Peculiarities of American Cities
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Title: Peculiarities of American Cities
Author: Willard W. Glazier
Release date: March 14, 2011 [eBook #35575]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Willard Glazier]
PECULIARITIES
OF
AMERICAN CITIES.
BY
CAPTAIN WILLARD GLAZIER,
AUTHOR OF "SOLDIERS OF THE SADDLE," "CAPTURE, PRISON-PEN AND
ESCAPE," "BATTLES FOR THE UNION," "HEROES OF THREE WARS,"
"DOWN THE GREAT RIVER," ETC., ETC.
Illustrated.
PHILADELPHIA:
HUBBARD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
No. 723 CHESTNUT STREET.
1886.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
WILLARD GLAZIER,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
To her
WHO IS NEAREST AND DEAREST;
WHOSE HEART HAS ENCOURAGED;
WHOSE HAND HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE
ILLUSTRATION AND EMBELLISHMENT
OF ALL MY LITERARY WORK,
This Volume
IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED
BY
_THE AUTHOR_.
PREFACE.
It has occurred to the author very often that a volume presenting the
peculiar features, favorite resorts and distinguishing characteristics,
of the leading cities of America, would prove of interest to thousands
who could, at best, see them only in imagination, and to others, who,
having visited them, would like to compare notes with one who has made
their PECULIARITIES a study for many years.
A residence in more than a hundred cities, including nearly all that
are introduced in this work, leads me to feel that I shall succeed in
my purpose of giving to the public a book, without the necessity of
marching in slow and solemn procession before my readers a monumental
array of time-honored statistics; on the contrary, it will be my aim, in
the following pages, to talk of cities as I have seen and found them in
my walks, from day to day, with but slight reference to their origin and
past history.
WILLARD GLAZIER.
22 Jay Street,
ALBANY, _September 24, 1883_.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of the Author (Steel) FRONTISPIECE.
PAGE
State Street and Capitol, Albany, N. Y. 34
Boston, as Viewed from the Bay 38
Soldiers' Monument at Buffalo, N. Y. 62
View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill 92
View of the Battery, Charleston, South Carolina 108
Garden at Mount Pleasant, opposite Charleston, S. C. 112
Custom House, Charleston, South Carolina 116
Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina 120
Public Square and Perry Monument, Cleveland, Ohio 150
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 156
Bird's-eye View of Chicago, from the Lake Side 160
Burning of Chicago, the World's Greatest Conflagration 164
Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago 170
Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 192
Harrisburg and Bridges over the Susquehanna 200
Jackson Square and Old Cathedral, New Orleans 274
Mardi Gras Festival, New Orleans 278
Bird's-eye View of New York 296
New York and Brooklyn Bridge 318
Pittsburg and its Rivers 336
Night Scene in Market Square, Portland, Maine 360
Old Independence Hall, Philadelphia 370
Masonic Temple, Philadelphia 378
Girard Avenue Bridge, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia 394
View of Providence, Rhode Island, from Prospect Terrace 400
Tabernacle and Temple, Salt Lake City 440
Seal Rocks from the Cliff House, near San Francisco 462
Levee and Great Bridge at St. Louis 492
Shaw's Garden at St. Louis, Missouri 502
University of Toronto, Canada 524
East Front of Capitol at Washington 538
State, War and Navy Departments, Washington, D. C. 546
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.--ALBANY.
From Boston to Albany.--Worcester and Pittsfield.--The Empire
State and its Capital.--Old Associations.--State Street.--
Sketch of Early History.--Killian Van Rensselaer.--Dutch
Emigration.--Old Fort Orange.--City Heights.--The Lumber
District.--Van Rensselaer Homestead.--The New Capitol.--
Military Bureau.--War Relics.--Letter of General Dix.--
Ellsworth and Lincoln Memorials.--Geological Rooms.--The
Cathedral.--Dudley Observatory.--Street Marketing.--Troy and
Cohoes.--Stove Works.--Paper Boats.--Grand Army Rooms.--Down
the Hudson. 25-37
CHAPTER II.--BOSTON.
Geographical Location of Boston.--Ancient Names.--Etymology
of the Word Massachusetts.--Changes in the Peninsula.--Noted
Points of Interest.--Boston Common.--Old Elm.--Duel Under
its Branches.--Soldiers' Monument.--Fragmentary History.--
Courtship on the Common.--Faneuil Hall and Market.--Old State
House.--King's Chapel.--Brattle Square Church.--New State
House.--New Post Office.--Old South Church.--Birthplace of
Franklin.--"News Letter."--City Hall.--Custom House.--
Providence Railroad Station.--Places of General Interest. 38-56
CHAPTER III.--BUFFALO.
The Niagara Frontier.--Unfortunate Fate of the Eries.--The
Battle of Doom.--Times of 1812.--Burning of Buffalo.--Early
Names.--Origin of Present Name.--Growth and Population.--
Railway Lines.--Queen of the Great Lakes.--Fort Porter and
Fort Erie.--International Bridge.--Iron Manufacture.--Danger
of the Niagara.--Forest Lawn Cemetery.--Decoration Day.--
The Spaulding Monument.--Parks and Boulevard.--Delaware
Avenue.--On the Terrace.--Elevator District.--Church and
Schools.--Grosvenor Library.--Historical Rooms.--Journalism.--
Public Buildings.--City Hall.--Dog-carts and their Attendants. 57-71
CHAPTER IV.--BROOKLYN.
Brooklyn a Suburb of New York.--A City of Homes.--Public
Buildings.--Churches.--Henry Ward Beecher.--Thomas De
Witt Talmage.--Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.--Justin D. Fulton,
D.D.--R. S. Storrs, D.D.--Navy Yard.--Atlantic Dock.--
Washington Park.--Prospect Park.--Greenwood Cemetery.--
Evergreen and Cyprus Hills Cemeteries.--Coney Island.--
Rockaway.--Staten Island.--Glen Island.--Future of Brooklyn. 72-84
CHAPTER V.--BALTIMORE.
Position of Baltimore.--Streets.--Cathedral and Churches.--
Public Buildings.--Educational Institutions.--Art
Collections.--Charitable Institutions.--Monuments.--Railway
Tunnels.--Parks and Cemeteries.--Druid Hill Park.--Commerce
and Manufactures.--Foundation of the City.--Early History.--
Bonaparte-Patterson Marriage.--Storming of Baltimore in
1814.--Maryland at the Breaking-out of the Rebellion.--Assault
on Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, in April, 1861.--Subsequent
Events during the War.--Baltimore Proves Herself Loyal.--
Re-union of Grand Army of the Republic in Baltimore,
September, 1882.--Old Differences Forgotten and Fraternal
Relations Established. 85-106
CHAPTER VI.--CHARLESTON.
First Visit to Charleston.--Jail Yard.--Bombardment of the
City.--Roper Hospital.--Charleston During the War.--Secession
of South Carolina.--Attack and Surrender of Fort Sumter.--
Blockade of the Harbor.--Great Fire of 1861.--Capitulation
in 1865.--First Settlement of the City.--Battles of the
Revolution.--Nullification Act.--John C. Calhoun.--Population
of the City.--Commerce and Manufactures.--Charleston Harbor.--
"American Venice."--Battery.--Streets, Public Buildings and
Churches.--Scenery about Charleston.--Railways and Steamship
Lines.--An Ancient Church.--Magnolia Cemetery.--Drives near
the City.--Charleston Purified by Fire. 107-120
CHAPTER VII.--CINCINNATI.
Founding of Cincinnati.--Rapid Increase of Population.--
Character of its Early Settlers.--Pro-slavery Sympathies.--
During the Rebellion.--Description of the City.--Smoke and
Soot--Suburbs.--"Fifth Avenue" of Cincinnati.--Streets,
Public Buildings, Private Art Galleries, Hotels, Churches
and Educational Institutions.--"Over the Rhine."--Hebrew
Population.--Liberal Religious Sentiment.--Commerce and
Manufacturing Interests.--Stock Yards and Pork-packing
Establishments.--Wine Making.--Covington and Newport
Suspension Bridge.--High Water.--Spring Grove Cemetery. 121-139
CHAPTER VIII.--CLEVELAND.
The "Western Reserve."--Character of Early Settlers.--
Fairport.--Richmond.--Early History of Cleveland.--Indians.--
Opening of Ohio and Portsmouth Canal.--Commerce in 1845.--
Cleveland in 1850.--First Railroad.--Manufacturing
Interests.--Cuyahoga "Flats" at Night.--The "Forest City."--
Streets and Avenues.--Monumental Park.--Public Buildings
and Churches.--Union Depot.--Water Rents.--Educational
Institutions.--Rocky River.--Approach to the City.--Freshet of
1883.--Funeral of President Garfield.--Lake Side Cemetery.--
Site of the Garfield Monument. 140-156
CHAPTER IX.--CHICAGO.
Topographical Situation of Chicago.--Meaning of the Name.--
Early History.--Massacre at Fort Dearborn.--Last of the Red
Men.--The Great Land Bubble.--Rapid Increase in Population
and Business.--The Canal.--First Railroad.--Status of
the City in 1871.--The Great Fire.--Its Origin, Progress and
Extent.--Heartrending Scenes.--Estimated Total Loss.--Help
from all Quarters.--Work of Reconstruction.--Second Fire.--
Its Public Buildings, Educational and Charitable Institutions,
Streets and Parks.--Its Waterworks.--Its Stock Yards.--Its
Suburbs.--Future of the City. 157-175
CHAPTER X.--CHEYENNE.
Location of Cheyenne.--Founding of the City.--Lawlessness.--
Vigilance Committee.--Woman Suffrage.--Rapid Increase of
Population and Business.--A Reaction.--Stock Raising.--
Irrigation.--Mineral Resources.--Present Prospects. 176-181
CHAPTER XI--DETROIT.
Detroit and Her Avenues of Approach.--Competing Lines.--
London in Canada.--The Strait and the Ferry.--Music on the
Waters.--The Home of the Algonquins.--Teusha-grondie.--
Wa-we-aw-to-nong.--Fort Ponchartrain and the Early French
Settlers.--The Red Cross of St. George.--Conspiracy of
Pontiac.--Battle of Bloody Run.--The Long Siege.--Detroit's
First American Flag.--Old Landmarks.--The Pontiac Tree.--
Devastation by Fire.--Site of the Modern City.--New City
Hall.--Public Library.--Mexican Antiquities. 182-193
CHAPTER XII.--ERIE.
Decoration Day in Pennsylvania.--Lake Erie.--Natural
Advantages of Erie.--Her Harbor, Commerce and Manufactures.--
Streets and Public Buildings.--Soldiers' Monument.--Erie
Cemetery.--East and West Parks.--Perry's Victory. 194-198
CHAPTER XIII.--HARRISBURG.
A Historic Tree.--John Harris' Wild Adventure with the
Indians.--Harris Park.--History of Harrisburg.--Situation
and Surroundings.--State House.--State Library.--A Historic
Flag.--View from State House Dome.--Capitol Park.--Monument
to Soldiers of Mexican War.--Monument to Soldiers of Late
War.--Public Buildings.--Front Street.--Bridges over the
Susquehanna.--Mt. Kalmia Cemetery.--Present Advantages and
Future Prospects of Harrisburg. 199-206
CHAPTER XIV.--HARTFORD.
The City of Publishers.--Its Geographical Location.--The New
State House.--Mark Twain and the "None Such."--The "Heathen
Chinee."--Wadsworth Atheneum.--Charter Oak.--George H. Clark's
Poem.--Putnam's Hotel.--Asylum for Deaf Mutes.--The Sign
Language.--A Fragment of Witchcraftism.--Hartford
_Courant_.--The Connecticut. 207-215
CHAPTER XV.--LANCASTER.
First Visit to Lancaster.--Eastern Pennsylvania.--Conestoga
River.--Early History of Lancaster.--Early Dutch Settlers.--
Manufactures.--Public Buildings.--Whit-Monday.--Home of
three Noted Persons.--James Buchanan, his Life and Death.--
Thaddeus Stevens and his Burial Place.--General Reynolds
and his Death.--"Cemetery City." 216-221
CHAPTER XVI.--MILWAUKEE.
Rapid Development of the Northwest.--The "West" Forty
Years Ago.--Milwaukee and its Commerce and Manufactures.--
Grain Elevators.--Harbor.--Divisions of the City.--Public
Buildings.--Northwestern National Asylum for Disabled
Soldiers.--German Population.--Influence and Results of German
Immigration.--Bank Riot in 1862.--Ancient Tumuli.--Mound
Builders.--Mounds Near Milwaukee.--Significance of Same.--
Early Traders.--Foundation of the City in 1835.--Excelling
Chicago in 1870.--Population and Commerce in 1880. 222-235
CHAPTER XVII--MONTREAL.
Thousand Islands.--Long Sault Rapids.--Lachine Rapids.--
Victoria Bridge--Mont Real.--Early History of Montreal.--
Its Shipping Interests.--Quays.--Manufactures.--Population.--
Roman Catholic Supremacy.--Churches.--Nunneries.--Hospitals,
Colleges.--Streets.--Public Buildings.--Victoria Skating
Rink.--Sleighing.--Early Disasters.--Points of Interest.--
The "Canucks." 236-247
CHAPTER XVIII.--NEWARK.
From New York to Newark.--Two Hundred Years Ago.--The
Pioneers.--Public Parks.--City of Churches.--The Canal.--
Sailing Up-Hill.--An Old Graveyard.--New Amsterdam and New
Netherlands.--The Dutch and English.--Adventurers from New
England.--The Indians.--Rate of Population.--Manufactures.--
Rank as a City. 248-255
CHAPTER XIX.--NEW HAVEN.
The City of Elms.--First Impressions.--A New England Sunday.--
A Sail on the Harbor.--Oyster Beds.--East Rock.--The Lonely
Denizen of the Bluff.--Romance of John Turner.--West Rock.--
The Judges' Cave.--Its Historical Association.--Escape of
the Judges.--Monument on the City Green.--Yale College.--Its
Stormy Infancy.--Battle on the Weathersfield Road.--Harvard,
the Fruit of the Struggle. 256-263
CHAPTER XX.--NEW ORLEANS.
Locality of New Orleans.--The Mississippi.--The Old and the
New.--Ceded to Spain.--Creole Part in the American Revolution.
Retransferred to France.--Purchased by the United States.--
Creole Discontent.--Battle of New Orleans.--Increase of
Population.--The Levee.--Shipping.--Public Buildings,
Churches, Hospitals, Hotels and Places of Amusement.--
Streets.--Suburbs.--Public Squares and Parks.--Places
of Historic Interest.--Cemeteries.--French Market.--
Mardi-gras.--Climate and Productions.--New Orleans during
the Rebellion.--Chief Cotton Mart of the World.--Exports.--
Imports.--Future Prosperity of the City. 264-280
CHAPTER XXI.--NEW YORK.
Early History of New York.--During the Revolution.--Evacuation
Day.--Bowling Green.--Wall Street.--Stock Exchange.--
Jacob Little.--Daniel Drew.--Jay Cooke.--Rufus Hatch.--
The Vanderbilts.--Jay Gould.--Trinity Church.--John Jacob
Astor.--Post-Office.--City Hall and Court House.--James Gordon
Bennett.--Printing House Square.--Horace Greeley.--Broadway.--
Union Square.--Washington Square.--Fifth Avenue.--Madison
Square.--Cathedral.--Murray Hill.--Second Avenue.--Booth's
Theatre and Grand Opera House.--The Bowery.--Peter Cooper.--
Fourth Avenue.--Park Avenue.--Five Points and its Vicinity.--
Chinese Quarter.--Tombs.--Central Park.--Water Front.--
Blackwell's Island.--Hell Gate.--Suspension Bridge.--Opening
Day.--Tragedy of Decoration Day.--New York of the Present and
Future. 281-318
CHAPTER XXII.--OMAHA.
Arrival in Omaha.--The Missouri River.--Position and
Appearance of the City.--Public Buildings.--History.--Land
Speculation.--Panic of 1857.--Discovery of Gold in Colorado.--
"Pike's Peak or Bust."--Sudden Revival of Business.--First
Railroad.--Union Pacific Railroad.--Population.--Commercial
and Manufacturing Interests.--Bridge over the Missouri.--
Union Pacific Depot--Prospects for the Future. 319-325
CHAPTER XXIII.--OTTAWA.
Ottawa, the Seat of the Canadian Government.--History.--
Population.--Geographical Position.--Scenery.--Chaudiere
Falls.--Rideau Falls.--Ottawa River.--Lumber Business.--
Manufactures.--Steamboat and Railway Communications.--Moore's
Canadian Boat Song.--Description of the City.--Churches,
Nunneries, and Charitable Institutions.--Government
Buildings.--Rideau Hall.--Princess Louise and Marquis
of Lorne.--Ottawa's Proud Boast. 326-331
CHAPTER XXIV.--PITTSBURG.
Pittsburg at Night.--A Pittsburg Fog.--Smoke.--Description of
the City.--The Oil Business.--Ohio River.--Public Buildings,
Educational and Charitable Institutions.--Glass Industry.--
Iron Foundries.--Fort Pitt Works--Casting a Monster Gun.--
American Iron Works.--Nail Works.--A City of Workers.--
A True Democracy.--Wages.--Character of Workmen.--Value of
Organization.--Knights of Labor.--Opposed to Strikes.--True
Relations of Capital and Labor.--Railroad Strike of 1877.--
Allegheny City.--Population of Pittsburg.--Early History.--
Braddock's Defeat.--Old Battle Ground.--Historic Relics.--
The Past and the Present. 332-347
CHAPTER XXV.--PORTLAND.
The Coast of Maine.--Early Settlements in Portland.--Troubles
with the Indians.--Destruction of the Town in 1690.--Destroyed
Again in 1703.--Subsequent Settlement and Growth.--During the
Revolution.--First Newspaper.--Portland Harbor.--Commercial
Facilities and Progress.--During the Rebellion.--Great Fire
of 1866.--Reconstruction.--Position of the City.--Streets.--
Munjoy Hill.--Maine General Hospital.--Eastern and Western
Promenades.--Longfellow's House.--Birthplace of the Poet.--
Market Square and Hall.--First Unitarian Church.--Lincoln
Park.--Eastern Cemetery.--Deering's Woods.--Commercial
Street.--Old-time Mansion.--Case's Bay and Islands.--
Cushing's Island.--Peak's Island.--Ling Island.--Little
Chebague Island.--Harpswell. 348-365
CHAPTER XXVI.--PHILADELPHIA.
Early History.--William Penn.--The Revolution.--Declaration
of Independence.--First Railroad.--Riots.--Streets and
Houses.--Relics of the Past.--Independence Hall.--Carpenters'
Hall.--Blue Anchor.--Letitia Court.--Christ Church.--Old
Swedes' Church.--Benjamin Franklin.--Libraries.--Old Quaker
Almshouse.--Old Houses in Germantown.--Manufactures.--
Theatres.--Churches--Scientific Institutions.--Newspapers.--
Medical Colleges.--Schools.--Public Buildings.--
Penitentiary.--River Front.--Fairmount Park.--ZoAślogical
Gardens.--Cemeteries.--Centennial Exhibition.--
Bi-Centennial.--Past, Present and Future of the City. 366-398
CHAPTER XXVII.--PROVIDENCE.
Origin of the City.--Roger Williams.--Geographical Location
and Importance.--Topography of Providence.--The Cove.--
Railroad Connections.--Brown University.--Patriotism of Rhode
Island.--Soldiers' Monument.--The Roger Williams Park.--
Narragansett Bay.--Suburban Villages.--Points of Interest.--
Butter Exchange.--Lamplighting on a New Plan.--Jewelry
Manufactories. 399-404
CHAPTER XXVIII.--QUEBEC.
Appearance of Quebec.--Gibraltar of America.--Fortifications
and Walls.--The Walled City.--Churches, Nunneries and
Hospitals.--Views from the Cliff.--Upper Town.--Lower Town.--
Manufactures.--Public Buildings.--Plains of Abraham.--Falls of
Montmorenci.--Sledding on the "Cone."--History of Quebec.--
Capture of the City by the British.--Death of Generals Wolfe
and Montcalm.--Disaster under General Murray.--Ceding of
Canada, by France, to England.--Attack by American Forces
under Montgomery and Arnold.--Death of Montgomery.--Capital
of Lower Canada and of the Province of Quebec. 405-414
CHAPTER XXIX.--READING.
Geographical Position and History of Reading.--Manufacturing
Interests.--Population, Streets, Churches and Public
Buildings.--Boating on the Schuylkill.--White Spot and the
View from its Summit.--Other Pleasure Resorts.--Decoration
Day.--Wealth Created by Industry. 415-420
CHAPTER XXX.--RICHMOND.
