose to do so and so. " The capitalists of the country were surprised to find General Grant as cool and collected when treating of finance as if he had been in camp dictating an order to his orderly. Plan after plan was suggested by y Two Financial Typhoons. 119 whicli tlie Government could relieve the pressure. To each plan the President offered his objections, in the calm, terse, emphatic manner that marks all his utterances. "I shall take no doubtful steps," he said. "I shall not overstrain the law. I shall not introduce any doubtful measures, leaving Congress to justify me when it meets. I shall do all in my power to relieve the country, but I shall take no measures that have for their aim simply the relief of speculators who have brought this trouble upon us." When the conference broke up, many men had a better view of the intel- lect, character, and firmness of the President than they ever had before. * EETURNING COIST^DENCE. That plant of slow growth came to the aid of a nearly bankrupt people. The Government threw fifteen millions on the market; the^ banks fifteen more. From the West came twenty millions. In all fifty millions — eased the market. The banks threw out their hidden stores. Men who locked up green- backs threw them on the street. Small depositors hastened back with the funds that they would not spend, and dare not keep. Everything brightened when the Stock Exchange opened. The only men not affected by the panic were the "dead beats;" men who had once had a name on the street, but who had been living for years from hand to mouth. They hailed with exuberant shouts the announcement of the failures of heavy houses, and yelled with delight when millionaires were bankrupt, and the proud princes of the street suspended. They welcomed their i 120 Wonders of a Great City. descent, and shouted, in the language of the Prince of Darkness, "Ha! hast thou become like one of us?" When men worth fifty millions could not pay their debts, and houses with ten millions in their vaults suspended, it was no dishonor to fail, and to have no money» THE UNION TRUST COMPANY. The panic is a good illustration of what is said elsewhere of the manner in which convulsions are ^nade. These men, in their mad efEort to bear the market, brought the financial ruin on the country, and came very near ruining themselves beyond redemption. Two of these men lived in New York, and one in the West. Daring, unscrupulous, and defiant — controlling several large railroads ^ — they formed a successful combination; sunk twenty-five millions, bankrupted two thousand five hundred honest traders, and carried disaster righc and left. When the panic commenced there was no house in New York that w^as considered safer or more reliable than the Union Trust Company. It had a list of directors of which any associa- tion might be proud. Eminent bankers, men who stood high in church and state, many who had worked their way up from poverty by industry and integrity to great wealth, who had taken excel- lent care of their own money, Avho seemed proper custodians for the funds of widows and orphans, too honest to steal, and too vigilant to be misled. The failure of the company showed that these eminent men were simply figure heads; they allowed their Tpto Financial Typhoons. 121 names to be used simply as a decoy ; they had no more idea of the management of the concern than they had of the Bank of Calcutta. A stripling of a boy, who finally embezzled a quarter of a million, and fled between two days, run the concern. Merchants, trades peo'ple, churches, were solicited to put their funds into this company for safe keeping. The courts ordered referees, assignees, executors and administra- tors to put the funds of estates in litigation in this concern. Young Carlton, who held the responsible office of Secretary, was the son of Dr. Carlton, of the Book Room. He lived in fine style in Brooklyn ; drove to his business in a carriage, while tlie Astors walked doAvn to their offices. He speculated on the street, helped his friends to what they wanted, loaned money to his relations, and until the bank w^as run upon nobody had the slightest idea that he was a defaulter. This wretched custom of lending names of eminent men to institutions over whose business they do not take the slightest oversight, is one of the crimes of the day. The silly farce of attempting to keep up the honor of the company was continued until the very minute the doors of the institution were closed. When the run was made on the bank, the Vice-Presi- dent came upon the steps and assured the excited crowd that there was no danger. As the President spoke the maddened multitude shook the certified checks they held in their hands, the payment of which had been refused at the Manhattan Bank, say- ing, "If you are solvent pay us our money!" Even then the nimble Secretary was fleeing with his ill- gotten gains over the prairies, or over the seas. 122 Wonders of a Great City. THE NEW STYLE AND TIIE OLD. In tlie olden time bankers gave personal attention to their business. In these modern times mere whip- sters run the great moneyed institutions of the land, a specimen of which is seen in the Atlantic Bank. Mr. Southworth, a gentleman of fair standing, and supposed to be honest, was the president. Nearly every bank of New York had a peculiar origin. The Manhattan was chartered to introduce pure water into the city ; the Chemical, for manufactures ; the Shoe and Leather, for the boot and shoe trade ; the Mechanic, for artisans ; Bull's Head, for dealers in cattle ; the Grocers, for traders ; the Merchants, for dry goods men ; and Corn Exchange, for operators in flour and grain. The Atlantic Bank was founded as a religious institution, to accommodate men who worshiped at the same altar. For years the bank maintained a very high standing. The denomination patronized it. It held the funds of the great benevo- lent societies. Ministers thought their funds were safe when deacons were president and directors, and where eminent men held positions of trust. The Atlantic may be said to have originated the panic, for its downfall was followed by two or three of the heaviest banks in the city, that had been robbed of their entire capital by the audacity and roguery of their officers. All of a sudden the city was shocked with the news that the Atlantic had suspended. A young teller, it turned out, had had the management of th-ings a long time. The resj^ectable president was simply a figurehead, and the directors, em- bracing some of the best business men of the city, Tivo Financial Typhoons. 123 were too busy about their own affairs to pay any attention to the business of the bank. The young criminal sported diamonds and drove fast horses on the road. He diverted himself by rash speculation in the street. Took the money at will in large quan- tities. The directors, through their criminal neglect, knew nothing of it till they found themselves dis- honored and bankrupt. Brookly did no better. THE TEUST COMPAI^Y ON THE HEIGHTS Was the pet institution of the City of Churches. The most eminent names in the city were on the roll of directors. This gave an air of respectability to the concern. Money must be safe, people said, when A. A. Low and kindred spirits were directors. Banks were no security ; savings banks might fail ; but the Trust Company was strong as the Government. "Read the list of directors and judge," men said. Brooklyn had a genuine sensation. The president of the Trust Company was found drowned in a little shallow water at Coney Island. He had a splendid funeral. He was rich, had a high social standing, was president of the Art Union, and he led the fashions on the Heights. Eulogies were pronounced over him from the pulpit, and he was held up as an example that young men would do well to copy. The sudden death of the President caused the Trust Company to suspend. Ministers rushed for their little savings. Churches trembled for their deposits. Widows and orphans hung round the door in crowds seeking that they might be paid. A scene of rotten- ness was revealed that makes one's blood tingle with 124 Wonders of a Great City. horror and indignation — horror at the great frauds perpetrated on a confiding people ; indignation that respectable people will allow their names to be used to decoy the public, and give no attention to the great trust committed to their hands. The president and secretary had flung the funds to the winds in rash speculation. The secretary was known to be dishonest. He stood a defaulter of thousands, yet, to save a family disgrace or something worse, he was allowed to pay up his embezzlement and remain in office. At the time of the suspension he was assistant treasurer of the city. In conjunction with a high official he sported with the funds, and on his own confession the little property of thousands was periled that these men might make a handsome dividend. Holding two offices and keeping two sets of books, the defaulter was enabled to cover up his roguery, and he did it with the connivance of the officials. Some of the directors — whose names for honor and character were capital to the company — instead of remaining and helping the defrauded public out of their trouble, fled to Europe, leaving their dead relatives unburied, and a suffering com- munity without relief. FISK AND GOULD. The Black Friday was an inheritance that these gentlemen transmitted to the Street. To the style of business that produced that disaster the financial dis- tress of 1873 is mainly to be attributed. The reck- lessness, the daring, the defiance, the selfishness, that brought Fisk to the surface so suddenly and so promi- Two Financial Typhoons. 125 nently, were very attractive and seductive, and the gorgeous and unscrupulous peddler had thousands of imitators. The audacious business brought its origin- ator to a bloody grave, and the country to the verge of ruin. Fisk was no worse than a thousand other men. But he gloried in his business, and hung his shame, as a frontlet, on his forehead. Like the unjust judge he "neither feared God nor regarded man." Success was his motto, for the means he cared nothing. He had a more baneful and destructive influence over the young men of New York than any man who ever did business in the city. What other men spoke in whis- pers he shouted aloud on 'Change. What others did in the secrecy of the chamber, he did openly before the world. Living apart from his family, he kept open house in New York, and received the leading bankers and merchants of the city in his saloons of pleasure. He took his lady associates in his four-in- hand, and drove through the streets at Church -time on Sundays, to show his dehance of public sentiment, and the tone of his morality. Llis gorgeously fitted- up steamboats he sent out Sundays on pleasure excur- sions, loaded down to the guards, and filled with every form of sensual pastime. As the crowd landed on Sunday nights, heated w4th wine and drunken with pleasure, the gaudy opera house was flung oj)en for their entertainment, with fancy French actresses, per- forming in plays on the evening of the Lord's Day, that would not be allowed in England on secular even- ings. Every Sunday night Christian men and mer- chants could be seen with detectives hovering round 126 Wonders of a Great City. the Opera House, in search of their boys and girls, decoyed from service and from home, by the glare and fascination of the place. Unless all history is a lie, unless there be no God in the Heaven, such a life must end disastrously. As all the world knows, it went down in blood. A SADDER VIEW. The ruin of families — the sorrow and shame of mer- chants — the sweeping away in an hour of the gains of a lifetime — the shaking of confidence^ — the general alarm attending a commercial panic is bad: but there are things worse. We have never had a great com- mercial revulsion without its being followed by the death of eminent men. The excitement, the alarm, the terror has a positive physical effect. Men live ten years in a day and never grow young again. Vigor- ous-stepping, energetic business men toddle roand as if they had just risen from a bed of sickness. Men of forty walk with canes, their underpinning being knocked out. Paralysis, apoplexy, giddiness, and, more dangerous than all, Bright' s Disease, is created by the panics of the street. Little, Keep, Lock wood, and a host of others, died fi^om the effects of these business revulsions. A well-known merchant took a fortune of five millions out of the street. He retired fi^om the business and went abroad w4th his family. He came back just before the panic of IB 73. His old associates were glad to see him, and gave him a dinner at Delmonico's. A new style of operating had been introduced during his absence. The table was surrounded by daring Two Financial Typhoons. 127 speculators, heavy men of the street, and one or two bank presidents. A glittering scheme was presented, in which the clique present were interested. The re- tired banker, like the war-horse, snuffed the battle from afar. He was fascinated. He begged to be in- cluded in the ring. He put in a million. He put in a second million to save the first. He went still deeper. The panic caught him, and on Thursday night he had not money to pay for an omnibus ride home. His friends had to put him under surveillance to keep him from taking his life. THE TAmc OF 1884. The panic of 1884 will not be speedily forgotten. While not so disastrous as either "Black Friday" or the financial typhoon of 1884, it not only destroyed thousands of private fortunes, but shortened the days of General Grant. It w^as precipitated by the knavish operations of Ferdinand Ward, aided and abetted by James D. Fish. It pulled down among others the Marine Bank, the Metropolitan Bank, Atlantic Bank of Brooklyn, Newark Savings Bank of Newark, N. J., the West Side Bank, Sweeney's Bank ; shook the Second National Bank, and drove its cashier, John C. Eno, to Canada, a defaulter, to the extent of a quarter of a million, and crushed the broker- age and private banking firms of Fisk & Hatch and Foote, J. C. Williams, Golf & Eandall Hatch, A. W. Dimock & Co., Wm. H. Sweeney, W. C. Hardy & Co., N. Robinson & Co., Hotchkiss & Burnham and Donnell, Lawson & Simpson. Added to this, James H. Work, a lawyer, lost a uiillion ; J. Nelson Tappan, 128 Wonders of a Great City. the City Chamberlain a half million. Tlie losses sustained by General Grant's personal friends will probably never be known, as they were in the main suffered in silence. General Grant alone lost a quarter of a million and w^as beggared, while every dollar his sons possessed was swept away. Ferdinand Ward is now serving a twenty-five years sentence in Sing Sing, while James D. Fish, his wicked partner, is in Auburn prison for twenty years. Eno is still in Canada accompanied by cashier Hinckley, of the West Side Bank. J. Nelson Tappan died of a broken heart, and General Grant — well, his demise was certainly hastened by what he deemed the disgrace attendant upon the disreputable failure. Ferdinand Ward came to New York ten years ago, a poor clerk. In the course of time, being a Connecticut Yankee, he made his presence felt. He speculated in Wall street with his salary, and won. He tried it again and kept on winning. Presently he attracted the attention of James D. Fish, who was President of the Marine Bank, and Fish backed him in his various enterprises. He mar- ried fairly well, bought a mansion in Brooklyn, a summer residence up the Sound, and shortly be- came one of the most dashing operators on the street. During the autum of 1883, AVard formed the pri- vate banking and brokerage firm of Grant & Ward. It was composed of General Grant, Ferdinand Ward, James D. Fish and IT. S. Grant, Jr. William C. Smith acted as the firm's broker. It dealt in rail- road bonds and general securities ostensibly, but in reality it was organized to handle army and gov- iDCene m \I\Ial\ Street duxing tb.e ■paniG. Tivo Financial Typhoons, 129 ernment contracts. General Grant's name begot public confidence, and Ward had everything his own Avay for a time. He would borrow money on the strength of real or imaginary government contracts at nsnrious rates of interest. He would place money for his acquaintances in what he was pleased to term his "blind pool," and ^3 ay them handsome divi- dends. William C. Warner is said to have received a half million from Ward in profits as a return for his investments. On Saturday May 3, 1884, Ward left the city and went to his Connecticut home. He did not return for several days. Tuesday May 6, shortly before noon, the Marine Bank, owing to the failure of Ward to make good his heavy over-di^af ts, suspended payment, the failure of Grant & Ward immediately ensued and then the crash came swiftly, for so many other houses were likewise involved. Grant & Ward owed the Marine Bank something like two millions. A DAY OF TEEKOR. But it was not until May 14, that the perilous times came on. A few minutes after eleven o'clock, on that forenoon, a long line of men and boys stood in front of the paying teller's window in the Metro- politan Bank at Broadway and Pine street. Every person in the line held one or more checks to be certi- fied ; the alarming rumors as to impending failures having made uncertified checks of no value, no matter by whom signed. Just at that moment the paying teller shut his window, and it was announced that the Metropolitan Bank would suspend payment as a 130 Wonders of a Great City, matter of necessity and precaution. A liowl of dismay went up from the men in line, and a break was made for the door, where a number of deposi- tors were met, all bent upon hurrying in to get a denial of the rumored suspension. In less than five minutes the iron doors were closed and policemen arrived to stand guard on the steps. The first story told the large depositors, w^ho arrived breathless and indignant, was that the suspension had been ordered by President Seney, the philanthropist, in order to prevent a run for which the bank might not be well prepared. This was accepted by the group of depositors as of small comfort, and by noon hun. dreds of persons who had left money behind the grim-looking doors of the institution were assembled in the street without bewailing their prospective loss of deposits. While the above scene was being enacted there was a mammoth run in the Second National Bank, for the intelligence that young Eno had defaulted to Canada through his Grant & Ward bosses, alarmed all who had a penny in its vaults. There were at one time three hundred depositors in line, but President Eno, father of the young scapegrace, stood by and assured all that they should be paid in due season. Payments were made as fast as a teller could hand out the money, and the bank pulled through. From noon until two o'clock that after- noon, Wall street from' Broadway to Pearl, was a dense mass of wild, struggling, shouting humanity. Brokers, bankers, merchants and business men, were jammed in from sidewalk to sidewalk, and street Tivo Financial Typhoons. 131 traffic was completely suspended. The sole topic was the story of the failure of the banks, and the most extravagant rumors flew thick and fast. On the corner of Broadway and Wall, opposite the office of Grant & Ward, in front of the Stock Ex- change, of the Metropolitan Trust Company's build- ing and tlie Phoenix National Bank, the jam was simply terrible, and it seemed as though every one had lost his senses. A rumor was started that the Manhattan Bank had gone under, and thousands rushed toward the tempo- rary offices of that concern on William street. When it was discovered that the rumor was a canard, the crowd ao^ain returned to Wall street. The wildest and most excited crowd of the day gathered about Grant & Ward's office, as if a solution of the disastrous prob- lem could in some way be gained in that quarter. Pandemonium seemed let loose. Men raved, gesticu- lated and vociferated, and a babel of voices with no particularly distinguishing elements, rose up fi'om the streets, and the famous draft scene riots were revived. In front of Hatch and Foote's office Wall street was so crowded that the stages could not get through. After two o'clock the feeling was general that the day would pass without further disaster, but in a few minutes it was announced that Fisk & Hatch had been caught in the vortex. This was especially crushing news fi-om the fact, that Mr. Fisk was President of the Stock Exchange. The failure of the firm was caused by the decline of first-class railroad stocks, which were hammered down by the effects of the Ward &, Grant failm^e. That same afternoon Dimock 132 Wonders of a Great City, & Co., principal owners of the Bankers' and Merchants' Telegraph Company, found themselves a few mil- lions shoi-t, and succumbed to the inevitable. Banker Sweeney, also, went down. Then came the suspensions of H. C. Hardy & Co., Bogart & Co., Donnell, Law- son & Simpson, GofE & Eandall, Edmund C. Stead- man, the poet ; Hatch & Foote, and the lesser houses. The entire country was terribly shaken; but, thanks to the New York Clearing House, the banks of Gotham rallied, stood together, and further disaster was averted. In the three years which have elapsed since that event- ful May day, let it be said to the credit of the sus- pended firms, that a majority of them paid dollar for dollar. President Seney, of the Metropolitan, held on to his southern railway stocks, and was able to pay depositors of his broken bank in full, the last payment being made something like five months ago. Ths dishonest cupidity of Ferdinand Ward was responsible for the panic of 1884. A recent dispatch from Sing Sing, announced him a surly, hardened criminal. CHAPTER VII. , A NIGHT ON THE BATTERY. THE BATTERY AS IT WAS — A SUICIDE — A DARK STORY — THE TEMPTATION — A RESCUE — FORCED LOANS — TRAFFIC IN FLESH AND BLOOD — MADDEN- ING EXTORTIONS. FORMERLY, the Battery was the pride of New York. It was never large, but it was a spot of great beauty. It opened on to our splendid bay. A granite promenade ran by the water-side. It was traversed by paths in all directions. Trees, the growth of centuries, afforded a fine shade. A sea breeze came from the ocean, with health on its wings. Castle Garden was the resort of the fash- ionable and gay. The wealthy citizens of New York and vicinity filled the Battery every pleasant afternoon. On every side were costly houses, the residences of the wealthy merchants. But now all is changed ! Trade has driven families up town. Castle Garden is an emigrant depot. The grass has disappeared, the iron fence is broken, the wall promenade near the sea gone to decay, freshly-arrived foreigners, ragged, tattered, and drunken men and women sit under the old trees, and the Battery is now as unsafe a place at night as can be found in the city. 134 TVoNDEP^s OF A Great City, A SUICIDE. One night an officer, in citizen's clothes, was walking on the Battery. His attention was directed to a man walking back and forth on the old sea wall. His ap- pearance indicated great sorrow and desperation. The officer thought he intended suicide. He went up to the man, touched him lightly on the shoulder, and in a kind tone said, " Not to-night ; not now. The water is cold. You must not leave your wife and children. Don't take that great leap in the dark. Don't do it to-night." Aroused as from a reverie, in angry tones the man demanded of the officer, "Who are you?" In an instant they recognized each other. The suicide exclaimed, " Good God ! is it you ? How came you here ? How did you know what I intended to do ? Let us go and sit down. You shall know why I propose to throw away a life that is not worth keeping. I am daily in hell. I can endure my tortures no longer. I determined to-night to seek rest beneath the quiet wa- ters. You shall hear my tale, and judge for yourself." A DARK STORY. Seated on a bench by the side of the officer, the young man told his griefs. He said, " I came from my mountain home in New England, to seek my fortune in this city. My mother's prayers and blessing followed me. I resolved to do no dishonor to those who loved me and looked for my success. I entered a large mer- cantile store, and for a time did the menial work. I was industrious and ambitious, and resolved to rise. I did cheerfully and faithfully what was allotted to me. My advance was slow at first. I gained the confidence NlGRT ON THE jBaTTERY. 135 of my employers, and have risen to the position of con- fidential clerk. I married a noble-hearted girl, whom I love better than life, and for a time all things went well with me. " One day, while at the store, I received a letter, written in a fine, delicate hand, asking for a loan of money for a short time. The writer regretted that necessity which made it needful for her to ask for the loan ; but she was greatly reduced, had money to pay, and could not escape from her present difficulty, unless her friends (underscoring the word friends) would loan her a small sum, say fifty dollars, for a short time. The letter was signed by a name unknown to me. The letter hinted at some indiscretions of mine, and threatened an exposure unless the money was forthcoming. On inquiry, I found the woman to be one of those cold- blooded and heartless wretches that abound in New York, who live on black mail. She was a notorious woman, and passed sometimes under one name and sometimes under another. I had seen her once, in company with some associates, but that was many years ago. She kept a list of all her acquaintances, even of those who were casually introduced. My name is on that list. Since the fatal hour I saw her, her eye has never been off from me. She could afford to wait. She has watched my rise, and when I dare not refuse, has made a levy on me, under the specious pretext of a loan. THE TEMPTATION. " My true course would have been to have taken the letter to my employer, stated all the circumstances, and followed his advice. I should have taken the letter to 136 W^ONDEES OF A Oui: on his door-stone, and he demanded his busi- r.ess. He came with a message, he said, from a dying woman. Hastily dressing himselfj the good man came to tlie door and received the message. Just around the block v;as a poor woman, and she was dying. Her only treasure was a babe. She could not die in peace unless her babe was baptized. If his reverence would come to her dying pillow, and administer that sacrament, the blessing of a poor dying woman would be his reward. It was much to ask, and at midnight too, but his great Master, who loved the poor, would not have denied such a request as this. His humane and religious sympathies were aroused, and the minister followed the messenger. Common prudence would have said, " Take a policeman wdth you. Call up a friend, and get him to bear part in the ceremony." But, dreaming of no peril, he went on his way to do, as he thought, his Master's will. He w^as soon in a dissolute region, in a street notorious for its uncleanness. The messenger knocked at a heavy gate, that closed up a narrow, dark alley. It opened im- mediately, and slammed behind the parties like a prison door. Through a long, narrow^, and unwhole- some entry, that seemed to be an alley-way covered, the parties took their w^ay. They passed up a narrow staircase, broken and rickety. Lewd women were passed on the stairs. Dark-featured and villanous-look- ing men seemed to crowd the place. With his sacred vestments on his arm, and his book of service in his 146 ^ Wonders cf a Great City, hand, the minister was ushered into a dark and un- wholesome-looking room. The door was closed behind him, and locked. A dim candle on the table revealed the outline of a dozen persons, male and female, of the most abandoned and desperate class. His inquiry for the sick woman, and the child to be baptized, was greeted by shouts of laughter. He knew he was a victim. He demanded the reason for this outrage. He was informed that his friends who had invited him there wanted money. His standing and character were well known. He was in one of the most notorious houses in New York ; his midnight visit to that place was well known, and could easily be proved. If he paid one thousand dollars, all would be well. If not, his ruin was certain. Instead of defying the villains, calling on the police, or confiding in his congregation, he thought he could hush the matter up. He might have known that it w^ould all come out, and that every dollar he paid would be used as evidence against him, or as means to extort more. But he was thoroughly fright- ened ; would not have the thing known for the world ; his hand was in the lion's mouth, and he must draw it out as easily as he could ; so he gave his obligation to pay the money promptly at noon the next day, which he did. Of course new demands were made from time to time. He was dogged in the streets. Suspicious- looking men stopped to speak with him on the corners. Notorious men rang his door-bell. Mysterious notes, from ignorant, low-bred, and vicious persons, — as the spelling and language showed, — came to his hands, and into the hands of his family. The poor man was nearly distracted. He paid away his own money, and Blackmailing as an Art. 147 borrowed - till his reputation suffered. The threat of exposure hung over him Hke an ominous sword held by a hair. In a moment of desperation he decided to leave the country, which he did, to the astonishment and regret of his friends. On his return from Europe, the rector settled in Massachusetts, over a small rural parish. He was soon tracked to his country home. Black-mailing was re- newed. His old terror came upon him. Again he ac- ceded to the extortion. The police of New York at length came to his relief In searching for other game, they came upon proof that this minister was in the hands of black-mailers. Letters were found containing information of his whereabouts, how to terrify him, what sums to demand, and at what time his salary was due. He was relieved from his pursuers. The large sums he had paid were not refunded. His spirits were broken, and he has never recovered his position. I saw him not long since in Canada. He holds a subordinate position, and is preaching to a small parish. He will die A victim of black-mailing. BLACK-MAILERS AT A WEDDING. A fashionable wedding is a harvest season for black- mailers, especially if the bridegroom has been known as a fast young man. No bank keeps a better account of the whereabouts and standing of its depositors, than do black-mailers of the whereabouts, standing, and movements of their victims. A wedding among New York high life is talked about. Invitations are greedily seized. The elite are all agog. On the morning of the day previous to the wedding, a lady comes to the 148 Wonders of a Great City, store, and asks for the young man. Her business ia announced as important. She must see the young gen- tleman. The " must " is emphatic. At such a time, when all are so sensitive, and when, as is often the ease, a fortune hangs on the bridal wreath, it is im- portant to have no scenes. A thrill through the frame of the young gentleman called for, the hurrying back of his blood from the face to the heart, tells that his time has come. He goes to the interview as the ox goes to the slaughter. Be the claim real or bogus, hush-money is generally paid. A BRIDE CALLED ON. A call is not unfrequently made at the home of the young lady to be married. It is a woman that calls, in a shabbj^-genteel array, to excite sympathy. The call is made a week or ten days before the wedding. Every step is consummately taken, and tells in the right di- rection. The young lady is called for by the woman, who seems to possess a wounded spirit. Her appear- ance, the tone of her voice, the expression of her face, bespeak one who has been greatly wronged, or who has some great sorrow at heart. The acting is con- summate. Of course the young lady is not at home to strangers. She then asks if the young man is in ; if it is true that he is going to be married ; if any one can tell her where he can be found — questions intended to create anxious inquiry at the breakfast table : " Who can that woman be ? What can she want of Charlie ? Why did she ask so particularly about his being mar- ried?" The frightened maiden runs to her lover, and gays, " 0, Charlie, there was a woman here this morn- Blackmailing as an Art, 149 ing for you ! She seemed so poor and sad ! She wanted to know where 3^011 could be found. She wanted to know if you were to be married soon. Who is she ? What can she want of you ? " A nice prepa- ration this for the visit of the black-mailer on Charlie lit the store. A bolder step is not unfrequently taken. As the bridal company are enjoying themselves in an up-town first-class residence, an emphatic ring announces an impatient comer. The bridegroom is asked for, and the footman bade to say that a lady wants to see him. The imperious air of the woman plainly tells the foot- man, "If he refuses to see me there'll be trouble." The footman, well acquainted with high life in New York, knows well what the visit of the woman means. He has the honor of the family in his charge. He whispers the request of the woman to the startled bridegroom. But what can be done ? The woman is notorious, and well kno\yn. She understands her busi- ness, and is unscrupulous. Threats and entreaty will be alike unavailing. Ten men could not put her ofi' of that step-stone. She would cling to that iron railing with the strength of a maniac. She would rouse the whole neighborhood by her screeches, accusations, and blasphemies. The party would break up in excitement. The scandal would run through all New York ; the papers would be full of it ; the police might take her away, but she would rend the air with her tears and strong crying. All these considerations are taken into the account by the black-mailers. A private isettle- ment is usually made, and the unseasonable visitor departs. 150 Wonders of a Cp.eat City. ANOTHER MODE. The announcement in the papers of marriage in high life, at the residence of the bride's father, does more than give information to the curious. It is a bugle-call to black-mailers. A young husband, just admitted a partner with the father-in-law, whose repute is without a stain, whose success in life depends upon an unblem- ished character, is overwhelmed with the threat that unless a sum of money is paid at a given time, an in- famous charge shall be made against him. An unman- ly fear, a cowardly dread of being accused of a crime never committed, a wish to shield from sorrow the young being he has just led to the altar, often lead a young man to yield to the demands of black-mailers if they will take themselves off. They depart for a time, only to return to renew the demand, making the one payment a reason for asking more. BLACK-MAILER FOILED. I know a young man of marked business ability. He was superintendent of a Sunday school and a young partner in an important house. His marriage gave him a fine social position. About three months after hit3 return from his wedding trip, a woman called upon him at his store. She seemed to be quite well ac- quainted with him, and told her errand in a busi- ness-like style. She wanted five hundred dollars, and must have it. He could give it to her. If he did, all would be well. If he did not, she would make trouble in his store, and trouble in his family. People would believe her, suspicion would attach to hira^ and Blackmailing as an Art. 151 he could never shake it off. She gave him a limited time to make up his mind ; placed her card in his hand, and departed. The young man had sense and pluck. He went to a detective^ and placed the matter in his hands. The detective force is an institution in New York. Its members are shrewd, cool, talented and ef- ficient. They are everywhere, and in all disguises. They represent all professions. They are unknown to rogues, and are therefore successful in their efforts to detect criminals and to relieve their victims. Assuming the role of a friend, the detective called upon the woman. She was young, intelligent, well-dressed, seemingly modest. She professed to be adverse to a dissolute life, and charged that she had stepped aside under the solemn promise of marriage. She gave times and places when she met the young man, and her candor and modesty would have deceived any one but a detective. She had rooms in a reputable house, and gave the name of her employer. With this statement the conspiracy was revealed. One of the times men- tioned, the young man was in Europe during the whole year on business for the house. The second time specified, he w^as absent from the city the whole month on his wedding tour, with the fixmily of his senior partner. The room where the interview was held was borrowed for the occasion of a casual acquaintance, who knew nothing of the disreputable character of the woman. The plot was blown into the air. The wo- man confessed her conspiracy, gave the names of her associates, and was marched off to the Tombs. 150 WOIWEBS OF A GHHAT CiTT, ANOTHER MODE. The announcement in the papers of marriage in high life, at the residence of the bride's father, does more than give information to the curious. It is a bugle-call to black-mailers. A young husband, just admitted a partner with the flither-in-law, whose repute is without a stain, whose success in life depends upon an unblem- ished character, is overwhelmed with the threat that unless a sum of money is paid at a given time, an in- famous charge shall be made against him. An unman- ly fear, a cowardly dread of being accused of a crime never committed, a wish to shield from sorrow the young being he has just led to the altar, often lead a young man to yield to the demands of black-mailers if they will take themselves off. They depart for a time, only to return to renew the demand, making the one payment a reason for asking more. BLACK-MAILER FOILED. I know a young man of marked business ability. He was superintendent of a Sunday school and a young partner in an important house. His marriage gave him a fine social position. About three months after hit? return from his wedding trip, a woman called upon him at his store. She seemed to be quite well ac- quainted with him, and told her errand in a busi- ness-like style. She wanted five hundred dollars, and must have it. He could give it to her. If he did, all would be well. If he did not, she would make trouble in his store, and trouble in his family. People would believe her, suspicion would attach to him, and Blackmailing as an Art, 151 he could never shake it off. She gave him a limited time to make up his mind ; placed her card in his hand, and departed. The young man had sense and pluck. He went to a detective, and placed the matter in his hands. The detective force is an institution in New York. Its members are shrewd, cool, talented and ef- ficient. They are everywhere, and in all disguises. They represent all professions. They are unknown to rogues, and are therefore successful in their efFortri to detect criminals and to relieve their victims. Assuming the role of a friend, the detective called upon the woman. She was young, intelligent, well-dressed, seemingly modest. She professed to be adverse to a dissolute life, and charged that she had stepped aside under the solemn promise of marriage. She gave times and places when she met the young man, and her candor and modesty would have deceived any one but a detective. She had rooms in a reputable house, and gave the name of her employer. With this statement the conspiracy was revealed. One of the times men- tioned, the young man was in Europe during the whole year on business for the house. The second time specified, he was absent from the city the whole month on his wedding tour, with the fimiily of his senior partner. The room wdiere the interview was held was borrowed for the occasion of a casual acquaintance, who knew nothing of the disreputable character of the woman. The plot was blown into the air. The wo- man confessed her conspiracy, gave the names of her associates, and was marched off to the Tombs. CHAPTER IX. SUNDAY IN NEW YORK. A SPECIMEN SABBATH MOKNING — THE CHURCH-GOERS — THE PLEASURE GOERS — A FEW RELIGIOUS PECULIARITIES — FOREIGNERS AND SUNDAY — SAMPLE SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS — VARIED NOTES. THE quiet of a Sabbath morning in the lower part of the city is in marked contrast to the con- fusion and hubbub of the week. Crossing the street is a dangerous effort to life and limb near Fulton street. On Sundays it is as quiet as a cathedral. Broadway, on which Old Trinity stands sentinel at one end, and aristocratic Grace at the other, is swept clean and is deserted. An occasional coach, bring- ing to the hotels a Sabbath traveler, or a solitary express wagon loaded down with baggage, and now and then a street car, is all that breaks the solitude. The broad, clean pavement of Broadway glistens with the morning sun, and is as silent as the wilder- ness. The revelers, gamblers, the sons and daugh- ters of pleasure, who ply their trade into the small hours of the morning, sleep late ; and the portions of the city occupied by them are as silent as the tomb. The sanitary blessings of the Sabbath to a great city are seen in all the lower part of New York. Laboring classes cease from toil, loiter about, well shaved and with clean shirts, and smoking their Sunday IN New York. 153 pipes. Children from tlie lowest dens, the foulest cellars, the darkest alleys, come on to the sidewalk with an attempt at cleanliness, with their best robes, or an effort to mend their dilapidated appearance by a little bit of ribbon or a rude ornament. News- boys, with their faces washed, their hair combed with their nngers, oifer their papers in subdued tones. In a quiet voice the bootblacks ask, "Black your boots?" and exhibit their own shoes polished out of respect to the day. The utmost quiet prevails along the docks. Piers and wharves are swept clean, and the silence of a pestilence pervades these noisy marts of trade. The sailors do their morning work quietly in a holiday rig. On the North and East Rivers are moored thousands of vessels, every one of which carries its flag at its mast-head. Bethel churches and floating chapels are open to seamen. The dram- shops make a compromise with the day by sanding floors, putting their employees in clean shirts, and closing up one half of their shutters. CHUECH-GOERS. The churches are generally well attended in the morning. As the bells call to prayer. New York comes to the. pavement, elegantly dressed, as for a soiree or matinee. The streets present an attractive and gay appearance. The cars are crowded with people on their way to their religious homes, without regard to distance or locality. Wealthy church-goers come out with their dashing teams. Their splendid outfits appear to great advantage on a beautiful Sabbath morning. Churches most crowded in the 154 Wonders of a Great City, morning have a poor attendance in the afternoon. But for the name of it, most of them might as well be closed for the rest of the day. New York boasts about a half dozen sensation preachers, who have a hold on the masses, and can draw a second audience. But for "gospel j)reaching," as it is called, one sermon a day is as much as our people care to hear, and more than they inwardly digest. Clustering together in a fashionable locality, within sight and sound of each other, are more costly churches than can be found on any spot in the world. Most of these churches have come from down town. Sellino: their property in lower New York at a great price, they all want a fashionable up-town location. Leav- ing other parts neglected, these churches crowd on to one another. Two or three of them are on one block. The singing and preaching in one church is heard in another. Costly and elegant, most of them are thinly attended. Looking on their rich adornments, and in- quiring the price of pew^s, one is at a loss to conceive where people of moderate means go to church in this city. PLEASURE-GOERS. The sermon over, the dinner digested, then comes pleasure. The morning quiet of lower New York gives place to revelry. Funerals, attended by a military or civic procession and bands of music, are kept till Sun- day afternoons, if the corpse has to be packed in ice. Central Park is crowded. Fashionable people turn out in immense numbers. Everything that can go on foui' legs is engaged of liverymen for Sunday in advance. Sunday in New York. 155 Thousands resort to the sea-side, High Bridge and Fort Lee on the Hudson. The same cars that convey people to morning worship convey those who do not own teams to their afternoon pleasures. Theatres of the loAver order are oj)ened. Public gardens, concert saloons, and lager-beer enclosures are crowded. Danc- ing, bowling, drinking, carousing, gambling, occupy the crowd. - The removal of the down-town churches leaves an immense population to spiritual neglect and indiffer- ence. The strongholds of piety are levelled, and on their foundations Mammon holds her high carnival. Where once the aristocratic lived are reeking tene- ment-houses, and the day is gven up to revelry and dissipation. EELIGIOUS PECULIARITIES. If a minister has a rich and fashionable congrega- tion, success is certain, though his talents are feeble and his gifts small. He may be an able and popular pulpit orator, and he will generally fail if he depends upon the popular ear. Over one of our congrega- tions, the most fashionable in the city, Avhere it is difficult to get a seat at any price, a minister has been settled for years, on a high salary, who could not get a call to a common country congregation. His intellect is not above the average, his feeble voice does not half fill the house, his utterance is choked and muddy, he has a jerky delivery, and his manners are forbidding^ and unattractive. On the other hand, men come to New York who bring with them immense local popularity. Having succeeded 156 Wonders of a Great City. elsewhere, they expect to carry New York by storm. They are brought here to rescue waning congrega- tions, to fill an empty house, to sell costly pews. The reputation they bring avails them nothing. A man must make his oavti mark in the city. Men who have been eminently successful in other places do not succeed at all here. Men of talent, genius, elo- quence, are preaching in halls, preaching in little chapels, preaching to small and humble congrega- tions, preaching on starving salaries, who would make their mark elsewhere. But New York is very fascinating, and men hold on. Not long since one of our religious societies held its anniversary. It secured a popular New England minister to preach — one who fills any house in his own vicinity. A commanding church was selected, and, to accommodate the crowd who were expected, ^xtra seats were put in the aisles, vestibule, and on the platform. The evening came, with the preacher, but the crowd came not. In the face of the vacant chairs and empty extra seats the services were con- ducted with a deadening effect. New Yorkers did not know the preacher, and would not go to hear him. FOEEIGT^ERS AND SUD^DAY. The foreign population in the city is immense. Every nationality is represented. Should the great bell of the City Hall clang out its peal, and draw the population that live around it to its doors, a man standing on the steps could speak to as motley a group as Peter addressed on the day of Pentecost. The Jews occupy whole streets, and drive out other / Sunday IN New York. 157 nationalities. Their stores are open on Sunday, and a large part of them keep neither their own Sabbath nor ours. The Germans, Irish, Italians, Portuguese, abound. Noisy trade goes on where foreigners live, and the Sabbath is filled with noisy, wanton, and drunken violators. Places of amusement are many, and dancing, drinking, and revelry, guided by heavy brass bands, girdle the city. The great mass of the foreign population attend no church. The Sabbath of the Continent is becoming common in the city. The observance of the day grows less and less. Pleasure-seekers are more open, and their number is increased by the fashionable and influential. Every wave of foreign emigration lessens the dry land of religious observance. SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS. There is no lack of special Sunday amusements of a high order. In numerous halls and gardens are Sunday-night concerts which are advertised as "sacred," but which, with Gounod's Ave Marie as salt, are wholly filled up with opera aii^s and popular music. They are very largely attended, particularly by sojourners at the fashionable u]3-town hotels. In summer, such places as Koster & Biol's, Theiss', Huber's, Prospect Garden, Jones' Wood, Lion Park, and the Atlantic Garden, draw their largest and best audiences Sunday night. At times, the police try to enforce the Sunday law. The trial is very weak, however, and is of little avail. CHAPTER X. THE NEW YORK POLICE. THE OLD SYSTEM OF PROTECTING THE CITY— HOW THE METROPOLITAN AND THE PRESENT ONE WERE CREATED— ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF THE DEPARTMENT— BRA A^E MEN— STATION HOUSE SCENES— AN IM- PORTANT BUREAU. NO city in the world, except London and Paris, has a police which in efficiency, disci- pline, and character, equals that of New York. It took many years, many experiments, and many changes, to perfect the system. Previous to 1884, New York Avas guarded by the " Old Leather- heads." This force patrolled the city at night, or that part of it known as the lamp district. They Avere not watchmen by profession. They' were cartmen, stevedores, jDorters and laborers. They Avere distinguished by a fireman's cap Avithout front (lience their name, leather-lieads)^ an old camlet coat, and a lantern. They kept out of harm's Avay, and did not Aasit the dark portions of the city. Thieves and rogues Avere advised of their locality by their crying the hour of the night. The Avhole city above Fourteenth Street Avas a neglected region. It Avas beyond the lamp district, and in the dark. Under Mayor Harper an attempt Avas made to introduce a municipal police, uniformed and disciplined, after the The New York Police. 159 new London system. Popular sentiment was too strong to make the attempt a success, but it was a step in the right direction, and produced good results. The old w^atch system was abolished, and a day and night police created for one year as an experiment. The force had miscellaneous duties to perform. Po- licemen were to keep the peace, light the street lamps, be dock-masters, street-inspectors, health-officers, and fire-wardens. The police w^ere in the hands of the Mayor and Aldermen. They did the will of as un- scrupulous and corrupt a band of men as ever held power — men who were unscrupulous partisans and politicians. Tlie guardians of the city were the tools of corrupt and designing men ; a terror to good people, and an ally of rogues. Citizens slept in terror, and all New York arose and demanded a reform. ATTEMPT AT EEFORM. Mr. Havemeyer became Mayor. His first work was to rescue the police from the hands of politicians. He was a Democrat, and did not want the odium of failure to fall on his party. Selecting good men from all parties to be on the police, he wanted the govern- ment to be composed of Whigs and Democrats also. Of the newly-constructed force, George W. Matsell was made the chief. Rigid rules were made for the appointment of policemen. Applications must be made in wilting, with recommendations from well- known citizens. The antecedents of candidates were inquired into, and they were examined in reading, writing, and physical soundness. A vigorous and efficient body of men became guardians of the city. 160 WONDEES OF A GrEAT CiTY. The police wore no uniforms or badge of authority, except a star. After a number of years the police force became, as before, the tool of corrupt politicians. Their fidelity was tampered with, and their efficiency marred. The board of aldermen, the most corrupt that New York ever knew, made the force an instru- ment of their will. The police were in their power, and they could break them at will. The aldermen interfered directly with the execution of justice. They were magistrates as well as aldermen. The rogues of the city were their friends. If the police made arrests, the aldermen discharged the prisoner, and probably punished the officer. Nothing was safe in New York, and general alarm prevailed. Great crimes were openly committed and unpunished. They were put into the hands of a commission, composed of the recorder, the city judge, and the mayor. UiarOEM EEBELLION. The new commission decided to uniform the force. The police refused to wear it. They were no serfs, they said, and Avould wear no l^adge of servility to please any one. Politicians, mad that their power was gone, fomented the discontent, strengthened the rebellion, and promised to stand by the police in their defiance of law. An indignation meeting was called, and the arbitrary and servile order de- nounced. Mayor Westervelt and Recorder Tillon, the commissioners, were men not to be trifled with. They dismissed at once every man connected with the meeting. The refractory men denied the right of the commission to dismiss them. They appealed The New York Police. 161 to the court, and after an exciting and almost turbu- lent hearing, the dismissal was sustained. While honest men filled the office of mayor, re- corder, and ]udge, the force was efficient; but when bold, unscinipulous, and corrupt men bore rule, the worst days of the police came back, and they be- came again mere tools of personal and political am- bition. The people again, without distinction of party, cried to the Legislature for relief. METEOPOPITAN SYSTEM. It was necessary to take the police out of the hands of New York officials, who depended on rogues and rascals for their nomination and election. The low foreign population of New York, keepers of dens of infamy, the depraved, the dissolute, and the violators of law, who, in the vilest places, nominated the high- est officers, and who could elect men or defeat them, would not be much afraid of officers who could be dis- missed or discharged at the beck of theii^ fiiends. So the Metropolitan District was created, including the City, Brooklyn, Richmond, King's, a part of Queen's, and Westchester counties, making a circuit of about thirty miles. The authority was vested in a board of commissioners, composed of five citizens, and the may- ors of New York and Brooklyn, the board to be under the control of the Legislature. Fernando Wood was mayor of the city. He saw the aim of the new law and resolved to resist it. The old board held over, and refused to resign. Mr. Wood inaugurated civil war on a small scale. He gathered the old force into the City Hall, and resisted unto blood. The old police, having nothing to hope from the new order of things, 162 Wonders of a Great City. joined Mr. Wood in his defiance of law. Tlie resist- ance took a political shape. The whole city was ex- cited. It was said that the gutters would run with blood. A riot broke out in the Park. The Seventli Regiment, marching down Broadway to embark for Boston, were halted in front of the City Hall, and grounded their arms, ready for a general fray. The case was taken into the courts. Charles O'Connor, who defended Wood, pledged his professional reputation to the crowd that the Court of Appeals would sustain his client. The police bill was pronounced constitu- tional, and Mr. Wood appeared and took his seat at the board as one of the commission. GEIS-EKAL SUPEKmTEifDENTS. The efficiency of the new order of things would depend very much upon the general superintendent, w^ho was the executive officer. The choice fell on Frederick A Talmadge, formerly recorder of the city, an upright, honest man, but with scarcely an element that made him fit to command a force of eighteen hundred of the shrewdest men in the State. Mr. Amos Pilsbury succeeded Mr. Talmadge. He was in charge of the State Penitentiary at Albany. As a manager of criminals he had no equal. The penitentiary of w^hich he was warden was the model penitentiary of the land. His power over desperate men made him famous in all quarters of the civilized globe. Men came from the principal cities in Europe to examine this wonderful institution. The penitentiary was as neat as a Quaker seminary. No millionaire could boast of a more elegant garden. The discipline was The New York Police. 163 marvellous, and tlie economy by whicli tlie institution was managed exceeded all praise. The State Pauper Establishment, at Ward's Island, was conducted in a most extravagant style. Captain Pilsbury was called down to reform the concern. He produced a change as by magic. He knew to a farthing what would support life, how much a pauper ought to eat, how many should sit around the keej)er's table, and what it should cost to supply it. He bought every cent's w^orth that was used on the Island. He set hearty, fat, and idle paujDers to work. He made everybody earn his own bread. The sick and the indolent he banished. His success in infusing econ- omy on the Island was marvellous. He flitted back and forth between Albany and New York ; and to his position and pay as warden, he added the emolu- ment and authority of keeper of Ward's Island. Mr. Pilsbury was elected Superintendent of Police. If he could manage desperate men in prison, and make money out of a thousand 23aupers, what would he not do with a police force of eighteen hundred men ? He refused the appointment, for his double position and double pay were far better than the three thousand dollars offered by the commission. He was allowed to retain his position at Albany and at Ward's Island, with the compensation connected with each office. To this was added three thousand dollars a year as superin- tendent. If the whole did not amount to ten thousand dollars a year, the balance w^as to be made up to him by the commission. His appointment was hailed with delight. The Harpers published a portrait of the com- ing man, with a vigorous life-sketch. His progress 164 Wonders of a Great City. from Albany to New York was telegraphed. His con- nection with the force was a lamentable failure. In prison discipline and pauper economy, he had no rival ; but he had no ability to control a large body of men, shrewd and intelligent. In an hour they measured him, and rode over him rough shod. He divided the board to checkmate Mr. Wood, and formed a ring within a ring all against himself. He took men into his confidence who were agents of his enemies, and who betrayed him. Unabled to carry the board with him in his measure, Mr. Pilsbury re- signed. He had no chance to display his peculiar talents. As an economist he was not wanted. He handled no money, and his order to the value of a dollar would not be recognized. To marshal men, to move and control them, he had no ability. John Alexander Kennedy was appoined superin- tendent in 1860. Important changes had been in- troduced into the law. The commission was reduced to three. The superintendent, the inspectors and pa- trolmen had their duties assigned them. But com- plaints were made against the discipline of the force. They went without uniform ; could not be found when wanted ; loimged, smoked, and entered houses to rest ; visited drinking saloons, and committed other mis- demeanors. A new rank was created. Inspectors were placed over the captains, and made responsible for the good conduct of the men while on duty. They went everywhere, and at all times ; watched the captains, examined the books and the station-houses, and reported every breach of discipline that they saw. Their coming and going was erratic. They The New York Police. 165 turned up unexpectedly, and made summary com- plaints in all cases where officers or men neglected their duty. With the new order of things, Mr. Kennedy com- menced his official duties. He changed the public sentiment, infused military discipline into the corps, so that they moved to a riot in solid colums w^ith the obedience and force of a brigade. The uniform is no longer regarded as a badge of servility, but as an honor and a protection. THE POLICE AT THEIR WORK. The London police dared not touch a man unless he has committed some offence, or the officers have a war- rant. Well-known thieves and burglars walked defiant- ly by the guardians of the law, and know that no man can lay finger upon them unless they ply their profes- sion. A dozen robbers and pickpockets may go into a crowd, or into a place of amusement, and though the police know what they are there for, they cannot touch one of them unless they actually commit some crime. A mob of ten thousand may gather in St. James' Park, with the intent of sacking Buckingham Palace, yet, until they begin to tear down the fence, or do some act of violence, the police or troops have no power to arrest or disperse them. A royal proclamation might do it. So sacred is personal liberty in Great Britain. But our police can arrest on suspicion or at pleasure. They scatter a mob, and bid loiterers pass on or go to the station house. If a notorious fellow enters a place of public resort, though he has purchased his ticket, yet he will be ordered to leave at once or be 166 Wonders of a Great City. locked up. At a great public gathering in the night, say Fourth of July, when tens of thousands of all characters and hues gather together, among whom are the most desperate men and women in the world, the crowd will be as orderly as a church, and go home quietly as an audience from the Academy of Music. In the draft riots of 1863, the police marched in solid column against the rioters, and obeyed orders as promptly as an army. They broke the prestige of the mob with their locusts, and scattered the miscreants before the military arrived. The Prince of Wales and Duke of Newcastle expressed astonishment at the ease with which the police controlled the masses. At the reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales in London, the mob overpowered the police, seven per- sons were killed, and hundreds of men, women and children crushed. At the exhibition of tlie Great Eastern in England, pickpockets swarmed by hun- dreds, and thousands of pounds were stolen. On the exhibition of the Great Eastern in New York, she was vif^ited by thousands of people, only six policemen were on duty and not a dollar was lost. In 1870 the Metropolitan district was abolished, and the municipal force created, with jurisdiction in New York City only. It still exists. Its control is vested in four commissioners appointed by the mayor. They receive an annual salary of $6,000 j)er annum, except the President of the Board of Commissioners, whose pay is $8,000 a year, and the term of office is six years. They appoint all members of the force, from superintendents down to patrolmen, and try the same for violations, punishing by fine or dismissal as The New York Police. 167 they deem fit. They also appoint the twelve hundred Inspectors of Election, select the eight hundred and twelve polling places, and count the votes cast. The commission is equally divided as to political com- plexion. General Fitz John Porter is the present president of the Board. Police Headquarters is a five-story block running through from Mulberry to Mott Street, and between Bleecker and Houston Streets. In it are the commissioners' rooms, the trial room, superintendent's, inspectors', detective squad and rogues' gallery. The building is handsomely fm^nished, and has accommo- dations for five hundred reserves. Superintendent Murray is in command of the great police force, which is in reality a goodly-sized army. The city is divided into four districts and thirty-six precincts. Each dis- trict is in charge of an inspector, who ranks next to the superintendent in point of place and power, and each precinct is in charge of a captain. Each captain has a couple or more sergeants, and then next in rank come the roundsmen. The sergeants are lieutenants to the captains, and the roundsmen next in rank are assigned to certain districts of each precinct, to see that the patrolmen do their respective duties. The force comprises about three thousand six hundred men. A captain's annual salary is $2,000 ; sergeant's, $1,500 ; roundsman's, $1,200, and patrolman's, $1,000. Then there are special squads, such as the Broadway, the Grand Central Depot and Plarbor police. After twenty years' service a member of the police maybe retired on half pay. During illness members are always on half pay. The New York police force is 168 Wonders of a Great City. tie best drilled body of peace guardians in the world, and they are, like the firemen, always on duty. A policeman's time is reckoned by periods of four days, but lie has no Sundays or holidays save his annual summer leave of absence. Beginning at 6 p. m. on Sunday, for instance, he goes on duty and patrols his post until midnight. Then he remains in the station house of his precinct until 6 a. m., on reserve duty. Then he goes out for eight hours, after which there is four hours of rest, bringing this time to 6 p. m., Monday. Then he goes on duty again for six hours, followed by six hours on reserve duty. This is followed by two hours' patrol and five hours' reserve, ending at 1 p. m. Tuesday. Then begins five hours' patrol, six hours in the station house, and six hours more of patrol, ending at 6 a. m. Wednesday morning, after which he is ofE duty and goes where he likes until 6 o'clock that evening, when he begins six hours of patrol, followed by eight hours of reserve duty, five hours of patrolling again, then a rest of eleven hours in the station house, then another six hours of post duty, and at 6 on Thursday evening he finds himself off once more for twelve hours. The following morning he begins it all over again. Thus once in eight days he can stay at home all day, and every eighth night he can sleep at home. At 6 in the morning and evening, and at noon and midnight the sergeant on duty in each precinct station house taps his bell. The platoon which is to go on duty — each company divided into two sections of two platoons each — files in from the waiting-room ; dresses ranks, answers roll call, are inspected to see that each man I^E New York Police. ^ 169 has his club, revolver, fire alarm key, and handcuffs. Then such general orders as have come from head- quarters, either by telegraph or messenger — each precinct being connected by telegraph with head- quarters — are read, and at the words, "draw batons," "right face," "march!" the bluecoats pass out and march to their posts. As fast as relieved, the men who have been on duty during the previous six hours return to their respective station houses. The number of arrests made by the police annually range from eighty-five thousand to ninety thousand. Of this number more than one-fourth are for intoxication. The annual cost of the police force is something like five millions. ALWAYS ON HAND. It is common cant "that a policeman is always present — except when wanted," says a writer in one of the magazines. In the lower part of New York this is an unjust charge. How far will you walk in the region of Canal street, for instance, before meeting a policeman^ — that is if you look for one, for it is his policy to remain inconspicuous ? Lower Broadway, dim and gloomy at midnight, is full of police, trying doors to see that all are securely closed, peering through the little peep-holes in iron shutters, to see that no burglars are at work in the stores, or that an incipient fire is not working insidious destruction; lurking out of sight in shady doorways, while they watch suspicious loungers ; or standing in groups of two or three on the corners where posts intersect, and a roundsman has happened to join them. Leav- 1 70 Wonders of a Gee a t City. ing Broadway and glancing down dark and fearful back streets, like Bayard, Elizabeth, West, Houston, Roosevelt, Bleecker or Sullivan, you are sure to see the flickering light of the street lamps, and the ruddy glare of red sign lanterns, reflected from the silver shield and brass buttons of a patrolman. Go where you may, you meet these erect and wide-awake watchmen. They are strolling through the deserted avenues of Washington market; they are keeping an eye on rogues in Madison Square ; they are rowing silently in and out of the shadows of the great ships lying asleep at the wharves ; they are cat-napping as ^reserves' in the station houses, ready on telegraphic summons to go to the care if a fire or the subduing of a riot. The worshiper coming from his w^eekly prayer meeting, finds the policemen at the door, en- forcing his coveted quiet. The family that goes for a day's recreation at Rockaway, or Coney Island, is sure that its pleasure will not be spoiled by rowdy- ism, for a group of officers stand on the deck, seem- ingly absorbed in the magnificence of the summer's morning on the bay? Yet ready, ready! The opera glasses sweeping the audience at opera house or theatre, catch a sight of a blue coat or two behind the sheen of silks and satins. The police of New York are always on hand, and they are rightly termed members of the "bravest and finest." They are, as a rule, men of indomita- ble courage, muscles of iron and nerves of steel. They are to the police department? of other cities what Napoleon's "Old Guard," Avas to the legions of France. The police of Chicago, Philadelphia, The New York Police. 171 Brooklyn, Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other cities, are travesties on justice, as compared to the New York police. Here is an illustration of police bravery. Some years ago, "Mulligan's Hall," was a basement saloon in Broome street. It had been growing worse and worse, and one evening Captain Williams, known to the world as "Clubber" Wil- liams, and the officer on that post, went in. They found thirty-eight persons of every color and na- tionality, all of the worst character and some noto- rious in crime. Captain Williams took in the situ- ation at a glance, and determined to arrest the whole party. Placing his back to the front door, he cov- ered the crowd with his revolver, and threatened to shoot the first man who moved. Then he sent the patrolman to the station for the reserves, and for nearly half an hour he held that crowd of desperadoes at bay. They glared at him, squirmed and twisted in their places, scowled and grated clenched teeth, itched to get out at their knives and cut him to pieces ; but all the while the stern mouth of that revolver looked at them — looked tliem out of countenance, and the steady nerve behind it held sway over their brutal ferocity. Captain Williams stood the tesfc and saved his life. He Avonders now why they did not shoot him a dozen times. Certainly it was not because they had any scruples, for when help came, the first two prisoners sent to the station, killed officer Burns with a paving stone before they had gone two blocks. Captain Allaire made an almost precisely similar raid on the famous "Burnt Rag" saloon in Bleecker street, one winter's night ; 172 Wonders of a Oreat Gity. and young Captain McCullougli, of the Fifth Pre- cinct, if I remember rightly, recently went, accom- panied by a few men, to an Anarchist Hall where the "Bloody" Most was conducting one of his most ^ fiery meetings. First stationing his men at the doors and windows. Captain McCullough ascended the plat- form and ordered the meeting to adjourn and the audi- ence quietly dispersed. Throw him out ! kill him cried fifty men at once ; and there was a rush for the platform. Captain McCullough struck down a half dozen, including the cowardly Johann Most, his men clubbed a score of the most blatant, and then the entire crowd was arrested and conducted to the station house. Were that splendid young city of Chicago, policed like New York, it would have no Anarchists or Socialists, who dared utter their per- nicious revolutionary theories above a whisper. One Haymarket bomb-throwing scene would be sufiSci- ent. Its authors and participants who escaped death by the police club or pistol, would be driven into the lake or river and drowned, and there would be no material left for long and costly Anarchist's trials. POLICE STATION SCENES. The scenes to be witnessed in a police station are always of a nature especially interesting. Many is the evening the writer has dropped into the East Side station houses, either Captain Allaire's, McCullough's, Petty's, or the late Captain Tynan's, and sat for hours with the sergeant in charge, studying human character. Each station, apart from its score or more of cells, The New York Police. 173 contains what are called lodging rooms, where tramps and unfortunates are sheltered. A lodging room is devoid of everything which would tend to the com- fort of a lodger. A long platform along one side comprises the bed, and there are no chairs. Into such quarters the applicants for shelter are placed, the sexes being separated. They are turned out at day- break, and the entire room washed out by means of a hose. A majority of the lodgers are professional vagrants. When the platform is filled, as it usually is of a cold night, the late comers are obliged to take the floor, and then a room will contain at least three score disreputables and unfortunates. The place is heated by steam, and the stench becomes well nigh unbear- able to anything like civilized nostrils. One bitter cold night I remember an evening with the office ser- geant. It was after ten o'clock and very little doing. A woman in a faded black dress, battered bonnet, and whose face looked as though it was a stranger to soap and water, was the first caller. "Can I have a night's lodging, sir?" she asked, ap- proaching the desk. "When did you wash your face last?" inquired the sergeant. "In Philadelphia, sir, yesterday. I came from there. "What are you doing in New York?" "It's a long story, sir," she began, "and one you are not interested in. A man deceived me and broke my heart, and I have come over here to find him, for I know he is in this city-" "How did he deceive you?" 174 Wonders of a Great City, "The way the men always do. He got the best of me because he promised to many me, and I was inno- cent enough to believe him. When he tired and I fell sick he deserted me, but I'll find him or die. " "Pass on inside to the matron," nodded the official, and the woman disappeared behind the huge inner door which led to the cells and lodging rooms. "Her story is an old one, and she has probably been telling it for years, but I don't remember to have seen her before," commented the sergeant. The next moment the street door opened mth a crash, and a policeman appeared with a prisoner. The latter's face was bmised and bleeding, his gar- ments Avere sadly disarranged, and his breath was louder than a beer vat. "What is the charge?" asked the sergeant, as he turned to the blotter to enter up the prisoner's name, nativity, etc. "Drunk and disorderly," replied the policeman. "He had several fights, and finally wound vo^ by getting thrown out of a Delancy street saloon, and I had to take him in charge. " The next comers were two flashily-dressed young women. They swore vehemently that Madame OAved them twenty-five dollars a piece; that she de- clined to pay them because she was afi^aid they would leave her house if she did, and they wanted a police- man to go back to the house with them and make the madame settle. The sergeant declined to interfere in tlie uiatter, and the females departed swearing like pirates. Presently an officer came in with a prisoner who The New York Police. 