1852. THE New York and Harlem Railroad was opened to Chatham Four Corners. In this year Liberty Street was widened from Greenwich to Broadway, and Washington Street was extended from Twelfth to Gansevoort.

The city purchased from A. R. Lawrence sixty acres more or less on Ward's Island, paying about fifteen hundred dollars per acre, and sixteen more acres of other parties, at about the same price. The rest of the Island is owned by the State.

When the grading of Fifth Avenue from Thirty fourth Street to Forty­fifth was under consideration, and the Committee on Streets of the Board of Aldermen was In session, two individuals presented themselves whose interests were directly at variance. One of them, who during the war of 1813 had supplied the army with groceries, when an elevation of the proposed change of grade was shown him, and its advantage vaunted, declared that "he could not see it"; whereupon the other person replied that he was not at all surprised, as a man who during the late war could not tell the difference between corn­meal and ground ginger could not be expected to see much.

January 5, Mt. Sinai Hospital incorporated, Twenty eighth Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues; a general hospital for the medical and surgical care of all creeds and classes, except sufferers from infectious diseases. Free to worthy indigent sick.

January 21, the "Tea Room" of the Common Council was restored.

January 26, the suit of Edwin Forrest for a divorce from his wife, in which many leading legal practitioners on both sides were engaged, and which occupied Court and jury for thirty­two days, was decided in favor of the wife. A numerous band of partisans supported Forrest in this controversy, but public sympathy was generally with the wife, and Forrest's reputation was not heightened by the proceeding.

At the Broadway Theatre Forrest, at the end of his divorce case, began an engagement as Damon which really was remarkable, as he continued it for sixty­nine consecutive nights.

February 2, at Brougham's Lyceum, appeared for the first time on any stage, Mrs. Sinclair, daughter of the vocalist, and divorced wife of Forrest. She made her debut as Lady Teazle, which was accounted a triumphant success by her friends, and ran for eight nights. Later she was not so successful with the public. The opinion of the more judicious part of society was that this playing against each other of the two parties to the recent divorce proceedings, and thus merchandising the sympathies of their friends, was not a delicate proceeding.

Early in May, Charlotte Cushman was seen here as Rosalind. She announced for the 14th a farewell benefit previous to retiring from the stage, on which occasion she produced "The Banker's Wife." She retired, but to no great distance, as she appeared the next evening in the character of Meg Merrilies.

In July the public funeral observance in memory of Henry Clay was the occasion of a great military parade.

July 28. In the afternoon a fire was discovered on board the steamboat Henry Clay on her passage from Albany to this city, and after vain attempts to quench it, she was headed for the shore, injudiciously "head on," and as a result all passengers abaft of the fire, which was amidships, were compelled to leap into the water, and such as could not swim, or were not effectually supported, were drowned. The entire loss of life was held to range from sixty to one hundred, of which number the renowned and esteemed Stephen Allen was one. He was Mayor of the city in 1821 to 1823.

In August of this year three river thieves rowed alongside of a ship in the East River, two of them boarded her, and in progress of stealing aroused the night watchman, whom they killed with a bullet from a pistol. George W. Walling, afterward Chief of Police, was forthwith detailed to discover the murderer, and upon the arrest of the three men, the one who was left in the boat turned State's evidence; the other two, Howlett and Saul, were tried, condemned, and hanged. For some years after this the depredations of river thieves were so many and so bold that the organization of a Harbor Police became a necessity; its custody of our wharves and of vessels becoming so effective that river thieving was very effectively diminished on the New York side of the river.

August 30, the Astor Place Opera House suffered its change into the New York Theatre, under Charles R. Thorne, who retained it, however for less than a month. Chanfrau then took the house, but abandoned it in even less time.

In the strait between this city and Long Island,-erroneously termed a river (East), as it is wholly deficient in the characteristics of one,-and at the deflection of the current between Astoria and Ward's Island, there was, when the tides were running, an eddy of sufficient depth and area to be termed a whirlpool, and it was known as Hell Gate. At half tides it was unsafe for small boats to approach it. The increased number of vessels that passed through the strait rendered some remedial action necessary, and in order to ascertain how far the conformation of the bottom was conducive to the eddy, it was sounded and the presence of a projecting rock with an overhanging head was discovered; whereupon the city appropriated a sum of money for its destruction, and under a contract with a Mr. Maillefert, the operation, commenced late in the preceding year, and finished in this, proved to be very successful.