Arrival in Richmond.--Libby Prison.--Situation of the City.--
Historical Associations.--Early Settlement.--Attacked by
British Forces in the Revolution.--Monumental Church.--
St. John's Church.--State Capital.--Passage of the Ordinance
of Secession.--Richmond the Capital of the Confederate
States.--Military Expeditions against the City.--Evacuation
of Petersburg.--Surrender of the City.--Visit of President
Lincoln.--Historical Places.--Statues.--Rapid Recuperation
After the War.--Manufacturing and Commercial Interests.--
Streets and Public Buildings.--Population and Future
Prospects. 421-432
CHAPTER XXXI.--SAINT PAUL.
Early History of Saint Paul.--Founding of the City.--Public
Buildings.--Roman Catholics.--Places of Resort.--Falls of
Minnehaha.--Carver's Cave.--Fountain Cave.--Commercial
Interests.--Present and Future Prospects. 433-487
CHAPTER XXXII.--SALT LAKE CITY.
The Mormons.--Pilgrimage Across the Continent.--Site of Salt
Lake City.--A People of Workers.--Spread of Mormons through
other Territories.--City of the Saints.--Streets.--Fruit and
Shade Trees.--Irrigation.--The Tabernacle.--Residences of
the late Brigham Young.--Museum.--Public Buildings.--Warm
and Hot Springs.--Number and Character of Population.--
Barter System before Completion of Railroad.--Mormons and
Gentiles.--Present Advantages and Future Prospects of Salt
Lake City. 438-447
CHAPTER XXXIII.--SAN FRANCISCO.
San Francisco.--The Golden State.--San Francisco Bay.--Golden
Gate.--Conquest of California by Fremont, 1848.--Discovery of
Gold.--Rush to the Mines, 1849.--"Forty-niners."--Great Rise
in Provisions and Wages.--Miners Homeward Bound.--Dissipation
and Vice in the City.--Vigilance Committee.--Great Influx of
Miners in 1850.--Immense Gold Yield.--Climate.--Earthquakes.--
Productions.--Irrigation.--Streets and Buildings.--Churches.--
Lone Mountain Cemetery.--Cliff House.--Seal Rock.--Theatres.--
Chinese Quarter.--Chinese Theatres.--Joss Houses.--Emigration
Companies.--The Chinese Question.--Cheap Labor.--"The Chinese
Must Go."--Present Population and Commerce of San Francisco.--
Exports.--Manufactures.--Cosmopolitan Nature of Inhabitants. 448-472
CHAPTER XXXIV.--SAVANNAH.
First Visit to Savannah.--Camp Davidson.--The City During
the War.--An Escaped Prisoner.--Recapture and Final
Escape.--A "City of Refuge."--Savannah by Night.--Position
of the City.--Streets and Public Squares.--Forsyth Park.--
Monuments.--Commerce.--View from the Wharves.--Railroads.--
Founding of the City.--Revolutionary History.--Death of
Pulaski.--Secession.--Approach of Sherman.--Investment of
the City by Union Troops.--Recuperation After the War.--
Climate.--Colored Population.--Bonaventure, Thunderbolt,
and Other Suburban Resorts. 473-486
CHAPTER XXXV.--SPRINGFIELD.
Valley of the Connecticut.--Location of Springfield.--
The United States Armory.--Springfield Library.--Origin
of the Present Library System.--The Wayland Celebration.--
Settlement of Springfield.--Indian Hostilities.--Days of
Witchcraft.--Trial of Hugh Parsons.--Hope Daggett.--
Springfield "Republican." 487-491
CHAPTER XXXVI.--ST. LOUIS.
Approach to St. Louis.--Bridge Over the Mississippi.--View
of the City.--Material Resources of Missouri.--Early History
of St. Louis.--Increase of Population.--Manufacturing and
Commercial Interests.--Locality.--Description of St. Louis
in 1842.--Resemblance to Philadelphia.--Public Buildings.--
Streets.--Parks.--Fair Week.--Educational and Charitable
Institutions.--Hotels.--Mississippi River.--St. Louis During
the Rebellion.--Peculiar Characteristics.--The Future of the
City. 492-510
CHAPTER XXXVII--SYRACUSE.
Glimpses on the Rail.--Schenectady.--Valley of the Mohawk.--
"Lover's Leap."--Rome and its Doctor.--Oneida Stone.--The
Lo Race.--Oneida Community.--The City of Salt.--The Six
Nations.--The Onondagas.--Traditions of Red Americans.--
Hiawatha.--Sacrifice of White Dogs.--Ceremonies.--The Lost
Tribes of Israel.--Witches and Wizards.--A Jules Verne
Story.--The Salt Wells of Salina.--Lake Onondaga.--Indian
Knowledge of Salt Wells.--"Over the Hills and Far Away."--
A Castle.--Steam Canal Boats.--Adieux.--Westward Ho! 511-521
CHAPTER XXXVIII--TORONTO.
Situation of Toronto.--The Bay.--History.--Rebellion of
1837.--Fenian Invasion of 1866.--Population.--General
Appearance.--Sleighing.--Streets.--Railways.--Commerce.--
Manufactures.--Schools and Colleges.--Queen Park.--
Churches.--Benevolent Institutions.--Halls and Other
Public Buildings.--Hotels.--Newspapers.--General
Characteristics and Progress. 522-527
CHAPTER XXXIX.--WASHINGTON.
Situation of the National Capital.--Site Selected by
Washington.--Statues of General Andrew Jackson, Scott,
McPherson, Rawlins.--Lincoln Emancipation Group.--Navy Yard
Bridge.--Capitol Building.--The White House.--Department
of State, War and Navy.--The Treasury Department.--Patent
Office.--Post Office Department.--Agricultural Building.--
Army Medical Museum.--Government Printing Office.--United
States Barracks.--Smithsonian Institute.--National Museum.--
The Washington Monument.--Corcoran Art Gallery.--National
Medical College.--Deaf and Dumb Asylum.--Increase of
Population.--Washington's Future Greatness. 528-558
CHAPTER I.
ALBANY.
From Boston to Albany.--Worcester and Pittsfield.--The Empire
State and its Capital.--Old Associations.--State Street.--Sketch
of Early History.--Killian Van Rensselaer.--Dutch Emigration.--
Old Fort Orange.--City Heights.--The Lumber District.--Van
Rensselaer Homestead.--The New Capitol.--Military Bureau.--
War Relics.--Letter of General Dix.--Ellsworth and Lincoln
Memorials.--Geological Rooms.--The Cathedral.--Dudley
Observatory.--Street Marketing.--Troy and Cohoes.--Stove
Works.--Paper Boats.--Grand Army Rooms.--Down the Hudson.
An exceedingly cold day was February fourth, 1875, the day which marked
our journey from Boston to Albany. My inclination to step outside our
car and tip my hat to the various familiar places along the route was
suddenly checked by a gust of cutting, freezing, zero-stinging air. A
ride of between one and two hours brought us to Worcester, a stirring
town of about forty thousand inhabitants. Worcester is noted principally
for its cotton factories, and as a political center in Eastern
Massachusetts.
Springfield, Westfield and Pittsfield follow in succession along the
route, in central and Western Massachusetts, the first of which has been
made the subject of a special chapter in this book. The last I remember
chiefly as the place where, in the summer of 1866, I took my first steps
in a new enterprise. Pittsfield has large cotton mills, is a summer
resort, and is the nearest point, by rail, to the Shaker community at
Lebanon, five miles distant. At Westfield the Mount Holyoke Railroad
joins the main line, and semi-annually conveys the daughters of the land
to the famous _Holyoke Female Seminary_.
Leaving Pittsfield we soon reached the State line between New York and
Massachusetts. I sometimes think that after a residence in almost every
State of the Union, I ought to feel no greater attraction for my native
State than any other, yet I cannot repress a sentiment of stronger
affection for good, grand old New York than any other in the united
sisterhood. The Empire State has indeed a charm for me, and a congenial
breeze, I imagine, always awaits me at its boundary.
A ride of another hour brings to view the church spires of Albany, and
with them a long line of thrilling memories come rushing, like many
waters, to my mind. Here, in 1859, I entered the State Normal School;
here I resolved to enter the army; and here the first edition of my
first book was published, in the autumn of 1865. The work, therefore, of
presenting this chapter upon the peculiar features of the Capital City
of New York, may be regarded as one of the most agreeable duties I have
to perform in the preparation of these pages.
The traveler now entering Albany from the east crosses the Hudson on a
beautiful iron railroad bridge, which, in the steady march of
improvements, has succeeded the old-time ferry boat. He is landed at the
commodious stone building of the New York Central and Hudson River
Railroad, which is conveniently sandwiched between the Delavan House and
Stanwix Hall, two large, well known and well conducted hotels.
My first night in a city and a hotel was spent here, at the old Adams
House, located at that time on Broadway just opposite the Delavan. I was
awakened in the morning by the roll and rattle of vehicles, and the
usual din and confusion of a city street. The contrast to my quiet home
in the Valley of the St. Lawrence was so marked, I can never forget the
impression I then received, and as I walked up State street toward the
old Capitol, I almost fancied that such a street might be a fit road to
Paradise. Albany was the gate through which I entered the world, and to
my boyish vision the view it disclosed was very wide, and the grand
possibilities that lay in the dim distance seemed manifold. It is the
oldest city, save Jamestown, Va., in the Union, having been settled in
the very babyhood of the seventeenth century, somewhere about 1612 or
1614. It was originally, until the year 1661, only a trading post on the
frontier, the entire region of country to the westward being unexplored
and unknown, except as the "far west." The red warriors of the Mohegans,
Senecas, Mohawks and the remaining bands of the "Six Nations" held
undisputed possession of the soil, and kindled their council fires and
danced their "corn dances" in peace, unmolested as yet by the aggressive
pale-faces.
The baptismal name of the embryo city of Albany was Scho-negh-ta-da, an
Indian word meaning "over the plains." The name was afterwards
transferred to the outlying suburban town now known as Schenectady. An
immense tract of land bordering the Hudson for twenty-four miles, and
reaching back from the river three times that distance, included Albany
within its jurisdiction, and was originally owned by a rich Dutch
merchant, one Killian Van Rensselaer, from Amsterdam. The land was
purchased from the Indians for the merest trifle, after the usual
fashion of white cupidity when dealing with Indian generosity and
ignorance. Emigrants were sent over from the old country to people this
wide domain, and thus the first white colony was established, which
subsequently grew into sufficient importance to become the Capital city
of the Empire State.
Before the purchase of Killian Van Rensselaer, a fort was built
somewhere on what is now known as Broadway, and was named Fort Orange,
in honor of the Prince of Orange, who was at that time patroon of New
Netherlands, as New York was at first called. Old Fort Orange afterwards
went by various names, among which were Rensselaerwyck, Beaverwyck and
Williamstadt. In 1664 the sovereignty of the tract passed into the hands
of the English, and was named Albany, in compliment to the Duke of
Albany. In 1686 the young city aspired to a city charter, and its first
mayor, Peter Schuyler, was then elected. In 1807 it became the Capital
of the State. As an item of interest, it may be mentioned that the first
vessel which ascended the river as far as Albany was the yacht Half
Moon, Captain Hendrick Hudson commanding.
Albany, like ancient Rome, sits upon her many hills, and the views
obtained from the city heights are beautiful in the extreme. The
Helderbergs and the Catskill ranges loom blue and beautiful towards the
south, Troy and the Green Mountains of Vermont can be seen from the
north, while beyond the river, Bath-on-the-Hudson and the misty hill
tops further away, rim the horizon's distant verge. The city has a
large trade in lumber, and that portion of it which is known as the
"lumber district" is devoted almost exclusively to this branch. One may
walk, of a summer's day, along the smooth and winding road between the
river and the canal, for two miles or more, and encounter nothing save
the tasteful cottage-like offices, done in Gothic architecture, of the
merchant princes in this trade, sandwiched between huge piles of lumber,
rising white and high in the sun, and giving out resinous, piney odors.
Not far from this vicinity stands the old Van Rensselaer homestead,
guarded by a few primeval forest trees that have survived the wreck of
time and still keep their ancient watch and ward. The old house, I have
been told, is now deserted of all save an elderly lady, one of the last
of the descendants of the long and ancient line of Van Rensselaer.
Numerous points of interest dot the city in all directions, from limit
to limit, and claim the attention of the stranger. Among the most
prominent of these is, of course, the new Capitol building now in
process of construction at the head of State street. A very pretty model
of the structure is on exhibition in a small wooden building standing at
the entrance to the grounds, which gives, I should judge, a clever idea
of what the future monumental pile is to be like. Its height is very
imposing, and the tall towers and minarets which rise from its roof will
give it an appearance of still greater grandeur. It is built of granite
quarried from Maine and New Hampshire, and is in the form of a
parallelogram, enclosing an open court. Had I a sufficient knowledge of
architecture to enable me to talk of orders, of pilasters, columns,
entablatures and facades, I might perhaps give my readers a clearer
idea of the magnificence of this new structure, which will stand without
a rival, in this country at least, and may even dare to compete with
some of the marvellous splendors of the old world.
The Old Capitol and the State Library stand just in front of the new
building, and obscure the view from the foot of State street. The Senate
and Assembly chambers in the old building have an antiquated air, with
their straight-backed chairs upholstered in green and red, and the rough
stairways leading to the cupola, through an unfurnished attic, are
suggestive of accident. In this cupola, once upon a time, in the year
1832, a certain Mr. Weaver, tired of life and its turmoil, swung himself
out of it on a rope. So the cupola has its bit of romance. In this
neighborhood, on State street, above the Library, is located the Bureau
of Military Statistics, which is well worth a visit from every New
Yorker who takes a pride in the military glory of his native State. One
is greeted at the entrance with a host of mementos of our recent civil
war, which bring back a flood of patriotic memories. Here is a
collection of nine hundred battle flags, all belonging to the State,
most of them torn and tattered in hard service, and inscribed with the
names of historic fields into which they went fresh and bright, and out
of which they came smoked and begrimed, and torn with the conflict of
battle. Here are old canteens which have furnished solace to true
comrades on many occasions of mutual hardship. Here, too, is the Lincoln
collection, with its sad reminders of the nation's loved and murdered
President; and in a corner of the same room the Ellsworth collection is
displayed from a glass case. His gun and the Zouave suit worn by him at
the time of his death hang side by side, and there, too, is the flag
which, with impetuous bravery, he tore down from the top of the Marshall
House at Alexandria, Virginia. In the same case hangs the picture of his
avenger, Captain Brownell, and the rifle with which he shot Jackson. In
another part of the room may be seen the original letter of Governor,
then Secretary, Dix, which afterwards became so famous, and which
created, in a great measure, the wave of popularity that carried him
into the gubernatorial chair.
The letter reads as follows:--
"TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
January, 29th, 1861.
"Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of
the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood,
after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter,
tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer and treat him
accordingly. If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot
him on the spot.
"JOHN A. DIX, _Secretary of the Treasury_."
The captured office chairs used by Jeff. Davis, in Richmond, the lock
from John Brown's prison door at Harper's Ferry, pieces of plate from
the monitors off Charleston, torpedoes from James River, the bell of the
old guard-house at Fort Fisher, captured slave chains, miniature pontoon
bridges, draft boxes and captured Rebel shoes, may be mentioned as a few
among the many curiosities of this military bureau. Here, too, may be
seen the pardon, from Lincoln, for Roswell Mclntire, taken from his dead
body at the battle of Five Forks; and near by hangs the picture of
Sergeant Amos Humiston, of the 154th New York Regiment, who was
identified by means of the picture of his three children, found clasped
in his hand as he lay dead on the field of Gettysburg. In this room,
also, is the Jamestown, New York, flag, made by the ladies of that place
in six hours after the attack on Sumter, and which was displayed from
the office of the Jamestown _Journal_. Mr. Daly, the polite janitor of
the building, is always happy to receive visitors, and will show them
every courtesy.
The Geological Rooms, on State street, are also well worthy the time and
attention of the visitor. Large collections of the various kinds of rock
which underlie the soil of our country are here on exhibition, as, also,
the coral formations and geological curiosities of all ages. In an upper
room towers the mammoth Cohoes mastodon, whose skeleton reaches from
floor to ceiling. This monster of a former age was accidentally
discovered at that place by parties who were excavating for a building.
In these rooms, also, there are huge jaws of whales, which enable one to
better understand the disposition of the Bible whales, and how easy it
must have been for them to gulp down two or three Jonahs, if one little
Jonah should fail to appease the delicate appetite of such sportive
fishes. I couldn't help thinking of the lost races that must have
peopled the earth when this old world was young--when these fossils were
undergoing formation, and these mastodons made the ground tremble
beneath their tread.
Where are these peoples now, and where their unrevealed histories? Shall
we never know more of them than Runic stones and mysterious mounds can
unfold? These reminders of the things that once had an existence but
have now vanished from the face of the earth, and well nigh from the
memory of men--these things are full of suggestion, to say the least,
and are quite apt to correct any undue vanity which may take possession
of us, or any large idea of future fame. We may, perhaps, create a
ripple in the surface of remembrance which marks the place where our
human existence went out, and which, at the furthest, may last a few
hundred years. But who can hope for more than that, or hoping, can
reasonably expect to find the wish realized? "There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy."
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, on Eagle street, is one of
the finest church structures in Albany. It is built of brown freestone,
in the Gothic style of architecture, and its two towers are each two
hundred-and-eighty feet in height. Its cost was six hundred thousand
dollars. The interior decorations are beautiful, and the rich stained
glass windows are the gifts of sister societies. On Easter mornings the
Cathedral is sure to be crowded by people of all sects and creeds,
brought there to witness the joyous Easter services which terminate the
long fast of Lent.
About a mile and a half from the city, on Patroon's Hill, is situated
the Dudley Observatory, where on clear summer nights Albanians come to
gaze at the stars and the moon, through the large Observatory
refractor. The structure is built in the form of a cross, eighty-six
feet long and seventy feet deep.
One of the first peculiarities which attracts the attention of the
non-resident of Albany is the appearance of the business portion of
State street, in the forenoon, from eight o'clock until twelve. Any time
between these hours the street, from the lower end of Capitol Park down
to Pearl street, is transformed into a vast market-place. Meat-wagons,
vegetable carts, restaurants on wheels, and all sorts of huckstering
establishments, are backed up to the sidewalk, on either side, blocking
the way and so filling the wide avenue that there is barely room for the
street-car in its passage up and down the hill. The descendants of
Killian Van Rensselaer and the aristocratic Ten Eycks and Van Woerts, of
Albany, should exhibit enterprise enough, I think, to erect a city
market and spare State street this spectacle.
[Illustration: STATE STREET AND CAPITOL, ALBANY, NEW YORK.]
The manufacturing interest of Albany consists largely of stove works, in
which department it competes with its near neighbor, Troy. This
flourishing city, of about forty-eight thousand souls, is seven miles
distant from Albany, up the river, and is in manifold communication with
it by railroads on both sides of the Hudson, as well as by street
railway. Steam cars run between Albany and Troy half hourly, during the
day and far into the night, and one always encounters a stream of people
between these two places, whose current sets both ways, at all times and
seasons. Troy is at the head of navigation on the Hudson and
communicates by street car with Cohoes, Lansingburg and Waterford.
Cohoes is a place of great natural beauty, and the Cataract Falls of
the Mohawk River at that place add an element of wild grandeur to the
scenery. One of the large, rocky islands in the river, known as Simmons'
Island, is a popular resort for picnic excursions, and is a delightful
place in summer, with its groves of forest trees, and the pleasant noise
of waters around its base. The place seems haunted by an atmosphere of
Indian legend, and one could well imagine the departed warriors of the
lost tribes of the Mohawk treading these wild forest paths, and making
eloquent "talks" before their red brothers gathered around the council
fire.
The Mohawk and Hudson rivers unite at Troy, and seek a common passage to
the sea. Mrs. Willard's Seminary for young ladies is located in this
city, and is a standard institution of learning. Many of the streets of
Troy are remarkably clean and finely shaded, and handsome residences and
business blocks adorn them. The city is also a headquarters for
Spiritualism in this section of the country. The Spiritualistic Society
has, I am told, a flourishing, progressive Lyceum, which supersedes,
with them, the orthodox Sunday school, and the exercises, consisting in
part of marches and recitations, are conducted in a spirited and
interesting manner.
Foundries for hollow-ware and stoves constitute the leading branch of
manufacture in the city of Troy. To one not familiar with the process by
which iron is shaped into the various articles of common use among us, a
visit to the foundries of Troy or Albany would be full of interest and
instruction. Piles of yellow sand are lying in the long buildings used
as foundries, while on either side the room workmen are busily engaged
fashioning the wet sand into moulds for the reception of the melted
iron. Originally the sand is of a bright yellow color, but it soon
becomes a dingy brown, by repeated use in cooling the liquid metal.
Each moulder has his "floor," or special amount of room allotted him for
work, and here, during the forenoon, and up to three or four o'clock in
the afternoon, he is very busy indeed, preparing for the "pouring"
operation. Pig iron, thrown into a huge cauldron or boiler, and melted
to a white heat, is then poured, from a kettle lined with clay, into the
sand-moulds, and in a remarkably short space of time the greenish-white
liquid which you saw flowing into a tiny, black aperture is shaken out
of the sand by the workmen, having been transformed into portions of
stoves. These go to the polishing room, and thence to the finishing
apartment, where the detached pieces are hammered together, with
deafening noise.