175 looked as tliougli he had been drunk for a week. His plug liat was smashed in, his Prince Albert coat was soiled and torn and his hair was full of ashes, betray- ing the fact that at some period of his drunk he had pitched head first into a garbage barrel. "Drunk and disorderly, sir," explains the officer; "T caught him climbing an elevated road pillar in the Bow^ery. He said he always w^ent up to his room by the fire escape when he returned home late, because he did not wish to arouse the occupants of the house. " The prisoner was too full for utterance; he swayed to and fro in front of the desk, and attempted to look solemn while the patrolman told his short story. He was too drunk to give his name, and was carried below and given a cell to sober up in. The next incident worthy of note was at midnight, when an officer ran in from the direction of the cells and announced: "The woman in number ten has com- mitted suicide- — hung herself The sergeant ordered the officer to remain in charge of the room and hurried to the cell in question. I followed him. We found the cell door open, and the doorman in the act of cutting the woman down. She had been locked up for shoplifting; it was her first acquaintance with the police and the knowledge of her disgrace weighed so heavily upon her mind that she formed a noose of her garters and handkerchief, and tried hanging. She was a young and not an ill-looking woman. In the course of a few moments she was revived, and then became so hysterical that an ambulance was sum- moned, and she was conveyed to Bellevue Hospital. The next callers were two tough-looking tramps. 176 Wonders of a Great City, "Cap'n," began tlie spokesman, in a very thick voice, "pard and myself is busted; can't you give us a shake-down for the night?" "All right," acquiesced the sergeant, and address- ing the doorman, "Show these men back." "You hain't got a chew o' tobacker, Cap'n, you can let a feller have?" coolly inquired the spokesman, who felt considerably emboldened by his success in obtaining lodgings for the night. "No, I hain't," answered the sergeant, imitating the voice and manner of the tramp, "but a little later on I will send you in an oyster supper, a couple of quarts of Pommery Sec, a dozen Henry Clays or Reinas, and perhaps a few other delicacies. " Half an hour later, four policemen came in, bear- ing a rudely improvised stretcher, upon which a badly wounded man lay in an unconscious condition. Two more policemen brought up the rear with a handcuffed man in their charge. He was the assail- ant of the wounded man. He had set upon his vic- tim in an Orchard street dive and stabbed him. Then when the officers came he resisted arrest, and it was found necessary to club him into submission. An ambulance was called to convey the wounded man to the hospital, and the knife wielder was locked up. BUREAU OF GEKERAL INFORMATION. This is one of the most interesting, if not the most important, of the many ramifications of the police department which have sprung into existence of late years. Like many other reforms or improvements The New York Police. Ill in organization, it owes its formation to Superin- tendent Murray. It was jDlaced under the immediate control of Inspector Steers, from wliom tlie following accurate statistics have been mainly derived. For- merly the picking up of wandering children and saving missing girls had no special officers charged with such business, but that has all been changed now, and ten times more work is accomplished with a tithe of the labor, and everything goes on with the exactitude of clockwork. It is now as thoroughly organized as the force on board a line-of-battle ship. Everything is conducted by rule, and centered in one head. "The office corps," said the Inspector, "is under the command of two sergeants, a roundsman, and one patrolman, while in emergencies we call in the assist- ance of policemen from the superintendent's office and my own district. In the office are five large books, ruled in columns, with printed heads. The entries were models of bookkeeping and penmanship, and the sergeant might well have every reason to be proud of them. They were: "Kecord, Found Dead, Unidentified;" "Record of Missing Persons "Record of Runaways;" "Record of Lost Children;" "Record of Foundlings." In addition to these were scrapbooks containing all letters of inquiry, files and packets of miscellaneous and pertinent matter dock- eted for possible use, in numerical and alphabetical order. In addition to the cases which come in regu- lar order, there are isolated cases which have to be attended to. Now and then people have asked a policeman to take them home, and can't remember where they 178 Wonders of a Great City. live ; they are sent to tlie Bureau, and the officer in charge sends for their friends. There are cases where the lost forget their names and addresses, but re- member certain localities and people. They fre- quently get so nervous about being absent from home that they work themselves up into a sad state of mind." "Now, this book will show you the unidentified dead at the morgue," continued the Inspector: "The description of the body Avhen it was in a condition to be described, a minute account of the clothing found on the corpse, and any other ^particulars which might lead to identity ; also, an account of the find- ing of the body, by whom found, the place and time, and any cuts, marks, or evidences of death." The sergeant then showed the report made by the policeman stationed at the morgue. There in red ink was written in the names of the persons claiming the body. "The description of the missing sometimes corre- sponds with the description here, " said the sergeant, ^ pointing at the entries. "We then notify the friends of the absent ones to go to the morgue. "You have no idea of the great number of people who are reported here as missing. During the past three months there have been at least four hundred. The letters of inquiry come from all over the world. Read this column: Auckland, New Zealand, Ger- many, Russia, Sweden, Australia, England, Italy and Turkey — brothers, sisters, husbands, sons, friends. W^U, if there were not so many of them I might pick out some interesting incidents. We search, and The New York Police. 179 in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred we find them either here or somewhere else. " "Missing girls, did you say ? Yes, glance over this book, the ^Record of Runaways' from the country ? No, most all from Brooklyn, this city and close by. Older women tell them fancy tales about gilded ease, fine clothes and high living. They get a taste of fast life for a week, get homesick, and we find them. The police have made it rather dangerous for the land- lady to harbor young girls. When a young girl under sixteen is enticed into a house of ill-fame, the land- lady is apt to send for a policemen, who aiTests them. Then again some young girls run off to see the sights. Recently a telegram was received from the Chief of Police of Providence giving a description of two young girls who had left there by the Stonington boat. They were arrested and held until one girl's father came on for both of them. The despatch said ; "They may look for situations in a dime show." Matron Webb looked after them while they were here, so they did not even see the outside of a dime show. Small boys and ambitious youngsters arrive in this city. After a few days, especially when their money is gone, they get homesick and appear in a police station to request the police to send them home. Their parents are notified and they are sent for. The experience does them good. They learn what a good thing home is. "These red ink entries are about children who have been brought here and no one has called for. You can't tell where they come from, they travel so far. When the weather is pleasant we find on an average 180 Wonders of a Great City. forty cliildren a night. The other night a policeman brought a little chap in asleep in his arms. He had been found at Montgomery and Madison streets. His parents came for him. They were nearly wild Avith fear. They could not believe it true that he could have wandered from his home in East Eleventh Street and Avenue B, a distance of two and a half miles. He was only tw^ and a half years old. Last summer a little kid three years old wandered down from New Rochelle. He had gone on the steamboat at Glen Island and was found on Avenue A at ten o'clock at night. One funny thing about the older ones is that they are such little liars. One little girl gave us seventeen addresses and all wrong. Her mother came and claimed her. This is often the way, however. They will keep us running all over the city on false addresses. Why they lie, for the soul of me, I cannot tell. Kidnapping ? Nonsense. I have not seen a single case. "Last year the police found one hundred and ninety, nine deserted infants in baskets or wrapped in shawls in doorways or in the streets. There were thirty- eight from January 1 to March 31, and the usual av- erage since then. The twenty-third precinct reports the most foundlings. They vary in age from one day to eight weeks. Frequently about the child's neck there is some trinket to assist future identification, and often notes reading " it has been christened ; its name is John, or Dan, or William. " Generally the babes are comfortably wrapped up, indicating ma- ternal tenderness even though in the act of abandon- ment. The New York Police, 181 Now and then there are some dreadful cases of atrocious brutality and inhumanity. One bitter day, the coldest of the winter, a woman in Orch- ard street found a little babe scarce an hour old, without a stitch upon it, flat on the frozen pavement of the frozen yard. The woman who found it wrapped something warm about it, and a policeman got an am- bulance. The surgeon bandaged the child besides doing what else should be done for a newly born infant. When the little mite was brought in here he Avas kicking and crying like a good fellow. He will grow up tough. "On the 10th of August last a little babe, neatly dressed, was found in a basket deposited in a hallway on Eighth Avenue. A policeman took it down, and the following entry was made in the book, after citing where it was found: Blue eyes, dark hair, white dress, underclothes and cap; red shawl. Time, half past two p. M. The infant was sent to Matron Webb, and thence to Superintendent Blake. One month later a neatly dressed woman appeared at the desk. I want ' to know about a baby you found in the hallway at No. — , Eighth Avenue, on August 10, at half-past two. " "It is all right. Is it yours?" "Yes," she replied, and gave a description of the clothes. "How dici you know it came here?" asked Sergeant Kass. "Because I saw the policeman bring it, I was watching my child when it was found. I had to give it up because I could not support it. I can now, so I have come for it." 182 Wonders of a Great City, "Do you know," said the sergeant, much moved, "that you have broken the law in abandoning your child?" "Yes, I know it; I am willing to go to jail, but I want my baby. " The Seargeant consulted Inspector Steers, and the Inspector went in to see the Superintendent. It had to be done. She had broken the law, and con- sequently she was arrested. She was given a com- fortable room in the care of sympathetic Matron Webb. And so, as lightly as possible, the law visited the poor mother. The next morning she was taken before the Justice and told her story, saying that she would willingly go to jail, but she must have back her baby. The Justice was touched ; his heart was softened for the nonce, and he discharged the woman and ruled that she be given the custody of the baby. CHAPTER XI. THE DETECTIVE FOKCE. ITS ORIGIN — INSPECTOR BYRNE, PRINCE OF HIS PROFESSION — QUALIFICA- TIONS OP A DETECTIVE — HOW THE THIEF-TAKERS DO THEIR WORK — STORIES OF ADVENTURES BY MEMBERS OP THE CORPS — THE ROGUE'S GALLERY. The shrewdest of all thief takers of modern years, is Inspector Byrne. He knows every criminal of note on both hemispheres, and his reputation is, in a word, world wide. Inspector Byrne is at the head of the New York Detective Corps, and he has so thoroughly organized and conducted it that it has attained a degree little short of perfection. Begin- ning as a policeman twenty-live years ago. Inspector Byrne arose rapidly until he became Captain. Then he became Inspector and placed in charge of the de- tectives. The squad was originally organized by George W. Matsell,during his superintendency. When Mr. Byrne assumed control, some fifteen years ago, it was very crude, comprising only a dozen men. Now it consists of about one hundred, the flower of the police department. The system of detectives is not old. In former times the idea of a sharp criminal officer was ex- pressed in the adage "Set a thief to catch a thief . " The modern and correct theory is, that integrity, 184 Wonders of a Great City. tact and industry, are the best qualifications of a good detective. For many years there existed a set of men in London known as Bow Street Ofiicers. They were remarkably shrewd, were more than a match for the sharpest villains, and could ferret out crimes and out-wit the cleverest rogues. When the London Metropolitan Police System was adopted, an order of men were introduced, called detectives. This force was chosen from men who seemed to have especial gifts for detecting crime. They could scent out a murderer, and track the perpetrator over oceans and across continents. They could unravel the mysteries of a robbery and bring to light deeds of darkness. Such was the origin of the fii^st regular detective body. Good detectives are rare. An unblemished character is indispensable, for the temptations are many. A detective must be quick, talented, and possess a good memory ; cool, unmoved, able to suppress all emotion ; have great endurance, untiring industry, and keen relish for his work ; put on all characters, and assume all disguises; pursue a trail for weeks, or months, or years ; go anywhere at a moment's notice, on the land or sea ; go without food or sleep ; follow the slightest clew till he reaches the criminal ; from the simplest fragment bring crime to light; surround himself with secrecy and mystery ; have great force of will, a character v\'-ithout reproach, that property and per- sons may be safe in his hands, with a high order of intellectual power. ' The modern detective system is based on the theory that pm-ity and intelligence has a controlling power over crime. Detectives must be pure men, and, like Caesar's wife, be above suspicion The Detective Force. 185 when they come out from the ordeal through which they have to pass. To obtain the right kind of men the force has often to be sifted and purged. HOW THE DETECTIVES DO THEIR WORK. Crime is not only systematized, but classified. Each adroit rogue has a way of doing things which is as personal as a man's handwriting. We have really few great men ; great orators, men of mark, distinguished authors, or men of towering success, are few. If a princely donation is made, or a noble deed done, and the name withheld, the public at once point out the man — it would be so like him. Bad talented men are few ; adroit rogues are not many ; men capable of a dashing robbery, a bold burglary, or great crimes, do not abound. If a store is broken open in New York, a bank robbed in Baltimore, or a heavy forgery in Boston, the detectives will examine the work and tell who did it. As painters, sculptors, artists, engravers, have a style peculiar to themselves, so have rogues. A Chicago burglar, a safe breaker from Boston, a bank robber from Philadelphia, a New York thief, have each their own way of doing things. They cannot go from one city to another without observation. If a crime is committed, and these gentlemen are around, detection is sure to follow. The telegraph binds the detective force together in all parts of the Union. A great crime is telegraphed to every leading city. "When an adroit rogue leaves the city his whereabouts is sent over the wires. The detective on his track is the gentlemanly-looking, affable personage with whom he has been chatting in the railroad car. The rogue lands in New York, 186 Wonders of a Great City. and the friendly hand that helps him up the gang- plank, or ofE the platform, is that of a detective. A keen eye is upon him every moment till he is locked up or departs from the city. When he leaves, the car is not out of the station house before the telegraph announces to some detective far away the departure and the destination. His haunts are known, his associates, the men who receive stolen goods, and his partners in crime. WHY EOGUES GO CLEAE. The detectives often recover goods and money, while the criminals escape. People wonder why the criminals are not brought to punishment. The first duty of the officer is to bring the ofender to trial. But this cannot always be done. The evidence is often insufficient. The next best thing is to secure the money or property. Many robberies are com- mitted in places of ill-repute. Parties are com- promised. Victims coming from the country, who are respectable at home, do not like to read their names in the newspaper. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are annually returned to their owners through the detectives which would have been lost without their vigilance ; but in many instances dishonest detectives deliberately divide with the thieves. This has been done in several cases of bond and bank robberies. By "arrangement" possibly two-thirds of the plunder has been returned, and the remaining third shared by the thieves and the catchers. This business enables some of the force to wear big diamonds, and own and live in brown stone fronts, on a salary of $1,200 a year. The Detective Force, 187 In the elegant marble building on Mulberry street, where tlie Metropolitan Police force center, there will be found the headquarters of the detectives. Though it is under the charge of the general super- intendent, the detectives are an independent body- within the police force. The chief. Inspector Byrne, has been many years at the head of this department. His men are dressed in citizens' clothes, and are un- known to the patrolmen until they exhibit their shields. They are silent, suspicious, secretive. They never talk of what they have on hand. Of the past they will speak, of the future they have nothing to say. They have incidents and adventures in their possession more thrilling than any criminal novel ever written. In their room I passed a night not long since, and learned from them the romantic inci- dents that I am about to state. THE AEEEST OF A PICKPOCKET. Said one of the detectives, "The Inspector called for me one day, and put a case in my hands, which I was required to work up. A gentleman of the city, who was supposed to be worth a fortune, sud- denly failed. His failure was a bad one, but his honor was without a stain. He was guardian for two orphan children, and took the cars one morning for the purpose of investing some three thousand dollars that he held in the name of the children. When he reached the office up town, where the invest- ment was to be made, he found his money was gone. He had been robbed in the cars. In great distress he came to the office, and communicated his loss to 188 Wonders of a Great City. the inspector. He said, Avhen he was rich his tale of robbery would have been believed ; now he was poor, it would be said that he had robbed himself. I ex- amined the man closely, and had no doubt that his story was a true one. He had but little light to throw on the robbery. The car was crowded, and he stood on the platform. He remembered that during the passage, as a person got out of the car, a young man was thrown against him. He had a dim recol- lection of the person, thinking no wrong at the time. Car-robbing is very common, but it is very delicate business, and few can do it well. I had my suspicions as to who committed the robbery. I took a car to go down town. In it was the very person I was in search of. His new clothes, new hat, and boots, and w^atch, indicated that he was flush. I stopped the car, touched the young man on the shoulder, and told him to follow me. His face crimsoned in an instant, and I knew that I had got my man. I took him to the station-house, and accused him of the crime. I told him that the man who had lost the money would, in the language of pickpockets, ' buff him to death ' if he did not restore the money; but if he would * turn up the money ' he might clear out. These rob- bers, all of them, have accomplices. They never can tell when they ' peach.' I had no evidence that would convict this person. No judge would hold him a minute on my suspicion, but the thief did not know that. He pulled of? his boots, and the money came back, all but one hundred dollars which he had speiit. The grateful merchant received it with tears of joy. " The Detective Force. 189 AN OLD MAN m TEOUBLE. "Very few men wlio come here for relief," said one of tlie detectives, "tell the truth. They make up all sorts of stories to impose upon us, to save their repu- tation, and to keep themselves out of trouble. If a man tells us the truth ; if he has been robbed at a bad house, and will say so ; will give us the number of the house, and describe the parties by whom he has been robbed or wronged, we can relieve him. We can go on board of a train of cars filled with hundreds of people, and tap a pickpocket on his shoulder, and say, ' I want to see you, sir,' and never make a mistake. We can take a telegraphic descrip- tion of a rogue, and with it walk up Broadway, where thousands are rushing along, pick out our man and march him to the tombs, and never get the wrong person. One day a sedate looking man from the rural districts called at our office. He was a mer- chant, he said. He came to the city to buy goods. He had been robbed of fifteen hundred dollars, which he was to pay that day. He was a ruined man unless he could recover his money. He named the hotel where he stayed, and in which he had been robbed. His room-mate, a man unknown to him, was asleep when he went to bed, and asleep when he left the room in the morning. He had not been out of the hotel since tea, till he discovered his robbery. The man must have robbed him, and he wanted him arrested at once. Inspector Byrne was satisfied that the man was not telling the truth. He put the case in my hands, and ordered me to work it up. I went 190 Wonders of a Great City, to the hotel, and found everything right there. The room-mate was a merchant from the west, of un- questioned integrity. I came to the conclusion that the man had not told us the truth. I knew that he had been out of the hotel, had been into disreputable company, and had been robbed. I sent for the vic- tim, and he came, accompanied by a friend, who promised to vouch for his honesty. I said to him, * Sir, you have lied to me. You lost your money in bad company by the panel game.' At first he denied it with great vehemence, then he evaded, and finally confessed. With a slight clew as to the locality, I found the panel thief, and brought back the money. " A IVIINISTER I^f TROUBLE. "One day some very excellent people came to the headquarters to complain. The city was unsafe for respectable men; people could not walk about the streets without assault and robbery. It was a pretty state of things if gentlemen could not walk the streets of New York at seasonable hours, Avithout being beaten, bullied, and robbed, and theii* life endangered. ^ And what is the matter now?' said the officer. 'We are respectable citizens,' said the complainers, ' and ofi[icers of a church. Our minister was assaulted, and beaten, and robbed last night in one of the streets. He came over to !New York yesterday after- noon on business. He was returning througli Beek- man street about ten o'clock. When near ClifE street a band of rowdies assaulted him, knocked him down, beat him, muddied and tore his clothes, robbed liiiii of his watch and money, and he reached his affrighted The Detective Force. 191 family almost dead.' The case was put into our hands. The night on which the assault was said to have taken place was a beautiful, bright moonlight evening. The place of assault was so near the station house, that the cry of distress would have been heard by the captain at his desk. At that time of night, a man would have been as safe on Beekman street as on Broadway. It so happened that two of our officers were on that spot within five minutes of the time the assault was said to have taken place, conversing on matters that detained them ten or fif- teen minutes. I was satisfied that no assault had taken place, that no robbery had been committed ; that the whole story was trumped uj) to hide some disgraceful conduct in which the party said to have been wronged was engaged. "With this impression, I sent to the minister. He was greatly annoyed that his people had taken any notice of the matter, or brought it to the attention of the authorities. I told him it had been broualit to our attention; that' we Avere censured for neglect of duty, and that the fame of the city suffered ; that we intended to probe the matter to the bottom; that we intended to follow him every step that he had taken that afternoon, fi'om the time he left home till he returned. We would know all his companions, and all the company he had kept that day. I told him his story was an improbable one ; that it was impos- sible that the robbery could have occurred at that time or place ; the night was# too light, the hour was too early, it was too near tlie station house, and more than that, two of our captains were on that spot 192 Wonders of a Gee at City. at that time, and they knew the story was not true. If he had a mind to make a clean breast of it, and tell the facts as they were, I would keep his name from the public ; if not, I would make a thorough investigation, and publish his name to the world. He was greatly agitated, blamed his friends for meddling in the matter, began to cry, and at length made a clean breast of it. He had been drinking that after- noon, went where he ought not to go, and was robbed of his money and his watch. He must account for his situation, did not want to be disgraced, and so had trumped up the story he told to his elders. The affair was hushed up." A SEA CAPT.UN IN DIFFICULTY. "The harbor police notified us," said one of the detectives, "that a ship was lost off Sandy Hook by fire. As tlie case was reported, there were some things about the loss that did not look right. The next day the papers blazed with an account of a bold robbery. It was said that a sea captain lost a large sum of money at a theatre. The captain was said to have been peculiarly unfortunate. He lost his shi]^ by fire off Sandy Hook. He had just been paid his insurance, a very large sum, which he was to take to his owners in New England. He visited the theatre with the money in his pocket, and on leaving the place it was gone. The audacious robbery flamed in every paj)er. The statements were so nearly ver- batim, that it was evident the captain had written them himself, or furnislied the material. The captain issued handbills, offering a reward of five hundred 7^E Detective Force, 193 dollars for tlie recovery of his money. The hand- l)ills were circulated only among tlie shipping and on the wharves. In a few days we received a visit from the ca]3tain at headquarters. I was put in charge of the case, and took down the captain's statement. It diifered but slightly from those made in the papers. I was satisfied that he had not been robbed at all. I strongly suspected that there was foul play in the destruction of his vessel, and that the captain intended to appropriate the money. Making up my mind how he did this, I directly accused him of the fraud, and described the manner in which the affair was done. He su23posed I knew the whole matter, although he could not imagine how I got hold of it, and was greatly excited. He was astounded when I told him that the money was in his inner vest pocket, and that if he did not take it out at once I should search him, and he must take the consequences. I hit the thing exactly. He had his money hid away in the place I had designated. In tears and in terror he brought forth the money, which was restored to the owner. We could not hold the man for a criminal trial on the evidence we had, and so let him run. He has never sailed from New York since. " BUEGLAR DETECTED BY A BUTTOTT. A large silk house in New York was robbed of silks and velvets valued at many thousand dollars. The burglars hired an old building adjoining the store. They cut a hole through the wall, entered the store, and carried away the goods. The job was a 194 Wonders of a Great City, clean one, and no trace of the robbery was left. The police shook their heads, and the merchants feared they were ruined. One of the shrewdest detectives had the case put into his hands. He examined the premises carefully. The hole in the wall was a small one, and the burglar squeezed himself through with difficulty. In a little crevice a button Avas found of a very peculiar fashion. A little plaster adhered to it, indicatino^ that it had been rubbed off as the robber passed through. The detective put the button in his pocket. He had a clue, very slight, but still it was a clue. There are certain resorts in this city for thieves, burglars, and rogues. Here they can be found when ofE duty. Detectives pass in and out among these desperate men. They never meddle with them on ordinary occasions. They are seldom disturbed by the desperadoes, or resisted if they make an arrest. It is well known that the detectives go armed and have no delicacy in the use of weapons. They are selected for their personal bravery no less than for their intelligence and integrity. The de- tective stood at the door of one of our low places of amusement. A man passed him who had peculiar buttons on his coat. He followed him to his seat, sat down beside him, and seemed intent on the play. He was not so intent, however, but that he saw that the party he was watching had one button less on his coat than he ought to have. He immediately left his seat, Avent outside, and made arrangement for aid to make an arrest. He came back to his seat, touched the astonished stranger on the shoulder, and invited him outside. Here a corps of policemen were The Detective Force. 195 waiting to receive him, and he saw that resistance was useless. Knowing that the man could not be held an hour with no proof but a button, the detec- tive set himself to work to get the goods. He accused the man of the robbery, showed him how it Avas done, and hit the case so exactly that the bur- glar believed chat some of his confederates had made a confession. He led the officers to the spot where the goods were concealed. The party was tried and sent to the State Prison for a term of years. The button did more than that. The arrest of this man put the detectives on the track of other burglars. They followed up the matter for months, broke up a den of the most desperate robbers, lodged many of them in prison, among whom ^^^as the famous Bristol Bill of England. A SHADOW ON THE PATH. Small sums of money from time to time were taken from one of our city banks. No clue to the robbery could be found. A detective was consulted ; he said that the robber was in the bank. A watch was put on all employes, but in vain. The money continued to go. The affair was put in the hands of a detective. All unknown to the clerks, this officer visited the bank at all hours, came in various disguises and under various pretences. He was satisfied that the robber was in the bank, and he fastened on one of the clerks as that individual. He followed the clerk fourteen days, at the end of which a witten statement of the whereabouts of the clerk was presented to the bank. It w^as a perfect curiosity. The 196 Wonders of a Great City, detective had not lost siglit of the Avhereabouts of the young man a single hour. The clerk lived out of town. The detective rode on the cars with him every day. He sailed on the boats, walked in the country, rode in the city. Every place the clerk went into was written down, how long he staid, what he ate and drank, and whom he talked with. A descrip- tion was given of each person he talked with, the places of amusement he visited, and what he paid out. Among other things the record told, was his visits to gaming and other houses ; what time he went to bed ; and twice he rose at two in the morning, left his house, and met certain parties, who were accurately described. How a man could be followed fourteen days, especially in the country, all that he is doing be known, everybody he speaks to described, and the man watched be ignorant of it, is one of the mysteries of the detective system. The clerk was called into the president's room and charged with the peculations. He was overwhelmed with the accuracy with which his coming in and going out were noted. He con- fessed his guilt. The directors were merciful, and did not subject him to a criminal prosecution. PEIVATE DETECTIVES. The success of detectives in criminax matters, as a part of the police, has created a private detective system, which is at the service of any one who can pay for it. It is a spy system — a system of espionage that is not creditable or safe. Men are watched and tracked about the city by these gentlemen, and one The Detective Force, 197 cannot tell when a spy is on his track. A jealous wife will put a detective on the track of her husband, who will follow him for weeks if paid for it, and lay before her a complete programme of his acts and expenditures. If a man wants a divorce, he hires a detective to furnish the needed evidence. Slander suits are got up, conducted, and maintained often by this agency. Divorce suits are carried through our courts by evidence so obtained. Sudden explosions in domestic life, the dissolution of households, and family separations originate in this system. It is not very comforting to know that such shadows are on our paths. THE HUMANITY OF DETECTIVES. It is difficult to deceive a criminal detective ; he can read a man at a glance. He knows a bogus story from a real one. He can tell a hardened criminal from a novice. Pilferings were constantly going on from one of our leading banking houses. As usual, a detective was called in. He immediately selected the criminal in the person of a young clerk, who was bright and talented, came from an excellent home in the country, and up to that time had borne an unblemished character. The banker scouted the idea that the young man was a criminal. The clerk was called in, and to the sorrow and astonishment of his employer, he confessed the thefts. The ugly secret was known only to the banker and the detective. The detective interceded for the young man, pleaded his home education and principles, the sudden tempta- 198 Wonders of a Great Oity. tions that surrounded him, his capacity to make a useful man ; while, if he was discharged, his crimes would become public, his character be ruined, and he become a criminal, to end his days in prison. Im- pressed with the representation, the banker decided to give the young man a trial. He called him again into his presence. "I will not dishonor you," said the banker ; "I will not discharge you; I'll keep you, and if you will let me, will make a man of you." He then showed him how he carried on his business: that even a penny could not be abstracted and the cash account not show it. The young man replied, "Your humanity shall not be misplaced." The other day this young clerk was elected cashier of a bank, and his old em23loyer became his bondsman. A young man, bright and talented, placed in unusual temptation, was rescued from ruin, saved to his coun- try and saved to himself by the humanity and wisdom of a detective. THE OTEEO MIJEDER. No case was ever more finely worked up than this. A stranger was found brutally murdered in one of the parks of Brooklyn. No clue to the murderer could be found. The chief of the detective depart- ment detailed his best men on the case. A pair of gloves were found near the place of the murder, with a slash on the back of one of them: that was all. An Italian steamer was to sail for Italy, and crowds of Italians were on the wharf taking leave of their friends. The detective sauntered down, for no par- ticular reason. He went on the deck of the vessel, IkE Detective Force, 199 but saw nothing particular to interest him, and went again on the dock. Just as he was preparing to leave, he saw a man coming towards the vessel. Before the approaching man had come near enough to the officer to be spoken to, the detective had taken an inventory of him. There was nothing about him suspicious but his hands. He had on a pair of new gloves quite too large. The way in which he held his hands showed that something was the matter with them. His face indicated agony. The fatal gloves found near the body of the murdered man in the park were in the pocket of the detective. He felt certain that the approaching stranger had something to do with the murder. He w^as at once arrested, his gloves removed, his gory hands laid bare, and the cut was found to correspond with that in the gloves. The imprisonment, trial and punishment are well known. As a part of the great governing power of the land, the detective system is powerful, effective, silent. THE HULL MUEDER. Early one morning in June, 1879, in a fine residence in Forty-second street, near Fifth Avenue, an old lady was found tied hand and foot in her bed, where she had been smothered with a pillow. Her valuable rings had been torn from her fingers, and her jewel casket had been plundered. This murder in a fash- ionable neighborhood, guarded by private watchmen as well as the police, created the profoundest sensa- tion New York had known for years, and for several days the best detectives were completely baffled by 200 WONDEES OF A GrEAT CiTY. the mystery. The murderer, a negro named Chastine Cox, formerly a servant of Mrs. DeForest Hull, whom he killed and robbed, was finally detected and arrested in a negro church in Boston, was speedily tried in New York and sentenced to be hanged. THE EOGUES' GALLEEY. One of the most conspicuous features of the de- tective department, is the Rogues' Gallery. It occu- pies a complete room just off Inspector Byrne's private room. Neatly arranged in panels and cabi- nets is a collection of photographs, numbering some- thing like 30,000. The pictures are those of criminals of more or less notoriety. A few of the originals are dead, but the great majority of them are, in slang parlance, still on the turf. A few months ago In- spector Byrne published a book of his experience with crime and criminals, and in its pages the occu- pants of the Bogues' Gallery received full justice. When a new thief comes into the field, if he is gifted with anything like native tact or cunning, he wall work undetected for a time. The man hunters who are on his trail, recognize immediately the fact of his being a novice, from the bungling manner in which his jobs are performed. Not having the pleasure of his acquaintance, they are all at sea for a brief time. Then the latest accession to the crook's domain is run to earth. He is taken to the Inspector's quarters and carefully photographed. If he does not take kindly to the operation, and attempts by grim- aces or facial contortions to defeat the camera, he is labored with patiently, for hours, if necessary, until The Detective Force. 201 caught off his guard. In the long run his counter- feit presentment is always obtained. A great number of copies of the photograph is made ; below it is printed a concise description of the original and his branch of work, and these are sent to superintendents of police and chiefs of detectives in all the j)rincipal cities of the world. So useful has this interchange of pictures proven between the departments of New York and London, that an English crook rarely makes a turn here. The major portion of them to their great disgust, are greeted by one of Byrne's men at the steamship pier when they land, are called by name, and careful inquiry made as to the probable length of their sojourn in tliis country. As a rule, if they are operatives of any prominence, they realize that nothing can be done here, and return by the next steamer. The Rogues' Gallery is a clever adjunct to the criminal machinery of modern times. CHAPTER XII. THE TOMBS. HISTORY OF Gotham's famous prison. — how it looks outside and IN. — THE MANAGEMENT. — PRISONERS KNOWN TO CRIMINAL FAME WHO HAVE BEEN CONFINED WITHIN ITS WALLS. — A COURT SCENE. — DIVINE SERVICE. — LUDLOW STREET JAIL. FAMOUS among prisons is the Tombs, covering the entire block, bounded by Center, Elm, Leon- ard and Franklin streets, it is the gloomiest of all gloomy looking structures in the city. Never v^as building more appropriately named. It is the sink into w^hich pours the criminal stream of the third greatest city on the globe. It has held in its day criminals from every corner of the earth, and in the shadow of its walls have been strangled to death murderers whose crimes are part of enduring history. Its romances are numberless ; its mysteries are more fascinating than any the romancist ever penned. The history of the Tombs is an immense rogues' gallery of pen pictures, a library of startling stories whose heroes and heroines are often men of vast intelligence and women of a marvelous beauty, given up to crime as thoroughly, however, as the most The Tombs. 203 vulgar and most brutal offender who has enjoyed the hospitality of the same cold walls. It has in its time been the scene of birth as well of death, of the bind- ing of the nuptial noose as well as that of the hang- man. It has been the tomb of hopes and honorable lives, but it has also been the cradle of new-born as- pirations and opportunities. However, its history is its best interpreter. The old freight depot of the Harlem Railroad still stands at its Franklin street end, and laden cars dra^vn by long tandems of mules clank in and out all day and night long. Through Leonard and Franklin streets, looking east, one catches glimpses of Baxter street, festooned with the side- walk displays of old clo' shops; the same streets, westward, make brick and mortar telescopes which reveal the life and bustle of Broadway. The streets around the Tombs are foul and squalid ones. They swarm with the children of the tenements which line them with towering piles of masonry, and the pe- destrians who navigate them are for the most part of that skulking, evil class which knows the interior of the prison quite as well as it does its outer walls. When the Common Council determined to erect a new jail in 1833, there was quite a dispute as to the order of architecture to be observed in its construc- tion. About this time there was published a book entitled "Stevens' Travels. " The author was John L. Stevens, Esq., of Hoboken, who had recently returned from an extended tour through Asia and the Holy Land. The book was full of interest, and contained many illustrations of the rare and curious things he had seen. Among these illustrations was one of an 204 Wonders of a Great City. ancient Egyptian tomb, accompanied by a full and accurate description. The committee appointed by the Common Council to decide upon the necessary plans for the new prison were impressed with the idea of erecting a building Avhose general appearance and construction would correspond with the tomb de- scribed in Stevens' book. They accordingly made their report, recommending the construction of such a building, suggesting as a most fitting and appropriate name, "The Tombs." The report was adopted and work was begun at once. The result was a building of really grand proportions, but it was situated in so low a spot that its roof scarcely reached the level of the sidewalks of Broadway, which is only a short block from the Elm street wall of the jail. Piles had to be sunk deep in the marshy soil to furnish adequate foundations for the massive struc- ture. It was ready for occupation in 1838. The Tombs is built of Maine granite, is two stories high, and occupies the four sides of a hollow square, being 250 by 200 feet. There are 150 cells in the male prison, arranged in four tiers, and these often have to accom- modate two, and even three occupants each. The female prison which occupies the Leonard street end of the jail, has 20 cells. The prison for males is entirely separate from that for females. Each tier in the male prison has its special uses. In a portion of the cells on the lower floor, or ground tier, are placed the convicts — that is, those under sentence. To the second tier are consigned such prisoners as are brought in charged with serious offenses, such as arson, murder, etc. To the third The Tombs. 205 tier prisoners brought in for grand larceny and bur- glary are sent. The cells on the upper tier are reserved for those charged with minor offenses, such as petit larceny and the like. The lower tier cells are the largest, those on the upper tier the smallest. All are of the same width, but, owing to the manner in which the corridors are constructed, the cells on each tier are about two feet less in depth than those im- mediately underneath. The low^er cells are quite commodious, but in the upper ones there is no room to spare. The Franklin street side of the jail was formerly used as a station for the police of the district. It has since been altered, the cells and offices being taken out and the building converted into one large hall. In this hall are put the tram23S, vagrants and vagabonds, and those found drunk in the streets, where they are kept until the next morning, when their cases are sev- erally disposed of by the Commissioners^ — some being sent to the Penitentiary, others to the Workhouse and others to the Almshouse. This building is known to the attaches and frequenters of the Tombs as "Bum- mers' Hall." The "Ten-Day House," the section to which drunkards and others committed to durance for that length of time are confined, is also in this depart- ment. The ordinary services of the prison are performed by the ten-day prisoners, as they are called. They do all the cleaning and repairing and most of the kitchen work about the jail. Some twenty-five or thirty are thus kept constantly employed. Religious services are held every day except Saturday, which is devoted 206 Wonders of a Gee at City, to scrubbing and general cleaning up. As regards the food furnislied prisoners, a sufficiency of sweet, whole- some bread is received daily, and distributed liberally. Plenty of fresh vegetables and fresh meat are fur- nished for dinner five days of the week, and the other two (Tuesdays and Fridays) fresh fish is suj^plied in abundance. On special feast days, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc., there is a generous banquet pro- vided by voluntary contributions, assisted by the Warden and the Commissioners. Prisoners are per- mitted to receive food from their friends, and to pur- chase it from the outside. Those destitute of friends and money and in need of other than the ordinary fare, are liberally provided from the Warden's generous private table. The same rule applies with clothing. The relatives of prisoners are notified to provide them with weekly changes of body linen. If there are no relatives or they are poor, the Warden distributes the necessary garments on account of the city. There are six so-called district prisons in New York. All except the Tombs are merely reception prisons, in w^hich prisoners captured in the district are taken upon arrest. After a preliminary hearing offenders from these jails are always committed to the Tombs to await trial. The result is that that prison ahvays holds a strong force of the most desperate and dan- gerous criminals in the city. At one time, recently, there were sixteen under charges of murder alone. But there has been no escape from the Tombs since the flight of Sharkey a few years ago. The amusement of the Tombs prisoners, if they can be called such, are provided by the daily exercise in The Tombs, 207 the corridors, and by the visits of their friends. The exercise consists in an hour's tramp round and round the tier to which the captive's cell belongs. The rest of the time is spent behind the bars. Still the fact that smoking is allowed and that there are plenty of books in the prison renders this enforced idleness partially endurable. In addition to such literature as is provided by the captive's friends, the Tombs in- mates have the use of a library of nearly a thousand excellently selected volumes. This collection is due to the labors of Miss Linda Gilbert. DISTmGUISHED PRISOT^ERS. Since its completion the Tombs has held its comple- ment of noted murderers, from Hicks the pirate, Gor- don the slayer,and Sharkey down to Edward S. Stokes, who sent Jim Fisk to his final account ; but some of its most famous inmates have been confidence men. Governor Moses, of South Carolina, has graced it upon a half dozen occasions, and its record of Counts, Dukes and other titled foreigners, would fill a vol- ume. A slight review of a few of the widely known historic cases, will not be out of place in this con- nection. Count Eugene Milkiewiez, was one of the original aristocratic sharpers. He was a Russian, a guest of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and earned the rep- utation of giving the petite sonpers at Delmonico's. At the hotel there was quite a rivalry among the ladies for the greatest share of the Count's attention. Among the innumerable fair acquaintances of the Count was a young lady, Avho resided on Fifth Avenue. He was very lavish of his attentions to her, and almost invariably accompanied her on her drives and promenades. 208 Wonders of a Great City. On one occasion lie placed tlie young lady's ring, a brilliant of the first water, on his little finger, play- fully remarking that he would wear it for a few days. He had the gem removed, and a bogus stone inserted in its place. After some days had elapsed the ring was returned to its owner, and the fraud discovered. A warrant for the Count's arrest was procured, and he was taken to the Tombs, where he remained for some time, but was finally let out on his agreeing to enlist for the war. He was sent, with other recruits, to Governor's Island, where troops were stationed waiting to be forwarded to the front. He succeeded in ingratia- ting himself in the favor of the colonel and officers, and, on the plea of having some business with the Russian Minister at Washington relative to his home affairs, obtained a furlough for a few days, with the understanding that he was to meet the regiment at Washington. A few weeks afterwards he was heard of in Canada. Nothing further was heard of the Count for years, until a few winters ago, a paragraph appeared in one of the daily papers to the effect that the young Russian Count who had some years since victimized a young lady residing on Fifth Avenue, by borrow- ing her diamond ring and substituting a paste imi- tation therefor, had turned up again, and was pursuing a lady of wealth somewhere down East. This led to an exposure and he was driven into obscurity again. But he pursued his nefarious way. He married the daughter of a rich merchant of Rochester, only to squander her fortune and deserted The Tombs. 209 her, landing in the Baltimore jail, where he was, for a long time, prevented from indulging in his native rascality. Colonel Marmadnke Reeves was another famous sharper w^ho enjoyed the hospitality of the Tombs. Like his Russian rival, he was cunning enough to escape conviction for a long time. His fate, how- ever, overtook him in this fashion : "He inserted in one of the papers an advertisement for a governess to take the entire charge of three children, on a plan- tation South. Among the replies was one from a lady residing in a large and fashionable boarding house opposite St. John's Park. When evening came he called, and succeeded in effecting an en- gagement — desiring her to get ready, if possible, to leave with him on the following day. The lady agreed, and it was arranged that an expressman be sent for the trunks, and that the Colonel should call for her with a carriage. The expressman arrived the next day and carried all her valuables off, but the carriage failed to make its appearance, and she reported the case to the police authorities. After a few weeks' pursuit the Colonel was found and ar- rested. He paid for his sharp practice with four years and a half service to the State at Sing Sing. Another historic boarder was " William Fitzcharles McCarty, " who eloped with General Dan Sickles' daughter. McCarty was a royal scoundrel, and the law never got a hold on him it was ever able to retain. His incarceration in the Tombs was on ac- count of a robbery of diamonds he was accused of complicity, but he was eventually released. 210 Wonders of a Gee at City, McCarty's weakness was the fair sex. He had one legitimate wife, wliom he had abandoned as soon as he got rid of all her money, and no end of mistresses who believed themselves his wives. During the period when our Gov- ernment was likely to get into difficulty with the Spanish Government, on account of the Cuban in- surgents, McCarty succeeded in selling to William M. Evarts letters purporting to be written by them. He proposed to act as a kind of go-between and save the Government any trouble. His manners, dress and address were those of an accomplished gentle- man, and Mr. Evarts stepped into the snare. Once the money paid for the letters, he went to London. There he opened an office and ^pretended to be inter- ested in American wines. Very soon the money failed and he returned to New York, where he was arrested for complicity in the diamond robbery, but was acquitted when brought to trial. After victim- izing London again he proceeded to Paris, where McCarty struck the upper ranks of society in the American quarter. It was while they were there that Mrs. McCarty, the last,hadher suspicion aroused by a newspaper item that McCarty had been married previously. Finally she learned that such was indeed the fact, and a separation was the result. McCarty was scarcely free when he found a fresh victim in General Sickles' daughter. Since his elopement with her he had refrained from making himself conspicu. ous enough to get into the papers. Quite an elaborate fraud, though he was by no means the equal of McCarty, was in the Tombs by The Tombs. 211 proxy. In October, 1879, a genteel foreigner, about 27 years old, calling liimself Count Maurice De Fez, took apartments with a private family on Twelfth street. He lived at Spanish and French restaurants, and was allowed to run up large bills there. He claimed acquaintance wdth leading resident foreign- ers, and talked of taking service in the Cuban army. In the meantime he became very attentive to a pre- possessing young lady on Twenty-fourth street, an orphan, who finally agreed to marry him and sail for France, where, he said, they should settle on his es- tate. In view of the event, the young lady sold off all of her furniture and made preparations for the departure. Then the Count confided that he was short of funds, and obtained from her about $300. The French Consul was invited to give the bride away, and many well-known French and Spanish residents were asked to be present. The Count or- dered a wedding breakfast, to cost $350, from a well- known restaurateur, into whose confidence he had worked himself, and in ordering, he succeeded in borrowing $25 on the strength of his approaching marriage with an heiress. He also ordered many valuable presents for his affianced, but manao-ed to stave off payment. Three days before the wedding the Count drove up to his lodging house in a carriage, packed his trunks and mysteriously disappeared. When the fact was told to the lady, she took it quietly, and canceled the invitations and all wedding arrangements. A detective was employed to hunt up the Count, and on the day that should have been that of the wedding the officer appeared at the 212 Wonders of a Great City, Tombs with a prisoner. But it was not the Count De Fez. That ingenious nobleman when last heard from was enjoying himself in Canada. Since the time of the Count De Fez, the Tombs has held a very illustrious and successful fraud in the Right Hon. Aj^thur Pelham Clinton, who was arrested for confidence "operations in New York, and afterwards extradited to Utah, to answer to the forgery of drafts on England which the Utah bank cashed. Clinton was a very fair sample of a style of fraud which has become quite common in this country — the bogus lord. He was known to the I/ondon police as a pickpocket and thief. When they made it too hot for him in England, he crossed the Atlantic, and made a hit in society as an English- man of high position. Among the famous confidence men of this city whom the Tombs has held are Harry GifEord, other- wise known as "the Prince," whose first term there was for swindling his own mother; and Hod Bacon, a most dangerous old operator, with a pleasant man- ner and a plausible address, which have found many victims. Hod Bacon is the man who spent a week at a Jersey camp-meeting a couple of years ago, taking an apparently deep interest in all the proceed- ings, even rising to exhort the worshipers several times, and establishing such an intimacy with the devout Jerseymen that he came back to town rich enough to live in retirement for a year. Unfor- tunately for him, he had among his victims a muscular old blacksmith, who, on the occasion of a visit to New York, met his victimizer face to face in Tee Tombs. 213 the street. A fight followed, which led to the arrest of both. Bacon was identified, and a number of people who learned of his whereabouts by the report of the arrest in the papers, brought charges against him. He is now paying the penalty for them at Sing Sing. mSIDE VIEW. The Tombs is a suggestive place at an early hour on Sunday. Saturday night is a "gala day" with the low city population. With money in the pocket, and no work to do the next morning, men crowd the drinking places, break the peace, and are arrested by the wholesale. There is a room in the prison known as the Bummers' Cell. It will hold about two hun- dred. In it persons arrested on Saturday night are confined. Here are to be found all characters, classes, conditions, and ages; drunkards, brawlers, rioters, boys, men, some well dressed, some on their first spree ; well-to-do mechanics, even respectable citizens, with men crazed by bad rum, or yelling with delirium tremens, making a Pandemonium not found outside of New York. The court room juts into the prison yard, and the prisoners are brought before the jus- tice through a rear door, and are not carried outside at all. The court opens at six o'clock on Sunday morning, and a large part of the prisoners are dis- charged. Many of them are arrested without cause; though the captain at the station house is satisfied of that fact, he can discharge no one. He must lock up all who are brought to him. The innocent and the guilty pass the night in the station house, to be dis- 214 Wonders of a Great City. charged, if discharged at all, by the justice the next morning. THE COURT EOOM. Justice Dowling, who died a few years ago, was a remarkable man. He was short, very bald, with brilliant dark eyes, very prompt and decided. The following Avas the invariable scene in court : Before the judge is brought a motley crowd. He inquires into each case, and is judge, jury, and counsel. He decides at once, as the prisoners come before him — fine, imprisonment, or discharge. He reads intuitively the characters, knows when the parties are telling the truth, has sympathy with the poor creatures who are on trial, leans to the side of mercy, stands between the prisoner and the oppressor, becomes an advocate when the complainant is disposed to be crushing, and with the advice he gives, his warnings and admoni- tions, and even in his judgments, he sits more as a father than as a stern judge. Nearly all the arrests are for drunkenness, or for crimes growing out of it. Well-to-do men and very good looking women from the rural districts, who come in to see the sights, get tipsy, and visit Judge Dowling before they leave the city. If parties are drunk, and not disorderly, they are invariably discharged. Parties who are arrested for the first time, or who are not known to the police as having been arrested before, are discharged. Wit, humanity, and good nature, with strong common sense, unite in the judge. Persons frequently make complaints from revenge. Women come to complain of their husbands, and husbands of their wives. The The Tombs. 215 keen, discriminating judge turns the tables, and often sends the prisoners out of court, and the complainant into the cells. When the order is given to bring in the prisoners, it is a sight to see. A hundred or two come in with a rush. Young women in the latest style of dress, a little the worse for a night in the Tombs; old men tattered and torn, hatless and with- out shoes, looking as if they had escaped from Bedlam ; battered and dilapidated omen, with black or bloody eyes; women whose faces have been beaten to a jelly by their husbands ; boys of thirteen, hardened as if they had graduated fi^om prison; young clerks handsomely dressed, with flashing jewel- ry; respectable men, standing well in society; burg- lars, thieves, pickpockets, black, tawny, and white, of every nationality, and in every possible condition, all huddled together, to answer for misdemeanors or breaches of the peace. THE JUDGE ON THE BENCH. The roll before the judge contains the name of every person arrested, or such name as he chooses to give. As his name is called, each party stands up before the judge. The officer gives his testimony, the prisoner tells his story, and the judge decides whether the party shall be discharged, be fined, or be remanded to his cell for trial at the Court of Ses- sions. It is a curiosity to study the face, hear the testimony, and listen to the administration of justice. Two maidens from the sidewalk are brought up, Avith their veils down and their faces hid. To the stern command of the officer in charge the veil is 216 Wonders of a Great City. lifted, if not, the veil comes off, bonnet and all. The girls were fighting at the corner of the street, and would not move on. "You have made it up," said the judge ; then shake hands and go." An old rum- soaked woman pleads for mercy. "No; I'll send you up. It will do you good, and take the rum out of you. " A young girl of sixteen begs to be allowed to go home ; she only got a little tight, she says. "Well, go, but don't you come here again. " But she does not go. The next case called brings her up on to the stand again. "Didn't I tell you to go?" said the judge. "Yes, sir; but I want to take my friend with me. She was no worse than I was. " "Then you are not content to go by yourself?" "No sir. It won't hurt your honor to be kind to the poor girl. " "Well, go, and don't you let me see either of you inside this court again." And away they go, locked in each other's arms, dancing out of the door. A man com- plains of a dilapidated-looking woman for breaking every window in his house. "What did you do to her to induce her to do that ?" the judge says. "Nothing. She wanted to stay in my house, and there was no room, and I turned her out, and then she broke my windows." "What sort of a house do you keep?" "A boarding-house." "Yes, I know what sort of a boarding-house you keep. You live on the blood and bones of these poor creatures, and when they can't serve you any longer, you kick them into the street. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great, big, burly fellow like you engaged in such business. She broke your windows, did she? She ought to have broken your head. If you are ever brought before The Tombs. 217 me, as you will be very soon, I'll send you to the penitentiary. Now clear out. I won't hear a word from you." To the criminal he says, ''I shall have to commit you for a breach of the peace. But if you break any more windows, I shall send you to the penitentiary." A man is arrested for beating his wife. Her face is pummeled to a jelly. When asked for her testimony, she says, with trembling, " I don't want to harm him." "Can you support yourself?" the judge asks. "O, yes, your honor. I have to sup- port myself, and him too." 'Then I'll send him where he won't beat you any more, for six months at least." A woman brings a charge against her hus- band for beating her. The husband admits the chas- tisement ; but he has four small children, his wife gets drunk every day, and pawns the bread oif the table for rum. ^'Well," the judge says, it is a hard case but you musn't strike your wife. If she gets drunk again come to me. I'll send her where she can't pawn your bread." And so the trials go on. Full two thirds are dis- charged. With many it is the first offense. With others a night in the prison is punishment enough. Many belong in the navy ; they are sent to their ships. Many live in Jersey, Hoboken, Brooklyn, Harlem, Mott Haven. They promise to leave the city and never come back, and are generally escorted over the river. I doubt if anywhere else justice is meted out in such generous measure as in the Tombs. Hardened villains, and real scamps and rogues, have little chance ; but the poor creatures who have no one to care for them have a friend in the judge. Often a 218 Wonders of a Great City. gleam of smisliine lighfcs up the dreary room, and the laugh goes round. He sends a prisoner out to find the witness who fails to come and testify against him. Somebody's kitchen misses a cook on Sunday morning. She appears before the judge, well dressed, but very much ashamed. ^'Do you suppose "you can find your way home?" the judge says to her. "Well, go, but don't do that again." To another, ''Go, but if you come here again I'll send you to the pen- itentiary." So with caution, entreaty, expostulation, and judgment, justice is administered at the Tombs. DIVINE SEEVICE. The Sisters of Charity have the women and boys under their charge. They have a fine chapel in the upper part of the Tombs all to themselves ; no one is allowed to disturb them, and visitors are excluded. The Protestant worship is without chapel or room for service. The preacher stands on the platform of the corridor, and the bummers are brought from their cell and placed in the lower part of the long hall- way. Some sit on the few benches that are provided, some sit on the stone floor, many stand. The prisoners in their cells cannot be seen by the preacher. They can hear or not as they please. Company is allowed in the cells during service. The hum of conversation goes on; the prisoners read, smoke, or write; walk, sit, or go to bed. Besides the iron grated door which the keepers lock, there is an inside, closely fitting wooden door, which the prisoners can sliut if they please, and which tliey often do. If the preacher says anything they do not like, they throw it to, with The Tombs, 219 a slam. A little shelf, screwed on to the iron railing of the platform, makes the pulpit. There is no music, no singing, nothing attractive. The service is constantly interrupted by the business of the court. Prisoners are called for, their names shouted out, and they are brought down from one tier of cells to an- other, for trial or discharge. The buzz of talk is heard, the yawning of the weary, the prisoners mock- ing or imitating the preacher, and blending with all this is the yell of the maniac and the howl of the victim of delirium tremens. The contrast between the Catholic service in prison and the Protestant is very marked. The Catholic worship is made attractive and enjoyable. Pleasing Sisters of Charity take charge of the services, and able priests minister at the altar. The Protestant worship is as bare, tedious, and unattractive as can be imagined. There is little in it that is tender, affectionate, or winning. It can be, and ought to be, at once improved. LUDLOW STREET JAIL. Another noted place of confinement, although re- cently shorn of a fragment of its terrors, is Ludlow Street JaiL It is located on Ludlow street, adjoining Essex Market. All persons arrested upon process, authorized by the Sheriff of New York County, are placed in Ludlow. Ferdinand Ward and James D. Fish rested here for many months before going to the penitentiary, and the "boodle aldermen" also occupied its choicest cells. Persons placed in LudloA\^, who are unable to pay for extras, may live like prisoners. For twenty-five dollars a week they can obtain a 220 Wonders of a Great City. comfortable room, the bars of which are concealed by paper, and the stone tiling by carpets, and food better than that served to ordinary prisoners. While the Constitution of the Empire State forbids an arrest for debt, the majority of prisoners confined in Ludlow, come under the debt clause. A creditor who fears that his debtor is about to leave the State, can procure his arrest by the sheriff. A couple of years ago, the Assembly limited the periods of confinement under such arrests, so that it is now impossible to detain a creditor longer than a few months. Form- erly, creditors could obtain the arrest of unfortunate debtors, and they would be obliged to remain im- prisoned until the judgments were satisfied, even though it be years. Prisoners have always been systematically robbed by the deputy sheriff's, who hunt up bondsmen, friends, etc., and charge for their services at a rate which would give a Shylock heart disease. CHAPTER XIII. THE FIVE POINTS. A SCENE AT FIVE POINTS — LADIES' FIVE POINTS MISSION — ORIGIN OF THE WORK — THE FIELD SELECTED — THE NATIONALITY OF THE LOWLY — THE MISSION BEGUN — A WALK AROUND FIVE POINTS — THE MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL — HOW THE WORK IS SUPPORTED — SUC- CESS OF THE MISSION WORK. AS the superintendent of our mission establish, ment was looking out of his door, he saw a man running up the street, apparently in a state of wild excitement. His coat was off, he had no hat on, and his feet were bare. The superintendent approached him, and led him into his room. He soon sank into unconscious slumber. He remained in this condition an hour. The prayer-bell sounded, and he started in alarm, and cried out, "What's that?" He was told it was the prayer-bell. " Prayer-bell ! " ex- claimed the man. "Prayer-bell! Do you have pray- ers in this dreadful locality?" " We have prayers," said the superintendent, and invited the man to go in. He went in, and his sobs and cries so inter- rupted the service, that it was with difficulty that the parties proceeded. He soon learned where he was : he then made a clean breast of himself. 222 Wonders of a Great City, He was a Western merchant ; he had a load of butter on the way to Boston ; he was a man of good standing at home ; a class leader in the Methodist church. Hav- ing leisure, he took a stroll around New York to see the sights. A respectably-dressed and good-looking woman asked him to treat her. As he wanted to get material for a letter that he was to send home, he thought that a compliance with her request would enable him to see a side of life that he could not other- wise see, so he went in to treat. Having drank, she insisted upon treating him. A teetotaler at home, he complied with her invitation, and drank. From that time till he was awakened by the prayer-bell he had no distinct consciousness. He had an indistinct recol- lection of being led down some dark, damp steps. He had over one thousand dollars in money with him, and he recollected taking that out. Money, watch, hat, coat, — all were gone. " Can't I get my money and my coat ? " he asked. " Yes," said the superintendent, " I can get them for you, but you must go before a magistrate. Your name, place of business, and all about you, must come out and be blazed in the papers." " Then let it all go," he said ; " I had rather lose my money than my good name." Money was furnished him ; coat, hat, and shoes were supplied, all of which he promptly paid fgr when his butter reached Boston. His search for things to put into a letter was so amply rewarded, that he will not probably try it again. New York is said to be a very wicked place, full of traps and gins, pitfalls and snares ; but gentlemen from the country are the persons who generally fall into them. The Five Points. 223 ladies' five points mission. ORIGIN OF THE WORK. Thirty years ago a few ladies assembled in a brown-stone mansion up town, to consult on the best methods of reaching the destitution of the city, and dohig missionary work. One of them suggested that it would be better to go where the poor and neglected children really were, and proposed to open a mission at Five Points. It was then a dangerous locality, full of bad men and bad women, the resort of burglars, thieves, and desperadoes, with dark, under-ground chambers, where murderer* of+en hid, where the policeman seldom went, and never unarmed. A person passing through that locality after dark was sure to be assaulted, beaten, and probably robbed. The noise of brawls nightly filled the air ; shouts for police and cries of murder brought the inmates from their beds. The proposition that a lady should go into such a locality to do mission work was received with astonishment. THE FIELD SELECTED. Persons who perambulate Broadway, on a pleasant day, who look on the elegantly-dressed throng that crowd the pavement, and through the costly plate-glass at the rich goods displayed, would be slow to believe that within a stone's throw squalid want and criminal woe have their abode. Here lie the Fourth and Sixth "Wards, so famous in the history of crime in New York. In this locality one walks amid drunkenness, wretchedness, and suffering, within sound of the rumble of Broadway, within sight of the merry, gay, and well-dressed thousands who move up and down this thoroughfare of the city. No pen 224 Wonders of a Great City. can describe the homes of the lowlj where the New York poor lodge. It is a region of wickedness, filth, and woe. Lodging-houses are under ground, foul and slimy, without ventilation, and often without windows, and overrun with rats and every species of vermin. Bunks filled with decayed rags, or canvas bags filled with rotteti straw, make the beds. All lodgers pay as they enter these dark domains. The fee is from five to ten cents, and all are welcome. Black and white, young and old, men and women, drunk and sober, occupy the room and fill the bunks. If there are no beds, lodgers throw themselves on the hard, dirty floor, and sleep till morning. Lodging-rooms above ground are numerous in the narrow lanes, and in the dark and dangerous alleys that surround the Five Points. Rooms are rented from two to ten dollars a month, into which no human being would put a dog, — attics, dark as mid- night at noonday, without window or door they can shut, without chimney or stove, and crowded with men, women, and little children. Children are born in sorrow, and raised in reeking vice and bestiality, that no heathen degradation can exceed. THE NATIONALITY OF THE LOWLY. Every state in the Union, and every nation almost in the world, have representatives in this foul and danger- ous locality. Its tenant and cellar population exceed half a million. One block contains 382 families. Per- sons composing thesv. families were, 812 Irish, 218 Ger mans, 186 Italians, 189 Poles, 12 French, 9 English, ' Portuguese, 2 Welsh, 39 Negroes, 10 Americans. Oi' religious faiths 118 represented the Protestant, 28/ were Jews. 160 Catholics: but of 614 children, only 1 2'HE Five Foints. 