There was a scandal, however, connected with this contract; it being asserted that the depth required was not obtained, as the instrument or staff by which the depth was to be arrived at was bored out in the centre for a length of some feet, to admit of what a sailor would term a sliding gunter construction; that is, the iron rod at the base, instead of being permanently fixed to the body of the shaft, would, when meeting resistance, slide up in the bore; and hence the depth of the water, which was read off at the water­line on the staff, would be reduced as much as the rod receded.

September 1, the Metropolitan Hotel, at Broadway and Prince Street, was opened, having been completed at the cost of one million of dollars. It was then said to stand at the head of the hotels of the world in all points of elegance, comfort, and convenience. Its opening was celebrated by a banquet, attended by five hundred persons, most of them of position in society, representing every State in the Union. The house was kept by the Leland Brothers, famous in their business, who had been proprietors of the Clinton Hotel at Beckman and Nassau streets. They controlled it for about twenty years. Its later history is not within the scope of these "Reminiscences."

September 8 was memorable for the opening of Wallack's Lyceum; the house, formerly Brougham's, having been acquired by James W. Wallack, his sons Lester and Charles being stage­manager and treasurer.

The taste and elegance displayed in all its productions gave it a caste of the highest respectability, such as never had been enjoyed by any place of entertainment in New York, save only the old Park Theatre. It was occupied by them until removal in 1861 to corner of Broadway and Thirteenth Street, now the Star Theatre. The admissions to the theatre at this time were fifty and twenty-five cents.

It was not until about this year that the cobblestone pavement in our streets was in progress of removal, substituting the successful Belgian pavement of 1832 in the Bowery, and repaving Broadway with the stone blocks designed by a Mr. Russ, and some of the principal streets of traffic with the Belgian pavement of the time.

The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, which was organized in 1825, was in this year incorporated; for girls on Madison Avenue, for boys on Fifth Avenue, both between Fifty­first and Fifty­second streets. Orphans and half orphans, from three to ten years, are admitted.

In this year the Anchor Steamship Line was established, and commenced service between this city and Glasgow.

September 27, Henrietta Sontag (Countess Rossi) first appeared in New York, in concert at Metropolitan (Tripler) Hall. Here she repeated the successes that had attended her in every capital of the civilized world, being an artist of the very first rank and a charming woman in person and character.

The total assessed value of real and personal estates was $351,706,795, and the tax levy was put at $3,378,332.

October I, in consequence of a robbery of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Messrs. Brown Brothers & Co., their bookkeeper and a note­broker were subjected to surveillance by police officers.

In November occurred the public ceremonies of mourning for the death of Daniel Webster, attended, as those for Clay had been, by a military procession and every sign of grief. Thus had the country been called within a few weeks' time to deplore the loss of Clay and Webster; an almost unparalleled conjuncture and one not likely soon to be repeated, considering the present supply of great men. These two were a great conservative force, removed from the scene of action just when political troubles involving the Civil War were nearing the height. Both died too soon for their highest fame, as has recently (1894) been remarked of Webster by Senator Hoar in a passage of great beauty and truth.

The same month witnessed the arrival of the famous novelist W. M. Thackeray, under engagement with the Mercantile Library Association to deliver his lectures on the "English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century." There was some doubt touching the nature of his reception, since our public was still sore over the outcome of the Dickens visit, but eventually Thackeray enjoyed respectful and attentive hearing, and generous social welcome. He began his lectures on November 19, in Dr. Chapin's church, before a crowded audience. The lectures gave rise to a great revival of eighteenth­century literature among us, and the booksellers drove an active trade in it. Thackeray remained here until the next April, evidently enjoying his visit, and forming many close and affectionate friendships.

It was in this year that the Rev. Dr. Jonathan M. Wainwright was chosen Provisional Bishop of New York, after an interregnum of eight years resulting from Bishop Onderdonk's suspension. Dr. Wainwright set himself so sharply to clear up the large arrears of Episcopal duty that his health broke down from overwork and he died in September, 1854. When made bishop, Dr. Wainwright was an Assistant Minister of Trinity Parish, in charge of St. John's Chapel, and it is notable that up to this time every Bishop of New York had been taken from the Trinity clergy.

Spofford & Tileston now organized a line of packet ships to Liverpool.