Troy rejoices also in a paper boat manufactory--the boats being made
especially for racing and feats of skill. They find sale principally in
foreign markets, and at stated seasons divide the attention of the
English with the "Derby." The boats are made of layers of brown paper
put together with shellac.
There is a large society of Grand Army men in Albany, one Post numbering
five or six hundred members. Their rooms are tastefully decorated, and
hung with patriotic pictures, which make the blood thrill anew, as in
the days of '61. A miniature fort occupies the centre of the room, and
emblematic cannon and crossed swords are to be seen in conspicuous
places.
A trip down the Hudson, in summer, from Albany to New York, is said to
afford some of the finest scenery in the world, not excepting the
famous sail on the castled Rhine; and the large river boats which leave
Albany wharf daily, for our American London, are, indeed, floating
palaces. The capital city of the Empire State is not, therefore, without
its attractions, despite the fact that it was settled by the Dutch, and
that a sort of Rip Van Winkle sleep seems, at times, to have fastened
itself upon the drowsy spirit of Albanian enterprise.
CHAPTER II.
BOSTON.
Geographical Location of Boston.--Ancient Names.--Etymology
of the Word Massachusetts.--Changes in the Peninsula.--Noted
Points of Interest.--Boston Common.--Old Elm.--Duel Under its
Branches.--Soldiers' Monument.--Fragmentary History.--Courtship
on the Common.--Faneuil Hall and Market.--Old State House.--
King's Chapel.--Brattle Square Church.--New State House.--
New Post Office.--Old South Church.--Birthplace of Franklin.--
"News Letter."--City Hall.--Custom House.--Providence Railroad
Station.--Places of General Interest.
Boston sits like a queen at the head of her harbor on the Massachusetts
coast, and wears her crown of past and present glory with an easy and
self-satisfied grace. Her commercial importance is large; her ships
float on many seas; and she rejoices now in the same uncompromising
spirit of independence which controlled the actions of the celebrated
"Tea Party" in the pioneer days of '76. Her safe harbor is one of the
best on the Atlantic seaboard, and is dotted with over a hundred
islands. On some of these, garrisoned forts look grimly seaward.
Boston is built on a peninsula about four miles in circumference, and to
this fact may be attributed the origin of her first name, Shawmutt, that
word signifying in the Indian vocabulary a peninsula. Its second name,
Tremount, took its rise from the three peaks of Beacon Hill, prominently
seen from Charlestown by the first settlers there. Many of the colonists
were from old Boston, in Lincolnshire, England, and on the seventh of
September, 1630, this name supplanted the first two.
[Illustration: BOSTON, AS VIEWED FROM THE BAY.]
In this connection may be given the etymology of the word Massachusetts,
which is somewhat curious. It is said that the red Sachem who governed
in this part of the country had his seat on a hill about two leagues
south of Boston. It lay in the shape of an Indian arrow's head, which in
their language was called Mos. Wetuset, pronounced _Wechuset_, was also
their name for a hill, and the Sachem's seat was therefore named
Mosentuset, which a slight variation changed into the name afterwards
received by the colony. Boston, as the centre of this colony, began from
the first to assume the importance of the first city of New England. Its
history belongs not only to itself, but to the country at large, as the
pioneer city in the grand struggle for constitutional and political
liberty. A large majority of the old landmarks which connected it with
the stormy days of the past, and stood as monuments of its primeval
history, are now obliterated by time and the steady march of
improvements. The face of the country is changed. The three peaks of
Beacon Hill, which once lifted themselves to the height of a hundred and
thirty feet above the sea, are now cut down into insignificant knolls.
The waters of the "black bay" which swelled around its base have receded
to give place to the encroachments of the city. Made lands, laid out in
streets and set thick with dwellings, supplant the mud flats formerly
covered by the tide. Thousands of acres which were once the bed of the
harbor are now densely populated.
The house on Harrison avenue where the writer is at present domiciled is
located on the spot which once was occupied by one of the best wharves
in the city. The largest ocean craft moored to this wharf, on account of
the great depth of water flowing around it. The land has steadily
encroached on the water, until the peninsula that was is a peninsula no
longer, and its former geographical outlines have dropped out of sight
in the whirl and rush of the populous and growing city. A few old
landmarks of the past, however, still remain, linking the _now_ and the
_then_, and among the most prominent of these are Faneuil Hall, the Old
South Church, which was founded in 1660, King's Chapel, the Old Granary
Burying-ground, Brattle Square Church, quite recently demolished, the
old State House, and Boston Common. The Common antedates nearly all
other special features of the city, and is the pride of Bostonians. Here
juvenile Boston comes in winter to enjoy the exciting exercise of
"coasting," and woe to the unwary foot passenger who may chance to
collide with the long sleds full of noisy boys which shoot like black
streaks from the head of Beacon street Mall, down the diagonal length of
the Common, to the junction of Boylston and Tremont streets. This winter
(1874-5), owing to several unfortunate accidents to passers-by across
the snowy roads of the coasters, elevated bridges have been erected, to
meet the wants of the people without interfering with the rights of the
boys. The Common was originally a fifty-acre lot belonging to a Mr.
Blackstone. This was in 1633. It was designed as a cow pasture and
training ground, and was sold to the people of Boston the next year,
1634, for thirty pounds. The city was taxed for this purpose to the
amount of not less than five shillings for each inhabitant. Mr.
Blackstone afterwards removed to Cumberland, Rhode Island, where he
died, in the spring of 1675. It is said that John Hancock's cows were
pastured on the Common in the days of the Revolution. On the tenth of
May, 1830, the city authorities forbade the use of the Common for cows,
at which time it was inclosed by a two-rail fence. The handsome iron
paling which now surrounds the historic area has long since taken the
place of the ancient fence.
Perhaps the most noticeable, certainly the most famous object on Boston
Common, is the Great Tree, or Old Elm, which stands in a hollow of rich
soil near a permanent pond of water, not far from the centre of the
enclosure. It is of unknown age. It was probably over a hundred years
old in 1722. Governor Winthrop came to Boston in 1630, but before that
period the tree probably had its existence. It antedates the arrival of
the first settlers, and it seems not unlikely that the Indian Shawmutt
smoked the pipe of peace under its pendent branches. In 1844 its height
was given at seventy-two and a half feet--girth, one foot above the
ground, twenty-two and a half feet. The storms of over two centuries
have vented their fury upon it and destroyed its graceful outlines. But
in its age and decrepitude it has been tenderly nursed and partially
rejuvenated. Broken limbs, torn off by violent gales, have been replaced
by means of iron clamps, and such skill as tree doctors may use. In the
last century a hollow orifice in its trunk was covered with canvas and
its edges protected by a mixture of clay and other substances. Later, in
1854, Mr. J. V. C. Smith, Mayor of the city, placed around it an iron
fence bearing the following inscription:--
"THE OLD ELM."
"This tree has been standing here for an unknown period. It is
believed to have existed before the settlement of Boston, being
full-grown in 1722. Exhibited marks of old age in 1792, and was
nearly destroyed by a storm in 1832. Protected by an iron
inclosure in 1854."
What a long array of exciting events has this tree witnessed! In the
stirring days of the Revolution the British army was encamped around it.
In 1812 the patriot army occupied the same place, in protecting the town
against the invasion of a foreign foe. Tumultuous crowds have here
assembled on election and Independence days, and its sturdy branches
have faced alike the anger of the elements and the wrath of man. Public
executions have taken place under its shadow, and witches have dangled
from its branches in death's last agonies. Here, in 1740, Rev. George
Whitfield preached his farewell sermon to an audience of thirty thousand
people; and here, also, at an earlier date, old Matoonas, of the Nipmuck
tribe, was shot to death by the dusky warriors of Sagamore John, on a
charge of committing the first murder in Massachusetts Colony. An
incident of still more romantic interest belongs to the history of the
Old Elm. On July third, 1728, this spot was the scene of a mortal combat
between two young men belonging to the upper circle of Boston society.
The cause of dispute was the possession of an unknown fair one. The
names of the young men were Benjamin Woodbridge and Henry Phillips, both
about twenty years old. The time was evening, the weapons rapiers, and
Woodbridge was fatally dispatched by a thrust from the rapier of his
antagonist. Phillips fled to a British ship of war lying in the harbor,
and was borne by fair breezes to English shores. He did not long survive
his opponent, however, dying, it is said, of despair, shortly after his
arrival in England.
Frog Pond, or Fountain Pond, near the Old Elm, has been transformed from
a low, marshy spot of stagnant water, to the clear sheet which is now
the delight of the boys. October twenty-fifth, 1848, the water from
Cochituate Lake was introduced through this pond, and in honor of the
occasion a large procession marched through the principal streets of the
city to the Common. Addresses, hymns, prayers, and songs, were the order
of the day, and when the pure water of the lake leaped through the
fountain gate, the ringing of bells and boom of cannon attested the joy
of the people.
Near the Old Elm and the Frog Pond, on Flagstaff Hill, the corner-stone
of a Soldiers' Monument was laid, September eighteenth, 1871. Some idea
of the style of the monument may be gathered from the following
description:--"Upon a granite platform will rest the plinth, in the form
of a Greek cross, with four panels, in which will be inserted
bas-reliefs representing the Sanitary Commission, the Navy, the
Departure for the War and the Return. At each of the four corners will
be a statue, of heroic size, representing Peace, History, the Army, and
the Navy. The die upon the plinth will also be richly sculptured, and
upon it, surrounding the shaft in alto-relievo, will be four allegorical
figures representing the North, South, East and West. The shaft is to be
an elegant Doric column, the whole to be surmounted by a colossal statue
of America resting on a hemisphere, guarded by four figures of the
American eagle, with outspread wings. 'America' will hold in her left
hand the national standard, and in her right she will support a sheathed
sword, and wreaths for the victors. The extreme height of the monument
will be ninety feet. The artist is Martin Millmore, of Boston."
In the year 1668, a certain Mr. Dunton visited Boston, and wrote the
following letter to his friends in England. It will serve to show the
custom of Bostonians on training day, and recall some of the scenes
which transpired over two hundred years ago on the historic Common. "It
is a custom here," he says, "for all that can bear arms to go out on a
training day. I thought a pike was best for a young soldier, so I
carried a pike; 'twas the first time I ever was in arms. Having come
into the field, the Captain called us into line to go to prayer, and
then prayed himself, and when the exercise was done the Captain likewise
concluded with a prayer. Solemn prayer upon a field, on training day, I
never knew but in New England, where it seems it is a common custom.
About three o'clock, our exercises and prayers being over, we had a very
noble dinner, to which all the clergymen were invited."
In 1640, Arthur Perry was Town Drummer for all public purposes. There
being no meeting-house bell in town, he called the congregation together
with his drum. "He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in
that capacity, for which yearly service he received five pounds. The
second additional musical instrument was a clarionet, performed on by a
tall, strapping fellow with but one eye, who headed the Ancient and
Honorable a few strides." The first band of music used in Boston was in
1790, at the funeral of Colonel Joseph Jackson. Yearly, for a period of
between two and three hundred years, this military company has appeared
on the Common, to be received by the Governor of the State, with his
aides, who appointed the new commissions for the year to come and
received those for the year just past. Their anniversary occurs on the
first Monday in June.
The Brewer Fountain, the Deer Park and the Tremont and Beacon Street
Malls complete the list of conspicuous attractions on the Common. The
Beacon Street Mall is perhaps the finest, being heavily shaded by
thickly-set rows of American elms. A particular portion of this mall is
described as the scene of at least _one_ courtship, and how many more
may have transpired in the neighborhood history or tradition tells us
not!
The "Autocrat of the Breakfast-table" loved the schoolmistress who
partook of her daily food at the same board with himself and listened
quietly to his wise morning talks, with only an occasional sensible
reply. The schoolmistress returned his passion, but the young Autocrat,
uncertain of his fate, rashly determined that if she said him "nay" to
this most important question of his life, he would take passage in the
next steamer bound for Liverpool, and never look upon her face again.
The fateful hour which was to decide his fate approached, and the
Autocrat proposed a walk. They took the direction of the Beacon Street
Mall, and what happened next his own charming pen-picture best
describes:
"It was on the Common that we were walking. The _mall_ or boulevard of
our Common, you know, has various branches leading from it in different
directions. One of these runs down from opposite Joy street, southward,
across the length of the whole Common, to Boylston street. We called it
the long path, and were fond of it.
"I felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably robust habit) as we came
opposite the head of this path on that morning. I think I tried to speak
twice without making myself distinctly audible. At last I got out the
question:--'Will you take the long path with me?'
"'Certainly,' said the schoolmistress, 'with much pleasure.'
"'Think,' I said, 'before you answer; if you take the long path with me
now, I shall interpret it that we are to part no more!' The
schoolmistress stepped back with a sudden movement, as if an arrow had
struck her.
"One of the long, granite blocks used as seats was hard by, the one you
may still see close by the Ginko tree. 'Pray, sit down,' I said.
"'No, no,' she answered softly, 'I will walk the _long path_ with you.'"
Propositions to convert the Common into public thoroughfares have ever
met with stout resistance from "we the people"--the Commoners of
Boston--and only this winter a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall for the
purpose of protesting against this causeless desecration. The occasion
of the meeting was a clique movement to have a street-car track run
through the sacred ground. One of the speakers--a workingman--waxed
eloquent on the theme of the "poor man's park, where in summer a soiled
son of labor might buy a cent apple and lounge at his ease under the
shady trees."
In 1734, by vote of the town, a South End and North End Market were
established. Before this the people were supplied with meats and
vegetables at their own doors. In 1740, Peter Faneuil offered to build a
market-house at his own expense, and present it to the town. His
proposition was carried by seven majority. Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of
Liberty," was first built two stories high, forty feet wide, and one
hundred feet in length. It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1761, and in
1805 it was enlarged to eighty feet in width and twenty feet greater
elevation. "The Hall is never let for money," but is at the disposal of
the people whenever a sufficient number of persons, complying with
certain regulations, ask to have it opened. The city charter of Boston
contains a provision forbidding the sale or lease of this Hall. For a
period of over eighty years--from the time of its erection until
1822--all town meetings were held within its walls. It is "peculiarly
fitted for popular assemblies, possessing admirable acoustic
properties."
The capacity of the Hall is increased by the absence of all seats on the
floor--the gallery only being provided with these conveniences.
Portraits cover the walls. Healy's picture of Webster replying to Hayne
hangs in heavy gilt, back of the rostrum. Paintings of the two Adamses,
of General Warren and Commodore Preble, of Edward Everett and Governor
Andrew, adorn other portions of the Hall. Nor are Washington and Lincoln
forgotten. The pictured faces of these noble patriots of the past seem
to shed a mysterious influence around, and silently plead the cause of
right and of justice. The words which echoed from this rostrum in the
days before the Revolution still ring down from the past, touching the
present with a living power whenever liberty needs a champion or the
people an advocate.
Faneuil Hall Market, or Quincy Market, as it is popularly called, grew
out of a recommendation by Mayor Quincy, in 1823. Two years later the
corner-stone was laid, and in 1827 the building was completed. It is
five hundred and thirty-five feet long, fifty feet wide, and two stories
high. Its site was reclaimed from the tide waters, and one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars were expended in its erection.
The capital for its construction was managed in such a judicious way
that not only the market was built, but six new streets were opened and
a seventh enlarged, without a cent of city tax or a dollar's increase of
the city's debt.
The Old State House was located on the site of the first public market,
at the head or western end of State street. It was commenced with a
bequest of five hundred pounds from Robert Keayne, the first commander
of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company." It was known as the
Town House, and was erected about the year 1670. The present Old State
House was built in 1748, on the same site. Its vicinity is historic. The
square in State street below the Old State House, was the scene of the
Boston massacre, March fifth, 1770. "The funeral of the victims of the
massacre was attended by an immense concourse of people from all parts
of New England." About the same year also, in front of this Town House,
occurred the famous battle of the broom, between a fencing master just
arrived from England and Goff, the regicide. This English fencer erected
an elevated platform in front of the Town House and paraded, sword in
hand, for three days, challenging all America for a trial of his skill.
At this time three of the judges who signed the death warrant for
beheading Charles the First, of England, had escaped to Boston, and were
concealed by the people of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Their names
were Goff, Whalley and Dixwell, for whom, dead or alive, Parliament
offered one hundred pounds each. The fencing master made such a stir
about his skill that Goff, hearing of it at his place of concealment in
the woods of Hadley, came to Boston and confronted the wordy hero. His
sword was a birch broom, his shield a white oak cheese slung from his
arm in a napkin. After he had soaked his broom in a mud-puddle he
mounted the platform for battle. The fencing master ordered him off, but
Goff stood his ground and neatly parried the first thrust of the
braggart. The battle then commenced in earnest, and the cheese three
times received the sword of the fencing master. Before it could be
withdrawn, Goff each time daubed the face of his antagonist with the
muddy broom, amid the huzzas of the crowd which had gathered from all
quarters to witness the contest. At the third lunge into the huge cheese
the swordsman threw aside his small blade, and, unsheathing a
broadsword, rushed furiously upon Goff.
"Stop, sir!" exclaimed Goff; "hitherto, you see, I have only played with
you, and have not attempted to hurt you, but if you come at me with the
broadsword, know that I will certainly take your life!"
"Who can you be?" replied the other; "you are either Goff, Whalley or
the devil, for there was no other man in England could beat me!"
Goff immediately retired, amid the plaudits of the crowd, and the
subdued fencing master slunk away with chagrin.
The interior arrangement of the Old State House has been entirely
remodeled, and is now used exclusively for business.
King's Chapel, at the corner of Tremont and School streets, is another
noteworthy point of interest. The corner-stone was laid in 1750, and
four years were occupied in its construction, the stone for the building
material being imported. Its church-yard was Boston's first
burial-ground, and some of the tombstones date back as far as 1658. Mr.
Isaac Johnson, one of the founders of Boston, is said to have here found
his last resting place. John Winthrop, his son and grandson--all
governors of Connecticut, lay in the same family tomb in this yard. Four
pastors of the "First Church of Christ in Boston" are also buried here.
The body of General Joseph Warren was placed in King's Chapel before it
was re-interred at Cambridge, and "dust to dust" has been pronounced
over many other distinguished men at this stone church. The edifice is
constructed in a peculiar way, with Doric columns of gray stone, and is
sure to attract the attention of the stranger. It was the first
Episcopal, as well as the first Unitarian church in Boston, and its
pulpit is now the exponent of Unitarian doctrine, added to the Church of
England service.
Going down Washington street towards Charlestown, we come to the famous
Brattle Square, and its church, which once consecrated the spot. Here
Edward Everett preached to his listening flock, and here, on July
thirtieth, 1871, Dr. S. K. Lothrop pronounced the last sermon within its
walls. Its ancient bell has ceased to ring, and the old-fashioned pulpit
echoes no more to the tread of distinguished men.
The first Brattle Square Church was built in 1699. It was torn down in
1772, and the next year rebuilt on the same site, the dedication taking
place July twenty-fifth.
On the night of March sixteenth, 1776, the British under Lord Howe were
encamped in this neighborhood, some of the regiments using Brattle
Square Church as a barrack. A cannon ball, fired from Cambridge, where
the American army was then stationed, struck the church, and was
afterwards built into the wall of the historic edifice, above the porch.
On the next night ten thousand of Lord Howe's troops embarked from
Boston. In 1871 the building was sold by the society, and a handsome
granite block now takes its place.
The new State House on Beacon street is one of the most prominent
geographical points in all Boston, and the view from its cupola is
second only to that obtained from the glorious height of Bunker Hill
monument. Its gilded dome is a conspicuous object far and near, and
glitters in the sunlight like veritable gold. The land on which the
State House stands was bought by the town from Governor Hancock's heirs,
and given to the State. The corner-stone was laid July fourth, 1793, the
ceremony being conducted by the Freemasons, Paul Revere, as Grand
Master, at their head. The massive stone was drawn to its place by
fifteen white horses, that being the number then of the States in the
Union. Ex-Governor Samuel Adams delivered the address. The Legislature
first convened in the new State House in January, 1798. In 1852 it was
greatly enlarged, and in 1867 the interior was entirely remodeled.
Chantry's statue of Washington, the statues of Webster and Mann, busts
of Adams, Lincoln and Sumner, and that beautiful piece of art in marble,
the full-length statue of Governor Andrew, in the Doric Hall--all
attract the attention of the visitor. In this rotunda there are also
copies of the tombstones of the Washington family of Brington Parish,
England, presented by Charles Sumner, and the torn and soiled
battle-flags of Massachusetts regiments, hanging in glass cases. In the
Hall of Representatives and the Senate Chamber, relics of the past are
scattered about, and the walls are adorned with portraits of
distinguished men. The eastern wing of the State House is occupied with
the State Library Large numbers of visitors yearly throng the building
and climb the circular stairways for the fine view of Boston to be
obtained from the cupola.