225 in 66 attended any school. Out of 916 adults, 605 could neither read nor write. In the same block there were 33 undergound lodging-houses, ten feet below the sidewalk, and 20 of the vilest grog-shops in the city. During five hours on the Sabbath, two of these grog- shops were visited by 1054 persons, — 450 men and 445 women, 91 boys and 68 girls. THE MISSION BEGUN. Resolved to attempt mission work in this danger- ous and neglected locality, the heroic women who founded the Five Points Mission secured a room op- posite the Old Brewery. This famous building stood in the centre of the Five Points. It was filled with a vile and degraded population. Over a thousand persons were tenants in the building. The mission- school opened with a group of rude, untamed chil- dren. They were lawless as wild Arabs. The Confer- ence of the Methodist Church assigned Rev. L. M. Pease to this station, and here he commenced the great work with which his Home has been so long and so favorably connected. The ladies purchased the Old Brewery, had it pulled down, and on its site erected the elegant Mission House, which has been such a blessing to the lowly. Besides the school-rooms, and chapel for day and Sunday service, the building con- tains tenements for sober, industrious poor w^ho are well behaved, and here they find, at a low rent, comfort. About thirty years the lady founders of this insti- tution have carried on their great and good work. They still conduct the w^ork. From this institution the first comnanv of sorrowing!: and neglected chil- >26 WoNDEns OF A Great City. hen were taken to comfortable Christian homes in Ihe West. The kindred institutions of Five Points House of Industry, and others, were founded by men who were once in the employ, and received their lessons from, the Old Brewery Mission. The whole locality has been changed. Nearly thirty years of work, designed to rescue little suffering childhood, and to do good to the perishing, in the name of the Lord, has produced ripe, rich fruit. The Old Brewery has fallen, and a costly mansion, the gift of Christian munificence, occupies its site. The House of Industry stands opposite. Cow Bay and Murderer's Alley, with rookeries and abodes of desperate people, have passed away. Comfortable tenements occupy their place. The hum of busy toil and industry takes the place of reeking blasphemy. Trade, with its marble, granite, and brown-stone palaces, is pushing its way into this vile locality, and is completing the reform which reli- gion and beneficence began. On a festive day, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, the ladies welcome their friends to a sight worth travelling many miles to see. From six hundred to a thousand children, homeless, houseless, and orphaned, each with a new suit or dress made by the lady managers and their friends, singing charmingly, exhibiting great proficiency in education, and a wonderful knowledge of the Bible, sitting down to a well-laid table, it is touching to see. Hotels, mar- ketmen, bakers, confectioners, and friends generally, make liberal contribution to feed the little ones. Loaves large enough for a fancy scull on the Hudson, pyramids of candies, and cakes and good things by the hundred weight, dolls, toys, and presents, are abundant so that eauh lit^3e one bears some gift away. The Five Points. 227 A WALK AROUND FIVE POINTS. A walk through the streets in the neighborhood of this Mission will show where the materials come from of which it is composed. Forty thousand vagrant and destitute children are in this field. Their parents are foreigners. They are too dirty, too ragged, and carry too much vermin about them, to be admitted to the public schools. Their homes are in the dens and stews of the city, where the thieves, vagabonds, gam- blers and murderers dwell. With the early light of morning they are driven from their vile homes to pick rags and cinders, collect bones, and steal. They fill the galleries of the low theatres. They are familiar with every form of wickedness and crime. As they grow^ up they swell the ranks of the dangerous classes. Our thieves, burglars, robbers, rioters, who are the most notorious, are young persons of foreign parentage, be- tween ten and seventeen years of age. The degraded women who tramp the streets in the viler parts of the city, who fill the low dance houses, and wait and tend in low drinking-saloons, graduate in this vile locality. Over a thousand young girls, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, can be found in the ^yater Street drinking-saloons. To this same character and doom these forty thousand children are hastening. All around this Mission, children can be seen who come up daily from the brothels and dens of infamy which they call their homes, wdiere women and men, black and white, herd together, and where childhood is trained up, by daily beatings and scanty fare, to cruelty and blasphemy. To rescue them, this Mission Home 228 Wonders of a Great City. was founded. They are made clean, are clad com- fortably, and learn to sing the sweet songs about the Savior and the better land. Nearly twenty thousand, since the Mission was founded, have been rescued from these hot-beds of wickedness, and placed in good homes here and at the West. Many, through the kindness of friends, have been sent to seminaries, from which they have graduated with honor. Not a few are first-class mechanics. Some of these hopeless classes, as the world regards them, rescued by the Mission, are clerks and cashiers in banks, insurance offices, and places of trust. Little girls picked up from the streets, found in the gutter, taken from dens of infamy, brought to the Mission by drunken women, — many of whom never knew father or mother, — are now the adopted daugh- ters of wealthy citizens, the wives of first-class mechan- ics, of lawyers, and princely merchants. They owe their deliverance from disgrace and shame to the out- stretched arms of these Missions. THE MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. The work of rescuing the fallen and the lost is no longer an experiment. The rooms in which the chil- dren are gathered are quite elegant. The decorations are the gifts of friends. If Mary breaks the alabaster box of precious ointment on the Savior's feet, what right has Judas to find fault? It costs him nothing. She will be quite as ready to aid the poor as if she had not given this costly expression of her love. Without pleasant rooms, music, song, and marks of taste, the lower classes cannot be reached. Few are fitted to labor in such mission work. Patience, a loving heart, and The Five Points. 229 warm sympathy for the distressed, are essential. A teacher neglectful of her dress, untidy in appearance, harsh in voice, and repulsive in manner, can do little good in this field. The children who compose the Mission come from homes of wretchedness and sufferino:. They know want, they know brutality, they are famil- iar with cruelty. They enter a new world when they enter the Mission. Kind voices welcome them ; tender hands remove the rags and put on comfortable clothes ; they are led to the table, where they take the only meal they ever took without stint and without terror. A beautiful lady receives them at the school-room door. The dress and kind tone make the little wanderer think she is an angel. The child never tires looking at her teacher, her ornaments, her pleasant face, and wonder- ing if she will ever be cross, if she will ever strike her, or turn her out of doors. The piano is sounded, and the child is startled as the full tide of song rolls through the room. She has taken her first upward step in life. Could you hear that swelling chorus, so full, so accurate, so joyous, and your eyes were shut, you would imagine that you were in a cathedral, hearing a choir trained by a master's hand, rather than a few hundreds of vagrant children taken from the purlieus of New York. To-morrow this little rescued one will sing her first Hong to the Savior. She will try to be like her teacher, and will make an effort at cleanliness. Then she will fix her hair with her fingers, get bits of faded ribbon or colored tissue paper for a rosette, fastened in its place by a pin ornamented with a glass bead. Lord Shaftesbury helped the working-men of England to rise by encouraging a love for flowers, making what were 230 WONDEBS OF A GliEAT CiTY, called window-gardens, and growing brilliant flowers in the windows of the London poor. The labors of a quarter of a century have proved that next to food and clothing the Mission of the Beautiful is the most reform- ing of all the agencies now employed in London. The lady who founded Five Points Mission carried out the same idea. She opened her school in this degraded locality with the same dress and ornaments that she wore at church or when she called upon a friend. She was received as a visitant from another sphere. Her influence was at once established, and for seventeen years it has remained undiminished. The miserable homes she visited to bless knew that she could not seek the society of Five Points for her own pleasure. Degraded women heard with wonder the story of the Cross from her lips. They believed her when she said she came to them for His sake who left heaven to die for men, and when on earth had not where to lay His head. HOW THE WORK IS SUPPORTED. Over half a million of property has been consecrated to this great work among the neglected, the abandoned, and the lowly. The whole of it has been a voluntary offerino; to Christ from the benevolent. This Mission has no funds, but relies upon the voluntary donations of food, clothing, and money which are sent in from every portion of the land. The institution is constant- ly increavsing in efficiency, and enlarging its work. Yet the donations keep pace with its extent. The doors are open to all comers, day and night. Railroads and expressmen bring donations free of charge. The benef- icence of our land, in the city and in the country, has The Five Points. 231 a fitting memorial in this dark and terrible locality of the metropolis. SUCCESS OF THE MISSION WORK. The leading soprano of one of our largest and most popular churches, who was recently married to the son of a wealthy merchant in New York, was brought to the door of one of the Five Points Mission Houses by a drunken woman, who left her young charge and departed. The little stranger was taken in. She has never known father nor mother : the child of neglect and suffering she evidently was. Scantily clothed with ragged garments, hungry and sorrowful, she found in the Mission the first sympathy she had ever known. She proved to be a bright and cheerful child, and apt to learn. She developed early a taste for music. Kind friends furnished means to cultivate her talent. She has never despised her adopted home, or been ashamed of the friends who rescued her. Had she been born in Fifth Avenue, among the upper ten, her prospects in life could hardly have been fairer. A REMARKABLE MEETING. On Thanksgiving Day, four young men and their wives met together for a social dinner. One of them was cashier of a leading New York bank, one of them was book-keeper of a large insurance ofiice, another was confidential clerk in a leading mercantile house, the fourth -was a rising lawyer. The wives of all were intelligent and accomplished, and moved in good society. The dinner was given at the house of one of the party. It was a genteel residence, handsomely 232 Wonders of a Great City, furnished. The hand of taste and hberaUty adorned the dwelHng and presided over the table. Those four young women were taken out of the slums of New York, when they w^ere little children, by Christian wo- men. They were removed from the reeking atmos- phere of vice and blasphemy, and brought under the genial influences of religion. They were turned from the black pathway that thousands tread to the narrow way of intelligence and purity. The young men were born in the dark chambers of lower New York, w^here the depraved herd by hundreds. They started life with a training that would have fitted them to swell the crowded ranks of the desperate classes, under which they w^ould perhaps have ended their days in the prison or on the gallow^s. But a kind Providence brought them within the reach of these Mission Homes, and they were saved — saved to themselves, saved to society, saved to their Savior; for all of them are devout members of the church of God, and earnest laborers in the mission work of the city. ANOTHER GOOD WORK. Close by the Mission is the large and commodious Newsboys' Lodging House, where these little street Arabs have good beds, baths, school-rooms, and a large hall for lectures and entertainments. Here they live cheaply and cleanly, and are encouraged to save money. Good places are also found for many of them at the West and elsewhere. CHAPTER XIV. THE BOWERY. THE FLASHIEST OP ALL THE FLASH STREETS IN THE METROPOLIS. — ITS APPEARANCE ON SUNDAY. — THE PERSONS WHO INHABIT IT. — LAGER BEER GARDENS. — A WALK UP THE AVENUE. THE Bowery is the flasMest of all flash streets in the metropolis. It is celebrated from pole to pole and is equally as widely known abroad as Wall street and Broadway. The BoAvery never was an aristocratic street ; it never aspired to be anything, and its expectations were well verified. It used to be an old country road and persons who settled along it built their houses near the road's line, and in the course of time a street was formed. The Bowery starts at Chatham Square, breaking out fi*om a net- work of small streets like Chatham, Pell, Division, Mulberry, Baxter, New Bowery, Mott and East Broad- way, the Bowery runs in a crooked, northerly fashion. It widens a trifle at Canal street but at Grand it branches out and becomes the broadest thoroughfare in the city. It does not narrow again and finally loses itself at Sixth street, where part of it forms Fourth avenue, and the remainder goes to Harlem with Third avenue. The Bowery is about a mile long. Its stores and warehouses are mainly of the shoddy sort. Tiici e 234 Wonders of a Great City. are a couple of banks, one theatre and a wholesale house or two of some respectability and pretensions, but that is all. It is gridironed by elevated roads overhead and surface lines block the street below, and is no place for aristocratic trade. The great mass of tradespeople are foreigners. The children of Is- rael are numerous and have here their headquarters for cheap jewelry, furniture and clothing. Saloons, "free and easies," dance halls, prize fighters' rooms, "opium joints" and shooting galleries abound, while pawnbrokers and policy knaves flourish. It is also the great rendezvous for cheap miliners and small traders. THE BOWEEY OlS SUKDAY. To be seen in its glory, the Bowery must be visited on Sunday morning and night. Broadway is quiet, the lower part of the city still, but the Bowery is alive with excitement. The clothing establishments of the Hebrews are opened for trade. Many of the race are apothecaries, jewellers, and keepers of drink- ing saloons. These men have no conscience in re- gard to the Christian Sabbath. Early they are at their places of business. Their stands on the side- walk are crowded, and, as their custom is, they solicit trade from all passers by. The degi'aded population who live in the filthy region east of Bowery, from Catharine to Canal Streets, come up on to the pave- ment of this broad thoroughfare to breathe and drive their trade. Early in the morning troops of young girls can be seen, thinly clad and barefooted, on their way to the dram-shops. These shops are very numer- The Bowery, 235 ous, and, with the lager beer gardens, are opened early, and are crowded. These places are mostly kept by Germans. The Italians and Irish are also in the business. On the afternoon of Sunday, Bowery, for its entire length, is crowded. At night it is bril- liantly illuminated, and the drinking places are filled by thousands of women, children and men. The lowest drinking places, the vilest concert saloons, ne- gro ministrelsy of the lowest order, and theatricals the most debasing, distinguish the pastimes of the Bowery. These places, open on Sunday, are jammed to suffocation Sunday nights. Actresses too corrupt and dissolute to play anywhere else appear on the boards at the Bowery. Broad farces, indecent com- edies, plays of highwaymen, and murderers, are re- ceived with shouts by the reeking crowd that fill the low theatres. News-boys, street-sweepers, rag- pickers, begging girls, collectors of cinders, and all who can beg or steal a dime fill the galleries of these corrupt places of amusement. Tliere is not a dance-cellar, a free-and-easy, a concert-saloon, or^a vile drinking place, that presents such a view of the de- pravity and degradation of New York as the gallery of a Bowery theatre. LAGEE BEER GAEDENS. These immense establishments, patronized by the Germans, are located in the Bowery. They will hold from a thousand to fifteen hundred persons. The Atlantic Gardens will seat comfortably, up stairs and down, one thousand. All day on Sunday they are filled. People are coming and going all the 236 Wonders of a Great City. * while. The rooms are very neat, and even tastefully fitted up, as all German places of amusement are. The vilest of them have a neatness and an attractive- ness not found among any other nation. The music is first class. A piano, harp, violin, drums, and brass instruments, are played by skillful performers. The Germans visit these gardens to spend the day. They are eminently social. They come, husband and wife, with all the children, brothers and sisters, cousins and neighbors ; nor are the old folks omitted. The family bring with them a basket of provisions, as if they were on a picnic. Comfortable rooms are pro- vided for their entertainment. They gather as a family around a table. They exchange social greet- ings, and enjoy to their bent the customs of their fatherland. They play dominoes, cards, dice; they sing, they shout, they dance ; in some places billiards and bowling are added, with rifle shooting. The room and entertainment are free to all. A welcome is extended to every comer. The long bar, immense in extent, tells the story. Here the landlord, his wife, and may be his daughters, with numerous waiters, furnish the lager beer which sustains the establisment. The quantity sold in a day is enor- mous. A four -horse team from the brewery, drawing the favorite beverage, finds it difiicult to keep up the supply. A large portion of the visitors are young lads and girls. So immensely profital)le is tlie sale of lager beer in these gardens, that the proprietors are willing to pay at any time quite a sum to any large association who will spend the day on their premises. The Bowery. 237 A WALK UP THE AVENUE. Leaving the City Hall about six o'clock on Sunday night, and walking through Chatham Square to the Bowery, one would not believe that New York had any claim to be a Christian city, or that the Sabbath had any friends. The shops are open, despite the Sunday law, and trade is brisk. Abandoned females go in swarms, and crowd the sidewalk. Their dress, manner and language indicate that depravity can go no lower. Sunday theaters, concert saloons, and places of amusement are in full blast. The Italians and Irish shout out their joy from the rooms they occupy. The click of the billiard ball, and the boom- ing of the ten-pin alley, are distinctly heard. Before midnight, victims watched for will be secured; men heated with liquor, or drugged, v/ill be robbed ; and many curious and bold explorers in this locality will curse the hour in which they resolved to spend a Sunday in the Bowery. CHAPTER XV. mCIDEXTS IN CITY EVANGELIZATION. THE NEW YORK CITY MISSION — ORIGIN OF THE "WORK — THRILLING INCI- DENTS—TEMPERANCE IN A RUM SALOON — RESCUE OF THE DESTITUTE — A SOLDIER IN TROUBLE — A YOUNG MAN's STORY — NOT EASILY DISCOURAGED — A MISSIONARY'S DAILY WORK — A FOOL ANSWERED ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY. THE Kew York City Mission, though not under that name, was founded February 19, 1827. Into this was merged the Young Men's Tract Society Avhich was formed in 1825. The work of tlie society for two years was to supply with tracts the ship- ])ing, markets, humane and criminal institutions, and the outskii'ts of the city. In June, 1832, a new fea- ture in the work was introduced, especially by the lamented Harlan Page. It was the concentrated elfort and prayer for the salvation of individuals. This gave directness and efficiency to the society, and missionaries were employed to labor in the des- titute Avards of the city. From November, 1834, to 1866, the number of regular missionaries increased from twelve to forty-five. The work among the New York poor and neglected has continued for over fifty years. The society now employs forty six mission- aries, with twenty stations. These men, during a City Evangelization, 239 single year, have made about one hundred and twenty thousand visits to the neglected homes of the city, have reached fifty-three thousand nine hundred families, and have distributed nearly two millions of tracts in twelve different tongues. Walking through the lanes and by-ways of the city, they per- suade the multitudes to go to the house of God and to the Sunday School. Their work among neglected and vagrant boys and girls is very successful. Tem- porary relief has been afforded to the needy, and employment found for the stranger. Friendless girls — and they are counted by thousands — have been led to houses of security and protection. Fallen women have been led back to the path of rectitude, and over ten thousand have been led to attend some place of worship. Young men have been enlisted in the mission work; religious reading has been furnished to police stations and the rooms of firemen ; and this presents but a feeble view of the work of all shades and hues that the lowly demand, and these devout and self-denying men perform. THEILLING INCIDEOTS. No book of romance could be made as thrilling as one filled with the details of real life among the des- titute poor of New York. Men and women come here from all the cities and towns of the Union and the world. They come for hope of gain ; to make a fortune ; to get a livelihood, and to hide their char- acters in the wilderness of this great people. Many bring with 'them a little money, and hope to increase their store. Many are seduced from home by offers of 240 Wonders of a Great City, employment. Many come under promises of marriage. Sickness, bad society, sudden temptation and crime plunged them into want. Many sincerely repent, but are not able to escape from the mire into which they have fallen. The arm of the benevolent and the reli- gious must help and rescue the fallen. In the thousands of visits that missionaries pay, facts that thrill the heart and move the compassion are daily gathered. TEMPERA]S"CE A EUM SALOON. In a saloon where tracts had been previously left without opposition, the keeper said to the assistant, "I wish you and your tracts were in hell; you have made my customers crazy ; you have injured my business." This was said with oaths and curses. As the visitor left the house, a man followed him, who said, "That barkeeper told some truth. I was a hard drinker'; within six months I have spent five hundred dollars in his»house; but since I read your tracts I have quit drinking, and spent my time in seeking my soul's salvation. " He stated that three others had followed his example, and they went together to church on the Sabbath. As the assistant was crossing the Brooklyn ferry, he was accosted by a genteely-dressed man, who said, "I believe you are the person who, in August last, took a wretched, bloated drunkard into the mission in Greenwich Street. After he signed the pledge^ you gave him some clothing, and money to pay his fare to Brooklyn." The assistant remembered such a case. "Well." said the man, "I am tli^t maix Leaving you, 1 went to my old employer, told nim * City JEvangelization. 241 had signed the pledge, and asked him to try me again. With many fears he took me back. I thank God that by his grace I have kept ray pledge, and gained my employer's confidence. I am now a member of the church, and an officer in the Sabbath School." EESCUE OF TIIE DESTITUTE. A Christian lady, riding from Newark to New York, met in the cars a girl in distress, and on reach- ing the city, she led her to the mission. The girl's story was briefly this : She was a German orphan, sixteen years old, at service in Erie, Pa. Another girl had persuaded her to go with her to New York, where, she was told, she could live without doing much work. Having money on hand, saved from her earnings, she agreed to go; and they started together. At Dunkirk, in the changing of cars, they became separated, and this girl remained and took the next train. A respectable looking woman in the same car, seeing her weep, tendered her sympathy, and told her she lived in New York, and would take her to a good place. On their arrival at Jersey City, she took the cars for Newark, N. J., where they put up at a public house, and occupied the same room for the night. When the girl awoke in the morning, her money, and her clothing, and her friend were gone. She could not leave her room, she was completely stripped. The wife of the hotel keeper had com- passion on her, and gave her an old dress and a ticket to this city. Her experience among strangers had made her anxious to return home. The funds 242 Wonders of a Great City. needful to clothe her comfortably, and procure a passage ticket to Erie were raised, and in a few days she left for home, grateful that she had been provi- dentially saved from ruin. She returned to the family she left, and in writing, says, "I think the Lord led me to your mission to convert me. " A SOLDIER IN TROUBLE. - Being requested to visit a needy family, the mis-w sionary hastened to the place given as their abode. ' This was in an upper room of an old tenement house. On inquiry, he found it to be the family of one who had fought under the stars and stripes. He had been discharged from the service. His wife was i confined to her bed by sickness, and was so feeble asj to be seemingly but just alive. Three small but in- teresting children were shivering over a scanty fire. The soldier-husband and father acted as nurse and; housekeeper. His room, both in order and cleanli- - ness, gave evidence that he was one of those who could turn his hand to almost everything. Generous persons placed means in the hands of the mission- aries for benevolent purposes, and the family was relieved. Spiritual as well as temporal ministrations | were thankfully received, and the missionary always I found a welcome. . A YOUNG man's STORY. "In September, 1873, I left my country home to* seek my fortune in the metropolis of the nation,j willing to work at anything tliat Providence should) place in my way, unmindful what it might be. Upon ! OiTY Evangelization. 243 my arrival here, the crisis was just beginning to tell with fearful effect upon all classes. Persons in almost every branch of industry were thrown out of employ- ment, and even the best known and most skillful found it difficult to obtain work at the then greatly reduced rates of compensation. I had previously worked at a trade, but leaving before my time had expired I was not entitled to a recommendation, nor did I get one. I had recourse to Mr. the mis- sionary's kind offices. I called on him, stated my case, and after he had listened to my story, he con- cluded to give me a recommendation, in substance, as follows : — " 'This is to certify that I believe to be a faithful, honest, and industrious boy, and that I take great pleasure in recommending him to any person who may need his services, feeling satisfied that all work given him will be performed to the best of his ability.' "With this in my pocket, I again went forth, and soon succeeded in obtaining work at the miserable pittance of a dollar and a half per week, in a large manufactory where they were making a new article, on which the profits were at least a hundred per cent. I worked there for eighteen months, and the largest sum I obtained was two dollars and a half per week. During this time my winter evenings were spent in reading and at night school, never going to a place of amusement of any kind but once in all that time. In this way I became more perfect in my education, and when fortune smiled on me I found myself reasonably competent to meet its du- 244 WONDERS OF A GREAT CiTY. ties ; and commencing in my position at a salary of nine dollars per week, it has gone on increasing until now it is two thousand dollars a year. Many times during the last nine years I had promised myself the pleasure of calling on and thanking the kind giver of that recommendation, to which I owe my present success ; but through some means or other my good intentions were not carried into execution in time to see my generous friend on earth, and I can show my gratitude in no better way than in aiding the good work in which he was engaged, which I propose doing in proportion to my means. " A missionaky's daily work. Like his experience, the duties of a city missionary are at times very peculiar. This is true, at least, when- ever he has to convert a butcher's shop into a mission station. For example, he begins the day at an early hour, and is occupied with things ordinary and ex- traordinary until ten. He then goes over to James Pyle's to beg a box of soap ; and glad at the success of his errand, he runs two or three blocks on his way back, out of mere forgetf ulness. Now he has direc- tions to give some workmen waiting to receive him ; a conversation with the gas-fitter, and a conference j with the carpenter, which is presently interrupted by ' the woman who has come to clean, declaring that j nothing worth naming can be done until the mission- j ar}^ goes to the corner grocery for "a scrubbing brush' ' and five cent's worth of washing-soda." These pro- j cured, it is found that there is some whitewashing to I to be done, and unfortunately there is no one but j City Evangelization. 245 "the man of all work" to do it ; and so, because the work, already too long delayed, must not be hindered, nothing is left but for the poor missionary to mount an empty dry-goods box and swing his brush until two long hours have filled him with fatigue and dis- gust. But it is twelve o'clock, and he has scarcely time for a hasty washing of hands and face, the re- moval of sundry "trade marks" from his coat and hat, and the polishing of his boots with a newspaper, for he has an appointment shortly after noon. In an upper room a little company is gathered, while below a hearse and carriage stand waiting at the door. For the days of only one week w^as the daughter and sister visited before death came to put an end to all preparation. Looking upon the peace- ful form, clad in the garments of the grave, where before the violence of pain almost prevented the ut- terance of bodily fear, and restless desire, and ardent hope at last, a theme was at once suggested, and the missionary found refreshment for his own spirit while he endeavored to comfort and instruct with thoughts of the happiness of that home, and of the nature and importance of the efforts to reach it, Avhere the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. A FOOL ANSWEEED ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY. The missionary has often occasion for all his wits, and must sometimes "answer a fool according to his folly. " On the top floor of a tenement-house in Mott Street, lives a shoemaker, a hard drinker and a scoffer at religious things ; but with all this a good-tempered 246 Wonders of a Great City. fellow, wlio will bear plain talking. His family, and some girls who work with him, are in the habit of at- tending our meetings. One day in November, as the assistant was visiting them, with an evident design to make sport of him and his work, the shoemaker turned upon him, saying, "Mr. P , you have made all my family believe there is a devil : now, did you ever see him?" "O, yes sir," said he, "very many times. I can't say I ever saw the big old devil — he is too cunning for that ; but I have see a great many little ones. I saw one or two just before I came into your house." He wanted to know how they looked. "Well, they were very much bloated up, eyes red, face a little peeled and bruised, and, phew ! what a breath ! One of them seemed to be holding the other up ; and as I was coming up stairs they were holding on to the lamp-post to keep from falling." "Well, sir," said he, "I never saw the devil, and Fd like to see one. " He felt he was in for it, that the women were laughing at him behind his back, and that he must make as good a fight as he could. With that the assistant led him up to his glass, saying, "Look there ; you will see the description is all right." "Do you mean to call me a devil?" "Now, don't get mad; you know you began it." "That's so," said he ; "but I'd like to have you prove I'm a devil." "Well, I'll prove you are a little one from Scripture. The Savior told the Jews, ^Ye are of your father the devil ; the lusts of your father ye will do.' And the apostle says, *Now the works of the flesh'— that is, of the devil — ^are manifest, which are these: adulteries, murders, drunkeness, revellings, and such like." QiTY Evangelization. 247 Without a word, he turned on his heel, went to his bench, and took up his lapstone. "la devil" — rap, rap — "proved too by Scripture" — rap, rap — "pretty tough that on a fellow" — rap, rap, rap. His wife has told us he has not taken a drop since of any kind of liquor, not even beer. CHAPTER XVI. BUSINESS REVERSES IN NEW YORK. MIRAGE OF WEALTH. — RAILROAD CONDUCTOR. — A RAJLROAD KING.^ SARATOGA BELLE. — ROCK IN THE CHANNELS. — SUCCESS A COY THING. OLD-SCHOOL MERCHANTS. MEN who visit New York, and see nothing but the outside aspect which it presents, imagine that success is one of the easiest things in the world, and to heap up riches a mere pastime in the city. They are familiar with the name and history of the Astors. They . know that Stewart began life a poor boy, kept a store in a small shanty, and kept house in a few rooms in a dwelling, and boarded his help. They walk through Fifth Avenue, and look on the outside of palaces where men dwell who left home a few years ago with their worldly wealth tied up in a cotton handkerchief. They stroll around Central Park, and magnificient teams, gay equipages, and gayer ladies and gentlemen, go by in a constant stream ; and men are pointed out who a short time ago were grooms, coachmen, ticket-takers, boot-blacks, news-boys, printer's devils, porters, and coal-heavers, who have come up from the lower walks of life by dabbling in stocks, by a lucky speculation, or jBusiness He verses 249 a sudden turn of fortune. So young men pour in from the country, confident of success, and ignorant that these men are the exceptions to the general law of trade ; and that ruin and not success, defeat and not fortune, bankruptcy and not a fine competence, are the law of New York trade. Nothing is more striking or more sad than the com- mercial reverses of this city. They come like tempests and hail storms which threaten every man's plantation, and cut down the harvest ready for the sickle. Few firms have had permanent success for twenty-five years. In one house in this city twenty men are em- ployed as salesmen on a salary, who, ten years ago, were called princely merchants, whose families lived in style, and who led the fiishions. Men who embark on the treacherous sea of mercantile life are ingulfed, and while their richly-laden barks go down, they escape personally by the masts and spars thrown to them by more fortunate adventurers. One house in this city, quite as celebrated at one time as Stewart's, who, in imitation of that gentleman, built their marble store on Broadway, are now salesmen in establishments more successful than their own. New York is full of reduced merchants. Some of them bravely bear up under their reverses. Some hide away in the multitude of our people. Some take rooms in tenant-houses. Some do a little brokerage business, given to them by those who knew them in better days. Some take to j the bottle, and add moral to commercial ruin. 250 Wonders of a Great City, RAILROAD CONDUCTOR. Riding down town one night in one of our city cars, I paid my fare to a conductor who gave me a sharp, searching look. When below Canal street, as there were no other passengers in the car, he came and sat down beside me. He said, "I know you very well, though T suppose } ou do not know me. I used to go to school with you in Boston." I remembered him as the son of a wealthy gentleman not unknown to fame in that city. His father had an elegant house in the city, and, what was then unusual, a fine mansion in the country. The st)n was indulged in luxuries unusual in that day. • He had a pony on which he rode to school, and was attended by a servant. He had a watch and other trinkets that excited the envy of his companions. His father lived in grand style, and his equipage attracted general attention. He lived fast, but it was said he could afford it. To maintain his position he was tempted to commit a great crime. Able counsel saved him from the penitentiary, but his ruin was com- plete, and his family shared in the general wreck. His children are now scattered over the country, to earn a living wherever they can find it. This son, well educated, tenderly cared for, and trained to every indulgence, gets his as the conductor .^f a citj railroad car, a calling laborious and ill paid. A RAILROAD KING. One of the most successful railroad men of New Yoi k boarded at one of our principal hotels. He was an unmarried man. He was accounted an eminent anf« Business I^e verses. 251 successful financier. His reputation and standing were unquestioned. He was connected with the principal capitalist in the city, and was one whom New York delighted to honor. In a small house in the upper part of the city he had a home. Here he lived a part of his time, and reared a family, though the mother of his children was not his wife, Down town, at his hotel, he passed by one name, up town, in his house, he was known by another. It would seem impossible that a prominent business man, reputed to be rich, brought into daily business contact wdth princely merchants and bankers, the head of a large railroad interest, could reside in New York, and for a number of years lead the double life of a bachelor and a man of family ; be known by one name down town, and anpther name up town ; yet so it was. At his hotel and at his office he was found at the usual hours. To his up-town home he came late and went out early. There he was seldom seen. The landlord, the butcher, the grocer, and the milkman transacted all their business with the lady. Bills were promptlj^ paid, and no questions asked. The little girls became young ladies. They went to the best boarding-schools in the land. An unexpected crisis came. A clergyman in good standing became acquainted with one of the daughters at her boarding-school. He regarded her with so much interest, that he solicited her hand in marriage. He was referred to the mother. The daughters had said that their father was a wealthy merchant of New York ; but his name did not appear in the Directory, he was not known on 'change. The lover only knew the name by which the daughters were called. The 252 Wonders of a Great City, mother was affable, but embarrassed. The gentleman thought something was wrong, and insisted on a per- sonal interview with the father. The time was ap- pointed for the interview. The young man was greatly astonished to discover in the father of the young lady one of the most eminent business men of the city. He gave his consent to the marriage, and promised to do well by the daughter, though he admitted that the mother of the young lady was not his wife. The clergyman was greatly attached to the young woman, who was really beautiful and accomplished. He agreed to lead her to the altar, if, at the same time, the mer- chant would make the mother his wife. This was agreed to, and the double wedding was consumma>£,a the same night. The father and mother were first married, and then the father gave away the daughter. The affair created a ten days' sensation. The veil of secrecy was removed. The family took the down-town name, which was the real one — a name among the most honored in the city. An up-town fashionable mansion was purchased, and fitted up in style. Crowds filled the spacious parlors, for there was just piquancy enough in the case to make it attractive. Splendid coaches of the fashionable filled the street ; a dashing company crowded the pavement, and rushed up the steps to enjoy the sights. These brilliant parties con- tinued but a short time. The merchant was rotten at heart. All New York was astounded one day at the report that the great railroad king had become a gi- gantic defaulter, and had absconded. His crash carried down fortunes and families with his own. Commercial circles yet suffer for his crimes. The courts are still Business Reverses. 253 fretted with suits between great corporations and indi- viduals growing out of these transactions. Fashionable New York, which could overlook twenty years of criminal life, could not excuse poverty. It took re- prisals for bringing this family into social position by hurling it back into an obscurity from which probably it will never emerge. SARATOGA BELLE. A few summers ago a lady of New York reigned as a belle at Saratoga. Her elegant and numerous dresses, valuable diamonds, and dashing turnout at- tracted great attention. Her husband was a quiet sort of a man, attending closely to his business. He came to Saratoga on Saturdays, and returned early on Mon- day morning. The lady led a gay life, was the centre of attraction, patronized the plays, and was eagerly sought as a partner at the balls. After a very brilliant and gay season she disappeared from fashionable life, and was soon forgotten. One cold season a benevolent New York lady visited a tenement-house on an errand of mercy. Mistaking the door to which she was di- rected, she knocked at a corresponding one on another story. The door was opened by a female, who looked on the visitor for an instant, and then suddenly closed the door. The lady was satisfied that she had seen the woman somewhere, and thinking she might afford aid to a needy person, she persistently knocked at the door till it was opened. Judge of her surprise when she found that the occupant of that room, in that tene- ment-house, was the dashing belle whom she had met a season or two before at the Springs ! In one room 254 Wonders of a Great City. herself and husband lived, in a building overrun with occupants, crowded with children, dirt, and turbulence. Mortification and suffering, blended with poverty, in a few months had done the work of years on that comely face. Her story was the old one repeated a thousand times. Reverses, like a torrent, suddenly swept away a large fortune. Her husband became discouraged, disconsolate, and refused to try again. He lost his self-respect, took to the bowl, and became a drunkard. The wife followed him step by step in his descent, from his high place among the merchants to his home among the dissolute. To furnish herself and husband with bread, she parted with her dresses, jewels, and personal effects. She pointed to a heap in the corner, covered with rags, and that was all that remained of a princely merchant ! ROCK IN THE CHANNEL. The speculating mania which pervades New York is one of the rocks in the channel on which so many strike and founder. Shrewd, enterprising men, who are engaged in successful business, are induced to make investments in stocks and operations of various kinds, and are thus at the mercy of sharpers. Their balance in the bank is well known. Speculators lay snares for them, and catch them with guile. A man makes money in a business he understands, and loses it in one he knows nothing about. One is a successful mer- chant, and he imagines he can be a successful broker ; one stands at the head of the bar, and he thinks he can lead the Stock Board. He is a broker ; he adds to it an interest in railroads or steamboats. Men have a Business Reverses. 255 few thousand dollars that they do not need at present in their business. They are easily enticed into a little speculation by which they may make their fortune. They get in a little way, and to save what they have invested they advance more. They continue in this course until their outside ventures ruin their legitimate business. Stock com.panies, patent medicines, patent machines, oil wells, and copper stocks have carried down thousands of reputed millionaires, with bankers, brokers and dry goods men, who have been duped by unprincipled schemers. Fortunes made by tact, dili- gence and shrewdness, are lost by an insane desire to make iifty or one hundred thousand dollars in a day. The mania for gaml^ling i:i trade marks much of the business of New York. Stock gambling has brought to the surface a set of men new to the city. The stock business, which was once in the hands of the most sub- stantial and respectable of our citizens, is now con- trolled by men desperate and reckless. No gamesters are more desperate or more suddenly destroyed. The daily reverses in Wall street exceed any romance that has been written. A millionaire leaves his palatial . residence in the morning, and goes home at night a ruined man. It is a common thing for specu- lators who can aiford it, to draw checks of from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars to make up their losses in a single day. One well-known speculator, unable to deliver the stock he had pledged himself to deliver, drew his check for the sum of two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, the amount of his loss in a single transaction. A man rides up to Cen- 256 Wonders of a Great City, tral Park one afternoon with his dashing equipage ; his wife and proud daughters whirl the dust in the eyes of well-to-do citizens who are on foot. The next day this fine team and elegant mansion, with store fuU of goods, go into the hands of his creditors. He sends his family into the country, and either disap- pears himself, or is seen in the outskirts of the crowd waiting for something to turn up. The reckless mode of doing business leads to a reckless style of living, extravagance and dissipation, which no legiti- mate business can support. The mania touches all classes. Women and ministers are not exempt. One pastor in this city is a good specimen of the power of this speculating mania. The demon got possession of him. He made a little money. He started to make five thousand. He moved the figure ahead to the little sum of a quarter of a million. The business transformed the man. His face became haggard ; his eyes dilated; his hair dishevelled ; he could not sleep; he bought all the editions of the papers; got up nights to buy extras ; chased the boys round the corners for the latest news; was early at the stock markec, and among the last to leave the Windsor Hotel at night when the board closes its late session. Wliether a quarter of a million is worth what it costs, this gen- tleman can tell when he gets it. A lady in this city came from New England. She was the child of a sail- maker, and was brought up in humble circumstances. A wealthy man, whose repute was not high, and whose disposition was not amiable, offered her his hand. She did not expect love, nor hardly respect, but he offered Business Reverses. 257 her instead a coach, an elegant mansion, and costly jewels. She found herself suddenly elevated. She lived in commanding style, with her furniture, plate, and servants. She bore her elevation badly, and looked down with scorn upon her old friends and associates. Her husband engaged deeply in speculation ; it proved a ruinous one. To help himself out of a crisis he com- mitted forgery. He was sent to the State Prison. His great establishment was seized. Her house was sold over her head by the sheriff. Her jewels, valued at fifteen thousand dollars, were spirited away, and she never saw them more. She was suddenly elevated, and as suddenly hurled down to the position from which she had been taken. SUCCESS A COY THING. The men who are the capitalists of New York to- day are not the sons of the wealthy or successful mer- chants of the city. They are men whose fathers were porters, wood-choppers, and coal-heavers. They did the hard work, swept out the stores, made the fires, used the marking-pot, were kicked and cuffed about, and suffered every hardship. But they jostled and outran the pampered son of their employer, and carried off the prize. The chief end of man is not to make money. But if one imagines that it is, and that a fortune must be made at once, then he will barter the solid ground for the mirage, and leave a successful business for the glittering morass ; trade that insures a handsome com- petence for wild speculation. The hands on the dial plate of industry will stand still while men grasp at j shadows. 258 Wonders of a Great City. In New York, two kinds of business greet a comer, one bad, the other good ; one easy to get, the other hard; the one pays at the start, the other pays but little : perhaps the position itself must be paid for. If one wants money, says he has his fortune to make and cannot wait, he will take what turns up, and wait for better times. Disreputable trade, questionable busi- ness, a tricky house, a saloon or a bar-room, are open to a reputable young man, and if he have a dash of piety, all the better. But such touch pitch and are defiled ; they seldom lose the taint of the first business in which they are engaged. Men can be good or bad in any trade. They can be sound lawyers or pettifoggers ; a merchant of property or a mock auctioneer ; a physi- cian whose skill and character endear him to the best families in the land, or a doctor whose " sands of life have almost run out ; " a preacher who says, " Woe is me if I preach not the gospel," or a minister who, like some in the olden time, said, " Put me, I pray thee, into the priest's office, that I may get me a morsel of bread." There is no permanent success without in- tegrity, industry, and talent. In trade there are two codes that govern men. The one is expressed in the mottoes, " All is fair in trade " Be as honest as the times will allow ; " " If you buy the devil, you must sell him again." The other acts on business principles ; sells a sound horse for a sound price; gives the customer the exact article that he buys. The few houses that have been successful, amid an almost universal crash, have been houses which have done business on principle. In cases where honor- able tradesmen have been obliged to suspend, they are JBusiNESS Reverses. 259 the last to go down and the first to recover. Manu- factories that have been noted for goods of excellent quality feel depression the latest and rise the quickest. If a glass is wanted for the Observatory at Washington, an order goes to England, France, or Germany; the lens is received and put in its place without trial, for the reputation of the house is a guarantee of its ex- cellence. This reputation is capital, out of which the fortune is made. If the stamp of Kogers & Son on a piece of cutlery is genuine, no one wants a guarantee that the knife is good. 97 High Holborn is well known throughout the civilized world as the Tower. It is the depot of Day & Martin's celebrated blacking. The unquestioned excellence of the article has not only secured a fortune to the firm, but a tenant in that building is sure of success. The location is well known, and the owners will have none but honorable trades- men on their premises. A box of axes put up at the Douglas manufactory, in Massachusetts, is not opened till, hundreds of miles beyond the Mississippi, the hardy woodsman begins to fell the forest — the vanguard of civilization. The maker and the buyer know the value of integrity in business matters. OLD MERCHANTS. The men who founded the mercantile character of this city are known as men of the Old School. They were celebrated for their courtesy and integrity. They came from the humblest walks of life ; from the plough and anvil ; from the lapstone and printing case ; from the farm and the quarry. They worked their way up, as Daniel worked his from the position of a slave to Prime 260 Wonders of a Great City, Minister of Babylon. Some of these men went from the store to compete with the ablest statesmen of the world. Some left their patients on a sick bed to measure swords with veteran commanders on the battle-field. They met on the seas naval officers of highest rank, and made them haul down their flags to the new banner of our nation. They sounded out freedom in the Declaration of Independence ; the bugle-call rang over hill and dale, crossed oceans and continents, into dungeons, and made tyrants tremble in their palace homes, — building a nation that no treason could ruin and no foreign foe destroy. Like the Eddystone lighthouse, the Union, sometimes hid for a moment by the angry surges, still threw its steady light on the turbulent waters, and guided the tempest-tossed into the harbor where they would be. These Old School men ate not a bit of idle bread. They were content with their small store and pine desk. They owned their goods, and were their own cashiers, salesmen, clerks, and porter. They worked sixteen hours a day, and so became millionnaires. They would as soon have committed forgery as to have been mean or unjust in trade. They made their wealth in business, and not in fraudulent failure. They secured their fortunes out of their customers, and not out of their creditors. Not so Young America. He must make a dash. He begins with a brown-stone store, filled with goods for which he has paid nothing ; mar- ries a dashing belle ; delegates all the business that he can to others ; lives in style, and spends his money before he gets it; keeps his fast horse, and other JSusiNESs Reverses. 261 appendages equally fast ; is much at the club room, on the sporting track, and in billiard or kindred saloons ; speaks of his father as the " old governor," and of his mother as the "old woman ; " and finally becomes porter to his clerk, and lackey to his salesman. Beginning where his father left off; he leaves off where his father began. PRODUCma A SENSATION. A ball was given at the Irving Hall. Two gentle men were looking on. One said to the other, "Do you see that young fellow so dashingly dressed?" "Yes." "He is -our book-keeper. He is one of the managers of the ball. Perhaps he can afford these things; I cannot." The next week there was a va- cancy in that house. Quite different was the line of procedure in another case. A clerk was guilty of ap- propriating a small sum of money to his own use. He was detected. The broker called the young man into his presence, and shut the door. "I could ruin you, young man, and if I discharge you you probably will continue the downward road on which you have en- tered. I want to show you that on my system of doing business you cannot appropriate a cent without my knowing it. You keep company that you cannot afford. You don't play very heavily, but you gamble a little. Now, I am going to make a man of you. You must make a solemn promise, that you will neither drink nor gamble. This agreement you must write and sign." The young man is now cashier of one of the largest banks, and the broker is his bondsman. CHAPTER XVII. FAST LIFE IN NEW YORK. RECREATION OF THE FAST CLASS. — A RUINED MAN, ONCE A FINANCIAL KING. — THE FAST MEN AT THE CLUB HOUSES. — THE CLUB HOUSES, AND HOW THEY DINE THERE. — A STARTLING CASE. THEEE is no department or profession in the city where fast men cannot be found. The pul- pit, the bar, mercantile and banking life, have speci- mens of this class ; none can be called exempt. The temptations to hazard are very great, and high life is at a premium among a class. Besides these men who are princes in trade, and like the merchants of Tyre, are "the honorable of the earth," are men who live for the day and the hour, and whose motto is, "all is fair in trade." These men gain money in anyv\^ay that is open to them, reckless of consequences. They go for a merry life, though it be a short one. If they make five hundred dollars, they spend it at once on their whims, caprices, passions and appetites. Penniless curbstone brokers one day, they have rooms at an up town hotel the next, ride down to the street in a coach, drink the costliest wine, eat the most exciting food, dash out in a splendid dress, hire a box at the opera, and the next week become penniless and destitute as before. With fast New York, money is every thing. Balls, parties and Fast Life. 2G3 soirees are open to the man of the diamond ring, and who calls iii a coach. Parties, who a year or two ago were porters, stable boys, and coal heavers, affect style, and drive the stiuming turnouts on the park. Some women, who give what are called select parties, are rude, coarse, and ignorant, from whose persons the marks of the wash tub and the stiffness of their joints from scrubbing has not been effaced. Men who, were ticket takers at a ferry, starters on an omnibus route, or car drivers, buy expensive teams, and lead the fashion for an hour. So-called fashionable people will scram- ble for an invitation to a masque ball, or a fancy party, who would not speak to the hostess outside of her own dwelling. RECREATIONS OF THE FAST CLASS. The fashionable recreations of the fast class in New York are in keeping with the low life from which they sprung, and with their extravagant habits. Ladies appear in their costly mansions, glittering with gas, and covered with bells. Extravagant costumes, im- ported at fabulous prices, represent monkies, satan, apes, and other forms, which show the taste of the wearers. Servants are decked out in gold and silver livery. Laboring men of different nationalities, are hired for the occasion, and dressed up in fancy cos- tumes to represent nobles and barons of the old world. This style of life i-s invariably of short duration. Since Lenox, who led the up town movement, laid the foun- dation of his substantial dwelling on Fifth Avenue, which is still occupied by him, at least five hundred families have occupied gorgeous mansions and disap- 264 Wonders of a Grka t City. peared from sight. All up and down Fifth Avenue are magnificent mansions, built by fast men of the street, and occupied by butterflies of fashion, during the brief, sunny hour allotted to them. These persons were the rage and sensation for the time. Nothing was good enough for their use, in this country. Car- pets woven in the most celebrated looms in foreign cities ; furniture manufactured at an immense cost in Paris, gold and silver plate and china brought from beyond the seas, were the marvels of the hour. When a party was given, all New York was stirred ; the side- walks were carpeted, and the mansions brilliantly illuminated. The turnouts were the envy of the city. Such dresses, such horses, such aristocratic livery, could not be matched in the country. Without a single exception, these fast livers of pleasure have gone out of sight, not one remaining to-day who was on the surface ten years ago. Some that I have seen, the envy of Saratoga and Newport, are dead ; others occupy tenement houses in the city with drunken hus- bands who have added intemperance to financial rever- ses. Many of those magnificent mansions on Fifth Avenue which were built for the fast men of the street, are club houses now, and the names of their builders and founders have already perished. Not only from the street, but from social life, these fast men have dis- appeared forever. In their ruin they have carried down their families with them. A RUINED MAN, ONCE A FINANCIAL KING. Every day I meet on Wall street, a man who fifteen years ago stood among the richest and most honora- Fast Life. 265 ble, the representative of one of the most successful houses in the country. He seldoni looks to the right hand or left. He is getting to be an old man now, but stoops quite as much from sorrow as from age. His dress is of the past generation — his huge collar, and double cravat speak of olden time. His step is slow, and he looks seedy and worn. Yet at one time, he was one of the wealthiest men in the country. His name was one of the best known in America. It was honored at the courts abroad, and stood Ipgh among the honorable merchants of the world. He inherited the name and the business of a house that through half a century had been unstained. The slow and sure method of gain did not suit him ; he tried the fast role. To keep it up, he speculated with trust money put into his hands. This did not meet his necessities, and he used other peoples' names and added embezzlement and forgery. The game came to an end, as all such transactions must. He fled between two days, and wandered in foreign lands under an assumed name. Widows and orphans were ruined, and the innocent were dragged down in his fall. He lived abroad as a fugitive. He found he was not pur- sued. He grew bolder, and linally appeared in the streets of New York. Nobody meddled with him. Some who remembered him in other days and pitied him, give him a commission or two to execute. He skulks around through the by-ways and narrow lanes of lower New York, like a culprit, where a few years ago, he trod the pavement like a king. He has a little den of an office, strange enough, near tlie sjiot wliere Aaron Burr planted himself at the close of ]iis li A^ and 266 Wonders of a Gheat City. tried to earn a scanty living, after having flung away the most brilliant prospect and repute that a public man ever possessed. THE CLUB HOUSES, AND HOW THEY LIVE THERE. The fast men of the street can be found in the evening, at some one of the many club houses estab- lished in the upper part of the city. These numerous and growing institutions are very unlike the club houses of London, nor have they their political sig- nificance. In London, the club houses have a staid- ness, order, and aristocracy, that mark the British character everywhere. The New York club houses have the excitement of the street about them. They are furnished in gor- geous style. The most costly viands, and the most exciting and expensive liquors are furnished. Fast New York spend a portion of their evenings amid the fascinations of the club. Londoners go to their clubs to discuss political matters, and decide upon parliamentary discussions or political agita- tions. New Yorkers go to their clubs to eat and drink and be excited. A London broker will go up from Lombard street to his club, take a cosy corner, and dine upon a sober joint with a single glass of sherry or a mug of ale. A New York broker will go to his club and dine from a bill of fare that would be considered sufficient for a court dinner to crowned heads, or a banquet at the Lord Mayor's mansion. An Englishman will sit down at his club with a decanter of wine between himself and Fast Life. 267 friend, with the smallest and most fragile of wine glasses, and will hold a conference from one to four hours, in a low toned voice, discussing mercantile and other matters, and will rise from the table with that sin- gle glass of wine not consumed. If touched at all, it will be merely sipped, from time to time, during the con- versation. A Nev/ Yorker will go to his club or hotel, with the fever of business still coursing through his veins, excited from success, or maddened from losses, and before he can touch a mouthful of food will call for his bottle of champagne, infuse into it an efferves- cence prepared for such excited spirits, and drain the contents before he touches his soup. It is no m:ir- vel that such men grow grey at forty ; that premature baldess marks the business men of New York; that only a few reach mature life, and that many of these have paralysis, the gout, and kindred disorders ; that long lines of them can be seen every morning — men made to be healthy, and destined to grow old — tot- tling along with canes to support them, and with an unsteady step, having burnt out their manhood, con- sumed their strength, and prematurely impaired their health, by the excesses of their lives. No warning will avail, no beacons admonish, but each for himself vrill strike his keel on the sunken rocks and hidden shelves, and perish like a vessel stranded on the beach. A young man in this city represented a New Eng- land house of great wealth and high standing. He was considered one of the smartest and most promising young men in New York. The balance in the bank kept by the house was very large, and the young man used to boast that he could draw his check any dn}^ for 268 Wonders of a Great City. two hundred thousand dollars and have it honored The New England house used a great deal of paper, and it could command the names of the best capitalists to any extent. One gentleman, a member of Con- gress, was reputed to be worth over half a million of dollars. He was accustomed to sign notes in blank and leave them with the concern, so much confidence had he in its soundness and integrity. Yet, strange to say, these notes, with those of other wealthy men, with nearly the whole financial business of the house, were in the hands of the young manager in New York, w^ho, with none to check or control him, did as he pleased with the funds. Every one thought him honest. Every one confided in his integrity. All believed that he was doing the business of the concern squarely and with great ability. In the mean while he took a turn at Harry Hill's " to relieve the pressure of business." Low amuse- ments, and the respectable company he found, suited him. From a spectator he became a dancer. From dancing he took to drinking. From the bar he entered those paths to which Harry Hill's saloon is the entrance. He tried his hand at light play. He then went into gaming heavily, was stripped every night, drinking deeply ail the while. He became enamoured with fancy women, clothed them in silks, velvets, and jewels, drove them in dashing teams through Central Park, secured them fine mansions, and paid the expenses of the estab- lishments — all this while keeping the confidence of his business associates. His wan, jaded, and dissipated look went to his devotion to business. Men who met him daily had no idea that he was bankrupt in char- Fast Life. acter, and had led the great house with which he Avas connected to the verge of ruin. The New England manager of the house was the father of the \'oiing man. His reputation was without a stain, and con- fidence in his integrity was unhmited. He had tht' management of many estates, and held large sums oi' trust money in his hands belonging to widows an(- orphans. In the midst of his business, in apparent health, the father dropped down dead. This brought things to a crisis, and an exposure immediately fol- lowed. The great house was bankrupt, and every- body ruined that had anything to do with it. Those who supposed themselves millionnaires found them- selves heavily in debt. Widows and orphans lost their all. Men suspended business on the right hand and on the left. In gambling, drinking, in female society, and in dissipation generally, this young fellow squandered the great sum of one million four hundred thousand dollars. He carried down with him hundreds of per- sons whom his vices and dissipation had ruined. And this is but a specimen of the reverses to which a fast New York life leads. He may be seen any day reeling about the street, lounging around bar-rooms, or at- tempting to steady his steps as he walks up and down the hotel entrances of the city. A sad wreck ! a terribk warning ! CHAPTER XVIII. NEW YORK'S BLIGHT. THE ALARMING PREVALENCE OF PROSTITUTION — STATISTICS OP THE LOST SISTERHOOD— HOUSES OP THE PIRST CLASS — HOW THEY ARE FILLED— AGENTS AND RUNNERS — STARTLING FACTS — A NIGHT ENCOUNTER— A mayor's EXPERIENCE — HOPELESS CLASSES —HOUSES OF ASSIGNA- TION. — WOMEN ON THE PAYE — SAD SKETCHES. rT~l HE curse of New York is prostitution. It caii- 1 not he stamped out, tlie theories of moralists and cranks having proved of no avail. Evidence of its presence and growth can be discerned in every ward, quarter and street of the city. Women who are* lost to shame, whose cheeks have long been strangers to the crimson blush of purity, daily and nightly parade the most public and prominent thoroughfares, while houses of ill-fame and assigna- tion seem almost endless in number. A few yeai's ago, Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Church, made the assertion that the prostitutes of New York were as numerous as the members of the Methodist Church in that city. This statement raised a howl of indig- nation. The Superintendent of Police denied the statement, and gave a long array of figures to establish his stand. For a time the controversy was a heated one, and while in tlie end Superinten- dent Kennedy won, the Bishop's estimate was not far New York's Blight. 271 out of the way. Bishop Simpson charged that the number of fallen women in the city wonld exceed twenty thousand. Were a correct census taken to- day of this disreputable class, it is highly probable that the number calculated by the BishojD would be found a trifle small. There are about eleven hundred houses of prostitution, chree hundred assignation houses, two hundred cheap lodging houses which ca- ter to such trade, a vast array of concert, dance- hall and w^aiter girls, and thousands of roomers, women who take rooms in some side street and par- ade the principal streets in quest of victims. The subject is an unhappy one, it is terrible to contem- plate, but no picture of New York life would be com- plete did it not include a calm dispassionate review of this great social blight. HOUSES OF THE FIKST CLASS. These are few. No hotel is more elegantly fur- nished. Quiet, order, and taste abound. The lady boarders in these houses never walk the streets nor solicit company. They are selected for their beauty, grace and accomplishments. They dress in great elegance, and quite as decorously as females gener- ally do at balls, parties, or at concerts. Meet them in the streets, or at picture galleries, or at a fashionable soiree, and there is nothing about them to attract at- tention. No person who knows them or their char- acter can in anyway recognize them in public. These women have their pew in a fashionable church ; some attend Sunday school, and have their own religious homes. Everything about the house is elegant. The 272 Wonders of a Great City. door swings on well-oiled hinges. The hell is answered by a colored servant, and nearly all the servants are colored. They are quiet, mind their own business, and are known to be servants. All that grace and attraction can do to secure visits is em- ployed. None but men who can afford to pay a first- class price visit a first-class house. The woman who is at the head of the establishment is one that has passed middle life, and is usually well preserved. She bears some foreign name, and has a person about the house that is called her husband. It is not un- common for some so-called Count, Baron, or Consul, from some foreign power, to be, or pretend to be the lawful guardian of the woman. If a gentleman calls, he is at once ushered into the parlor. If two gentle- men enter together, both are presented into the par- lor. But no other gentleman can enter Avhile they remain. If any one leaves the house from up stairs, the parlor door is shut and guarded. No one looks out, and no one looks in. Such are the inexorable rules of the house. The visitor is received by the madam in whose name the mansion is kept. One by one the lady boarders drop in. Conversation becomes general and spirited. Some remarks are rather broad. There is little to dispel the illusion that one is on a call at a first-class boarding school or seminary. As the evening wanes, and wine flows, the talk be- comes bolder. Home, early days, childhood, mother, the school of girlish hours, the Sabbath, the Sunday school, the home pastor, their style of life, what the world thinks of them, how absolutely they are cut off from society, and barred out as if lepers,^ — are New York's Blight. 273 themes of conversation. Some are girls of superior mind. Some have had fortunes lavished on their edu- cation. Some can sing and play exquisitely. Operas, songs, ballads, snatches of hymns, are trolled off with great skill. Many support their parents in fine style. Some have children that were born to them when they were happy wives. These children have usually no knowledge of their mother's shame. They are at fashionable boarding-schools, and are brought up at great expense, and are told that their mother is in a foreign land, or is married to a man of wealth. Some mothers who are supported by the infamy of chil- dren know, and some do not know, of the great degradation of their dear ones. THE KEEPER. The woman who keeps the house keeps also a strict watch on all her boarders. She knows who comes aiid goes, the sum that is paid, and exacts of all her tribute. What with board, and dues paid for the privilege of the house, the costliness of the dress and ornaments that must be worn, the services of a hair- dresser, and cosmetics, coach hire, and the dash and display for which many of these girls have left pleasant homes, and bade adieu to a virtuous life, and all its honors and comforts, they have but little left. They lay up generally nothing. Their hold on gay life is very short, seldom continuing more than three years, and some breaking down in six months. They then commence the downward path of the road in which they have entered. The next step follows — poorer houses, meaner dresses, coarse fare, rougher 274 Wonders of a Great City. company, and stronger drinks. Then comes street- walking, low brothels, concert saloons, dance cellars, disease, Blackwell's Island, a few months of misery, and then death. The petted and giddy creatures, to whom the flowery path and seductive way is for a month or two so fascinating, cannot believe that rough winds can ever blow upon them, or that a rough word can ever be spoken, or want and sorrow can roll their black surges over them. While in their l)eauty and prime no creatures can be more tenderly cared for. The woman who is their mistress has every motive to treat them tenderly. Their health and beauty are her capital. She makes merchandise of their flesh and blood. She employs the best of masters for music and dances. The table is loaded with luxuries. Nothing is too elegant or costly. The health of the girls is closely and anxiously watched. Their exercise and airings are carefully attended to. They are kept cheerful and buoyant. The deceived and infatuated creatures fancy that this will always last. But when sickness comes, and charms fade; when new^ comers are introduced, and the wan and faded women are put in contrast, the arrow enters into their soul ; when they cease to be attractive, and call visitors to the house no more, the door is opened and they are told to go. No tears, no pleas avail. Women that are moved by tears do not dwell under such roofs. Out these poor girls go, without a penny. Almost always they are brought in debt, and so much of their finery as will do for the new comers is retained. For the expelled there is no redress. The pavement is her home. The glare of the druggist's window suggests New York's Blight. 275 poison. The ripple of the black Hudson suggests suicide. Some one picks her up on the pavement at night, and her low walk with the low women of her class commences. HOW THEY AEE FILLED. The short life and brief career of women who fill what are known as first-class boarding houses for young ladies is one of the facts of which there is no dispute. Officers whose duties take them occasionally to these places, say that once in about two or three months the company wholly changes ; and when they ask for persons whom they saw on their last visit, an indefinite answer is given, and an unwillingness mani- fested to tell what has become of their associates. Some feign reform, many die of sickness, by the hand of the criminal practitioner, by suicide ; many begin the dark tramp down that path that ends in death. We know from what source comes the supply for low stews, vile brothels, concert saloons and dance houses ; for where the beastly and drunken resort, multitudes can be found. But from whence comes this unceasing supply of brilliant, well educated, accomplished, at- tractive and beautiful young girls ? They are found, as they are wanted, for the houses of fashionable in- famy. They come, many of them, from the best homes in the land ; from careful parentage and pious families ; from fashionable boarding schools ; from seminaries of learning; from Sunday schools; from the rural cottages of Maine and Vermont; from Chicago, Eichmond and California ; from all parts of the civilized world. 