The Sixth Avenue Railroad was opened in this or the previous year. It was not until this period that the banking up of the snow, on the sides of the streets through which street railways were operated, impeded and restricted the running of trucks and sleds; and as the railways increased in number and extent, the use of sleds was proportionately decreased, and in a few years they were wholly laid aside. Previously-that is, before the banking up of snow on the sides of the principal streets -the uniform surface of the snow admitted of sledding and sleighing, as earlier recited. When street stages had been introduced, they were laid aside when the use of sleighs was practicable, and large open sleighs drawn by four and sometimes six horses were resorted to, and many individuals and parties enjoyed these for the ride alone; and of a pleasant evening Broadway would be enlivened with hilarious singing, instrumental music, horn­blowing, etc. The removal of snow in Broadway was not resorted to until some ten years after the date of this chapter, or about 1862.

The completion of the New York and Erie Railroad in the preceding year and the manipulations of Daniel Drew, who became one of its directors, were followed by speculations upon the rise and fall of its stock to so great an extent that many of the operators suffered, among whom was Wm. M. Tweed, who in the previous year had retired from his business as a manufacturer of chairs in Pearl Street, and rented an office in Wall Street. He was among the sufferers to an extent that involved his capital; his subsequent association with Gould and Fisk was the result of an expressed determination of his "to get square with Erie."

Drew was decidedly a character, indisputably sui generis. I first knew him as a keeper of the "Bull's Head" Tavern in Third Avenue, corner of Twenty­sixth Street; from that he migrated to Wall Street, where his speculations, his devout and earnest homilies at Methodist meetings and conferences, his donations to meeting­houses and a theological seminary, his connection with menageries, the Albany line of steamboats, and his disregard of the rules of Lindley Murray, etc., made his transactions and sayings prolific with the quid nuncs and on dits of the time.

He was charged with the unpardonable crime of sacrificing his friends, if he was to be benefited thereby. An illustrative case was told me by the party who suffered. A young lawyer in a case in which Drew was interested succeeded, after a tedious litigation, in recovering the sum at issue; and upon receiving the amount of his services and expenses, Drew said to him, "Sonny, you did it; I like to see young men go ahead; I knew your father. Now, as you have got some money, you had better go into the market and buy some stock. It is low now, and if you will be advised by an old friend of your father's, buy Erie. It is safe, very safe. Now, sonny, do as I say." The full amount the lawyer had received was invested in a margin on Erie, which soon fell so as to absorb the entire amount of it; and he then learned that the stock he had bought was sold by Drew, and in relating the transaction his remarks were not only very emphatic, but not such as are held to be conventionally proper.

1853. In this year Beekman Street was widened from Nassau to Pearl. The Third Avenue Railroad began operation. The Astor Library was completed; the cost of the site was twenty­five thousand dollars. In January of the next year the building was opened to public inspection, and shortly afterward to students.

Henry Grinnell, who in 1851 had equipped an expedition to proceed to the Northern Ocean, in search of Sir John Franklin, was associated this year with George Peabody in the equipment of a second expedition in the Advance, under the command of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane of the Navy; but this, like all others, failed of its assigned purpose.

Two notable philanthropic works are to be noted in this year. The Children's Aid Society was founded, chiefly through the efforts of the late Charles I. Brace, its secretary and chief executive, and thus began its labor of incalculable value. The Five Points Mission, having bought and demolished the "Old Brewery," laid the corner­stone of its new building on the site of the brewery, on January 27.

The New York Society Library in this year sold its building at Broadway and Leonard Street, removing for a time to the Bible House, and during its occupancy there purchased ground on University Place, where it erected its present building, into which it removed in 1856.

January first appeared Putnam's Monthly, under the editorship of Charles F. Briggs (" Harry Franco"), with Mr. Parke Godwin and the late George William Curtis assisting him.

January 8, Thomas Hamblin, the Bowery Theatre manager, died, and performances at it were suspended for a week.

May 2, Franconi's Hippodrome was opened where Corporal Thompson's Cottage had for a long time been sole occupant of the ground-the site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel of this day. The Hippodrome was of brick, two stories high, and about 225 feet in diameter. It inclosed an open arena. The performances were excellent and the place was in great favor during its existence of two years or thereabout, after which it gave way to Mr. Amos Eno's new hotel.

At this time, also, in the near neighborhood, the Madison Square Presbyterian Church from Broome Street, Rev. Wm. Adams, pastor (now the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst's), was begun; it was ready for occupancy in December, 1854.

