CHAPTER XXVII

1860. THIS last year of these "Reminiscences" was the last of a great historical period ending in the Civil War and changes consequent thereon. Near at hand as that upheaval was, the people generally, and specially those of Republican politics, refused to believe that in any case the Southern States would secede from the Union, and looked upon the many signs of coming trouble as only the excited accompaniments of an unusually ardent campaign for the Presidency, destined to disappear in renewed quiet when the election should be over. Those who held the contrary view were ridiculed by the majority: I remember that when one of my acquaintances declared himself unwilling to make some projected changes in his business because he thought that war between the States was probable, he was much laughed at, and with many persons his reputation as a man of sense and judgment suffered seriously.

In short, it was almost universally held in the North that the South never would secede, just as the South believed that in case of secession the North would not fight for the Union. Yet on December 20 South Carolina did secede, and before the year ended (December 26) Anderson had spiked the guns of Moultrie, abandoned that fort, and occupied Fort Sumter.

Yet, meanwhile, New York enjoyed a summer of unusual festivity. June 16, exceeding interest was excited not only in New York, but throughout the United States by the visit of the Japanese Embassy, including two princes of the reigning family, which

reached the city via Albany, and was landed and received at the Battery, and escorted by the municipal authorities and the military to their assigned quarters at the Metropolitan Hotel. Soon after, a matinee was given by Mr. Bennett of the Herald at his residence on Washington Heights, which was held to have been a very sumptuous and successful entertainment, and was followed by a ball and supper by the Corporation at the Embassy's quarters in the hotel. Tickets for admission to the entertainment were held in such estimation that they were purchased at extravagant prices.

The service on this occasion, according to authentic reports, was so far in excess of that of any previous entertainment of the kind that I forbear to describe it; one of the items, that of champagne, was given in thousands of bottles, the cost of the entertainment approximating a hundred thousand dollars.

Many of my readers will find it difficult to conceive the novelty to us, in that day, of things Japanese and the first appearance here of representatives of that ancient empire.

They may remember that this notable visit occurred but eight years after Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, which first opened the way to any intercourse between ourselves and that nation, but it will be difficult or perhaps even impossible, for readers of modern times brought up amid surroundings of Japanese art, accustomed to deal in Japanese shops, familiar with Japanese gentlemen in our society, and used to the custom of summer tours in Japan, to picture to themselves the sense of absolute strangeness which this meeting with Japanese civilization imposed upon our most accomplished citizens in 1860. Probably it is well for us not to know what was the effect upon these high­bred Japanese, reared in a system of politeness so delicate as still to seem almost beyond Western comprehension, of their contact with the New York aldermen, who on this occasion rioted even unusually in the unusual opportunity of gratuitous feasting. The Embassy was received everywhere with what we intended for distinguished honors, and the result of it was of great consequence in effect upon the future of Japan. It cannot be said that we grew very rapidly in knowledge of our new friends and their products, for it was quite a dozen years after 1860 that a merchant brought to New York a large invoice of Japanese objects of art, small and great, which filled a large shop, but which our citizens treated with almost entire indifference, much to his astonishment and discomfiture. These objects were many of them ancient, and all of them in the pure native style, unaffected by Western influence; such a collection as would excite keen interest in New York to­day; but it remained almost wholly unnoticed. The few whose culture or natural good taste could partly appreciate the new forms of art, bought such things from the collection as they could afford, but the bulk of it remained a dead weight on the importer's hands, and was finally disposed of by auction at absurdly low prices.

The cashier of a bank in this city who had taken from it in varied amounts, to meet his losses in stock speculation, a sum in excess of his capacity to repay, upon the approach of the period when his account was to be examined, made his position known to a lawyer, who advised him to take an amount equal to his deficiency, confess to the directors, and settle with them by restoring one half of his indebtedness, and being permitted to resign. He followed the advice, with the addition of taking twice the amount of his deficiency, and then told the directors that if he was permitted to resign and no report made of the matter, his relations and friends would make up one third of the amount, which being consented to, he paid the amount and resigned, with a sum equal to that of his losses in his possession.

Popular interest was again excited in July by arrival of the enormous steamer Great Eastern, which lay for a time on exhibition at the foot of Hammond Street where she was visited by thousands who wondered at the proportions which justified her earlier name of Leviathan.

Other visitors of the summer were the Prince de Joinville and Lady Franklin, who came on an errand of gratitude to those who had generously aided in the search for her husband, Sir John, the Arctic explorer, whose fate had been discovered by McClintock in the year preceding.

