"1 
 
 an.
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 DINNER BY THE HAMILTON CLUB 
 
 TO 
 
 HON. JAMES S. T. STRANAHAN, 
 
 Thursday Evening, December 13, 1888. 
 
 BROOKLYN, - NEW YORK, 
 
 January, 1889.
 
 Ktoi.it PRKM, BBWEI.TN. N. V.
 
 SRLF 
 URL 
 
 EXPLANATORY. 
 
 The proceedings set forth in these pages were the 
 result of the following correspondence : 
 
 [Committee of the Hamilton Club to Mr. Stranahan,] 
 
 HAMILTON CLUB, > 
 
 BROOKLYN, November 24, 1888. ) 
 HON. J. S. T. STRANAHAN : 
 
 Dear Sir The undersigned, representing a large number of 
 your friends and fellow members of the Hamilton Club, respect- 
 fully request the pleasure of your company at a Dinner to be 
 given in your honor, at the Club House, Thursday evening, 
 December 18, at 7 o'clock. 
 
 It is the desire of your friends, in a simple and unostentatious 
 manner, to declare their appreciation of what you have been able 
 to accomplish for the welfare of the city, in which for so many 
 years you have lived an honored and useful life. 
 
 GEORGE M. OLCOTT, CHARLES H. HALL, 
 
 ALEXANDER E. OHR, S. B. CHITTENDEN, 
 
 W. B. KENDALL, ISAAC H. CART, 
 
 SETH Low, BRYAN H. SMITH, 
 
 ALFRED C. BARNES, BENJAMIN F. TRACY, 
 
 ROBERT B. WOODWARD, WILLIS L. OGDEN. 
 
 [Mr. Stranahan to Committee of the Hamilton Club.] 
 
 BROOKLYN, November 26, 1888. 
 Messrs. GEORGE M. OLCOTT, A. E. ORR and others : 
 
 Gentlemen I accept with pleasure your invitation to dine 
 with you at the Hamilton Club on the evening of December 13. 
 Let me assure you that such an expression of regard as you 
 extend to me is highly appreciated. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 J. S. T. STRANAHAN.
 
 To the members of the Club, with the foregoing cor- 
 respondence, was mailed the appended statement : 
 
 BROOKLYN, December 1, 1888. 
 
 The attention of the members is respectfully called to the 
 accompanying invitation and acceptance. 
 
 Mr. Stranahan is now in his 81st year, and to him is Brooklyn 
 indebted for many of the great improvements which we now 
 enjoy. 
 
 The Dinner will be served in the Club House, Thursday even- 
 ing, December 13, at 7 o'clock. 
 
 If it be your pleasure to attend this Dinner please sign and 
 forward the enclosed card to office of the Club. The capacity of 
 the dining-room is limited to 110. Subscriptions will be restricted 
 to members only until the 7th inst., but they may make appli- 
 cation for tickets for friends immediately, and if there are any 
 vacancies, seats will be reserved in the order of application. 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 WILLIAM B. KENDALL, 
 WILLIS L. OGDEN, 
 C. S. VAN WAGONER, 
 GEORGE R. TOBNBULL, 
 
 Committee on the Dinner. 
 
 The limit of numbers expressed in the statement to 
 the members was largely exceeded, as the list of names 
 shows. This was made possible by the use of the entire 
 floor, on which the dining-hall is situated, as one room. 
 
 The account of the banquet, as will be seen, is taken 
 from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which printed a full 
 stenographic report of the remarks. The comments of 
 the public journals upon the event, with letters from 
 friends who could not attend, complete the record, 
 which is herein given just as the press, from its varied 
 points of view, considered the affair. 
 
 This compilation has been made at the requst of those 
 participating on the occasion, so that, in convenient 
 form, the history of it might be presented and preserved. 
 
 BROOKLYN, January, 1889.
 
 [From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (report), December 14, 1888.] 
 
 HON, J, S, T, STRANAHAN, 
 
 THE HAMILTON CLUB DINNER TO OUR CHIEF CITIZEN. 
 
 AN OCCASION MEMORABLE FOR TRIBUTE AND FOR 
 FELICITATION THE EMINENT GUEST'S ACCOUNT 
 OF His LIFE AND LABORS IN BROOKLYN 
 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE M. OLCOTT, R. S. 
 STORRS, ALEXANDER McCuE, ALFRED C. 
 BARNES, SETH Low, JOHN B. WOODWARD, 
 WALDO HUTCHINS AND ST. GLAIR MCKELWAY. 
 
 The Dinner of the members of the Hamilton 
 Club to the Hon. James S. T. Stranahan occurred 
 last night. The event informally divided itself 
 into a social greeting of the distinguished guest in 
 the parlors of the Club House, before the assem- 
 blage in the dining-room into the banquet proper, 
 and into the addresses of tribute and felicitation 
 which followed. Each event was a marked success. 
 The venerable guest of the evening required no 
 introduction to those who thronged around him. 
 Each had for him a hearty salutation. For each 
 he had an apt and courteous acknowledgment. 
 Mr. Stranahan never looked, and said he never 
 felt, better. A larger assemblage of members and
 
 friends of the Hamilton hardly ever gathered in 
 its halls. If there had been any doubt of the 
 ability of the Committee in charge to make the 
 occasion the climacteric one in the history of the 
 Club, the representative attendance and the per- 
 fection of arrangements removed that doubt. 
 
 The time set for the Dinner was seven o'clock. 
 A chart in the library indicated to each guest the 
 arrangement of the tables and the position of his 
 seat at each. Quite promptly, therefore, the 
 places were found, and commendably near to the 
 hour named the gentlemen were gathered. The 
 tables extended from north to south on the 
 line of greatest length of the dining-room. The 
 first table was reserved for the President of the 
 Club, for the eminent guest of the Club, and 
 for those citizens, the speakers, and other gen- 
 tlemen who were the guests of the Committee 
 of the Dinner. At that table in the center were 
 Mr. George M. Olcott, the President of the 
 Hamilton Club, on his right being the Hon. 
 J. S. T. Stranahan, and on his left General 
 John B. Woodward, the present President of 
 the Board of Park Commissioners. At the south 
 end of the table sat Colonel William Hester, and 
 at the north end of it sat Mr. William B. Ken- 
 dall. The other gentlemen at the principal table 
 were Judge Charles L. Benedict, ex- Judge Alex- 
 ander McCue, ex-Mayor Seth Low, the Kev. 
 Dr. E. S. Storrs, the Hon. St. Glair McKelway,
 
 ex-Judge B. F. Tracy, and the Eev. Dr. Charles 
 H. Hall. 
 