276 Wonders of a Great City, AGENTS AND RUNI^ERS. Men and women are employed in this nefarious work as really as persons around the country to hunt up likely horses ; £ind when the victim is uncommonly attractive the pay is large. No system is better ar- ranged with bankers, expressmen, runners and agents. No place is so distant, no town so obscure, that these panderers do not enter it. They are at concerts, on the railroad, at theatres, at church, at fashionable resorts in the summer, and at seminary graduations. They hang about hotels, under pretence of being strangers to New York ; they get acquainted with young lady visitors, invite them to church, to a walk, to the opera, and, when confidence is gained, they are invited to call at the house of an acquaintance; and, after a pleasant evening, they wake up in the morning to know that they have been drugged and ruined, and that their parents are in despair. In some seminaries of learning in this city letters are constantly exchanged, signals swing out of the blinds by means of ribbons of different hues, and appoint- ments made and kept. If a daughter is missing from New York, or from a radius of twenty miles around, the police know usually where to look for the erring child, if she has not eloped. THRILLING CASES. In one of the most attractive of these houses of bad resort there is, at this moment, a young woman of surpassing beauty. Her form is queenly. She would make a sensation in any fashionable soiree or watering- New York's Blight. 277 place in the land. She dresses in elegant style and with exquisite taste. Her complexion is alabaster : her hair raven black, flowing in natural ringlets. Her voice is superb, and as a singer she could command a large salary. On the boards of a theatre she would move without a rival. Her accomplishments are varied. She can sing with ease and skill the most difficult music of the best masters. She can paint and embroider, and the specimens of her skill are ex- hibited to her admirers at the house where she resides. She has a finished education, and could fill and adorn any station in life. She has a parentage the most respected, who reside among the noble of New England. Their repute and family honor, till now, have been without a stain. Apparently happy in her home, and virtuous and modest, she left the Seminary, where she had nearly reached the honor of graduation, and where she was at the head of the school, and one night was not to be found. Her absence was the cause of great distress. Months passed, and no knowledge of her residence was ob- tained. At length the sad fact w^as revealed that she was a lady boarder in a house of ill repute in New York. When she entered that abode, she reso- lutely shut the door in the face of all who knew and loved her. Father, mother, sister, friends, besieged the door in vain. Deaf to all entreaties, and hardened to sobs and tears, she refused to look on the face of the mother who bore her, and those to whom she is still dear. To all she had but one answer — "Think of me only as one that is dead. " Yet she will talk of home, and dear ones of olden days ; will sigh and 278 Wonders of a Great City, wipe the tear away, if any one seems to have a heart of sympathy. But the mystery of her course ; what led her to fling away the great gifts God gave her ; how she came to know of that way of life ; what her first wrong step was ; who aided her in her bad de- scent ; why she does not fly from the life she evidently loathes, and find refuge in the home of her child- hood, to her mother's arms, that are still wide open to receive her — all this is a secret locked in her own bosom. Soon her sunny day-dream will close. The bleak winds of winter will blow on that form trained to tenderness and reared in delicacy, and her feet will stumble on the dark mountains, with no one to help or heed her bitter cry. STAETLING FACTS. There is another case sadder and more mysterious than the one just related. In one of the Broadway houses can be seen a young lady about seventeen, but so fragile and so girlish that she seems scarcely twelve. Small and genteel in figure, she appears only a child. She has a remarkable forehead of great breadth, an eye searching and keen, and her smartness and talent are marked. She is the belle of the house, and look- ing on her, one can easily see — what was the fact — that she was the sunshine of her home. She belongs to New York. Her father and mother are persons of rare intelligence, of unquestioned piety, and high social position. They are rich, and live in good style. On this child they lavished the tenderest care. No money was spared to give her a complete and polished education. Her voice is superb, and her execution New York's Blight. 279 marvelous. Her home was not sad and hard, but sunny. She was the mormng light and evening star of the fireside which she adorned. She was the pride of her parents, the ornament of the social circle that was proud to call her companion. From her youth she was trained in the Scriptures. At the family altar daily she was accustomed to kneel, and till she left the roof of her mother she had attended Sunday school from her childhood. She seemed to have no sorrow nor cause of grief. Her company was unexceptionable. No open act of hers, and no word uttered, betrayed anything but a virtuous heart and a pious life. One afternoon she did not come home from Sunday school as usual. The evening came, night rolled its heavy moments along, and the darling came not. Agony laid the mother on her bed, helpless. The father searched New York over, but the lost one could not be found. To the suggestion of shrewd detectives, that perhaps she would be found in a house of low resort, the family could only utter their horror. Like Jacob, they knew their darling must be dead. Leading a life of in- famy ? Never ! With a likeness of the missing daughter, and an accurate description, the matter-of- fact officers started on their search. The first house they entered they saw a young girl who resembled the lost one. On inquiry, they found she came to the house on Sunday afternoon ; told her name ; said she came from a Sunday school ; hung up her bonnet and cloak, as if they were to be trophies to the god- dess of infamy ; demanded and received garments suited to her new life ; and, coming fresh from the 280 Wonders of a Great City. Sunday school, entered on her career of infamy. Satisfied that the lost child had been found, the officer said to the father, "Come and see if this be thy child or no." With a heavy heart and unsteady step the forlorn and bereaved father followed the de- tective. He shrank from the entrance, as if the portals really led to hell. The daughter met him at the door, flung her arms about him, and gave him a passionate kiss. Then she seated herself, with hands folded, head declined, and eyes fastened on the floor. She heard aU that was said ; she spake no word ; made no explanation; confessed no act; revealed no temptation, and refused to explain why she had adopted her new course of life. To all entreaties, tears and prayers, she was indifferent. Nothing could move her. Her mother came to see her, and the girl threw herself on the bosom where her head had so often lain in joy and sorrow, and in a passionate burst of anguish, shed scalding and bitter tears. To all inquiries how she came to that place, and who led her astray, she would answer not a word. To all en- treaties to come home, and all should be forgotten and forgiven, she made but one reply, — "O, mother, it is too late! too late!" But from the house where she was she refused to move. Once in a while she goes home, hangs up her hat and shawl on the old nail, throws herself on the bosom of her mother, and weeps and sobs. But when the time comes for her to go, she wipes away her tears, puts on her hat, kisses her mother a good bye, and departs. Prayers, tears, promises, offers of reward, all have been used in vain. In her home of infamy she often talks of New York's Blight. 281 her girlish days; of her superintendent and teacher. She speaks of the church that she attended as "our church;" names the pastor with terms of endear- ment, and makes special mention of the missionary of the church, who is still in the field, to whom she seemed to be specially attached. And these are but specimens of what can be found in New York. VICTIMS FROM THE COUNTRY. A very large number of the girls on the town come from the country. Factories furnish the largest share, as the statistics of i3rostitution show. Many can find no employment at home, and seek this great city for something to do. They have no idea how all ranks of labor are crowded, nor how hard it is to find respectable employment ; how few can be trusted; what hotbeds of temptation factories are, and places Avhere a large number of young girls find work. Many are tempted, and fall in their homes. They know that there is no mercy for them there. Their mother and sisters will abandon them, and so they flee to a place in which they can hide in the solitude of the multitude. A NIGHT ENCOUNTEK. Two gentlemen, of the highest respectability, were walking on Broadway quite late one night, and they were accosted by a young girl who seemed less than thirteen. She was thinly clad, and was in feeble health. The two gentlemen commenced a conversa- tion with the girl, and learned from her lips this story. She was from the State of Vermont, and of 282 Wonders of a Great City. good parentage. Her father was a farmer, and lier mother and family stood high in the town in which they lived. A young man from the city came to pass the winter near her home. Singing schools and meetings brought him into her society. He declared his intentions to be honorable, and made proposals for marriage. Her parents knew little of the young man, and were not friendly to his attentions. The young lovers met in secret, and finally fled from the town. Her day dream of love soon ended, and, de- serted, she went on the town. She loathed the life she led. But want and starvation were on the one hand, and infamy on the other. She had led her life but a few weeks, and had sought for work and a chance to make an honest living, but in vain. Her parents knew not of her whereabouts, nor did the widow with whom she boarded know that she was leading a life of infamy. She led the gentlemen to the door of a very quiet, respectable house, and told them that was her home. They promised to call and see her the next evening, and aid her to escape from the life she abhorred. They called at the time pro- posed, and were conducted to the room designated. It was in complete order. By the side of the girl was a small table, and on a white cloth lay a small Bible, the gift, she said, of her mother; and she stated that she never lay down to rest at night, till, as in her childhood's happy home days, she had read a portion of God's word. She talked calmly about her position and life, but it was the calmness of despair, with the tone of one whose destiny was settled, and whose lot was inevitably fixed. To all JVew York's Blight, 283 entreaty, she replied, "It is now too late. I could not endure the cold pity of my mother, or the scorn of my sisters, or the taunts of my former associates. To my bitter tears and burning confessions they would give an incredulous ear, and among them I must ever walk a lost woman. I know that my life will be a short one. My health is very poor, and growing worse from day to day. I am not fitted for the life I lead. I/et me alone. To all who once loved me I am as one dead. I shall die alone, and have a pauper's burial. " A mayoe's expeeience. One of the former mayors of New York, a gentle- man of warm heart and great benevolence, had a case brought before him while in office. It was that of quite a young girl, intelligent and well educated, and not sixteen years of age. She would not tell her name, or reveal the name of the town in which her parents resided. The mayor resolved to save her if he could. He tried to persuade her to abandon her life, get some honest employment, and make a new stand in a virtuous course. He used all the argu- ments, reasons, and motives that he could command. With great coolness she replied to them all, "I know all you say — the deep degradation into which I have fallen. But I have no relief, no home, no hand to help me rise. I am a good musician ; I am a neat and competent seamstress. Twice I have gained a situation, have resolved to amend my life, and have behaved myself with circumspection. But in each case some one that knew my former life has told the 284 Wonders of a Great City. story of my past degraaation, and so hurled me back to infamy. You have daughters, have you not ?" she said to the mavor. " I have," was the answer. " Will you trust me as a seamstress in your family wath what you know of me ? Would you feel safe to allow me to be the companion of those daughters after the life I have led?" The mayor hesitated. With great bitterness and much feeling, she replied, Don't speak. I know what you would say. I don't blame'you; but if, with your kind, generous heart, with your desire to do me good and save me, you can't trust me, who will?" She went out to con- tinue in that way that so soon ends in a black and hopeless night. HOPELESS CLASSES. Hopeless indeed seems the condition of fallen woman. Men can reform ; society welcomes them back to the path of virtue ; a veil is cast over their conduct, and their vows of amendment are accepted, and their promises to reform hailed with great de- light. But alas for man's victims ! For them there are no calls to come home, no sheltering arm, no ac- ceptance of confessions and promises to amend. We may call them the hopeless classes. For all offense beside we have hope. The drunkard can dash down his cup, and the murderer repent on the gallows. But for fallen woman there seems to be no space for re- ])entance; for her there is no hope and no prayer. How seldom we attempt to reach and rescue 1 and for her where is the refuge ? Every form of temptation is put in her path — hard New York's Blight, 285 and cruel homes, a serpent for a lover, no work, love of display, promises of marriage, mock marriage, and strong drink. I know a woman in this city, who, when a young girl, was led from her home in Massa- chusetts by a man whose name is well known in poli- tical circles. He solemnly promised to marry her, and I have seen his written promise of marriage. The parties came to New York, and a mock marriage was celebrated ; and a mock minister was called in, and the Book of Common Prayer was used. The parties passed as man and wife for years, and received company as sucho The woman bore the name of the man with whom she lived. Ten years passed away. Her husband was a leading politician in the land, and began to be much absent from home. One day a lawyer of eminence called on her, in company with a leading citizen, and told the astounded woman that the man with whom she was living was not her hus- band, that the marriage was a mock one, that her husband was about to marry a woman of fortune and position, and would never see her again, and that they had come to make terms with her and settle the whole case. Frightened and alone, with no one to rely on or give advice, with starvation staring her in the face, she made the best settlement she could. In later times she sought redress in the courts. But the cun- ning deceiver had made it impossible to prove any marriage, and her case failed. He was worth a hand- some fortune, lived in grand style, and left the poor child, whom he took from her father's home, and so foully wronged, to eke out a scanty and insufficient 286 Wonders of a Great City, livelihood by selling books in the streets of New York. There is no doubt that now and then ignorant and foolish girls and young women voluntarily adopt this loathsome life in the expectation of bettering their condition. Inordinate love of dress and finery leads many to destruction. Idleness, laziness, and unwil- lingness to work for a living lure others into the paths of vice, where overwhelming ruin is speedy and certain. But while there are those who are ready to tempt the innocent, there are also in the city noble men and women who have associations, houses, and sheltering places for the special care of fallen women. Young women have been reclaimed from this terrible life. In some cases they have been restored to their parents and homes. In other and numerous instances, places have been found for them at the west, or in other parts of the country, where, with their previous record unknown, they could begin a new and better life. An immense amount of good has been done in this way. HOUSES OF ASSIGNATION. The number of these places of resort in the city cannot be known. The public houses are many, and are well known. But in all parts of the city, houses private and public, are kept for company, and most of them in the midst of the fashionable and elite of the city. Most of these places are known by advertisements, which are well understood. A house in upper New York, in a fine location, is selected. It is plainly JVeiv York's Blight. 287 furnished, or quite gaudily, as the style of the house may permit. It is no uncommon thing for a down- town merchant to take a house, furnish it, hire a housekeeper, use as many rooms as he may wish, and then allow the woman to let out the rooms to regular boarders, or nightly, to parties who may come for an evening, or who may previously have engaged a room. Parties hire a room by the week or month, pay in ad- vance, and come and go when they please. "A widow lady, with more rooms than she can use "rooms to let to quiet persons "apartments to let where people are not inquisitive;" "rooms to let, with board for the lady only, " are of this class. To a stranger in the city, a search for board is quite hazardous. A family that is not well known may not be reputable. One with a wife and family of daughters is quite as likely to get into a house of assignation as anywhere else. No reputable lady, who keeps a boarding house, will take a gentleman and woman to board of whom she knows nothing. Par- ties must come well recommended, and the fact of marriage must be well known. Cheap hotels are used for purposes of infamy. The hotels that rent rooms by the day are not particular what relation parties sustain to each other, so long as the rent is promptly paid, and no one disturbs the peace. One or two houses up town, run on the European plan, became so notorious as resorts of the abandoned, that they were compelled to close, or en- tertain the lowest and most vile. First class hotel keepers have quite as much as they can do to keep their houses free from this social nuisance. Men and 288 Wonders of a Great City, women take rooms, and are registered as Mr. and Mrs. . The relation of the parties maybe veiled for a day or so ; but the keen eyes of hotel men soon detect the position of the parties, and then they are packed off, be it day or night. Without this pre- caution no respectable house could be kept. Some time since a reverend gentleman was at a leading hotel, where he staid some days. He was in a fine position in a neighboring city, and had much personal wealth. He was of the old school, wore a decidedly clerical dress — Avhite cravat and black suit. At the table, near him, sat a well dressed, quiet lady, not more than twenty -five years of age. She said but little, was elegantly arrayed, wore few ornaments, and those of great value, indicating wealth and taste. She accepted the attentions the courteous clergyman bestowed. She seemed to be quite alone, seldom spoke to any one, made no acquaintances, and came in and w^ent out unattended. A table acquaintance sprang up. The husband of the lady was a mer- chant, then out of the city on business, and would be back in a few days ; the lady was quite alone ; knew but few persons ; so strange to be in a hotel alone in a large place like New York; it was not always safe to make acquaintances in a city, — so she said. The acquaintance ripened ; new attentions were proffered and accepted. The parties met in the parlor, and went together to the public table. Soon the husband came, and made one of the trio. He was a quiet, gentlemanly-looking man, dressed in a nice black suit ; and his jewels, that shone from liis finger and liis shirt bosom, were all that indicated that he was not New York's JB light. 289 a man of the cloth. He drank a glass of wine with the attentive doctor, and thanked him for the kind and considerate attention his wife had received from his hands. One day, as the parties sat at their meals, quite cosy and chatting, a merchant came to dine. He was well acquainted both with the clergyman and ^vith the mercliant and his wife. An interview was soon had between the new comer and the divine. " How long have you been acquainted with those parties you were to-day dining wath ? " said the mer- chant. " Only a week or so." " Do you know who they are?" " O, yes; he is a wealthy merchant of this city, and the lady is his wife, and a remarkably modest and ao:reeable woman she is. " " The man is not a merchant. He is one of the most notorious gamblers in the city, and the woman is not his wife." Without bidding adieu to his newly-formed acquaint- ances, the clergyman paid his bill and departed, with a firm resolution never again to be misled by appear- ances, never to form intimate associations with strange men and women at a hotel^ and never to be gallant to a lady he knew nothing about. In New^ York, especially in the fashionable streets and avenues up town, nobody is supposed to know his next door neighbor, nor anything about his busi- ness, house, or family. A house of prostitution, even, may be so quietly and "respectably" conducted as to be supposed by the nearest neighbors, if they interest themselves at all in the matter, to be a young ladies' private school, or a fashionable boarding house. The character of a house of assignation is still less likely to be discovered. No doubt many landlords let such 290 Wonders of a Great City, houses, knowing the purpose to whicli they will be devoted, and they charge an exorbitant rent, which is virtual blackmail, requiring also that the house shall be so conducted as to avoid suspicion. The tenant is willing and able to pay a very high rent, as letting single rooms at an extravagant rate and for short periods, over and over again, brings enormous returns. STREET WALKERS. The tramps on the sidewalk, who annoy the passer- by, and dog the footsteps of men who walk Broad- way after ten o'clock, are mostly young girls, who have an ostensible trade in which they are employed during the day. Many of them are waiter girls in low restaurants, who are known as the Pretty Waiter Girls;" or they work in hoop skirt factories, binderies, or in soilie place where girls congregate together. Not all the girls in saloons and concert rooms are bad. But few remain long in that connec- tion who do not become so. The wages paid to waiter girls vary from five to fifteen dollars a week. To this is added the wages of infamy. The homes of most of the street girls are in the suburbs of New York. They come in from Brooklyn, Hoboken, Jersey City, Harlem, and other places easy i of access, and can be seen coming and going night and morning, and their employment is as well known as that of any trade in New York. Many of them are mere girls. Some have run away from home, and have a place to lay their heads on condition that they divide the spoils of the night. Some are orphans, and take the street to keep themselves out ^ New York's Blight. 291 of tlie almshouse. Some have brutal or drunken mothers, who drive their children into the street, and live in idleness and debauchery on the infamous wages of their daughters. Some get coal, rent, and food from the hands of a child who sleeps all day and is out at all night, and the thing is too comfortable to admit of much scrutiny. Most of these girls have a room in the city that they call their home,^ — a small, plainly furnished sleeping apartment. This room is rented by the week, and paid for in advance. To this place com- pany is taken, and the night spent. If robbery is committed, as it is frequently, the room is deserted the next morning, and the occupant goes, no one knows where. As the rent is always paid in advance, the landlord is no loser. BED HOUSES. All over New York, in parts high and low, houses abound that bear the designation of bed houses. A location, fashionable or disreputable, is selected ac- cording to the class of custom that has to be secured. No one knows who is at the head of such institu- tions. Often landlords who are known on 'change as reputable men fit up a bed house, and hire some hag to take care of it. The location is well known. The house is dark, and all about it is quiet. If a noise was allowed, the police would step in and shut up the thing as a nuisance. One of the most no- torious houses of this class has fifty rooms. Some- times a room is engaged in advance. But usually parties come to the house, enter the vestibule, and 292 Wonders of a Great City. wait the response to the ring. A person appears in the dim light. But no feature can be seen. If there is no room vacant, the quiet, low answer is, "All full. " If otherwise, the parties are admitted. A dim candle is put into the hand of a servant, and the money for the room paid at once, and the customers are escorted up stairs. VISITORS. No rooms are so profitable. A well regulated bed house is the most lucrative house in New York. Women who have tried to keep respectable boarding houses often find "a gentleman friend" who will open such a house, or be a guarantee for the rent. Men are found who not only will furnish such houses " and take their pay in installments, but advertise so to do. Into these houses come the street walkers, who find their victims on and near Broadway. If the girls have not the money, their companions have. Gray headed old men can be seen wending their way late at night under the lead of a child scarcely four- teen years old. Appointments are made at saloons i to meet at a named house in the night. Low theatres, ' low and vile restaurants, and dance cellars bring up [ custom. Women can be seen going in from nine to I ten at night with pitchers, plates, and household ar- ' tides in their hands. They go to keep an appoint- j ment previously made ; and they go out from home ! with the articles in their hands under pretence of * buying something for breakfast, leaving husband or | father asleep from toiL But more than all, people . come in coaches — some, private ones. The coachman New York's Blight. 293 has his eye teeth cut. He knows what is going on. But the mistress or master has made it all right with him. From the heated soiree, where wine has flowed in abundance, from the opera or concert, the parties take a ride in the locality of a bed house, and pass an hour or so in it before the coach goes to the stable, and the mistress or man unlocks the hall door with the pass key. From twelve to two, elegant coaches and plain hacks can be seen before the doors of these lodging houses, waiting for company — the women deeply veiled, the men so wrapped up that recogni- tion is not common. Houses in low localities are preferred, if clean; if in better localities, the coming and going of coaches would attract attention. Lodgings are cheap, and run from fifty cents to ten dollars. Parties remain all night if they choose. The doors are never closed. They stand open night and day. Knock when customers may, they will find a M^elcome. WOMEN ON THE PAVE. For a half century the streets running parallel to Broadway, on either side, from Canal to Bleecker, have been the abode of women who walk the streets. In walk, manners, dress, and appearance they resemble the women of their class, who, three thousand years ago, plied their wretched trade under the eye of Solo- mon. About eight o'clock they come out of their dens to the broad pavement, — up and down, down and up, leering at men, and asking for company or for help. At eleven at night, when the street is clear, and not a soul is to be seen, as a man passes a corner, all at once 294 Wonders of a Great City, a flutter will be heard, and a woman flitting out from a side street, where she has been watching for her victim, will seize a man by the arm, and cry out, "Charlie, how are you?" or, "AVhere are you going?" If the man stops for a talk, he will probably follow the woman, as an "ox goeth to the slaughter." On passing a man on the street, if the party looks after the woman, her keen sight detects the slight move, and she turns and follows the looker-on. Some of these walkers are splendidly educated. Some take their flrst lessons in degradation on the pave. Love of dress and fineiy, unwillingness to work, a pique at a lover, a miff at the stern family arrangement, are causes enough to send a young girl on the street. AN INCIDENT. A gentleman in this city employs in his factory a large number of females. He is quite careful to get respectable girls. He demands a written testimonial before he will admit any one. Among those at work for him were two sisters. They were models of pro- priety and order. They were neat in their dress. Early and punctual they Avere at work. They mingled but little in society; were quite reser\^edin their con- versations; said but little, and kept constantly at work. Their quiet and industrious manners, silent and resolute conduct, living seemingly for each other, and always acting as if some great secret weighed them down, or bound them together, called out the ,' sympathy of their employer. But they resisted all j sympathy, refused to make him their confidant, and j asked only to be left alone. They came and went JSew York's Blight. 295 regularly as tlie sun. One night this gentleman was walking alone on Broadway quite late. As he passed Houston street a young girl accosted him. The tones of her voice seemed familiar. He drew her to the gas light. The moment he did so the girl gave a scream, darted down the street, and was out of sight in a moment. She was one of the model sisters in his factory. The next morning the girls were not in their usual place, and he saw them no more. All that he could hear of them was, that long before they came to his factory they were on the street. Each night while in his employ they followed street walk- ing as a vocation. All they ever said about them- selves was said to one who, in the factory, had some- what won upon their confidence. They refused to join in some pastime proposed, and gave as a reason, that they had no money to spend on themselves; they were saving, they said, all the money they could get to take up the mortgage upon their father's farm, as he was old and feeble. Filial love could do no more than this ! The Eighth and Fifteenth wards are crowded with tenement houses. Suites of rooms, at a low rent, suitable for cheap housekeeping, can be had. And here the same class of street walkers are found when at home. HOW STEEET WALKERS APPEAR. Girls new to the business are flush in health, well dressed, and attractive. They visit theatres, ride in cars, go in omnibuses, hang round the hotel doors, and solicit company with their eyes and manner, rather 296 Wonders of a Great City, than by their speech. This class throng the watering places. They travel up and down the North River. Two or three of them take a state room, and move round among the passengers soliciting company. This custom became, the past summer, a gi'eat nuisance. Lady passengers were annoyed, l)oth in their state rooms and out, with the conduct and vile talk in the rooms near them. Some, unwilling to be so annoyed, left their rooms and remained in the saloons all nis^ht. Broadway is not a more noted place for women of this class than are the boats on the North River. From this grade the class descends to mere ragged, bloated, drunken dregs, wdio offend all decency as they ply their trade. The second season reveals the destructive power of this mode of life. Pale, young women, thin and wan; women who know early wliat it is to want fuel and food; women scantily clad, who shiver as they tell their tale and ask relief; women Avho know that life is brief, and the future without hope — such persons compose the great mass of street walkers. A short life they lead, and if their tale is true, it is not a merry one. The court room of the Tombs on Sunday morning, at six o'clock is a suggestive place. Children from twelve to sixteen; women from sixteen to sixty; women on their first debauch, in all their finery, and tinsel, and pride, with the flush of beauty on their cheeks, with which they hope to ^vin in the path they have chosen, and from whose faces the blush has not yet passed away forever; and persons in their last debauch, without anything that marks the woman left to them, — these indicate the life and doom of New York street walkers. CHAPTER XIX. CLUBS OF THE CITY. SOME OP TTTE INSTITUTIONS WHERE WEARY MEN SEEK QUIET AND RECREA- TION— THE UNION LEAGUE, MANHATTAN, BLOSSOM, CENTURY, NEW YORK, UNION, LOTOS, COACHING, ST. NICHOLAS, LAMBS AND AUTHOR's CLUBS — PET HOODLUM ORGANIZATIONS. N^EW YORK CITY enjoys a variety of clubs. It would really be a difficult matter to enumer. ate them all, apart from the consideration of space In this volume; a brief glance at the principal institu- tions of this nature, however, will prove interesting to readers of every class. The club is an imported feature. It has flourished in England for centuries where it is made to serve the purpose of home to members. In this country it is not quite so stamped in domesticity. The club is rather regarded by busy Americans as a place where a tired man can find quiet, peace and recreation after the day's toil, pro- tected from the invasions of his family — a rather neat way of putting it on the whole. No matter how desirous a wife may be of urging her claims for a spring bonnet, her husband is safe from her when he crosses the portals of his club. It is more to him than his castle, for once within its Avails he can even defy his mother-in-law. It is only upon rare occasions that a woman can obtain admission to her husband's 298 Wonders of a Great City. club, when the annual reception or something of like nature is given, and then she must go under his escort. Were she to folloAV him to the club door, and intro- ducing herself demand an immediate audience, the veiy servant who admitted him the moment before, would unblushingly affirm to the lady that her hus- band was probably out of the city, or that at any rate he had not visited the club for something like a month of Sundays. When a person visits a club and inquires for a member, the doorman does not know whether the gentleman sought is in or out. He takes the card, however, and if the member is in and desires to see the caller all well and good, admittance is then easy, but v/hen the card is noted, a simple shake of the hand is sufficient if he does not wish to see the one without, and the doorman gravely returns with the statement that the gentleman is not in. The cuisine of the Ne^v York clubs is lirst class ; it is as good as anything to be found in the leading hotels, and is surpassed only by Delmonico. The wine list is also good, and the best of whiskies and brandies are always on the sideboard. Considerable difficulty is encountered when one, unless he be famous, seeks to become a member of some of the more prominent clubs. Initiation fee and annual dues range all the way from two to five hundred dollars, and then they are always full, and the names of dozens of appli- cants are always on the list. Some of them again you can scarcely enter without being importuned to be a candidate. Indeed, those to which outsiders have ready access need to increase their list, and an invitation may not be altogether disinterested. The Olubs of the City. 299 St. Nicholas, New York, Manhattan, and Lotos are usually very willing to accept a few more of a suit- able kind, and there is no trouble commonly in being elected. But at the clubs that are invariably full the chances are against almost any man not of special distinction, and therefore desirable. The danger is not so much of being blackballed, which is uncommon, as of being dropped, which cannot be other than very mortifying to any sensitive person. Usually there is a committee on admissions, and nearly ever member of the committee — in cases where vacancies are infre- quent — has a friend he is anxious to get in. Hence, a candidate not known to and desired by some of the committee has no prospect of election, whatever his estimable or clubbable qualities. The committee are naturally anxious to get rid of the names that pre- cede those of their friends, and employ every device to do so. Honorable, likable men are passed over so often that they seem objectionable, and after a certain time are dropped, without any thought of discrimina- tion against them, so that the committee's friends may be taken up. The candidate, of course, knows nothing of this inner working ; he innocently sup- poses that he stands on his merits or demerits. He is told that he has been dropped, no reason being assigned, and his pride is deeply hurt, though some careless associate may have urged him to be put up, assuring him of the certainty of election. Nothing is more uncertain. POLITICAL CLUBS. The political clubs are the Union League, Manhat- tan and Blossom. They are known to all public men. 300 Wonders of a Great City, The Union League is Republican and the Manhattan Democratic. The Blossom is almost exclusively given over to Tammany men. The first named has long enjoyed distinction in the field of statesman- ship. It first gained power during the war, when such men as Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, Hugh Hastings, A. B. Cornell, Roscoe Conkling, William M. Evarts, J ohn Bigelow, William M. Smythe and millionaire Morton were towers of strength. Titles for this group are not required. They had much to do with shaping the destinies of the country. Later on, in its Twenty-sixth Street home, it paid more attention to local politics. Many a slate was prepared by its members and sent through successfully, and again many a machine deal was thwarted. The Union League Club always stood upon an elevated plane. It is now situated in Thii-ty ninth street. The Manhattan Club is on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth street. For the past quarter of a century it has borne the name of every dis- tinguished national Democrat upon its rolls from Tilden to Governor Hill, from Douglass to Randall ; and its reception to Seymour, Bayard, McClellan, Hendricks and Thurman are events long to be remem- bered. The only time the club was ever lacking in hearty, loyal recognition of a guest was Avhen it ten- dered President Cleveland a reception immediately following his election to the White House. His demeanor was so chilly, so studiedly freezing, that the members could not relieve themselves from a feeling of oppression and awe. Rumor has it that Clubs of the City. 301 after the mugwump guest had departed, the Jeffer- sonian members of the club assembled around a table where nothing but Bourbon was permitted to flow, and drank John Kelly's health until morning, voting him a better Democrat and a wiser one, in his opposi- tion to Cleveland, than they. The Blossom Club is at Twenty-third and Broad- wa}^ Since the death of John Kelly, Augustus Schell and Sidney P. Nicholls, it is falling into decay. The New York Club is at Twenty-sixth street and Fifth Avenue; the Century at Twenty-first street and Fifth Avenue, while the Union is down at Twentieth and Fifth Avenue. Now for a description of the less widely known clubs, beginning with the Lotos. THE LOTOS CLUB. The Lotos is one of the clubs that saved its life by getting into Fifth Avenue. It was formed sixteen or seventeen years ago, and occupied for its first home a house in Irving Place, adjoining the Academy of Music. Largely composed originally of journalists, it understood the value of advertising and employed it to advantage. It was the first, I think, to have Saturday nights, with music, recitations, etc., for the introduction of which fiendish custom an awful retri- bution cannot be much longer delayed. Many of its members were turbulent, unscrupulous, irresponsible, so that internal discords and unpaid bills accumu- lated until most of them were expelled. After it had been purified it became financially weak, the dis- missed members having circulated such damaging 302 WONDEES OF A GrEAT CiTY. falsehoods about it as to prevent members from join- iiig= It still appeared prosperous; but the directors knew that it required for self-preservation a radical change, a waw environment. They found that they could lease a house in the Avenue, and they deter- mined to take it. The ex])eriment was worth trying. They might not flourish there, but they would cer- tainly die if they remained in Irving place. In addition to moving, they decided to be less exacting as to membership. They had formerly claimed to be, in a sense, artistic, having a large proportion of the members artists, actors, authors, or journalists. These, on the whole, had proved so troublesome that they arrived at the opinion that business men, if less intellectual and scholarly, would be more tractable as well as prompter in payment. The Lotos, though still assuming to be mentally superior to most social organizations, is now full of brokers, merchants, accountants and salesmen. It is, in consequence, prosperous; it is out of debt, and its limit — five hun- dred — is nearly full, though its initiation is now $200 and its annual dues are $75. The club continues to advertise itself by giving dinners to every man of any prominence it can secure, by ladies' days, picture shoAvs, and Saturday nights. All its social and festive occasions are fully noticed in the newspapers, reporters being always cordially welcomed and seductively treated. Individual Lotus- eaters are very fond of seeing themselves in print, and they are fully gratified by the complaisance of tlie luess. Cliauncey ]\r. Depew, General Horace Porter, AVhitelaw Keid (the president), Fred. E. Clubs of the City, 303 Coiidert, and other members invariably speak at din- ners, and their remarks are invariably printed, so that belonging to the Lotos is a tickler to their vanity, easily Avorth the small price of $75 a year. The general impression, particularly out of town, is that the Lotos is crowded with orators and wits; that you cannot jostle any man there dozing over a newspaper without freeing his mind of a store of brilliant epigrams. Such is the fallacious effect of ingenious and persistent advertising. The plain truth is, that the club ordinarily is as dull and dreaiy as such bodies generally are. It is bright only at stated intervals, and then in spots, merely, after ample study and rehearsal. Many men who have joined it with fond anticipations have been cruelly disil- lusioned. It is a kind of prosaic marriage after a poetic courtship. THE COACHING CLUB. Tlie Coaching Club is necessarily small and neces- sarily luxurious. Only twenty coaches with their owners belong to the organization, and the expense of keeping a coach is so great that no one without a fortune would attempt it. A m.an should have an in- come of $50,000 to $60,000 at least to warrant him in joining the club, and few men, comparatively, possess any such means, even in New York. The number of coaches is limited to tvv^enty-five, and not more than fourteen or fifteen appear at the annual spring parade, always witnessed by a throng of peo- ple, who may be curious to see men that can afEord to pay so much for an idle fancy. 304 Wonders of a Great City, There are, I tliliik, about seventy or eighty mem- bers, as three or four persons may be, and often are, jointly interested in a coach. As an example, August Belmont and two or three of his sons belong, so that some one of the young men may be on the box when their father has more serious business to occupy him. He is an enthusiastic whip, however, and enjoys driving a four-in-hand despite his accumulation of years. Col. William Jay, son of the Hon. John Jay — that is his whole history — is president of the club, and Frederick Bronson, secretary. Very few of the younger members amount to anything. They are mostly rich, and nothing else. They do no business, and are apt to boast of this, though they would not have the capacity to earn their own living if it were the humblest. It gratifies their vanity to be "gentle- man coachmen," because it advertises their wealth, than w^hich nothing, to their narrow minds, can be better. Driving coach is not a very lofty or ennobling employment, even when done in the most pecunious manner, but it may be well that a brainless, charac- terless fellow should do that skillfully, than lead a life of absolute idleness. Coaching, healthful physi- cally, if not mentally, requires a vast deal of leisure, which the majority of the members are abundantly able to give it. It has been adopted from the leisurely privileged class of England, generally lords or lordlings, who, in order to revive an old custom, drive, during the season, from London to Brighton or Oxford, or some other point near the metropolis, taking the regular fare, like any other coachmen, fi-om such passengers as may apply. The thing is Clubs of the City. 305 rather absurd and artificial there, and quite as much so here. The drives here are usually to Pelham, Larchmont, or Tuxedo Park, the passengers, always friends of the members, engaging their places so long beforehand, that there is no chance for outsiders who might like to take the air in that agreeable way. The handsome coaches, with their fine horses and daintily dressed ladies, seen, as they intend to be, to full advantage on their lofty perches outside, look very gay and festive as they roll along in the soft sunshine to the tooting of the horn. They invariably attract attention, and awaken admiration in the streets and along the country high roads. The club's headquarters are in Fifth Avenue near Thir- tieth Street, but they set out from the Hotel Bruns- wick, where they have their breakfasts, luncheons and dinners in town. The Coaching Club is not particularly useful, but it is ornamental, adding to the decorative features of the daily pageantry of the metropolis. UNIVEKSITY AJSTD LAMBS. The University club, Henry H. Anderson, presi- dent, is one of the very few clubs that, having been in Fifth avenue, has voluntarily moved out of it. The general tendency is exactly the other way, the avenue being regarded by clubs as the promised land from which dis-solution alone expels them. The re- moval to Madison square is strong evidence of the University's faith in its financial condition and in its future. It might have staid where it was, at Fifth avenue and Thirty-fifth street (the New York club 306 Wonders of a Great City. has lately bought the building and will occupy it after many alterations), if the rent asked had not been so exorbitant as to be prohibitory. It pays an enormous price for its present quarters — formerly the Union League — but as they have chambers and a theater that bring in a revenue the directors find the well- arranged house less unreasonable than it seems. The club was formed about the beginning of the civil war, and in that exciting time so languished that it was decided to keep the charter alive by periodic meet- ings and await the return of peace for its develop- ment. The idea was auspicious. Tlie club was revived four or five years ago and with immediate success. Its list. I learn, is now full — 600 — with many appli- cants for admission. The initiation and annual dues are $200 and $100. To be eligible one must have re- ceived the degree of A. B. from some recognized uni- versity or college, and as graduates are so common nowadays in every part of the country the club will have no lack of material to keep it fulL The mem- bers have some common ground to stand on, and some topic of reciprocal interest, which is more than may be said of the majority of such organizations. Academic education is of little practical or even of decorative advantage, as those best know who have received it. Only those who, as a rule, have been de- prived of it consider it of importance. We always overrate what we have missed, because imagination paints glowingly the blank in our experience, which might have been nearly a blank after our experience. The Lambs, who meet in East Twenty-sixth street, are not, as might be inferred, the guileless victims of Clubs of the City, 307 Wall street operators, but a confederation of actors. The slieplierd is Lester Wallack, one of the oldest and most renowned of his profession, and his flock have many a good time in their rooms, where they give quaint reminiscences, and tell comical stories illustrative of their exjoerience. No one not in some way connected with the theater is eligible to member- ship ; but external barbarians are often invited to the entertainments. Late suppers and Sunday dinners — Sunday being the only leisure day for actors — are frequent, and invariably pleasant. Players make a jolly company around the festal board, entering into the spirit of the occasion with extraordinary zest. They are averse to set speeches — the bane of convi- viality — but their easy, informal talks are full of freshness and interest. I have heard worn men of the world say that they have had more genuine plea- sure in a single evening, or rather night — for their evening does not begin until 12 o'clock — with the Lambs than they could have had in a dozen evenings spent at the regular clubs. Another similar organization is the Elks, of which Antonio (Tony) Pastor, so long identified with variety shows, is the leading light. It is wholly inferior in assumption and tone to the Lambs, as may be judged by the professional and social standing of the two men at their head, who accurately represent the char- acter of the similarly dissimilar associations. A SAMPLE HOODLUM CLUB. But there is still another class of clubs in New York which only seem to flourish on Manhattan Island. 308 Wonders of a Great City. They are assemblies of young toiiglis who range in age from sixteen to twenty-two years. Almost every police precinct, and at least every ward, boasts one. They are perfect hot houses for sin and debauchery. Gaudy names are sported by some of the associations of this ilk. For instance, the Fourth Ward has its "White Roses," "Original Hounds" and "Twilight Coterie," while the Sixth Ward can boast of "The Gentlemen's Sons" and "Straight-backs." The origin and growth of such assemblies are all pretty much alike, except in political seasons. Then some poli- tician becomes the patron saint, and is bled liberally by the club bearing his name. Last fall the " Dead Rabbits" of East Houston street were transformed in one Sunday afternoon to the " Henry George Legion," and on turning out the following Tuesday evening mystified the police as to their identity. The young men quite frequently name their associations in honor of the alderman of their Ward. Such action usually secures a $25 contribution from the person thus honored. These clubs as a rale spring from the street corners, and are composed in the main of hoodlums, toughs and guttersnipes of the masculine gender. For the first few months a tough club enjoys no hall. Its members meet of evenings and Sundays on the street corners around grocery and cigar stores. An assessment of a couple of pennies per head is levied for beer, and an old bucket or can is brought into requisition and made to do duty as a "growler." The beverage is purchased and the youngsters make merry over it drinking, telling vile stories, cracking obscene jokes, and making indecent and vulgar com- Clubs of the City. 309 ment upon respectable passing pedestrians. It seems their especial license to insult women wlio look as though they were not tenement house products. After a time the club grows in strength and im- portance, numerically speaking, until it is deemed the proper thing to hire a hall. A room over the corner saloon or cigar store is rented for a few dol- lars a month, and then the club is in clover. It elects a regular set of officers — a president, secretary and treasurer. I remember the " White Roses," three dozen strong, of a few years ago, quite well. They used to meet over a cigar shop in the New Bowery, within a stone's throw of the Oak Street Police Station. Saturday nights were their regular meet- ing nights. Owing to the adjacency of a beer saloon, and the subvention of the cigar man's small boys, gallons of beer were run up the side stairs. They smoked until all was blue, drank until all were drunk, and frequently fought until the police came and made a hasty bouquet of the Roses. Then, in honor bound, those members who were not present during the melee, or wdio escaped, devoted Sunday morning to raking up enough money to pay the fines of those in quod. This accomplished, a grand halle- lujah meeting of the Roses would be held in the afternoon at which the beer would flow like water. What did these young men do? What is the occupation of the hoodlum generally — the one who manages to wear new clothes, red neck-ties, and carry a cane? Some are light porters, and others tend in the stores in the ward. Some drive a butcher's cart or an express van, and some are so very shady that it would be impossible to tell what their walk in life is. 310 Wonders of a Great City. Gloom rests upon it until some fine morning the whisper goes abroad among the " Roses" or the " Hawthornes, " or the " Gentlemen's Sons, " as the ease may be, that Sniekey, or Ginger, or Bottles, has been " snatched" by the police for burglary and sent to Sing Sing. The president speaks as soiTowfully over their companion's fate as if he had lost his mother. A visiting committee is appointed and money put up to buy the exiles tobacco. But to hasten to the withering of the Roses of that year (they bloomed again the next, and are probably hearty this season). One Saturday night the club was drunker than usual, for the meeting was an im- portant one. The president rapped and rapped with his gavel, but they would not come to order. Two divisions of the association were striving for the mastery, and at last, seeing that it could not be settled according to the rules of Cushing's Manual, or any other work on parliamentary proceedings, they pitched into each other in real Tipper ary style. Chaos, confusion and riot reigned supreme in about a minute. The president began to knock the members down with the gavel, and would have gone through the entire roll of membership in that manner had not some one knocked him down with a baseball bat. The financial secretary was danced on; the treasurer lost part of an ear, while the mishaps to individual members were past narrating. The breaking of glass and smashing of furniture announced to the cigar man below that the "Roses" were having a monkey and parrot time, and he con- cluded to send for the police. The police came, saw Clubs of the City. 311 and conquered. The Roses fought at first, but the municipal weapon won. All the officers were walked to the station house except the president, who, on ac- count of his position, and because he was the only one hit with a pitcher, was put into a cab. There was no defense made to the charge of disorderly con- duct, and no Rose made any complaint against an- other. So all that could be done was to fine them $10 each. The treasurer shelled out the nucleus of the fund intended for the spree that had caused the disturbance, and by contributions, which were swelled by some of the aristocratic members sending out rings and watches to the "hock shop" by the door man, the entire amount was raised, and the battered band departed. The cigar man brought a suit for damages to furniture against the club, which fact in itself, perhaps, had a good deal to do with the mem- bers not coming together as a regular body any more that season. They contented themselves with board- ing the excursion barges of other associations, thrash- ing the bar keeper, drinking all the beer, and scaring the women and children to death ; but beyond this they did not indulge in any pastime of a social nature. CHAPTER XX. NEW YEAE'S DAY IN NEW YORK. ITS ANTIQUITY. — THE PREPARATION. — THE TABLE. — THE DRESS OP THE LADIES.— THE RECEPTION.— NEW YEAR's NIGHT. EW YORK without New Year's would belike JL >j Rome without Christmas. It is peculiarly Dutch, and is about the only institution which has survived the wreck of old New York. Christmas came in with Churchmen, Thanksgiving with the Yankees, but New Year's came with the first Dutch- man that set his foot on the Island of Manhattan. It is a domestic festivity, in which sons and daughters, spiced rums and the old drinks of Holland, blend. The long-stemmed pipe is smoked, and the house is full of tobacco. With the genuine Knickerbockers, New Year's commences with the going down of the sun on the last day of the year. Families have the frolic to themselves. Gaiety, song, story, glee, rule the hours till New Year's comes in, then the saluta- tions of the season are exchanged, and the families retire to prepare for the callers of the next day. Outsiders, who "receive" or "call," know nothing of the exhilaration and exuberant mirth which marks New Year's eve among Dutchmen. J^EW YEAR'S Day. 313 THE PREPARATION. The day is better kept than the Sabbath. The Jews, Germans, and foreigners unite with the natives in this festival. Trade closes, the press is suspended, the doctor and apothecary enjoy the day, — the only day of leisure during the year. It is the day of social atonement. Neglected social duties are i:)er- f ormed ; acquaintances are kept up ; a whole year's neglect is wiped out by a proper call on New Year's. All classes and conditions of men have the run of fine dwellings and tables loaded with luxury. Wine flows free as the Croton, and costly liquors are to be had for the taking. Elegant ladies, in their most gorgeous and costly attire, welcome all comers, and press the bottle, with their most winning smile, upon the visitor, and urge him to fill himself wdth the good things. The preparation is a toilsome and an I expensive thing. To receive bears heavily on the lady ; to do it in first-class style draws heavily on the family purse. A general house-cleaning, turning everything topsy-turvy, begins the operation. New furniture, carpets, curtains, constitute an upper-ten reception. No lady receives in style in any portion of any dress that she has ever worn before, so the establishment is littered with dressmaking from basement to attic. This, Avith baking, brewing, and roasting, keeps the whole house in a stir. THE TABLE. Great rivalry exists among people of style about the table — how it shall be set, the plate to cover it, the expense, and many other considerations that make 314 Wonders of a Gee at City. the table the pride and plague of the season. To set well a New Year's table requires taste, patience, tact, and cash. It must contain ample provision for a hundred men. It must be loaded down with all the luxuries of the season, served up in the most costly and elegant style. Turkey, chickens, and game ; cake, fruits, and oysters ; lemonade, cofEee, and whiskey ; brandy, wines, and — more than all, and above all — punch. This mysterious beverage is a New York institution. To make it is a trade that few understand. Men go from house to house, on an engagement, to fill the punch bowl. Lemons, rum, cordials, honey, and mysterious mixtures from mys- terious bottles brought by the compounder, enter into this drink. So delicious is it that for a man to be drunk on New Year's day from punch is not consid- ered any disgrace. DEESS OF THE LADIES. This is the most vexatious and troublesome of all the preparations for New Year's. Taste and genius exhaust themselves in producing something fit to be worn. The mothers and daughters quarrel. Feathers, low-necked dresses, and gorgeous jewelry the matron takes to herself. The daughters are not to be shown off as country cousins, or sisters of the youthful mother, and intend to take care of their own array. The contest goes on step by step, mingled with tears of spite and sharp repartee till midnight ; nor does the trouble then end. Few persons can be trusted to arrange the hair. Some persons keep an artist in I the family. Those who do not, depend upon a fash- • Newyeaws Day. 315 ionable hair dresser, wto, on New Year's, literally has his hands full. Engagements run along for weeks, beginning at the latest hour that full dressing will admit. These engagements run back to midnight on New Year's eve. Matron or maid must take the artist when he calls. As the peal of bells chime out the Old Year, the doorbell rings in the hairdresser. From twelve o'clock midnight till twelve o'clock noon, New Year's, the lady with the ornamented headtop maintains her upright position, like a sleepy traveler in a railroad car, because lying down under such circumstances is out of the question. The mag- nificent dresses of the ladies; diamonds owned, or hired for the occasion ; the newly-furnished house, adorned at great expense ; the table loaded with every luxury and elegance ; the ladies in their places ; the colored servant at the door in his clerical outfit — show that all things are ready for THE EECEPTION. The commonalty begin their calls about ten. The elite do not begin till noon, and wind up at midnight. Men who keep carriages use them, the only day in the year in which many merchants see the inside of their own coaches. Exorbitant prices are charged for hacks. Twenty-five dollars a day is a common de- mand. Corporations send out immense wagons, in which are placed bands of music, and from ten to twenty persons are drawn from place to place to make calls. The express companies turn out in great style. The city is all alive with men. It is a rare thing to see a woman on the streets on New Year's 316 Wonders of a Great City. day. It is not genteel, sometimes not safe. Elegantly dressed men, are seen hurrying in all directions. Tliey walk singly and in groups. Most every one has a list of calls in his hand. The great boast is to make many calls. From fifty to a hundred and fifty is considered a remarkable feat. Men drive up to the curbstone if they are in coaches, or run up the steps if they are on foot, give the bell a jerk, and walk in. The name of one of the callers may be slightly known. He is attended by a half a dozen who are entirely unknown to the ladies, and whom they will probably never see again. A general intro- duction takes place ; the ladies bow and invite to the table. A glass of wine or a mug of punch is poured down in haste, a few pickled oysters — the dish of dishes for New Year's — are bolted, and then the in- tellectual entertainment commences. "Fine day" — "Beautiful morning" — "Had many calls ?" — "Oysters first rate" — "Great institution this New Year's" — "Can't stay but a moment" — "Fifty calls to make" — "Another glass of punch ?"^ — "Don't care if I do" — "Good morning." And this entertaining conversation is repeated from house to house by those who call, till the doors are closed on business. 8(3anding on Murray Hill, and looking down Fifth avenue, with its sidewalks crowded with finely dressed men, its street thronged with the gayest and most sumptuous equipages the city can boast, the whole looks like a carnival. KEW YEAK's night. The drunkenness and debauchery of a New Year's in this city is a disgrace to the people. As night ap- JVewyear's Day, 317 proaches, callers rust Into houses where the lights are brilliant, calling for strong drinks, while their flushed cheeks, swollen tongues, and unsteady gait tell what whisky and punch have done for them. From dark till midnight the streets are noisy with the shouts of revellers. Gangs of well-dressed but drunken young men fill the air with glees, songs, oaths and ribaldry. Fair ladies blush as their callers come reeling into the room, too unsteady to walk, and too drunk to be decent. Omnibuses are filled with shouting youngsters, who cannot hand their change to the driver, and old fellows who do not know the street they live on. Joined with the loud laughter, and shout, and song of the night, the dis- charge of pistols, the snap of crackers, and illumina- tions from street corners, become general. At mid- night the calls end; the doors are closed, the gas turned ofp, the ladies, wearied and disgusted, lay aside their gewgaws, very thankful that New Year's comes only once in the season. Since the introduction of the District Telegraph, with its multitude of messengers, a large amount of New Year's calling is done by simply sending cards, considered equivalent to calls, by these messengers. The day before New Year's, some of the up town offices receive these envelopes by bushels, and the next day duly distribute them, while the supposed "callers" are in their rooms or at their clubs, smoking cigars and drinking their own healths. CHAPTER XXI. CENTRAL PARK. ORIGIN OP THE GREATEST FREE PARK IN THE WORLD — HOW IT MAY BE REACHED FROM THE BUSINESS SECTION OP THE CITY — OBJECTS OP UNIVERSAL INTEREST — THE MENAGERIE AND MUSEUMS — CLEO- PATRA's needle — THE MALL — GATES AND THEIR TITLES — RIVER- SIDE PARK AND GENERAL GRANT's TOMB. IT is not a little curious tliat tlie unsurpassed loca- tion of tlie Central P^rk owes its origin to a quarrel among politicians. It is difficult to conceive of a finer location. Its extent, central site, natural featui^es, outlets, drives, and attractions are exceeded by no similar enclosure in the world. In 1850, the legislature of New York entertained a bill for the i purchase of a piece of unimproved land, known as j Jones's Wood, for a public park. The party who in- ^ troduced the bill was a senator fi*om New York. An i alderman of the city was his bitter opponent. After the bill had passed locating the park at Jones's Wood, the alderman called upon Mr. Kennedy, since | General Superintendent of Police, to g-et him to unite in defeating the purchase. Mr. Kennedy had thought ■ nothing of the bill. A map was brought and the | site examined. The points made by the alderman i were, that the senator who introduced the bill was ^ interested, and would be largely profited by the sale, i Central Park. 319 The plot was on the extreme eastern side of the city ; it was small, scarcely a dozen blocks; a thick popula- tion bounded it on the south, Harlem shut it in on the north, the East River formed another boundary, ;ind enlargement was impossible; besides, the price was enormous. While examining the maps, Mr. Kennedy pointed out the present site of the park. It was then one of the most abandoned and filthy spots of the city. It Avas covered with shanties, and filled Avith the most degraded of our population. The valleys reeked with corruption and every possible abomination. It was viler than a hog-pen, and the habitation of pestilence. As a place for building it was nearly worthless, as the grading of it was out of the ques- tion. As a site for a public park, its inequalities of hill and dale, its rocky promontories, and its variety of surface, made it every way desirable. The great point of the alderman was to defeat his political op- ponent and the bill for the purchase of Jones's Wood. The eminent fitness of the new spot was conceded at once. The omnipotent press joined in the new move- ment. The proposed name of Central Park was re- ceived Avith acclamation. The purchase of Jones's Wood was annulled. The bill for the o])ening of Central Park passed. In 1856, the purchase was complete, and the work commenced. THE COMMISSION. At first the Central Park was a corporation matter. The city ofiicials were so corrupt that the friends of the measure refused to put it into the hands of the Common Council. The aldermen, in city matters, 320 Wonders of a Great City. were omnipotent. They were county officers as well as city. If they sent a bill to the Council, and that body refused to concur, the aldermen could meet as a Board of Supervisors, and pass the bill that the Council had rejected or the Mayor vetoed. The Legislature j)ut the affairs of the park into the hands of a Commission, made up of distinguished men, rep- resenting .the great parties of the city. On receiving their appointment, the commissioners called a meeting of the distinguished citizens of New York to consult on the laying out of the park. "Washington Irving took the chair. The models of Europe would not do for New York. This park was not for royalty, for the nobility, nor the wealthy;, but for the people, of all classes and ranks. Drives, public and quiet; roads for equestrians and for pedestrians ; plots for games and parades, for music and public receptions, must be secured. The main features that the park now wears were adopted at that meeting. HOW TO GET TO THE PAEK. There are several routes by which Central Park may be reached from the lower portion of the city. All elevated trains start from the Battery. The Sixth Avenue Elevated Eailroad takes the visitor to the entrance known as the Artist's Gate, on Fifty -ninth street; the Third avenue elevated, to the same thoroughfare, with a walk of four blocks to the left; from the Post Office, the Broadway, Eighth Avenue, and other surface horse railroads, and also the Fifth Avenue stages (fare 5c.), which start from the cor- Central Park. 321 ner of Eleventli street, convey one without change to the various park entrances on Fifty-ninth street. On the way up Fifth avenue one passes an almost unbroken series of the handsomest private residen- ces, churches, and other public buildings to be found in the world. At Eleventh street is the First Pres- byterian Church; Fourteenth street and vicinity is a great center of the retail dry goods trade, the stores being spacious and magnificent, while the display of millinery, fancy goods, etc., can be seen in no other city. On the corner of Fifteenth street is the Man- / hattan Club, a great Democratic headquarters ; the house of August Belmont may be seen on the north- east corner of Eighteenth street ; the northwest cor- ner of Twentieth street is occupied by the Union Club, while directly opposite is the Lotos Club. The South Dutch Reforrped Church is on the southwest corner of Twenty-first. At Twenty-third street, Broadway crosses the avenue. The visitor has now arrived at Madison Square, one of the most attractive and striking features of New York, On the east is Madison avenue, the home of vv'ealth and refinement. Broadway touches its southwest corner, and Fifth avenue forms its western side. East Twenty-third and East Twenty sixth streets make its southern and northern limits. On every side may be seen hotels which are palaces, club houses costly and elegant beyond description, and churches and private dwellings of great beauty. The famed Fifth Avenue Hotel stands on the corner of Twenty-third street, and above it at Twenty-fourth street is the Albemarle, while at Twenty-fifth street 322 Wonders of a Great City. is the Hoffman House. Quite a curiosity in the center of the park is an enormously high flagstaff, on top of which is one of the most powerful electric lights in the world, and which at night can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. In the southwest corner of the park is the statue of Wm. H. Seward, erected in 1876. Madison Square is the favorite haunt of the eccentric George Fi'ancis Train, who may be seen almost every day seated on his favorite bench surrounded by children. At the northwest corner is a statue of Admiral Farragut, by A. H. Gaudens. In the little square forming the jimction of Broadway, Fifth avenue and Twenty-fourth street, stands the stone shaft erected by the city to the memory of General Worth. Immediately behind it is the New York Club, Just beyond, at the south- west corner of Twenty-sixth street, is Delmonico's famous establishment, while diagonally opposite is the Brunswick Hotel, and the Victoria Dutch Re- formed Church is on the corner of West Twenty- ninth street ; at Thirty-fifth street is Christ Church ; at the corner of West Thirty-seventh street is the Brick Presbyterian Church ; and here the stage climbs the gentle elevation known as Murray Hill, where may be always seen an exhibition of the wealth and luxury of the residents. Most of the noted and wealthy families of the city live in this locality. The two brick houses on the west side, between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets are the residences of the Astor family, while the vast white marble palace, covered with the most elaborate carvings, is Mrs. A. T. Stewart's house. On the east Central Park. 323 side, at Thirty-ninth street, is the Union League Club House. The massive stone Groton Reservoir skirts the west side of the avenue between Fortieth and Forty-second streets, and on the southeast corner of the latter thoroughfare is the Columbia Bank. The Jewish synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, is at Forty- third street ; at Forty -fourth street comes the Episco- pal Church of the Heavenly Rest, and at Forty-fifth street the Universalist Church of which Dr. Chapin was formerly the pastor. Filling the entire space between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh streets is the justly celebrated Windsor Hotel. Jay Gould resides at No. 579, opposite. The Fifth Avenue Dutch Re- formed Church is at Forty -eight street. Then comes St. Patrick's Cathedral, the largest and finest edifice of the kind in the United States. Next comes the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, and directly oppo- site are the residences of the Vanderbilt family. On the northwest corner of Fifty -first street is that of the late Wm. H., and on the southwest corner of Fifty- second street, that of Wm. K. Vanderbilt, while on the northwest corner of Fifty-seventh street is the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt. At Fifty-third street comes St. Thomas' Episcopal Church ; at Fifty- fourth street, the well known St. Luke's Hospital ; and at Fifty-fifth street the Fifth Avenue Presbyter- ian Church, Rev. Dr. John Hall, pastor. Finally, at Fifty -ninth street, is the spacious Central Park Plaza. INTERESTING FEATURES. The park contains ten miles of carriage roads, eight of bridle paths, and twenty-five of foot paths — 324 Wonders of a Great Oity, to all of which additions are being constantly made. Within its precincts are the best roads for riding and driving in the country, while the lake has for many long years been famed, not alone for its beauty in summer, but for the smoothness of its skating ice, during the winter months. The Zoological Garden, and Menagerie too, are ahvays open, both winter and summer, together with the various museums and art galleries. The zoological department is now, as it has been for the last twenty-eight years, in charge of Mr. W. A. Conklin, who is a corresponding member of the London Zoological Society, None better could be found to fill this responsible position, as the general appearance of the department plainly shows. The purchase of the land (although considered worthless on account of it being covered with rocks), together with the improvements, has cost over $20,000,000 up to the present time, and further expenditures are contemplated and in jDrogress. Large and comfort- able open carriages will always be found in waiting at the Fifth and Eighth avenue entrances, for the convenience of those visitors who wish to ride round the grounds. The fare for the entire trip is only 25 cents. Three or four stops are made, and the visitor may leave the carriage in which he started at any one of these, walk for a shorter or longer distance, and then continue his or her ride in the next carriage Av^hich comes along. For instance, one good plan is to leave the carriage at the Terrace Bridge (the driver will announce it), cross the lake in one of the many safe and comfortably fitted up boats which are always to be found here, and after a pleasant torn* Central Park. 325 through what is known as the "Kamble," visit the Belvedere. Then stroll along the elevated breezy paths around the great reservoirs to Mt. St. Vincent, where there is an elegantly furnished cafe, and where any carriage that passes may be taken back to the Fifth or Eighth avenue entrances. Another pleasant trip is to walk to the Terrace, and then take a car- riage for Mt. St. Vincent, from which place an ex- ceedingly picturesque walk may be taken through the woods and up the lovely valley which leads off to the west towards Eighth avenue, and then through the pine woods to the Belvedere and the Ramble. Crossing the lake again, another carriage may be taken at the Terrace for Fifty-ninth street. Then again, the simple ride up and back — a distance of about six miles — affords the visitor a view of the chief points of interest, and is a most charming and invigorating journey. Although the driveways are pretty well thronged in fine weather during the whole day, yet it is at the latter portion of the afternoon, between 3-30 and 5*00, that the most costly and ele- gant equipages and turnouts make their appearance. A short distance from the entrance at Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth street, on the right, is a sign bearing the inscription, "To the Menagerie." The first section in this department is devoted to the monkey tribe, whose antics are both interesting and amusing. Chief among them is "Crowley," the chimpanzee, who narrowly escaped death from pneumonia last year, but who was finally restored to health by con- stant and careful nursing on the part of his keeper, for whom he has always evinced the most tender 326 Wonders of a Great City. attachment. Leaving the monkey house, on the right is a fine collection of gaily plumaged tropical birds. Those with vari-colored beaks almost as large as their bodies are called toucans. Cockatoos, paro- quets, etc., and numerous small birds of diiferent varieties will also be found there, where a lengthened stay is not relished by nervous individuals, on account of the unearthly screeches which salute their ears. In a spacious enclosure close by are some magnificent specimens of the now almost extinct North American bison, or buffalo, which are well worth close atten- tion, as no finer can be seen anywhere. In the next compartment is an unequaled group of eagles, vul- tures, and condors, perched upon the branches of dead trees placed within the wire fence that encloses them. The eagles, especially, are beautiful specimens of the "Bird of Freedom," and should not be passed by. Pigeons, pelicans, etc., fill the next section, and appear to be happy and contented in their really spacious and comfortable quarters. A little further on, to the left, is what may be termed the menagerie proper, containing, as it does, the lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, hyenas, ant- eaters, etc. The "king of beasts" is represented by two noble-looking male specimens and two females. The Bengal tigers are three in number, and are the finest specimens to be found in America, while leopards, panthers, and hyenas also occupy each a separate compartment. Outside the menagerie build- ing are a number of pens, in the first of which are located the black, shaggy and diminutive Kerry cattle from Ireland. That curious looking animal, Central Park. 327 with long flowing beard and a hump on its back, in the second compartment, is the sacred bull of the Hindoos. A herd of fifteen elephants from India, loaned by Barnum to the Park authorities, will prove attractive, as also will the prairie dogs' village, the entrances to whose burrows may be plainly seen. Then come the camels, one of whom, a female, some time ago gave birth to the only young ever boi'n in this country, it is said. Her progeny are still alive, and bid fair to be the admiration of visitors for many years to come. The remaining enclosures con- tain jackals, fallow deer, elks, and raccoons, while cranes, herons, pelicans, brightly-plumaged flamin- goes, ducks, and other members of the feathered family maybe seen enjoying themselves each in their own particular way. Perched on a slight eminence to the right is the cave of the bears, one side of the enclosure in Avhich they are confined being formed of solid rock. In addition to common brown and black bears, a couple of immense white Arctic bears, for whose comfort a large plunge bath has been provided, are to be seen here. Having "done" the menagerie, one may retrace his steps to where the same path branches off, just under three large willow trees. A short distance, and there is a play ground for children , turning to the left, and crossing the driveway, and taking the path to the right, we come to a few stone steps, and then enter a long rustic arbor or archway, at the Great Circle, from which a nice view may be obtained of the Mall, and its constant stream of pedestrians. To the right is the Casino, built of stone, and fitted up 328 Wonders of a Great City. in a most elegant manner as a restaurant. Walking back through the arbor again, we reach the Terrace, which is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful and artistic structures in the wdiole park. It is built of fine soft stone, covered with the most intricate carvings. The central stairway goes down under the roadway, while the two side flights of steps are beyond. All three, however, join below at the edge of the lake, where there is an immense bronze foun- tain^ — "Bethesda" — representing the figure of an angel blessing the waters. The idea of the fountain was suggested by the story of the Pool of Bethesda (St. John V, 2-4). The figure of an angel stands in the attitude of blessing the watei-s. She bears in her left hand a bunch of lilies, emblems of purity, and wears across her breast the "crossed bands" of the messenger angel. She seems to hover over, as if just alighting, a mass of rock, from which the water gushes in a natural manner, falling over the edge of the upper basin, slightly veiling, but not concealing, four smaller figures, emblematical of the blessings of Temperance, Purity, Health and Peace. The Belvedere is a tall tower built of stone, from the top of which a most extensive view may be had of the city and suburbs. Looking south, the spires in the lower portion of the city may be seen. To the west is the Hudson River and the country beyond, while eastward may be had glim23ses of the Sound, Brooklyn, and the whole Long Island shore. North- ward are the two large reservoirs, and beyond tliat again is the upper part of the city, Harlem and High Bridge. A path alongside the road, to the left, leads Central Par\>:---"A;iij iylall. Central Park. 329 to the Common, where is a large and magnificent group of eagles in bronze. The "Common, " sometimes denominated "The Green," is a fine meadow contain- ing sixteen acres. A flock of blooded sheep is pastured here, in charge of a well trained and intelligent colley, or sheep dog. Visitors are not generally allowed to walk on the grass, but on certain days, usually Saturdays, this place is declared free, and then thousands of young children roam about at their own s^veet will. On such days signs are put up marked "common," and then the grass land is free to every one. But a shoi't distance away is the "Car- rousel," so called, where will be found swings, a "merry-go-round," and other similar amusements for children. The Mall is a broad pathway, a quarter of a mile long, and with a total width of 208 feet. The main central walk is thirty-flve feet wide, lined on each side with magnificent shade trees, the rest of the plateau being covered with greensward. Seats are numerous and are placed as close together as comfort will allow. Near the head of the Mall, on the west side, is the music pavilion, an exceedingly ornate structure of the pagoda fashion. Music is provided here during the summer season by first class bands, generally on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The statues to be found here embrace the most artistic in the pai'k. That of Shakespeare, at the lower end of the Mall, was placed there in 1872, on the three hun- dredth anniversary of the great dramatist's birthday. Second is a statue of Robert Burns, presented to the city of New York by resident Scotchmen in 1880. 