October, the year's festivity reached its height with the visit of the Prince of Wales, who was greeted by immense throngs on his arrival here from Quebec via Boston. The harbor was full of steam and sailing craft, all in gay attire.

After the Prince had received the Mayor, etc., on board of the frigate in which he had arrived, which he did in dress suited to the occasion, he was taken to Castle Garden, where he received the military officers, and the time occupied in changing his dress, according to the etiquette of the ceremony, was so extended that night was approaching before the line of march entered Broadway, which was lined by fully one hundred thousand people, conspicuous among whom were women with infants in their arms, borne in order that they at some future period might say they had seen the Prince of Wales; so, as it was near the middle of October, and as the evening air then, under the most favorable circumstances of weather, is not salutary to infants or even lightly clad children and women, the result of over six hours (from two to eight) in the open air might have been predicted.

The Prince was escorted to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where he was subjected to all the forms of attention which are supposed to be proper for distinguished visitors, which were received by him with admirable patience. He was accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle and was heralded simply as the Baron Renfrew.

The delay that attends our public exhibitions and processions, for a people who are held to be active and enterprising, is remarkable. One of our late militia generals was notorious for his procrastination in moving his command beyond the time he had assigned. On the occasion of a grand "function" in a city in Europe, I witnessed an exhibition of promptness that would have put our officers to the blush. The time of march was fixed at 10 o'clock A. M., and before the city clock had

ceased striking the hour, the word of command was given, and the head of the line was in advance motion.

On the 12th a ball was given to the Prince at the Academy of Music. The " Prince's Ball," long famous in our social history, was the occasion of great display and some jealousies and heart­burnings, and on the 13th an evening parade of the Fire Department was given in his honor.

The Presidential campaign was now active, popular

excitement running very high, ending in the election of Abraham Lincoln and some clearer indications of the purpose of the South. Considerable financial distress manifested itself; South Carolina seceded in the month of December, and the year which had been so full of gayety closed in trouble anti fear.

The Metropolitan Police occupied at this time a building in White Street, near Broadway, afterward removing to the corner of Elm and Broome streets, and soon after commenced the erection of the present building in Mott and Mulberry streets. The opportunities presented to patrolmen for levying blackmail upon those whose pursuits or practice rendered them amenable to the ordinances, were availed of even at this early stage of the existence of the department.

The first tenement house, constructed as such, in this city (see p. 332) was lately taken down, as it was within the area of Corlear's Park. In 1860 there were several hundred of such houses, while now ( 1895) they have increased to many thousands. A census alone will reveal the number of their dwellers. Sixty­five of all ages is an average number for a house, and in some houses of but 25 feet front, on lots 100 feet in depth, loo occupants are frequently found.

Mayor Wood suggested that all the Target companies in the city should meet on a certain day, and march in review before him at the City Hall. They concurred, and the display took place; but the aggregation of the companies was not a manifest success; whether the deficiency in the number of pioneers to adorn each company, or the absence of the prizes and the negro with his target was the cause, no one could determine; but on one point they agreed-that there was a void.

From that time the eclat of "target companies" waned, and with the exception of some one or two on Thanksgiving day, Christmas, or New Year's, the custom is becoming somewhat like to the existence of " Gentlemen of the Old School," or " Buffaloes in the West"-it is dying out.

The introduction of steam fire­engines was still opposed in this year, and their advocates were termed enemies of the Volunteer Department and hirelings of the insurance companies. The steam­engines were declared in formal reports to want capability and quickness of operation, and therefore to be of no value, save perhaps as occasionally auxiliary to the hand machines. Most fires, it was said, were subdued in an early stage, by the quickness of the hand engines, so the steamers would most often not be needed. Nevertheless, it was scarce more than a year from this time that eleven steamers were in service, and, by the year 1865, twenty­seven were employed; so rapid was the change of opinion on this important subject.

The World newspaper was founded in June of this year; originally designed as a religious daily. The Courier and Enquirer was merged with it in 1861. Later it passed into Democratic hands, and for some time occupied a high position under control of Mr. Manton Marble.