 Among those present were G. M. Olcott, Wil- 
 liam B. Kendall, W. L. Ogden, C. S. Van Wag- 
 oner, G. E. Turnbull, F. E. Taylor, Judge Charles 
 L. Benedict, W. H. Husted, P. Worth, J. S. 
 Turner, D. Birdsall, B. H. Smith, J. K Par- 
 tridge, W. H. Williams, Clifford S. Middleton, 
 J. F. Praeger, J. S. Frothingham, Alexander E. 
 Orr, W. K. Paye, Henry Sheldon, F. E. Dodge, 
 Edwin Packard, H. C. Collins, Theo. Dreier, 
 J. B. Ladd, A. J. Perry, Abbott L. Dow, W. C. 
 Kellogg, ex- Judge Alexander McCue, S. M. Par- 
 sons, C A. Schieren, John Winslow, T. E. Smith, 
 D. P. W. McMullen, Congressman-elect W. C. 
 Wallace, E. F. Knowlton, Alexander Forman, 
 General Henry W. Slocum, J. J. Walton, J. 
 Hazelhurst, William Peet, S. Kowland, E. D. 
 Benedict, W. P. Mason, L. Switzer, T. C. Long, 
 G. P. Stockwell, L. H. Eogers, A. Fraser, H. A. 
 Tucker, Jr., J. E. Spencer, W. V. E. Smith, 
 H. B. Moore, W. K Peak, J. P. Cranford, A. 
 Segur, J. G. Johnston, C. A. Hoyt, W. A. White, 
 A. B. Bayliss, H. E. Ide, W. S. Packer, W. C. 
 Beecher, J. F. Conkling, St. Clair McKelway, 
 J. S. Stanton, H. F. Koepke, Henry Coffin, E. 
 Jenkins, C. A. Eichardson, F. L. Eames, H. E. 
 Nesmith, C. F. Wrede, J. C. Hoagland, F. Allen, 
 D. M. Morrison, N". S. Bentley, H. S. Snow, 
 D. S. Willard, E. G. Blackford, H. Brown, T. S.
 
 8 
 
 Moore, W. H. Wallace, P. Birdseye, W. G. Bud- 
 ingtou, R. B. Woodward, C. Perry, W. V. Tapper, 
 G. W. Mead, G. A. Jabn, C. W. Bangs, J. H. 
 Bates, G. L. Ford, P. L. Ford, J. L. Morgan, Jr., 
 W. K. Wilson, T. J. Backus, J. O. Low, John 
 Gibb, William R. Porter, B. N. Pigott, Walter S. 
 Logan, F. A. Guild, N. D. Putnam, W. A. Put- 
 nam, J. Wallace, C. W. Boweu, C. A. Moore, 
 J. S. Coffin, W. H. Viegler, J. A. Nichols, C. 
 Patterson, H. D. Atwater, E. B. Barllett, T. H. 
 Denny, T. E. Williams, S. Coffin, H. E. Nitchie, 
 W. 0. Gardiner, I. H. Gary, C. T. Howard, 
 Charles A. Townsend, W. C. Ford, R. H. Turle, 
 E. H. Itellogg, J. E. Leech, Benjamiu F. Tracy, 
 W. C. Sheldon, A. H. Ely, A. H. Van Cott, 
 Joshua M. Van Cott, D. W. C. Brown, O. J. 
 Wells, W. A. Reed, F. A. Schroeder, and others. 
 
 Before the guests were seated the divine blessing 
 on the occasion was invoked by Dr. Storrs, after 
 which the gentlemen addressed themselves to the 
 excellent menu provided and to the exchanges of 
 conversation, which were rendered easy and pleasur- 
 able by the skill and knowledge with which the 
 congenial grouping of those present had been 
 arranged. 
 
 It was 9:15 when the speaking, reported in these 
 columns to-day, began, and quite midnight when it 
 closed. President Olcott was both apposite and 
 witty in his opening remarks and in his prefatory 
 words introducing the speakers of the night. The
 
 9 
 
 address of Mr. Stranahan was listened to with 
 delighted attention, after the plaudits with which 
 his rising was greeted. He delivered it in admir- 
 able voice and manner, and point after point was 
 heartily cheered. The ovation which the entire 
 affair signalized to him, under a variety of forms, 
 was very marked during the progress of the ex- 
 tremely able and interesting words of his response. 
 
 The orators who followed him made Mr. 
 Stranahan and Brooklyn their theme, and how 
 well they did so their printed words attest. 
 Dr. Storrs was never in better form. His 
 eloquence was not a surprise. If his incisive 
 humor was, it will not be hereafter to those 
 to whom he may in that guise reveal himself, 
 for he fairly abounded with it at notably apt 
 and frequent intervals. He closed what he 
 said with the words of dedication to her husband 
 which Mrs. Stranahan has employed in her 
 recently published volume on the " History of 
 French Painting." Their beauty and tender 
 truthfulness were made apparent to the hearts 
 of all present. 
 
 The flowers which graced the occasion had 
 been sent to Mrs. Stranahan, and mid dinner 
 a felicitous acknowledgment was received from 
 her and read by President Olcott. The 
 address of Dr. Storrs covered the entire Brooklyn 
 record of Mr. Stranahan. The remarks of Judge 
 McCue and General Barnes referred to his
 
 10 
 
 eminent relations to the bridge and the ferries. 
 Ex-Mayor Low enlarged on Mr. Stranahan's 
 position as a stimulating force in Brooklyn 
 life, and wisely wove in an appeal for the muni- 
 cipal projects of improvements now under way. 
 
 General Woodward recalled the park record 
 of the honored guest of the evening and 
 magnified the need of greater park area for 
 Brooklyn. The Hon. Waldo Hutchins, Presi- 
 dent of the Park Commission of New York, 
 paid a tribute to Mr. Stranahan's abilities and 
 character. Mr. St. Olair McKelway recounted 
 the personal qualities and the perennial youth- 
 fulness of heart which have made Mr. Stranahan 
 alike a marvel of achievement and a splendor 
 of example to Brooklyn. The latter speaker's 
 incidental allusion to the Hon. Henry E. 
 Pierson, now of Albany, who represented 
 Brooklyn in the State Senate, wheu park 
 legislation was passed, was greeted with marked 
 plaudits, as, indeed, were all the points succes- 
 sively made by the orators of the evening. The 
 occasion closed, as it began and as it had 
 progressed, with cheers for the illustrious 
 gentleman whom it honored. Following is a 
 report of what was said :
 
 11 
 
 THE BANQUET OF REASON. 
 
 It was 9:15 when the Dinner had been disposed 
 of, and Mr. G. M. Olcott, who officiated as 
 chairman very acceptably, rapped for order. The 
 company was supplied with excellent cigars, and 
 settled back to enjoy the intellectual part of the 
 programme. Mr. Olcott said : 
 
 GENTLEMEN This occasion may well call up this 
 enthusiasm, because we cannot speak of our guest of the 
 evening, in whose honor we are assembled, without 
 bringing up in thought the whole growth and develop- 
 ment of the City of Brooklyn. [Applause.] I remember 
 a great many years ago not so many in his estima- 
 tion but in mine in conversation with a business friend 
 in New York, for whose opinion I had great respect, I 
 mentioned as an advantage of living on Brooklyn Heights, 
 where I did live, rather than uptown in New York, where 
 he did (this was before the elevated railroads were built), 
 that I could so readily get home from my office. He 
 replied : " Yes, you can get to Brooklyn easily enough, 
 but the trouble is you are nowhere when you get there." 
 [Laughter.] His idea was and a great many benighted 
 New Yorkers still have it that Brooklyn was a badly 
 paved place lying between them and Greenwood 
 Cemetery. [Laughter.] That was all they knew of it. 
 And the carriage makers, as you all are aware, if they 
 wanted to strongly recommend their work as good, used 
 to say : "It will even stand use on Brooklyn streets." 
 [Laughter.] In those days, as you cannot forget, there 
 was but one place of intellectual enjoyment in Brooklyn
 