330 Won DEBS of a Great City. Next is tlie figure of Sir Walter Scott, erected in 1871, and also presented by resident Scotch- men; further on is that of Fitz Greene Halleck, the poet, which dates back to 1877. A sliort distance to the left is the ideal figure of an Indian hunter and his dog, tlie work of Mr. J. Q. A. Ward. Then, also, there is a bronze bust of Beet- hoven, erected in 1884. Still keeping to the right hand patliway, after leaving the Mall, skirting the edge of the Ramble, we come to the Small Reser- voir. This covers an area of 35|- acres, and has a capacity of no less than 150,000,000 gallons of watei*. It is a1)0ut 11(3 feet above the level of the sea. Upon a slio'ht eminence to the riofht is the Obelisk, the Needle of Cleopatra. This most interesting ancient relic was presented to the city, through the Depart- ment of State, in 1877, by the late Khedive of Egypt. The work of removing this gigantic block to New York was entrusted to Lieut.-Com. H. H. Gorringe, U. S. N., who designed massive and novel machinery for the purpose. This "monolith," as it is termed, is the sixth in size of all the obelisks of Egypt. It was made at the command of Tliutmes III, the brother and successor of Hatshepu, the "woman king," whose name is borne on the two great obelisks of Amen-ru — one of which is still standing, the other being prostrate. The hieroglyphics on tlie sides of the obelisk are all euloo:istic of the renowned Thutmes III and his successors, Ramses and Usorken I. These inscriptions, therefore, take us back to a period more than 1500 years before Christ, and to the Araneaeaii age in the history of the Holy Land, which was iu- Central Fare. 331 vadecl and conquered by Thutnies III. Moses gazed upon this wonderful block of stone, whose origin was almost lost amid the mists of time when Augustus Caesar and Antony fought over Cleopatra. Lately its surface has been treated in a peculiar manner with paraffine, as a protection against the weather, the alternate heat and cold of our climate having caused small portions of the stone to chip off. Upon the Eastern side of the driveway, almost directly op- posite the Obelisk, is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is open every week day. On Mondays and Tuesdays a charge of 25 cents each person is made for admission; other days, free. The Museum is still in its infancy, but now rests upon a firm foun- dation, and will, in time, be able to rank with famous institutions of the same nature in Europe. The first acquisition of any importance was the Blodgett col- lection of pictures, consisting mainly of examples of Flemish and Dutch masters, but also containing some excellent specimens of French, Spanish and English artists. The archaeological collection, consisting of over 10,000 objects, gathered together by General Di Cesnola, U. S. Consul, during his residence in the island of Cyprus, was next added. The present building was opened on March 30, 1880, and forms but a small portion of the large series of edifices it is proposed to erect. The main hall is 109 feet long from east to west, and 95 feet wide from north to south. There are entrances at both the east and west ends, from which stairways lead to the picture gal- leries on the floor above and to the balconies. The center of the hall is devoted to the exhibition of 332 Wonders of a Great City. loans and late acquisitions, while the space under the south balcony contains the terra-cotta ware of the Di Cesnola collection. The smaller statuary is under the north balcony, the large under the east, and the modern under the western. Up-stairs the small southern gallery is hung with the pictures of old masters, some of which are only lent to the Museum trustees; the larger gallery containing only those which are the property of the Museum. The south balcony contains the ancient Greek glass, while in flat cases around the railing are the various gold or- naments of the Di Cesnola collection. In the north balcony is a fine collection of oriental porcelain, as well as specimens of Japanese art and Egyptian an- tiquities. Among the most valuable of the paintings l)elonging to the Museum, exhibited in the large eastern gallery, is the "Return of the Holy Family from Egypt," by Rubens. This was painted for the Church of the Jesuits, Antwerp. It is on wood, was originally arched at the top, and Avas taken from the church by virtue of the decree of the Emperor Joseph II in 1877, suppressing the Jesuit order, and confiscating their property. It is 109 inches high and 70 inches broad. Another painting by Rubens is the " Lions Chas- ing Deer," brought from Italy, where it formed part of Cardinal Fieschi's famous collection. There are also two Van Dyck's, one being " St. Martha Inter- ceding with God for a Cessation of the Plague at Tarascon," which formerly belonged to the Royal Museum at Madrid, whence it was taken by King Joseph Bonaparte when he fled to Prance; the other Central Park. 388 is a portrait of " Miss De Christyn, " frota the collec- tion of M. De Kibancort. The Di Cesnola collection consists of articles of all sorts, found in the ancient cities and tombs of Cyprus. The statues are arranged according to their style of art, beginning with the early Egyptian, and ending with the later Greco-Roman. The specimens of terra-cotta, nearly 4,000 in number, consist largely of vases, of which no two ai-e exactly alike. : The collection of glassware numbers about 1,700 pieces, of both Phoenician and Greek workmanship. The gold and silver ornaments were found in the temple at Curium, mostly. Among other acquisitions lately made by the Museum is a memorial to the unfortun- ate poet, Edgar Allan Poe, author of "The Raven," which was presented by the actors of New York. The next object of interest is the Great Hill, so called. Here a perfect panorama lies stretched out at the feet of the visitor, as it were, not only of the Park itself, but of the Avhole country for miles around. On the very brow of this bold outlook over the Harlem plains there is still standing a stone structure, which formed part of a line of fortifica- tions erected here during the war of 1812. For some time it was used for the storage of gunpowder, and hence it is now commonly designated as the Powder Magazine. Returning southward, past the eastern side of the reservoir, the next object of interest deserv- ing of special comment is the American Museum of Natural History, just outside the Park proper, at Eighth avenue and Seventy-eighth street, on what is known as Manhattan Square. 334 WONDEBS OF A GREAT CiTY. The Museum was formally opened on December 22, 1877, President Hayes being among those in attend- ance. Its style is a modern Gothic, the material used externally being red brick for the walls and Maine granite for the window trimmings, etc. The general interior arrangement is probably the best that has yet been devised for the purpose, and, in fact, leaves little to be desired. The various collections are arranged in large halls, and, in one instance, in a balcony run- ning around the main hall. At each end of these halls is a large vestibule, containing stairways and offices for the curator of the department to which the floor is devoted. At present the entrance is at the southern end. Each hall is 170 feet long by 60 wide. The lowest story is eighteen feet high ; the second or principal story, including the balcony, thirty feet ; the upper story twenty -two feet, and the story in the Mansard roof sixteen feet. 4 The lower story, excepting several cases of corals, reptiles and fishes, is mainly devoted to mounted specimens of mammalia. It also contains the Jesup collection of North American woods, prepared in a most attractive and pleasing manner, and which have not been on exhibition for a very great length of time. The floor of the second-story hall contains the mounted l)irds, numbering somewhere al)out ten thousand specimens, large and small, arranged in their geogra])hical ordei'. The gallery is set apart as an archaM)logical de])artnient, and contains specimens of the imi)lements of the Pacific islanders, S]M?ars and hnices of vjii'ions ]^e()])]e, carved A^ ar clu])s, Indian dresses and w eapons, stone axes, pottery, etc. — all in Central Park, 335 upright cases. Suspended from the ceiling is a monster war canoe, carved out of one tree. In tlie railing case is the De Morgan collection of stone im- plements from the valley of the Somme (northern France), and specimens from the Swiss lake dwellings, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Stuart. There is also the Powell collection from British Columbia, presented by H. R. Bishop, a collection from Hudson Bay, gathered by Professor Robert Bell, presented by Hugh Auchincloss, and several minor collections. On the upper or third floor is the James Hall collec- tion of paleontological and geological specimens, together with other recent acquisitions of a similar nature. In the desk cases in the middle of the hall is arranged what is known as the Jay collection of shells, presented by Miss C. L. Wolfe, daughter of the first president of the museum. Here, too, is a fine representative collection of minerals called the "Bailey Cabinet." A short but pleasant walk along the pathway, southward, soon brings the visitor within sight of the Seventh Regiment monument, a bronze figure of a private soldier of that command, modeled by J. Q. A. Ward. It was erected in commemoration of those members who fell in battle during the late civil war. It is much admired as a work of art, and is con- sidered by many as being one of Mr. Ward's best productions. The Prince of Wales' tree stands on the right-hand side of the Grand Drive, almost op- posite the centre of the Mall. There were originally two trees — one an English oak, and the other an elm, but only the first mentioned now survives. It was \ \ 336 Wonders of a Great City, planted by the Prince of Wales during his visit to this country in the fall of 1860. During the same season in which the Prince of Wales made his offer- ing, the Japanese Embassy, then visiting the city, planted a young cedar on the opposite side of the of the drive, a little further up. Unlike the Prince's oak, the Japanese cedar did not live, but its place has been supplied by another which still flourishes. Appended is a list of the various en- trances, or gates, as they are called, together with their location : Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth street, Scholars' Gate; Sixth avenue and Fifty-ninth street, Artists' Gate; Seventh avenue and Fifty -ninth street, Artisans' Gate; Eighth avenue and Fifty-ninth street. Merchants' Gate; Fifth avenue and Sixty-seventh street, College Gate; Eighth avenue and Seventy- second street. Woman's Gate; Eighth avenue and Seventy-ninth street. Hunters' Gate; Eighth avenue and Eighty-fifth street, Mariners' Gate ; Eighth avenue and Ninety-sixth street. Gate of all Saints; Eighth avenue and One Hundredth street, Boys' Gate; Eighth avenue and One Hundred and Tenth street, Strangers' Gate; Fifth avenue and Seventy-second street, Childrens' Gate; Fifth avenue and Seventy- ninth street. Miners' Gate; Fifth avenue and Ninetieth street. Engineers' Gate; Fifth avenue and Ninety-sixth street. Woodman's Gate; Fifth avenue and One Hundred and Second street. Girls' Gate; Fifth avenue and One Hundred and Tenth sti'eet, Pioneers' Gate ; Sixth avenue and One Hundred and Tenth street, Farmers' Gate; Seventh avenue and | One Hundred and Tenth street. Warriors' Gate. Central Fabk. 337 GEISTEBAL GKANt's TOMB. Just to the nortliwest of Central Park is another one of the city's popular breathing places. It is Eiverside Park, and is made famous from the fact that it is the bm^ial place of General U. S. Grant. The park is a narrow and somewhat irregular strip of land lying between Riverside avenue and the Hud- son River. It commences at Seventy-second street, and continues northward as far as One Hundred and Thirtieth street. The average width from east to west is about five hundred feet, while the entire length is not far from three miles. The total area is about 178 acres, some portions of which have already been laid out by the Department of Public Works. The park is considerably above the level of the river, and the views from the driveway are most striking and picturesque, giving every now and then charm- ing glimpses of the tree-covered park, long stretches of the beautiful Hudson River, the Palisades, and the Weehawken hills beyond. It is believed, and with good reason, too, that the vicinity of Riverside Park, will, in time, become pre-eminently the aristo- cratic part of New York. The tomb of General Grant is on a beautiful elevation fronting the Hud- son River, and between One Hundred and Twenty- Third and One Hundred and Twenty-fourth streets. Its atmosphere, already solemn and melancholy, is rendered more impressive by a detachment of soldiers, acting as a guard to the tomb. The interment of this distinguished man took place August 8, 1885. His monument will be completed in the com'se of a couple of years. CHAPTER XXII. THE GAMBLING HOUSES. HANDSOMELY FUBNISHED PARLORS WHERE THE TIGER IS MORE RELENT- LESS THAN IN HIS NATIVE JUNGLE. — HOW SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL HOUSES ARE ARRANGED. — JOHN MORRISSEY's CONNECTION WITH GAMBLING. — DAY AND NIGHT GAMES. — THE PLUCKING SYSTEM.— FEMALE GAMBLING HOUSES. — POOL ROOMS, POLICY AND LOTTERY. AMBLING has liad its ups and downs in tlie V^Jf metropolis. It was first introduced by camp followers of the British army during the Revolution, when New York was in the hands of the red coats. Once introduced the vice made itself at home, re- mained when the British evacuated the city, and soon became one of the institutions of free America. The back rooms of Water, Front and West sti'eet " taverns, " as they wxre called four score years ago, were the principal scenes of play. It was not until about 1825 that anything like regular out and out gambling places were introduced. Then a house near the old Tontine at the foot of Wall street was thrown open, dedicated to games of chance. Accommoda- tions were provided for persons desirous of hazard- ing money at cards, dice and checkers. The stakes, it is said, were not large, and the play while popular was not extra ruinous. Now all is changed, and if a man, to descend into slang of the day, owned the earth, " he could easily lose it in a night at any of the Gambling Houses. 339 principal New York gambling hells. The police have fought the gamblers for a dozen years. At times they succeed in closing a majority of these dens of infamy, but they do not seem able to close them all or to keep any of them shut for an extended interval. The better class of gambling houses are on Broad- way, and Fifth and Sixth avenues between Twenty- third and Thirtieth streets. One of the heaviest games of faro on Manhattan Island, is in nightly blast, only a half dozen doors from fashionable Grace Church. Three years ago the police announced that they had closed for the summer every gambling house in the city. At that time Grace Church was erecting a new steeple, and the writer being editorially con- nected with a New York daily newspaper published a paragraph to the effect that if the steeple fell it would crash through the roof of a gambling house and kill a dozen men at play. In the course of a couple of days a portion of the steeple did fall, but as it did not fall in the direction of the club house in question, the gamesters escaped. The paragraph taken in connection with the steeple mishaps, served, however, to annoy the sporting fraternity for a time. The first-class houses of to-day are superb in all their appointments. A brown stone front or a marble building is selected, and kept in grand style. The door is set off by a broad silver plate, usually bear- ing the name of some club, and rich heavy blinds or curtains at the windows hide the inmates from prying eyes. If one wishes to enter he rings the door bell. This is answered by a finely dressed colored doorman, for all the servants are black. They are trained to 340 Wonders of a Great City, their duties, and are silent and polite. To your salu- tation the doorman, if you are not known to him asks " who do you wish to see ?" You name the proprietor or a friend, and are at once invited to the parlor. The elegance of the establishment dazzles you. The doors are of rosewood. The most costly carpet that can be imported lies on the floor. MiiTors of magni- ficent dimensions extend from the ceiling to the floor. No tawdry frescoing, but costly paintings by the first artists, adorn the walls and cover the ceiling. The richest of gold, gilt, and rosewood furniture in satin and velvet abound. ARRANGEMENT AND TABLE. The basement of the house is devoted to domestic labors. The front parlor is used for dining. The dinner is served at six o'clock. Nothing in New York can equal the elegance of the table. It is spread with silver and gold plate, costly china ware, and glass of exquisite cut, and the viands embrace all the luxuries of the season served up in the richest style. Fruits, home and foreign, fill the sideboard, and wines and costly liquors are to be had for the asking. Among the keepers of the first-class gaming houses there is a constant rivalry to excel in the matter of dinners and the manner the table is spread. The I rooms are open to all comers. All are welcome to the ! table and sideboard. No questions are asked, no ! price is paid, no one is solicited to drink or play. A • man can eat, drink, look on, and go away if he pleases. Buc it must be profitable business, or men i who a few years ago were drunken prize fighters could not now be millionaires. A man who does not ! Gambling Houses. 341 spend one dime in the house can call for the choicest wines, and drink what he will, as freely as the man that leaves thousands at the bank. These splendid suppers are only baits; and the superb sideboard, with its fine li(|Uors, furnishes stimulants to play. There is a feeling, too, in one who eats and drinks these good things, that he ought to risk a little money. To the rear of the dining room or front parlor is the principal gaming room. It will contain one or . more faro lay-outs, owing to the demands of the play, and a roulette or rouge-et-noir table The baccarat tables and poker rooms are usually on the third floor. Poker is so common that "stud" is about the only species of this game allowed in a first-class gambling house. It has a regular dealer, who is always on the look out for the house commission. THE GAME OF FARO. The game of faro is the most popular and fascinat- ing of all games of chance. It is so simple that almost any person after a brief visit to a table be- lieves that he has thoroughly mastered its intricacies. Here is a brief description of it: A complete pack of fifty-two cards is used. The pack is placed in a small silver box, face upward, the uppermost card being always public. Strong springs at the bottom of the box keep the cards pressed closely against the surface. At the right hand side of the box is a small slit or aperture which permits of one card being pushed out at a time. The box rests on a table and the dealer sits behind the box and manipulates 342 Wonders of a Great City. the cards. In a chair to the right of the dealer sits the look-out, a mau who, like the dealer, is employed by the house. He watches all bets placed to see that the house gets its winnings, and he also settles all disputes between the house and players. On the table to the front of the box is spread the lay-out. This is a representation of the thirteen different suits in the pack, arranged in two rows, beginning at the dealer's left hand with the ace and ending at his right with the seven spot. Then the second row, which faces the players, comprises the eight, nine, ten, Jack, Queen and King. A small rack called "the cases" is on the opposite side of the table from the dealer. It is arranged like the lay-out, and each card is represented by four buttons. Some person — usually a player — keeps the cases. When the dealer draws a card from the box, say it be an ace, the case- keeper will shove back one of the four buttons from the ace in the cases. By this agency the players can at any stage of the game tell at a glance how many cards remain in the box and their denomination. The top card is called the soda card, as being in view it can neither wan nor lose. The card directly under it, the second card, is the losing card, while the third one wins. Should two cards of the same suit come out together, two kings, two queens, etc., the play is called a split, and the game takes half of the bets wagered by the players. The play is con- ducted by ivory checks called "chips," and their color denominates their value. In first-class houses white chips are worth a dollar and a quarter, blues two and a half, and reds five dollars each. Other Gambling Houses. 343 colors are also used, upon wliich the house places its own value; but the ones enumerated are the popular colors. Twenty chips comprise a stack. A player can bet all the way from a single chip or a " split chip" to the house limit, which ranges from one to five hundred dollars, owing to the pleasure of the proprietor. A player can also back a card to lose or win, or any combination of cards which may attract his fancy. A person wishing to play purchases some chips, any quantity he may desire. If the table is not too crowded he is given a chair. He may com- mence at any stage of the deal. If he fancies the ace to win he may put as many chips as he likes, not ex- ceeding the limit upon that card. Should he desire it to lose he "coppers" it; i. e. places a small black button of wood on the uppermost of his chips on the card. Playing a card open is to win. If he is play- ing the card to win, and it should be directly under- neath the exposed card, his chips would be swept away. Should the ace come out third, he would win, and the dealer would place opposite his checks the same number of checks he wagered. Then the player can transfer his bet to another card, reduce it in size or quit the game altogether. He can also play every card in the lay-out at the same time if he deems fit. At the end of a deal, when only three or four cards remain in the box, then comes what is designated " calling the turn. " If the player succeeds in naming the rotation in which the cards come out, he is paid four to one; in other words, the house bets him four to one he cannot call the turn. Some play lightly ; they lose five or ten dollars and 84:4: Wonders of a Great City. then stop. Many play deep, and losses are heavy. From ten to fifty thousand dollars frequently change hands in a night. Merchants, small tradesmen and clerks often play until they lose all, and then put up watches, jewelry, pledge their salaries and incur debts of honor that must be paid, all through their passion for play. Defalcation, peculation, fraud, theft, forgery, follow a visit to the hells in high life. Re- cently one man lost three hundred thousand dollars. There is at present a man in this city who " plays system," as it is called. He has had such a run of luck that he broke the bank of one of the first houses, and carried away two hundred thousand dollars in one night. All these gamblers are fast men. They spend all they win on their vices, passions, or in play. When they are low, they visit the low gaming dens of the city, and if their fortune in any way changes, they hasten back and try their luck again in a first-class house. Many gamblers do not lay up five dollars in five years. THE COMPANY. None but men who behave like gentlemen are allowed the entree of the rooms. Play runs on by | the hour, and not a word spoken save the low words . of the parties that conduct the game. But for the • implements of gaming there is little to distinguish ' the room from a first-class club house. Gentlemen well known on 'change and in public life, merchants of a high grade, whose names adorn benevolent and charitable associations, are seen in these rooms, read- ing and talking. Some only drink a glass of wine. Gambling Houses, 345 walk about, and look on tte play with apparently but little curiosity. The great gamblers, besides those of the professional ring, are men accustomed to the ex- citement of the Stock Board. They gamble all day in Wall and Broad streets, and all night on Broad- way. To one not accustomed to such a sight, it is rather startling to see men whose names stand high in church and state, who are well dressed and leaders of fashion, in these notable saloons, as if they were at home. The play is usually from five to twenty- five dollars. A stock of checks is purchased, and these played out, the respectable player quits the table. But old and young, men in established busi- ness and mere boys, are seen night after night yield- ing to the terrible fascination of play. JOHN moreissey's house. A few years ago John Morrissey was a resident of Troy. He kept a small drinking saloon, of the low- est character. It was the resort of the low prize fighters, gamblers, thieves, and dissolute persons of all degrees. So low, and dissolute, and disreputable, was the place, that it was closed by the authorities. With other traits, Morrissey blended that of a prize fighter of the lowest caste. Drunken, brutal, without friends or money, battered in his clothes and in his person, he drifted down to New York to see what would turn up. He located himself in the lowest stews of New York. At that time the elections in the city were carried by brute force. There was no registry law, and the injunction of politicians, to "vote early and vote often, " was literally obeyed. Roughs, 346 Wonders of a Great City. Short-Boys, brutal representatives of the Bloody Sixth, took possession of the polls. Respectable men, who were known to be opposed to the corrup- tion and brutality which marked the elections, were assaulted, beaten, robbed, and often had their coats torn from their backs. The police were powerless; often they were allies of the bullies, and citizens had quite as much to fear from them as from the rowdies. If the election was likely to go against them, and their friends presided over the ballot-box, and should signal the danger, a rush would be made by twenty or thirty desperate fellows, the boxes be seized and smashed, tables and heads broken, the voters dis- persed, and the election carried by default. A local election was to take place in the upper part of the city. The friends of good order Avere in the majority, if allowed to vote. But it was known that the rowdies would come in force and control the election. A few voters got together to see what could be done, and among them a former General i Superintendent of Police. It was suggested that force be met with force, that the ballot-box be guarded, and the assailants beaten off by their own ' wea2:)ons. But where could the materials be found to grapple with the Plug Ugliesand their associates? Somebody said that Morrissey was in town ready for a job, and that he could organize a force and guard the election. One day Mrs. Kennedy came to her husband as he sat in his room, and said to him, " There is an a^vful looking man at the door, wlio wants to see you. He is dirty and ragged, has a ferocious look, and is the Gambling Houses. 347 most terrible fellow I ever saw. Don't go to the door; lie certainly means mischief." Is he a big burly looking fellow? "Yes." "Broad-shouldered, tall, with his nose turned one side?" "Yes, yes," said the impatient lady. " O, I know who it is ; it is John Morrissey ; let him come in. " " O, husband, the idea of your associating with such men, and bringing them to the house, too !" But the unwelcome visitor walked into "the parlor. Now, John Morrissey at Saratoga, in his white flannel suit, huge diamond rings, and pin containing brilliants of the fii-st water, and of immense size; tall of stature, a powerful looking fellow, walking quietly about the streets, or lounging at the hotels, but sel- dom speaking, was not a bad looking man. Seen in New York in his clerical black suit, a little too flashy to be a minister, yet among bankers, merchants, or at the stock board he passed very well as one of the solid men of the city. But Morrissey as he appeared that morning was an entirely different personage. He had come from a long debauch, and that of the lowest kind. He was bruised and banged up. His clothes were tattered. The Island was all that seemed to be opened to him. With him a bargain was made to organize a force of fighters and bullies, sufficient to prevent the ballot-boxes from being smashed, and the voters from being driven from the polls. He said he could do it, for he was at home among desperadoes. True to his appointment, he was at the polls before they were open. He was attended by about thirty as desperate looking fellows as ever rode in a wagon or swung from Tyburn. He 348 Wonders of a Great City, stationed liis force, gave his orders, told each not to strike promiscuously, but, on the first appearance of disturbance, each to seize his man, and not leave him till his head was broken. There was no disturbance till twelve o'clock. The late Captain Carpenter was in charge. About noon a huge lumber-van drove up, drawn by four horses. It was loaded with the roughest of the rough, who shouted and yelled as the vehicle neared the curbstone. Bill Poole, at that time so notorious, led the company. They were choice specimens of the men who then made the rulers of New York. Plug Uglies, Bummers, Roughs of the Bloody Sixth, Short-Boys, Fourth Warders, and men of that class, were fully represented. Bill Poole sprang to the sidewalk. Captain Carpenter stood in the door. Addressing him, Poole said, "Cap. may I go in?" " O, yes; walk in and wel- come, ^ Carpenter said, and in Poole went. He saw the situation at a glance. He measured Morrissey and his gang, turned on his heel, and, passing out, said, " Good morning, Cap. ; I won't give you a call to-day; drive on, boys;" and on they went to some polling place where they could play their desperate game without having their heads broken. This was Morrissey' s first upward step. He washed his face ; with a part of the money paid him he bought a suit of clothes, and with the balance opened a small place for play. He became thoroughly tem- perate. He resolved to secure first-class custom. To do this he knew he must dress well, behave well, be sober, and not gamble. These resolutions he carried out. His house in New York w^as the most elegantly Gambling Houses. 349 furnished of any of the kind in the state. It was always conducted on j^rinciples of the highest honor, as gamblers understand that term. His table, attend- ants, cooking, and company were exceeded by nothing this side of the Aclantic. AT SARATOGA. He followed his patrons to Saratoga^ and opened there what was called a Club House. Judges, sena- tors, merchants, bankers, millionaires, became his guests. The disguise was soon thrown off. and the club house assumed the form of a first-class gambling house at the Springs. Horse-racing and attendant games followed, all bringing custom and pj'ofit to Morrissey's establishment. About this time the cele- brated conspiracy was formed by politicians and railroad men to break d*own Harlem Railroad, and with it Commodore Vanderbilt. As a player Morris- sey soon became familiar with Vanderbilt, who spent his summers at the Springs. In the extraordinary movements made by Commodore Vanderbilt to check- mate the conspirators, and throw them on their back, Morrissey was employed to play a conspicuous part, He made his appearance at the Stock Board, backed by Vanderbilt, He traded in Harlem in a manner that astounded the old operators at the board. He was allowed to share in the profits of that bold stroke which ruined thousands who had sold Harlem short. As Morrissey grew rich he became respectable. He secured an election to Congress where he "respect- ably" represented his district, seldom speaking, 350 Wonders of a Great City, always voting, never absent from his seat, and never known to take a bribe. There and in the State Legis- lature he had the reputation of a thoroughly honest politician. Just before his death he was elected to the State Senate, running against one of the most popular Tammany politicians and beating him ; but he did not live to take his seat. Honest men of both parties voted for him. It was really a fight against the power of Tammany Hall. Their ticket presented Augustus Schell, one of the oldest and most respect- able citizens of New York, but Tammany was in bad odor then, and Democrats and Republicans joined to defeat him. Morrissey's victory, however, hastened his death. He was sojourning in Florida for his health, and returned, against the ad\dce of his physicians, to take active part in the election. He had many good qualities. All his hopes were con- centrated in his only son, who was carefully brought up and educated, but who died before his father. Not- withstanding the "Club House" at Saratoga, Morris- sey was the most efficient of all in keeping away from that summer resort all gamblers, pickpockets, and other bad characters from New York and elsewhere. He knew them all and they all knew him, and knew that they must keep away. The village of Saratoga - owes much to him for his efforts in this direction, and { for his endeavors to add to the attractions of the j place by a well managed racing track. He did not leave as large a property as he was generally esti- > mated to be worth, but a handsome competence for his wife and some bequests to other members of his ! family showed that he was far from a poor man when j he died. Gambling Houses. 351 It is very rare that a gambler makes money. The late hours, the constant drinking, the exciting food that is eaten, the infatuation of play, inevitably lead to destruction. If men begin with a cautious hand, and in what are known as fii^t-class houses, they descend step by step till they reach the lowest depths to which gambling descends. A few men make it a profession, and a few have followed it for half a century. They are men of peculiar organization, who resist the fascinations of play, and never touch the wine cup. Any one who takes a late city car going up town will find two or three genteelly dressed men, very fashionable in their attire, carefully barbered, pro- fusely covered with jewelry, fat, sleek, and in good condition, evidently on excellent terms with them- selves ; any night in the week, between twelve and two, this class, looking very much alike, may be seen going to their homes. They are the men who make gambling a business. They do not drink, they do not play. Success in the business they have under- taken forbids this. They attend church, and usually have a pew in a fashionable place of worship. They are liberal subscribers to the causes of religion and beneficence. They would not hesitate to head a sub- scription with a liberal sum to suppress gambling. It would be policy to do so, and policy is their forte. A man lives in the upper part of this city, and in fine style. He is reputed to be worth five hundred thousand dollars. He came to New York penniless. He decided to take up play as a business; not to keep a gambling house, but to play every night as a trade. 352 Wonders of a Great City. He made certain rules, which lie has kept over thirty years. He would avoid all forms of licentiousness ; would attend church regularly on Sunday; would avoid all low, disreputable company ; would drink no kind of intoxicating liquors, wine, or ale ; would neither smoke nor chew; would go nightly to his play, as a man would go to his office or to his trade ; would play as long as he won, or until the bank broke ; would lose a certain sum and no more ; when he lost that, he would stop playing, and leave the room for the night; if he lost ten nights in succession, he would lose that exact sum and no more, and wait till his luck changed. This system he has followed exactly. While this one man has been successful in this career, tens of thousands, who have tried the hazard, have been carried down into irretrievable ruin. One of the greatest dangers to which a young man from the country*is liable is found in the bad com- panions met in boarding houses. There are several hundreds of these establishments within a quarter of a mile of Union Square, and each contains from ten to twenty clerks. When a country youth enters one of these he is in a new world. He comes with a stock of good resolutions and has been well laden with paternal advice, but the pressure which now surrounds him is far more powerfuL As a matter of ■ course, most of his associates are dissipated, and j there is a rivalry which shall be the first to induct i him into evil. Faro is an abbreviation of Pharaoh, whose face was j formerly on one of tlie cards. The leading player is i called the " punter, " and this is suggested by Pope's j lines: ' Gambling Houses. 353 Wretch that I am, how often have T swore When Winnell tallied I would punt no more! I know the bait, 3^et to my ruin run, And see the folly which I can not shun. Speaking of the time of Pope, I recently opened an old volume of The Gentleman^ s Magazine and read tlie following description of the game as it was played a century and a lialf ago: First an operator wIlo deals the cards for the pur- pose of cheating; also two crowpees (croupier), who watch the cards and gather the money for the bank. Then there are two "puffs," who have money given them to play with, and thus decoy others to try ; also a bully, who is to fight any gentleman who is peevish at losing his money. Then there is the watch- man, who walks up and down and alarms the house on the approach of a constable. Such is a brief statement of gaming in London in the days of Pope. Hogarth gives a very powerful scene in a gaming-house, being a part of the " Rake's Progress. " How many rakes have been ruined since then is beyond all calculation. Cards are supposed to be of Asiatic origin. Chinese cards have three suits, each of nine cards. It is sup- posed that they were introduced into Europe by Arabs and Saracens before the thirteenth centuiy. The first historic reference is found in Augsburg, whose records mention the fact that in 1275 King Eudolph amused himself with a game at cards. The most eminent card manufacturer in France in the sixteenth century was Voto. Soon afterward the same business was established in England. It is 354 Wonders of a Great City. said that the marks in the suits of cards were in- tended to represent four classes in society, hearts being the clergy, spades (from spada, a sword) the nobility, diamonds the citizens, and clubs the serfs. There ought to be one more, to represent the dupes. The most famous of London gamblers was Crockford, whose "hell" sometimes witnessed the exchange of a half million sterling in one night. Byron says that he was asked by an acquaintance where he (the latter) would be found after death. The poet promptly replied in "Silver hell," which was a popular gaming resort of that city. Byron adds that he narrowly escaped a challenge for his keen retort. Keno is a popular game simply because it is so rapid and so cheap. At 10 cents a chance almost any one can play. Keno is just the game for boys, and the practiced gambler despises such small busi- ness; besides this, he can see with half an eye that the chances are usually heavy against the player. Thus, if in faro the bank has six chances out of ten, in keno it has seven or eight. It may be readily seen that keno dens will abound in great cities, and j in some localities they may be found side by side in close array. Among the devotees of keno are often f found students from the country who have come to attend lectures. They are in some cases supported «] by the self-denying economy of parents, and even 1 sisters, and could the latter behold the object of their j affection squandering his money at the keno table, how great would be the agony ! It is well that so j painful a spectacle is spared them. I i Gambling Houses. 355 THE SKIN GAME. There are two kinds of gambling in this city, one known as the square game, which is played only by gentlemen, and in first-class houses; the other, the skin game, which is played in all the dens and cham- bers, and in the thousand low hells of New York. In the square game nobody is solicited, nor obliged to play, though they visit the rooms. In low gaming houses it is not safe for any one to enter unless he plays. Persons are not only solicited, but bullied into hazarding something. Runners are out, who visit all the hotels and places of amusement to solicit custom, as drummers solicit trade for dry goods houses. The mode of procedure is usually this. A person arrives in New York, and books his name at a hotel. A sharper, who is hanging round fi'om a low club-house, watches his descent from the coach, or his entrance with his carpet-bag, watches him as he books his name, and waits until he has finished his dinner or supper, and comes into the public room. To a stranger there is no place so lonely and utterly desolate as a great city. The stranger does not know what to do with the time that hangs heavy on his hands till the morning trade begins. The roper-in for the gambling house understands this very well. At the proper time he approaches the visitor, and calls him by name ; asks him if he is not from Chicago or Ne^v Orleans, as the case may be ; announces him- self as from that city ; speaks about mutual ac- quaintances. The visitor, thankful that he has found somebody to speak to in this great wilderness, becomes 356 Wonders of a Great City. communicative. The sharper soon finds out whether his companion is a drinking man or not. If he is, an invitation is given to come up and take a drink, in which the health of their mutual friends in New Orleans and elsewhere is duly honored. Each treats the other, and several glasses are drank. From the bar the parties proceed to the front steps of the hotel. "What are you going to do with yourself to-night is carelessly asked by the roper-in. Of course the victim has no plans ; he has not been in New York long enough to form any. He is only too happy to accept an invitation to call at a private club house of a friend. "They keep vile liquor in this house ; I would not di^ink the stufE. My friend imports his own liquors ; you'll get a fine drink over there. " Arm in arm the parties start for the club house, which, of course, is a gambling den. They take a few drinks all round, and then pass into another room, where "a few gentlemen" are having a quiet game by themselves. The roper looks on for a while, and suggests to his friend that he take a chance for a dollar or so ; that he is not much accustomed to play, but that he does so once in a while for amuse- ment. He plays and wins ; he plays again and wins. The game is so played that winning or losing is at the pleasure of the man who shuffles the cards, j Between each play the visitors drink. It costs them ' nothing, and they drink deep; at least the victim does. Confidentially over their glasses the sharper , suggests that his friend back him for the little sum j of fifty dollars. The excited man yields, and wins. Gambling Houses. 357 He now bets a hundred dollars. The infatuation is upon him. He bets all his money, pledges his watch and jewelry, till, insensible, he is turned out on the sidewalk, to be taken to the station house, or carried to his hotel by the police. In these dens strangers have lost as high as two hundred thousand dollars in a single night. In the morning the gamblers cannot be found, and if found, the sharpers are far away. There are about fifty of these sharpers, who prowl about the hotels nightly, seeking their victims among the unwary. Men who frequent low and disreputable places to fleece strangers and the young are not only professed gamblers, but curbstone brokers and gam- blers in stocks, with whom the excitement of the day is exchanged for the hazard of the night. DAY GAMBLING HOUSES. There is a class of speculators who are not content with legitimate business nor legitimate hours. The uptown hotels are crowded with them. Rooms are occupied, halls rented, and the day excitement at Wall street is renewed in the evening, and often runs up to the small hours of the morning. The same spirit led to the opening of day gambling houses. These are conveniently located to business. They run from Fulton street to Wall, are found at a con- venient distance from Broadway and Water street. They are designed to attract merchants, bankers, yoimg men, and visitors from the country. They have ropers-in, as have the night gambling saloons. These decoys have a percentage taken from the win- iiings of their customers. Every man they can seduce 358 WONDEBS OF A GrEAT CiTY. to enter one of tliese establishments, if lie lose money, is a gain to the decoy. Tliese sharpers hang round the street, loaf on the curbstone, dog their victims from store to store, profEer them aid, go Avith them blocks to show them the way, help them to make purchases, propose to show them sights, and at length, as if accidentally, lead them into a day gambling saloon, which is situated very conveniently for the purpose. In these dens, men who have lost in stocks on the street try to make gains. Missing bonds here turn up, missing securities are here found, pledged by confidential clerks, who, until now, were supposed to be trustworthy. Young men who are robbed in the street, from whose hands funds are snatched, from whose possession a well-stuffed pocket book has been taken, find the thief usually within the silent walls of a day gambling house. HOW THE EOOMS AEE FITTED UP. The place selected for one of these saloons is in the busiest and most frequented parts of lower New York. A store let in floors is usually selected. A large building full of offices, with a common stairway, up and doAvn which people are rushing all the time, is preferred ; or the loft of a warehouse, if nothing better can be had, is taken. A sealed partition mns from the floor to the wall. The windows are barred with wooden shutters, and covered with heavy cur- tains. The rooms are handsomely carpeted, and gayly adorned. Lounges and chairs line the sides of the room, and the inevitable roulette and faro tables stand in their place. The padded cushion on which Gambling Houses. 359 the cards rest tells the employment of the room. The outside door is flush with the partition. A party de- siring to enter pulls the bell, and the door opens without any apparent agency, and closes suddenly on the comer. The hardened gambler walks in as he would into a bar room or an omnibus, regardless of observation. But the young man who is new to the business, who has come justly or unjustly by a bill, who has been sent out on an errand and must make up a falsehood to account for his detention, or who is sent from the bank to the Clearing House, or from the Clearing House to the Custom House, and who runs in to try his luck for a few minutes, or for thirty, can be easily detected. He pauses below; goes a story above ; looks up and down before he pulls the bell ; faintly draws the wire, and darts in like a startled fawn. Not without observation and scrutiny does the customer get into the saloon. The outside door admits him into a small vestibule. The door behind him is closed, and he cannot open it. The bell has announced his presence. He is scrutinized through a small wicket opening in the wall. He must in some way be vouched for. If he comes through invitation of a roper-in he has a card. If all is right he is ad- mitted. The darkness of night fills the room. The gas is lighted. The silence of a sepulcher reigns in the chamber. Persons sit, lounge, and stand in groups ; they watch the table, but not a word is spoken except the monotonous utterances of the men who have charge of the gaming. 360 Wonders of a Great City. AN INSIDE VIEW. Seated at the table to deal the cards sits a man ap- parently between forty and fifty years of age. These men all seem of the same age and of the same tribe. They are usually short, thick set,square built, pugilistic fellows, half bald, with mahogany faces — men without nerve, emotion, or sensibility. They sit apparently all day long pursuing their monotonous and deadly trade, making no inquiry about their victims, caring nothing about their losses, unmoved by the shriek of anguish, the cry of remorse, the outburst, " O, I am undone ! I am ruined ! What will my mother say? What will become of my wife and children ? " While the wounded are removed, and their outcries hushed, the play goes on. These rooms are distinguished by their silence and quiet tread inside. They open about eight in the morning, and close at four, when the tide begins to turn up town. The amount of misery these day gambling houses create, the loss of money, character and standing, exceeds all belief. The men who carry on this class of gambling down town are connected with the low class up town, and when the day gambling houses close, those that run in the night are opened. The losses are often very heav;^^ Men enticed into these dens have been known to lose from twelve to fifty thousand dollars a night. There is no seduction in New York more subtle or more deadly than the day gambling houses. Gambling is far more general in the city than moralists imagine. It is common in all classes, from those who are able to risk thousands down to tb^ Gambling Houses. 361 boys and negroes who "play policy" in a hundred different places. There are down town gambling houses, open during business hours, and brokers, clerks and others run in for half an hour to risk their own or other people's money. The police know of these places, and once in a while " raid " them. But they flourish, notwithstanding, and ruin thousands. ladies' gamblino houses. It would hardly be thought possible that there was sufiicient interest taken in gaming by ladies to lead to the hiring and fitting up of houses expressly for their accommodation. Nevertheless such is the fact. There are quite enough of "lady sharps" — may be innocent of worse knowledge — to warrant the establishment of places at which money can be often lost and seldom won. Women, it is sooth to say, soon acquire many of the tricks and much of the "talk" of confirmed gamesters. A recent publication gives the following graphic description of one of these fashionable resorts of the creme de la creme of feminine poker players, through interviewing one of the participants : "The night after Washington's Birthday, a lady operator who is employed in the ofiice with me asked if I would visit a friend of hers with her. I con- sented, and after supper she took me to an elegantly furnished house on Rivington street, near Allen, where I was introduced to half a dozen 'young women who were present. We sat and talked for a while, and then one of the ladies proposed a social game of cards. First it was euchre, and then after a time one of the women mildly inquired if I played 362 Wonders of a Great City. casino. I said I played a little, and then we started in and played two or three games. Then my lady friend who had brought me to the house retired to an adjoining room with another young lady, leaving me playing casino with a girl about twenty or twenty-one. Becoming tired of the game, my op- ponent suggested she would like to play a little game of poker. I said I didn't know how, but she was alert to give instructions. ^ We'll begin on five-cent ante,' she said. She then explained the nature of an ^ante,' the relative value of ^two pairs,' ^ three of a kind,' ^ straights,' ^ full hand,' ^ flush,' and so on. I became interested, and inquired how much I ought to bet. ^ It didn't matter,' she said. ^ Any amount' We played quite a while and I lost $1.50 — all the money I had in my pocketbook. Then we sat chat- ting, and she said if I'd call some evening she'd teach me the game thoroughly. I promised to come again, and when my friend came into the room where we were she asked me if I could loan her a dollar. I told her I didn't have it, and then we started for home. When we reached the Second Avenue Ele- vated Station, and were going up the stairs, my friend turned around suddenly and said : ^ Susie, I'm busted. You'll have to pay the fare.' I explained that I hadn't a cent, and so we had to walk up town. On the way home I told her how I lost my money at the cards, and she told me that the house we were in ran a few little games on the quiet. She said she had won as much as fifteen dollars there in one night. I got so worked up about the thing that I agreed to go again with her on the following Saturday night. I Gambling Houses. 363 went and have gone at least once a week since then. Sometimes I come away broke. On several occasions I have won pretty good sums of money. Every Saturday night the place is fairly packed with women. They come in coaches, too, for some of those who go there are said to be wealthy. On week nights there are not so many visitors as on Saturdays and Sundays. Still the place is pretty well filled every night." The reporter was invited to accompany the young lady and see for himself, and an appointment was made and kept for Thursday night. The front door was reached at half-past ten o'clock and the young lady pulled the bell. An opening of several doors was heard, then suddenly a dusky face looked out and scanned the features of the visitors carefully. He recognized the girl and asked: " Is this all right, Susie V She said it was, and after passing through two heavy doors the young lady and the writer were ushered through the hallway, and from there into a large parlor which was handsomely furnished. A long table occupied the centre of the parlor, on which was set a supper of ordinary excellence. In the front part of the room three men and a half dozen women were clustered about a table playing a private game of cards with checks for $1, $2.50 and $5. Near the folding doors was a roulette table, unpatronized, and in the back room was the faro bank, around which seven or eight richly dressed women were engaged in losing money with greater or less speed and regular- ity, according to the extent of their ill luck. Every- thing about the house appeared to be conducted with 364 Wonders of a Great City. tte utmost quietude, no sound being heard except an occasional argument between the women. Then the reporter was shown upstairs, the fair telegraph oper- ator leading the way. Three rooms on this floor were moderately furnished, and men and women sat about many tables playing and smoking cigarettes. Smok- ing seemed a favorite pastime with the majority of the females on this floor. "See that w^oman over there with the cloth suit on," said the telegraj^h girl. "Her husband's a clerk in one of the courts. She's a regular female sport and is all the time betting. She'll wager from one dollar to a hundred on anything from a dog fight to an elec- tion. She's a great one for attending races, too, and can pick out a good horse every time. Her husband knows she's a sport, but he don't care where she goes. That little black haired woman with the ruby lips is here every night. Her husband is said to be very wealthy, and he must be, too, for she drops about twenty-five dollars a week here. Girls who work hard all the week come here Saturday night and leave their wages. One girl w^ho works in the bad hole used to come up here Saturday night after she'd got through toiling. Now she comes Sundays. Well, she has a mother and young sisters to care for and whenever she'd go broke here all the women'd make up a purse for her, 'cause she used to cry and say she'd squeal on the establishment. Sometimes she'd go home without a cent, and then she'd tell us the next time we saw her what an a^vful time there was at her house that night, and how she used to make up lies by the score. One night she'd tell her mother Gambling Houses. 365 tlie firm liad changed tlie pay night. Then, again, she'd go home with a story about the firm being short of funds. Sometimes she'd loaned her wages to the forewoman. To make up what she'd lose at gamb- ling, she'd have to scrape pretty hard, and once in a while, when she'd have a streak of good luck, she'd go home and say she had got her back pay. I haven't heard lately how she's making out, but if she's losing now I suppose she tells her mother the money goes toward the supj)ort of the striking laundry girls of Troy. She's always got something nevv^ to tell at home about the way she disposes of her w^ages. A favorite game here among the Vv^omen is sweat, the common form of gambling with dice. There's a woman who lives on Eighty-sixth street, and whenever she comes here she won't go into anything but ^ sweat ' or seven-up. She's the boss of the house at seven-up, but it is said she tampers with the cards in dealing. There was a blonde w^ho used to come here with her who had an awful passion for gambling. I saw her lose foi'ty dollars here in one night. The next day she pawned her watch and diamonds and thought of taking all her husband's money and absconding with it. She'd invest her last dime in a policy shop. It is three weeks now since she's been here. I don't know what has become of her. Probably she has absconded. But if there is a man in Eighty-sixth street or thereal)outs wlio has recently lost a blonde wife he can blame the woman who runs this place for his loss. " " Now, if you'll come up on the next floor (the third) I'll show you what sends a woman home with fire in 366 Wonders of a Great City. her eyes and Satan astraddle of her tongue." The rooms above were fitted up luxuriously, and evident^ ly by a female upholsterer with a good eye for color and effect in the drapery and pictures. The apart- ments, in fact, were the most handsomely furnished in the establishment. In a corner of the room stood a marble-top table with many bottles and glasses upon it. Here the women treated themselves to sherry, the reporter was informed. The front hall bedroom was a resting place for dizzy girls who had gone broke down stairs. No one enters this room save by a key obtainable downstairs. There was nothing vulgar about any of the women found upstairs, good breeding being visible on all sides. The language used was the most refined. THE POOL EOOMS. Society in fixing its graduates, in placing one man here and another a little higher or a little lower, has not omitted to establish the status of the poolseller. He is a grade or two above the faro-gambler, and just below the sporting man who bets on margins in the board of trade. The police draw a line at pool- rooms ; it " pulls " in all grades below, from the bagnio up through the opium-den and the assignation house to the gambling house ; and here it stops. It would trench on the domain of the poolseller if it should advance a single inch beyond the faro bank. The two are as closely united as if tliey were born brothers, and yet the calling the turn " of the last cards in a pack is considered less reputable than naming the winner in a horse race. Gambling Houses. 367 There are differences in this matter of gambling. For instance: "I bet you $1,000 that June wheat will advance 5 cents, " is highly respectable gambling, and so is the further form embodied in the state- ment: "I will wager you $10,000 that the Interstate Water Route railway stock will fall in value within thirty seconds." This is intensely respectable, and the people who indulge in it are permitted to join the clubs and mingle in polite circles. Again : " I bet that when the ace comes out of that box it will fall on the losing pile" is a highly discreditable method of gambling, and dooms the one addicted to it to the contumely of good men and women, the visitations of the police, and to the penalties and mortifications connected with an ap- pearance bfefore a dignitary who represents the majesty of the law. If, instead of saying, " I think June wheat will advance, and I will invest money on it," the player should say, " I think the hand which has just been dealt me is worth so much more than yours," then he becomes at once a bad man, and society will "sick" its dog on him whenever he is seen in the vicinity of the dooryard fence. Once more: "I will bet 10 cents against $1 that I can select the winner in this race," indicates another form of gambling, and which is more reputable in the eyes of the world than wagering on the location of the ace, and less so than betting on the advance or decline of the price of grain. A "straddle," or a "call," or a "privilege" if ap- plied to wheat, corn or stocks, is something which in no way imperils the social standing of the person 368 Wonders of a Great City, who employs it; if it be a "straddle" of a "blind," or tlie "privilege" of an "ante," or the "call" of a bet based on pasteboard combinations, then it is something which sends the operator into limbo. It seems to depend on the form in which the thing is done. The scene in Barclay street, the home of the pool room, is always a busy one during the racing season. One notices that the crowd splits off at intervals, and portions of it disappear down steps and into dark doorways. Glancing through one of these openings, one sees at first only a level mass of black, over which there are lambent flames playing like jack-o'. lanterns above a graveyard in the night. Descending into one of these subterranean depths, the level mass of black resolves itself into the heads, or, rather, liats, of a mass of people, and the jack-o'-lanterns into suffocated gas jets. There is a peculiar and most offensive suggestion of a lack of soap and water. There are blackboards on the walls covered with figures, and long, parallel, perpendicular lines. There is an inclosure on a dais, from which a man with a bald head vociferously addresses the auditory. Agile young men skip around on shelves projecting from the w^all, and with a piece of chalk and a rag inces- santly wipe out figures and write in others. There is a ticket office, before which there is always a little crowd, who purchase decorated pieces of pasteboard from a person with a stolid face within. The crowd is a somewhat marked one. The ma- jority of it is composed of men between eighteen and twenty years of age. It is a somber collection, sad- Gambling Houses. 369 faced and unsmiling. There may be one silk hat in the gathering, but never two. The head pieces are the stifP derby s and the slouch, and each, grimy, brown in spots, indented on the surfaces, and evi- dently of many years' wear. The clothing of the bodies presents the same musty, long-worn, antiquated appearance. There are rivulets of grease on the vesc fronts and stains of tobacco juice on the lapels of the coats. The trousers, as a rule, are arched out and fi^ayed over the heel of the shoe, and there is a notable absence of clean collars, cufEs, and shirt fronts. Each man seems to use tobacco in some form. One smokes a cigar which shows a long, black gutter burned down its side ; others prefer pipes, black, and "loud" in flavor; still others masticate the weed, and decorate the floor with puddles and ambitious little streams which essay progress in some direction till they are first dammed and then absorbed by the dirt. Perfect and attractive democracy prevails in the audience. . Darkies, blact as night, with lips like raw beef cutlets and w^ool dense as the fleece of a thoroughbred sheep, mingle with white men on terms of perfect equality. There are yellow negroes, whitish-brown negroes, and other shades, who elbow the whites, crowd up to the ticket entrances, and pufE volumes of niggerhead tobacco into the nostrils of the pale-faced customers. Whatever else there may be objectionable in the pool rooms, there is no beastly aristocracy. When it comes to guessing a winner, a nigger has just as many rights as a white man, and just as many chances of winning — or losing — as it is most likely to be the result. 370 Wonders of a Great City. Once in a while in this gathering one recognizes in a faded face, careworn features, and listless air a man who was once a prosperous member. He shuffles about as if searching for some valuable thing he has lost and cannot find. His hair is dusty and unkempt, his linen rumpled and dirty, his clothing rusty and ill-fitting. He will not find what he is looking for. That he is foredoomed to disappointment is written on his face. Pool, in its horse meanings, applies to the lumping or combining of various sums of money on various horses, all of which will go to one man. There are, say, five horses in a race. Jones is willing to give fifty dollars for the first choice and Smith will give thirty dollars for the second choice. Brown may be w^illing to give fifteen dollars for the third choice, and then Johnson offers ten dollars for the ''field." The "field" means all the other horses. Here is a pool of $105, which goes to the man who has invested on the winning horse or on that indeterminate quantity, the "field." The latter is a favorite invest- ment for the hangers-on of the pool rooms. Occa- sionally an unknown horse files to the front, and the lucky man who has invested his ten dollars carries off a weighty purse. There are other forms of pools. That some of them are obscure may be inferred from the fact that the proprietor of one of the pool rooms, one of the brightest sporting men in the Northwest, undertook to explain the details of a class of pool known as the "combination," and which was in progress in his own room, and made a dead failure. He had to refer Gambling Houses. 371 the matter to liis bookkeeper to provide tlie required explanation. Tlie "combination" is a scheme in which cheap gambling is encouraged, and in which an invest- ment of a dime may bring substantial returns. Its cheapness commends it especially to the African. Shoals of him may be seen at the ticket office ex- changing the proceeds of boot-blacking, coat-brush- ing, table-waiting, and the like for gaily colored tickets which give him an interest in a "combina- tion." The French mutual system prevails in the pool rooms and has its votaries. There is also the book- making method, in which the operator offers long odds against any horse in a race being a winner. The horse is not the only thing gambled on in the pool rooms. Facilities are offered to gentlemen to lay their money on base-ball, on elections, boat races, and, in brief, on all public events in which a contest is involved. The "house" takes five per cent, of all the pools handled, and claims that it has no further interest in the trans- action. The fairness of poolselling, especially on the race tracks, has been often doubted. It is asserted that the race is frequently made to depend on the pool, in place of the pool depending on the race. It may be stated as a general truth that all gamblers of what- ever kind will get the best of it if they can, and that if the races are not manipulated according to the con- tents of the pool-box it is not owing to the unwilling- ness of the fraternity. 372 Wonders of a Great City. LOTTERIES. The lottery business is of cwo kinds, the single number and combination system. In the former, as many single numbers as there are tickets in the scheme, are placed in a wheel and drawn out in rotation. The first number out of the wheel wins the capital prize. In the combination system, seventy-five numbers are placed in the wheel, and from these a certain set of numbers are drawn, in keeping with the provision of the scheme. A player to win, must have the num- bers come out in rotation as represented by his ticket. All lotteries are frauds. There never was any honest drawing and there never will be. They are forbid- den by the law. There are some five or six hundred policy shops in this city, and the players are principally negroes. There have been instances where a man has beat skin faro, or even secured a prize in that prince of frauds, the Louisiana State Lottery, but no one has ever worsted policy. It cannot be done for the reason that the managers of the daily drawing first ascertain what numbers are sold and then award the prizes to the numbers still on hand. The occupation of a policy dealer is, if such be possible, more dishonorable than that of a highwayman or sneak thief. Seventy-eight numbers usually make up the policy scheme. The player can take any three of the numbers, paying for them whatever may be the price of the combination, from twenty-five cents to one dollar. These numbers to win, must come out in such combinations as he selects, either single or double. If a single number Gambling Mouses. IS chosen and drawn, the player wins five for one. Two numbers constitute a ^'saddle" and if both are drawn the player wins from twenty to thirty times the cost of his saddle. Three numbers make a gig, and pay almost fabulous sums. Sometimes the mana- gers make a mistake an'd send out some numbers which have been drawn. Such copies are immediate- ly recalled and non winning ones substituted. It is impossible to beat policy. CHAPTER XXIII. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, HOW THE PRESENT EXCELLENT SYSTEM SUPPLANTED THE OLD VOLUN- TEER ORGANIZATIONS — STRENGTH OP THE DEPARTMENT — THE EN- GINES, HORSES, MEN AND METHODS IN VOGUE — GOVERNMENT OP THE FORCE. HE act creating a paid fire department was teer companies, and created a force under the control of commissioners appointed by the governor. The old force was very coiTupt and unreliable. The en- gine houses were filled with loafers of every descrip- tion. The noise and confusion on the streets on oc- casions of alarm were very great. Citizens were annoyed, and the sick and dying disturbed, by the yelling of runners who attached themselves to the engines. Racing and fighting between companies were common; disputes between companies hindered operations at fires, and often ended in blows. False alarms were frequent, to bring out the machines. Thieving was generally practiced by hangers-on who got within the lines, and runners meddled with the duties of firemen. The organization of runners was very large, and very formidable, and very profitable. On the coming in of the new department it was It disbanded the volun- Fire Department. 875 violently resisted. The constitutionality of the law was tested in the Court of Appeals. When the act was sustained by the court, an effort w^as made by bold bad men to disband the volunteer organization at once, and leave the city without protection against fire. In the Metropolitan Police Department were many old firemen, and they were organized to meet the emergency. From July to November, 1865, three thousand eight hundred and ten volunteer fire- men were relieved from duty. THE PRESENT FORCE. The present ^'ire Department is governed by three commissioners, appointed by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, for a period of six years. The President has an annual salary of seven thousand five hundred dollars, and the others of five thousand dollars each. The Board appoint officers and members of the de- partment and make and enforce rules. The fire de- partment is divided into three bureaus. First is the Bureau for preventing and extinguishing fires. It is under the supervision of the chief of the Fire De- partment who enjoys an annual salary of five thou- sand dollars. Second, the Bureau for the enforce- ment of laws relating to the storage and sale of combustibles, with an inspector in charge who re- ceives three thousand dollars per annum. Third, the Bureau for the investigation of the origin and cause of fires, conducted by the Fire Marshal, with a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars a year. The force consists of a chief engineer, assistant, twelve district engineers and eleven hundred officers and 376 Wonders of a Great Oity. men ; forty-six steamers, six chemical engines, twenty- one hook and ladder trucks and four water towers, and two fire boats. The pay of the firemen is twelve hundred a year. The uniform is dark blue cloth. The cost of the Fire Department is about one hundred thousand a month. The eno^ines cost about four thousand dollars each. They are always ready for use. The horses connected with the fire department are among the most remarkable in New York. They are the best that can be found, and are selected with great care for the work. One person is employed to make purchases, and to it he devates all his time. The docility and intelligence of the horses are remark; able. They stand in the stable always ready for a start. They are fed twice a day — at six in the morning and six at night. The movement of the engines is regulated by telegrams from headquarters. On an alarm of fire, the station that gets the notice does not telegraph to other stations, but to the head- quarters. A gong is attatched to every station house, and the ringing of that gong is as well under- stood by the horses as by the men. As soon as it sounds, the horses back with a bound, and tear out of their stalls in a furious manner, rush to their posi- tions at the engine, and are harnessed in an instant, -without a word being spoken. If the gong does not sound, the word "Back!" produces the same effect. When the alarm sounds, the men can be seen loiter- ing on benches or lying down. They spring for their caps, the horses rush for their places, every part of the harness is fastened with a snap, and in fifteen seconds from the time the alarm sounds, the men are Fire Department. 377 in their places, horses are harnessed, the driver is in his seat, the fire lighted, and the steamer on its way to the fire. After ten o'clock at night the firemen are allowed to go to bed. A strict watch is kept, and but thirty seconds are needed to arouse, to harness, and to get underway. The horses are groomed with great care, and are daily exercised when not used before the steamer. They are not allowed to be harnessed or rode under the saddle, but must be ex- ercised by walking gently before the engine house. These horses, fiery and spirited, are so trained that they will stand all day and all night in the midst of the confusion of a fire, the crackling of the flames, and the crash of falling buildings. The chief en- gineer has to attend all fires. He keeps his horse ready harnessed, and when the alarm bell sounds he knows exactly where the fire is, and moves towards it at once. THE ENGINE HOUSES. These rooms are models of neatness, and some of them are very elegant They are no longer scenes of debauchery and dissipation, nor are they crowded at night by herds of loafers, who lodge at the expense of the city. Twelve men occupy the room. They have each a specific work to do, which occupies their time. The basement contains the kindling wood and the furnace which keeps the water in the engine hot. On the ground floor are the engine house and the stables. Everything is ready for a start. The engine is in perfect order. The kindlings and coal are placed under the boiler. A swab, saturated with tur- 378 WONDEES OF A GrEAT CiTY. peutine, lies on the platform on which the stoker stands. Four firemen's caps hang on the engine. They belong to the engineer, assistant engineer, fire- man, and stoker. Two of these men are always in the room. If the fireman goes to dinner, the engineer remains. If a fire breaks out in his absence, he does not return to tlie engine house, but starts for the fii'e, the alarm signal telling him where it is. No fireman is allowed to appear at the fire without his cap. This he will find on the engine when he reaches the con- flagration. A large dormitoiy over the engine room, fitted up with every convenience, furnishes the sleep- ing quarters of the men. Great care is taken in securing persons for the department. They must be in sound physical health, have good moral characters, be quiet and industrious. No person not a member of the force, without a permit from headquarters, i allowed to enter the engine houses. The telegrap system connected with these places is as perfect as can be conceived. The telegraph is under the charge of the foreman. When an alarm is telegraphed fron any station, it must be repeated, and the number o the station house that sends it given, or no attentio is paid to it. If it is a false alarm, the foreman wh sent it is held responsible. Every message is re corded, with the name of the sender. .No station house or engine house can be certain when a messag is coming, therefore they must be continually on the watch. If a response is not immediate, an officer is' sent to the delinquent station for an explanation. While I was at the headquarters, to show how rapidly the communications were made, the superintenden Fire Department. 379 of the fire alarm called the roll of every station, bell tower, and engine house in the district, including New York, Harlem, and Westchester County. Answers came back from every station, and the time consumed in calling the roll and getting returns was just thirty seconds. The police of the city have charge of the order to be observed at a fire. Eopes are drawn at a proper distance, and no one allowed inside the lines except the firemen and officials, who wear their badges on their coats. Thieving and robbery, which were so conspicuous in former times, and so profitable, do not now exist. The men are not allowed to shout, or make any demonstrations on their way to or from the fire. Only certain persons are allowed to ride on the engine. Furious driving subjects the party to imme- diate arrest, and if repeated, to dismissal. THE GOVEKNMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT. The whole department is under the charge of a commission. Every department of the force is run with military exactness. Men are tried for viola- tions of duty and breaches of law before the full board. The officers are held responsible for all the property under their care, and nothing is furnished to them except on a requisition, signed and counter- signed after the regulation of the army. Rules are laid down for the exercise and drill of the horses, their grooming, when they should be fed, and what shall be given to them. The men are drilled and ex- ercised in everything that pertains to their duty. They are daily exercised in the manner of hitching 380 Wonders of a Ore at City, up the horses to the apparatus, which, exercise, with the intelligence and intuition of the horses, enables this to be done in a time so slight as to seem incred- ible. New York may, indeed, congratulate herself upon having one of the most complete, efficient, and well disciplined fire departments in the world. The recent addition of several steam fire engines has greatly increased the efficiency of the force. The department has been extended to Morrisania and be- yond to cover the new territory in Westchester Coun- ty annexed to the city. The department as now or- ganized is probably superior to that of London or Paris. With the insurance patrol as well as the police, precautions against fire are now more care- ful than ever. The telegraph alarm, and the fre- quency of district telegraph offices, with their private connections Avith stores, hotels, and dwelling houses, make it easy to summon assistance at the very out- break of a fire, before it can make much headway. The days of great sweeping fires in New York seem to be over, and the damage generally is confined to the building or block in which the fire originates. The department and its workings have been examined by deputations from all over the country, and the local organizations of most American cities are mod- eled upon the fire department of New York CHAPTER XXrV. FIEST DIVISION NATIONAL GUAED. FORMATION OF THE DIVISION. — THE MILITARY AS A POLICE FORCE. — THE MILITARY AND RIOTS. — THE SEVENTH REGIMENT AND THE ASTOR PLACE RIOT. — MAYOR WOOD's RIOT. — AN EPISODE. — THE FINALE.— FIRST DIVISION AND THE WAR. — PRESIDENTIAL RECEPTION. — THE PARADES. NEW YORK has always had occasion to be proud of her military organizations. Since the Revolution there has been a corps of volunteer soldiers, on whom the authorities have relied to en- force law and preserve peace. For many years New York was without police. A few watchmen patrolled the streets at night, most of whom were laboring men through the day, and added to their scanty in- come by guarding the city at night. In all cases of brawls, riots, and all disturbances of the peace, the magistrates relied entirely upon the military. This force were voluntary soldiers, in every sense of the word. They purchased their own uniforms, when they had any, and their arms and equipments. They paid for their armories, and the expenses for music and parades were borne by an assessment on each member. Yet for eighty years the city military has been sustained, and when the new organization took place in 1862, the volunteer city troops numbered 382 Wonders of a Great City. thirteen thousand men, some of them in the highest state of discipline, with expensive armories, uniforms, and equipments, and the whole division was unequalled by any volunteer organization in the world. FORMATIOI^ OF THE DIVISION. At the close of the revolutionary war the city troops were organized as artillery, and were desig- nated as the First Division of Artillery. The com- mandant had under him all the ununiformed militia of the city. Till 1867 there had been only three com- manders of this division : General Stephens, who organized the division of artillery. General Morton, and General Sanford. General Sanford held his posi- tion for thirty years, and was the oldest commissioned officer in the state. In 1846 the old military system was abolished, and the nrst division of uniformed troops created. The commander of the First Divi- sion of Artillery, outranking all others, took command of the new military district, including the city and county of New York, with Staten Island. In 1862 the law was again changed, and the city troops be- came the First Division of the National Guard. It is composed of four brigades, and musters thirteen thousand men. Under the new construction the arms and uniform are provided by the United States. The city of New York approi:)riates five hundred dollars a year to each regiment for an armory. Parades, music, and other expenses are borne by the troops. To keep such a body of men together, to subject them to the proper drill and discipline, to make them bear The National Guard. 383 their own expenses, whicli the First Division has done for eighty years, to keep the peace at all hazards and under all forms of excitement, to quell riots, shoot down their fellow citizens when ordered so to do, to take their lives in their hands w^hen called upon by their commanding officer to expose them- selves, — to do this because they choose to do it, and to uphold the laws on all occasions, reflects great credit on the commanding general and the troops. THE MILITARY AS A POLICE FORCE. Till the coming in of the Metropolitan Police, the city troops held the quiet of New York in their hands. With the exception of a few riots, the city has always been celebrated for its good order and quietness. It is full of desperate men, ready for plunder, robbery and arson. It is the headquarters of the crime of the country. It is easy to hide in the multitude of our people. The dens, dark chambers, underground rooms, narrow alleys and secret retreats, render criminals more safe in the city tlian in any other part of the land. But for the presence of the military nothing would be safe. Banks would be plundered, men robbed in the streets ; no man could sleep safely on his own pillow; property and life would be as insecure as they were in Sodom. There is something very remarkable about the New York military. It represents every phase of life, from the highest to the lowest. It embraces every nationality. The Seventh Regiment is essentially New York. The Sixty-ninth is wholly Irish. In the time of the 384 Wonders of a Gee at City, Know-No thing movement, the Seventy-first Regiment became American, par excellence, and no man was allowed to join it unless he was born of American parents. Besides this, there were German regiments, regiments heterogeneous, regiments composed mainly of Jews; yet the whole division has been a unit in preserving public peace and enforcing law. Ques- tions have come up that have agitated the whole community, and men have risen against the law. From thirty to fifty thousand men have filled the Park, defying the authorities, and threatening to destroy public property; Wall street has been crowded with maddened men, assembled to tear down the banks; mobs have gathered on political ques- tions, — and on every one of these exciting topics the city troops have had as much direct interest, or in- direct, as any of the rioters, and, as individuals, have been as much excited; yet, as soldiers, they have never shrunk from their duty. They have promptly obeyed every call of their ofiicers, have been under arms night and day for many days, placed their can- non in the street when ordered to do so, and were as reliable in any crisis as if they had no interest in the city and not a friend in the world. There is not a rogue in the Union that does not know that should he overpower the civil authorities, a few sharp taps on the City Hall bell would bring ten thousand bay onets to the support of law; and that the city troops would lay down their lives as quickly to preserve the peace as they would to defend the nation's flag on the battle-field. The National Guard. 385 THE MILITARY AND RIOTS. One of tlie earliest riots was known as the Aboli- tion riot, in wliicli the houses and stores of leading abolitionists were attacked and sacked. The military were called out, and a general conflagration pre- vented. During the great fire in 1836, which swept all New York, from Wall street to the Battery, and from Broad street to the water, the military were on duty three days and three nights. The day Mayor Clark was sworn into office, he received a letter from the presidents of the city banks, informing him that the banks were to suspend specie payments, and that they feared a riot. The mayor was terribly frightened, and sent for General Sanford, who assured the mayor that he could keep the peace. The next morning Wall street was packed with people, who threatened to tear down the banks and get at the specie. The First Division was called out. There was probably not a man in that corps who was not as excited, per- sonally, as the maddened throng that surged through the streets; yet not a, man shrank from his duty, or refused to obey his commander. The First Division were marched to the head of Wall street, except the cavalry, who were stationed around the banks in the upper part of the city. General Sanford planted his cannon on the flagging in front of Trinity Church. The cannon commanded the whole of Wall street. He then sent word to the rioters that his fuse was lighted, and on the first outbreak he should fire upon the rioters, and that peaceable citizens had better get out of the way. The announcement operated like 386 Wonders of a Great City, magic, and in a few minutes tliere was not a corporal's guard left in the vicinity of the banks. The citizens knew that the troops Avould do their duty, and that silent park of artillery was an efficient peace corps. THE SEVENTH REGIMENT AND ASTOR PLACE RIOT. This famous corps, of which the city has always been so justly proud, came prominently into notice during the Astor Place riots. As the military was composed of citizens taken from the banks, stores, shops, and places of mechanical toil, people regarded the troops rather as holiday soldiers than men organ- ized for sanguinary conflicts. Within the lifetime of the generation that organized the riot, the troops had never come in contact with the citizens. It was not believed that they would fire on their friends if ordered so to do, and the threats to call out the mil- itary were received with derision. If called out, it was presumed that they would fraternize with the people. The friends of Macready, the English actor, and of Forrest, had succeeded in creating a high state of excitement about these two men. Clinton Hall was then an opera house. Macready had an engage- ment, and was to appear in that place. A riot en- sued. The Seventh Regiment was called out to quell it. They marched to their position, and, in obedience to orders, they fired on the mob. From that moment they took their high place in the confi- dence of our citizens as the conservators of peace, which position they have never lost. Their disci- pline, soldierly bearing, full ranks, and splendid marching, have been the theme of universal praise. iVational Guard. 387 On the first visit of the corps to Boston, the Boston- ians received with much allowance the eulogiums on this fine corps. On reaching the city, an immense concourse greeted the regiment at the station, and followed it to the Common, where thousands of citi- zens were gathered to look on the soldiers, the boast of New York. The regiment formed in line on the great mall. The mighty concourse were hushed to silence, as not an order was given. The regiment stood in exact line, like statues. Soon the clear, ringing tones of the commander shouted out the com- mand, "Order — arms!" Down came every gun. as if moved by machinery. Boston was satisfied. Shouts, bravoes, and clapping of hands rent the air. With the second order, " Parade — rest!" the regiment was nearly swallowed up alive. MAYOR wood's RIOT. On the formation of the Metropolitan Police, with Simeon Draper at its head. Mayor Wood organized an armed resistance to the force. He shut himself up in the City Hall, closed the iron gates, and filled the inside of the hall with the old police, with Mat- sell at its head, gave orders to resist unto blood, and to admit no one. Recorder Smith had issued war- rants for the arrest of the mayor, and the new police, under Captain Carpenter, were ordered to serve the warrants. The Park contained no less than thirty thousand men, the larger part of whom were friends of Wood, and were resolved to sustain him in his re- sistance to the new order of things. Wood's police were armed with clubs and revolvers, with orders to 388 Wonders of a Great City, use both if it was necessary to resist an entrance into City Hall. The location of the new commissioners was in White street, and their friends were assembled in full force around their quarters, as "Wood's friends were assembled in the Park. The day before. Gen- eral Sanfordhad served a warrant on Mr. Wood, and the understanding was that all warrants from the new commission should be served through the com- mandant of the First Division. Under the notion of vindicating the law, two additional warrants were issued, which the commissioners resolved to have served on Wood by their own men. The attempt would have been madness. The officers would never have reached the City Hall steps. They would have been pounded to jelly by the maddened men who filled the Park, who were yelling, screaming, shouting, frenzied with excitement and bad whiskey, and cheer- ing for "Fernandy Wud. " General Sanford had fifteen thousand men under arms. His cannon commanded both White street and the City Park. He went to the commissioners in White street, and reminded them of the agree- ment that all warrants should be served through him ; that if the new police undertook to serve papers, they not only would be destroyed, but that the lives of a thousand men would be taken before peace could be restored. "Better a thousand lives lost, than that the dignity of the law be not upheld," said the com- missioners. "Perhaps so," replied the general, "if you and I are not among the slain. " National Guard, 389 AN EPISODE. While these scenes were being transacted with the new commissioners, an interesting episode occurred, in which the Seventh Regiment bore an important part. That regiment had accepted an invitation to accom- pany Governor King to Boston, and participate in the celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill. March- ing down Broadway to embark, the regiment was ordered to halt in front of the City Hall to aid Gen- eral Sanford in serving a w^arrant on Mayor Wood. The general entered the City Hall in company wath the sheriff, served the warrant, and left the mayor in charge of that officer. Supposing the difficulty was over, the regiment were allowed to embark for Boston. Considering that their dignity had been lowered by the aid General Sanford rendered, the commissioners the next day got out two additional warrants (to which allusion has been made), which they were resolved the civil force should serve. General San- ford told the commissioners that they could not serve them, and that he should not allow them to be served. "And how can you prevent it?" said the commis- sioners. "I have cannon in the streets, and troops under my command, and I shall use both if it is necessary. I will not allow the peace of the city to be broken. " " Well, " said the commissioners, " we'll have a force here very soon who will protect us, and j authority that will outrank you. " Taking the hint, General Sanford went to the telegraph office and sent a telegram to the colonel of the Seventh Regi- ment, to the purport, "Stay where you are; finish your visit. You are not needed in New York. " 390 Wonders of a Great City. Previous to this a telegram had been sent to Gov- ernor King, signed by the new commissioners, to which was added the name of the brigadier general of the First Division. The purport was, Re turn immediately, and bring with you the Seventh Regi- ment. " Governor King received the telegram just as he arose to make a speech under the marquee on Bunker Hill. He supposed New York was in the hands of rioters. He had no doubt but that General Sanford was killed, as his name was not on the tele- gram,while that of a subordinate officer was. Greatly excited, Governor King left the tent, gave orders for the immediate return of the Seventh Regiment, took the noon train, and reached New York at eleven at night. The regiment immediately marched out, and descended the hill on their way home. At the foot of Bunker Hill they were met by General Sanford's order, countermarched, and went back to their festiv- ities. THE FmALE. After assuring the commissioners that they would not be allowed to attempt to serve the warrants, General Sanford took Captain Carpenter and Captain Leonard by the arm, and walked up to the City Hall. Wood had not resisted the sheriff. He recognized General Sanford's authority, but said he would not have a warrant served on him Avhile he was alive by any member of the new police force. The crowd was so dense in the park that a lane had to be made for the officers, and they* went single file up to the iron gates. Matsell was in charge. General Sanford announced his coming, who his companions were, and The National Guard. 391 what their business was. They had come from the Police Commission to serve warrants on Mayor Wood. The general ordered the gates to be opened, or he would batter them down with his cannon. Matsell reported the order to Mayor Wood, and he ordered the gates to be opened and the gentlemen admitted. They found the mayor in his private office, attended by his counsel, Judge Dean. He was as bland as a summer's morning, was very glad to see his friends, had the warrants examined by his counsel, who pro- nounced them all right ; and, though he said he would resist unto death, he was very tame in his submission. The mayor was ordered to send away the police force from the City Hall, which he immediately did. This being done, the gates of the City Hall were thrown back, and the crowd quietly dispersed. Governor King sought an interview afterwards wath General Sanford, and thanked him for his wise measures in preserving the peace of the city. The 1863 riots transpired during the absence of the military from the state. Had the city troops not been in Pennsyl- vania, that flagrant outrage would not have been attempted. FIEST DIVISION AND THE WAE. Every regiment in the First Division, through its colonel, offered its services to defend the capital when it was supposed to be in danger. The Seventh Eegiment was the first to march out of the city. It was immediately joined by the leading regiments, who remained in the field as long as their services were needed. Over one hundred thousand men went from this city to the support of our flag during the 892 Wonders of a Great City, war. Nine thousand na'eii at one time have been in tlie field in connection with the First Division. Three thousand seven hundi-ed and eighty officers were in the conflict who had belonged to the First Division of our city troops. They Avere in command of regi- ments raised in all parts of the countiy. PKESIDENTIAL RECEPTION. It has been usual for the First Division to tender a reception to the President of the United States on his first official visit to New York. This has been done since the days of General Jackson. On his way to the tomb of Douglas, President Johnson passed through New York. The First Division tendered him the usual escort. The courtesy gave great offence to many of our citizens, and shortly after General Sanford was removed, as his friends say, for tender- ing the escort to President Johnson and his suite. The division has never been political, and never can be while it retains its efficiency as a military organiz- tion PAEADES. There is no public recreation afforded to our citi- zens that gives such genuine and general pleasure as the parade of the division. Thirteen thousand men under arms, handsomely uniformed and equipped, with banners, music and display, are an attractive sight. Broadway is cleared. The city for miles sends its tribute to the pavement. Thousands look on the pleasant sight, and the troops are cheered through the Avhole line. There is in no part of the world so fine a volunteer corps. When it was pro- posed to send the Seventh Regiment of New York to The National Guard. 393 the Exhibition at Paris, as a specimen of our volun- teer military, the idea was derided. France, it was said, is a nation of soldiers, and we would simply make ourselves ridiculous in sending young men from the warehouse, the office, and from trade, dressed up in uniform, as a specimen of American soldiers. The crowned heads of Europe would laugh at our raw troops, when compared with the standing armies of the Old World. But the Seventh Regiment would have created a sensation in Paris. The men in the British army are very small. The government has been obliged to lower the standard of size to get men to serve at all. The soldiers in the French army look stunted. The nation seems to have been swept to put dwarfs in uniform. In discipline, military drill, precision, and soldierly movements, neither the French nor English soldiers will compare with our first-class regiments. The First Division embraces the most vigorous, liberal, and noble-hearted of our citizens. Smart, energetic men, whether merchant or mechanic, with shrewd and successful young men, are found in the National Guard. Whatever they undertake is a success. A concert, a fair, a testi- monial, or a lecture, if they take hold of it, is sure to succeed. If any one w^ants aid or assistance, and can enlist the sympathies of the military, money is poured out like water. Our citizen soldiery are the great conservative element of our community, the guardians of law, and the true bond of unity between the different sections of our country. CHAPTER XXV. LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. HOMES OF THE IMPOVERISHED. — A NIGHT TRAMP. — BAREFOOTED BEGGAR — A STREET BOY.— A SAD SCENE. — GENTEEL SUFFERING. — PARK LODG- ERS AND THEIR METHODS — HOMES FOR SEAMEN — THE BEGGAR's REVEL. HE extreme value of land in the city makes cupy a lot twenty -iive by one hundred feet, six stories high, with apartments for four families on each floor. These houses resemble barracks more than dwellings for families. One standing on a lot fifty by two hun- dred and fifty feet has apartments for one hundred and twenty-six families. Nearly all the apartments are so situated that the sun can never touch the win- dows. In a cloudy day it is impossible to have sun- light enough to read or see. A narrow room and bedroom comprise an apartment. Families keep boarders in these narrow quarters. Two or three families live in one apartment frequently. Not one of the one hundred and twenty-six rooms can be properly ventilated. The vaults and water-closets are disgusting and shameful. They are accessible not only to the five or six hundred occupants of the building, but to all who choose to go in from the street. The water-closets are without doors, and privacy is impossible. Into these vaults every ini- necessity. Usually they oc- Life Among the Lowly. 395 aginable abomination is poured. The doors from the cellar open into the vault, and the whole house is im- pregnated with stench that would poison cattle. ^ A NIGHT TEAMP. With a lantern and an officer, a visit to the cellars where the poor of New York sleep may be under- taken with safety. Fetid odors and pestiferous smells greet you as you descend. Their bunks are built on the side of the room; beds filthier than can be imagined, and crowded with occupants. No regard is paid to age or sex. Men, women, and children are huddled together in one disgusting mass. Without a breath of air from without, these holes are hot-beds of pesti- lence. The landlord was asked, in one cellar, " How many can you lodge?" " We can lodge twenty-five'; if we crowd, perhaps thirty." The lodgers in these filthy dens seem to be lost to all moral feeling, and to all sense of shame. They are not as decent as the brutes Drunken men, de- based women, young girls, helpless children, are packed together in a filthy under-ground room, desti- tute of light or ventilation, reeking with filth, and surrounded with a poisoned atmosphere. The decen- cies of life are abandoned, and blasphemy and rib- ald talk fill the place. BAEEFOOTED BEGGAE. On one of the coldest days of winter two girls were seen on Broadway soliciting alms. The larger of the two awakened sympathy by her destitute appearance. An old hood covered her head, a miserable shawl her 396 Wonders of a Great City, shoulders. Her shivering form was enveloped in a nearly worn-out dress, which was very short, exposing the lower part of her limbs and feet. She had on neither shoes nor stockings. Nearly every person that passed the girl gave her something. Believing they were impostors, Mr. Halliday approached them, and demanded w^here they lived. On being told, he proposed to attend them home. They misled him as to their residence. They attempted to elude him, and at length the younger said, "Mister, there is no use going any farther this way ; she don't live on Fifty 'third street, she lives on Twelfth street, and she has got shoes and stockings under her shawl." She was taken before a magistrate, and committed to the Juvenile Asylum. A STREET BOY, It is estimated that there are over ten thousand street boys in New York. They swarm along our parks, markets, and landings, stealing sugar, molasses, cotton. They steal anything they can lay their hands on. They prowl through the streets, ready for mis- chief. Mrc Halliday gives an interesting account of one of this class. He was the son of a widow. He played truant, and became a regular young vagabond. He Avas one of the young Arabs of the cifcy. Mr. Halliday resolved to save him. He introduced him to the Home of the Friendless. He ran away, and re- sumed his arab life. He was sought for, and found on one of the wharves. The following dialogue took place : "Where have you been, Willie V' "Nowhere, sir." "What have you been doing since you ran away Life Among the Lowly. 397 ° from the Home ?" "Nothing, sir. " "What have you had to eat?" "Nothing, sir," "What! have you eaten nothing these two days ?" "No, sir." "What I was that that fell out of your hand just now when I you struck against your brother ? " "A soda water ' bottle." "Where did you get it?" "I stole it." "What were you going to do with it?" " Sell it." '^What were you going to do with the money?" "Buy something to eat." "Are you hungry?" "Yes, sir." "Wliere have you staid since you left the Home?" "On Tenth street," "Whose house did you stay in?" "Nobody's." "No one's house?" I" No, sir." It had rained very hard the night pre- vious, and I asked again, " Where did you stay last night?" "Corner of Avenue A and Tenth street." " Whose house did you stay in ?" " No one's." " But you told me just now you stopped last night corner of Avenue A and Tenth street." " So I did. " " And you slept in no one's house?" "No, sir." "Where did you sleep, then ?" " In a sugar box." " In a sugar box ?" " Yes, sir." " How did you get your clothes dry ?" " Stood up in the sun until they were dry." He was again placed in the Home of the Friendless ; again ran away ; and finally was put into the Refuge, as all kindness seemed to be lost upon him. A SAD SCENE. In the so-called chapel of the prison sits a little girl amid a throng of dirty, drunken women. She is small, and only seven years of age. Her story is told in a single line — her father is in the Tombs, her mother is 398 Wonders of a Great City. at the station house. What she calls her home is a single room, nine feet under ground, without fire, though the thermometer is at zero. A portion of an old bedstead, a broken tick part full of straw, with a pillow, on which are marks of blood, lies upon the floor. The father was a cartman. He came home one night drunk and brutal, and knocked his wife down with a heavy stick. Afterwards he stamped upon her with his heavy boots, until she was unable to speak. The woman died, and the man was ar- rested. The little girl was sent to the Tombs as a witness, and was placed under the care of the matron. When the trial came on, it was decided that the little girl was too young to testify. The man pleaded guilty of manslaughter, and was sent to the State Prison. It was a happy day for little Katy when she sat on the bench with those miserable women hearing a sermon preached. She found a kind friend in Mr. Halliday, and through him obtained a happy western home. GENTEEL SUFFEKITfG. Sudden reverses reduce well-to-do people to poverty. Sickness comes into a household like an armed man. Death strikes down a father, and leaves a family penniless. One day a lady of very genteel a2:>pear- ance called at the Mission. Bursting into tears, she said to the superintendent, " Sir, I have come to ask for assistance. It is the first time in my life. I would not now, but I have been driven to it. I could bear hunger and cold myself, but I could not hear my children cry for bread. For twenty-four hours I Life Among the Lowly. 399 have not had a mouthful for myself or them. While there was work, I could get along tolerably well. I have had none for some time ; now I must beg, or my children starve. " Her husband had been a mechanic. He had come to New York from the country. The family lived in comfort till sickness stopped their resources, and death struck the father down. The mother attempted to keep her little family together, and support them by her own labor. Five years she had toiled, planned and suifered. Her earnings were small, and from time to time she sold articles of furniture to give her children bread. Over exertion, long walks in rain and cold to obtain work, insufficient clothing, want of nutritious food, with anxiety for her children, prostrated her. She was obliged to call for aid on some of our benevolent institutions. She is a specimen of hundreds of noble suffering women in New York. Public attention has lately been called to the filthy and overcrowded pest houses in the lower part of the city, and the result has been a great improvement in many of the old tenements, and the erection of sev- eral model lodging houses, which afford clean and comfortable quarters for laborers and mechanics, at comparatively reasonable rates of rent. PARK LODGEES. One class of unfortunates among the lowly are those who have descended so low that they are unable to aiford even a miserable tenement hovel, and are obliged to sleep in bar rooms and hallways during the winter, and the parks in spring, summer and 400 Wonders of a Great City. autumn. Take any of the parks except City Hall on anything like an open night, and one will hear some strange imprecations and see some touching as well as revolting sights. I remember, not many weeks ago, a scene in Madison Square. I was walking^ through, having left the Hoffman House, intending, as the night was so pleasant, to cross over to Twenty- third street and take the Elevated down town. Only a couple of paces in front of me, going in the same direction, walked a young couple, a man and a woman. The young w^oman, who was talking in a' half reck- less manner, addressed her companion as Tom. They half paused, and just as I was in the act of walking around them, a person hitherto unobserved, at my right, exclaimed : "My God! Only twelve o'clock!" The damp, warm spring wind, loaded with the odor of fresh grass and young leaves, blew the sound of some church bell to me, striking midnight. The moon was peeping curiously through the trees pin- feathered with foliage, and its light glinted on a figure on one of the benches — the figure of the voice. It was a woman's figure, too — no longer young, no longer beautiful — but who had been the one as surely as the other. A red-eyed wreck, in a dress wliich would have disgraced the garbage-box of a Boston old clo' shop, with a voice so husky that it might have been drowned in tears. But it was the aroma of something decidedly stronger and easier to get drunk on than tears which the words blew to me through the pure air. "By jove! she's a tough citizen!" commented Tom. Life Among the Lowly, 401 "Poor devil!" Give her sometMng for me, Tom," said his companion. Tom dove into his pocket, and a couple of the jingling coins there fell in the tough citizen's lap. The girl — a pretty one she was — bent forward curiously, but drew her silken skirts as if to avoid contamination. But the woman jumped up with a great wild cry and threw her arms up like a mad one. "Great God! Jessie!" Tom drew the girl away, all white and trembling, but unresistingly. The woman fell back in her seat and a cloud swept over the moon. Out of the dark- ness came her broken voice " My own daughter, and she won't speak to me ! She won't let m.e warn her from going the same road I went ! My God ! My God !" The moon had come out again and she was groping with an unsteady hand for the coins on the asphalt when I walked away, wondering. Wondering what ? How the night would pass with this lost, houseless woman, haunted by the self -wrecked past and by the picture of her child going the same fatal way that she had gone. And how would it go with the daugh- ter who would not speak to her, but who in spite of herself and the champagne, could not help seeing beyond her lover's face upon her pillow, another ruined one, feeling perhaps in his arms the embrace of those which once had bundled her, yet whose touch now was pollution even to a thing already soiled. If the stones of the great city had tongues how many such mom'nful romances could they tell ? 402 WONDEBS OF A GrEAT CiTT. How many romances, anyhow, find refuge in tl:e parks? Romances of existences sucked down in whirling tide of life to depths from which they can never rise, waiting with the stolid submission of brutes for a death they are too lost in every sense to invoke upon themselves. LUDICROUS INCIDENTS. Wlien a man finds (I am speaking of the vagrants) a park to suit him, he preempts a bench and then masters the art of sitting erect and not snoi'ing. A sleeper in the park who does not snore, is never dis- turbed by the police. I remember an old vag wlio used to haunt Washington Square. He had the faculty of sleeping like a top with one leg crossed over the other, and his foot wagging all the time. He was a regular old rounder, and the bench he occu- pied was known to the fraternity as Grandpap's seat. Somehow or other it was always vacated for the old man before eleven o'clock. One night he found a strange tramp there and shook him roughly, saying : "Here ! here ! I say ! w^hat do you mean by sleeping here?" The fellow shambled off grumbling at the "infernal coppers," and grandpap sat down and began to dream off-hand. Some new hands stretch themselves out on the benches, but this is a most unsatisfactory practice, and they don't do it more than once. In the first place the iron arms which divide the bench in com- partments of one human capacity each, render it ex- tremely difficult to compose your limbs in anything like a comfortable attitude. And in the second place Life Among the Lowly. 403 you have no sooner got them composed than a police- man comes along and clubs you vigorously on the \ j soles of your feet. The extremities are usually very delicate ones with the people who lodge in the parks, both in a physical sense and in the matter of cover- ing, and though we are assured that clubbing a man on the feet is by no means painful, the assertion would be accepted by a broken-booted tramp with polite dis- belief, to say the least. " It's not quite as bad as be- ing clubbed over the head," one of them remarked, " and as far as my light goes that's all you kin say for it." There is not, as one might suppose, that neighborly feeling among the park lodgers that a communion of misery should engender. In point of fact the reverse is the case. Dog may not eat dog, but one lodger will prey on another if he sleeps soundly enough and has anything worth preying on. Cases frequently occur in which men wake up to find themselves stripped of boots, hats, and even coats and pantaloons, if they have been drunk enough. And when this bad luck struck some repectable drunkard on a park bench on his way home, he never wakes up and rubs his eyes and wonders where he is with any respectability which could be stolen, left. A young man once expended the savings of six months on a fine dress suit, in or- der to take his sweetheart to her sister's wedding. The night the suit came home he put it on, and wore it out to paralyze the boys. Of course it had to be christened, and in performing that operation the boys paralyzed him. He went home by way of Union Square and sat down on a bench. When he felt suf- 404 Wonders of a Great Oitt. ficiently restored it was daylight and a policeman had him by the ear. The young man had exactly six arti- cles of clothing on, and these were a shirt, undershirt, drawers, socks and a liver pad. Even his shirt studs were gone and as he could not bribe a messenger ; he. as the story goes, staid in the Police station three days and three nights, until the river had been drag- ged for him and he had lost his position, his sweet- heart, and his standing in society. He did not be- come a park lodger. Not he. He married a rich old widow, and gets drunk when he pleases in the sanctity of his own brown stone front, and has every park-lodging tramp arrested who comes begging at his basement door. FATE OF AN OUTCAST. Park lodgers are pretty much all alike, men and women, foot-balls of misfortune, lost in rags and degradation to any identification except the common one of outcast. Now and then, however, one turns up with a spark of a superior nature burning yet, under the ashes of a shameful life. Such a one was a young woman, a young girl, who a year or two ago resided in Union Square. She had a pretty, childish face, but ruined by excess. She was pretty much always drunk, but harmlessly so, and the officers left her to herself. No matter how hungry she may have been herself, she always had a crust or two, grubbed from some garbage box, to feed to the birds. One daybreak, at the beginning of last winter, a park guard noticed a rigid figure on one of the benches quite white with the light snow that had fallen in Life Among the Lowly, 405 the night. A flock of sparrows were fluttering about and perching fearlessly on it, filling the air with dis- turbed twitterings. The outcast had found a better rest than she had ever known since her baby heart i began to flutter against her mother's breast. The ! snow, more merciful than man, had spread the white mantle of its inscrutable charity over the shameful b| past, and all human vice and wickedness was blotted out by that awful presence in which king and beggar I become all alike — mere dust. And the birds she had ^ !l fed sung her requiem as no monarch's was ever chanted down the echoing nave of Notre Dame. A policeman with whom I was on terms of un- oflicial intimacy once pointed out two dilapidated bums of opposite sexes who were studying astronomy together in Tompkin's Square, and remarked: "That's a nice pair to git married, ain't it?" "To what?" " Get married. They've been working the park together all spring, and what does they do the other day but go over to the sailor's mission and git the parson there to splice them. When he gets through, Chuffy, as we calls the man, takes him to one side and he says, says he: " 'Your reverence, I'm sorry for to be obliged to hang this little bill up.' " "'O, that's all right,' says the reverend, for he I I hadn't expected no money and had married 'em more I for the fun of the thing." " 'Thanky,' says Chuify; 'and now I'd like to ask a favor of you Lend me a quarter to git some hash with, will you ? I want to let Mary Ann down easy on my bein' broke ?' " 406 Wonders of a Great City. HOMES FOR SEAIVIEN. Jack has his abode in New York as well as the aristocracy, although its location is somewhat differ- ent. Any one can find him who wishes to. Where the lanes are the darkest and filthiest, where the dens are the deepest and foulest, where the low bar rooms, groggeries, and dance houses are the most numerous, where the vilest women and men abide, in the black sea of drunkenness, lewdness, and sin, the sailor has his New York home. In one street there are more than a hundred houses for seamen, and each one viler than in any other locality in New York. His land- lord keeps him in debt. He is robbed in a few days of all his hard-earned wages, — robbed boldly by day- light, and he has no redress. A walk along this single street reveals a sight not to be found in any other part of the city, not to be exceeded by any othe vile locality in the world ; — a hundred houses, located on both sides of the street, the most infamous in the city, where brawls, rioting, robberies, and marders take place ; a hundred dance houses, whose unblushing boldness throws open doors and win- dows, that all who will may look in on the motly group of boys and old women, girls and old men, seamen and landsmen, reeking with drunkenness, ob- scenity, and blasphemy ; hundreds of Ioav groggeries, each crowded with customers, black and white, old and young, foreign and native ! All along the side- walk women sit, stand, pr recline ; women clean and women filthy ; neatly dressed and in the vilest array ; women at work, and modest, apparently, as can be Life Among the Lowly, 407 found in any street, steadily at their employ, with children around them ; women who load the air with vilest imprecations, and assault the passer by with insolence, ribaldry, and profanity. THE beggar's EEVEL. Not many nights ago, accompanied by a friend, I visited a miserable den on South Fifth avenue. The entrance to it bore tlie sign in French Aux Avengtes. " The sign was a single board, split through the mid- dle and held in a lop-sided drunken fashion over a beetle-browed black alley between two ramshackle two-storied frame houses. An oil lamp in a cracked reflector lantern flickered in the gusty night above it. Its blinky flame looked for all the world like the un- steady ogle of some leering drunkard. The lantern itself, perched owlishly on a couple of twisted iron legs, was one-sided, as if the oil had got into its head and was about to upset it, which, if lanterns pos- sessed any sense of smell would have been no wonder. To carry out the general delirium tremens illusion the two houses had sunken on their foundations until one threatened to fall upon che other and send it. reeling into the yard behind the fence covered with show- bills in which some cats were either serenading or trying to kill one another. We entered the alley as a cat ran by us, and passed into a square court surrounded by rickety frame buildings, to be greeted by the cry : "Hey, the devil! What then is this all about? Say then!" It was a hoarse voice, a voice like the grating of a 408 Wonders of a Great City. rusty prison lock. It was Freneli, and it seemed to say somewhere from the region of the ground, Thousand devils ! Are you then deaf?" The voice is getting mad now, and speaks in an accent that might inspire an able-bodied bull with envy. A dog barks, too, a currish sharp bark, and looking down, we see a flary light at the bottom of a flight of dubious, wooden steps, as we stand looking, but halts a couple of feet away, barking in a way which threatens to turn him inside out, like a true cur, never coming near enough to bite or to be kicked. By this time we have made the situation out. In the doorway of the cellar to which the unreli- able staircase leads, the thing to which the voice be- longs holds a glittering candle with a brandy bottle stick in its hand. The thing might be a man, growing out of the ground, for he ends about where the tops of ordinary people's boots come. He has only one eye, a deep inflamed cavity occupying the place where the other ought to be. The hand with which he shades the candle is gnarled and knotted like a weird warjDed cedar. The face the candle lis^hts is that of a baboon — only dirtier than any baboon with an atom of respect for its race ever permits its face to become. I explain, in my fluent University Place French, that we are wayfarers in search of fluid refreshment, and as we both have relatives in the blind asylum, the sign at the door lured us in as promising ap- propriate hospitality. "Ask them if they treat," calls a clear, woman's voice, in English. " Life Among the Lowly. 409 We are inside the door before the candle cavalier, whom we now see to be an excessively inebriated man with legs which end at the knees in leather pads, has time to repeat the query. I knew the place the moment I set foot in it. It was the famous rendezvous of the French beggars of New York, the tavern of "The Blind Men." It was a deep cellar, almost square, in which we found -ourselves. From the low, bare beams festoons of cobwebs made hammocks for the cinders, showers of sparks were sucked up a black, gaping chimney from a sort of gridiron hearth. A sooty pot swung over this iire at the end of a crane. An old woman stirred it with a copj)er ladle, while half a dozen almost naked children squatted like cats in the warm ashes. Fierce waves of heat swept out f^'om the glowing pile, loaded, as sea swells are with wreck, with odors of rancid grease, burning fat, garlic, tainted meat, stale beer, staler fish, ranker tobacco and the indescribable reek of unwashed humanity. There were heaps of damp rags in the corners, which steamed as if they w^ere stewing into a devil's broth in their own juice. "Now, then; if it's tj^eat, talk quick. Mine's gin." • She sat on the arm of a high, red-painted, old- fashioned easy-chair. One arm was wound around the neck of a fi'ightful, sightless, withered, paralytic old man, who crouched in his seat like one of the Acquarium chimpanzees in its straw, wrapped from ueck to heels in a filth-encrusted army overcoat, gib 410 Wonders of a Great City, bering and grimacing, lapping his pendulous, alcohol- swollen lip, with his loose tongue. His face and his palsied hands were the only things about him that moved. And it seemed a fortunate thing for human- ity that they were all of him that was left alive. Yet this girl of eighteen, fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked, bright eyed, twined her round arm about this satyr's throat as tenderly as if he had been the handsomest of sweethearts. To make the contrast more striking, she wore a train dress of pink silk, .the evident relic of some theatrical wardrobe, grease-splashed, mud- bedraggled and tattered, but fitting her full form, and looking by contrast with the squalor all around her pure as her fair face looked amid the debased ones which Avere turned on us from every side. "It's the old fake's doxy," hoarsely whispered a burly ruffian, with a wooden leg, who was stretched on a bench just inside the door, fumigating himself through the medium of a black pipe, strong enough to draw a loaded truck with. "D — n it, man, set'em up, or she'll be at ye like the born devil she is. " We set them up. The setting up was performed by a stalwart per- son of Alsatian origin with a blonde beard and long wavy yellow hair, who took our money first and * made sure of its genuineness. This operation led us* to notice, in a far corner, a species of bar — a counter the size of a packing case, with a top covered with battered zinc. There were no bottles visible behind it. The " Blind Men" evidently were not trustworthy men, too. The blonde man fetched his supply from Life Among the Lowly, 411 some receptacle underneath it, over which a fat wo- man, with an artificial rose in her shaggy hair and great brass hoop ear-rings, sat guard most vigilantly. The blonde individual handed our money to her and she dropped it into the cavity between her breasts as if she was posting a contribution to the Irish suffer- ers. Everybody drank, and nobody seemed partic- ular what they drank out of as long as it held plenty and wasn't clean. There were tin cans, tumblers, goblets, beer glasses, china cups, everything, in short, that would hold liquid. And the people who drank out of them seemed specially created to find use for the battered, nicked and cracked receptacles them- selves. It was such a beggar's revel as Victor Hugo describes in the opening of "Notre Dame;" an orgie of squalor, mimic misery enjoying the fruits of its cunning as the hog wallows in its congenial slime. There were men and women here, or rather the dis- tortions and remnants of men and women, who were as familiar to us as if we had known them all our lives. There was the blind man, with the venerable hair and beard, who fiddles his way about, led by his faithful dog. He had a woman's comb jabbed in his long, silvery locks now, and lay back with his hoary head against the swollen breasts of a red-faced woman with a crutch in her lap, w^ho had his battered hat perched on her unkempt hair. They were drink- ing what passed for brandy out of the same chalice. The faithful dog was earning the meed of his day's toil at the expense of a cat in the fireplace. The two big pine tables, set together and littered with the scraps of a meal reminded me of one of the ob- 412 Wonders of a Great City. scene feasts of the buzzards. The score of fio^ures round it, deformed with the malignant deformity of devils, drinking the liquor whose very exhalations made the air drunk like water. The jargon of hoarse, weak, shrill and broken voices, mouthing the argot of the Parisian slums, larded here and there Avith those vigorous English oaths the foreigner always learns first. The greasy-chimneyed oil lamps, swinging from the roof with iron chains ; beyond, in the red light of the fire, the bar, with the fat woman and her sav- ings bank bust, and the lean children squabbling like imps with the dogs. And blazing like an angel newly-fallen in this rout of devils, the pink dress, caressing her palsied lover, burying his shamef ul, shaking head in the clod of her wild, copper-colored hair. Pierre Carre has been the despot of this colony of beggars for upwards of a decade. What rum has left of him in the tottering paralytic rules them still. He used to navigate him- self about the streets in a go-cart, which he propelled by a lever worked with his hands. But when his blood turned to alcohol and his strength gave out, an old woman pushed him about. The crone claimed to be his wife, and she certainly came as near to it as any woman can without owning a set of marriage lines. One night, in a fit of drunken fury, Pierre Carre found enough strength left in his withered arms to strangle her. The idea of his murdering her, however, seemed so preposterous to the coroner's jury that they returned a verdict of accidental death, in defiance of the ten Life Among the Lowly. 413 livid marks on the dead woman's throat and of the ten deep pits bored by the beggar king's black nails. Then Esmeralda turned up. She came into "The Blind Men" one night, pushing the go-cart before her as unconcernedly as if she had been at that work all her life. She was ragged, shivering under a single calico dress and a thin, ragged shawl. But she was ^ all the prettier for it. "She was a daisy in them days," exclaimed the gentleman with the wooden leg and the pipe, who is an English "codger'^ with a great contempt for the "foreigners" with whom his lot is temporarily cast. "But the gin's commencing to fetch her now." This, and the fact that she is Pierre Cari'e's daily and nightly companion, is about all the denizens of "The Blind Men" hostelry knoAV of her. Except that she speaks French and English with equal fluency and is artistically profane in both languages. From the time she takes the old man up in her arms and carries him like a bundle of dirty rags or a sack of ofEal up to the mysterious room on the floor above, which no one penetrates, and in whose fastnesses the mendicant monarch is supposed to have a fortune secreted, until she reappears wheeling him into the cellar in his day- car of state, she speaks to no one except to those from whom in the street she craves charity for her poor father. We passed an hour with the beggars, and then de- parted only a trifle wiser than when we entered their hotel. CHAPTER XXVI. THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM. THE JEWS IN NEW YORK — THE SYNAGOGUES — INNOVATIONS — THE FEAST HE people of Israel are very numerous. A I portion of them are intelligent, respectable and >\realtliy. The leading bankers are Jews of this class ; so are the importers, who have almost wholly monopolized a large portion of the foreign trade. But the Jews of the lower class are disagreeable, and their presence a nuisance to any Christian neighbor- hood. If they get into a block, they infest it like the plague. Persons in search of a house invariably ask, Are there any Jews in the block ? " Their social customs and habits, their pastimes, and the manner in which they spend the Sabbath, are so un- like our own, that it is impossible to dwell with them with any comfort. When they get into a neighbor- hood, in any numbers, it is deserted by all others. There are some beautiful watering places in the . vicinity of New York where the Jews hold entire possession. They came in few at a time, and Christian families had to desei-t the place; they could not live with them. One of the large hotels at Long OF THE PASSOVER — JEWISH SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The Children of Abraham. 415 Branch is the rendezvous of Jewish families. A new hotel, erected two years ago, was occupied by leading families from this and other cities, on the express condition that Jewish women and children should not be allowed in the house. Every means has been resorted to by the people of Israel to get rooms in this hotel, and fabulous prices offered. But up to this time none have been admitted. A half dozen families would drive away all who were not of Israel. These people inay be just as good as Christians morally, yet their social customs make them so disagreeable that parties who have money to spend, and can choose their loca- tion, will not dwell with them. The prophecy uttered by Balaam over three thousand years ago, that " Israel §hall dwell alone," seems to have a literal fulfilment. JEWS OF THE LOWER CLASS. Portions of the city on the east side are wholly given up to this nation. Chatham street is the bazaar of the lower Jews. It is crowded with their places of trade, and over their stores they generally live. Noisy and turbulent, they assail all who pass, solicit trade, and secure general attention and general contempt. They know no Sabbath. On Saturday, their national Sab- bath, they keep open stores because they live in a Christian country. On Sunday they trade because they are Jews. The lower class of this people are foreigners, and fraud is their capital. They go aboard of an emigrant ship with their worldly effects nailed up in a small wooden box. The authorities at Castle Garden know them well, and watch them on their landing. They frequently demand a plethoric trunk, 416 Wonders of a Great City, present for it a check, and carry off their prize. It is their custom to watch their chance on ship-board, and transfer the label from their own mean box to the well-filled trunk of somebody else. They often leave the old country without means, and land with a hand some outfit, plundered from some luckless emigrant. THE SYNAGOGUES. These are very numerous. Some of them are very elegant and costly, and their locations are unsurpassed. Following the pattern after which the synagogue was built in which the Savior preached his first sermon at Nazareth, so the synagogues in New York are built Men worship with their hats on. It is as disrespectful to take your hat off in a Jewish synagogue as it is to keep it on in a church. The men sit below. Women sit in the gallery, and they are not allowed to enter the enclosure where the men worship. A more ir- reverent congregation, apparently, cannot be found than the Jews at worship. They wear scarfs over their shoulders while engaged in devotions. If they see a person they wish to speak to, or make a trade with, they take the scarf off their shoulders, throw it over their arm, and talk on friendship or business, as the case may be, and then replace the scarf and continue their worship. Psalms are sung, led by a ram's horn j the law read, as it was in Mount Zion in the days of David and Solomon. The audience room looks like the Corn Exchange. The centre of the room holds a plat- form, which is railed in, on which is a huge table for the reading of the law. The number of men about the table, their business-like appearance, their bustling The Children of Abraham. 417 back and forth with their hats on, many of them peer- ing over the same book, suggests that this is a thriving mercantile house, where a good business is carried on by earnest men, who speak in a foreign tongua INNOVATIONS. Even Israel has its troubles. New men and new measures have got into the synagogue, filhng the friends of the old order of things with sorrow and . alarm. The Eabbis preach about the degeneracy of the times, the new-fangled notions of this age, the abandonment of the old landmarks of the fathers, and the better days of the olden time. The wealthiest Jews have built synagogues according to modern ideas. Families do not sit apart, but together in pews, according to the Christian ideas. This is a great scandal of the faithful in Israel. The ram's horn is laid aside, and a costly organ leads the devotions. The tunes of the patriarchs are abandoned for the sweeter melodies of the nineteenth century. Not in religion alone are these innovations found, but they touch the culinary arrangements of the Jews, and affect their domestic customs. A friend of mine, not long since, was invited to dine with a wealthy Jew, whose name is well known among the most eminent business men of the city. The table was elegantly spread, and among the dishes was a fine ham and some oysters, both forbidden by the law of Moses. A little surprised to see these prohibited dishes on the table, and anxious to know how a Jew would explain the introduction of such forbidden food, in consistency with his allegiance to the Mosaic law, my friend called 418 Wonders of a Great Gity, the attention of the Jew to their presence. " Well," said the host, " I belong to that portion of the people of Israel who are changing the customs of our fathers to conform to the times and country in which we live. We make a distinction between what is moral in the law, and, of course, binding, and what is sanitary. The pork of Palestine was diseased and unwholesome. It was not fit to be eaten, and therefore was prohibited. But Moses never tasted a slice of Cincinnati ham. Had he done so, he would have commanded it to be eaten. The oysters of Palestine were coppery and poisonous. Had the great lawgiver enjoyed a fry or stew of Saddlerocks or Chesapeake Bay oysters, he would have made an exception in their favor. We keep the spirit of the law, and not the letter." The new synagogue in upper New York, on Fifth Avenue, called Beth-Emanuel (or the Temple of God, in English), is to be the most costly and elegant reli- gious edifice in all New York. It is in the quaint Moorish or Saracenic style, and in finish, gorgeous- ness, and richness, will be unequalled. It will be adorned with minarets, pinnacles, and Oriental turrets of great height. The sides are to be ornamented with columns of Moorish pattern and painting. The main entrance is to restore the pattern of Solomon's Temple, with its brazen gates and gorgeousness of exterior. No Christian temples, in expense or in elegance equal the synagogues of the Jews. The Children of Abraham, 419 THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER. This festival is held in all reverence by the Jews. It begins on Friday at six o'clock. No pleasant bread is eaten, and no pleasant drink taken during its con- tinuance. The synagogues are crowded. The so- lemnities of Zion are kept as they were three centuries ago in Jerusalem, — "When The timbrel rang along their halls, And God communed with men." The Passover bread is of the first quality. The flour is selected by the priests, and must be made of the finest wheat. It takes eighteen hundred barrels to supply the Passover bread for New York. It is mixed in sacred vessels, which are kept by the Eabbis. Holy men keep watch over the flour from the time it leaves the barrel until it is put into the oven. Holy men receive it as it comes from the oven, and guard the sacred food until it is distributed to the faithful. Everything is done that vigilance can suggest to guard the bread from the touch of the Gentiles, and from everything that the law pronounces unclean. JEWISH SUNDAY SCHOOLS. Not alone in food and in the order of worship are the children of Israel subject to innovation, but their re- ligion is assailed from quarters that admit of no defence. The Sunday schools of New York are very numerous. In spite of themselves the Jewish children have to mingle with the children of the Gentiles. The Sunday schools are very attractive ; the music, the cheerful 420 Wonders of a Great City. songs, the interesting books and papers, the flowers, and the exhilaration of the gatherings, are irresistible. Large numbers of Jewish children attend the Sunday schools. They hear of the Savior ; they learn to sing his praise ; they go home and fill the house with song about the Babe in Bethlehem, and the Holy One who took little children in his arms. To preserve their children from such influences as grow out of a Sunday school, the Jews have been compelled to mark the day on which the Savior arose from the dead by opening a school of their own. These schools are conducted by the Rabbi, who does not allow any one but himself to impress religious truth on the minds of children. The exercises consist of lessons in the Hebrew tongue from the Law, the Prophet, and the Psalms. The Jewish catechism is taught, and the singing consists of chant- ing the Psalms of David. This peculiar people, who have rejected the Messiah for so many years, bear in their persons, as a nation and a race, proof that He who spoke of them was the Lord from heaven. REVIVING A PREJUDICE. Quite recently, the Grand Union Hotel at Saratoga, and the Manhattan Beach Hotel at Coney Island, both owned by New Yorkers, have endeavored to exclude Jews, even of the wealthier class, on the ground that they give trouble, expect too much for their money, and drive away other more desirable patrons. But plenty of places desire such customers, and the Jews are not likely to go where they are not wanted. Chapter xxvii. UNLUCKY MEN. OLD SUPERSTrTITIOITS — WIZARDS OTT THE STREET — LUCKY AND UNUCKY DAYS — LUCKY AND UNLUCKY MEN — HOSPITAL FOR DECAYED MER- CHANTS—ILLUSTRATIONS OF ILL LUCK — THE DEVIL ON WALL STREET. IN these enliglitened days, we look back witli sur- prise at tlie superstitions of the fathers. They believed in witches, ghosts, and hobgoblins. They patronized conjurors, fortune tellers, and wizards- Necromancers, and persons skilled in the black art, reaped a golden harvest in the street, and under their direction men bought and sold, dug the earth, and sought for hidden treasures. The superstitions of the earlier days are by no means obsolete. Well known merchants, otherwise intelligent, shrewd and far seeing, consult modern oracles and make invest- ments as directed by the " mediums of the present age. There are unlucky days, in which the supersti- tious will not buy or selL There is a class of men on the street, who are known to be unlucky. Every- thing they touch incurs loss, and their investments turn to ashes. Their companions, associates, acquaint- ances, and business friends, have fortunate streaks. The class are ever doomed to disappointment. 422 Wonders of a Great City. %, We may account for it as we will ; it is still a fact that there are persons who may be justly termed un- lucky. They are not only seen on the street but in every department of life. Nothing that they do pros- pers. The Eothchilds, among other rules had this, from which they never swerved, never to have any dealings with an unlucky man, or an unlucky house. They did not pretend to explain how it was that ill luck would follow some persons, but the fact they re- cognized, as all must, who are familiar with the his- tory of men. The great Rothchilds said, that ill luck might arise from want of judgment, from idiosyn- cracies of character, from temper, want of moral qualities, from timidity, from rashness. But for men who failed in their enterprises, or were balked in their pursuits, who coul4 not carry their enterprises to success, or were thwarted in their schemes — from such they turned away. New York is full of illustrations of the wisdom of this course. It is full of men whose career can only be expressed by the simple word — unlucky. Two apprentices start side by side, equally honest, indus- trious, and capable. One becomes the head of a great house, and the others toils on, shiftless, poor, and struggling to the end. The one moves over a broad macadamized path-way to success, everything turns to his advantage; unseen hands roll every obstacle out of his way, rivals stumble and fall, or die at the right time, and year after year the lucky man accumu- " lates wealth and adds to his political power. His companion, with better principles, perhaps, more conscientious, having about him all the elements Unlucky Men. 423 j of popularity, is thwarted, and disappointed on every hand. He changes too soon or too late; the party divides just as he is on the eve of getting the golden bauble, and he ends his career a seedy, thriftless, dis- appointed misanthrope. At least a thousand men started in life with a fairer chance of financial suc- cess than Vanderbilt. They worked harder than he ever worked — energetic, enthusiastic, devoted and per- sistentent followers of fortune. They have gone down 1 by hundreds, been swept away by stock and commer- j cial panics, or walk about the streets dilapidated I specimens of unlucky men. From the moment Van- derbilt pushed his little scow from Staten Island, and collected his first fare from the passengers he w^as bring- ing up to the city, everything he touched prospered. He ran steamboats till his name was a terror in all our waters. He always had the best of his enemies in every fight. He ran Collins off from the ocean, as he said he would ; got his hundred cents on the dollar out of the Schuyler frauds ; was snubbed by the President ©f the Hudson River road, and gave him his walking papers; was jeered at by brokers when he bought Harlem, and made it a controlling ■ stock on the street ; and he sent disaster and ruin among the combination that tried to corner Harlem. He was known on the street as " Old Eighty Mil- lions. " Through the whole of his career people prophesied his downfall. Stewart's store was full of bankrupt merchants, and called the "Hospital for decayed traders." Stewart hired such men to wait on his customers. They came from Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Chicago. 