The population of New York in this year slightly exceeded eight hundred and five thousand. This was the period when the city's growth began to depart substantially from John Pintard's famous estimate of New York's future population, which he made at the beginning of the century and which had been realized with close accuracy until this date. After 1860, Pintard's ingenious though simple calculation seems to go wildly wrong, since its result for the year 1900 is to give New York 5,257,493 inhabitants, or about two and a half times more than the census of what we used to call New York will probably count for that year. But of course Pintard could not allow for the devastation of war, which reduced the city's decennial rate of increase from 56.27 per cent. between 1850 and 1860 to 16.96 per cent. for the next ten years-a loss never to be retrieved. Nor could he have foreseen the rise of our Western empire, with its multiplied great cities, all of which drew upon the East for their early capital stock of population; a cause which must have made at least some temporary diminution of our natural growth, and to which, together with the war, may be attributed the decline from our average decennial rate of increase which amounted to nearly sixty per cent. during the forty years from 1820 to 1860, to scarce more than twenty­three per cent. average for the thirty years of 1860 to 1890. But Pintard's estimate is to be further justified by more immediate considerations. We have to consider what he meant by "New York." He may not have foreseen consciously the difficulties of intra­mural travel which have driven so many New Yorkers into country districts for places of residence, but it is certain that he could not have posited his 5,257,493 population of 1900 all upon the island of Manhattan, and must have meant by New York what we mean by London, Paris, Philadelphia, (Chicago-that is, the contiguous population on different sides of the rivers Thames, Seine, Schuylkill, and Chicago. In fairness to him, therefore, we must compute for an area such as is contained in the cities just named, that is, for what we call the Metropolitan District, including besides the political New York, the near­by region in close view from eminences on this Island, which contains a greater population than is at present (1895) under our City Government. This district will probably contain in 1900 about four and a half millions of people, which is not so very far away from Pintard's five and a quarter millions-only about fourteen per cent. less.

We may project a hypothetical computation beyond Pintard's date, and enquire what will be our population fifty years later than the last census. If the rate of increase of the last fifty years (including the depressed war period) shall be maintained, the year 1940 will witness a population of seven and a half millions within the present limits of New York. The rate of increase of the outlying parts is so various as to make computation of future growth in them a very difficult matter, as all estimates are subject to the law which reduces the rate of increase when population has passed beyond a certain stage. Thus London, taken for precisely the same limits in order to test the working of this law, increased decennially at the rate of twenty­five per cent. for the first forty years of this­century, but the rate dropped to twenty per cent. for the next two decennial periods, and fell further to eleven per cent. for the next ten years, and to about nine per cent. for the next ten.

Regarding the "Bowery" Theatre-as it was universally though erroneously termed, as its title was "New York"-and Mr. Hamblin, who was so long identified with it, he, by the burning of the Bowery in 1836, lost heavily, and thereupon leased the ground and went to Europe; but returning in 1837 (see p. 341), he resumed the management, which he continued, with the interruption of another fire in 1845 (see p. 321), until his death in 1853. In 1848 he added the lease of the Park Theatre, an unfortunate venture, since the building was burned with heavy loss to him (see p. 444). Hamblin in his late years catered for the million, with plays of the "blood and thunder" order, so that in its locality his theatre was known as the Bowery Slaughter House. A man of irregular private life, he was honorable in all business relations, and his generosity was proverbial.

In the latter years of its existence the price of admission to the Bowery pit was but twelve and one half­cents, and as a result it was the resort of very many boys, and, in many cases, the low price was such an inducement for them to go that they did not hesitate at petty thefts to obtain the small sum required.

As the Volunteer Fire Department has been disbanded and replaced by a Municipal Department (1865), the members of which are paid for their services, it is just to the former that the position it for a long time so deservedly occupied in the confidence of the community, and the zealous and effective discharge of the self assumed duties of its members, should be acknowledged in the present time, and recorded for the future.

Up to within a few years before the first date of these "Reminiscences," as fire­engines were deficient in capacity to raise water for their supply from a river or cistern, they were supplied either from a stream of water from a pump or by buckets. To obtain the necessary number of the latter to enable water to be borne from a distance, all householders were required to provide themselves each with two leather buckets, with their names painted thereon, in order that they might be returned after being used, and universally they were kept suspended in the main hall or entry of the dwelling, beside the hall lamp, always in place and convenient to reach. Although householders of later years might object to such a display as not in keeping with marble floors and frescoed ceilings, it was, in the period referred to, held to be a token of reputable citizenship. Upon the occurrence of a fire, all citizens within any practicable distance seized their buckets, and arriving upon the scene of operation, they ranged in line, passing the filled buckets up, while women and boys passed the empty ones down.