The new Post Office is accounted one of the finest public buildings in
New England. It has a frontage on Devonshire street, of over two hundred
feet and occupies the entire square between Milk and Water streets. It
was several years in building, being occupied this winter for the first
time since the great fire. Its cost was something like three millions of
dollars. Its style of architecture is grand in the extreme. Groups of
statuary ornament the central projections of the building, and orders of
pilasters, columns, entablatures and balustrades add to it their elegant
finish. Its roof is an elaboration of the Louvre and Mansard styles, and
the interior arrangement cannot be surpassed for beauty or convenience.
It has three street facades, from one of which a broad staircase leads
to the four upper stories. On these floors are located important public
offices. The Post Office corridor is twelve feet in height and extends
across two sides of the immense building. At the time of the great fire
of 1872 this structure was receiving its roof, and became a barrier
against the onward sweep of the flames. The massive granite walls were
cracked and split, but they effectually stopped the work of the fire
fiend.
In the heart of the city, at the corner of Milk and Washington streets,
stands one of the most famous buildings in Boston, and perhaps the most
celebrated house of religious worship in the United States. It was
founded in 1669, and received the name of the Old South Church. The
first building was made of cedar, and stood for sixty years. In 1729 it
was taken down, and the present building erected on the same spot. The
interior arrangement is described as having been exceedingly quaint,
with its pulpit sounding board, its high, square pews, and double tier
of galleries. During the Revolution it was frequently used for public
meetings, and Faneuil Hall assemblies adjourned to the Old South
whenever the size of the crowd demanded it. Here the celebrated "Tea
Party" held their meetings, and discussed the measures which resulted in
consigning the British tea, together with the hated tax, to the bottom
of Boston Harbor. Here Joseph Warren delivered his famous oration on the
Boston Massacre, drawing tears from the eyes of even the British
soldiery, sent there to intimidate him. In 1775 the edifice was occupied
by the British as a place for cavalry drill, and a grog-shop was
established in one of the galleries. In 1782 the building was put in
repair, and has stood without further change until the present time,
nearly a hundred years. In 1872 it was occupied as a Post Office, and
has only been vacated this winter. Its day of religious service is
doubtless over. It will probably be used for business purposes, but
never again as a society sanctuary.
Opposite the south front of the Old South Church, on Milk street, stood
the house in which Benjamin Franklin was born. Here, on the seventeenth
of January, 1706, the great philosopher was ushered into existence, and
on the same day was christened at the Old South. When he was ten years
old, he worked with his father in a candle manufactory, on the corner of
Union and Hanover streets, at the sign of the Blue Bell. He was
afterwards printer's devil for his brother James, and at eighteen
established the fourth newspaper printed in this country. It was
entitled "The New England Courant."
The first newspaper of Boston was also the first in the colonies, and
was printed on a half sheet of Pot paper, in small pica. It was entitled
"The Boston News Letter. Published, by authority, from Monday, April
seventeenth, to Monday, April twenty-fourth, 1704." John Campbell, a
Scotchman and bookseller, was proprietor.
Now the Boston press stands in the front rank of the world's journalism,
and is commodiously accommodated; as the elegant buildings of the
_Transcript_, _Globe_, _Journal_, _Herald_ and other papers, testify.
The _Advertiser_ is the oldest daily paper in the city.
It is impossible to properly describe Boston within the limits of so
short a chapter, and only a glance at a few other points of interest
will therefore be given.
The City Hall, on School street, is on the site of the house of Isaac
Johnson, who lived here in 1630, and who has been styled the founder of
Boston. The corner-stone of the new building was laid December
twenty-second, 1672. It is of Concord granite, and is in the finest
style of modern architecture. Here, under the arching roof of the French
dome, the fire-alarm telegraph centres, and the sentinel who stands
guard at this important point never leaves his post, night or day. The
mysterious signal, though touched in the city's remotest rim, is
instantly obeyed, and in less time than it takes to tell it the brave
firemen are rushing to the rescue. A fine bronze statue of Benjamin
Franklin stands in the inclosure in front of the building.
The Custom House, on State street, is built of granite, even to the
roof. It is constructed in the form of a Greek cross, and is surrounded
by thirty-two granite columns, a little over five feet in diameter. The
site was reclaimed from the tide waters, and the massive building rests
upon about three thousand piles. Over a million dollars were expended in
its erection.
The Old Granary Burying-ground, once a part of the Common, received its
name from a public granary which formerly stood within its limits. Some
of the most distinguished dust in history is consigned to its keeping.
Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, the victims of
the Boston Massacre, the parents of Franklin, the first Mayor of Boston,
and a long list of other names famed in their day and ours, lie buried
within this ancient ground. Near by, between the Common and the Granary
Cemetery, stands the celebrated Park Street Church, of which W. H. H.
Murray, the brilliant writer and preacher, was, until lately, the
pastor. It used to be known as "brimstone corner." This winter we
attended Park Street Church on the same day with the _brunette_ monarch,
Kalakaua and suite.
One of the most commodious and elegant stations in New England, or this
country, is that of the Boston and Providence Railroad. It is about
eight hundred feet in length, and is built of brick, with two shades of
sandstone. The track house is seven hundred feet long, covering five
tracks, and has a span of one hundred and twenty-five feet. Its cost is
somewhere in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand dollars. The
interior arrangement is quite novel in style. The waiting-rooms open out
of an immense central apartment with a balcony reaching around the
entire inner circumference. Theatre tickets, flower and cigar stands, a
billiard room and a barber shop, are some of the special features of the
station. Refreshment rooms and dressing rooms, in oak and crimson, are
also an integral part of the building.
Hundreds of interesting places in this singular and devious city of
Boston must go unnoticed in these pages. The beautiful Tremont Temple
and its Sunday temperance lectures; Music Hall, with its big organ of
six thousand pipes, through one of which Henry Ward Beecher is said to
have crawled, before its erection; the Parker House, one of the crack
hotels of the city; the Revere House, where all the distinguished people
stop, with its special suite of rooms upholstered in blue satin, where
King Kalakaua smoked his cigars in peace; the beneficent Public Library;
the Boston AthenA|um, home of art; the Boston Theatre, the new and
elegant Globe Theatre, and the suburban limits, including Charlestown
and famous Bunker Hill, Cambridge and Harvard University, Mt. Auburn,
Dorchester Heights, Roxbury and East Boston, which was formerly known as
Noddle's Island, and where now the Cunard line of steamers arrive and
depart--all these tempt my pen to linger within their charmed
localities. But it is a temptation to be resisted. When, after many
weeks' sojourn in the intellectual "Hub," I was at last seated in the
outward bound train, ticketed for the west, a regret, born of pleasant
associations and a taste of Boston atmosphere, took possession of me.
The farewells I uttered held an undertone of pain. But the train sped
onward, unheeding, and the city of the harbor seemed to dissolve and
disappear in the smoke of her thousand chimneys, like a dream of the
night.
CHAPTER III.
BUFFALO.
The Niagara Frontier.--Unfortunate Fate of the Eries.--The
Battle of Doom.--Times of 1812.--Burning of Buffalo.--Early
Names.--Origin of Present Name.--Growth and Population.--
Railway Lines.--Queen of the Great Lakes.--Fort Porter and Fort
Erie.--International Bridge.--Iron Manufacture.--Danger of the
Niagara.--Forest Lawn Cemetery.--Decoration Day.--The Spaulding
Monument.--Parks and Boulevard.--Delaware Avenue.--On the
Terrace.--Elevator District.--Church and Schools.--Grosvenor
Library.--Historical Rooms.--Journalism.--Public Buildings.--
City Hall.--Dog-carts and their Attendants.
Buffalo is a kind of half-way house between the East and the West--if
anything may be called west this side of the Mississippi River--and it
partakes of the characteristics of both sections. It was once the chief
trading post on the Niagara frontier, and its vicinity has been the
scene of many a hotly contested battle between dusky races now forever
lost to this part of the world, and almost forgotten of history. Long
ago, the Eries, or the Cat Nation, lived on the southern shores of the
same lake whose waters now lap the wharves of Buffalo. They left it the
heritage of their name, and that is all.
The race, in its lack of calculation, did not greatly differ from many
isolated instances of the paler race of mankind around us now; for it
died of a too o'erreaching ambition. Jealous of the distant fame of the
Five Nations, the Eries set out to surprise and conquer them in deadly
battle, and themselves met the fate they had meant for the Iroquois.
They were exterminated; and few returned to the squaws in their lonely
wigwams, to tell the tale of doom.
The noble race of Senecas succeeded the Cat Nation on the shores of Lake
Erie, and after them, from across the great seas, came the dominant,
pushing, civilizing Anglo-Saxons.
When the war of 1812 broke out, Buffalo was an exceedingly infant city,
and did not promise well at all. Nobody would have then predicted her
importance of to-day. Later, in 1813, the battle of Black Rock was
fought, and while a few old soldiers made a determined stand against the
onset of the solid British phalanx, most of the raw recruits fled down
Niagara street in a regular Bull Run panic, chased by the pursuing foe.
The village was then fired by the enemy, and every building except one
was burned to the ground. The description of the suffering and flight of
women and children, during that harrowing time, draws largely on the
sympathies of the reader, and sounds strangely similar to the newspaper
accounts of the burning of Western and Pennsylvania towns, of more
recent occurrence.
But, though Buffalo was destroyed by fire, it shortly evinced all the
power of the fabled phoenix, and rose from its ashes to a grander
future than its early settlers ever dreamed of prophesying for it. The
young city, however, suffered in its first days from a multiplicity of
names, struggling under no less than three. The Indians named it
Te-osah-wa, or "Place of Basswood;" the Holland Land Company dragged the
Dutch name of New Amsterdam across the ocean and endeavored to drop it
at the foot of Lake Erie; and finally, it took its present name of
Buffalo, from the frequent visits of the American Bison to a salt
spring which welled up about three miles out of the village, on Buffalo
creek.
I think Buffalonians have reason to be grateful that the last name
proved more tenacious than the other two. Think of the "Queen City" of
the most Eastern West being overshadowed by the tiled-roof name of New
Amsterdam!
It was not until 1822, on the completion of the Erie Canal, that Buffalo
began the rapid advance towards prosperity that now marks its growth,
the muster-roll of its population, at this writing, numbering the round
figures of one hundred and sixty-one thousand. It now rejoices in
business streets three and four miles long--full-fledged two-thirds of
the distance, and the remainder embryonic. The harbor-front, facing the
ship canal and the Lake, bristles with the tall tops of huge grain
elevators--a whole village of them. A network of railroad lines, and the
commerce of the great Lakes, have combined to build up and carry on a
vast business at this point, and to make it a station of much importance
between the East and the West. The rails of the New York Central, the
Great Western, the Lake Shore, and the Buffalo and Philadelphia roads,
besides many other lines, all centre here, carrying their tide of human
freight, mainly westward, and transporting the cereals of the great
grain regions in exchange for the manufactured products of less favored
localities. When the representative of New York or New England wishes to
go west, he finds his most direct route by rail, via Buffalo; or, if he
desires a most charming water trip, he embarks, also via Buffalo, on one
of the handsome propellers which ply the Lakes between this city and
Chicago, and steaming down the length of Lake Erie, up through the
narrower St. Clair and the broad Huron, he passes the wooded shores of
Mackinac's beautiful island, surmounted by its old fort, and entering
Lake Michigan, in due time is landed on the breezy Milwaukee banks, or
is set down within that maelstrom of business, named Chicago. Indeed,
after Chicago, Buffalo is the ranking city of the Lakes, and is said to
cover more territory than almost any city in the country outside the
great metropolis--the distance, from limit to limit, averaging seven and
eight miles. Its suburban drives and places of summer resort, owing to
the superior water localities of this region, are much out of the usual
line. Niagara River, famous the world over, allures the daring boatman
from Fort Porter onward, and the wonderful Falls themselves are only
eighteen miles beyond that. Fort Porter, about two miles out from the
heart of the city, is located just at the point where Niagara River
leaves the lake in its mad race to the Falls. Here the banks are high
and command a wide water prospect. Away to the westward the blue lake
and the blue sky seem to meet and blend together as one; and in the
opposite direction the rushing river spreads out like another lake,
towards Squaw Island and Black Rock. One or more companies of United
States Regulars are stationed here, and the barracks and officers'
quarters surround a square inclosure, which is used as a parade ground.
Graveled walks are laid out around it, and a grassy foot-path leads from
the soldiers' quarters to the site of the old Fort on the brow of a
gentle elevation just beyond. The Fort was built for frontier defence,
in 1812, and the interior, now grass-grown and unused, is so deep that
the roof of the stone structure, once appropriated as a magazine, is
nearly on a level with the high ground at your feet. During our last
war the building was occupied as a place of confinement for Rebel
prisoners. It is now in a state of advanced collapse, and the battered
walls and open windows expose to view the ruin within. A small, square
outhouse, near one of the embrasures higher up, which was used for
firing hot shot, is still intact. Field pieces, pointing grimly towards
the Lake, and little heaps of cannon balls lying near, bring freshly to
mind the nation's last war days, when "the winding rivers ran red" with
the mingled blood of comrade and foe. The sunset gun boomed over the
waters while we lingered at the old Fort, and the fading glow of day
bridged the river with arches of crimson and gold.
Diagonally opposite from this point, one looks across into the Queen's
dominions, where lies the little village of Fort Erie, historic as the
place from which the British crossed to our shores on the night
preceding the burning of Buffalo.
At Black Rock, about two miles below Fort Porter, the great
International Railroad Bridge, a mile in length, spans the mighty river,
having superseded the old-time ferry. This bridge is the connecting link
on the Grand Trunk Road, between Canada and the States.
Near its terminus, on the American side, are located the immense
malleable iron works of Pratt & Letchworth, said to be the largest
manufactory of the kind in the world. Their goods certainly find a
world-wide market, taking in New England and the Pacific coast, Mexico,
England and Australia. A pretty picture of the country seat of Mr.
Letchworth, at Portage, New York, may be seen at the Historical Rooms.
It is named Glen Iris, and is surrounded by handsome grounds, groves
and fountains.
Boating on the Niagara is much in vogue here, notwithstanding the rapid
current and the dreadful certainty of the Falls in case of accident. The
keeper of a boat house at Black Rock, opposite Squaw Island, told me
that the proportion of accidents on the river was frightfully large--far
greater than ever got into the public prints.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK.]
Forest Lawn Cemetery--Buffalo's city of the dead--is one of the
loveliest burial places between Brooklyn and Chicago. It is picturesque
with hill and dale and grove, not to mention a large artificial lake
lapped in one of its grassy hollows, and a winding, wide and
rocky-bedded creek running through it. The name of the creek is spelled
S-c-a-j-a-q-u-a-d-a and pronounced Kon-joc'-e-ta. The Pratt monument, in
a remote portion of the grounds, is perhaps the handsomest in the
cemetery. It looks like a gothic gateway with fluted pillars of Italian
marbles. A sculptured image of a child of one of the Fargos--of the
famous Wells, Fargo & Co.--rests under a glass case on the lap of earth
which marks her grave. The head is peculiarly noble, reminding one of
that of the Belvidere Apollo. It is said to be a truthful likeness.
Decoration Day at Forest Lawn was a picture long to be remembered. On a
little knoll under the trees at the entrance to the grounds the military
and civic processions assembled to listen to the eloquent words of Rev.
Mr. Barrett, of Rochester. When the brief address was concluded, and the
band music and singing were over, we followed the committees of
decoration to the scattered graves of the patriot dead, and witnessed
the strewing of flowers upon their sacred dust. A hushed circle above
the mound of earth, a few fitly-spoken words from one of their number
who knew the soldier-hero, and the floral tributes were tenderly placed
above the sleeper's head. Thus, oh heroes, shall your memory be kept
forever green! The flowers were wrought into every symbolic shape by
which the language of affection could be translated. Crowns, and
crosses, and stars, and anchors of hope, spoke their love and solace.
The graves of the Confederate dead were also decorated, and side by
side, under a common mantle of flowers, the Blue and the Gray received
alike the benediction of the hour.
"Then beautiful flowers strew,
This sweet memorial day,
With tears and love for the Blue,
And pity for the fallen Gray."
At Forest Lawn, also, on the historic seventeenth of June--the Bunker
Hill Centennial--a monument was dedicated to the memory of nine
Spauldings who fought at that battle, one hundred years before. The
granite cenotaph was erected by E. G. Spaulding, of Buffalo, descended
from the same blood with the heroic nine. The names of the list
inscribed on the Western front of the monument were headed by that of
his grandfather, Levi Spaulding, who was captain of the ninth company,
third regiment, under Colonel Reed, of the New Hampshire troops, engaged
on that day.
"For bright and green the memory still
Of those who stood on Bunker Hill,
And nobly met the battle shock,
Firm as their native granite rock."
Speeches reviving Revolutionary memories, and fresh descriptions of the
Bunker Hill contest, were in order. There was a semi-military
procession, and the interest felt in the occasion was general. A grand
reception at Mr. Spaulding's residence in the evening, concluded the
patriotic anniversary.
The large park adjoining Forest Lawn is plentiful in attractions,
including the delights of boating on the Konjoceta and loitering in the
shadowy coolness of the primeval woods. In addition to these, Buffalo is
completing a grand boulevard system which encircles half the City,
beginning at what is called the Front, in the neighborhood of Fort
Porter, and making the circuit of the outskirts through Bidwell and
Lincoln and Humboldt parkways to the intersection of Genesee street with
the Parade, on the opposite arc of the circle. One is sure to find cool
breezes along this drive, though the day be the hottest of the season.
Indeed, the summer heats are, at all times, shorn of their fervor in
this Queen City of the Lakes, and its climatic advantages are,
therefore, superior.
Delaware Avenue is the leading street of Buffalo for private residences,
and here much of the aristocracy do congregate. It is about three miles
long, and double rows of shade trees line either side. Fast driving on
this avenue is licensed by city authority, and racing down its gentle
incline is much in vogue. In winter, when sleighing is good, this is
carried to greater excess, and the snowy road is black with flying
vehicles. Main street, the principal business thoroughfare of the city,
at least for retail trade, is wide, well paved and straight, and is
built up with substantial business blocks. Its sister thoroughfare on
the east, Washington street, towards the lower end as it approaches the
lake, degenerates into manufacturing, and the buzz of machinery and
incessant din of hammers break in on the maiden meditations of the
passive sight-seer.
As one approaches the Terrace, which is an elbow of blocks at one end
and a diagonal at the other, one is confronted by a confusion of cross
streets, which look as if they had been gotten up expressly to
demoralize one's points of compass. They all look out on Buffalo harbor
and the sea-wall beyond. Ohio street, following the bend of the harbor,
is the great elevator district of the greatest grain mart in the world.
Here, when business is at high tide, between two and three million
bushels of grain per day are transferred by these giant monsters with
high heads. The business places of this department of Buffalo enterprise
are located principally on Central Wharf, in this vicinity, which fronts
the harbor and which is crowded with offices two tiers deep.
Along the wharf the very air is charged with bustle and activity.
Vessels of all descriptions are arriving and departing at all hours, and
the commerce of the great lakes pours its flood tide into Buffalo
through this gateway.
As for churches and schools, the city overflows with them. It is
sprinkled in all directions with handsome religious edifices, like
interrogation points, in stone and brick, asking the questions of a
higher life. And there are thirty-six public schools, besides the State
Normal, the Central, and the Buffalo Female Academy. This last is under
the able guidance of Dr. Chester. But even these do not complete the
list, as I understand there are numerous other private institutions of
learning.
In one of the triangular pieces of ground where the three streets of
Niagara, Erie and Church make their entrance into Main street, stands
the picturesque structure of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. It is
built of brown stone, and the creeping ivy nearly covers one end of it,
from the crosses and minarets at the pinnacle to the trailing vines on
the ground. The gray, gothic edifice of St. Joseph's Romish Cathedral,
fronting on Franklin street, is also very large, and the interior is
rich in architectural design.
As for the immeasurable realm of books, Buffalo furnishes her children
access to this, through her libraries. Chiefest among them is the
Grosvenor, which has a bit of history all by itself. It was founded by a
retired merchant of New York, who had lived in Buffalo during the
earliest infancy of the city, and whose property had been destroyed when
the then frontier village was fired by the British and Indians, in
retaliation for the burning of Newark. This generous gentleman also left
thirty thousand dollars to found a reference library for the High School
of New York City. His will provided a legacy of ten thousand for
Buffalo, to be applied towards a fire-proof building for a library, and
the sum of thirty thousand, the interest of which was to be used for the
purchase of books. The building fund having been on interest ever since,
now amounts to twenty-eight thousand, and in addition the city has
donated what is known as the Mohawk street property, used at present for
police purposes, which will sell for an amount sufficiently large,
together with the deposit already on hand, to erect a handsome building.
The library is now located over the Buffalo Savings Bank, facing a
pleasant little park between Washington and Main streets.