 12 
 
 the Brooklyn Institute with a weekly course of lec- 
 tures, supplemented by an occasional concert, with 
 Luther B. Wyman to set us an example of courtly 
 grace in handing on lady singers. [Applause.] And 
 now look at the change. We have annexed New York 
 by that beautiful bridge. We have enabled our friends 
 there to cross over and enjoy the delights of Prospect 
 Park and the luxury of riding on the boulevard ; and 
 these advantages we owe probably more than to any 
 other one man, to the energy, ability and foresight of 
 J. S. T. Stranahan. [Applause.] I read some time 
 ago of a dying man, in California, I believe it was, who 
 was asked by the priest whether he forgave all his en- 
 emies. He replied that he had none to forgive he had 
 killed them all. [Laughter.] It is a good deal so with 
 our friend. He has been called, and not always in 
 friendship, the wizard and the magician. But the 
 names well fit, and he has lived until a great many of 
 those who formerly opposed him now count themselves 
 among his friends. One gentleman here, since this 
 dinner was spoken of, told me that while Prospect Park 
 was being built and he read in the papers of the out- 
 rageous sums that were being expended, he felt like join- 
 ing in a mob of indignant taxpayers to hang Mr. Stran- 
 ahan to a lamp post [laughter], but after riding through 
 the park and seeing what a park it was for the city he 
 wanted to get up a mob of citizens to get lamp posts 
 enough to melt and make a colossal statue. [Applause.] 
 So the parallel between Mr. Stranahan and the late 
 lamented gentleman of California is not so far-fetched. 
 Indeed, I can share in that feeling, too, because while 
 the bridge was being built I had a notion it was an 
 awful piece of extravagance. But walking over it morn-
 
 13 
 
 ing and night since its completion, the only way I can 
 get myself together, I feel almost like paying for it my- 
 self. [Laughter.] Vividly appreciating the great 
 growth and advantage of the city due to these and other 
 works in which our eminent guest has been engaged, I 
 ask you to join, standing, in drinking to the health of 
 J. S. T. Stranahan. 
 
 The company arose to drink the health of 
 Mr. Stranahan and united in singing "For He's 
 a Jolly Good Fellow." Then someone tenderly 
 inquired, " What's the matter with Stranahan ! " 
 The response came at once loudly and unitedly, 
 " He's all right !" The inquiring gentleman then 
 wanted to know, "Who's all right?" "Strana- 
 han," returned all in deafening concert, and loud 
 applause followed. 
 
 Mr. Olcott presented Mr. Stranahan, who on 
 rising to respond was greeted with three hearty 
 cheers. When quiet was restored he spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. STRANAHAN. 
 
 GENTLEMEN I am here to-night as your guest by 
 an invitation addressed to me by a committee repre- 
 senting the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn. The source, 
 the medium and the special object of the invitation, 
 as indicated by the letter, which I received, at once 
 commanded my consideration, and awoke within me 
 a pleasant sense of gratitude. It is true that 
 Brooklyn has been my permanent home for many 
 years ; and I assure you that I have not been
 
 14 
 
 unobservant of its growth, and, I trust, not an unin- 
 terested spectator of that growth. A special cause 
 of a business nature brought me to this city in 1844, 
 and here I have since continued to reside, now for 
 nearly half a century. Here I expect to reside -to 
 the day of my death. There is no spot on earth 
 to which I am so strongly attached as to the City 
 of Brooklyn. In this city I have spent the larger 
 and more important part of my life ; and if I 
 have done anything deserving the attention of my 
 fellow citizens, it has been mainly done here. 
 
 The character of your invitation suggests to me 
 that on this occasion you will naturally expect some 
 words from my lips relating not to Brooklyn matters 
 in general, but rather to those enterprises with which 
 I have been particularly identified. This, I am 
 persuaded, will by you be deemed a sufficient 
 apology for what I am about to say. 
 
 The first of these enterprises is the one that led me 
 to select Brooklyn as my place of residence. Having 
 acquired an interest in the Atlantic Dock an under- 
 taking then in its infancy I came here in 1844 in 
 the prosecution of that interest. The construction 
 of this dock engaged my attention, and for a series 
 of years chiefly constituted my business. I had 
 associates with me, and though we were all hope- 
 ful as to the future, we soon discovered that, in 
 order to realize our expectations, we must wait for 
 that future. Not one of those originally engaged 
 with me in this undertaking lived to see the time 
 when the Atlantic Dock Company made a dividend 
 to its stockholders. Indeed, I was soon left alone, 
 with the exception of a most excellent secretary,
 
 15 
 
 who drew the first dividend check in 1870, which 
 was twenty-six years after I embarked in the work. 
 That, gentlemen, was a pretty severe tax on one's 
 patience and hope. The facts of the present are that 
 the Atlantic Dock is now a completed undertaking. 
 Two hundred acres of land reclaimed from tide 
 water, and added to the habitable area of this city ; 
 a resident population of fifteen thousand persons 
 upon the land thus reclaimed ; docks two miles in 
 length, and warehouses built thereon with a front- 
 age of one mile ; the annual storage of a vast 
 commerce brought to this great metropolitan center ; 
 an assessed valuation of property that pays one-two- 
 hundredth part of the taxes of this city, such is the 
 spectacle now presented to the eye of thought. 
 
 The second undertaking with which I have been 
 connected, is the construction of Prospect Park. 
 The people of this city in 1859, now almost thirty 
 years ago, began earnestly to demand legislation for 
 the twofold purpose of park improvements and 
 parade grounds. The Legislature of the State, in 
 response to this demand, appointed a commission 
 charged with the duty of selecting suitable sites for 
 each of these purposes. This commission, the next 
 year, recommended that the necessary grounds be 
 taken for two parks. The larger and more im- 
 portant of these parks was to be located in close 
 connection with the great eastern cemeteries and 
 Kidgewood Reservoir, and to embrace 1,300 acres of 
 land. The other park, about one-fifth as large, 
 was to be so located as to include the reservoir at 
 Prospect Hill, near the site of the present Prospect 
 Park. It was urged as an objection to this plan
 
 16 
 
 that a park so far to the east could not properly 
 be regarded as the Central Park of the city, and 
 that a considerable part of it would, in fact, be 
 out of the city and out of the County of Kings. 
 The close proximity of the cemeteries with a 
 pleasure ground was felt to be objectionable. The 
 cost of so large a park in the Eastern District of 
 the city, it was thought, would not be properly 
 distributed among the people. A compromise was 
 finally reached to the effect that the great Ridge- 
 wood Park, if ever constructed, should be made a 
 local enterprise of the Eastern District, and that 
 the proposed park at Prospect Hill should be con- 
 sidered an affair of the Western District. From 
 this compromise followed the arrangement under 
 which the Eastern District is now exempt from 
 taxation for the payment of the expenses incurred 
 in the construction of Prospect Park. This arrange- 
 ment, though faulty, was a necessity at the time. 
 