It was within this century that engines capable of drawing water and supplying themselves were introduced. In the absence, however, of a distributed supply under a head, as furnished by our hydrants in about 1833, it was very rare when less than three engines, each with two hundred feet of hose, were necessary to conduct and project a stream of water upon a fire. In one case I know, when the cisterns in the vicinity of a fire had been exhausted, a line extending from Greene Street to the North River was resorted to, involving the operation ­of sixteen engines to obtain a single stream of water.

In support of the claims for the efficiency of the Volunteer Department, it is submitted that the engines were drawn by hand over cobble­stone pavements, and that, with the exception of a small bell on the City Hall and one on the Jail (now Hall of Records), and on the two watch houses in Christopher and Eldridge streets, general alarms of fire were not given, until the bellringers of some churches were alarmed and then proceeded to their post, the further to alarm by ringing the bells; and yet, not until the great fire of 1835 had there occurred one which the Department did not subdue.

There is much credit given to the present Fire Department, and justly too, for the unequalled celerity with which its apparatus is harnessed, manned, outside of its house, and in progress to a fire. From the time of receiving an alarm it is so rapid, five seconds in the day and twenty at night, that, but for the repeated witnessing of it, it would not be credited.

The members of the Volunteer Fire Department were sensitive on this point of celerity of operation, and although they did not retire half­dressed, and slide down a pole instead of running down a stairway. they were expeditious. Thus: the zealous, when retiring, raised a window in their room in order to enable them more readily to hear an alarm; retained their stockings, and withdrew a basket from under the bed in which were their fire boots and clothes -the operation of dressing was narrowed down to drawing on their boots, the pantaloons which were gathered over them were raised, coat and cap secured, and the finishing touches were effected while going out of the house and in the street.

In illustration of the zeal displayed by some, and the celerity with which they could reach the engine­house, I know of a case where a person paid a private watchman one dollar per night for eighteen nights to give him the alarm, if one occurred. One occurred, and the watchman having also to alarm another party, he was overtaken in the street by the one he first alarmed.

The point of honor was " to take the engine out," that is, to be the first at the house, and as a reward to be entitled to "take the butt" (abut end) or hold the pipe, according to the engine being in line, or on the fire.

Of all the theatres herein mentioned I believe none remain (Niblo's having been destroyed) save the old "Bowery," which maintained much of its former character until about 1879, when it was remodelled and renamed the Thalia. Now, under what name I know not, it has become a Jewish theatre, and to old New Yorkers seems strange enough, with its front plastered over with placards in Hebrew.

About this period, or a few years earlier, an Italian, the Duke of Calibretto, accompanied by a French Count, arrived here, and they were received in society. It occurred that the Count was so exceptionally fortunate in card playing that his company was eschewed by the young men who had associated with him, and he soon after returned to France. The Duke remained, and a question arising as to the authenticity of his rank, Mr. August Belmont, through his foreign correspondence, learned that not only was he a veritable duke, but that he represented one of the very oldest of the Italian nobility. Soon after he entered the employment of a man who kept a public­house in Hoboken on the road to Hackensack, and upon the death of the proprietor of the house, he assumed it, and later he occupied a house fronting the ferry at Hoboken, designating it " The Duke's House," which he maintained for a long time in high reputation for excellence of cooking and service.

Before closing these "Reminiscences," it is pertinent to them to put on record a few illustrations of the passenger street travel of the preceding period. In connection, then, with the notices of the primitive stage routes given in the early chapters, the following are added: In 1830 there was established an irregular line of stages (omnibuses) between Bleecker Street and the Bowling Green, and occasionally a passenger could have himself carried some distance above Bleecker Street. In like manner, so late as 1836, Asa Hall and Kipp & Brown, of the Greenwich lines, had small stages ("carry­alls" they were termed), in which passengers were transferred from Charles Street to their destination within the limit of Twenty­third Street and Seventh Avenue. In 1845 this Broadway line was purchased by John Marshall, who extended the service from Corporal Thompson's (Twenty­third Street and Fifth Avenue) through Fifth Avenue to Thirteenth Street, thence through University Place to Eleventh Street, then to Broadway, through Broadway to Fulton Street, and then to the Brooklyn Ferry. In 1846 Samuel NV. Andrews, in company with another, bought the line, consisting of less than twenty stages, increased soon after to thirty.