In 1870 the interest had more than doubled the donation, and the
Trustees then commenced the work of making the library a living
institution. After a great deal of trouble, they at last secured the
services of Alexander J. Sheldon, who was willing, without any certain
compensation, to undertake the task of organizing and superintending the
library. Mr. Sheldon, who is an expert in books, is native to the city,
and from boyhood has been connected with this line of business. The
first year of his hard labor at the Grosvenor was rewarded by the large
sum of five hundred dollars! It was well for the institution, however,
that Mr. Sheldon was not dependent on his salary for support. He entered
into the work with an enthusiasm which surmounted all difficulties, and
which has brought the library to its present state of progress, making
it a credit to the city of Buffalo.
The large reading room is neatly fitted up with black walnut cases, nine
feet in length, and eight feet high, opening on both sides, and capable
of holding eight or nine hundred average volumes. There are about thirty
of these cases in the room, with reading tables and easy chairs
interspersed between them. The style of alcove and arrangement, which
was also Mr. Sheldon's suggestion, produces a very handsome effect. The
cases stand on black walnut platforms six inches in height, and are
surmounted by a pretty cornice. The shelves are interchangeable, and are
of such moderate height that the necessity for step-ladders is entirely
avoided. There are also dummy volumes, made to resemble books and
properly titled, which, if their mission is to deceive the uninitiated,
certainly accomplish that task. The number of volumes has now
accumulated to about eighteen thousand, and includes the choicest works
in art, science, literature and the professions. The fiction department
comprehends all the recognized standard works, but the mass of worthless
novels, which pass current in some of our circulating libraries, is
unhesitatingly excluded. The bindings are nearly all morocco, with gilt
or marbled tops, and the back of each book, as it is added to the
library, is given a coat of white shellac varnish, which prevents it, in
a great degree, from fading, and renders it easy of renovation.
The small ante-room which is used by the librarian and committeemen
contains several hundred volumes on bibliography, which is a very
important feature of such an institution. The rooms in summer are
breezy, from the lake winds, and in winter are heated by steam
radiators. A heavy cocoa matting deadens all sound on the floors, and
absolute quiet is thus secured. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Sheldon,
the Grosvenor is undoubtedly the best library for a student west of the
Hudson.
The Historical Rooms deserve notice as one of the salient points of
Buffalo, and though the Society is young and not by any means wealthy,
yet it is fairly started on its road to distinction. It was founded in
1862, and subsists principally by donations, as it is yet too poor to
make purchases of books or relics. The Rooms are located at the corner
of Main and Court streets, nearly opposite the ancient site of the old
Eagle Tavern. A picture of this hotel as it looked fifty years ago may
be seen among their collection. A huge gilt eagle surmounted the main
entrance, and an enclosed porch, or what looks like it, at one end of
the building, bore the inscription "_Coach Office_," in large letters
over the doorway. Here also is the noble looking portrait of Red Jacket,
the great Seneca Chief, together with the grand-daughter of Red Jacket's
second wife--Nancy Stevenson--taken at sixteen. This bright-eyed, brown
maiden married an Indian named Hiram Dennis, and was still living in
1872. Belts of wampum, war hatchets and pipes of peace, besides numerous
pictures, in oil, of celebrated red warriors, are among the Indian
mementoes connected with Buffalo's early history. The war of 1812 also
contributes its scattered waifs to keep alive the memory of that time.
The sword of Major-General Brown, worn at the battle of Sackett's
Harbor, and a piece of timber from Perry's ship, on which is traced the
legend "We have met the enemy and they are ours," are among the
heirlooms of history. Here, too, is a Mexican lance from the field of
Monterey, and the clarionette used in Buffalo's first band of music,
whose strains helped swell the chorus during the triumphal march of
Lafayette through her streets in 1824. A representation of the first
boat on the Erie Canal, named "Chief Engineer of Rome," looks quaint
enough. The walls of the large apartment devoted to historical
collections are covered with pictures of Buffalo's prominent men, and at
one end of the room hangs a handsome portrait of Millard Fillmore, set
in heavy gilt. Their list of books and directories is also quite large.
The story of a city's growth is always one of deep interest, and the
generations of future years will, no doubt, be grateful for these
landmarks of their early history.
Journalism in Buffalo rides on the top wave, and her leading papers have
achieved an enviable fame. Eight dailies swell the list, four of which
are German, besides ten weeklies and seven monthly papers. The history
of the _Commercial Advertiser_ dates back to October, 1811. It was
issued at that time, under the name of the _Buffalo Gazette_, by the
Salisbury brothers, from Canandaigua. With the exception of a paper at
Batavia, begun in 1807, the _Gazette_ was the only paper published at
that time in Western New York. It afterwards changed its name to the
_Buffalo Patriot_, and since 1836 it has been issued as the _Daily
Commercial Advertiser_. The _Courier_ and _Commercial_ are the ranking
papers of the city, in point of influence.
Buffalo doesn't seem to be ambitious of display in her public buildings,
judging from the quality of those already on hand. The new City Hall,
however, is a noble exception to the general rule. It is built of Maine
granite, in the form of a double Roman cross, and the tower, which is
two hundred and forty-five feet high, is surmounted by four pieces of
statuary. Its estimated cost is over two millions of dollars.
St. James' Hall and the Academy of Music are the chief places of
amusement in the city, the latter place being conducted by the Meech
brothers, two young gentlemen of acknowledged ability. Many noted stars
of the stage whose names have blazed forth in histrionic glory have here
made their first conquests, before applauding audiences. The stock
company is unusually good, Ben Rogers, stage manager and first comedian,
being a host in himself.
The fire department of the city is said to be exceedingly efficient, and
the police system has gained a reputation for thorough work which ought
to be the terror of the criminal class. It embraces a body of mounted
police, a corps of detectives and of patrolmen, besides the regular
force stationed at the harbor.
Among the minor peculiarities of Buffalo may be mentioned the
superabundance of dog carts to be seen in her streets; not the
conventional kind that goes rolling down Fifth Avenue, among the
bewildering array of splendid equipages--coupes, landaus, landaulets,
drags and what not--that daily make their way to Central Park; not any
of these; but the original dog cart, with the dog attached. He is to be
seen in all the varieties of the species, from a muddy yellow to the
fierce-looking mastiff. He is usually harnessed in company with a
collapsed old woman or a cadaverous looking little boy, and he carries
all kinds of mixed freight, from an ash barrel to a load of sticks. The
undercurrent of Buffalo society does not seem to look upon the dog in a
purely ornamental light.
This chapter on a place so fertile in suggestion might be prolonged
indefinitely; but we are gazing westward, along a line of cities whose
terminus does not end until it reaches the Golden Gate and the most
famous centre of population on the Pacific coast. Our steps are bent
toward that far-off goal, and we must say good-bye to the ancient land
of the Eries and the former haunts of the buffalo.
CHAPTER IV.
BROOKLYN.
Brooklyn a Suburb of New York.--A City of Homes.--Public
Buildings.--Churches.--Henry Ward Beecher.--Thomas De Witt
Talmage.--Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.--Justin D. Fulton, D.D.--
R. S. Storrs, D.D.--Navy Yard.--Atlantic Dock.--Washington
Park.--Prospect Park.--Greenwood Cemetery.--Evergreen and
Cyprus Hills Cemeteries.--Coney Island.--Rockaway.--Staten
Island.--Glen Island.--Future of Brooklyn.
New York holds such supremacy over the other cities of the United States
that she almost overshadows Brooklyn, which lies so near her as to be
separated only by the narrow channel of the East River. Yet Brooklyn in
any other locality would be a city of the first importance, ranking, as
she does, the third in the Union as to size and population, and
numbering not less than six hundred thousand inhabitants. Practically
New York and Brooklyn are but one city, with identical commercial
interests, and a great deal else in common. Many of the most prominent
business men of the former city find their homes in the latter; and by
means of the numerous ferries and the great Suspension Bridge there is a
constant interchange of people between them. The time may come when they
will be united under one municipal government; though, no doubt, many of
the older residents of Brooklyn, who have helped to build her up to her
present extent and prosperity, would object to losing her name and
identity. But should such a union ever take place, there will be at once
created, next to London, the largest city of the world, with a
population of not less than two millions of people.
Brooklyn is situated on the west end of Long Island, and overlooks both
the East River and the Bay. It extends nearly eight miles from north to
south, and is about four miles from east to west. Its business is not so
extended or so important as that of New York, nor, as a rule, are its
business edifices so imposing, though some of them present a very fine
appearance. It is, in fact, a great suburb of the metropolitan city,
composed more largely of dwellings than of commercial houses. Its
business men, each morning, make an exodus across the East River to Wall
street, or Broadway, or other streets of New York, and then return at
night. It is, in fact, a great city of homes, all of them comfortable
and many of them elegant. There is no squalor, such as is found in Mott
or Baxter streets and the Five Points and their neighborhood, in its
sister city. Handsome mansions, tasteful cottages and plain but neat
rows of dwellings are found everywhere, and the streets are beautifully
shaded by avenues of trees.
The public buildings of Brooklyn worthy of notice are few, compared to
those of New York. Fulton street is its principal thoroughfare, and
contains occasional handsome edifices. The City Hall, on an open square
at the junction of Fulton court and Joraleman street, is a fine, white
marble building, in Ionic style, with six columns supporting the roof of
the portico. It is surmounted by a tower one hundred and fifty-three
feet in height. Just back of this, to the southeast, and facing toward
Fulton street, is the County Court House, with a white marble front, a
Corinthian portico, and an iron dome one hundred and four feet high.
Beside the Court House, to the westward, stands the Municipal Building,
also of marble, four stories in height, with a mansard roof, and a tower
at each corner. The Post Office is in Washington street, north of the
City Hall. The Long Island Historical Society has a fine edifice at the
corner of Clinton and Pierrepont streets, and possesses a large library
and collection of curiosities. The Academy of Design, on Montague
street, has a handsome exterior; opposite is the Mercantile Library, a
striking Gothic structure, containing two reading rooms and a library of
forty-eight thousand volumes. The building of the Young Men's Christian
Association is on Fulton street, at the corner of Gallatin Place, and
contains a library and free reading room. The Penitentiary is an immense
stone structure on Nostrand avenue, near the city limits. The County
Jail, in Raymond street, is constructed of red sandstone, in castellated
Gothic style. The Long Island College Hospital is an imposing building,
surrounded by extensive grounds, on Henry street near Pacific.
Brooklyn is, preeminently, the City of Churches, of which she is said to
contain not less than one hundred. She has secured the services of the
most eminent clergymen in the country, and thousands of people each year
make a pilgrimage thither, for the sole purpose of listening to some one
or other of those whom they have long admired and appreciated at a
distance. Most prominent among all these clergymen is Henry Ward
Beecher, who has been the pastor of Plymouth Church ever since its
organization in 1847. Mr. Beecher came of a noted family, his father,
Rev. Lyman Beecher, being one of the theological lights of his day and
generation, while his brothers and sisters have all distinguished
themselves in some way. The author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was his
sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, while all of his brothers are, like
himself, in the ministry.
Mr. Beecher's popularity has been unparalleled. Besides the hundreds who
listen to him every Sunday, each sermon is reported in full and read by
thousands of people throughout the country. He has been a leader of
liberal thought in the Protestant churches; and it is largely due to his
bold and advanced utterances that the church in which he holds communion
has taken a long step ahead of the position which it occupied early in
the present century.
Plymouth Church is a plain edifice, in Orange street, near Hicks. It has
a large seating capacity, yet every Sunday it is filled. A goodly
proportion of the audience is composed of strangers, who are not
permitted to take seats until the pewholders are provided for. These
visitors stand in long rows at each of the doors, the rows sometimes
extending out upon the sidewalk, waiting their turns to be seated. Ten
minutes before the hour of service they are conducted to seats, and the
pewholders who come after that time must take their chances with the
rest. On pleasant Sundays every seat is occupied, and the aisles and
vestibules are crowded.
Mr. Beecher occupies no pulpit, in the strict sense of the word. In
front of the organ and choir is a platform, upon which are three chairs
and three small tables, or stands. On one of the latter is a Bible, and
on the others a profusion of flowers. One realizes in this church the
grandeur of congregational singing, which is led here by a choir of one
hundred voices, and accompanied by a magnificent organ. When the entire
congregation join in some familiar hymn, the singing is exceedingly
impressive. Mr. Beecher, albeit his reputation is that of a sensational
preacher, makes little attempt at sensationalism in his manner of
delivery. He reads well and speaks well, with a clear, distinct
enunciation, which is heard in every part of his church. He talks
directly to his point, using plain but forcible language, his sermons
sparkling with original thought and brilliant language, all based upon a
foundation of plain, practical common sense. He has great dramatic
power, yet manifests it in so unstudied a manner that it is never
offensive. He imitates the voice and manner of the man of whom he is
speaking; the maudlin condition of the drunkard, the whine of the
beggar, the sanctimoniousness of the hypocrite; and keeps his audience
interested and on the alert. The Friday evening lectures are also
features of this church, and are conducted without formality, yet in a
decorous manner.
The Brooklyn preacher who is a rival of Beecher, in the popular
estimation, is Thomas De Witt Talmage, whose church is in Schermerhorn
street, and known as the Tabernacle. It is built in Gothic style,
semi-circular in form, like an opera house, and is capable of seating
5,000 persons. It is the largest Protestant place of worship in the
United States, yet every Sunday it is filled nearly, if not quite, to
its utmost capacity.
Talmage was born at Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1832. After graduating
at the Theological Seminary, at New Brunswick, he preached in
Belleville, New Jersey; Syracuse, New York; and Philadelphia, until
1869, when he came to Brooklyn to be pastor of the Central Presbyterian
Church. Within a year he had become the acknowledged rival of Beecher.
His church was crowded, and in 1870 a large amphitheatre, called the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, capable of seating four thousand persons, was
built. This building was destroyed by fire in 1872, and while it was
being rebuilt in its present size and form, Talmage preached in the
Academy of Music, to immense crowds. The great organ used in the Boston
Coliseum, during the Musical Peace Jubilee, accompanies the singing at
the Tabernacle, which is principally congregational, though a choir of
four male singers give one or more voluntaries. The singing was led by
Arbuckle, the celebrated cornetist, but he died in May, 1883, and was
buried on the day of the opening of the Suspension Bridge.
In 1879, Talmage visited Great Britain, and made a most successful
lecture tour, receiving from five to six hundred dollars for each
lecture, and netting about fifty thousand dollars for the tour. In this
country he has not been so popular as a lecturer as Beecher. He is a
tall, angular man, with dark hair, red whiskers, light complexion, large
mouth and blue eyes. His pulpit is merely a platform, about thirty feet
in length, built in front of the organ, between the pipes and the
performer; and back and forth on this he paces while delivering his
sermon, frequently making forcible gestures, which have caused him to be
caricatured as a contortionist or gymnast. He is fluent in his style,
with much originality of expression, yet with a certain drawl in the
middle of his sentences, and snarl at their end, which renders his
elocution not entirely pleasing. He carries his audience with him
through the heights and depths of his oratory, now provoking to smiles,
again affecting to tears.
Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., has been pastor of the Lafayette Avenue
Presbyterian Church since 1860. He was born at Aurora, New York, on
January tenth, 1822, and preached in Market street church, in New York
City, from 1853 to 1860. The church edifice where he now ministers is
one of the most spacious and complete, in all its arrangements, in
either New York or Brooklyn, having seats for two thousand people, while
the Sabbath-school hall will accommodate one thousand.
Dr. Cuyler, during the thirty-seven years of his ministry, has delivered
five thousand three hundred and forty discourses, and a multitude of
platform addresses. He has received four thousand and forty-one persons
into church membership, of whom about one-half have been on confession
of faith. He has published several volumes and over two thousand
articles in the leading religious newspapers. The present membership of
the Lafayette Avenue Church is nineteen hundred and twenty persons. His
congregations are very large on every Sunday, and he is an untiring
pastor, especially zealous for temperance. He preaches the old orthodox
gospel, with no "modern improvements." His discourses are able and
eloquent, while his chief aim in the pulpit is to reach the heart.
Justin D. Fulton, D.D., is still another eminent clergyman of Brooklyn.
He was born in 1828, in Sherburne, Madison County, New York, and
literally worked his way through college and to the ministry. He began
his public life in St. Louis, where he was engaged as editor of the
_Gospel Banner_. Preaching in the Tabernacle Baptist Church of that
city, he delivered the first Free-state sermon ever heard in St. Louis.
He also put his anti-slavery sentiments into his paper, and was shortly
deposed from his position as editor because he would not believe
slavery to be right and defend it. From St. Louis he went to Sandusky,
Ohio, preaching there a short period; and from thence, in 1859, to
Albany, New York, where he became pastor of the Tabernacle Church. In
1863 he received a call from the Tremont Temple Church of Boston, and
labored with that church for ten years, increasing its membership from
fifty to one thousand. In 1873, he became pastor of the Hanson Place
Church, of Brooklyn, leaving it, however, in 1875, to organize the
Centennial Baptist Church, in the same city. His popularity as a
preacher became so great that it was presently found necessary to seek a
larger place of worship. Therefore, in 1879, the Rink was purchased, for
much less than its original cost, and was consecrated as a People's
Church. The Rink is an immense edifice, capable of seating nearly six
thousand persons.
Dr. Fulton is an able writer, having published a number of volumes, the
most prominent among which is "The Roman Catholic Element in America."
In the old days of slavery he was a most able and eloquent anti-slavery
advocate, and as such created strong prejudice against himself in
certain quarters. He preached the funeral sermon of Colonel Ellsworth,
in Tweddle Hall, Albany, in which he said that the war must go on until
the musket should be put in the hands of the black man, and he was
permitted to prove his manhood on the battle field. This drew down upon
him the denunciation of the conservative press; but he was appointed
Chaplain of Governor Morgan's staff, and served in hospital and camp. He
is no less famous as an advocate of temperance, and devotes much of his
energies to work in this field.
In person, Dr. Fulton is tall, stout, finely formed, with black whiskers
and moustache, and a somewhat bald forehead. His manner in the pulpit is
full of earnestness and impetuosity. He sometimes overwhelms his
audience with a whirlwind of words. He has strong magnetic and nervous
power, while he impresses his listeners with his sincerity and candor.
He makes frequent and expressive gestures, and combines in his oratory
the carefulness of art with the fire of genius. In belief he is
thoroughly orthodox, having no leanings toward the so-called
"liberality" of many popular clergymen.
R. S. Storrs, D.D., is pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, at the
corner of Remsen and Henry streets. He is one of the most noted
clergymen of the city, and was selected to assist in the opening of the
New York and Brooklyn Suspension Bridge, making one of the addresses of
the occasion.
The Unitarian Church of the Saviour, at the corner of Pierrepont street
and Monroe Place, is an elaborate Gothic edifice, as is also St. Ann's
Episcopal Church, at the corner of Clinton and Livingston streets. The
Roman Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo, in Sidney Place, is
famous for its music. The Dutch Reformed Church, in Pierrepont street,
is of brown stone, in the richest Corinthian style, and the interior
elaborately finished.
The United States Navy Yard is one of the features of Brooklyn, and is
the chief naval station of the country. It is on the south shore of
Wallabout Bay, and contains forty-five acres. The yard is inclosed by a
high brick wall, and contains numerous foundries, workshops and
storehouses. Vessels of every kind used by the navy may be seen at
almost any time at the yard, and it has also a large and varied
collection of trophies taken in war and relics of earlier times, which
prove of interest to the visitor.
At the other extremity of Brooklyn, a mile below South Ferry, is the
Atlantic Dock, which covers an area of forty-two and one-half acres, and
deserves special attention. It is surrounded by piers of solid granite,
upon which are spacious warehouses.
In the heart of the city, a little south of the Navy Yard, between
Myrtle and DeKalb avenues, is Washington Park, or old Fort Greene. It is
on an elevated plateau, contains thirty acres, and commands extensive
views. Its name of Fort Greene dates back to the time of the Revolution,
when it was the seat of extensive fortifications.
The special pride of Brooklyn is Prospect Park, one of the finest in
America, where art and the landscape gardener have assisted rather than
thwarted nature in her efforts to produce beauty. It is situated on an
elevated ridge on the southeastern borders of the city, and from certain
localities commands broad views of Brooklyn, New York, the inner and
outer harbor, and the Jersey shore. It contains five hundred and fifty
acres, which embrace broad, green lawns, grassy slopes, groves, wooded
hills, beautiful with ferns and wild flowers, lakes and rocky dells. It
contains eight miles of drives, four miles of bridle paths, and eleven
miles of walks. At the main entrance, on Flatbush avenue, is a large,
circular open place known as the Plaza, paved with stone and bordered by
grassy mounds. A fountain of novel design furnishes the welcome sound of
splashing, trickling water, and not far distant from it is a bronze
statue of President Lincoln. Within the Park, on an eminence overlooking
the cottages and dell, is a monument, erected in 1877, to the memory of
John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home."