 It often happens in the course of human affairs 
 that it is not always practicable to do exactly what 
 should be done, and when this is the fact, then the 
 dictate of wisdom is to do the best that can be done 
 under existing circumstances. 
 
 The arguments in favor of the construction of a 
 park in Brooklyn, as used at the time, and presented 
 at public meetings and through the press, as I now 
 recall them, touched on a variety of points relating 
 to this city. The health, strength, comfort, morality, 
 and future wealth of the city would be promoted by 
 building a suitable park. Brooklyn, though possess- 
 ing certain obvious natural advantages over New 
 York, but with less wealth and population, was in
 
 17 
 
 danger of sinking into the character of a second- 
 rate suburb of the greater city. It was also urged 
 that the construction of Central Park in New York 
 placed Brooklyn at a special disadvantage in bringing 
 to itself taxable capital, and that a park was needed 
 to overcome this disadvantage. 
 
 The Croton water-works in New York made similar 
 works in this city a local necessity to its prosperity 
 and growth. These and the like thoughts controlled 
 the people in desiring and demanding the construc- 
 tion of Prospect Park. The splendid boulevard, 
 extending from the park to Coney Island, is an 
 appendage thereto, and will, in the end and at no 
 distant period, be a part of the City of Brooklyn. 
 
 All the members of the first Board of Park Com- 
 missioners, with the single exception of myself, are 
 now dead and their bodies sleeping in Greenwood 
 Cemetery, and of those who have served with me at 
 different times as members of this Board but few remain. 
 It gives me great pleasure to say, on this occasion, that 
 better and more cordial support no one could expect 
 or desire than that which was given to me by my 
 associates during my entire administration of park 
 affairs. Differences of opinion so rarely occurred that 
 m but three instances during the twenty-two years 
 of my Presidency of the Board did measures brought 
 before the members thereof fail of a unanimous adop- 
 tion. My associates were wise and able men, and 
 shared with me the responsibility of this great work. 
 In this connection allow me to add the fact that 
 Prospect Park had the full benefit of the skill and 
 experience of the ablest landscape architects in this 
 or any other country. 
 
 2
 
 18 
 
 Looking back, as I now do, upon the past, and 
 recalling its facts, I may as well say that my hardest 
 task in the administration of park matters consisted 
 in keeping the public mind in such active and effect- 
 ive sympathy with the undertaking as was needed to 
 obtain the necessary legislation and also the funds 
 requisite at the proper time and in sufficient amount 
 to secure a speedy and economical construction of 
 the park. I refer in this general remark to legis- 
 lators, partisan leaders, speculating theorists, and 
 especially to a small class of irrepressible men, some- 
 times designated as " cranks/' who usually have the 
 misfortune of thinking that wisdom was born with 
 them and that it will surely die with them. The 
 last of these classes was always the source of my 
 greatest embarrassment in conducting the construc- 
 tion of the park. I am grateful that the work is 
 done, and that my special duties in connection there- 
 with are ended. The park speaks for itself, and 
 will continue to do so in all coming time. I had 
 no other interest, in undertaking and prosecuting 
 this work, at a very considerable expenditure of time 
 and toil and care, than that which is common to me 
 and the citizens of Brooklyn ; and if, in this way, I 
 have been able to render a good service to the city 
 I am heartily glad that the opportunity was afforded 
 to me and that the service has been cheerfully 
 rendered. I assure you, gentlemen, that I would 
 not blot out the record of that service if I could ; 
 and I do not at this time see how I could essentially 
 change it for the better. That it commands your 
 approval is to me a source of great gratification. 
 
 The third undertaking with which I have had
 
 19 
 
 some connection, is the construction of the East River 
 Bridge. I assume that you will expect at least a 
 word from me on this subject. While much might 
 be said, the proprieties of the hour dictate that my 
 utterance should be brief. 
 
 No candid man who knows the history of this 
 bridge can fail to award special honor to William C. 
 Kingsley and Henry C. Murphy, both of whom are 
 now sleeping in their graves, or to the chief engi- 
 neers, the elder and the younger Roebling, the 
 former of whom lost his life, and the latter his 
 health in a work second to no other of its kind in 
 any age. The skill and vigilant care of the assistant 
 engineers having the immediate charge of the work 
 have attracted the attention and won the admiration 
 of every intelligent visitor of the bridge. 
 
 To say that the bridge in the hands of the 
 trustees grew in its dimensions, and hence that 
 its cost was increased beyond the original estimate, 
 is simply to state a familiar fact in the history of 
 all great works of a like character. The original 
 plan did not contemplate such a structure as the 
 one finally built. The height of the bridge was 
 increased in obedience to the order of the general 
 government, and also its width and strength by the 
 direction of the trustees. The bridge as actually 
 constructed will support the freight and passenger 
 trains of the trunk railways of the country. It 
 has two carriage roads instead of one, as first 
 intended. The approaches were at first designed to 
 be simply iron trestle work, and for this the trustees 
 substituted massive arches of brick and granite. 
 The cables and suspended superstructure are
 
 20 
 
 composed of steel and not of iron. In a word, 
 the bridge as it is now, though costing more than 
 the original estimate, is higher, wider and stronger 
 than the one proposed in that estimate. It fur- 
 nishes an elevated highway wider than Broadway in 
 New York between the two cities. 
 
 These changes in the way of improvement abun- 
 dantly explain the increase of cost. They were 
 needed in order to make the bridge what it is and 
 what it should be. Not to have made them would, 
 in my judgment, have been a grave mistake. 
 
 Those who took the deepest interest in the East 
 Eiver Bridge, some of whom are already gone, will 
 soon all pass away. Not one of them will be left. 
 The bridge, however, will remain, as generations one 
 after another come and retire, scarcely feeling the 
 effects of time, as strong after the lapse of centuries 
 as it was in the days of its youth. The cables will 
 not lose their vigor. The towers will not bend and 
 break under their weight. The anchorages will be 
 faithful to their trust. The massive arches will 
 never collapse. The steel and the granite will not 
 rot. Fire will not burn the bridge. The winds of 
 heaven will not shake it down. Time and toil will 
 not bring to it any fatigue. There it will remain for 
 ages, just where human skill placed it, a permanent 
 memorial of the enterprise of a bygone period. 
 Travelers will study it, the sightseers wonder at it. 
 With all my heart I congratulate Brooklyn and 
 New York, and especially Brooklyn, upon this 
 splendid monument of what it is in the power of 
 man to accomplish ; and as in respect to Prospect 
 Park, so in respect to this bridge. I think with
 
 21 
 
 pleasure upon the fact that I had some share in the 
 work of construction. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have spoken to you thus 
 briefly and from my own knowledge in regard to 
 the three subjects that seem germane to the pur- 
 poses of this occasion. Indeed, the letter of 
 invitation furnished me my text, and if I have 
 been compelled to make myself a part of the 
 sermon the fault is yours and not mine. I am 
 not so prudishly modest that, in telling a story, I 
 will dodge myself for the sake of not being seen. 
 My mother did not teach me this lesson when I 
 was a child, and I am now too old to learn it. 
 