424 Wonders of a Great City, These men began life with better chances of succe.' than Stewart. Why they did not succeed no od can tell. Most of them were honest, sharp, keei and devoted tradesmen. They made first-class assis ants to Stewart, besides bringing their customers wit., them. They were simply uulucky. There is hardl;^ an establishment in New York ; j e welry manufactory furniture, hardware, and houses representing evenj branch of trade, that has not subordinates who havt tried business for themselves. They are capital busi: ness men, and there seems to be no reason why the} should not prosper. As many of them express it "the luck was against them. " j I know two brothers, who were educated in the same school, members of the same church, and tem-, perance men ; both received a fine nautical education.! and both of them took to the sea. One, and he not] regarded as the brighter, or the more capable, came into command of a ship early. A disaster at sea, which, would have ruined most men, made him first mate., On the second voyage, his captain died, and he reached^ the port to which he was sailing in a lucky time, sold ] his cargo, and secured a valuable freight ; was caught ^ III a gale on his way back that came near sending him to the bottom, but which only sent him home ten days earlier. His arrival was lucky, his freight being in great demand, and his swift voyage gave him great ; favor. He sailed on the next trip as captain of one of the best ships out of port. During the many years that he was captain his good luck attended him. He , ^vas always in season ; caught the swiftest gales ; es- i caped quarantine; was attended by general success Unlucky jIen. 425 and retired frora the ocean witli a competency. His ^1 brother was a better sailor, so it was said, — a high- 1 toned, conscientious fellow, who meant to do his duty ^ — brave and respected; yet ill luck dogged his foot- steps from the moment he sailed till the end of his life. He held a subordinate position for a long time. \ If any trouble happened, if the crew mutinied, ice- bergs loomed up, foggy weather prevailed with colli- sions, or gales produced troubles, it was always in his watch. When commander, everything went against him. He lost two or three vessels. It was 1 no fault of his; after each loss he kept on shore a long time, nobody trusting him. Diseases always ' broke out on board of his ships, and he was befogged and becalmed whenever there was a chance. He i went into the navy in the v^ar, and the same ill luck attended him there, He was taken prisoner once or twice; monitors and gun-boats sunk under him, or he was laid up so that he could do nothing. The last voyage he made he was detained for weeks in Eng- land by gales and storms, for his vessel was weak, and was loaded with railroad iron. He died, as he ' lived, an unlucky man. I meet men every day in Broadv,^ay, who, for a quarter of a century, have been battling with their luck,^ — conscientious men, talented men, Sunday school men, Christian men, who have never suc- ceeded in anything they undertook. One bought out a long established and prosperous business, but it failed on his hands within twelve months. Others tried the opening trade of California; the season or the elements made shipwreck of 426 Wonders of a Great City. tteir little venture. Men go from dry goods into the street ; from the street to trade ; from trade to manufactm^ing ; then to oil and stock companies, breaking everywhere ; and when nothing else will do, the elements conspire and burn up their success. Others will track them on their rounds, and reap a golden harvest from every point. The old nnanciers of New York had an explanation for this phenomenon of good luck and bad luck, which has brooded over the street since it was first laid out, when "Dongan was Gouarnor Generall of his Majesties' Coll. of NewYorkCc" These old men believed in the power and existence of the Devil as god of this world and the author of all mischief. They believed that when Satan wished to bother a man financially he had power so to do, and quoted the history of Job as a proo£ Modern speculators scout the active agency of the Devil, but their philosophy is at fault, as the effect remains, without an adequate cause being discovered. On the other hand, there is no such thing as "luck," which is not accompanied by shrewdness, enterprise, and hard work. Barnum, Bonner, Stewart, and many more who have made great fortunes by apparently easy means, within the reach of many, are spoken of as "lucky men." But hard work, expensive advertis- ing, grasping opportunities when they presented, tact, and talent made those men rich. Good habits are a great help. Pluck, oftentimes, will do more for a man than luck. CHAPTER XXVIIL PANEL THIEVING. A SYSTEM OP ROBBERY WHICa IS SELDOM PUNISHED— OPERATIVES AND VICTIMS — HOW THE FLY IS LURED TO THE SPIDER's PARLOR — THE DISGRACEFUL GAME IN DETAIL, on HIS system of robbery, so common in New York, blends prostitution and theft. It is not y profitable to its disciples, but it is not easy of detection. Persons who engage in so corrupting and degrading a business, need little furniture or capital, and they seldom remain long in one locality, for their safety demands frequent removals. One or two "cribs," as these dens are called, are quite notorious, and have been kept in the same spot for a number of years. Hand-thieving is reduced to a system, and on the observance of this system success of the nefarious vocation depends. The women who are employed in this department of crime are mostly intelligent, neat and good looking negroes or mulattoes. Men who have been robbed, do not usually care to have it known that they have been keeping company with a colored woman, especially if they happen to be well- to-do men of family in some rural town. They bluster and make a great ado about the matter in the police 428 Wonders of a Great City. station, but when their name, residence and business are taken down, and they find that all their night frolic is to come out in the public print, they let the proceedings go. Panel-thieves count on this. THE PANEL-HOUSE. The place selected is usually a basemenx m a quiet neighborhood, the more respectable the better. Often panel-thieves hire a basement. The party who rents it, or who lives in the house, does not know who his neighbor is But usually it is for purposes w^e will name by-and-by. All concerned are interested in the game. The room is papered and a panel cut in the paper, or one of the panels is fitted to slide softly. The room contains a bed, a single chair, and a few articles for chamber use, — the whole not worth over fifty dollars. The bolts, and bars, and locks are pe- culiar, and so made as to seem to lock on the inside, though they do not. They really fasten on the out- side. And while the visitor imagines he has locked all comers out, he has really locked in himself, and cannot escape till he has been robbed, A rural gen- tleman from the country leaves his hotel about ten o'clock at night to see the sights. He meets a neatly dressed and fine-looking woman, with whom he has a talk. She has a sad story to tell of domestic cruelty. She has been driven to the street, and never accosted a gentleman before, and would not now, did not want drive her to it. The country gentleman is capti- vated. His sympathies are touched. She incident- ally names a modest sum for her companv. He r^ro- poses a walk to look at her house. On the way the Panel Thieving, 429 woman details some of her personal history, and in return finds out where her companion is from, and whether he has money worth the trouble of taking him home to pluck. She keeps up the role of an abused w^oman on her first street walk, and the man becomes quite social. The house is reached, is quite respectable, and in a decent neighborhood ; so the parties enter. A plainly furnished basement is seen, but all is neat, cosy, and tidy. As the woman takes oif her bonnet and shawd, she is seen to be dressed plainly, but with good taste. The door is carefully bolted, or supposed to be. The price agreed on is paid in advance, partly to see how full the wallet is stuffed, partly that the man may have no occasion to take out his wallet till he gets to his hotel, or at least gets out of the house, for he might find out that he had been robbed, and so make trouble. He must put his clothes on the chair, for there is no other spot except the fioor to lay them. The chair is put quite a distance from the bed, so that the robbery can be safely committed. EOBBEEY. At a given signal the panel slides, and the confed- erate creeps in on his hands and knees, and searches the pants. All the money is not taken ; for this rea- son none of the parties are brought before the courts; the factwdll appear that the man had some money left — a thing not creditable if robbed in a panel-house, and he will find it difficult to convince the judge that he did not spend the missing money when he was drunk. Another reason for leaving; some m^^f^v is. that the bulk in the pocket-book must not be so reduced as to 430 Wonders of a Great City. excite suspicion. When quite a bulk is removed, care- fully prepared packages, about the size, are put in the place of the money. When the robbery has been com- pleted, and the thief has crept out of the room and closed the panel, aloud knocking is heard at the door. The woman starts up in fright, and announces the arrival of her husband. The man hastily dresses, and makes his escape from the front basement door. In his flight he finds, by feeling, that his pocket book is all right. He reaches his hotel, and usually not till morning does he knovr that he has been robbed. His first step is to seek the residence of the panel thief and demand his money. But how can he find it? The woman, to escape detection, led the man through by-lanes and dark alleys. And should he find the house, he could not identify it. If he could, he would not find the woman or her confederate. If the house was a large one, all the furniture in the room w^ill be changed. It will probably be the abode of a physician, who, indignant at the attempt to con- vict him of panel-thieving, and to ruin his practice, will threaten to shut the libeller up in the Tombs. As a last resort, the victim will go to the police ; but as the woman is at Brooklyn, Harlem, Jersey City, or some new abode far from the robbery, nothing can be done, and the man must bear the loss. And so the panel game goes on from year to year. Aside from the fact that the victim of this game does not wish his name to appear in the newspajDers, there is very little sympathy from the public or the police for those who are robbed in this way. So the victim is silent ; for to make the matter public is a confession of his own vice and verdancy. CHAPTER XXIX POLITICAL MACHINES. THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE METROPOLIS AS MAMMOTH AS ITS BUSINESS ENTERPRISES — HALLS AND FACTIONS — HOW A CAM- PAIGN IS CONDUCTED — THE USE OF MONEY IN ELECTIONS. N^EW YORK has alwa3^s been controlled by political factions. While no early record was kept of the Knickerbocker's aspirations for office, it is pretty certain that the early Dutch settlers had the public place bee in their bonnets. Certain it is that shortly after the English obtained control there were five candidates for town constable, and one Peter Weldon, who kept a coffee house in Hanover street, secured the coveted prize. Coming down to modern times, however, the most prominent of all the factions was the one presided over by William M. Tweed. There had been the struggle for supremacy between the Wood- Weed-Webb elements, and John Morrissey and John Kelly w^ere second only to Sey- mour and Tilden as political factors, when Tweed found himself on the topmost w^ave of popularity and power. He controlled the city during his term of Mayor in the expiring sixties, as it was never con- trolled. The paving and water rings under his super- visorship were something appalling. The Genet's, 432 Wonders of a Great City, Sweeney's and O'Brien's carried matters with a bold hand, and the down-trodden opposition was crushed and cowed until it resented, and then the end quickly came. Tilden and Kelly joined hands and the' Tweed ring was broken. In the matter of street paving alone, fourteen millions were stolen in one brief sea- son by the Tweed men. But Tweed was popular. The poor idolized Jim Fisk, but they worshipped Tweed. At one time there were no less than sixty- three Tweed ward and district organizations in the city. KELLY AND TAMMANY. John Kelly's rule over Tammany never amounted to a great deal until 1873. Mr. Kelly had been in Congress and made a popular sheriff, but he never wholly developed his great strength and masterly abilities until he took the Tammany helm. He made it the most perfect machine in the history of politics. Honest to the last degree, Mr. Kelly purified New York politics. He ruled with a rod of iron and never did monarch have more loyal subjects. No matter whether Tammany Hall could poll fifteen thousand or seventy-five thousand votes, under the leadership of John Kelly, she obtained the lion's share of the public patronage. In 1879 eighteen hundred Tammany men were serving the city in a substantial manner, as evidenced by the pay rolls. Every man in twenty, in other w^ords, held a good fat office. As an organizer John Kelly was without a peer. In 1879 he quarreled for the second time with Tilden, the reformer, and in order to defeat Political Machines. 433 Eobinson, Tilden's Gubernatorial candidate and the nominee of the State Democratic Convention, he ran as an Independent Democratic candidate for Gov- ernor. The result was the defeat of Robinson, and the election of Cornell, Republican, for Kelly drew from Robinson nearly eighty thousand Democratic votes. So thoroughly did the Tammany boss know his strength, that in a computation of his votes by townships and precincts the day preceding the elec- tion, he came within two hundred of it in round num- bers. He was the first man to make a successful from house-to-house poll of the city. His dissatisfac- tion with Cleveland proved the practical downfall of his organization. He did not believe in the Civil Service Reform theories of the man of destiny, and so believing underestimated Cleveland's strength. He carefully calculated the vote of the State and city, and then went to work to defeat Cleveland by a hair; by a majority so small that it could only be located and yet not traced ; a defeat wherein Tam- many would be thought by the country at large in the phalanx of the defeated. He traded Tammany votes for Blaine in exchange for Republican votes for his county ticket until it seemed that all would go well. But there was a slight error — he could have thrown twenty-five thousand additional votes to Blaine had he thought them necessary — and Cleveland gained the White House. Then John Kelly suc- cumbed. COUNTY DEMOCEACY AND lEVING HALL. There were always seceders and kickers from Tarn- 434 Wonders of a Gee at City. many, men tired of wearing the boss' collar. The better class became members of the County Democ- racy. They were the silk stocking element, the men from Murray Hill and the resident wards of the city. The Irving Hall people belonged to the Bowe's, Creame's, Mike Norton and Jimmy O'Brien. They had from time to time been kicked out of old Tam- many, the parent stem. They were never so happy as when plotting a job, making a deal with Shed Shook, Jake Hess and John J. O'Brien of the Eepub- lican machine, which gave promise of squaring ac- counts with Kelly. They got the Sheriff's office, and then in 1878, united with the County Democracy for a grand sweep. The united factions elected Edward Cooper mayor, and they worked well until Kelly elected Grace in 1880. Then came the decline of Irving Hall. To-day it amounts to nothing, while Tammany is liable, phenix like to rise from the ashes of political ruin any day. The County Democ- racy persevered and is now supreme. The Republicans have not manifested much strength in New York City for years. They can do fairly well in ward contests, but when anything of conse- quence is at stake, the machine sells out the party. It takes money and patronage to lubricate the cogs, and the Republicans never could collect the former, and it was so easy for the leaders to secure from the victors a share of the latter sufficient to ward off the wolf. Now that a Labor party has come into exist- ence, the Republicans may be able to do a little bet- ter. Here is a pretty correct estimate of the city's political complexion to-day : County Democracy, sixty Political Machines, 435 thousand ; Tammany, fifty thousand ; Irving Hall, eight thousand ; Republicans, fifty thousand ; Labor, fifty thousand. Total, two hundred and eighteen thousand. USE OF MOITEY IN ELECTIONS. In New York on the evening of February 28, 1887, an address was delivered before the Commonwealth , Club which illustrates the enormous cost of running what are called the " political machines" in New York City. City Chamberlain William M. Ivins was the speaker, and his theme was the " Use of Money in Elections. " After promising that he would con- fine his remarks to this subject without any sug- gested remedy, as that was to be a matter for future discussion, Mr. Ivins said that fifteen years ago he had decided to find out what the management of New York City politics was, and he had been engaged in it ever since. He had learned practically what party machinery was, having stood in that time in the place of either a wheel or a pivot in one of the machines, or, at any rate, had been so situated that he could see all the wheels and pivots. He believed that the political machinery of New York was the result of the inefficiency of the election laws, and not of the Democratic system of government. Great freedom characterized the earlier elections in this city, the only restraint being an inspector of elections, and this lasted until the time of William M. Tweed, when, on account of the great frauds which had been perpetrated under his rule, a change had to be made. A registration law was passed which gave birth to 436 Wonders of a Great City, the law now in existence which makes fraud in elec- tions a practical impossibility. One of the many peculiar features of the law was its recognition of the three subdivisions of the Democratic party. Mr. Ivins then gave a description of the city's division into 812 election districts, and showed how large an army of paid officers of election were employed to do duty at the polls. The Republican Police Com- missioners appointed their election officers, and the Democratic Police Commissioners appointed theirs, the total number of appointments being 9,000. The thirty-five police captains of the city had the selec- tion of the polling place — a quite important piece of patronage. The appropriation to the Police Board by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for last year's election was $222,500, and the total cost of the legal machinery was $291,000, which was cheaper by $200,000 than what it used to be. The real mainspring of the parties' action at election time was the district leader, who really settled all import- ant questions of the campaign. Then there were election district captains, whom the district leaders provided for by getting them quartered on the city. A strong class feeling existed among these leaders, and whatever party was in power each tried, irre- spective of party, to help his brother leader of the other side to get his men placed. During the last election the city paid its seventy-two election district leaders $330,000, or an average of $4,750 each. The amount now being paid these leaders from the pub- lic Treasury is $242,000, of which eighteen out of Tammany Hall's twenty-four leaders get $119,000, Political Machines. 437 seventeen out of the County Democracy's leaders get $90,000 and eight out of the Republican party's I twenty-four leaders get $32,000. Not less than $750,000 was invested in the same way among poli- tical captains, heelers, and hangers on. The subject of assessments on candidates was then taken up. the nomination for the office of city clerk or register from $15,000 to $40,000 was paid. Besides this can- didates for these high offices had to pay sums to other parties, one of them having complained to the speaker that he had to pay $5,000 each to three persons who could not do him any good. Candidates I for the Senate have paid as high as $30,000 election expenses. Candidates for judicial positions paid as much as $20,000. For the Supreme Bench, $10,000 to $15,000 was a common assessment. The Controller ;l paid $10,000. Mayor Edson paid $10,000 each to Tammany Hall and the County Democracy, and ' $5,000 to Irving Hall. Mayor Grace paid $10,000 to the County Democracy, and the Citizens' Committee expended $10,000 more on his behalf. John Eeilly paid Tammany Hall $40,000 for the regular nomina- tion in 1883. The average expenditure for candidates in a city election during an ordinary election was as follows: — Two aldermanic candidates at $15 for each of 812 districts, $24,360 ; two Assembly candidates, $10 per district, $16,240; two candidates for Senate or Congress, at $25 per district, $40,600 ; four candi- dates for judgeships, at $10,000 each, $40,000 ; two candidates for mayor, at $20,000 each, $40,000; two candidates for city offices, such as sheriff, $20,000 ; two candidates for Controller, at $10,000, $20,000 ; 438 ^ WONDEES OF A GREAT OlTY. two candidates for district attorney, at $5,000, $10,- 000 — total, $211,200. Added to these expenses was tlie cost of printing tickets and mailing them to the different registered voters. During a Presidential campaign the figures were largely increased. The candidates had to spend money. As an example of extraordinary expenditure, he cited the case of the party of 650 who attended the last Democratic Con- vention in Chicago and managed to spend $690,000, without including what was paid out over the bar. What this would amount to could be guessed by the fact that during a lively election the Hoffman house in New York City took in $2,000 over the bar in a single day. Concluding, Mr. Ivins said it cost for every election in each of the 812 districts from $75 to $100 for the County Democracy, from $75 to $100 for Tammany Hall, about $15 for Irving Hall, about $15 for independent candidates, and enough from the Republicans to make a grand total of $216,000. i CHAPTER XXX. FORTUNE'S EBB AND FLOW. HOW MONEY IS LOST AND MADE IN SPECULATION — THE WEALTH OP WALL STREET — POOR BOYS AND RICH MEN — A FEW ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE METHODS BY WHICH OPERATORS CAN SUCCESSFULLY DEFY FICKLE FORTUNE — A GLIMPSE AT THE OTHER SIDE OP THE SUBJECT — IN- FATUATED WOMEN WHO DESIRE TO DABBLE IN STOCKS — A SUCCESS- FUL GREENHORN. THE subject of speculation has become tlie most interesting of national studies. It has com- pletely dwarfed political economy which held the palm for so many decades. The mass of the Ameri- can people have become speculators, and the most daring of all, the most unflinching spirits, are to be found in New York. It is doubtful if Jay Gould, Russell Sage, Cyrus W. Field, Austin Corbin, Frank- lin Gowen, Sam Sloan, George Seney, Secretary Whitney, P. D. Armour, Norman Ream, J. D. Hutchinson, Henry Clews, J. I. Davis, Sidney Dillon, and a score of other prominent operators could exist if barred out of Wall street. While many of the " speculators" fail utterly, many also become wealthy. Speculators are at the head of banks, railroads, gigantic corporations, and the great moneyed institutions of New York. They own baro- nial country seats, the most expensive dwellings in 440 Wonders of a Gee at City. the city, and keep "up their establishments in costly style. The livered servants in the Park; stables cost- ing from fifty to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars; extravagant and gorgeous teams, with two, four and six horses; with from one to a dozen fast teams, cost- ing from ten to fifty thousand each ; the most valu- able blocks in the city, and imported furniture, be- long to Wall street operators. Somebody must make money, and there must be a way to make it in the street. I have shown that losses in the street are tremendous, and almost inevitable. Ninety-eight out of every hundred, who have to do with the street, are cleaned out and ruined. Reverses are of daily occurrence. The fortunate speculators of to-day are overwhelmed with disasters to-morrow. The boldest and most successful operators die poor. Country speculators, small capitalists from the rural districts, professional men and business men, who go into the street, to try their fortunes, invariably lose Avhat they invest. Theii^ ruin is only a matter of time. The question comes. How is it that some speculators are so fortunate, and roll in luxury, and the great mass are cleaned out? The question is one of great interest — " Who makes money in Wall street, and who loses money ? " Any one who wishes can make money in Wall street, or in any other part of New York. Making money is a trade. The laws of the universe are not more unbending and regular than the law of success in Wall street. Industry, honesty, perseverance, sticking to one thing, invariably lead to success in any reputable calling. There are wealthy men in Fortune's Ebb and Flow. 441 New York, who began life picking np rags in the street They cleaned the filthy waifs, sold them, and tried again. Their budget was just what it was represented to be. From the str^t or ash barrel they obtained a supply from houses. Business in- creased; a little shanty was taken, help was needed, and the rag picker became a wholesale dealer- — • his shanty grew into a warehouse, and the paper makers throughout the country deal with him to-day. A poor Scotch widow returned to her scanty rooms in Chambers street, having buried her husband. She was penniless, as well as desolate. To-morrow's bread was uncertain. Perhaps the shelter of the roof would be denied her, as she had no money to pay the rent. She had two little boys, one of them proposed to his mother to make a little molasses candy, and he would take it out into the street and sell it, as he had seen other children do. The candy w^as really very nice. It was placed on a tray, covered with an attractive white cloth, and the boy was put in a clean dress. He went around among the merchants, and found a ready sale for his commodity. His sales grew — his coming was watched for. The widow set up a little store. The business increased. The manu- facture of sugar followed. The brand of the house became celebrated in all parts of the world. The penniless boys are now millionaires on Fifth avenue. Their donations to religion and benevolence are the largest in the country. Their sugar is known through- out the civilized world. Not a pound of impure candy can be purchased at the establishment. The Queen of England is a patron of the house. She 442 Wonders of a Great City. sends annually, through the great banking house of Baring Brothers, for a supply of candy. A poor boy on Long Island was apprenticed to a printing house in, New York. The morning he left his home, his mother laid her hands on his head, and said, "James, you have got good blood in you — be an honest and good boy, and you will succeed. " His clothes were homespun, his shoes heavy and ill fitting, and he did the dirty work of a printing office. He worked near Pearl street and Franklin Square. Gentle- men lived there in those days ; lawyers, merchants, and bankers. *As James went to and fro from his work, often bearing the slops through the street, he was taunted by the pampered children of the then upper classes of New York. They taunted him with his servile work, jostled him on his way, sported with his poverty, and jested about his ill fitting clothes. He held on his course, patiently, hopefully; the words of his mother ringing constantly in his ear. He founded one of the largest houses in the land ; known in all quarters of the globe, which to-day, after a successful career of half a century, is honored and prospered still. He became a magistrate of the city, and had prouder titles given him by the poor, lowly, and suffering. He lived to see these proud houses, whose children had taunted him, topple down. Those very children came tohim, and asked for employ- ment, many of them in their penury, asking for aid. In the smallest possible, way, a resolute lad began to make a living. Gathering the hoofs from slaugh- ter houses, and from dead and deserted animals, he manufactured a little glue. It bore the stamp of ex- Fortune's Ebb and Flow. 443 cellence from* the start, wliicli it has never lost. Mat ing the article genuine, it led the market. That boy is now one of the most eminent citizens of the city. His donations are larger than those of any man ex- cept Astor. He has not forgotten his low estate nor is he ashamed of his early origin. The recipients of his bounty are artizans and the men and women in humble life who seek culture, and desire to be wise in science and art. The President of one of the great express companies in this city, who has attained great wealth, and whose reputation as a business man, and a man of integrity, is second to none in the land, worked his way up from the lowest beginnings. Some of the great book men of the city began life as newsboys, selling papers on the street. The great express man of the west, who has given his name to most of the express companies, because his name is a synonym of honor, began life a stable boy, then drove stages, then owned stage lines, began the express business in the humblest way, and being always the same faithful, honest persevering man, is now one of the richest men in the State. The richest man in Brooklyn peddled milk — he peddled good milk. He bought the best cows, and with a little money scraped together, bought a pas- ture, far up in the country, that his cows might be under his own eye. That cow pasture has been cut up into lots, and is covered with the splendid man- sions of Brooklyn Heights. The milk man is a millionaire. An old man died in New York, leaving two daugh- 444 Wonders of a Great City. ters. "Don't sell the old pasture," was the dying injunction of the father. The family became very poor — they lived in chambers. They cut and carved every way to get along. They had to give up the family pew in the old church. The taxes and assess- ments were so heavy that more than once they re- solved to sell the pasture, as the price was temptingly high. They held on. The old pasture is occupied now by fashionable New York. In the centre, is one of the finest private parks in the city — it bears the name of the family. Lordly mansions occupy the grounds. Costly churches have been erected upon it. The children of these heroic women are among the wealthiest; and the husband of one of the children, whose wealth no one attempts to compute, is a high official at Washington. WHO MAKE M0]S"EY ON WALL STREET. 1st. Those who trade legitimately in stocks. A commission house in Wall street, that buys and sells stocks, as a trade, and does nothing else, must make money. It cannot be otherwise. Such men run no risks. A legitimate house never buys stocks without a margin. The operator holds the stocks, watches the market, and can protect himself when he will. The great temptation is to speculate. Why make a paltry commission, when by a nice investment, thous- ands may be secured? Few houses are successful, because few adhere to the rule, rigidly, not to touch anything as a speculation, however tempting the offer. One of the heaviest houses in New York, that went down on the Black Friday, failed because it added Fortune's Ebb and Flow 445 speculation to a commission business. For years tlie house refused to speculate. It became one of the most honored, and trusty, as well as one of the most successful. While the principal partner was absent in Europe, his associates ventured on a little specu- lation. It proved successful, and the house became one of the largest operators in Wall street. The crash came, as it comes to all such, and the ruin was terrible. Had the house been content to follow the legitimate business that made it, it would have stood to-day. 2d. Operators make money who buy in a panic. Few men in Wall street can invest during a panic. When stocks are low, and growing lower, and the bot- tom seems to be knocked out of everything, specula- tors are at their wits' end, like men in a storm at sea. Then, cool, shrewd, careful capitalists buy. Men in California, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, have standing orders with their brokers, to buy when stocks are low. These are quiet men, that know that the law of the street is sure and stocks will recover. They never buy on what is called a Bull market, but always when stocks are low, and buy for a rise. Mil- lions change hands by telegraph, when the street is in a war. 3d. Another class that make money, buy without any reference to the street. They select a line of stocks, with the value of which they are well ac- quainted. They buy the stock and pay for it. They take it home, and lock it up. It is their own. No broker can sell them out. They have no margin to lose, and none to keep good. If the stock goes down 446 Wonders of a Gee at City. twenty per cent, they are not alarmed. They know that the street will repeat itself, and that the stock will come up. They bide their time, and sell out when they please. 4th. Another class of operators make money who average their stocks. These operators buy a line of stocks — a thousand shares of Lake Shore at ninety. An order is left with the broker to buy Erie as it goes down, and to keep purchasing three hundred. Lake Shore falls, as other stocks go do^v-n, but the party is securing other lines at a lower rate. When the market rises, they all go up together. It takes capital and pluck to do this. Operators must have money to hold the thousand shares, and secure other lines of stock to average the decline. The wealthy operators on the street — the old heads, who are sure of a rise if they wait for it, are the men who average their stock. 5th. Men make money on the street who are con- tent to do a small business; who are satisfied with small profits. Such men are not bold operators, but they are very safe ones. Five hundred dollars profit is very satisfactory. Most operators want to make money at a blow; making five hundred, they re- invest it at once, like a gambler, who having made fifty dollars, is in a glow of excitement to make a hundred. Such men often buy the same stock over, that they have just sold, and buy it at a higher price. Instead of taking their little gains out of the street and waiting, they try another battle with fortune,, and continue till all is swept away. Henry Keep, called "Henry the silent" on the street, was one of Fortune's Ebb and Flow. 447 the most successful operators that ever dealt in stocks. He said to a friend one day, " Would you like to know how I made my money? I did it by cooping the chickens ; I did not wait till the whole brood was hatched. I caught the first little chicken that chipped the shell, and put it in the coop. I then went after more. If there were no more chickens, I had one safe at least. I never despised small gains. What I earned, I took care of. I never perilled what I had, for the sake of grasping what I had not secured." 6th. Men who can control the street are sure to make money. Gould, Corbin, Field, and men of their capital can do this when they please. When they combine, they can make the nation reel. If they want to control stocks, they buy them up, and lock them up. They can keep them as long as they please, and sell them when and as they please. They can run the price up to any height. These men not only make a fortune in a day, but they make fortunes for all their friends whom they choose to call in. The permanent success among operators and speculators is found in the classes named. WHO LOSE MONEY ON WALL STEEET. 1st. All who are caught by a panic, which in- cludes the great mass of operators, lose. One of the most mysterious things in Wall street is a panic, as it is one of the most terrible. It is indescribable and often causeless. It comes without warning. No wis- dom, shrewdness or fore-cast can anticipate or control it. A distinguished editor of New York gave an ac- count of a panic which he shared, which seized the 448 Wonders of a Great City, allied army, and spread terror through the ranks of thousands of armed men — who fled pell-mell in dis- may at the appearance of the few Austrian cavalry, who had got lost and were seeking food. The alarm and terror of a Wall street panic sweeps away the accumulated gains of many a speculation, and often the fruits of many years. Its bitter fruits are not confined to the street. The click of the telegraph, that communicates the changes in Wall street every five or ten minutes, to all parts of the continent, carries consternation with the intelligence. Dealers in stocks are scattered all over the land, capitalists tremble and business and labor suffer. When a panic comes, it strikes the heavy men of the street, as it strikes all others. The causes of a panic, are found. 1st, in combinations that tighten the' money market. Thirty men who can go out on the street, and call in millions of dollars, out on loan, as they ai'e often compelled to do, aid in producing a panic. Money is drawn from the city to purchase the crops in the country, and with a tight money market the street must unload. 2d. Artful men combine, and lock up money. Sometimes a combination secures control of the city funds, funds of the United States govern- ment, and nearly all the money in the banks. If the combination that produced the awful panic of Sep- tember 24th, could have held their grasp on gold and greenbacks twenty-four hours longer, they would have broke the entire street. 3d. Panics come from no possible cause — come when no one can expect them. A broker of forty years standing, who is at the head of one of the heaviest houses in New York, FORTUNE'S Ebb and Flow. 449 said, "One of tlie worst panics that I ever saw in the street, occurred under my own eye. I was seated at the Board one day, and I never saw the room more quiet. Every thing was easy and buoyant. Stocks were steady, the roads were earning money, and every thing was cheerful. A member present be- longed to a house that was carrying a very large line of stock. He offered two hundred shares for sale. A man sat opposite to witness the transaction. He said to himself, I have some of that stock ; if this man who is so heavily interested in it, is about selling out, something must be the matter. I will sell mine out while I can. He threw his on the market. Others followed. A scene of indescribable excitement pre- vailed. Other stocks were affected. The panic be- came universal, and inevitable ruin followed. It turned out that nothing was the matter ; that the broker who had caused the panic had an order to sell. 4th. Beside the conspiracies, before alluded to, panics are produced by a combination of the bear interest to sell out. A stock is offered, the bulls buy it, to prevent a fall, and if they buy all that is offered, they keep the market up. The bears pile up the stock, and produce a panic. They throw on to the market more stock than the bulls can take and a panic follows. 2d. Nearly every one loses money who is not in- itiated in the ways of Wall street. Stock jobbing is a trade. To be successful, men must understand it, and follow it as a business. A man would be much safer to order a stock of goods from Europe, ignorant of the quality and of the price, — to order 450 Wonders of a Great City, ten thousand- barrels of flour from the West, who never purchased a bushel of wheat — to order cargoes of coal, knowing nothing of the trade, than to go to Wall street to make an investment. The green men, who do not know the ways of the street, are sure to lose. Smart men elsewhere, successful men in other lines, will be dupes in the street. The atmosphere is full of rumors. Sharpers are full of points, and the green speculators will first be misled, and then be fleeced. They are especially in peril, if they meet with temporary success. Like men who fight the "tiger," their little successes only whet the appetite for deeper playing. Men who make a little fortune elsewhere, come on the street in search of ventures, and are easily duped to take a flyer, which is as cer- tain to clean them out, as they live. 3d. Small dealers "lose money. These have gen- erally some friend on the street, who makes purchases for them, without observing the rule of the board. The law of the street requires a ten per cent, margin, but some brokers are content to take one per cent, or even a half. These operators are friends — cousins — members of the same church^ — or belong to the same fraternity or club. This class is very large, and is sure to lose all that is ventured. The most excited of small operators are ladies. They place their one per cent., or ten per cent., in the hands of a broker, and they become perfectly infatuated. They annoy and worry the broker that buys for them, by daily visitations, and their excited dreams of fortune gives them no rest. A broker related this incident: a lady acquaintance called at his office, and insisted upon Fortune's Ebb and Flow. 451 leaving with liim a chousand dollars for speculation. She wanted some dresses and fixings, and having need of more money than her husband could spare, she resolved to try a venture on the street. Others had done so and made a fortune, and there was no reason why she should not. All argument and en- treaty were lost on the excited creature — a speculation she would have, and her money she would leave. The broker took her money on one condition, that it was the last venture she would make ; at least, through him. He locked her thousand dollars in his safe. Every day, she came to the office to enquire after the success of the speculation. Once or twice she dogged him to the house. She had heard a report that she thought would interest him, and had read something in the paper that she could not understand. One day she called at the office, and he met her with a smile. "I know you have got good news for me," said the lady. "Yes," said the broker, and "I will tell it to you, if you Avill renew the obligation given to me, and leave the street." She renew^ed it. "Your thous- and dollars have gained you another thousand dollars." He handed her a certified check. He had given her a thousand dollars to get rid of her. 4th. Industrious speculators, hard working, ener- getic, persistent operators in Wall street, fail. In- dustry and activity are not at a premium on the street. The warning of the Bible, on making haste to get rich, has a significance among brokers. Cool operators, slow, steady going men, who think twice before they act, who, when they make an operation, haul off and wait, make the money. But sharp, 452 Wonders of a Gee at City. energetic men, who have come out on the street to make a fortune, and intend to keep at it — these men are sure to go under. They make five hundred a day; that is nothing; they can as easily make ten hun- dred. Having done up one little chore, they think there is time for another. They feel that they must do something all the time. Like men who sell rib- bon and tape, they imagine they are only doing well, as they measure ofE yard after yard. A successful operator hauls ofE after he has made a strike, whether it is small or large — waits and watches the market. 5th. Operators who deal in points, lose money. Wall street is full of rumors, exciting stories, and statements of things that are going to happen. Some men have secret information of importance. These rumors are called points, and men who buy and sell, in consequence of them, are said to " deal on points." Combinations, conspiracies and cliques start these points to affect the market, and inexperienced and green operators are duped by them. A SUCCESSFUL GEEENHORN. The history of Henry S. Ives illustrates the rapid- ity with which success or failure is made in Wall streec. He is not over twenty-five years old, yet he is to-day the Vice-President of an important railroad, the head of a prosperous banking house which occu- pies the large ofiices for many years filled by Morton, Bliss & Co. Moreover he is reputed to hold an option from Robert Garrett, for the control of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Big capitalists are said to be backing this young financier, and influential Fortune's Ebb and Flow. 453 banks are willing to give him a certificate of sound financial standing ; and now the Stock Exchange, eager for the orders that he is capable of placing, wipes out its former action condemning his methods and passes a vote of confidence in him. Yet Mr. Ives two years ago was unheard of in Wall street. When the sign of Henry S. Ives & Co. was displayed in front of Morton, Bliss &> Co.'s old ofiices the Wall street men wondered who he was. They soon found out. He gave them a test of his quality. One morn- ing seven or eight Stock Exchange members woke up to find themselves "cornered," and by a boy who had just attained his majority. Much has been said about the "Mutual Union cor- ner" since Mr. Ives has been negotiating for the Baltimore & Ohio, and since the present row in the exchange, but outside of the "street" few have any knowledge of just what the corner Avas. After the Mutual Union Telegraph Company had been ab- sorbed by the Western Union a new issue of stock was made in exchange for the old stock and the name of the company changed. Nearly all the old stock was exchanged for the new, but a few hundred shares of the old were yet outstanding. Young Mr. Ives saw in this circumstance a chance for a shrewd speculation, and so was not slow in carrying out his ideas. He bought most of the old stock as the first step in the scheme, then, as afterwards charged by the exchange, he hired a man who worked in an ex- press office in Newark to create the "short" interest which is imperatively necessary to the success of any corner. No one in the "street" would have been 454 Wonders of a Great City. likely to sell tlie stock short, but tke Newark man gave orders to several brokerage houses to sell Mutual Union stock. They did so, and other brokers acting for Ives, purchased the stock which they sold. To some of the brokers the Newark man gave verbal orders and to some he gave written orders. In some cases, in order to conceal the transaction, the brokers were told to sell other securities as well. The brokers claimed that the Newark man promised to produce the stock for delivery the day after the sale was made. This he did not do, and the brokers found themselves short of the stock. Then they woke up to the fact that there w^as only a few hundred shares of the stock in existence and that they were at the mercy of young Mr. Ives. The most curious feature of the corner w^as that if the officers of the exchange had not blundered the corner would never have been possible. When the new stock w^as issued it was "listed" and the exchange slioi:fld have stricken the old stock from the list. By an oversight this was not done. As soon as the selling brokers found themselves caught in a net which they had many times spread for many a "lamb" they began to plead to be let off. Ives was denounced and the corner was declared to be illegitimate and wicked, the governing committee declared the contracts "off, "the brokers were saved, and Mr. Ives barely escaped without loss. This corner was not the only charge brought against "wicked" Mr. Ives, w^hen, a few months later, it was decided to discipline Mr. Doremus if he did not sever his relations with Ives. This he refused to do, and, though cut off from any connection wath the ex- FoBTUNE's Ebb and Flow, 455 change, Mr. Ives' firm continued to grow in prosperity and importance. Mr. Ives displayed remarkable skill in tke negotia- tions wkich resulted in tlie purchase and reorganiza- tion of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, and the fact that he got an option from Robert Gar. rett was a further evidence of his ability. Still the Mutual Union corner has hung over him like a black cloud. Hence the act of the governing committee in practically whitewashing Mr. Ives one year after publicly proclaiming him as unfit for fellowship, has aroused indignation among many members of the ex- change, who think that the governors have been guilty of weakness and inconsistency in repudiating their original action. CHAPTER XXXI. FINANCIAL IREEGULAKITIES. A NEW SYNONYM FOR CRIME IN VOGUE IN SPECULATIVE CIRCLES— THE PECULIAR ATMOSPHERE OF NEW YORk's FATAL MAELSTROM — SOME OP THE IMMORALITIES OP THE STREET — HOW THE MONEY GOES — THE GRAY AND KETCHUM METHODS— HUMAN WRECKS. 1 only brought about a new style of business, but the use of new terms. Crime, fraud, embezzle- ment are called irregularities. Men are not criminal who betray their trust, use money that don't belong to them, alter checks, forge names, and speculate with bonds put in their house for safe keeping. " But they are sharp men, unwise in some things, fools to go into speculations so deep — that's all." This sentiment is not confined to Wall street. It marks the age. It is common to talk of bribery and corruption in official life. Men who sit at the head of affairs are bought and sold in the market. If a man is elected to an office, it is a common remark, " He will make his pile. " If he is not too glaring and audacious in his thefts, no one will meddle with him. If measures are to be carried, or to be defeated, money must be raised, and put into the hands of certain men, or the affair falls through. In the city there is a stout fight always over stocks and bonds have not Financial Irregularities. 457 the office of senator. The pay is three dollars a day ; the expenses at least fifty. If a railroad franchise is wanted, ten thousand in cash, and a block of the stock will carry it. Street railroads are obtained in the same manner. The famous Harlem corner was crea- ted by the refusal of Vanderbilt to pay blackmail to men in power. Men pay cash of ten and twenty thou- sand dollars to carry an election, when the salary con- nected with the office is not a quarter of that sum. Everybody understands that the ofl&ce pays in some way. Parties often come down from Albany, and say to individuals in the city, "What is your office worth to you ? " As the man makes from five to twenty thousand a year, he is a little startled. The Albany man says, "The office is going to be abolished. Fifty thousand will save it." The excited New Yorker flies around, raises the money, and the evil is stayed. The manner in which these things is managed is as notori- ous as any legislation in the land. Men who, a short time ago, could not get trusted for a paper of tobac- co, sport blood horses in the park, and live in style. It is a very common thing for officials to leave their position for a sum named, and allow bills to be put through in their absence. A New York official has more than once notified the body over which he pre- sided that he would be out of the State when a meet- ing was held. His custom v/as to take the ' ferry boat and go to Jersey City, take a drink and go home. He avoided the responsibility of legislation, while his friends carried obnoxious measures through. It was well known that a bribe of fifty thousand, and once as high as a hundred thousand, was paid for this service. An 458 Wonders of a Great City, official in this neighborhood had decided opinions, and was supposed to be an honest man. Interested par- ties wanted an ordinance passed of great value to them. They knew the officer would not sign the law, and they could not carry it over his veto. A check of $50,000 was laid before him, with the condition, that on an evening named, he should visit the State of New Jersey, and remain there one night. ATMOSPHERE OF THE STREET. In such an atmosphere great crimes must be com- mon. The moral tone is so low that the temptation to commit wrong is very great, and the disgrace and punishment slight. Dishonesty is known as shrewd- ness, and fraud is regarded as being sharp. The loose way of transacting business, the modern custom of blending one's own funds with other people's, and using the whole in speculation, has induced leading capitalists to refuse anything as an investment which they cannot control. The drinking customs of Wall Street have a great deal to do with its crimes. One of the leading banks, at its annual election, furnishes liquor for all in attendance. Every variety of strong drink was in abundance, and huge bowls of strong punch are provided. Presidents, officials, directors, and clerks go in for a carouse. Staid old men get so boozy that they are sent home in carriages, and young men, frenzied by free liquor, yell and sing with de- light. Nor does it stop there ; the example leads the employees of the bank to fashionable restaurants, flashy and extravagant company, and to the forked road that leads to the gaming table or Wall street. Financial Irregularities, 459 A house went down the other day, and in answer to the question how it happened, one of the proprietors said, "A glass of wine did it." The house did a large business South and West. It employed, among others, a young man of talent and smartness. He was en- trusted with the collection of the heavy sums due the house in the South. He was as sober as clerks generally are, and enjoyed the confidence of his em- ployers. He was very successful in his tour, collected large sums of money, and reached New Orleans on Saturday night, on his way home. He telegraphed his success, and announced his intention of leaving on Monday morning. Sunday dawned on him ; he was alone in a strange city. Some genteelly-dressed per- sons, apparently gentlemen, made his acquaintance, and, after general conversation, invited him to take a glass of wine. He was accustomed to do this with his employers, and it would seem churlish for him to re- fuse so courteous a request. If he had gone to church, he would have escaped the temptation. If he had been a Sunday School young man, he would have found good society and genial employment. He went to the bar with his new-found companions. He knew nothing more till Monday. His money, watch, and jewelry were gone, and he found himself bankrupt in character, and penniless. He had been drugged. He telegraphed to his house. The news came in a finan- cial crisis, and the loss of the money carried the house under. 460 Wonders of a Great City, REIGN OF TERROR IN WALL STREET. Desperate, daring men find Wall street a fitting field for the exercise of their talents. More than once in the history of the street, combinations have been formed to rob the banks. During the great fire in 1836, which swept all New York, from Wall street to the Battery, and from Broad street to the water, the military were on duty three days and three nights. The day Mayor Clark was sworn into office, he received a letter from the presi- dents of the city banks, informing him that the banks were to suspend specie payments, and that they feared a riot. The mayor was terribly frightened, and sent for General Sanford, who assured the mayor that he could keep the peace. The next morning Wall street was packed with people, who threatened to tear down the banks and get at the specie. The First Division was called out. There was probably not a man in that corps who was not as excited, personally, as the maddened throng that surged through the streets ; yet not a man shrank from his duty, or refused to obey his connnander. The First Division were marched to the head of Wall street, except the cavalry, who were stationed around the banks in the upper part of the city. General Sanford planted his cannon on the flag- ging in front of Trinity Church. The cannon com- manded the whole of Wall street. He then sent word to the rioters that his fuse was lighted, and on the first outbreak he should fire upon the rioters, and that peaceable citizens had better get out of the way. The announcement operated like magic, and in a few Financial Irregularities. 461 minutes there was not a corporal's guard left in the vicinity of the banks. The citizens knew that the troops would do their duty, and that silent park of artillery was an efficient peace corps. An extra police force is on duty continually. Adroit rogues and bold villains, by their very audacity, ac- complish their purpose. Carrying gold, and a million or two of greenbacks, about the street, is as common as carrying bundles and merchandise is in other parts of the city. Common drays are backed up to the great moneyed institution, and loaded down with gold. Rough-looking persons they are that handle the pre- cious stuff, surrounded often by a rougher looking crowd. The temptation to seize a bag, and make off with it, is a very strong one. The very daring of the act makes it often successful. The habits of bank messengers are well known to the "fancy." The money transactions of the city are very regular. The movement of a hundred millions occupies the hours be- tween ten and two. Messengers are running in every direction. A bank that does a business of twenty millions daily has an army of clerks and messengers on the wing perpetually — Out into the street ; down into cellars; through dark alleys and narrow lanes; up narrow and crooked stairs — in every direction the messengers rush, loaded down with greenbacks and gold, checks, bonds, and gold certificates. Desperate men track these messengers, garrote them in dark alleys, knock them senseless, and steal their treasures ; and more than once, on the corner of William and Wall — the most prominent part of the street — par- ties have been robbed in the presence of a hundred 462 Wonders of a Great City\ men. Accomplices are always on hand, teams pro- vided, and, in the confusion, generally the party escapes. Some of the banks hire a carriage, and em- ploy a police officer to attend their messengers to the Clearing House and back. Some of the heavy bank- ing houses employ special policemen to attend their messengers when they deliver money. In many cases the messengers are in complicity with rogues. A bank clerk was robbed a short time since of ten thou- sand dollars at noonday. The police investigated the matter, and developed the following facts : The house robbed was one of the largest stock dealing houses in the street. A messenger was sent to collect gold cer- tificates of twenty thousand. The messenger, on his way to the bank, met another messenger, and they went into a saloon and took to drinking. It was proved they drank five times — nobody knows how many more. The young man was enticed by his com- panion into a dark cellar-way, and was knocked down, or fell stiff and senseless. The companion seized the band of certificates, and ran to the bank for the money. This was done in broad daylight, some par- ties looking on. One of the spectators, who knew the messenger, notified the firm. One of the partners ran to the bank, and found the messenger with the gold in his hand, ready for operation. In one of the banks, during business hours, may be seen an old negro, cha- fing up and down like a caged lion. For twenty years he was the bank messenger — paid all the ex- changes, ran his rounds alone, and through him the bank never lost a dollar. As stout, energetic, pugilis- tic men are needed on the Stock Exchange, so daring Financial Irregularities. 463 men of courage, with the dash of a prize-fighter about them, are needed as messengers, and the old colored servant is laid upon the shelf. IMMORALITIES OF THE STREET. Few men escape the demoralization of Wall Street. ! Men have gone down into that arena with large for- tunes and unblemished repute, and come up penniless and bankrupt in character. The head of one of our larofest mercantile houses, one of the most trusted of bank presidents, with a well earned reputation of a quarter of a century upon him, threw the whole away in a few months in that vortex. Young Gray had a brilliant, but a short career. He came up from dark, den-like offices in Exchange Place, to magnificent rooms on Broad street. He furnished his offices in grand style. His very audacity gave him success. He outshone the eminent houses that have stood the shock of half a century. He secured high- toned recommendations, and his dash and daring facil- itated his gigantic frauds. Strange enough, very few ever saw him. For a day or two his name was better known than Yanderbilt's. Those who saw him, de- scribe him as a young man, very boyish in his appear- ance, looking rather green, — thirty years of age, tall and slim, with light hair and mustaches. He laid his plans with consummate ability. He secured govern- ment bonds, and forged nothing but the sums. The signatures and the paper were genuine. Had Gray offered bonds manufactured, or with signatures forged, he would have been detected at once. But his plan was to take genuine bonds, and alter the amounts. 464 Wonders of a Great City. Bonds of one thousand were altered to ten. Bonds of five thousand were altered to fifty thousand. During business hours the rush in the street is immense ; mil- lions pass in an hour and nothing is thought of it. In the excitement of the hour, when the time came. Gray and his associates threw the bonds on to the market, and obtained money everywhere. Firms loaned ten thou- sand on securities worth one, and fifty thousand on securities worth five. The sum thus obtained is sup- posed to have ranged from two hundred thousand to half a million. One morning the iron shutters of 44 Broad street were down, and the sheriff in possession. Few instances have brought with them a sadder moral than that connected with young Ketchum. A very young man, he was partner of one of the oldest and most honored houses in the city. For two genera- tions the firm had been without a stain in the mercan- tile community. Active, energetic, capable, and ap- parently honest, the young man soon obtained the con- trol of the great business of his house. No one can tell what he did with the vast sums of money he ob- tained. The avenues of expenditure are very wide and very numerous in New York. Gaming, drinking, fast company, extravagance in horses, dress, jewelry, and establishments, will make way with a great deal of money in a short time. The transactions in gold when Ketchum's forgeries came to light, facilitated the frauds he committed. Each banker then kept a gold check book, drew his gold certificates himself, and had them certified at the Gold Bank. These certified checks passed as gold everywhere, from hand to hand, while the gold, untouched, remained in the vaults, Ketchum Financial Irregularities. 465 drew an untold number of checks, forged the certifi- cation, and scattered them in every direction. The success of his movement led to an entire change in the system, and gold checks are now issued at the Treasury Department, and certified there. The detection of the Ketchum forgeries was inevita- ble. The road may be a long one, but the turn surely comes. A wealthy German loaned Ketchum & Sons eighty thousand dollars on one of the forged checks. The bad spelling of the name of the house satisfied the broker that something was wrong. He called in his loan, and said nothing. Meeting a friend in the street the next day, he said, "you loaned the Ketch- ums seventy thousand yesterday, call in your loan and ask no questions." Presenting his securities for money, Ketchum was refused by one or two large houses. He was satisfied that his secret was out, and he resolved to flee. The excitement was terrific when the forgeries were known. For the house there was very little sympathy. It was known to be sharp and hard, though successful. The pound of flesh was ex- acted, and the scales and knife were always ready. Sympathy with debtors was not a part of its code, and failure to meet liabilities was regarded as a crime. When the house went down, as sharp, hard firms are apt to, the feeling of the street was one of relief, and not of sympathy. "He shall have judgment without mercy," is a text from which sermons are constantly preached in Wall street. A CASE IN POINT. In one of the small streets of lower New York, where men who are " hard up " congregate, where those who 466 Wonders of a Grea t City. do brokerage in a small way have a business location, a name can be read on a small tin sign, that is eminently suggestive. The man who has desk-room in that locality I have known as a leading merchant in New York. His house was extensive, his business large. He was talked of as the rival of Stewart. No store in New York was more celebrated. He was sharp at a trade, and successful. He was a hard creditor, and un- relenting. He asked no favors, and granted none. It was useless for a debtor to appeal to him. " Settle, sir ! " he would say, in a sharp, hard manner, " settle, sir ! How will I settle ? I will settle for a hundred cents on the dollar, sir." Nothing could induce him to take his iron grasp off of an unfortunate trader. Over his desk was a sign, on which was painted in large letters, " No Compromise." He answered all appeals by pointing to the ominous words, with his long, bony fingers. His turn came. He went under — deep. All New York was glad. In travelling, I passed the night with a wealthy mer chant. His name on 'change was a tower of strength, lie had made his fortune, and was proud of it. He said lie could retire from business if he would, have a for- tune for himself to spend, and settle one on his wife and children. He was very successful, but very severe. He was accounted one of the shrewdest merchants in the city. But he had no tenderness towards debtors. In the day of his prosperity he was celebrated for demanding the full tale of brick, and the full pound of flesh. A few months after I passed the night with him he became bankrupt. His wealth fled in a day. He Financial Irbegvlarities. 467 had failed to settle the fortune on his wife and children, and they were penniless. He was treated harshly, and was summarily ejected from the institutions over which he presided. He complained bitterly of the ingratitude of men who almost got down on their knees to ask favors of him when he was prosperous, and who spurned and reviled him when he fell. If in the day of his I prosperity he had been kinder and less exacting, he I might have found friends in the day of his adversity. The infatuation of young Ketchum was not the least remarkable thing in his career. He disappeared from the street, but hung around New York, hiding himself I in cheap boarding houses through the day, and roam- ing through the city at night. It was proposed to save him from prison. Disgraced and ruined, it was thought that a felon's brand would be* kept from his brow. Arrangements w^ere made to pay the forged checks, and keep him from the hands of the authori- ties. Wall street would rather have money than the body of the criminal. It is the style of the street to take the cash, and let the culprit run. It was agreed that the parties who had been victimized, when they got their money, should not appear against the forger. Ketchum could easily have escaped. Gray was caught, and a check for four hundred dollars procured his lib- j erty. Ask a party in Wall street why a reward of five thousand dollars is not offered for a defaulter, and the answer will be, " What's the use ; the man will give a thousand more to go clear." Ketchum seemed to de- liver himself up. Forged gold certificates were found on his person. Nothing remained but to lock him up 468 Wonders of a Great City. in the Tombs. He was put in a cell occupied a day or two before by a murderer. A young man, almost at the head of the financial world, with an elegant home, moving in the upper ranks of social life, with all the cash at command that he could spend, with a brilliant future before him, an opportunity, such as not one in a thousand enjoys, of placing his name among the most eminent financial men in the world, he yielded to the allurements and temptations of the street, threw all that was valuable in life away, and accepted a felon's name and doom. THE GREAT PERIL. No barriers seemed to be strong enough to protect those who throw themselves on the excitement of stock speculation. Like the cup of abominations in the Apocalypse, it seems to drunken and madden all who touch it. A young man of very brilliant abilities had an important financial position in a prominent house. His salary was liberal, his social position high, and his style of living genteel. He was a racy writer, and a popular correspondent. He took a special interest in Sunday schools, and in religious and reformatory move- ments. He was especially prominent in the christian associations of the land. While at a national meeting of associations, in which he bore a very conspicuous part, even while he was speaking on a subject involv- ing soundness of doctrine, telegraph wires were quiv- ering in every direction with the intelligence of defal- cations with which he was charged. It was the old story of dishonesty of long standing, with frauds run- ning over a. series of years, carefully covered up, and Financial Irregularities. 469 ingeniously hidden; vouchers forged, and an appa- rently fair page, full of wrongs. Early, a little stock venture was indulged in ; to save that, more money was needed. A loss in one direction was to be repaired by a little speculation in another. Money borrowed for a day or two, and then the men set out on a tramp in the beaten path to ruin, where so many specula- tors go. HOW THE MONEY GOES. The most astounding thing about many of these de- falcations is, that parties involved in crime secure no personal benefit to themselves. It was not believed that Ketchum had the benefit of the million or more of money that he got by forgery. Sanford, who in an hour destroyed the repute earned by thirty years of honest, service, when he ran away, though his defal- cations were heavy, left his family penniless, and car- ried nothing with him. To obtain a high position in a bank, or financial company, the position of paying teller or cashier, or get a prominent office, is a great thing in New York. The pay is large, the position permanent. Capitalists who put money in these insti- tutions, do it often to make a place for their children v>r relations. Vacancies rarely occur, few die, and none resign. Each director and officer, and each polit- ical organization, has a list of candidates for vacan- cies that may occur. If a man holds a responsible position under the government, he must have bonds- men; the same is true of cashiers, treasurers, and presidents. Men who justify in sums of quarter of a million or less, must secure well known bondsmen. Such men are not plenty, and they do not expose 470 Wonders of a Great City. themselves without a consideration. They get accom- modatipns, and often a loan of money and bonds held by these custodians for safe keeping. These funds are thrown on the street for speculation. Not long since, a young man who was considered the very soul of honor, who was never known to equivocate, even, whose character from his boyhood was that of honest simplicity, whose great ambition it was to support his mother, who was a widow, was found to be a defaulter to a heavy amount. His style of living was such, and his well known habits, that it was known that he could not have squandered the money on himself He was too timid to speculate, and the marvel was what had been done with the funds. His bondsman had used them for his own purposes. First, the young man cer- tified a check when there was no money in the bank, on the promise of its being made good the next day. The bondsman made a tool of the young officer, first by threatening to withdraw as bondsman, and then, having led him on, by threatening an exposure. The books were altered, and the young man was driven almost to madness by his position. Of the heavy sum lost by the bank, not a dollar went into his own pocket. He is an illustration of thousands who are the dupes of designing men. Some moneyed institutions are exclusively managed by a clique in Wall street. If they wish to produce a panic, they take the funds of the bank, and accomplish the purpose. Bank stock in huge blocks, is bought, sold, and moved about to accomplish the schemes and combinations of stock speculators. It is no uncommon thing, for men on the street, to demand and use the funds of public in- Financial Irregularities, 471 stitutions. More than a million of public money has been known to be moved into Wall street for a day's speculation. HUMAN WRECKS. The wreck of public men, who att( mpt speculation, is sad to look upon. A short time since, a gentle- man was on trial before the United States Court for a conspiracy to defraud the government. Some of the principal witnesses were men who have stood very high in the community, worn judicial honors, and been ranked as the most eminent of citizens. Some of these witnesses would have been included in the indictment, but the government kept them as witnesses. These men, themselves criminals, showed under oath, how the public funds were used, how fortunes were swamped in speculation, and how the greed of gain allures honorable men from the right path. A legal gentleman was offered a judicial nomination in a case where a nomination would have been equivalent to an election. The conditions connected with the nomina- tion were such, that as a man of honor he felt bound to decline. Almost daily, on Wall street, I meet a man, not forty ; his look is downcast, dress seedy, and his desire seems to be to shun every one. I knew him a short time since as a lawyer in Wall street, the head of a happy home, a Sunday school teacher, and an hon- ored man. He took to the ways of the street, and has just returned from the State's prison. A Sunday School Superintendent, and a very devoted one, too, a trustee of a college, and an influential man, left his office, and the quiet walks of social and domestic life, 472 Wonders of a Great City. | for the glitter and profit of a public position. Every- ^ body congratulated him on his good fortune. His ' friends gave him a dinner in honor of his elevation. He remained in office but a short time. During that short period, he left his school, v/as removed from church, lost his own fortune, involved his friends, and was charged with using money that belonged to the ■ government. The pressure for money, inside and out, was too great, and the temptation in which he was j placed too strong for him, and he has passed out of sight. Quite a young man in New York made his fortune in some lucky speculations. He was admitted to be very smart, and was said to be a person of a great deal of manliness and integrity. One of the methods of the street to raise money is to get up bogus stock companies, get a few names well known on the Board, and these are paid, hire money to pay a dividend, throw the stock on the market, and during the ex- citement sell out, and enjoy the ill-gotten gain. The names of the Directors are used to decoy victims. The rousing dividend excites the cupidity of men in haste to be rich. There is a great deal of money on the street waiting to be invested. Stock paying ten or twenty per cent, is very alluring. Money is taken out of the Savings Bank, drawn out of Trust Compa- nies, removed from where it lies safely, drawing a reasonable interest or paying a fair dividend, and put in the new company where dividends are so large. In a few weeks or months the concern is blown to atoms, and mourners go about the streets. The victims are usually those least able to bear the loss. One day, a 46 31* Financial Irregularities. 