On Gowanus Heights, overlooking Gowanus Bay, in the southern portion of
Brooklyn, is situated Greenwood Cemetery, one of the most beautiful
"cities of the dead" in the world. It was laid out in 1842, and contains
over five hundred acres. At least two hundred thousand interments have
been made in it. It is a perfect wilderness of beauty. The surface of
the ground is uneven, and hills and valleys, grassy slopes, beautiful
little lakes with fountains playing in their midst, overshadowing trees,
a profusion of brilliant flowers, and the white or gray gleam of a
thousand monuments, varied and beautiful in design, all unite in forming
an exquisite spot for the resting place of the dead, which is a fitting
embodiment and expression of the loving remembrance in which they
continue to be held by the living. Among the many elegant and expensive
monuments which this cemetery contains, not one will attract more
attention for its beauty and elaborateness than that erected to
Charlotte Canda, a young French girl, whose fortune was expended in the
marble pile above her grave. The main entrance to Greenwood, near Fifth
Avenue and Twenty-third street, has a magnificent gateway in the pointed
Gothic style, and opens upon a most enchanting landscape. On an
elevation to the right of this entrance, within this cemetery, is
obtained an extensive view of Brooklyn and the bay. The cemetery
contains nineteen miles of carriage roads, and seventeen miles of
footpaths.
Four miles to the eastward of Greenwood are the cemeteries of the
Evergreen and Cypress Hills, both beautiful spots, and the latter
especially celebrated as containing the grave of a large number of
soldiers of the late war.
Radiating from Brooklyn, in almost every direction, are routes leading
to some of the most frequented pleasure resorts of the country. On the
southern coast of Long Island, just east of the Narrows, is Coney
Island, four and a half miles long, with a firm, gently-sloping beach.
The island is divided into four distinct places of resort: Coney Island
Point, or Morton's, at the west end, the oldest of the four; West
Brighton Beach, or Cable's, where there is an iron pier one thousand
feet long, extending out into the ocean, and an observatory three
hundred feet high; Brighton Beach, connecting with West Brighton by a
wide drive and promenade, known as the Concourse; and Manhattan Beach,
the most fashionable resort on the island. At the latter place are two
vast hotels, and an amphitheatre, with three thousand five hundred
seats, upon the beach, for the accommodation of those who wish to watch
the bathers.
Rockaway Beach is to the westward of Coney Island, and is about four
miles long, with surf bathing on one side and still bathing on the
other. A colossal tubular iron pier, twelve hundred feet long, extends
out into the ocean, affording a landing for steamboats.
Staten Island, the western boundary of the Narrows, is a sort of earthly
paradise, which separates the Lower Bay from the Upper. It is a
beautiful island, having an area of nearly sixty square miles, and
rising boldly from the waters of the bays. It commands extensive views
over harbor and ocean, and is a favorite summer home or place of
temporary resort.
Along the shores of the Sound are many places for summer rest and
recreation. Glen Island, lying in the East River, is a famous and
attractive picnicing spot for both New Yorkers and Brooklynites.
Brooklyn is a beautiful and an extensive city, a fitting suburb of the
metropolis. The additional facilities for transit between the two cities
afforded by the completion of the Suspension Bridge will tend to her
material advantage, drawing thither a still larger class of people to
make their homes in its quiet suburban streets and avenues, out of the
noise and whirl of the great city. Her prosperity must keep pace with
that of her elder sister, and so close is the bond of common interest
between them, that whatever benefits one must benefit the other.
CHAPTER V.
BALTIMORE.
Position of Baltimore.--Streets.--Cathedral and Churches.--
Public Buildings.--Educational Institutions.--Art Collections.--
Charitable Institutions.--Monuments.--Railway Tunnels.--Parks
and Cemeteries.--Druid Hill Park.--Commerce and Manufactures.--
Foundation of the City.--Early History.--Bonaparte-Patterson
Marriage.--Storming of Baltimore in 1814.--Maryland at the
Breaking-out of the Rebellion.--Assault on Sixth Massachusetts
Regiment, in April, 1861.--Subsequent Events during the War.--
Baltimore Proves Herself Loyal.--Re-union of Grand Army of
the Republic in Baltimore, September, 1882.--Old Differences
Forgotten and Fraternal Relations Established.
The first in commercial and manufacturing importance of all southern
cities is Baltimore, situated on the north branch of the Patapsco River,
fourteen miles from its entrance into the Chesapeake Bay, and one
hundred and ninety-eight miles from the Atlantic. It embraces an area of
nearly twelve square miles, about one-half of which is built up solidly
with residences and business houses. The city is divided into East and
West Baltimore, by Jones' Falls, a small stream running nearly north and
south, and spanned by numerous bridges. The northwest branch of the
Patapsco also runs up into the heart of the city, forming a basin, into
which small vessels can enter. The outer harbor, or main branch of the
Patapsco, is accessible to the largest ships. The harbor is a safe and
capacious one, capable of furnishing anchorage to a thousand vessels. At
the point of the peninsula separating the two branches of the river is
situated Fort McHenry, which defends the entrance, and which was
unsuccessfully bombarded by the British fleet in the War of 1812.
The general appearance of the city is striking and picturesque. It is
regularly laid out, the streets for the most part crossing one another
at right angles, but there is sufficient diversity to prevent sameness.
Thus while the main part of the city is laid out with streets running
north and south, crossed by others running east and west, large sections
show streets running diagonally to the points of the compass. The
surface of the ground upon which the city is built is undulating, and
its streets are moderately wide. Baltimore street, running east and
west, is the main business thoroughfare, containing the principal retail
stores and hotels. North Charles street is the most fashionable
promenade, while Mount Vernon Place, and the vicinity of the Monument
and Broadway are favorite resorts.
The city abounds in handsome edifices. A generation ago, the Catholic
Cathedral, at the corner of Mulberry and Cathedral streets--a large
granite edifice in the form of a cross, one hundred and ninety feet
long, one hundred and seventy-seven feet at the arms of the cross, and
surmounted by a dome one hundred and twenty-seven feet high--was the
especial pride and boast of Baltimoreans. At its west end are two tall
towers with Saracenic cupolas, resembling the minarets of a Mohammedan
mosque. It contains one of the largest organs in America, and two
valuable paintings, "The Descent from the Cross," the gift of Louis XVI,
and "St. Louis burying his officers and soldiers slain before Tunis,"
presented by Charles X, of France. Now other buildings are found equally
as magnificent. The Roman Catholic churches of St. Alphonsus, at the
corner of Saratoga and Park Streets, and of St. Vincent de Paul, in
North Front Street, are fine in architectural design and interior
decorations. The Unitarian Church, at the corner of North Charles and
Franklin streets, is a handsome edifice, faced by a colonnade composed
of four Tuscan columns and two pilasters, which form arcades, and
containing five bronze entrance doors. Grace Church, Episcopal, at the
corner of Monument and Park streets, and Emmanuel Church, also
Episcopal, at the corner of Reed and Cathedral streets, are handsome
gothic structures, the former of red and the latter of gray sandstone.
Christ's and St. Peter's Episcopal churches, the one at the corner of
St. Paul and Chase streets, and the other at the corner of Druid Hill
avenue and Lanvale street, are both of marble. The Eutaw Place Baptist
Church, at the corner of Eutaw and Dolphin streets, has a beautiful
marble spire one hundred and eighty-six feet high. The First
Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Park and Madison streets, has a
spire two hundred and sixty-eight feet high, with side towers,
respectively seventy-eight and one hundred and twenty-eight feet in
height, and is the most elaborate specimen of Lancet-Gothic architecture
in the country. The Westminster, at the corner of Green and Fayette
streets, contains the grave and monument of Edgar Allan Poe. Mount
Vernon Church, which fronts Washington Monument, at the corner of
Charles and Monument streets, and is in the most aristocratic residence
quarter of Baltimore, is built of green serpentine stone, with buff Ohio
and red Connecticut sandstone, and has eighteen polished columns of
Aberdeen granite. The Hebrew Synagogue, in Lloyd street near Baltimore
street, is a large and handsome edifice.
The City Hall, filling the entire square bounded by Holliday, Lexington,
North and Fayette streets, built of marble, in the Renaissance style,
was completed in 1875, and is one of the finest municipal edifices in
the United States. It is four stories in height, with a French roof, and
an iron dome two hundred and sixty feet high, with a balcony elevated
two hundred and fifty feet above the sidewalk, from which a magnificent
view of the city may be obtained. The Masonic Temple, in Charles street,
near Saratoga, is a handsome building, completed in 1870, at a cost of
$200,000. The Exchange, in Gay street, between Second and Lombard
streets, is an extensive structure, surmounted by an immense dome, one
hundred and fifteen feet high, and fifty-three feet in diameter, which
overarches a spacious and brilliantly frescoed rotunda. Six Ionic
columns, the shafts of which are single blocks of Italian marble, form
colonnades on the east and west sides. It contains the United States
Custom House, Post Office, Merchants' Bank, and a fine, large
reading-room. The Corn and Flour Exchange, the Rialto Building, Odd
Fellows' Hall, Y. M. C. A. Building, are all modern and elegant
structures. The Merchant's Shot Tower, which stands at the corner of
Front and Fayette streets, is two hundred and sixteen feet high, and
from sixty to twenty feet in diameter, and is one of the landmarks of
the city. One million, one hundred thousand bricks were used in its
construction.
Peabody Institute faces Washington monument, on the south, and was
founded and endowed by George Peabody, the eminent American-born London
banker, for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. It contains a
free library of fifty-eight thousand volumes, a conservatory of music,
lecture hall, and a Department of Art, which includes art collections
and an art school. The AthenA|um, at the corner of Saratoga and St. Paul
streets, contains the Merchants' Library, with twenty-six thousand
volumes, the Baltimore Library, with fifteen thousand volumes, and the
collections of the Maryland Historical Society, comprising a library of
ten thousand volumes, numerous historical relics, and fine pictures and
statuary. The Johns Hopkins University, which was endowed with over
three millions of dollars, by Johns Hopkins, a wealthy citizen of
Baltimore, who died in 1873, has a temporary location at the corner of
Howard street and Druid Hill avenue, but will probably be permanently
located at Clifton, two miles from the city on the Harford road. The
Johns Hopkins Hospital, to be connected with the Medical Department of
the Johns Hopkins University, and endowed with over two millions of
dollars by the same generous testator, is in process of construction at
the corner of Broadway and Monument street, and will be the finest
building of its kind in America. The Maryland Institute is a vast
structure at the corner of Baltimore and Harrison streets, and is
designed for the promotion of the mechanical arts. The main hall is two
hundred and fifty feet long, and in it is held an annual exhibition of
the products of American mechanical industry. It contains a library of
fourteen thousand volumes, a lecture room, and a school of design. The
first floor is used as a market. The Academy of Science, in Mulberry
street, opposite Cathedral street, has a fine museum of natural history,
embracing a rich collection of birds and minerals, and including a
complete representation of the flora and fauna of Maryland.
Not only is Baltimore noted for free educational institutions, but for
her art collections as well. Annual exhibitions of American paintings
are held in the AthenA|um, and the Academy of Art and Science contains a
fine collection of paintings, engravings and casts. The private art
gallery of William T. Walters, of No. 65 Mount Vernon Place, is one of
the finest in America.
There are numerous charitable institutions in the city, prominent among
which are the Hospital for the Insane, in East Monument street;
Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, in North avenue near
Charles street; State Insane Asylum, a massive pile of granite
buildings, near Catonsville, six miles from the city; Bay View Asylum,
an almshouse, on a commanding eminence near the outskirts of the city,
on the Philadelphia road; Mount Hope Hospital, conducted by the Sisters
of Charity, on North avenue, corner of Bolton street; Episcopal Church
Home, in Broadway near Baltimore street; Sheppard Asylum for the Insane,
founded by Moses Sheppard, a wealthy Quaker, situated on a commanding
site near Towsontown, seven miles from the city, and Mount Hope Retreat
for the insane and sick, four miles from the city, on the Reistertown
road.
But her monuments are the special pride of Baltimore, and from them she
derives her name of "The Monumental City." Chief among them is
Washington Monument, whose construction was authorized by the
Legislature in 1809, the land being donated for the purpose by Colonel
John Eager Howard. The site is one hundred feet above tide-water, in
Mount Vernon Place, at the intersection of Monument and Washington
streets. It is a Doric shaft rising one hundred and seventy-six and
one-half feet, from a base fifty feet square by thirty-five feet in
height, and is surmounted by a colossal figure of Washington, fifteen
feet high, the whole rising more than three hundred feet above the level
of the river. It is built of brick, cased with white marble, and cost
$200,000. From the balcony at the head of the shaft, reached by a
winding stairs within, a most extensive view of the city, harbor and
surrounding country may be obtained. Battle Monument stands in Battle
Square, at the intersection of Calvert and Fayette streets, and is
commemorative of those who fell defending the city when it was attacked
by the British in 1814. A square base, twenty feet high, with a pedestal
ornamented at four corners by a sculptured griffin, has on each front an
Egyptian door, on which are appropriate inscriptions and basso relievo
decorations illustrating certain incidents in the battle. A fascial
column eighteen feet in height rises above the base, surrounded by bands
on which are inscribed the names of those who fell. The column is
surmounted by a female figure in marble, emblematic of the city of
Baltimore. The Poe Monument, raised in memory of Baltimore's poet, Edgar
Allan Poe, stands in the churchyard of Westminster Presbyterian Church,
at the corner of Green and Fayette streets. The Wildey Monument has a
plain marble pediment and shaft, surmounted by a group representing
Charity protecting orphans, and has been raised in honor of Thomas
Wildey, the founder of the order of Odd Fellows in the United States. It
is on Broadway near Baltimore street. The Wells and McComas Monument, at
the corner of Gay and Monument streets, perpetuates the memory of two
boys bearing those names, who shot General Ross, the British Commander,
on September twelfth, 1814.
The railway tunnels, by which the railroads on the north side of the
city are connected with tide water at Canton, are among the wonders of
Baltimore. That of the Baltimore and Potomac Road is second in length
only to the Hoosac Tunnel, in America, it being 6969 feet long, while
the Union tunnel is half the length. They were completed in 1873, at a
cost of four million, five hundred thousand dollars. Previous to their
construction, passengers and freight were transferred through the city
by means of horses and mules attached to the cars.
Federal Hill is a commanding eminence on the south side of the river
basin, and from it extensive views are obtained of the city and harbor.
It was occupied by Union troops during the civil war, and now contains a
United States Signal Station. It has been purchased by the city for a
park. Greenmount Cemetery, in the northern part of the city, and Loudon
Park Cemetery, both have imposing entrances and contain handsome
monuments. Patterson Park, at the east end of Baltimore street, contains
seventy acres handsomely laid out, and commanding extensive views.
[Illustration: VIEW OF BALTIMORE FROM FEDERAL HILL.]
The people of the present day can scarcely comprehend the grand scale on
which landscape gardening was attempted a hundred or more years ago. The
landed gentry, themselves or their fathers immigrants from England,
considered a well-kept park, like those of the immense English estates,
an essential to an American one. To this day may be seen traces of their
efforts in this direction, in stately avenues of venerable trees, which
the iconoclastic hand of modern progress has considerately spared. In
some rare instances whole estates have remained untouched, and have
become public property, and their beauties thus perpetuated. Bonaventure
Cemetery, near Savannah, is a notable instance of this, where a
magnificently planned Southern plantation has been transferred from
private to public hands, and its valuable trees remain, though the hand
of art, in attempting to improve, has rather marred the majestic beauty
of the place. Lemon Hill, the nucleus of Fairmount Park, in
Philadelphia, was, in revolutionary times, the estate of Robert Morris,
and though the landscape gardener has been almost ruthless in his
improvements (?), he has been considerate enough to spare some of the
century-old trees. To the same private enterprise, love of the
picturesque and appreciation of beauty, Baltimore is indebted for Druid
Hill Park, in the northern suburbs of the city. Colonel Nicholas Rogers,
a soldier of the Revolution and a gentleman of taste and leisure, when
the war was over, retired to his country residence, a little distance
from Baltimore, then a city of some ten thousand inhabitants, and
devoted the remainder of his life to improving and adorning its
extensive grounds. He seemed a thorough master of landscape gardening,
and all his plans were most carefully matured, so that the trees are
most artistically grouped and alternated with lawns; dense masses of
foliage are broken into by bays and avenues, and beautiful vistas
secured in various directions. Also in the selection of his trees a
careful consideration was had of their autumn foliage, so that fine
contrasts of color should be produced at that season of the year. The
result of all this care and labor was one of the most charming and
enchanting private parks which the country afforded. It contained an
area of nearly five hundred acres.
When Colonel Rogers died, his son, Lloyd N. Rogers, who seemed to have
inherited only in part the tastes of his father, devoted himself solely
to the cultivation of fruit, doing nothing to add to or preserve the
beauty of his domain, but, on the other hand, allowing it to fall into
neglect and decay. However, the harm that he wrought was only negative,
for he did nothing to mar it, and preserved, with jealous care, the
grand old trees which his father had planted, and with unremitting
vigilance warded off interlopers and depredators. The estate was
secluded from the outside world by fringes of woodland, and though the
city had gradually crept to within a quarter of a mile, few people knew
anything of its beauties. When, therefore, the Commission appointed to
select the site for a new park decided upon Druid Hill as the most
available for that purpose, it was absolutely necessary to detail its
advantages. Mr. Rogers reluctantly consented to accept one thousand
dollars an acre for his estate, and it became city property.
Subsequently, other small pieces of adjoining property were bought, and
Druid Lake and grounds were finally added, and the people of Baltimore
found themselves in the possession of a park embracing an area of six
hundred and eighty acres, which needed not to be created, but only to be
improved, to be one of the most beautiful in the country.
There has been but little attempt at architectural decoration. A costly
and imposing gateway, a Moorish music stand, bright with many colors, a
boat-house crowning a little island in a miniature lake, a pretty bridge
and a Moorish arch thrown across a ravine, a few handsome fountains,
and, finally, the old mansion, renovated and enlarged, standing out
against the densely-wooded hill from which the park takes its
name--these are about all which have been attempted in that line. The
surface of the Park is gently undulating, with occasional bold
eminences from which fine views may be obtained of the city and
surrounding country. Its special attractions are its secluded walks,
well-kept drives and tree-arched bridle-paths, its smooth, velvety turf,
and the venerable beauty of its trees, which are the oldest of those of
any park in the country. Its glades and dells have been left as nature
made them, having been spared the artificial touches of the landscape
gardener; and its little trickling springs and cool, secluded brooks,
have a sylvan, rustic beauty which is surpassingly delightful.
The future care and improvement of the Park are well provided for. About
the time that it became a matter of public interest, the charter for the
first line of street passenger railways was granted, and this charter
stipulated that one-fifth of the gross receipts of the road, or one cent
for each passenger carried, should be paid to the city, to constitute a
Park Fund. This amount, small at first, but gradually increasing until
it now amounts to more than a hundred thousand dollars annually, was
devoted first to paying the interest on the Park bonds, and finally to
the preservation and improvement of the Park. The Park Commissioners,
who receive no pay for their services, have most judiciously
administered the fund entrusted to their care.
The foreign and coasting trade of Baltimore are both extensive. Two
lines of steamships leave the port weekly for Europe, and she commands a
large share of the trade of the West and Northwest. Her shipments to
Europe are principally grain, tobacco, cotton, petroleum and provisions.
The city contains rolling mills, iron works, nail factories, locomotive
works, cotton factories and other industrial establishments, numbering
more than two thousand in all. The rich copper ores of Lake Superior are
chiefly worked here, and nearly four thousand tons of refined copper are
produced annually. The smelting works in Canton, a southern suburb of
the city, employ one thousand men. There are also extensive flouring
mills, while oysters, fruit and vegetables, to the value of five million
dollars, are canned annually. Five hundred thousand hides are also
annually made into leather and sent to New England. Baltimore oysters
are renowned as being among the best the Atlantic seaboard produces, and
no one should think of visiting the city without testing them. The
Chesapeake oyster beds are apparently exhaustless, and supply plants for
beds all along the coast.
Although the first settlements in Maryland were made early in the
seventeenth century, the present site of Baltimore was not chosen until
1729, and in 1745 the town was named Baltimore, in honor of Lord
Baltimore, a Catholic, to whom the patent of the province of Maryland
had been originally made out. In 1782 the first regular communication
with Philadelphia, by means of a line of stage coaches, was established,
and Baltimore was chartered as a city in 1787, having at that time a
population of twenty thousand, which, by 1850, had increased to nearly
two hundred thousand; and, according to the census of 1880, the
population was 332,190 inhabitants. In 1780 the city became a port of
entry, and in 1782 the first pavement was laid in Baltimore street.