 There is one other subject upon which, before clos- 
 ing these remarks, I think it proper to say a word. 
 Brooklyn and New York are distinct municipalities, 
 separated from each other by the East Eiver. Is 
 this an advantage to either ? I think not. Would 
 the consolidation of these two cities into one muni- 
 cipal corporation involve any harm to either ? I 
 think not. The people in both are essentially the 
 same sort of people, living under the same general 
 government and the same state government. They 
 have the same manners and customs and also 
 common industrial, commercial and social interests, 
 and one municipal government for local purposes 
 would serve them quite as well as two, and at far 
 less cost. I know of no reason why this municipal 
 distinctness should be continued, other than the fact 
 that it now exists, and I confess that I can see no 
 good reason why it should exist at all. I may 
 be mistaken, but I think that the people of both
 
 22 
 
 cities should seek a consolidation of both under the 
 title of New York. 
 
 London is London on both sides of the Thames, 
 and Paris is Paris on both sides of the Seine. Bridges 
 make the connection between these sides in the two 
 cities, and neither would gain anything by a division 
 into two municipalities. Here, however, we have our 
 City of New York on one side of the East River 
 and our City of Brooklyn on the other side. So it 
 has been in the past, and so, I hope, it will not 
 always be in the future. 
 
 The East Eiver Bridge, now added to the ferry 
 system, and probably to be succeeded by other similar 
 structures, will, as I trust, so affiliate the two cities 
 in heart and sympathy, and so facilitate their mutual 
 intercourse that both, without any special court- 
 ship on the part of either, will alike ask the 
 Legislature of the State to enact the ceremony of a 
 municipal marriage. As I cannot doubt, such a 
 marriage would be an indissoluble union between 
 the two. Each would be so well pleased with the 
 other, and each so proud of the other that neither 
 would ever seek a divorce. The marriage would be 
 for life, and that life would last as long as the 
 world lasts. New York and Brooklyn thus united 
 and forming the great city of this Western Conti- 
 nent, would at once take rank with the largest cities 
 known to mankind. The spectacle would be a 
 splendid one in the records of city life. Every year 
 would add to it greatness and grandeur. The consoli- 
 dated city would in itself be an empire of industry, 
 wealth and intelligence, and eminently fit to be the 
 great metropolitan centre of a country, stretching
 
 23 
 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 I have one more thought, gentlemen, which, as 
 I trust, will not be deemed out of place on this 
 occasion. My age forcibly reminds me that with 
 me, the earthly things of which I have spoken to 
 you, must soon give place to things of a different 
 character and a much higher order. It is no 
 secret to you, as it is none to me, that before us 
 lies a yawning gulf upon which we must all at 
 last be launched. Religious faith, with its anchor- 
 ages and towers resting upon the solid rock of God 
 himself, and that only can bridge that gulf and 
 land thought safely on the further shore. Such 
 faith is the common necessity of our race. No 
 elevation of intelligence can either supersede it or 
 do its work. There is no registration for man so 
 exalted or so rich in the privileges and immunities 
 which it secures and guarantees, as that which 
 places his name in "The Lamb's Book of Life." 
 May God grant us all a peaceful and happy transit 
 from this changing scene to the brighter and better 
 world above. 
 
 Mr. Stranahan's speech was applauded at 
 different points, and when he resumed his seat 
 there was great clapping of hands and waving 
 of handkerchiefs and napkins.
 
 24 
 
 The Chairman next introduced Rev. R. S. 
 Storrs, D.D., who was greeted with applause. 
 Dr. Storrs spoke as follows: 
 
 SPEECH OF REV. R. S. STORRS, D. D. 
 
 I thank you, Gentlemen, for your extremely kind 
 welcome, although I confess that I am a little per- 
 plexed with doubt as to whether it is intended for 
 me. For, in spite of a great many extremely kind 
 and flattering invitations, I have not before attended 
 a public dinner for so many years that I have been 
 quite uncertain of my own identity, while I have 
 been sitting here this evening. I have been sound- 
 ing Judge McCue, to find out whether it was really 
 I, or whether somebody else had got into my coat, 
 trousers and boots ; and I am not quite sure now 
 that it is not the other man, and that he should 
 return thanks. But I am that is, if it is I ex- 
 tremely glad to be here this evening. I am glad 
 to see the beautiful, ample, elegant interior of this 
 building, which I have never seen before, though 
 I pass it so often in my daily walks, and thougli 
 in it I know that so many of my friends find a 
 pleasant half-home when any necessity turns them 
 hither, as well as, of course, a great many delightful 
 hours with one another and with others when 
 they are at leisure. I was very much interested, 
 at the beginning, in the establishment of this Club, 
 and knew something of it when it was in its 
 modest quarters on the corner of Joralemon street ; 
 and I am extremely glad this evening to see the 
 evidences all around me of its growth and prosperity;
 
 25 
 
 and I trust that its prosperity and power will con- 
 tinually increase in the years to come. [Applause.] 
 I am certainly extremely glad to join with you 
 this evening in offering this tribute of esteem and 
 admiration and honor to him who is the principal 
 guest on this occasion. [Applause.] In fact, Gentle- 
 men, 1 have been moved to think, for a good while, 
 that it would be better if we should show our senti- 
 ments of confidence and honor toward those who 
 are pre-eminent among us, more freely and more 
 frequently than we do. [Good ! Good !] We live 
 all the time in a kind of critical and censorious 
 atmosphere. The papers are^ always good natured. 
 [Applause.] They never say hard things about any- 
 body. [Laughter.] But we private citizens are 
 sometimes in the way, perhaps even here, of express- 
 ing ourselves in sharp comment on those from whom 
 we differ, and yet for whom we have sincere esteem 
 and respect. Well, no honorable man wants to be 
 flattered; but every man likes a certain degree of 
 appreciation, if he has done anything to deserve it. 
 And his faculties work better in an atmosphere of 
 that sort. [Applause.] The sunshine makes the 
 flowers bloom brighter, makes the trees bourgeon, and 
 expand their branches. And I do wish that there 
 were more of this spirit of common regard, of es- 
 teem, of affectionate honor, familiarly expressed by 
 us toward those who have been our eminent leaders, 
 as this man has been. [Applause.] I think it would 
 be well for all of us now and then to bring some- 
 thing of the golden light of the sunset, after the 
 orb has descended below the horizon, into the after- 
 noon sky of those whom we love. [Applause.]
 