In consequence of the corruption existing in the Municipal Departments, and especially in the Boards of Aldermen and Assistants, they from the facility, extent, and conditions with which they granted leases of city railroads, ferries, etc., despite the vetoes of the Mayor, were designated the "Forty thieves"; the boards consisting each of twenty members. William M. Tweed was at this time a member of the Board of Aldermen, and Richard B. Conolly was appearing both upon the political and municipal stages, under the well­earned and exceptionally appropriate sobriquet of "Slippery Dick."

The Legislature was called upon to enact a new charter, which being submitted to the people June 7, was approved by an exceptional vote, by the operation of which the Board of Assistant Aldermen was abolished, one of Councilmen of sixty members was substituted, and Aldermen were excluded from sitting in the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and the Sessions.

The venality of some members of the Common Council and some members of the Departments was so extensive and so manifest that the tenure of the office of member was held to be more of a reproach than an honor. The fraternity and cohesiveness of common plunder, the auri sacra fames, was superior to all consideration of political and party affiliations and discipline. Republicans and Democrats joined hands; of this I write from observation, for after two years of service I, in 1858, presided over one of the Boards.

This was also the year of beginning the work of St. Luke's Hospital, under the Rev. Dr. W. A. Muhlenberg; in a building adjacent to the Church of the Holy Communion, at Sixth Avenue and Twentieth Street.

July 4. The World's Fair, as it was termed, situated in Reservoir Square, now Bryant Park, was a natural result of the Crystal Palace that had been constructed at Sydenham near London, in 1851. It was formally opened by President Pierce and a distinguished company, but the display of materials, although very creditable of its kind, was too inconsiderable to engage the attention of other than our own citizens. It was reopened May 14, 1854, as a permanent exhibition, but the enterprise proved to be a signal failure, and soon after its close and while its affairs were in the hands of a receiver, the building was wholly burned on October 5, 1858; by which Kiss's statue of the Amazon was destroyed, of more value than the building and all that then remained within it.

Though the Crystal Palace of New York proved directly abortive, yet, strange as it may now seem, it did indirectly prove of benefit in stimulating the northward growth of New York much in the same manner as General Grant's funeral and burial­place aided in these days the development of the "West Side," by bringing millions of people to observe its advantages. Just in this fashion the Crystal Palace served the New York of forty years ago. Great crowds of visitors were attracted by it to what then was a remote, outward part of the city, and not only observed the opportunities for building, etc., there presented, but more important still, became familiarized with the notion of the mere possibility and practicability of travelling so far as Forty­second Street. In this way the World's Fair accelerated the uptown movement and added to the value of all land lying upon and about Murray Hill.

In July, Maretzek gave a season of Italian opera at Castle Garden with a company including Mmes. Sontag, Steffanone, and Patti­Strakosch, Salvi, etc. The performances continued until late in August.

July 18, a day memorable in the history of the National Theatre, Aiken's version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"­was brought out-a play which, from little Cordelia Howard's Eva and Mrs. G. C. Howard's Topsy, achieved a success which could be called strictly unprecedented, being given for more than two hundred successive times. All classes of the community thronged to witness the representations, and afternoon performances were demanded and maintained for weeks. It is somewhat remarkable that the cast at the National for this play included Mr. and Mrs. J. Lingard and G. Lingard; C. K. and G. L. Fox; and Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Howard and Cordelia Howard; Mrs. Howard, moreover, having been Caroline Fox.

August 29, Louis Jullien began at Castle Garden his famous series of concerts, with an orchestra of about a hundred, some of them being players of unusual merit. A more refined musical civilization may dismiss Jullien as only a "popular" conductor, and truly he was so; but it was in a good sense, and he taught our public many things that it required to learn. He had extraordinary command of his band, and produced results until his day unknown in these parts. With a keen eye for theatrical effects, Jullien was, notwithstanding, of the real artist nature, and the outcome of his work here was a distinct improvement of musical taste and knowledge among our people.

September 22, a concert in Tripler Hall, Adelina Patti again sang in public, being then a child of about ten years; she displayed powers that confirmed the previous anticipations of her great future excellence. For a considerable time she continued to appear as a child performer, mostly in company with Paul Julien, a clever boy violinist.

It was during this year that E. A. Sothern, the comedian, made his first appearance in Barnum's "Lecture Room," under the name of Stewart.

October 11, the New York Clearing House began business.