The character of their service can be judged of by the following estimate: The distance from Twenty­third Street and Fifth Avenue to Brooklyn Ferry, via the route given, is 2­3/4 miles, and the time of transit of one of the stages, with a very liberal deduction for that lost by delays, changing horses, etc., would average one hour and ten minutes, involving an interval of nearly five minutes between the times of service of fifteen stages each way. In 1850 the route was extended to Forty-third Street, and soon after to Forty­seventh Street; the service was increased by a very great addition to the number of stages and the route through Thirteenth and Eleventh streets, through to Broadway.

There was another effective line from Thirty­second Street through Fourth Avenue to Fourteenth Street and thence through Broadway to the South Ferry, and another through Madison Avenue from Forty­second Street to the Wall Street Ferry.

The completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the obtaining of a franchise for a railroad in Broadway by Jacob Sharp, arrested the stage lines, and for a brief period all of them ceased running.

The Messrs. Andrews, and the proprietors of the Fourth Avenue line, put what were termed fare­boxes in their stages, furnishing their drivers with varied sums of money in envelopes, whereby a passenger not being able to put the exact fare in the box, could receive from the driver an envelope containing the value of ten, twenty-five, and fifty cents, or a dollar in change. This was held by the drivers to be too severe a reflection upon their character for honesty, and they organized and "struck." Some persons were so illiberal as to charge that their opposition to the box was because it precluded the opportunity of omitting to return all the fares they received. For a few days the service of the line was broken; but in the end capital and enterprise proved superior to the exigencies of labor. During the brief period of the strike, the efforts of the proprietors of the line to maintain the service afforded much amusement to the public on the route. Mr. Marshall and such persons as he could obtain to aid him undertook the piloting of the stages, and as usual, under like circumstances, the laboring public sympathized with the striking drivers, and the manner in which the drivers of trucks, wagons, and cabs blocked the way of the stages and in race course parlance "pocketed" them, was amusing to all but the passengers and the proprietors of the lines.

The fares of the various lines gradually dropped from 25, 12-1/2 10, to 6­1/4 cents. Later the disappearance of the sixpences (6.25 cents), in consequence of the arrest of specie payments at the beginning of the war, had rendered the 6­cent fare so very inconvenient that it was reduced to 5 cents. About 1830 the service of the Brower line was increased by the addition of four­horse vehicles, with a boy collector of the fares (12­1/2 cents) seated on the outside.

On Bloomingdale Road, the several hotels, in every instance but Dodge's at Kingsbridge, were the former country residences of well­known families. Such were "Burnham's," "Batterson's," the "Abbey," "Woodlawn," and " Claremont."

On the East side, in addition to " Cato's," there were on the Third Avenue "Nolan's"; the "Five­Mile House"; "Hazard's," at Eighty­second Street; the "Red House," at One Hundred and Fifth Street, and "Bradshaw's," at One Hundred and Twenty­fifth Street.

Customs, manners, and all the elements that constitute that which is called Life, have so changed since the early period of these " Reminiscences," that it is only one who has witnessed the changes who can give full credit to them. The primitive customs of the Knickerbocker have measurably departed. Foreign immigration, commerce, manufactures, and the consequent accumulation of wealth and the changes attendant thereon, have in a great measure obliterated not only the distinctive features of our people of the past century, but even the topography of the city has changed. The Battery as an elegant resort, the Bloomingdale and Cato's roads and Third Avenue, for drives; Stuyvesant's, Sunfish, and Cedar ponds for skating, and the Park Theatre for the drama proper have passed away.

The first of these roads is a street, erroneously termed a Boulevard, the second is closed, and the last invaded by two railroads; the ponds are filled in, and in place of the drama, we have for the greater part ephemeral absurdities as inconsistent in design as they are debasing in exhibition.

The "Home" of early days is regrettably passing; the evening walks in the Battery in the summer, the nutcracking and candy­pulling parties in the winter of the young, the family whist party of the elders, the evening visiting of neighbors and friends by all, drives on Cato's or Bloomingdale Road, have given place to drives in Central Park, to dinner at eight o'clock, operas, theatres, balls, and clubs.

In home life of the early days here noted, the woman ruled; as wife, mother, or sister; the home was the cradle of affection, the woman molded the character of the child, and tempered that of the man, for which

"A domestic woman of her husband seen

To be at once both subject and the Queen,

Whilst he, the ruler of their wide domains,

She sitting at his foot­stool reigns."

In this year the administration of the Almshouse by an Act of the Legislature was transferred to a Board of ten Governors, and the following were appointed:

Isaac Townsend, B. F. Pinckney, C. Godfrey Gunther, Isaac J. Oliver, Washington Smith, Wm. L. Pinckney, Chas. Brueninghausen, P. G. Moloney, Anthony Dugro, and James Lynch.