 26 
 
 I am a contemporary of Mr. Stranahan, although 
 he got ahead of me in the matter of being born. 
 [Laughter.] He came upon the planet twelve or 
 thirteen years before I did, and I have never been 
 able to catch up. But I tried to diminish the dis- 
 tance, as Randolph said when pursuing the man 
 who was trying to get away from him, for I came 
 to Brooklyn in 1846, while he came in 1844, two years 
 before. And so I have watched his work, and have 
 seen these things which he has referred to, from the 
 root upward. A great many things he has not 
 referred to. For example, he has not spoken of his 
 connection with the War Fund Committee, in our 
 critical time. [Applause.] He has not spoken of 
 his connection with a great many of our institutions; 
 with the Atheneum, which has started many other 
 things in this city ; with the libraries and galleries 
 which have made the city attractive and beautiful. 
 He has not spoken of his connection with the Ferry 
 Company, of which he is the president. But he 
 has spoken of three things. Well, they are great 
 things ; and I cannot help thinking how much came 
 into this City of Brooklyn when Mr. Stranahan 
 brought his wife and children here, forty-four years 
 ago. How much came with this head, and with this 
 will ; and as much with the will as in the head ! 
 Those Atlantic Docks, of which he has spoken, 
 representing the noblest part of the business of 
 Brooklyn, and representing great business sagacity 
 and patience on his part, and on the part of those 
 associated with him. Yonder bridge, which opens 
 for the citizens of Brooklyn a highway to the uni- 
 verse ; which takes us out of the old isolation, and
 
 27 
 
 makes our city immediately a part, whether muni- 
 cipally annexed in form or not, of the great City 
 of New York, and facilitates our intercourse with 
 all the world ; illustrating the free and far-sighted 
 large-mindedness of the man [applause], and of all 
 the other men who were associated with him in 
 the enterprise, and who co-operated with him so 
 gladly and so intelligently. 
 
 And then, Prospect Park ! illustrating his love of 
 beauty, his appreciation of its necessity and benefit 
 in the civilization of our city, and representing that 
 ornamentation of the great growing town which it pre- 
 eminently needed, and which it is to need for all time 
 to come. Of these three great enterprises of which 
 he spoke, I don't know but the park is his particular 
 pet and pride. It ought to be. He gave twenty-two 
 years of his life to that park. I will not say the best 
 years of his life, because the years that went before 
 were, perhaps, just as good ; and I don't know but 
 the years that have come after have been as rich, and 
 ripe, and mellow, and noble, as any that went before 
 them, or as any that may still come after them. But 
 he gave twenty-two years of the best of his life to that 
 work ; and those of us who saw the work while it was 
 going on know that he watched it with the solicitude 
 with which a mother watches her sleeping babe. 
 There was hardly a tree removed, or a tree planted, 
 hardly a drive or a walk laid out, or a bit of shrub- 
 bery planted here or there, to which his personal 
 attention was not given. It is all very well for him 
 to say that they had the best landscape architects in 
 the world, but they could not have done anything 
 without him. It is very well for him to say that
 
 28 
 
 there were wise and able men associated with 
 him, and they were wise ; and they showed that 
 they were wise and able by always making their 
 agreement with him unanimous. [Applause.] I 
 don't know what he would have done if he had had 
 that other park of 1,300 acres ! 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds said of Rubens, if I remember 
 aright, that his genius always expanded with his can- 
 vas, his best pictures being uniformly his largest. We 
 can see what Mr. Stranahan did with 550 acres : 
 creating beauty and harmony, and crowning the hills 
 with the ornament which art has placed upon 
 them ; taking that rough, rocky, hilly waste, as we 
 remember it, and making it the pleasure-ground of 
 hundreds of thousands for all time to come ; taking 
 that narrow, winding country road, if there was any 
 there, which I doubt, and converting it into the 
 magnificent broad boulevard, fronting the sea on 
 one side and the park on the other, which gives to 
 Brooklyn fame in the country, and, in a degree, fame 
 in the world ! What a tremendous work it was to 
 do ! I think if he had had the other 1,300 acres 
 under his care we should have had a succession of 
 parks that would have astonished the continent. 
 
 Now this is his monument. [Applause.] People say, 
 not infrequently, " By and by we must put a statue 
 of Mr. Stranahan in Prospect Park." Of course we 
 must. But I don't see why we need to wait. We 
 Americans do wait. Perhaps it is in the English 
 blood. The French don't. Generally, here, men are 
 dead before we raise statues to them. We have to be 
 careful, we think, like the English woman who was 
 called up before the judge, her husband having com-
 
 29 
 
 mitted suicide. The judge said to her, " You were the 
 first person who saw him hanging ?" "Yes." "What 
 did you do?" " Didn't do anything." " Didn't do 
 anything ? Why didn't you cut him down ?" " Cut 
 him down, Judge ? " repeated the woman. " Why, he 
 wasn't dead!" [Great laughter.] Now, why not 
 start here to-night, with this very live man in front 
 of us, and begin this business of the statue ? There 
 are enough here to begin this work, and carry it to 
 success. I am the most wretched solicitor that ever 
 was in the world, with very little tact and no experi- 
 ence [laughter], but I know that we could carry that 
 to absolute and triumphant success within thirty days. 
 [Sure.] So let us not wait to put up marble or 
 bronze after our dear and honored friend has gone 
 from among us, and we do not see him any more ! 
 But I rejoice to remember that whatever happens, 
 bronze or no bronze, marble or no marble, he can 
 take unto himseif, standing at any point in Prospect 
 Park, the words which Christopher Wren wrote on 
 the frieze of St. Paul : "If you seek his monument, 
 look around you !" [Great applause.] 
 
 I have taught him some lessons, perhaps ; but he 
 has certainly taught me one lesson worth remembering 
 by all of us : it is, what a man in private station 
 can do, if he intelligently sets to work to do it. We 
 are accustomed to think that we must rely upon 
 those who are in official station. Official station may 
 not put a man on a pedestal at all, but in a pillory. 
 It may not only not give him any power to work more 
 effectively than before, but may diminish his power. 
 A man in official station in any of our cities has to 
 consult, as far as I can discover, those with him in
 
 30 
 
 sympathy ; the contrary opinion of others. And if 
 there be any circle of government around him to con- 
 trol him, which there often is, he has then so to yield to 
 others that he can hardly initiate and intrepidly carry 
 forward to success great enterprises. We all remem- 
 ber what was said of New York in the time of the late 
 lamented Mr. Tweed, that New York City was like 
 the sun in an annular eclipse nothing visible but the 
 ring. [Laughter.] There have been other cities, since, 
 of which that was true : although I trust it will never 
 be true of this City of Brooklyn. But here is a man 
 who has never occupied a public office, of any promi- 
 nence, except in a post which was made necessary by 
 his own initiatory enterprise. He was an alderman 
 once, I know. He couldn't help it, and it is so long ago 
 that it ought not to be laid up against him. [Laugh- 
 ter and applause.] He was a candidate for Mayor 
 once, and I voted for him. But the other party were 
 too many for us. But with those exceptions, as I 
 have stated, he has held no public office. He has 
 been a Commissioner of the Bridge, as one of the 
 earliest and most efficient promoters of that great 
 enterprise. But it has been as a private citizen that 
 he has undertaken and carried forward these magnifi- 
 cent enterprises. I say that here is a lesson for every 
 one. He has given us this park, which even those 
 whom the Mayor has perhaps incautiously and un- 
 wisely put in charge of it, under the presidency of 
 General Woodward, cannot seriously injure. I apply 
 the "incautious" and "unwise" to those who are 
 tinder General Woodward, of whom I happen to be 
 one, but never to him ! 
 