John Littlefield, at Merchants' Exchange, who in 1844 was first known as a "corn­doctor" at 453 Broadway, was the first who presented himself to the public as a "chiropodist" (1844); prior to this the occupation was unknown; in this . year Richard H. Westervelt was associated with him. Manicures and Masseurs not only were unknown, but did not appear until some years after this date.

At this period and later a well­known and notorious character figured in Wall and Broad streets as a broker; he was a dark mulatto, almost of the "sambo" shade, who essayed to pass himself off as a West Indian by shaving his head and wearing a full wig of jet black hair. He called himself Hamilton, and was universally known as "Nigger Hamilton." In consequence of the brazen manner in which he assumed the association of and the privileges of a white man, aided by the passive submission of a majority of those he met, he rode in street stages, ostentatiously exhibited himself at the lunch counter at Delmonico's in Broad Street, and addressed or referred to some acquaintances in a familiar manner. It was asserted that, before his appearance here, he had been engaged in a venture to pass off a large amount of counterfeit coin in one of the West India islands, and that, upon detection, he saved his life by escaping in a boat.

On the occasion of his meeting a well­known gentleman of this city, who was remarkable for the moderate and self­possessed manner in which he spoke, Hamilton, with an assumed attitude of defiance, stepped in front of the gentleman and said: "I hear you have said I was a nigger." To this the gentleman, looking Hamilton squarely in the face, and with his quiet manner, replied: "Are you not?" This settled the matter; the manner of reply, added to its truth, was too much for Hamilton. He stepped aside and proceeded on his way. I was on the opposite side of the street when this meeting occurred.

In August, 1843, he, with two others, was indicted for an alleged attempt to defraud the Atlantic Insurance Co., by shipping a quantity of type metal in boxes, designated as specie, with the ultimate purpose of the vessel being scuttled.

December 10, occurred the destruction by fire of Harper & Brothers' great printing and publishing house in Franklin Square. An ingenious plumber threw a match into a pan of camphene, used for cleaning ink­rollers. There were six hundred persons in the building, but no life was lost. The fire broke out about 1 P.M., and destroyed thirty­three steam presses and thousands of tons of books, but the firm's valuable collection of stereotype plates was saved uninjured. On the 26th of the same month a bakery in Front Street and several adjoining stores were destroyed by fire, which involved four ships lying near; among which was the Great Republic an enormous vessel of much celebrity. One of the ships was loosed from her moorings in order to save her, but a west wind drove her across to Brooklyn, where she burned.

1854. In this year Bloomingdale Square was opened; Canal and Walker streets were extended; Wall from Broadway to Nassau, and Whitehall from Bowling Green to State Street were widened.

January 8, the Metropolitan (Tripler) Hall and the adjacent Lafarge House were destroyed by fire.

All through the fall of 1853 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was continued at Purdy's National, and on January 9, of this year, had its one hundred and eightieth representation. Then it began to decline somewhat in attractive power, and other plays were occasionally given. In May occurred Cordelia Howard's benefit, when she played Eva for the two hundred and thirtieth time.

The inmates of the House of Refuge, which in 1839 had been transferred from Madison Square to the foot of Twenty­third Street, were removed from the latter place to Randall's Island, under the custody of the State.

The Union Club removed from 591 Broadway to its new home at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty­first Street.

February 4, Whitehall Street was ordered to be widened.

The Morgan Line of sailing packets, hence to London, was organized with ships of eighteen hundred tons. This was the year of the clipper ship Dreadnoughts famous passage under Captain Samuels, from Liverpool to this port; beating the Cunarder Canada (to Boston) with a day to spare.

Cyrus W. Field, Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, and Chandler White associated themselves and organized the Atlantic Cable Company.

The period was now reached when the manifold public charities of New York were increasing rapidly. The Five Points House of Industry, which had been (1850) an association for the amelioration of the condition of the children of that and the adjacent neighborhoods, was incorporated in this year by the zealous services of Archibald Russell. Its purpose is to induct children to school, to clothe and feed them, to afford out­door relief and a hospital.

May 6, St. Luke's Hospital, which was projected in 1846, incorporated in 1850, and had begun work in 1853, as previously noted herein, laid the corner­stone of the present building (1894) on Fifth Avenue.

In April, the Mercantile Library removed to the new Clinton Hall, the transformed Astor Place Opera House.

April 25, in the course of a fire at Jennings & Co.'s clothing shop at 231 Broadway, the main rear wall fell upon an extension on which firemen were at work, covering twenty or more, half of whom were killed.