The records of the following incidents, being accidentally laid aside, were omitted in their proper places.

In 1840 I first saw ailanthus trees; they had been brought here some few years previous, and were generally termed the "Pride of China," and were said not only to absorb or dispel miasmatic influence, but to be noxious to flies and insects generally.

1841. September 16. By a resolution of the Common Council a Board of Supervisors was created, consisting of the Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen.

1844. The Long Island Railroad, which was commenced in 1834, was opened to Hicksville in 1837, to Southampton in 1841, and in this year to Greenport.

1848. The grooved and square­block pavement, known as the "Russ," was laid in Broadway, but in a few years the surface of the blocks, from the hardness of the material, became so smooth as to impede traffic over them, and it became necessary to replace them with narrower blocks of a different grit, and granite was substituted.

The "Hunkers" were a faction of the Democratic party, opposed to the "Barnburners"; they were supporters of the National Administration and subsequently they were known as the "Hard shells."

1849. The line of steamers for service hence to Aspinwall-viz., Oregon, Panama, and California, organized and built by Wm. H. Aspinwall and associates-was completed in this year.

The New York institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, which was chartered in 1817, was opened in 1818 on Fiftieth Street near Fourth Avenue, then removed to Eleventh Avenue and One Hundred and Sixty­third Street. It is a free school for all deaf and dumb children over five years of age, without regard to circumstances of their parents.

In 1850 Henry R. Worthington, representing Worthington & Baker, submitted their pump to Captain Joseph Comstock, then in command of a steamboat hence to Providence, which Captain Comstock, upon the recommendation of his engineer, not only refused, but also was induced to refuse the request of Worthington to be allowed to put it on board the vessel and to connect it to hold and boiler at his own expense, and if, after operation, it did not prove of value, to remove it. He ultimately consented, and it was put on board and connected. Some months after a feed­pump of one of the boilers of the boat became inoperative, and as there were no other known means of supplying it with the necessary water, the arrest of it and the resulting reduced speed of the boat were impending, when Captain Comstock said to his engineer, "Where is that thing that Worthington put on board? Suppose we try it." Thereupon, though without any faith, the engineer uncovered it from a mass of material and put it in operation, whereupon the boiler was supplied with the required water and that which was in the hold pumped out. On the return of the boat to this city, Captain Comstock sent for Worthington and gave him a certificate setting forth the efficiency and great value of his pump. This pump with its numerous modifications is now in use in every country in the world, in every steamboat and steamer. A steamboat plying between this city and Brooklyn or Jersey City, or crossing any stream anywhere, is not held to be safe without one, and in some sea steamers there are two and even more.

I have been asked regarding the use of tobacco in the early period of these recitals, and I avail of the opportunity to repeat that tobacco­chewing, and even snuffing, were much more general in the upper classes than at the present time, but cigar­smoking was generally less, and in offices and stores it was rarely to be seen. Pipesmoking, other than in clay pipes by laborers, was seldom­ seen, and as to meerschaums and smoking tubes, there were none.

This is the Fourth of July, and the deserted streets and general quiet that pervade, interrupted only at intervals of time and location by a few boys, with their fire­crackers and pistols, render the contrast between the observance of the day now and that of the early period of these reminiscences worthy of a more extended notice than is given at page 62. Thus: As voyages to Europe, other than by a few men on important business, were very infrequent, and as there were very few people who possessed country residences, people remained in the city until the 1st of August, when the summer vacation (one month) of the schools began, and consequently the city was not depopulated as now on the Fourth of July, and in addition thereto all young people, and many of the elder, residing within a practicable distance of the city, came to it on that day, and added to the observance of the occasion, indulging in roast pig, egg­nog, spruce beer and mead in the booths, and peanuts and oranges in the streets. There was then, and for some years after, an article of fireworks known as a snake from the tortuous manner of its motion when ignited, which our city boys persecuted the country girls with, for, when thrown on the sidewalk near to them, it was sure to give rise to a scream and much commotion. It eventually became so great and so objectionable a nuisance that the further sale of it was forbidden by law.

In conclusion, and in defence of the reference to this and some other matters that might be held unworthy of mention, it is again submitted that in a record of the customs and events of a period, its interest is increased and its integrity only maintained by a full recital of them.

" Nihil est aliud magnum, quam multa minute."

There is not anything so powerful as the aggregate of many small things.