 Now, I hold it a great lesson that a man in simply
 
 31 
 
 a private station can start upon a grand work for 
 a great city, and carry it to success and to accom- 
 plishment in his own time I But then he has taught 
 me, at any rate, the lesson of patience ; patience, and 
 quietness of spirit, in the midst of many things cal- 
 culated to disturb the spirit. Undoubtedly he has 
 had his disappointments ; hopes which he justly and 
 reasonably entertained he has been unable to carry 
 to success ; projects dear to his mind have failed to be 
 realized. And he has been subjected to as severe 
 criticism, at different times, as any man among us ; 
 called, as we know, a wizard and a magician ; accused 
 of working in the dark, mining subterraneously ; 
 accused of doing I know not what all ; perhaps 
 accused of putting money in his own pocket, but 
 upon the whole I think that that charge has never 
 been started. But he has been as quiet in it all as 
 if every one spoke well of him. It has been a noble 
 example which he has given. I have to learn a lesson 
 in that direction myself. After we have been thor- 
 oughly trounced in some public fashion by some man, 
 or possibly by a newspaper, we do not exactly like it. 
 We feel inclined to sympathize with the schoolboy 
 who was walking home rather stiffly, as though he 
 had lately had some sore experience. Meeting a sports- 
 man who said to him, "Is there any game around 
 here?" he replied, "There are no bears, or wood- 
 chucks, but there's the schoolmaster over there ; you 
 might go over and take a pop at him, it would be 
 an advantage to the community." [Laughter and 
 applause.] "Well, I don't know how much strife of 
 the spirit our dear and honored friend has had 
 within himself, but I know that he has never
 
 32 
 
 expressed in public any uneasiness at any attacks 
 made upon him. There is a word you rarely see in 
 English. The French have it, the Spaniards have it, 
 and the Italians have it : a word of Latin derivation 
 longanimity. It is the temper that waits patiently, 
 that expects to be vindicated in the result, that 
 silently endures accusation, to be at last crowned 
 with victory. That we have in this man. I honor 
 him for it ; and I have tried to learn the lesson from 
 him. And then, an inventive and heroic public 
 spirit has been always manifest in him ; and that, 
 Gentlemen, is what more than anything else we need 
 for our civic prosperity. 
 
 Here are two Brooklyns. One is the Brooklyn of 
 convenience ; the Brooklyn of streets, and shops, and 
 markets, and churches, and schools, and pleasant 
 homes. Here is another Brooklyn, which has come 
 into existence and appearance ; it is the Brooklyn of 
 art and culture, which makes the city attractive to 
 those who desire to live on the higher plane of largest 
 life ; who would fill the atmosphere of society here 
 with a welcome to the noble, the true, and the beauti- 
 ful, in learning and in art. And we must have the 
 inventive faculty, the intrepid public spirit which 
 works to great ends, to hasten the coming of that 
 nobler, and brighter, and more fascinating Brooklyn ; 
 that so this city may not only remain happy and lovely, 
 as it has been, but may become the happiest and 
 loveliest in the country on the continent. We want 
 that public spirit which flinches at no obstacle; ready 
 to devise wise plans, to be an inventor of good things, 
 and then heroically to accomplish those plans and 
 carry them into perfect execution. We want this
 
 33 
 
 spirit in private citizens, not merely in public officials. 
 Without it our dwellings are but hardened mud, and 
 our marble buildings may be sepulchres of decaying 
 life. But when we have this, we can make the city 
 glorious and beautiful a very Queen in the Nation, 
 whose power and influence shall go throughout the 
 land. Now, who will follow these men who have 
 gone before, in this quality of heroic and inventive 
 public spirit ? I saw, just before I came here, some 
 words written concerning our friend, by one who is 
 dear to him the dedication of a volume, elaborate, 
 learned, rich, on the history of French Art. And it 
 struck me that it expressed my own feeling precisely. 
 I count it an honor and a pleasure of my life to have 
 been so many years here associated, on terms of 
 unbroken confidence and fellowship, with one of whom 
 these words could be written : " To my Husband : in 
 honor of the rare qualities of his service to others, 
 through his ready perception of the rights of kinship, 
 citizenship, and humanity." [Great applause.] 
 
 Chairman Olcott A paper has just been sent 
 up to me which reads : 
 
 Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that 
 a bridge to be called the Stranahan Bridge should 
 be built from the foot of Broadway, New York, to 
 Governor's Island and thence to Brooklyn, which 
 bridge shall not be less in height and general effective 
 sufficiency than the now existing New York and 
 Brooklyn Bridge. 
 
 I do not know who sent it. One advantage 
 to the Club in honoring one who is still hale 
 
 3
 
 34 
 
 and hearty is that it lias brought out some 
 members who do not come to the Club so often 
 as I would like to see them. Among them is 
 Judge Alexander McCue. [Applause.] I ask him 
 now to say something to us. 
 
 Judge McCue had a fine reception, and, wait- 
 ing until the applause subsided, he made these 
 remarks: 
 
 REMARKS OF JUDGE McCUE. 
 
 I wish, gentlemen, I could offer you anything that 
 would be worthy of the occasion, but after the address 
 that has been delivered by our distinguished guest, 
 and the remarks of Dr. Storrs, I do not think I 
 could interest you. I was very glad to be invited 
 to come here, because, although I have been a mem- 
 ber of the Hamilton Club, this is the first time I 
 have ever visited the Club. I came, too, because I 
 have a very great respect for the distinguished gen- 
 tleman who is your guest. I have known him for a 
 great many years. I do not think I have known him 
 eighty years, or eighty-one years, but I have known 
 him since he commenced the building of the Atlantic 
 Dock about that time. I knew him well during 
 the building of the bridge, and while it is true that 
 Mr. Kingsley and Mr. Murphy were strong men in 
 the building of the bridge indeed, Mr. Kingsley was 
 really the originator, and Mr. Murphy was the wise 
 man who directed the legislation through which the 
 bridge was accomplished still, after all, I know that 
 Mr. Stranahan was really the main man there. He
 
 35 
 
 was the Chairman of the Executive Committee. He 
 was the man who suggested how to raise the money. 
 He suggested everything that was possible for the 
 purpose of making everything smooth and pleasant, 
 and we had some very troublous times when the 
 bridge was building. He was really the man who 
 was entitled to a great deal of the credit for that. 
 
 Of course, there are many men in the Gity of 
 Brooklyn who have been very important figures in 
 the different works to which Mr. Stranahan has 
 referred. Of course, he could not do it alone. He 
 has had to have legislation ; he has had to have 
 help in the cities of Brooklyn and New York, but 
 he has always been a very strong and reliable man, 
 and while I can give credit to other gentlemen who 
 have contributed in these works, I must say of Mr. 
 Stranahan he was the prudent man all the time. 
 He was a sagacious man. He was the man who 
 threw oil on the troubled waters. Without such a 
 man a great many of the things spoken of to-night 
 would not have been accomplished. 
 