May 27, Duane Street was ordered to be widened. This was the year of the founding of the Arion Society by secession from the Deutsche Liederkranz.

June. It was discovered that a corporation termed the Parker Vein Coal Co., which had been organized a few years previous for the purpose of developing the mine, and had constructed ten propeller steamers for the transportation of its coal, had flooded the market with an issue of stock much in excess of its capital.

This year was so prolific in the discovery of over issues of stock that it was an illustration of the familiar adage that "misfortunes come seldom alone," for soon after the preceding case, July 1, the city was astounded in learning that Robert Schuyler, the President of the New York and New Haven Railroad, had issued a large amount of unauthorized stock, which he had sold at the par value of the capital stock. Before the shock of this discovery had quieted, it was discovered that Alexander Kyle, the secretary of the Harlem Railroad Co., had forged and sold stock to a large amount.

September 4, Hackett opened Castle Garden for a season of Italian Opera; having under engagement the famous artists Grisi and Mario. His original prices of five dollars and three dollars were soon reduced to three dollars for all parts of the house. On these terms large audiences attended. The weather becoming soon too cold for comfort in this place, the opera was moved October 2 to the new Academy of Music, which had been built by a company of gentlemen as a permanent home for this style of amusement. This, it will be understood, was the house destroyed by fire in May, 1866; the present Academy, renewed on the same site, was opened early in 1868.

In September was opened the theatre best known as the Winter Garden, but first called by the cumbrous title of the New York theatre and Metropolitan Opera House, built upon the ruins of Metropolitan Hall and the La Farge House.

This theatre bore many titles in its day. Toward the close of 1855, Laura Keene remodelled it and named it Laura Keene's Varieties. In the autumn of 1856 Burton came into possession and called it Burton's New Theatre. Three years later it acquired the style of the Winter Garden or Conservatory of the Arts, under which title it was the scene of many notable performances. I remember once seeing General Winfield Scott in a theatre at one of the performances of "Hamlet" by Edwin Booth; he won almost more attention than did the play. Owing to his age and infirmity he chose to wait for easier exit until the audience should have dispersed, but the people lingered, and when the veteran appeared at the rear of the spacious lobby he found it closely packed on both sides in deep ranks, a convenient open space being left for him in the middle. Down this space he passed slowly, bowing to right and left, amid silence and the respectful regard of the company. The general at this time was past eighty, but his noble proportions were scarce harmed by age, his courtesy was becoming, and the behavior of the casual company was a notable instance of public good­breeding.

September 30, the city was thrown into an exceptional commotion on learning that the Collins Line steamer Arctic, Captain James E. Luce, had foundered off George's Bank, in consequence of a collision in a fog with the French steamer Vesta, and that out of four hundred and eight passengers and crew only sixty­three were saved. The wife, daughter, and a son of Mr. Collins were lost. Captain Luce was saved.

The first officer, Mr. Gourlay, had been sent in a boat to learn if the Vesta required assistance (Captain Luce being unaware of the damage to his vessel), and the chief engineer, with some of his officers and crew, stealthily took one of the steamer's boats and put off. It occurred, however, that neither the boat of the officer nor that of the engineer, or their occupants, were ever seen or heard of.

October 27, Park Place was opened through the grounds of Columbia College to College Place.

The Rev. Dr. Horatio Potter was consecrated bishop in November, and began his administration of the diocese of New York.

All men of my age, and approximating thereto, may refer to many of the customs, occurrences, and conveniences of the past years as being more rational, creditable, and comfortable than many of the present time. Thus: I refer to the Park Theatre (Old Drury) with pride in the talent and humor there displayed and the pleasures we have enjoyed-Haec meminisse me juvat-in the instructive, rational, and proper performances there: notably, those of the Keans, Cooper, the elder Booth, and Wallack; the Kembles, Placide; Caldwell, Power, Matthews, Barnes, Ritchings, Miss Kelly, the Woods, Mrs. Vernon, Charlotte Cushman, Ellen Tree, Clara Fisher, and where a legitimate drama was held to be superior to the exhibition of "supplemented" figures and "tights"; justly priding ourselves that the senseless, absurd, inconsistent, tinselled, vulgar, and immodest spectacles that are now presented to us, would not then have been tolerated.

In referring to the pleasure I have enjoyed at this theatre, I am of the opinion that it is easier for one to express himself fully, if not eloquently, upon his griefs than to do justice to a recital of his pleasures.