473 company of persons came into the counting room of the young man referred to above, and offered him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars if he would allow his name to be used as President of a new company about to be started. The conspirators knew that with his name they could sell half a million of stock. As coolly as if they were naming the price of a barrel of oil, he said, "Gentlemen, my name is not worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but if it is, I can't afford to throw it away on a bogus stock company." A man came to the surface not long since as a poli- tician, and was elected to the legislature. For a bribe of twelve hundred dollars he abandoned his party, and was elected to an honorable position. Political influ- ence obtained for him a lucrative berth in the city, and he took his place among the financial men. He became involved in stupendous frauds ; his new style of life opened to him extravagancies and luxuries to which he was before a stranger. His day dream was a short one. In a few months he was an inmate of the penitentiary. Quite a young man appeared on the street as the representative of one of the heaviest New England houses. He boarded at a magnificent hotel, and prided "himself on having the largest cash balance in the bank of any of his associates. The head of the house which he represented in New York, died very suddenly, and it was found that the house itself, sup- posed to be one of the richest in New England, was bankrupt — ruined through the agency, recklessness, and dissipation* of the young representative in New York. That a house so old and honored, holding in 4:7 i Wonders of a Great City. | trust the funds of widows and orphans, should allow itself to be represented by a dissolute young man, with whom no prudent person who knew him would | trust a thousand dollars,, is marvelous. The young j man was notorious in New York for his dissipation, habits of gaming and drinking, loose company, and i rash and daring speculations. He is a type of a large ' class on the street. . A gentleman residing in the suburbs had but little confidence in banks. He kept his securities locked in his safe at home. His son-in-law, doing business ii. New York, came up once a week to spend Sunday. | During one of these visits the keys of the safe myste- riously disappeared. The old merchant was advised by his son-in-law to send the safe to New York to be opened, and he volunteered to take charge of the op- eration. The safe came back with a nicely fitted key. Three months afterwards it was discovered that funds to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars had been abstracted. Nothing could be proved against the son in-law, and to prevent family disgrace, the thing blew over. A few days ago, an extensive com- mission dealer ran away, carrying with him, not only the funds of the house, but a good deal of money be- longing to other people. He proved to be the same shrewd gentleman who furnished the key to his rela- tive's safe. CHAPTER XXXII. THE SAWDUST GAME. HOW PERSONS FROM THE RURAL DISTRICTS WITH A FEW DOLLARS AND AN ALL CONSUMING DESIRE TO BECOME SPEEDILY RICH ARE SHORN — COUNTERFEIT MONEY IN NAME ONLY — AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF BOGUS-CURRENCY SWINDLERS. T has been generally supposed that this ancient I mode of fleecing the lambs had almost died out, in consequence of the attention it had attracted from the Postoffice and other detectives, until the public were startled from this delusive dream by the an- nouncement that the "King Pin" of the fraud had been shot dead in the midst of one of his daring operations, by a Texan, who had evidently come to New York to get satisfaction for the hundreds of dupes who had been the victims of wholesale SAvindles on the part of these nefarious scamps. The mode of proceeding has been so often detailed that it scarcely seems necessary again to repeat the "thrice told tale;" but the recent bloody tragedy in which the principal culprit was shot down in his tracks, shows that the game itself is still very much alive, and that great sums of money are almost daily drawn from the hard-earned wages of people who should know better than to be in any way accessory to the 476 Wonders of a Great City, swindles ; for it hardly need be said that the buyers of counterfeit greenbacks are not a whit less culpable than the rascals who put up such jobs. The opera- tors in the sawdust game contrive to get the address of persons in distant parts of the Union, and send them a circular in which they are confidentially in- formed that the advertiser has come into possession of a large lot of counterfeit notes, that are the per- fection of fraudulent manufacture. In size and color of paper, skillf ulness of engravings, in short in every particular will they pass through the manipulation of experts without being known from the genuine. They even offer to send a $1 or $2 bill for examina- tion and close scrutiny. Occasionally, where they are able to find out that their correspondent is a man of means and some position, they will fill the first small order with real money. Where this is done the avaricious victim swallows the whole decoy, hook, sinker and all. He remits the monfey, and after some delay he receives a carefully enclosed box, shrewdly enveloped and osten- tatiously covered with numerous seals. Upon care- fully removing the wrappings, his astonished eyes either fall upon a lot of carefully packed worthless paper or a quantity of sawdust, which appears about the size and weight that the promised sum in bills might make. The victim is without a remedy. He has only his own word to prove that he ever sent any money to buy the stuff ; or if he had other witnesses, they would also prove that he was an accessory before the fraud, and only cried out when he was himself hurt by the rebound of the ball that he had dis- The Sawdust Game. 4:77 charged. If lie flings good money after bad by coming to tlie city to investigate ; if lie calls at the place to which his remittance was directed, he is probably informed that the person in the room would be very glad to find the swindler himself, as he has not only cheated the countryman, but has cleared out without paying his rent, and that the landlord fears he is a bad fellow, as lots of people call every horn- to report some of his frauds, and he would advise the visitor to report at Police Headquarters, as the authorities would be glad to get some witnesses to the case. But he had better provide himself with bail, or they might lock him up in the House of Detention until the criminal could be found and the trial take place. The victim sadly returns home without giving any additional notoriety to the fact that he has been dabbling in forbid den fruit. Perhaps, as he chews the cud of bitter fancies, he recalls the text, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. " KIKG OF THE SAWDUST SWIITDLEES. A dapper little man stood on the corner of Grand street and the Bowery a few evenings ago. He wore an immaculate white shirt front, from which sparkled a six-carat brilliant of the purest water. A heavy gold watch chain hung from his waistcoat, on which was suspended a large gold horseshoe with seven diamonds representing nail-heads. A large ring en- circled the little finger of his left hand, with an eight- carat stone imbedded in it, which shot out little brilliant prismatic sparks with a snap at every move 478 Wonders of a Great City. of his hand. This little man was none other than Barney Maguire, the king of the sawdust swindlers. He appeared to be more communicative than usual, and did not hesitate to unbosom himself to a friend. " Ten years ago, " he said, " I was working at my trade as a journeyman bricklayer, earning a salary of $3 a day. I don't just now recall what first led me into the ^boodle' business, but I started, as you know. Other people knew it, too, and much to their sorrow. " The little confidence man gave a quiet chuckle, and continued: "And I have been so successful at the sawdust game that $100,000 in cold cash would not touch me to-day. The game has grown so thread- bare and has been exposed so often, however, that I am kept continually studying up some new scheme to rope in the guys. It is not anything like it used to be, I can tell you. Why, I can recollect five years ago when I thought nothing of raking in $5,000 a week, and on several occasions I took in $15,000 in one week. Those were good times. Nowadays if I make $500 or $1,000 I think I am playing in good luck. My expenses are frightfully heavy, too. I've always got fifteen or twenty steerers that must be paid $15 or $20 a man, according to the boodle that he drops. Then there is my turner, who has charge of the layout. He must be paid well, for a good turner is not picked up every day, and then besides I have agents all over the country looking up good subjects to work on. When a man is found who it is suspected will take the bait one of my circulars is sent him. There's nothing in it that could criminate me even if it got into the wrong hands. I don't tell The Sawdust Game, 479 him that I am selling counterfeit money, but simply allude to it as manufactured ^ green stuif' in the denominations of I's, 2's, 5's, lO's and 20's. He generally knows what it means. If he writes back for a sample and I think he means business I cut, for instance, a brand-new good $5 bill in two and send one-half to him. This generally brings him. It has been previously understood between us that upon his arrival in this city he is to telegraph me at what hotel he is stopping and under what name. Then one of my steerers calls at the hotel and steers him to the layout, which is situated either up-stairs or down in a basement with a dark passageway. You will un- derstand the reason for this presently. "When he gets into the layout it's a very rare thing that he leaves it with more than just enough money to take him out of town. When he enters the layout, which has been fixed for his reception, crisp new greenbacks greet his eyes on all sides. The shelves are apparently full of them, and he imagines that barrels are filled with the notes. The packages on the shelves, however, simply have a bank note on the top and bottom. The rest is paper cut the right size. The barrels have false tops. The greenbacks have just been brought from the sub-treasury on Wall street in exchange for old bills. He first advances to the counter, takes up a bill, and in nine cases out of ten takes one from his pocket and compares the two. He could not be other than satisfied. Then he signi- fies how much he wants. He is told he can have $2,000 for $500. The money is counted out by the turner and either done up in a package or placed in a valise. If the guy has on a good stone or a watch 480 Wonders of a Great City, and chain some fabulous sum is oifered for it and placed in with the other money. When the package has been securely sealed something must be done to distract his attention fi*om it. It requires only a sec- ond. As a rule, one of the men from behind him makes some startling remark and he turns his head. The second his head goes around a package is substi- tuted in place of the one the money is in. He is allowed to carry his own package in this case. But he is told that in order to insure us against any treachery on his part he must take the package to the express office and send it to his home. He then must allow one of my men to accompany him to the train and see the train start off with him in it. "Then we are safe. When he arrives home he calls for his package, and very likely locks himself in his room and stuffs the keyhole full of paper before he opens it. When he does open it he finds a package of sawdust or paper, with a generally accompanying note which informs him that the package has been substituted on the road. I've had the same man come back three times for more, thinking that it Avas stolen on the road. If he does find out that we have duped him he can't squeal, for he is as deep in the mire as we are. If a guy's attention in the substituting act cannot be withdrawn from the package one of my men takes it, and in company with the flat starts for the express office. Going through the dark passage- way or down stairs they meet a man. In passing each other the packages are exchanged. It's a regular sleight-of-hand work. But say, I'm talking too long. " The king of sawdust swindlers looked at his hand- some gold watch and walked up the Bowery, CHAPTER XXXm. CONFIDENCE OPERATORS. DEVICES WHICH LINE THE POCKETS OP THE CONFIDING — SOME OF THE NUMBER EXPOSED — PLIN WHITE's REMARKABLE CAREER — PROPERTY OF ORPHANS AND WIDOWS — BOGUS AUCTIONS — SHAM JEWELS AND SUBSCRIPTION LISTS — PETTY SWINDLES — BUNDLE AND POCKET-BOOK GAMES— SHAM INSPECTORS— DUBIOUS BOOKS— HORSE SHARKS. THE ever-dangerous and "fetching" fishery of the confidence game is so dependent on the qualities distinguishing our countrymen that the French police term it "the American steal." Complimentary! It is as old as the ills of humanity.. But every week it has its tens of victims in all large cities. It requires two operators who play into one another's hands, and who would be almost equally master of several tongues, quick as a flash to take a hint from one an- other, and able to read a man's ideas by the play of his features unerringly and instantly. Confidence man A. with his mate within sight, prowls the street or public resort till they observe a likely quarry. They have an infallible eye in seeing real value under bounce, shoddy and Alaska dia- monds. No gulling them with a Mexican dollar at the end of a watch-chain! no "stufi&ng" them that the bulge over the heart is made with a wallet of bank- bills when it is a prayer-book! On some natural ex- 482 Wonders of a Great City. cuses the foremost strikes up an acquaintance. Ten to one, he has been in your town, perhaps for a prolonged stay (in your jail). Anyhow, he will be talking of your Uncle Jake, that ploughed the stones out of the Shoomack forty acres in five minutes, as if they had scooped up mush from the same bowl, when rising three. You will be won over, safe. The next point that is played is for number two to flounder against you. A. does not know B., not a morsel. B. is on the expansive. He has come to town to receive a large sum of money. He shows a wallet full of "flash" bills; his jewelry is spick and span new and looks aldermanic. He is so overjoyed that he wants the continent to stand up and liquor with him; the tw^o hemispheres to dive into his purse, the solar system to live with him for a week Avhen it revolves his side of the river. It is good to meet such refreshing exuberance and wholesale liber- ality. When he settles down to talking of giving away a thousand dollars, A. sort of nudges you, winks, whispers that he thinks "we, us & Co. "ought to profit by this blamed old crankey's whims before he falls into ungentlemanly hands and gets plucked. Does the stranger mean half w^hat he says? B. means the whole! All he is foraging round for is a proper, fit individual or two whose honesty w411 prevent him putting the gift to a bad purpose. As he has no time to test the credentials you and A. are ready to parade he will substitute a single test. "There is nothing like confidence between man and man!" That is the shibboleth, and these fellows do Confidence Operators, 483 not hesitate to trumpet it, though it ought to de- nounce them. You are all three in a drinking place by this time. The keeper may not know these gentry, but he more than half guesses what is hatching. But he will not give you a hint — they never do, his like. It is a good joke, and then the gains will be great to the rum-mill. A. tells you what : He will leave some money with you and your friend, step out for a breather, and if you are both there on his return, and the trust intact, hang it! he will have a better opinion of you. He does so. More drinks. Then B. does the same. Drinks succeed. Then you step out, leaving some greenbacks and jewelry to make up the sum the others seem to have sported. And on your return the spondoolics have disappeared with the pair. The bartender has been counting the flashes of his pin. "He hain't seen when the gentlemen left ; they paid up square; that's all he knows." And the police will say, one that it was "Irish Charley" and "The Lame Fiddler;" another that the description fits Jack, alias "Shuffleboard Jemmy," and his pal, and so on. Upshot, your shot will never be seen again. THE ]S"0T0EI0US PLIN WHITE. The preceding subjects are, however, only the chicken hawks, and sparrow-buzzards of confidence gamesters. Annexed we give a sketch of "i^Zm" White, who may be termed the bald-eagle of his ne- farious craft. When he made a swoop it was gen- erally upon the big piles of very rich men, and he rarely failed of "fetching" all he " went for." 484 Wonders of a Great City. The career of Plymouth or "Plin" White, whose death at the age of sixty has just occurred, was a remarkable one, and deserves to rank with those of the most accomplished and successful rogues of this or any other age. What is most strange about it is that White possessed abilities so considerable that had he employed them in any legitimate enterprise or profession he must have attained distinguished eminence. It is clear that in his case there was an uncontrollable prepossession for evil ; that in fact he was so constituted as to derive more pleasure from the perpetration of a clever swindle than honest men do from the performance of a virtuous action. The men- tal constitution of such a man is an interesting study. "Plin" White w^as intellectually well equipped. He must have possessed all qualities save moral ones in an unusual degree. He had so winning an address, dignified and attractive an appearance, so complete a command of himself and so masterly a power of chicanery, that he actually deceived those who had previously been his victims, and who, it might be supposed, must have been disillusionized as to that particular rascal at least. A more corrupt scoundrel never masqueraded under a form and face which seemed to give assurance of absolute integrity. It has been said that he looked like a venerable clergyman, and his manners were polished and fascinating. The extraordinary force of the man, however, was shown in the magnitude of his robberies and the virtual impunity Avith which he committed them. He is said to have acquired $1,500,- 000 in twenty years by sheer swindling, and in one Confidence Operators. 485 instance his gains amounted to $400,000. Yet though his notoriety was world-wide, he was able, on the few occasions when he found himself in custody, to cajole, and sometimes even to rob, the very officers who had him in charge. In a most amazing case of this kind was that in which he not only persuaded a New York sheriff to give him his liberty, but lured $20,- 000 from the pockets of the officer he had thus hood- winked. So confident was he of his personal mag- netism that he did not hesitate to approach, with fresh deceptions, men who had already been fleeced by him, and in more than one instance his confidence was justified by the event. No doubt he had made a close study of the law with a view to circumventing it. He was too far- sighted to take needless risks, and his judgment as to the outcome of his nefarious plans was seldom at fault. Had such a man, so variously and highly gifted, been on the side of right, he would have proved most useful to his generation. But there was a hopeless twist in his character. He evidently had no moral sensibility, no conscience whatever. When he had driven his partner to suicide by his scoundrel- ism he merely slipped away to Europe, and there en- joyed himself calmly until he thought the affair had been forgotten, when he returned to his crooked ad- ventures as coolly and deliberately as ever. He probably never had a moment of remorse. He ruined scores of people, and left misery and suffering behind him wherever he went. He acted toward women with the same absolute indifference to any moral standard that characterized his intercourse with men. A more 486 Wonders of a Great City, thorougUy dangerous man, in fact, never infested society. Beside so cold-blooded and accomplished a villain tlie ordinary criminal — even the worst type of the frontier desperado — appears comparatively in- nocent. It is fortunate for the world that there are not many men of the "Plin" White stamp. THE FUENITUKE DODGE. The various forms which the petty swindles of the metropolis assume present an interesting subject for study. There, for instance, is the so-called furniture swindle. Not long ago an indignant lady appeared at a prominent furniture warehouse and demanded to know why a certain bed-room set, which she had selected and paid for two days before, had not been sent to her house. She produced a receipt, written on blank paper and signed with the scrawling initials salesmen in large establishments usually affect. The sum receipted for was only about two-thirds of what the furniture in question was really held at. She had entered the establishment, and been greeted by a polite gentleman just inside of the door. The stranger had accompanied her around, pointing out desirable bargains and naming such low prices that she had felt sorry that she had not money enough to buy the entire store out. She finally pitched on one set and paid for it. The polite stranger scrawled her a receipt, took her address and saw her to a car. After waiting for her purchase to be sent to her until she got tired, she set out to make inquiries about it. The salesmen of the establishment were passed in review before her, but she had failed to identify any Confidence Operators. 487 of them as her particular one. It then became evi- dent that she had been the victim of a clever outside swindler, and very little inquiry demonstrated that she was not alone in her misfortune. The same ingenious knave had made his appearance at at least five other establishments,, with similar results. He must have been conversant with the business, for in all cases he selected warehouses where a number of salesmen are employed, and where the appearance of a stranger among them would not arouse suspicion, as he would be supposed to be a new clerk. "It is really an old trick revived," said one of the furniture men, " and years ago was played frequently and with great success. Before the war furniture stores and cabinet ware-rooms used to be left open to the public, and people came in and went unattended. If they wanted to buy anything they had to call for a salesman by ringing one of the hand-bells scattered about. The swindlers found it easy to work under those circumstances, and they went at it with such boldness that the present system of employing many salesmen and keeping them constantly on the watch had to be introduced. Now the game can never be played twice in the same place. " MOCK AUCTIONS. Another old swindle which is being revived, with much of the ancient success, is the mock auction. When the newspapers and the law combined some years ago to stamp mock auctions out, they were one of the most lucrative forms which the swindlers of the city assumed. A mock auctioneer was a sort of I 488 Wonders of a Great City. pirate chief, with a crew devoted to him, and tl public to foray on. His craft generally sailed undc some such seductive name as "The Original Orego Cheap Jack," "Grandfather Whitehead's Cabinet and the like. One in Chatham Square bore the aj propriate title of "The Golden Fleece," the publi supplying the lambs. In those old days mock au( tions were far from being petty swindles. But at present they are, though they are outgiw ing that condition fast. A year or so ago one wa opened in Chatham street, near Worth. It was i dingy little shop, haunted by ill-looking men, clad ii the height of Five Points' elegance, over whom £ one-eyed Jew presided as auctioneer. The windo'v^ presented a tempting array of a very fair order picked up at pawnbrokers' sales. A flag over the door announced that a "magnificent! . bankrupt stock of watches, jcAvelry and silverware" was to be disposed of by peremptory sale to-day. ^ To-day means every day, for the flag flapped there till it rotted from its staff. The business done at this place was at times quite lively. When one of the scouts announced the ap- proach of an eligible victim, in the person of some green Jerseyman or clean magnate from the Sound, the one-eyed auctioneer would start off at a gallop, ' ripping out a wild shriek to arrest the attention of the victim as he passed the store. The display in the window and the announcement on the flag would lure him in, and he was either a very fortunate or a very wise man if he left the place as rich as he entered it. Really good Avatches and jewelry would be put up Confidence Operators. 489 for sale, bid for, disposed of at reasonable prices, and deftly exchanged for others which would have been dear at the price of old brass. Now there are no end of mock auction rooms on the east and w^est sides ; in all of them the nefarious business is carried on in the same lawless style that induced their suppression ten years ago. There are the same suspicious-looking bogus bidders, the same genteel loungers who raise a bid now and then, and the same voluble auctioneer, gorged with cheap witti- cisms and smutty jokes, which he discharges as the occasion seems propitious. The business has not yet assumed the alarming proportions it once attained to, but it is growing, and cannot fail soon to attract the attention of the police, now that their notice is directed to it. Other forms of mock auctions are those of pictures, pianos, furniture and cigars. Mock auctions of pic- tm-es are always held in stores which happen to be ' temporarily vacant, and w^hich are rented for the brief period the swindler requires for his work. As soon as he sells his stock out he decamps, to avoid the inevitable meeting wdth some duped customer. In no case is a picture offered for sale at one of these auctions worth the canvas, or, rather, oilcloth i which it is painted on, for the majority of them are ' smeared on the cheapest sort of carriage covering. They are used to sell the frames, which are manu. factured in factories in large quantities, gilded with Dutch metal, by contract, and sold in a hurry, as a few rainy days in a storeroom turn their golden glory 1 to verdigris. Cappers or bogus bidders are used in 490 Wonders of a Great City. this as in every form of mock auction, and the vilest daubs, in the most vrorthless frames, sometimes bring as much as $200 and even $300 by judicious and cunning running up. In the piano and furniture auctions good dummy or sample articles are exhibited, and comparatively valueless ones of similar appearance foisted upon the purchaser in their place. There are firms here who make a business of manufacturing such articles. Piano auctions are usually held in temporarily unteu- ; anted warerooms, which have been used by reputable 1 dealers in new and second-hand pianos. Furniture sales are conducted in houses leased for the purpose. Cigar auctions are held in all sorts of queer corners : of the city, wherever the auctioneer can get hold of a place to operate in. The weeds they dispose of j w^ould be rejected by a Chinese vendor with a corner j cigar stand in Baxter street. Many of them are ! actually made of the Manilla paper used for wrap- ping purposes in cheap groceries. The paper is stained i brown and run through a machine, which imparts to j it the veining of real tobacco leaf, and the filling is of chopped stems and discarded cuttings, which even the lowest tenement house cigarmakers can find no | use for. ] One of the most flagrant of the minor swindles of i the metropolis is that which fishes for its victims j with the seductive bait of a "business opportunity." The extent to which it is carried, and the success Avhich ^ attends it, are almost incredible. It usually employs j two people. One is a man who has an ofiice in a | reputable neighborhood, and the other a plausible \ Confidence Operators, 491 "beat. " The first f urnislies the capital for the adver- tisements and the theatre of operations, and also endorses the respectability of his associate. This worthy usually has a patent to develop, which re- quires a little money to start; a dramatic company to put on the road for an out of town tour, or some small manufacturing business to establish. He only requires a couple of hundred dollars for his purpose, ' and his dupe is to be the treasurer or cashier of the concern. If the latter agrees, the drain on his purse is begun at once. There are bills to be paid, and purchases to be made, all of which are conducted in due form. The victim is soon tired out and his purse exhausted, and the swindler has the one excuse, "Well, your capital wasn't big enough. If you could pay in a couple of hundred more now we'd be all right." There is no redress. The plundered man has paid no money directly to his plunderer, though the latter has received his share of every dollar. People who advertise pawn tickets for sale are generally frauds. The tickets are in many cases sup- plied by pawn-brokers to any one who may apply for them with sufficient interest to enjoy their confidence. They are all for such redeemed pledges as would not pay the expense of sale. The advertiser sells the tickets for a mere song. The purchaser, if he is suspicious, may not be willing to buy the ticket with- out seeing the article it represents. In that case he is taken to the pawnbroker, to whom he pays twenty- five cents for the privilege of examination. This examination invariably leads to rejection. In that case the ticket-swindler gets half of the search money. 492 Wonders of a Great City, Women are the chief practicers of this swindle, and it is so extensive a one to-day that there are cer- tain pawnshops in this city which have their regular tools, and do more business with bogus tickets than in the real traffic for which they are licensed. Really honest people who desire to sell pawn tickets can alw^ays find purchasers for them in the proprietors of the many "old curiosity shops" scattered all over the city. These speculators make a business of re- deeming useful articles from pawn and selling them at a moderate profit on their outlay. There is a class of female swindlers who advertise as housekeepers. These are almost always of the lowest order of confidence women. They have an associate of the other sex, and occupy furnished rooms of which their tenancy is a fleeting one. If their advertisement secures an answer they induce the re- spondent to call, and engage him in conversation, in the middle of which the male associate enters. The woman at once accuses her caller of improprieties, her husband (?) resents them, and the dupe is glad to pay for his escape, unless he happens to know enough of life to be aware that his swindlers dare not tempt publicity and are only trying to blulf him. Often a case of this style of blackmail comes before our courts in the course of a year, but victims con- tinue to make it profitable for this style of fraud to pay the papers for advertising them. Matrimonial advertisements, on the part of both male and female, are usually inserted for the purpose of inducing a correspondence, which the advertiser may utilize for the purpose of extorting blackmail. Confidence Opera tors, 493 BEGGING LETTER FRAUDS. The begging-letter fraud has come to be a peculiar figure among our local petty swindlers. He, or she, is of English origin, where that style of swindler has flourished for more than a century, in spite of the vigorous pens of Fielding and Dickens, both of which great authors loved to lay bare their shameless frau- dulency, and the merciless administration of the laws against medicancy. There is as regularly or- ganized a body of begging-letter writers in this city as there is in London. The members comprise both sexes, and are generally people of more than average education and intelligence. Their assurance not only borders but overreaches on the incredible. They write to everybody whom they think likely to assist them, or who has, in fact, any money at all, without the slightest excuse or claim upon their charity. The late Commodore Vanderbilt was flooded with letters from them. His son's daily correspondence always contained similar communications. In the same way all our leading merchants, bankers, and rich men gen- erally, are applied to constantly by these infamous beggars; and well-known divines, like Dr. Deems, the Rev. Morgan Dix, and others, are constantly plied with demands for charity from people whose only desire it is to live without working for it. The professional writers of begging-letters are un-. doubtedly the most depraved, worthless and utterly shameful of the petty swindlers who prey upon the city. They are people whose education and natural gifts render it easy for them to earn honest livings. 494 Wonders of a Gee at City. I Yet they pervert them to the vilest purposes. They are rank hypocrites, using the most revolting profes- sions of piety to back their demands. The money they extract from the loose purses of foolish philan- thropists invariably goes for purposes of debauchery. As a local paper once said : "They are the foulest and nastiest of all the foul and nasty birds which subsist, buzzard-like, on the ofial of the town. Whining, despicable hounds, com- pared with whom a sneak thief is a gentleman. " Yet these sanctimonious miscreants find dupes who possibly weep over the woes they offer as excuses for their appeals, and who certainly contribute con- stantly to their support. As a class, the begging-letter writers live well. Some years ago, when the officials of St. John's Guild began to investigate the cases of distress in New York, they found many of these wretches inhabiting elegant apartments, enjoying the comforts and even the luxuries of life, purchased with money wasted on them by silly charity, while scores of the deserving poor were actually dying, like murrained sheep, for lack of sufficient food. The vigorous press denun- ciation that followed the exposure of the Guild dealt the vile business quite a blow ; but it soon recovered itself, and is now, if anything, more flourishing than ever. There is one family, consisting of a mother and three daughters, who occupy an up-town flat, dress in the newest fashion and are familiar to theatre and concert-goers, who have no other means of subsistence than that Avhich they wheedle out of the world by begging letters. Confidence Operators. 495 Another swindler in the same line is a greasy old scoundrel who frequents a well known chop-house up- town, and can frequently be seen writing his letters there. But perhaps the rankest rascal of all is a fel low who affects the society of actors, and can be seen daily in Union Square, spending in groggeries there the charity his mendicant talent has procured for him. BOGUS SMUGGLEES. A familiar fraud on the New York public is that perpetrated by the bogus smugglers. This typical "beat" is in all cases a jovial personage in a blue flan« nel suit. His favorite hunting ground is in down town offices, where cunning clerks yearn for bargains. He blasts his binnacle, shivers his timbers and swears other strange sea oaths after the most approved style, chews tobacco like hay, walks with a rolling gait and is always redolent of rum. But somehow or other he never looks, to the initiated, like what schoolboys would call a " real sailor. " He tells in a mysterious whisper of how he was steward or "bo'son" or some other rollicking functionary on a sea-going craft, and how, by virtue of his position, he enjoys enviable op- portunities to introduce rare and valuable commodi- ties into the country. These commodities he now has for sale at advantageously low prices, provided his patrons will not "split" on him. They usually con- sist of India shawls, bolts of the best English broad- cloth, boxes of rare cigars, or bottles of bay rum, and command a ready sale. The shawls are the best Paisley, the cloth always turns out to be pure shoddy, the cigars clear cabbage, and the bay rum a bad mixture. 496 Wonders of a Great City. These worthies are in the market to-day, and thriv- ing as of yore. One evening the writer came upon a party of them in a beer saloon on Third avenue, near Twenty -third street, which he learned is their favor- ite resort. He learned, furthermore, that they are a gregarious lot, working in pleasant amity, and meet- ing every night to discuss the swindles of the day. They were at latest accounts " working a lay" as they technically express it, in the sale of Havana cigarettes and foreign cordials, both of which have their origin in New York. Their business is a highly profitable one. The wares they retail cost next to nothing, and the prices they obtain for them, though they would be ridiculously low if the articles were genuine and imported, are still higher than the dupes would have to pay for excellent domestic ones purchased in a re- gular way. But they pay for the romance of buying illegal wares, and eventually discover that the whistle is a costly one. A singularly ingenious crop of very small swindles has been developed by the recent hard times. There are men, for instance, who are in the habit of riding next to the Slawson box in a bobtail car, and accom- modatingly putting the fares of other passengers in for them. There is not one of the bobtail lines which does not preserve at least thousands of bad nickels as souvenirs of this game. The Broadway stage lines encountered an equally novel swindle on their vehicles. They sold tickets, by the dollar's worth, at a discount of nearly fifty per cent. Men purchased packages at that rate, and took their places next the fare boxes in the stages. Whenever a passenger permitted it Confidence Operators. 497 they took his money and calmh^ pouched it, dropping one of their tickets into the box instead. One who was arrested acknowledged to a gain of from $1.50 to $4 a day by this means, " according to his luck, " as he expressed it. BUNDLE AND POCKET-BOOK GAMES. The "bundle beat" is another character of city crime. His method of procedure is simplicity itself. He is always decently dressed, w^ith the appearance of a light porter at a dry goods store, and travels with his arm full of bundles. His first business is to learn the p€rso7iale of any quiet street where private dwelling's of the middle class abound. Then he rin^rs at a door and delivers one of the bundles, v/ith the information that Mr. Blodger, who lives there, bought such and such articles, and as he was short of money desired them to be sent home and paid for there. If Mr. Blodger happens to be home and to be the phys- ical equal of the " bundle beat, " that person generally has a rough time of it. But if he is out, as the swindler usually makes sure he is, his wife or land- lady accepts the trust unhesitatingly and pays the required sum, which is always kept small to allay suspicion. The bundle, of course, is worthless. The pocket-book dropping games, and the various other confidence operations by which verdant visitors to the city are constantly gulled, have been too fre- quently described to call for dissection here. There is a shameful swindle by which poor men, alone, are the sufferers, which makes its appearance with great regularity. This is the registry office swindle. 498 Wonders of a Great Oity. The originator of tliis device was one Henry Acklin, an Englishman, who had graduated at petty swindling in the London police courts. His system was beauti- fully simple, and is that followed by his many imita- tors, who crop out from time to time, and pursue a prosperous career until some victim invokes the law for their suppression. The operator advertises in several of the leading daily journals the establish- ment of a registry office for procuring situations for clerks, bookkeepers, salesmen, porters, etc., and an- nounces that he has positions ready for a number of each class. On applying to this philanthropist, the seeker after employment finds that a so-called registry fee of two dollars is demanded, and if he is green enough pays it, when his name is entered with much formality upon the books. It is hardly necessary to add that this is the end of it, so far as any situation is concerned. He is told to call again, and may keep on doing so for half a generation without getting any satisfaction — that is, if the office doesn't close before the next rent day comes around, which is likely to be the case. SHAM INSPECTOES. Not long ago the discovery was made that a man in Fulton street had for a long time been driving a thriving trade by the manufacture of bogus police, fire and other badges. Among his stock were found excellent counterfeits of the badges provided for In- spectors of Weights and Measures. Fraudulent officials of this class have long ranked among the petty swindlers of New York, assisted by these imita- Confidence Operators. 499 tions of the insignia worn by the duly authorized in- cumbents of the positions. In the course of his cruise in search of petty swindles the writer encountered a curious case in point. I It was a corner grocery in Essex street, into which the swindle seeker had stepped to lave his parched throat with a draught of the lager retailed in the back room. An individual in a dingy and baggy blue flannel suit, under whose lappel glittered a badge as big as a sauce-pan lid, occupied the front of the counter. An excited German stood behind it. He was in that state of frenzy that he might have been i talking Zulu as well as any other known language. More by inference than anything else, the reporter I gleaned the knowledge that the man with the badge was an inspector of weights and measures, and that j the German was very angry with him indeed. "I Avon't pay one cent," he vociferated; "I paid one of you chaps two dollars yesterday, I tell you. " "Then you was stuck," said the inspector, calmly picking a herring from a box and commenced to nib- ble it." "I was stuck?" "You was bilked, beat, fooled, you know. " ''How is that?" "Because that feller yesterday was a fraud. " "That is what they all say. He told me that the fellow before him was a fraud. " "Well, maybe he was." "Then what one of you is not a fraud?" "I ain't one. Can't you see that by my badge?" The grocer clasped his hands and rolled his eyes 500 Wonders of a Great City. appealingly. ''AcTi Gott!'" he growled. "They all have badges. " Some further parley followed, when the grocer handed the man wdth the badge a couple of half dol- lars and the latter retired with graceful haste. The host had hardly drawn the reporter's beer w^hen an- other man with a badge, in company with a police- man, entered. "I say," he asked, "wasn't there a feller here a minute ago w^ho said he was an inspector?" The grocer gasped an affirmative. "Did you notice which way he went?" "That way." "Then we've got him, the blaggard!" exclaimed the policeman. "He'll stop at the next store, and I'll have him. " And he shot out, w^hile his companion turned to the grocer and said, jauntily : "Well, you might as well trot out them weights now. " "What!" "Show up the weights. I want to inspect 'em, you know. " A gleam of lurid desperation flashed in the grocer's eye. "Oh! you vant to inspect 'em, do you ?" he said hoarsely; "veil, begin right avay. " And he hurled a three-pound dish at the inspector's head. The latter dodged it, when a fusilade of small weights began to rattle among the soap and candle boxes behind him. When the writer left by the back door the grocer's ammunition was exhausted, the genuine inspector had fled, and a file of boys were Confidence Opera tors. 501 making short work of the watermelons in front of the door. PROPEKTY OF ORPHANS AND WIDOWS. Advertisements will be met in which a widow or reduced lady, alone in the world, wishes to dispose of a piano, organ, jewelry, etc. "No agents or brokers need apply. " Little fear of that. Agents and brokers smell the mice at the first line. The scheme is profit- able, nevertheless. The woman is a smart actress. She has a smooth tale of distress, of reluctance to part with the watch her dear departed wore, the har- monium he played upon — the present given him by the Grand Duke in transitu. And when she sells the object, and sees you leave with the parcel, she will pull another from the back room into its place and send around to the newspaper office to "repeat" that "ad" with all that happy ease and knowledge of the value of time for want of seeing which man re- proaches her sex! She has discovered, this meek creature in cr^pe^ that crocodile tears are very like pearls of price. The piano will have a plate attached which never was legitimately affixed by its maker, the fur coat will thaw before winter and evaporate in moths, the gold watch made by Nodoham to order, "regardless," will turn out such as no Nodoham's journeyman should have turned out. You will be done brown. BOGUS SUBSCRIPTIONS. On the occasion of an unexampled calamity or re- joicing, for any sheep yields wool to the disreputable, beware of the self-instituted collector of subscrip- 502 Wonders of a Great City. tioiLS. In a small way, lie will take off liis liat in a crowd and take it round, and render as little account of the harvest as possible. In a more elaborate J style, he is furnished with a lot of subscriptions, and goes to the houses and stores which he and his frater. nity have "spotted" as being bone {hono^ good, "soft to work"). Yon educated and cunning man has ; prepared the scroll ; you may easily be deceived but I for this warning. Generals, ex-mayors, captains, reverends — the names look genuine ; but in no case pay and sign then and there. Seize the paper, and i announce your intention to accompany the collector to the house of the nearest neighbor inscribed. An honest man will gladly embrace the chance of having • more for the fund by your natural remorse at having unjustly suspected. But have little fear of this ; the i man will take to his heels or vanish somehow under cover of a quite malapropos outburst of fury. THE PALMER-OFF OF SHAM JEWELS. Some time you w^U be strolling the streets (more often at dusk than in the day will this adventure hap- I pen), when a man will approach you or warily over- take you. Instead of trying to lure you by affected candor and bluntness, he will be thick-laid with mystery, glances askant, timorousness, and he attunes his voice to a hoarse whisper. He shows an object in his half-closed hand so that you only can see it, , and that imperfectly. He says that he is a poor man, has had no work, no food, no home, but up to noAV has clung to this last memorial of his better days; the pawnbroker's certificate of his father's Confidence Opera tors. 503 watch, motlier's brooch, golden-haired sister's locket — what you will, and you may have it at your own price. Send him about his business, if you have no time to prosecute him for swindling. The pawn card is either an obsolete one or a new one altered in amount or description of article, or even got up by arangement with the pawnbroker, who pretends to have lent the sum on the face. When this cheat turns to another branch of this "lay," he offers trinkets, foreign coins, or any peculiar articles of which the value is not generally known or imaginable, being gilt for the occasion ; he then speaks a smattering of a foreign tongue more or less suitable to the object in question ; or he may pretend perfect ignorance of the value of the thing which he has found, and which "a gentleman like you" can take to a jeweler's in the morning and have it tested, which he cannot do. "The same rogue will array himself as a seaman and, finding a loiterer, show French gloves, fans, silks, or any apparently fine and fancy goods, which he hints a mate of his on some long voyage steamer has smuggled. The articles will be found on proper inspection to be remnants, job lots, brushed up for this twilight sale. With confederates, he "works the dropped pocket- book dodge," which is detailed under the head of "Confidence Men." "queer" pictures and dubious books. Since the Comstock laws upon bad and detestable publications, they prowl about the saloons near thea- 504 Wonders of a Great City. tres, in concert halls by the bars, and at Sunday out- door resorts men, commonly pimply-faced, shirt, collarless and tremulous, who either corner you and expose a more or less horrible photograph or picture without a word, or venture to oifer a book with a suggestive title of double meaning. In most cases it is (so to say) to their credit (?) that they do not sell the book or print or even anything injurious to morality, though the victim believes, after paying a stiff price, that he has secured the forbidden fruit. With slight of hand he has been deceived at some stage of the transfer. Either the plates have been whipped invisibly out of the book in which they were ap- parently firmly secure, or quite another volume is pasted into a wrapper in its stead. Of course the deluder counts upon the double protection of his prey, neither wishing to reveal his gullibility nor his desire to possess an outlawed work. MINOR FRAUDS. False ticket sellers infest the whai'ves and railroad depots. They appeal to the desire of men a little short or too fond of money by offering them tickets to their would-be destination "on the cheap." They begin their proceedings by sidling up and studying ! the tim#-table alongside you and launching some en- tangling phrase. They prefer to get you to conclude i the purchase of the ticket which a friend cannot use (wife ill, child to be buried, obliged to stay another week to collect some bills — these city men bl-t-d bad j pay, ain't they now? etc.) in a neighboring saloon. If you do not drink freely, they will sell you the ticket 4 Confidence Operators. 505 such as it is. However "straight" it may look on the face of it, its face is false as theirs, and you may even fall into trouble on the line for attempting a fraud on the company. Besides, in giving change, these pests are likely to substitute counterfeits for your greenbacks. If you have made the acquaintance of an agreeable stranger, and in the cordial chat let out your notoriety in your parts for some game of skill, look out! before many minutes you too will meet, by hazard, a friend of your new friend, who will be bantered into matching you at your favorite sport. Your friend A. will whisper you that he is "puffing" the other fellow to get him "on," so you can beat him thoroughly. You will then go and play. You may be let win freely at the commencement; but, when you are hot at it, the bungling B. will gradually throw off his mask, and leave you, metaphorically, a "busted biler," while he walks off with A. and your stake. NEW YORK HOESE SHAEKS. Napoleon Bonaparte Sinclair, a veteran stevedore, is a little old man and dresses like a farmer. If there is anything he particularly prides himself on it is his knowledge of live stock and his ability to "size up" a bit of horseflesh at sight. Eecently Mr. Sinclair's interest in that sort of thing took him up to the American horse exchange at Fiftieth street to attend the cattle sale. While he was looking around a gen- tleman of pleasing manners got to chatting with him about stock. The gentleman said he was Mr. « 506 Wonders of a Great City. Wheeler, and that he represented Mrs. Morgan, of West Sixty-fifth street. He said Mrs. Morgan was going to sail for Europe on Monday, and had a fine Jersey cow and calf which she was anxious to put out on some responsible farmer's place during her absence. Did Mr. Sinclair happen to know anyone who would take care of the cow and calf ? Why, yes ; Mr. Sinclair thought he could accommodate the lady on his ow^n farm in Westchester county. That would just suit Mrs. Morgan, Mr. Wheeler said, and he seemed delighted at the idea. Would Mr. Sinclair step up to the stable and take a look at the cow and calf ? Why, certainly ; Mr. Sinclair would be glad to go. So he and Mr. Wheeler strolled up-cown. At the stable Mr. Sinclair saAv the Jersey and her pretty little offspring, and promptly made arrange- ments to board them for the summer, Mr. Wheeler offering liberal terms. • Mr. Sinclair was pleased with the cordial way Mr. Wheeler treated him. Just be- fore he started to come away Mr. Wheeler showed him a fine sorrel mare in one stall of the stable, which he said Mrs. Morgan had advertised for sale. "Pretty j)iece of horseflesh, eh?" said Mr. Wheeler, and then to the hostler : "John, bring her out and let the gentleman see how she moves. I know you're a judge of a good horse when you clap your eyes on one, Mr. Sinclair." The veteran stevedore beamed all over at this flat- tering unction. He acknowledged that he did know a thing or two about horseflesh, and he examined the sorrel mare with the critical eye of a coimoisseur. "A mighty tidy beast she is," he vouchsafed approv- ingly, "neat and trim as a clipper yacht." Confidence Operators. 507 At this point there was a caller in response to Mrs. Morgan's "ad." Mr. Wheeler excused himself from Mr. Sinclair for a moment and brought in the stranger, who examined the sorrel mare closely. "I'll take her for $350," he said at length. "All right," replied Mr. Wheeler, after debating the matter a few minutes. "What's the name, please ? " Mr. Sinclair doesn't remember what name the stranger gave, but Mr. Wheeler at once said: "Oh, that makes a difference. I can't sell the mare to you, sir." "Why not?" "Because you keep a livery stable. Mrs. Morgan particularly instructed me not to sell the mare,which had been her pet, to anyone who would not give the mare the best care and attention. Mrs. Morgan would not think of letting her old favorite go into a livery stable. The stranger was greatly put out at this statement, and Mr. Wheeler was extremely sorry. Finally be- tween them Mr. Sinclair's name was suggested, and it was proposed that Mr. Wheeler let the stevedore have the mare for $300, and then the livery man could buy her back for $350. That just tickled old Mr. Sinclair so that he could hardly stand still. But he did, and shrewdly dissimulated a reluctance to go into the deal. Finally he was persuaded, however, and at once drew a check for $300 to Mr. Wheeler. It was understood by the stranger that Mr. Sinclair would turn over the sorrel mare when the livery man called on him the following morning with a $350 508 WONDEBS OF A GrEAT CiTY. check, the mare meanwhile remaining in Mrs. Mor- ' gan's stable. "But if that liveryman thinks he is going to get the mare he will find that he is mightily mistaken when he calls," said Mr. Sinclair, with a chuckle, "I'm just going to keep her myself. She is a beauty, and I got her at a slick bargain. " Later in the evening some friend of the veteran ! stevedore gave him a pointer. "Do you know this j fellow Wheeler?" asked the friend. "No." "Then ' you're ^done' for $300 as sure as you're a day old." The old "horse-trader fake" was explained to Mr. Sinclair, and he rushed around to his bank to stop . payment on the $300 check. He arrived a few min- j utes too late. When he visited Wheeler the latter pretended not to know him, and by a dozen witnesses proved that he had been out of town all day. The beautiful mare was also missing. The "^sucker" w^as finally j^ersuaded to take a hundred and fifty dollars and try to forget the transaction. The New York horse sharks do a rushing business. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE CRIMINAL CLASS. STATISTICS OF THE PIRATE ELEMENT OF THE METROPOLIS — PROFES- SIONAL THIEVES AND THEIR METHODS OP MAKING A TURN — THE BANK BURGLAR — THIEVES AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE MODERN VIDOCQ's — NIGHT HACKMEN WHO ROB THEIR FARES— REFORMATION OUT OF THE QUESTION — IN A DEN OF THIEVES. EEE a poll of New York taken it is highly probable tliat ten thousand members of the criminal class would be found. It would be a difficult matter to catalogue the different degrees and operatives successfully. Only one man has been bold enough to attempt such a task. He is Inspector Byrnes and his extensive acquaintance enabled him to write a book which has proved the terror of all evil doers, so faithful is it in every detail from picture to wood painting. Thieves, burglars, river and sneak thieves, pickpockets and "fences" — receivers of stolen property, comprise a majority of the class. The remainder are swindlers, blackmailers and lot- tery men. Robbery is the principal form of crime, no matter its degree and whatever the outcome or the method employed the original incentive was rob- bery. Recently ex-Police Superintendent "Walling, thus described the thieves of this city : 510 Wonders of a Great City, "New York thieves are of tAvo sorts — those who steal only when they are tempted by want, or when an unusual opportunity for thieving is thrown in their way, and those who make a regular business of steal- ing. A professional thief ranks among his fellows according to his ability. Many professional thieves | are burglars. They drink to excess, and commit so j many blunders that they are easily detected by the police. They gamble a great deal. When successful i they quarrel over their booty, and often betray each other. A smart thief seldom drinks, and never allows himself to get under the influence of liquor. He takes care to keep himself in the best physical trim ; and is always ready for a long run when pur- sued, or a desperate struggle when cornered. He must always have his wits about him. A thief of this class makes a successful bank robber, forger or con- fidence swindler. Professional thieves seldom have any home. Many of them find temporary shelter in a dull season in houses of ill -repute. They associate with, and are often married to, disreputable women, many of whom are also thieves. The smartest thieves do not have homes, for the reason that they dare not remain long in one place for fear of arrest. During the summer, New York thieves are to be found at all the watering places and seaside resorts. Later in the season they attend the country fairs and agiicultural shows, and come back to the city at the beginning of the winter. They are fond of political meetings in Jersey City and other places near New York, but do not appear at such meetings in this city. They are classed as burglars, bank sneaks, damper sneaks, The Criminal Class, 511 safe-blowers, safe-bursters, sneak thieves, confidence men and pickpockets. A burglar seldom attempts the part of a sneak thief, and a pickpocket will seldom undertake a burglary. HOW THEY OPERATE. The burglar is the recognized high man of the criminal class, and boasts that he differs from a mere thief owing to his possession of brains to plan and nerve to execute. The biggest game to a burglar is a bank. When a burglar concludes to "crack" a bank he usually calls a safe burster or blower to his assistance. He may in order to get acquainted with the bank open a small account with it and thus care- fully observe its interior arrangement. He obtains a room in the building if possible, and with his confed- erate cuts through the floor or wall, as the case may be. Once within the bank, the safe blower goes to work. He drills holes around the lock of the safe, charges them with gunpowder, wra]3S the safe in a blanket to deaden the noise of the explosion and the rest is easy. When a safe is not blown up it is broken by the burster. He drills holes in the door around the lock, inserts minature jack screws and bursts the lock in a few minutes. The bank sneak watches his chance at the counter to snatch bonds or currency. If he secures the former he usually obtains a reward for them with no questions asked. The sneak thieves are the lowest of the professional thieves. They confine their operations to dwellings and stores in the main. The most impudent of the sneak thieves, whose 512 Wonders of a Great City. line is to steal clothes from passages in dwellings, hotels, and business places, do not fear to follow into a house any resident who has admitted himself with a latchkey. In many cases, as they conjecture, this is a boarder or lodger, who, naturally conceiving that the man has some call there, goes on his way up-stairs or into a room, leaving the other to summon the servant. Instead of that, the sneak dons an overcoat, seizes an umbrella or cane, exchanges his hat for a better one, and departs. Again, to have a moment at the clothes-rack alone, he Avill boldly ring or knock, send the servant to her master or mistress with a plausible message or to ask after an imaginary per- son whom he assures her lived there formerly. He has been known to change his hat or coat for one on the pegs, and await the girl's return, trusting to keep her in talk while he makes off without her perceiving the substitution. The lower grade of pickpockets run risks by at- tempting to rob those who perliaps have no great amount of money on their person. The tip-toppers study their game closer and at length. They follow a likely "soft thing" to a bank, see what he receives and where he puts it, and dog him about for hours till the favorable moment comes. They will extract the contents of a stolen pocketbook and replace the book, if needed to prevent suspicion arising whilst they leave the place. There is no better way to baffle them than to divide money into several pockets, to button up when going through a crowd, and have a loop in your watch-pocket, through which the watch will not pass, though the chain moves freely. One The Criminal Class. 513 should not let two or three women, under pretence to have a treat, surround and hustle him on coming out of the club, a ball or a theater. They are not amor- ous, they are not smitten ; they are pickpockets, and one will lose by their familiarities. The vagrant who started up like magic to hold the door open for one's descent or entrance, to offer to carry a carpet-bag, to sell matches — he often uses his offer of services merely to get near you and steal a locket, under cover of one ragged arm, or a newspaper, or whatever else he may affect to sell. The river thieves operate in gangs of three or four. With boats they row about the wharves and shipping, stealing what they may. Three river pirates will go through a vessel in a jiffy. If detected, they try to escape by pleading a mistake. If their plea is not accepted, then desperate resistance to capture is made. The "fence" is the man who purchases the property stolen by thieves. He is always on the alert, and is seldom caught making a bargain with a stranger. A fence usually conducts a second-hand store or a pawnshop. THIEVES KNJ) POLICE. Nothing better illustrates the relationship between criminals and the police than the curious features of police work. Whether there are not any such detec- tives as Vidocq is a question, but there is no question that the conditions under which our Vidocqs work are wholly different from the conditions that gave the great Frenchman a chance to display his ability. No longer is it the case that the head of a detective 514 Wonders of a Great City, force upon being confronted with a mysterious crime picks out a man in his command and says: "Kobin- son, here is a penknife and a pair of rubbers left by a mysterious murderer; take them and track him down." That was the old way (it still is in the country), and a man had to be a Vidocq to do the work. Persons nowadays who think the romantic detective work of fiction, and the stage are like the work of to-day marvel greatly when they see a stupid- looking, coarse, clumsy fellow, such as some New York detectives are, and say to themselves: "Is it possible that such a man can play as many parts as a great actor and possesses a mind boch broad and subtle, capable of Vidocq's work Nonsense ! No. It is only once in a while that such a genius is needed, and then if he is not at hand we get along without him and add another crime to the list of mysteries, a la Burdell, a la Nathan, a la Ross, and a la Stewart's body. The basis of detective work now is the acquaintance of detectives with criminals. Every such fine-tooth combing as this one just finished enlarges that ac. quaint ance and makes it deej^er. It's frightfully dull and prosaic, but it's found to be practical and reasonably efiicient. For instance, we have a large force here in town, under Inspector Byrnes and Su- perintendent Murray. There are about fifty full fledged detective sergeants who are paid and rank as police sergeants, and there are about one hundred detectives who rank as patrolmen. The latter are keenly ambitious to become sergeants ; the sergeants are equally ambitious not to be reduced to their The Criminal Class. 515 former rank as patrolmen. There you have the motive of the corps. Each one has his work cut out for him and he makes himself proficient in that during dull times. For instance, such conversations as these oc- cur between Inspector Byrnes and his men: "Mr. Kyan, is Jack Sheppard still living in Harlem and does he hang out in McMann's gin mill, and is that woman still with him?" "I don't think there's been any change, sir," is the reply. "Well, run up to Harlem and find out all about him and what he is up to. Mr. Doyle, skip over to Fort Hamilton and look after your parties, Blueskin, Eed Leary, Guy Fawkes and the Kid. And you, Schmidt, knock around among the anarchists. We don't know what they are doing or are going to do. Find out all about 'em. " A prodigious amount of knowledge is gained and kept up in this way. Give each man several subjects, as each one has, and the result is that there is not a professional in town who cannot be located in an hour if he is in tow^n or tracked if out of town. This knowledge embraces a close acquaintance with the habits of the crooks, their mistresses, friends, the liquor stores and gambling hells they frequent, the fences where they borrow when hard up, and the lines of work on which they operate as well as the gangs they operate with. It is said that our city detectives know all this absolutely. But the Weeks case went beyond all this. When they ceased their blind and general work and settled upon Greenwell of the lodging-house gang as the man they said that they 516 Wonders of a Great Gity. knew from the first that the crime was not the work | of good men. Professional criminals are always J spoken of respectfully by the police as good men. 1 The truth probably is that they felt pretty certain it | was not the work of a professional because it did not I tally with professional methods. wL "Good men," said Superintendent Murray, the ablest 1 policeman we have to-day, though too modest to pre- vent others taking credit for his work, " good men will do anything rather than shoot when they are cracking a place. They will give up the job, run * away, or even take a beating before they will pull a ' trigger. It is only when they are cornered and see a long sentence staring them in the face that they will commit an assault, and then they prefer not to kill.'' But whatever the police knew, they despised no efforts, however contrary to reason, that might lead to the capture of Week's slayer. With very few ex- ceptions, every captain, ward fly-cop, sergeant, and roundsman in New York, and very many patrolmen besides, interested themselves in this case, and as each one knew some criminals, criminals' friends, haunt, or women, the cinder-heap got a good sifting. And thus we come to the curious relationship existing between these forces, naturally so hostile. The police made the crooks help them. They almost always do. Seymour, the detective, hunted upRedney, the bunko man. "Redney," said the detective, "I want to get onto this Weeks job. " "Couse yer do," said Redney ; "but I dunno narthin' about it. I ain't givin' yer no larry now. I ain't heard narthin' only what I make gal read ter me every mornin'. " The Criminal Class. 517 "I know that, Eedney," says the man of the law; "but if you get a tip let's have it, old man ; what d'ye say? Will yer?" Redney says he will, and so does every crook the detective has such a conversation with, which is about every one he meets. While this was going on other distinguished crooks were being tapped on the shoulder and bidden to " be at the cen- tral office to-morrow. The super wants to see you"; or, " the inspector wants you. " They came in every instance, knowing that they must. They were politely questioned. It was interesting ; it always is interesting to see how differently different ones behaved. Some burglars and sneaks and forgers consider it a great honor to be in demand in this way. It flatters their vanity to be called on and to find themselves in an easy chat with authority clothed in blue and starred with gold. They become as loquacious as women. Others are sullen and defiant. They want nothing to do with authority. They consider them- selves abused. These last are in the minority, how- ever, and it has been found that both sorts will tell the truth if it will help them or if they are not in- terested in the case. A scrutiny of all the fences and pawnbrokers ends the sifting. There were many burglaries in Brooklyn of the same sort as the Weeks case ; where did the stuff go ? None was found, but if any had been who brought it ? A fence had better not lie and be caught at it. A pawnbroker has no need to do so. In the Weeks case the general spad- ing over of the crooks did not turn over the murderer. Three lodging-house rounders or loafers 518 Wonders of a Great City. were caught in a New Jersey burglary, and two of tliem united in declaring that the third was guilty of the Weeks murder. So what hard work failed at chance brought about. But the sifting process is a good one. The police learn more each time it is done. They turn up new criminals and get new knowledge concerning old ones. They thus study their prey as a good hunter or fisherman does. This plan more than takes the place of the apocryphal genius of the one Vidocq of a century. "There is absolutely no such a thing as honor among thieves," said SujDerintendent Murray; "that is the veriest humbug. We find that under many combinations of circumstances they can be got to be- tray one another. We Avork upon the knowledge of their baseness and seldom are disappointed. If a crook can save himself by peaching on his pals, or if he fears a comrade may be about to betray him, or if it will be of service to him to expose others he will always do it. One other great source of weakness among criminals comes of their relations with women. Some of the loot they get is pretty certain to be given to a woman, and with her it remains, and we find it and turn it to evidence asrainst the man. This o is particularly the case with young criminals. " THTEVma NIGHT cabihen. Some of the most audacious night thieves of New York are cabmen. They are called buckers. A few own their own rigs, but most of them hire from small stables at about $8.50 a night. The bucker usually counts upon getting the price of the rig out of tlie The Criminal Class. 519 first passenger, and all lie gets after that is a profit. So a niaH wants to look out and not be the first fare in a night cab. "Some backers have a pal who pretends to be a passenger," said a cabman, "and gets in wdth a real passenger that's pretty full. If the passenger loses anything on the trip of course it was the stranger that went through him, and he's got out and skipped. The cabman is sorry and wishes he knew the other chap, but he s'posed he was the passenger's friend. They can't play that on the New Yorkers much, -though. It's countrymen and fellers from Hoboken that gets into them snaps. The New Yorker who's been round don't hire buckers very often, but when he does he makes a bargain at the start and looks at the number. "Just to show you how it works. The other night one of the fellers was standing around the corner when three men came along, and two of them put the other in a cab and told Johnny to drive him to a house up town. Then they lit out. Johnny looked inside and saw the gentleman was full as a goat, and that his watch was gone and the broken chain hang- ing out of his pocket. Says Johnny to himself, says he, Tf I take this stiff home and he gets on that he's been robbed he'll lay it to me and I'll do time sure. So he ups and calls a copper and says he won't have nothing to do with the job. The copper goes through the drunk gentleman and finds he's broke, and then he yanks him out of the cab and takes him into some place, and says to Johnny, says he, ^you're honest, young feller.' That's the w^ay Johnny tells it, and he 520 Wonders of a Great City. oughter know, hadn't he ? Course he had. Johnny wouldn't collar the boodle himself and then call a copper and give him a fill about the two fellers as skipped. See ? "There's a chap on the other corner who could tell a queer story if he wanted to, but it's no use for any stranger to ask him. He got a call one night andl went up to a fine house on Murray Hill. A tall man, with grayish hair and mustache, came out and asked him how much he would take to hold his tongue. He was pretty fly, and said he thought $25 would about keep him quiet on a racket. The tall man put up the sugar without a kick, and told him to wait and give a whistle when nobody was in sight. He saw a light upstairs, and when the door was opened for a minute he heard a woman crying and somebody tell- ! ing her to keep quiet. When he whistled, the door opened quickly and the tall man and another man, who seemed excited and nervous, came out, carrying j a third man wrapped up in a blanket. They put the third man in the cab, and the tall man got in with him. The other man, who seemed to live in the house, whispered a moment with the tall chap, who spoke sharp and decided, and then hurried back into the house. The cabman drove to a certain hotel, where he helped carry the chap, who seemed sick or drunk, up to a small room, and then went away. Per- \ haps you remember the case of a man who was found in a room at a hotel with a bullet in his back and a ) pistol in his hand, and nobody could get a word out < of him except a tall detective, who said he'd been hired to take care of him. Well, it isn't a cabman's The Criminal Class. 521 • business to give anything away, and I ain't saying a 1 word, am I ? "A man I used to drive with had a worse job than j that one night. He got a call from a messenger to go to the house where a handsome actress lived, and when he got there her brother and somebody else brought out a gentleman they said wasn't feeling very well and put into a cab. My chum thought it was a case of drunk and said nothing, but drove to the house where he was told to leave the gentleman. When he and his partner got there and tried to wake the party up, they found he was dead, and you bet he was j scared. They just took him out and laid him in the vestibule, and you bet they didn't ring no bell. They just got away as fast as the old plug would carry 'em. The next day the papers told how Mr. Ray- 'mond, the editor of the New York Times^ died of ! heart disease at his own door, and was found there ' in the morning. The actress in whose company he expired is now living, and well known. IN A DEN or THIEVES. Some of the New York fences are saloon keepers. They as a rule do a thriving business, for they not only purchase the plunder of their customers, but re- ceive much of the money expended for "swag" back again over the bar for drinks. Some four years ago I passed a couple of hours in one of these resorts. It was a rainy night and I had attended the theatre with a prominent criminal lawyer. "If you have an hour to spare, said my friend, as we stood in the lobby, come with me and aid me in 522 Wonders of a Great City. looking for a client, but don't ask any question or b astonished at anything you see. " I accompanied the attorney in his search for i client. We looked for him in a gin mill in a Hous ton street basement, where a gentleman with a char delier pin in his immaculate shirt front, and a bullei hole in his cheek, handled the decanters as if they