In 1803 Baltimore became the scene of a romance which is even yet
remembered with interest. Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of
Napoleon, born in Ajaccio, November fifteenth, 1784, found himself, in
the year just mentioned, while cruising off the West Indies, on account
of the war between France and England, compelled to take refuge in New
York. Being introduced into the best society of that and neighboring
cities, he made the acquaintance of Miss Elizabeth Patterson, daughter
of a merchant of Baltimore. The manner of their introduction was
peculiar. In a crowded saloon the button of young Bonaparte's coat
caught in the dress of a young lady, and as it took a little time to
disengage it, the future King of Westphalia had opportunity to see that
the lady was young, surpassingly beautiful and charming. This interview,
by some who knew the lady and who were acquainted with her ambition,
thought to be not entirely accidental, resulted, on the twenty-seventh
of December of the same year, in a marriage between the two, the
bridegroom being but nineteen years of age. Being summoned back to
France by his Imperial brother, he was quickly followed by his young
wife, who, however, was not permitted to land in France, and retired to
England, where she shortly afterwards gave birth to a son, whom she
named Jerome, after his father. Napoleon annulled the marriage, on the
ground that it had been made contrary to French law, which stipulates
that the consent of parents must be gained in order to legalize a
marriage. Jerome was compelled, after he succeeded to the Westphalian
crown, to marry Sophia Dorothea, daughter of King Frederick I, of
Wurtemburg. Madame Patterson, as she was called to the day of her death,
though she maintained her title to the name of Bonaparte, having an
utter scorn for America and its democratic institutions, spent much of
her life in Europe, where at first her beauty, and to the last her wit
and charming manners, secured her admission to the most exclusive
salons, and a sort of acknowledgment of her claims. She never saw her
husband again, save on one occasion, when she came face to face with him
in a European picture-gallery.
Madame Patterson's aristocratic prejudices were greatly shocked when her
son married a most estimable American lady, the mother's ambition
seeking for him an alliance among the royal or at least noble families
of the Old World. During the reign of Napoleon III, the Pope recognized
the first marriage of Jerome Bonaparte, and the Emperor, who had taken
offence at his cousin, the son of Jerome by his princess wife, also
legitimatized the son, and took him into his service. Madame Patterson
lived to be nearly a hundred years old, having spent her last days in
her native city, and dying but a few years ago. Her son Jerome survived
her not many years, leaving two sons, who are known as the
Patterson-Bonapartes.
In December, 1814, Baltimore was made the object of attack by the
British forces, then at war with the United States. On the eleventh of
that month the fleet reached the mouth of the Patapsco, and on the next
day six thousand men landed at North Point, and proceeded, under command
of General Ross, toward the city. An army of over three thousand men met
them and kept them in check, in order to gain time to put the forts and
batteries of Baltimore in proper condition for defence. A battle was
fought, and the Americans defeated, with considerable loss. Among the
killed and wounded, which numbered one hundred and three, were many of
the most prominent citizens of Baltimore. The next morning the British
advanced to the entrenchments about two miles from the city, and at the
same time a vigorous attack was made by the fleet, upon Fort McHenry, at
the entrance of the harbor. The fort was vigorously bombarded during the
next twenty-four hours, but without visible effect. The troops which had
landed, after hovering at a respectful distance from the city, until the
evening of the thirtieth, then retired to their shipping, and set sail
down the river, leaving behind them their commander, General Ross, who
had been killed in the battle of the twelfth. It was during the siege of
Baltimore, while the British fleet lay off Fort McHenry, and the bombs
were raining upon it, that Philip Barton Key wrote the "Star Spangled
Banner."
From 1814 to 1861, nearly half a century, Baltimore had nothing to do
but develop her resources and extend her commerce, which she did so well
and so thoroughly, that in 1860 her inhabitants numbered more than
212,000, and she stood in the front rank as a manufacturing and
commercial town.
At the inauguration of President Lincoln, in 1861, the sentiments of the
people assimilated rather with those of Virginia and the South, than
with those of Pennsylvania and the North. Had it not, by its
geographical position, been so completely in the power of the Federal
government, Maryland would probably have seceded with Virginia. Great
excitement was aroused by the attack on Fort Sumter, and the State was
with difficulty made to retain her old position in the Union. The only
line of railway from the north and east to Washington passed through
Baltimore, and when, on the fifteenth of April, the President made his
call for seventy-five thousand men, it was necessary that, in reaching
the seat of war, they should pass through that city. Apprehensions were
felt that they might be disturbed, but the Marshal of Police, on the
eighteenth of April, maintained perfect order in the city, and summarily
quieted all attempts at riot. He also received from the State Rights
Association a most solemn pledge that the Federal troops should not be
interfered with. The Mayor issued a proclamation invoking all good
citizens to uphold and maintain the peace and good order of the city.
On the nineteenth, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, the first to
respond to the President's call, arrived, by the Philadelphia and
Baltimore Railroad. A crowd of two or three thousand persons had
gathered at the depot early in the day, to witness their arrival. Soon
after eleven o'clock in the morning twenty-nine cars arrived from
Philadelphia, filled with soldiers. Horses were attached to the cars,
which were driven along Pratt street to the Camden station. The
multitude hooted and yelled after the first six cars, but did not
otherwise molest them. The horses becoming frightened by the uproar,
were detached from the seventh car, which moved without their aid nearly
to Gay street, where a body of laborers were removing the cobblestones
from the bed of the street, in order to repair it. Some thirty or forty
men had followed the car to this point, cheering for President Davis and
the Southern Confederacy, and applying contemptuous and insulting
epithets to the troops. The latter received these taunts in perfect
silence; and when the horses were again attached, and the car commenced
moving off, a proposition was made to stone it. Almost instantly, acting
on the suggestion, nearly every window was smashed by projectiles
snatched from the street. The eighth car was treated in a like manner.
The ninth car was suffered to pass unmolested, as it was apparently
empty. When the tenth car approached, after an ineffectual attempt to
tear up the track, it was heaped with paving stones, and a cartload of
sand dumped upon them, and four or five large anchors, dragged from the
sidewalk, completed the barricade. Progress was impossible, and the car
returned to the President Street Depot.
Two-thirds of the cars still remained, filled with troops, besides
others loaded with ammunition and baggage. Mayor Brown hastened to the
depot, in order to prevent any disturbance. The troops were ordered to
leave the cars and form into line. While forming they were surrounded by
a dense mass of people, who impeded their march, threw great quantities
of stones, and knocked down and severely injured two soldiers.
Marching through the city, from the President Street Depot to the Pratt
Street Bridge, they were pursued by the excited crowd, who continued to
throw stones, and even fired muskets at them. When they reached Gay
street, where the track had been torn up, they were again violently
assaulted by a fresh mob, and a number knocked down and wounded. At the
corner of South and Pratt streets a man fired a pistol into the ranks of
the military, when those in the rear ranks immediately wheeled and fired
upon their assailants, wounding several. The guns of the wounded
soldiers were seized, and fired upon the ranks, killing two soldiers.
Reaching Calvert street, the troops succeeded in checking their pursuers
by a rapid fire, and were not again seriously molested until they
reached Howard street, where still another mob had assembled.
The police did their utmost to protect the troops from assault, but
were pressed back by the excited crowd. The soldiers left the Camden
station about half-past twelve o'clock, and a body of infantry, about
one hundred and fifty strong, from one of the Northern States, which had
arrived meantime, next attracted the malevolence of the crowd. The
excitement was now intense. A man displayed the flag of the Confederate
States, and a general panic ensued. As many as twenty shots were fired,
happily without injury to any one, and cobblestones fell like hail. At
last the soldiers gained refuge in the cars. Other troops, by order of
Governor Hicks, were sent back to the borders of the State, and the
military was called out and quiet restored, by evening. Nine citizens of
Baltimore had been killed, and many wounded; while twenty-five wounded
Massachusetts troops were sent to the Washington Hospital, and their
dead numbered two.
Thus Baltimore shares with Charleston the doubtful honor of being first
in the great civil war which devastated the country and sent desolation
to many thousand homes, both north and south. Charleston fired the first
gun, and Baltimore shed the first blood.
During the succeeding night, a report reaching the city that more
Northern troops were on their way southward, the bridge at Canton, the
two bridges between Cockeysville and Ashland, also the bridges over
Little Gunpowder and Bush rivers were destroyed, by order of the
authorities of Baltimore. Upon a representation of the matter to
President Lincoln, he ordered that "no more troops should be brought
through Baltimore, if, in a military point of view, and without
interruption or opposition, they can be marched around Baltimore." The
transmission of mails, and removal of provisions from the city, were
suspended, by the order of the Mayor and Board of Police. Four car-loads
of military stores and equipments, sufficient to furnish a thousand men,
belonging to the Government, were thus detained. On the twenty-fourth of
the month the city had the appearance of a military camp. Twenty-five
thousand volunteers had enlisted, and four hundred picked men left the
city for the Relay House, on the Baltimore and Ohio Road, for the
purpose of seizing and protecting that point, in order to cut off
communications with Washington by that route.
For a week an unparalleled excitement prevailed in Baltimore, which was
succeeded by a counter-revolution, when the volunteer militia were
dismissed, and a large number of troops landed at Fort McHenry and
shipped for Washington, from Locust Point. On the fifth of May General
Butler removed a portion of his troops to Baltimore, and they were
permitted to enter and remain in the city without disturbance. As they
proceeded on their way to Federal Hill, they were even greeted with
cheers, while ladies at windows and doors waved their handkerchiefs and
applauded. On the sixteenth of May the passenger trains between
Baltimore and Washington resumed their regular trips. On the
twenty-seventh of June, Marshal of Police Kane was arrested and escorted
to Fort McHenry, on the charge of being at the head of an unlawful
combination of men organized for resistance to the laws of the United
States and the State of Maryland. On the first of July the Commissioners
of Police were arrested, for having acted unlawfully. On the sixteenth
of July General Dix was put in command of the troops stationed at
Baltimore, and the city thenceforth remained tranquil. At the fall
elections a full vote was cast, which resulted in the Union candidates
receiving a very large majority. At the meeting of the Legislature, it
appropriated seven thousand dollars for the relief of the families of
the Massachusetts troops killed and wounded at Baltimore on April
nineteenth.
On June thirtieth, 1863, Major General Schenck, in command at Baltimore,
put that city and Maryland under martial law. The value of merchandise
exported that year from Baltimore was $8,054,112, and her imports during
the same time were $4,098,189, showing that although on the borderland
of strife, her commerce was in an exceedingly healthy condition. During
July a number of her citizens were arrested, on a charge of being
disloyal to the government. On the Fourth of July all citizens were
required by the Commander to show their colors, from ten o'clock A.M.
to six o'clock, P.M.; an absence of the national flag being considered
tantamount to a confession of disloyalty. In 1864 the State adopted a
new Constitution, which conferred freedom upon the slaves within her
borders, and in November a Freedman's Bureau was established by Major
General Wallace, having its headquarters at Baltimore.
The following year saw the close of the war, and Baltimore, which had
not suffered like her sister cities at the South, her port being free
from blockade, but had rather witnessed increased prosperity arising
from the demands of the war, continued her prosperous career. Although
many violent disunionists had found their homes within the city, the
popular sentiment had grown strongly in favor of the North, and
Baltimore had come to see that she had little to lose and much to gain
by the reestablishment of the Union.
The bitterness of the old war times has passed away, and, as if to
emphasize this fact, the Grand Army of the Republic was invited to hold
a reunion in Baltimore in September, 1882. Accepting the invitation, her
citizens vied with each other in honoring the veterans of the war, and
made their visit a regular ovation. Of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment,
who had passed through Baltimore on that fateful day in April,
twenty-one years before, and who suffered from the fury of an ungoverned
mob, only one member attended the reunion, Captain C. P. Lord, a
resident of Vineland, New Jersey. He was lionized on every hand.
This Grand Army reunion had many pleasant and amusing features. Here men
met each other again who had last parted on the battlefield or in a
Southern prison. Here the dead seemed to come to life, and the lost were
found. Many officers and soldiers of the Confederate army were also
present, and it was as satisfactory as curious, as more than once
happened during this occasion, to have two men meet and clasp hands in a
cordial greeting, as one of them said to the other, "The last time we
met I tried to put a bullet hole through you on a battlefield;" or, "I
took you prisoner when I saw you last;" or, "This empty sleeve, or these
crutches, I must thank you for."
The gathering was one which will long be remembered by Union and
Confederate soldiers, and by the citizens of Baltimore as well. It was
the inauguration of an era of good feeling between the North and the
South. All personal and sectional enmity had died out, and this
gathering joined those who had represented, on one side the North and on
the other the South, in that great intestine struggle which is now so
long past, and the terror of which, thank God, is being gradually
obliterated by time from our memories, in new fraternal bonds, which are
a good augury for the preservation of our Union. When soldiers who
suffered so much at each other's hands, who were stirred by all the evil
passions which war develops, and who bore the brunt of the conflict,
offering all, if need be, as a sacrifice on the altar of the cause they
had espoused, can so forget the past, and shaking hands over the chasm
which divided them, look forward to a happy and concordant future,
surely civilians should be willing to bury the hatred and prejudice
which has so embittered the past, and live only for a common country,
made of many parts whose interests are identical.
CHAPTER VI.
CHARLESTON.
First Visit to Charleston.--Jail Yard.--Bombardment of the
City.--Roper Hospital.--Charleston During the War.--Secession of
South Carolina.--Attack and Surrender of Fort Sumter.--Blockade
of the Harbor.--Great Fire of 1861.--Capitulation in 1865.--
First Settlement of the City.--Battles of the Revolution.--
Nullification Act.--John C. Calhoun.--Population of the City.--
Commerce and Manufactures.--Charleston Harbor.--"American
Venice."--Battery.--Streets, Public Buildings and Churches.--
Scenery about Charleston.--Railways and Steamship Lines.--An
Ancient Church.--Magnolia Cemetery.--Drives near the City.--
Charleston Purified by Fire.
My first introduction to the city of Charleston can scarcely be said to
have been under propitious circumstances. True, a retinue of troops
conducted my companions and myself, with military pomp, to our quarters
in the city. But these quarters, instead of being any one of its fine
hotels, were none other than the Charleston Jail Yard, for the year was
1864, and we were prisoners of war.
After a varied experience of prison life at Richmond, Danville, Macon
and Savannah, I had been sent, with a number of others, to Charleston,
South Carolina, to be placed under the fire of our batteries, which were
then bombarding the city. We had received more humane treatment at
Savannah than at any previous place of detention; therefore it was with
a sinking of the heart that we found ourselves, when we arrived at our
destination, thrown into the jail yard at Charleston, which was the
grand receptacle of all Union prisoners in that city. The jail was a
large octagonal building, four stories high, surmounted by a lofty
tower. A workhouse and a gallows also occupied the yard. The jail
building was for the accommodation of criminals, military prisoners, and
Federal and Rebel deserters, all of whom at least had the advantage of
shelter from sun and storm. The war prisoners were permitted the use of
the yard only, which was in the most filthy condition conceivable,
having been long used as a prison-pen, without receiving any cleaning or
purification whatever. The only shelter afforded us were the remnants of
a few tents, which had been cut to pieces, more or less, by former
prisoners, to make themselves clothing.
This jail yard was in the southeastern portion of the city, and
apparently directly under the fire of our batteries on Morris Island.
But though the shells came screaming over our heads, and proved a
subject of interest, discussion, and even mathematical calculation among
the prisoners, who were thankful for anything which should take their
minds, even momentarily, from the misery which they endured, so
carefully were they aimed, not to do us mischief, that though they
exploded all about us--in front, behind, and on either side--not one of
them fell within the prison enclosure. The scene at night was of
peculiar beauty. These messengers of death presented the spectacle of
magnificent fireworks, and every explosion sounded as the voice of a
friend to us, assuring us that the great Northern army was still
exerting itself to crush out the rebellion and open our prison doors and
set us free.
[Illustration: VIEW ON THE BATTERY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.]
Reaching Charleston and its jail yard September twelfth, 1864, on the
twenty-ninth I was transferred to the Roper Hospital, having given my
parole that I would not attempt to escape. The quarters here were so
much more comfortable that it was almost like a transition from hell to
heaven. Leaving behind me the filthiness of the jail yard, and my bed
there on the chill, bare ground, where I had protection against neither
heat nor cold, storm nor sunshine, to be permitted the freedom of the
beautiful garden of the hospital, and to sleep even upon the hard floor
of the piazza, were luxuries before unenjoyed in my experience of
southern prisons. And here the Sisters of Charity, those angels among
women, did what they could to alleviate the sufferings of the sick, and
to add to the comfort of us all. Their ministrations were bestowed
indiscriminately on Rebels and Federals, with a charity as broad and
boundless as true religion.
On October fifth we were ordered to leave Charleston, and were sent, in
the foulest of cattle cars, to Columbia, the Capital of the State. We
left Charleston without a regret. It was the breeding place of the
rankest treason, the cradle of the Rebellion, and the scene of untold
cruelties to Union prisoners. At the time of our brief visit to the
city, it was undergoing all the horrors of an actual siege. About
one-third of its territory had been destroyed by fire during the early
part of the war, caused by shells thrown from the Union batteries on
Morris Island. This portion of the city was deserted by all its
inhabitants save the negroes, who, during every brief cessation in the
bombardment, flocked in and took possession, rent free, to scatter as
quickly when one or more of them had been killed by the sudden
appearance and explosion of shells in this quarter. The balance of the
city was forsaken by non-combatants, and the blockade had put an end to
all her commerce. The quiet industries of peace had given place to all
the turmoil of war. Her streets were filled with military, while the
boom of the distant batteries, the whiz of the flying shells, and the
noise of their explosion, were daily and familiar sounds.
During the four years of the war, Charleston was one of the chief points
of Federal attack, though it remained in possession of the Confederate
forces until the beginning of 1865. These were four terrible years to
the city. Yet her sufferings she had brought upon herself. The first
open and public movement in favor of the dissolution of the Union was
made in that city. South Carolina was the first to call a State
convention, and to secede from the Union. This convention was held at
Columbia, the Capital of the State, but was adjourned to Charleston,
where the Ordinance of Secession was unanimously passed on the twentieth
of December, 1860. Fort Sumter, which was one of the largest forts in
Charleston, a massive fortress of solid masonry, standing on an island
commanding the principal entrance, at the mouth of Charleston Harbor,
was in command of Major Robert Anderson, with a garrison of eighty men.
On the twenty-seventh of December he ran up the stars and stripes.
Governor Pickens immediately demanded a surrender of the fort, which was
promptly refused. Early on Friday morning, April twelfth, 1861, the
initial gun of the terrible four years' war was fired by the Rebel
forces from the howitzer battery on James Island, west of Sumter. Fort
Moultrie, on Sullivan Island, on the northeast, the gun battery at
Cumming's Point, the northwest extremity of Morris Island, and other
batteries and fortifications which the Confederates had seized and
appropriated to their own use, all followed in a deadly rain of shells
upon Sumter. The firing was kept up for thirty-five hours, and Sumter
made a vigorous defence, until the quarters were entirely burned, the
main gates destroyed by fire, the supplies exhausted, and the magazine
surrounded by flames, when Major Anderson accepted the terms of
capitulation offered by General Beauregard.
Upon the surrender of the Fort, which was received as a good omen by the
South, troops began to pour into the city, so that by the sixteenth of
the same month as many as ten thousand had arrived. The blockade of the
port was commenced on the tenth of May, and continued until the close of
the war. In the latter part of 1861 an attempt was made by the Federal
government to seal up the channel of the harbor with sunken ships, to
prevent the egress of privateers. On the twenty-first of December
seventeen vessels were sunk, in three or four rows, across the channel.
But this attempt at blockade proved a failure. The current washed some
of them away, and many passages in a water front of six miles were left
unobserved, and more vessels ran the blockade and reached the city, than
at any other southern port.
On the tenth of December, 1861, a fire broke out in the city, which
destroyed nearly all its public buildings, banks and insurance offices,
and several churches, besides many dwellings, reducing thousands to
homelessness and the extremity of want. The loss occasioned by this
conflagration was estimated at ten millions of dollars.
In 1863, the women, children and other non-combatants were ordered out
of the city, and free transportation, food and lodgings were furnished
those unable to pay for them. Morris Island had been captured by the
Federal Army, who used it as a point of attack against Sumter and the
city. Its shells had wrought destruction in all parts of the city,
especially in its lower portions. On February seventeenth, 1865,
Charleston, which had withstood all attacks from the seaward,
capitulated to the Union forces, Columbia having been captured by
Sherman.
The history of Charleston goes back to earliest colonial times. In 1671
a few persons located themselves on Ashley River, at Old Charleston. But
in 1680 this settlement was abandoned, and the foundations of the
present city laid, several miles nearer the sea. The whole country, up
to 1671, between the thirtieth and thirty-sixth parallel of latitude,
was called Carolina, having received the name in honor of Charles IX, of
France. In that year the division was made between the Northern and
Southern provinces. In 1685 the young settlement received a considerable
influx of French Huguenot refugees.
During the early part of the eighteenth century the war of Queen Anne
against France and Spain greatly disturbed the young colony; and a
little later the Indians threatened its existence. All the inhabitants
of the region took refuge at Charleston, which was vigorously defended.
In 1700, the same year that Kidd was captured and taken to England, no
less then seven pirates were secured, and executed at Charleston.
Subsequently others shared the same fate.
[Illustration: GARDEN AT MOUNT PLEASANT, OPPOSITE CHARLESTON, SOUTH
CAROLINA.]
South Carolina was among the foremost of the American colonies to strike
for independence. On the twenty-eighth of June, 1776, Charleston was
attacked by the British, an attempt being made to destroy the
military works on Sullivan's Island. But Colonel Moultrie, in honor of
whom the fort was subsequently named, made a gallant defence and
repulsed them. In 1779 they made a second attack upon the city, this
time approaching it by land, but were again compelled to retreat. Sir
Henry Clinton, with seven or eight thousand men, opened his batteries
upon Charleston on the second of April, 1780. Fort Moultrie, on
Sullivan's Island, was compelled to surrender on the fourteenth, and the
city yielded on May eleventh. The British retained possession of the
city until the close of the war.
Charleston took a prominent part in the passage of the nullification act
by the State, which maintained that any one of the States might set
aside or nullify any act of Congress which it deemed unconstitutional or
oppressive. The occasion of this nullification act was the Tariff Laws
of 1828, which were not considered favorable to the Southern States. A
convention of the State declared them null and void, and made
preparations to resist their execution. John C. Calhoun, who was at that
time Vice-President under Andrew Jackson, resigned his office, became a
leader in the nullification movement, and was the father of the doctrine
of State Sovereignty, the legitimate outcome of the principles of which
was the late attempt to dissolve the Union.
The population of Charleston in 1800 was 18,711; in 1850, 42,985
inhabitants; in 1860, 40,519; in 1870, 48,956; and in 1880, 50,000
inhabitants. It has not made so rapid a growth as other cities, even in
the South, but is, nevertheless, a prosperous town, with large
commercial, and since the war, large manufacturing interests. It is one
of the chief shipping ports for cotton, and also exports rice, lumber,
naval stores and fertilizers. Immense beds of marl were discovered in
the vicinity of the city in 1868, and now the manufacture of fertilizers
from marl and phosphate is one of its principal industries. There are
also flour and rice mills, carriage and wagon factories and machine
shops. The city is learning that the surest foundation stone for its
future prosperity is its manufacturing interests; and, probably, the
political battle of 1861, could it be fought over again to-day, in that
city, would find the nullifiers largely in the minority. The city which
was so marred and blemished during its long state of siege, has been
rebuilt, and all traces of the fratricidal conflict removed; and though
Charleston would not be true to her traditions if she did not still
cherish a strong Southern sentiment, the years which have passed since
the cessation of hostilities have done much toward softening the
asperities of feeling on both sides.
As a seaboard city, Charleston is most favorably situated. It has an
excellent harbor, seven miles in length, with an average width of two
miles, landlocked on all sides, except an entrance about a mile in
width. This entrance is blocked by a bar, which, however, serves both as
a bulwark and a breakwater. Of its two passages, its best gives
twenty-two feet in depth at flood tide, and sixteen feet at ebb.
The harbor of Charleston is impregnable, as the Union troops learned to
their cost during the late war. Standing directly in the channel are
forts Ripley and Sumter. On a point extending out into the strait,
between the two, is Fort Johnson. Directly in front of the city, one
mile distant from it, is Castle Pinckney, covering the crest of a mud
shoal, and facing the entrance. Sullivan's Island, a long, low, gray
stretch of an island, dotted here and there by clumps of palmettoes,
lies on the north of the entrance of the harbor, with Fort Moultrie on
its extreme southern point, as a doorkeeper to the harbor. On the
southern side is Morris Island, long, low and gray also, with tufts of
pines instead of palmettoes, and with batteries at intervals along its
whole sea front, Fort Wagner standing near its northern end. Sullivan's
Island, the scene of fierce conflict during the Revolution, and later,
during the Rebellion, is to-day the Long Branch or Coney Island of South
Carolina, containing many beautiful cottages and fine drives, and
furnishing good sea bathing. The village occupies the point extending
into the harbor.
As one approaches Charleston from the sea, the name which has been
applied to it, of the "American Venice," seems not inappropriate. The
shores are low, and the city seems to rise out of the water. It is built
something after the manner of New York, on a long and narrow peninsula,
formed by the Cooper and Ashley rivers, which unite in front of the
city. It has, like New York, its Battery, occupying the extreme point of
the peninsula, its outlook commanding the entire harbor, bristling with
fortifications, so harmless in time of peace, so terrible in war. The
Battery contains plots of thin clover, neatly fenced and shelled
promenades, a long, solid stone quay, which forms the finest sea-walk in
the United States, and has a background of the finest residences in the
city, three storied, and faced with verandahs. The dwelling-houses
throughout the city are mostly of brick or wood, and have large open
grounds around them, ornamented with trees, shrubbery, vines and
flowers. The city is laid out with tolerable regularity, the streets
generally crossing each other at right angles. King street, running
north and south, is the fashionable promenade, containing the leading
retail stores. Meeting street, nearly parallel with King, contains the
jobbing and wholesale stores. Broad street, the banks, brokers' and
insurance offices. Meeting street, below Broad, Rutledge street, and the
west end of Wentworth street, contain fine private residences.
The City Hall, an imposing building, standing in an open square, the
Court House, the Police Headquarters, and the venerable St. Michael's
Church (Episcopal), all stand at the intersection of Broad and Meeting
streets. St. Michael's was built in 1752, after designs by a pupil of
Sir Christopher Wren. The view from the belfry is very fine, embracing
the far stretch of sea and shore, the shipping, fortresses of the
harbor, and near at hand buildings as ancient as the church itself. It
is the church of the poem--a favorite with elocutionists--"How he saved
St. Michael." Says the poem, in one of its stanzas, its spire rose
"High over the lesser steeples, tipped with a golden ball
That hung like a radiant planet caught in its earthward fall,
First glimpse of home to the sailor who made the harbor round,
And last slow fading vision, dear, to the outward bound."
Next in interest among the churches of Charleston is St. Philip's
Episcopal Church, in Church street, near Queen. The building itself is
not so venerable as St. Michael's, though its church establishment is
older. The view from the steeple is fine; but its chief interest centres
in the churchyard, where lie some of South Carolina's most illustrious
dead. In one portion of the churchyard is the tomb of John C. Calhoun,
consisting of a plain granite slab, supported by brick walls, and
bearing the simple inscription "Calhoun." The ruins of St. Finbar's
Cathedral (Roman Catholic) stand at the corner of Broad and Friend
streets. The building, which was one of the costliest edifices of
Charleston, was destroyed by the great fire of 1861, and the walls,
turrets and niches still standing are exceedingly picturesque. Other
handsome church edifices abound. The old Huguenot Church, at the corner
of Church and Queen streets has its walls lined with quaint and elegant
mural entablatures.
[Illustration: CUSTOM HOUSE, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.]
The Post Office, at the foot of Broad street, is a venerable structure,
dating back to the colonial period, the original material for its
construction having being brought from England in 1761. It received
considerable damage during the war, but has since been renovated.
The new United States Custom House, which, when completed, will be the
finest edifice in the city, is of white marble, in very elegant
Corinthian style, and is situated south of the market wharf, on Cooper
River.
The old Orphan House of Charleston is one of the most famous
institutions in the country. It stands in spacious grounds between
Calhoun and Vanderbuist streets, and a statue of William Pitt, erected
during the Revolution, stands in the centre of the grounds. John Charles
Fremont, the conqueror of California, and once a candidate for the
Presidency, and C.C. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury of the
Confederate States, were both educated here. The Charleston Library, at
the corner of Broad and Church streets, founded in 1748, and the College
of Charleston, located in the square bounded by George, Green, College
and St. Philip streets, and founded in 1788, are both spacious and
commodious buildings.
One of the most characteristic sights of Charleston is to be seen
between six and nine o'clock in the morning, in and about market Hall,
in Meeting street, near the Bay. The Hall is a fine building in temple
form, with a lofty portico in front, and a row of long, low sheds in the
rear.
There is nothing picturesque in the country around about Charleston. On
the contrary, it is low, flat and uninteresting. Looking across the
Ashley River, which is more than a quarter of a mile wide here, there is
on the opposite side a long, low line of nearly dead level, with
occasional sparse pine forests, interspersed with fields of open sand.
There are no palmettoes, but here and there are gigantic oaks, hung with
pendants of gray Spanish moss, and occasional green spikes of the
Spanish bayonet. The view across the Cooper is very similar. Large
extents of country in the neighborhood of Charleston, especially that
lying along the streams, and stretching for many miles inland, are low
and swampy. The region is sparsely settled, and furnishes no thriving
agricultural or manufacturing population, which, seeking a market or a
port for its productions, and wanting supplies in return, helps to build
up the city. Several railways connecting with the North, West and South
centre here; and she is also connected, by means of steamship lines,
with the principal Atlantic seaports and some European ones. She is also
the centre of a great lumber region, and annually exports many million
feet of lumber.
There are few points of interest about the city. Besides Sullivan's
Island, Mount Pleasant, on the northern shore of the harbor, so named,
probably, because the land is sufficiently high to escape being a swamp,
is a favorite picnic resort. The antiquarian will find interest in the
old Church of St. James, about fifteen miles from Charleston, on Goose
Creek. It is secluded in the very heart of the pine forest, entirely
isolated from habitations, and is approached by a road scarcely more
than a bridle-path. The church was built in 1711, and the royal arms of
England, which are emblazoned over the pulpit, saved it from destruction
during the Revolutionary War. On the walls and altars are tablets in
memory of the early members of the organization, one dated 1711, and
another 1717. The pews are square and high, the pulpit or reading desk
exceedingly small, and the floor is of stone. On the other side of the
road, a short distance from this church, is a farm known as The Oaks,
approached by a magnificent avenue, a quarter of a mile in length, of
those trees, believed to be nearly two hundred years old. They are
exceedingly large, and form a continuous archway over the road, their
branches festooned with long fringes of gray moss, which soften and
conceal the ravages of age.
Magnolia Cemetery lies just outside the city, on its northern boundary.
It is beautified by live oaks and magnolias, and contains, among other
fine monuments, those of Colonel William Washington, of Revolutionary
fame, Hugh Legare and Dr. Gilmore Simms, the novelist. The roads leading
out of the city by the Cooper and Ashley rivers afford attractive
drives. What the scenery lacks in grandeur and picturesqueness is made
up in beauty by the abundance of lovely foliage, composed of pines,
oaks, magnolias, myrtles and jasmines, exhibiting a tropical
luxuriance.
On the twenty-seventh of April, 1838, Charleston was visited by a fire
which proved exceedingly disastrous. Nearly one-half the city was swept
by the flames, which raged for twenty-eight hours, and were finally
averted only by the blowing up of buildings in their path. There were
1158 buildings destroyed, involving a loss of three millions of dollars.
The most shocking feature of the catastrophe was that, in the
carelessness of handling the gunpowder in blowing up these buildings,
four of the most prominent citizens were killed, and several others
injured. The fire of 1861 exceeded this in destructiveness, and to it
were added the terrific effects of a four years' besiegement. So that it
can be truly said that Charleston has been purified by fire. She is
to-day fully recovered from the effects, and as prosperous as her
geographical position will permit.
[Illustration: MAGNOLIA CEMETERY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.]
CHAPTER VII.
CINCINNATI.
Founding of Cincinnati.--Rapid Increase of Population.--
Character of its Early Settlers.--Pro-slavery Sympathies.--
During the Rebellion.--Description of the City.--Smoke and
Soot.--Suburbs.--"Fifth Avenue" of Cincinnati.--Streets,
Public Buildings, Private Art Galleries, Hotels, Churches
and Educational Institutions.--"Over the Rhine."--Hebrew
Population.--Liberal Religious Sentiment.--Commerce and
Manufacturing Interests.--Stock Yards and Pork-packing
Establishments.--Wine Making.--Covington and Newport
Suspension Bridge.--High Water.--Spring Grove Cemetery.
Cincinnati, whether we consider what its past history has been, or
whether we regard it as it is to-day, is probably the most
matter-of-fact and prosaic of all our western cities. A generation ago
it derived its chief importance from the pork-packing business, in
which, though it once stood at the head, it is now completely distanced
by Chicago. Its extensive factories and foundries give it material
wealth, while its geographical situation guarantees its commercial
importance. Unlike most of the towns and cities of this western world,
no interesting historical associations cling around its site. The
Indians seem to have been troublesome and treacherous here, as
elsewhere; but the records tell no stories of famous wars, terrible
massacres, or hairbreadth escapes. In all the uninteresting accumulation
of dry facts and statistics regarding the founding and subsequent growth
of the city, there is just one exceptional romance.
In early times three settlements were made along the banks of the Ohio
River, on what is now the southern boundary of the State of Ohio. The
first was at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami River, in
November, 1788, on ten thousand acres, purchased by Major Benjamin
Stites, from Judge Symmes. The second settlement was commenced but a
month later, on the north bank of the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of
the Licking River, Matthias Denman, of New Jersey, being the leading
spirit in the new undertaking, he having purchased about eight hundred
acres, also from Judge Symmes, for an equivalent of fifteen pence an
acre. Judge Symmes himself directed the third settlement, which was
founded in February, 1789, and gave it the name of North Bend, from the
fact that it was the most northern bend of the Ohio River, below the
mouth of the great Kanawha.
A spirit of rivalry existed between these three settlements, which lay
but a few miles apart. Each one regarded itself as the future great city
of the west. In the beginning, Columbia took the lead; but North Bend
presently gained the advantage, as the troops detailed by General Harmer
for the protection of the settlers in the Miami Valley landed there,
through the influence of Judge Symmes. This detachment soon took its
departure for Louisville, and was succeeded by another, under Ensign
Luce, who was at liberty to select the spot, for the erection of a
substantial block-house, which seemed to him best calculated to afford
protection to the Miami settlers. He put up temporary quarters at North
Bend, sufficient for the security of his troops, and began to look for a
suitable site on which to build the block-house. While he was leisurely
pursuing this occupation, he was attracted by a pair of beautiful black
eyes, whose owner was apparently not indifferent to his attentions. This
woman was the wife of one of the settlers at the Bend, who, when he
perceived the condition of affairs, thought best to remove her out of
danger, and at once proceeded to take up his residence at Cincinnati.
The gallant commander, still ostensibly engaged in locating his
block-house, felt immediately impelled to go to Cincinnati, on a tour of
inspection. He was forcibly struck by the superior advantages offered by
that town, over all other points on the river, for a military station.
In spite of remonstrance from the Judge, the troops were, accordingly,
removed, and the erection of a block-house commenced at once. The
settlers at the Bend, who at that time outnumbered those of the more
favored place, finding their protection gone, gave up their land and
followed the soldiers, and ere long the town was almost deserted. In the
course of the ensuing summer, Major Doughty arrived at Cincinnati, with
troops from Fort Harmer, and established Fort Washington, which was made
the most important and extensive military station in the northwest
territory. North Bend still continued its existence as a town, and was
finally honored by becoming the home of General Wm. H. Harrison, ninth
President of the United States, and there still rest his mortal remains.
Farms now occupy the place where Columbia once stood.
The unsettled condition of the frontier prevented Cincinnati from making
a rapid growth in its early years. In 1800, twelve years after the first
colonist landed on the shore of the Ohio opposite the Licking River,
there were but 750 inhabitants. In 1814 the town was incorporated as a
city. In 1820 its inhabitants numbered 9,602, and in 1830, 16,230. About
this time the Miami Canal was built, running through the western portion
of the State of Ohio, and connecting Cincinnati with Lake Erie at
Toledo. This gave an impetus to trade, and during the next ten years the
population increased nearly three hundred per cent., numbering in 1840,
46,382 inhabitants. In 1850 it had again more than doubled, amounting to
115,436. In 1860 the number was 161,044; in 1870, 216,239; while
according to the United States census returns of 1880 the population in
that year was 255,708.
The career of Cincinnati will not compare in brilliancy with that of
Chicago. It has not displayed the same energy and activity. Outwardly,
it has not made the most of its superior natural advantages, and
intellectually, although it boasts some of the most readable and
successful newspapers in the country, it has fallen behind other cities.
Settled originally by emigrants from Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
descendants of Germans, Swedes and Danes, its inhabitants were plodders
rather than pushers. They lacked the practical and mental activity of
New Englanders and New Yorkers. By habits of industry and economy they
were sure to accumulate wealth; but they cared little for outward
display, and less for educational and intellectual advancement. The
churches met better support than the schools, "book learning" being held
in small estimation by this stolid yet thrifty race. They patterned
their city after Philadelphia, the most magnificent city their eyes had
ever beheld, and anything more splendid than which their imaginations
were powerless to depict; called their streets Walnut, Spruce and Vine,
and felt that they should be commended for having built them up with a
view to substantiality rather than to display.
Yankee capital and enterprise, in the course of time, found their way to
Cincinnati, to build up its factories and stimulate public improvements.
But, on the line between freedom and slavery, its population largely
southern by immigration or descent, and by sympathy, Cincinnati up to
the time of the war was more a southern than a northern city. Her
leading families were connected by marriage with Kentucky, Virginia and
Maryland; many of her leading men had immigrated from those States; and
her aristocracy scorned the northern element which had helped to build
up the city, and repudiated all its tendencies.
Public sentiment had been, from its earliest history, intensely
pro-slavery. In 1836 a mob broke into and destroyed the office of the
_Philanthropist_, an anti-slavery paper, published by James G. Birney,
scattered the type, and threw the press into the river, having
previously resolved that no "abolition paper" should be either
"published or distributed" in the town. In 1841 the office of the same
paper was again raided and destroyed, and a frenzied mob, numbering at
one time as many as fifteen hundred men, engaged in a riot against the
negro residents in the city, until, to secure their safety, it was found
necessary to incarcerate the latter, to the number of 250 to 300, in the
county jail. Houses were broken into and furniture destroyed, several
persons killed, and twenty or thirty more or less seriously wounded. Yet
at this very period, Salmon Portland Chase, the future statesman and
financier, but then an obscure young lawyer, was living in Cincinnati,
and was already planning the beginnings of that Liberty party which,
after many vicissitudes, and under a different name, finally
accomplished the abolition of slavery; and in this same city, but ten
years later, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
When the war began, Cincinnati found itself in an anomalous position.
Geographically it was on the side of the north, while to a large extent
its social and business relations allied it with the south. Many of the
leading families furnished adherents to the southern cause; but the
masses of the people, notably the Germans, who had already become an
important factor in its population, were stirred by the spirit of
patriotism, and casting aside once for all their conservatism, they
identified themselves with the cause of the Union. Trade was greatly
disturbed. The old profitable relations with the south were broken up
for the time being, but Cincinnati did not find herself a loser. Army
contractors made fortunes, and the business of supplying gunboats,
military stores and provisions to the army gave employment to immense
numbers, and stimulated all branches of trade. From this period
Cincinnati dates her new life. Heretofore she had stagnated in all but a
business sense. With the steady increase of her population came a new
element. Southern supineness and Middle State stolidity were aroused and
shaken out of themselves, when slavery no longer exerted its baleful
influence over the country and the city. Fresh life was infused into her
people, and the war marked the dawn of a new era for the city, an era in
which public spirit took a prominent place.
The name, Cincinnati, was bestowed upon the city at its foundation, as
tradition has it, by General St. Clair, who called it after the society
of that name, of which himself and General Hamilton were both members.
The county was subsequently named in honor of General Hamilton. The
young town barely escaped the name of Losantiville, a word of original
etymology, compounded by a pedantic schoolmaster, who, wishing to
indicate the position of the future city as opposite the mouth of the
Licking River, united _os_, mouth, _anti_, against or opposite to, and
_ville_, as meaning city, prefacing the whole with L, the initial letter
of Licking; hence "Losantiville." But the name, although accepted for
several months, was not permanently adopted.
Cincinnati is nearly in the centre of the great valley of the Ohio,
being only fifty-eight miles nearer Cairo, at its junction with the
Mississippi, than to its head waters at Pittsburg. It occupies the half
circle formed by an outward curve of the river, which bends continually
in one direction or another. The plateau upon which the business part of
the city is built is sixty feet above the low-water mark of the river.
Back of this is a terrace some fifty feet higher yet, graded to an easy
slope, the whole shut in by an amphitheatre of what appears to be hills,
though when one mounts to their summits he finds himself on an
undulating table-land, four or five hundred feet above the river, which
extends backward into the country. The river flows through a wide and
deep ravine, which the raging floods have, in the long ages since they
began their course, cut for themselves, through an elevated region of
country. In the remote west these ravines, chiseled through the solid
rocks, are bordered by steep precipices; on the Ohio the yielding soil
has been washed away in a gradual slope, leaving the graceful outlines
of hills.
The city proper is occupied by stores, offices, public buildings,
factories, foundries, and the dwelling houses of the poorer and middle
classes, over all which hangs a pall of smoke, caused by the bituminous
coal used as fuel in the city. Cleanliness in either person or in dress
is almost an impossibility. Hands and faces become grimy, and clean
collars and light-hued garments are perceptibly coated with a thin layer
of soot. Clothes hung out in the weekly wash acquire a permanent yellow
hue which no bleaching can remove. The smoke of hundreds of factories,
locomotives and steamboats arises and unites to form this dismal pall,
which obscures the sunlight, and gives a sickly cast to the mo
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