 Now, as to the suggestion that there be a statue 
 of Mr. Stranahan erected, I think it is a good one, 
 and I recommend that it be taken up actively so 
 that we may experience the gratification of having 
 a representation of Mr. Stranahan in his favorite 
 place in the Park. May it be many years before 
 he is taken away from us. 
 
 The Chairman Another of our members who 
 does not come in so often as we would like, 
 although more often than Judge McCue, has
 
 36 
 
 just entered the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Hall. 
 We will now hear from Dr. Hall. 
 
 There was loud hand clapping mingled with 
 cheering at the introduction of the popular and 
 eloquent divine. Dr. Hall surveyed the enthusi- 
 astic company and then proceeded to say these 
 things : 
 
 SPEECH OF REV. DR. HALL. 
 
 Dr. Storrs is certainly as unfair a man as I know. 
 I would have taken about the same line of thought, 
 though without so much embellishment, and I would 
 certainly have repeated what he has said, in a less 
 ornate form. I am among the younger members 
 of Brooklyn. I have been here some twenty 
 years, and, finding it good enough for me, I have 
 stuck to it ever since and propose to do so for 
 some time to come. The old saying of the classics 
 is that we can count no man happy till he dies. 
 I think we can count Mr. Stranahan happy to- 
 iiight. I have been watching his countenance with 
 affectionate interest. All of his fellow citizens have 
 a desire to express for him, while he is still in the 
 bloom of youth, the affectionate reverence we all 
 have for him. The works he has done for the city 
 have brought him into a position among us that 
 teaches me a lesson that has not been mentioned, 
 and that is, that it is very often that the best 
 part of a man's life to be roundly abused ; and 
 that that abuse is certain to come to a man when- 
 ever he gets to a point where he thinks to amount 
 to anything.
 
 37 
 
 And in looking back over life myself I have great 
 gratitude now toward those who have helped me to 
 understand myself a little better than I did when 
 as a young man I came across these Brooklyn 
 Heights, vastly different then from now ; in front 
 of Trinity Church, where the old sleepers then lay 
 I don't mean sleepers above the platform, but 
 where the sleepers lay as it was being built. To 
 think of those days and Brooklyn as it then was, 
 a suburb of New York, with a cow-path marking 
 the future line of Fulton street ; the lines of Mon- 
 tague street, then not a street but a waste, and 
 no houses till we got down to Harrison street. 
 But it is not my desire to speak at any length to- 
 night. 
 
 I concur most heartily in what has been said 
 concerning Mr. Stranahan. The enterprise which he 
 has carried out and his labors through the storms 
 he has encountered certainly have made for him to- 
 night a very proud record, and I shall pay Dr. 
 Storrs the compliment of not soaring any higher 
 than to express to Mr. Stranahan the judgment of 
 all those whose opinion is of any value. 
 
 The Chairman The gentlemen who got up 
 this Dinner have done faithful work. While 
 they have all done their share, I think to Mr. 
 Willis L. Ogden belongs a good deal of credit. 
 I believe it was at his suggestion the large 
 floral decoration was sent down, before we com- 
 menced speaking, to Mrs. Stranahan. I have 
 just received this in reply (reading) :
 
 38 
 
 To the members of the Hamilton Club partici- 
 pating in the Dinner in honor of her husband, Mrs. 
 Stranahan sends thanks for the fact that though, 
 owing to circumstances beyond her control, she is 
 absent, she is not forgotten ; also, that to her, 
 indeed, are accorded the flowers of the feast : the 
 visible symbol, if not, possibly, by some occult force, 
 the very materialization, of its wit and reason. 
 
 The Chairman No discussion of any subject 
 connected with the bridge would be complete 
 without hearing from our worthy member, Gen- 
 eral A. C. Barnes. 
 
 SPEECH OF GENERAL A. C. BARNES. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN I think there 
 can be no fitter occasion or subject for one of these 
 Hamilton symposia than the one we have to-night. 
 The serene gentleman who sits by your side, sir, 
 seems to provoke eulogium. And why may he not 
 be received by this company ? For we all acknowl- 
 edge him to be the Abraham of our civic faith, 
 the Nestor of our municipal policy, and, if you 
 please, the DeLesseps of our metropolitan achieve- 
 ment. To-night, I think we may add, the Samuel 
 who prophesied the union of our two cities. All 
 of these titles he has earned right here in Brooklyn, 
 and while he is still younger than any of the 
 original worthies to whom I have ventured to com- 
 pare him, when Mr. Stranahan is full grown I 
 think we shall be surprised at what he will 
 accomplish. At all events, it is a great pleasure to
 
 39 
 
 us to be here to meet him and to express to him 
 our cordial feelings, and I for one am proud to 
 have the opportunity to lift up my voice in that 
 line. 
 
 I will endeavor to address myself, sir, as you have 
 suggested, to that phase of our friend's career with 
 which I was familiar for several years personally, 
 namely, his labors in connection with the great 
 bridge. Before you and I, sir, saw the magnifi- 
 cent span, or perhaps even conceived it, it already 
 existed in the busy mind and the determined pur- 
 pose of a very few men. And many I may say 
 the most of these were still with us at the time 
 when I entered the Bridge Board a youthful and 
 very modest member in 1879. The heat and burden 
 of the day at that time were past practically. The 
 uncertainties and difficulties which at first gathered 
 about the undertaking had been happily overcome, 
 and it only remained to carry on the plans of the 
 great architect with the abundant means provided 
 by an appreciative community and to complete the 
 structure. Of those veterans whom I met at that 
 propitious time in the old office of the bridge 
 many of you may remember it was over the coal 
 yard at Fulton Ferry of those veterans some of 
 the greatest, Mr. Kingsley and Mr. Murphy and 
 Mr. Prentice, have passed away. Mr. Marshall and 
 General Slocum and Mr. Stranahan remained to see 
 the bridge opened for traffic and then resigned 
 their charge. We younger men who now control the 
 details of the management have little part or lot in 
 the glories of that older day. The builders of the 
 Pyramids were greater than those who occupied the
 
 40 
 
 chambers they had built. The latter were Pharaohs, 
 to be sure. They are dignified, but dead very dead. 
 It is no reflection, however, upon the frequent 
 failures of the present potentates of the bridge to 
 obtain a quorum. [Laughter.] 
 
 Although nearly ten years have elapsed, I still 
 recall vividly the scenes which I witnessed when 
 those old giants of administration were with us. 
 Each of them excelled in some department of 
 executive ability, but none of them, I may safely say 
 without depreciation to any none were so masterful 
 in debate as our friend Mr. Stranahan. He could 
 argue like a lawyer. He was very effective in 
 pleading, and upon occasion he could threaten like 
 Ajax himself. On his persuasive eloquence all 
 objections, all obstacles and all obstructions were 
 swept away, and his measures prevailed almost inva- 
 riably, as has been here recited to-night. One great 
 beauty of his forensic victories was that, so far as 
 I know, they never left a sting behind them, and 
 those who had most vehemently opposed him were 
 always the first to acknowledge the wisdom of the 
 decision that had been in a sense thrust down their 
 throats. The last of these great battles in which 
 our friend participated was the battle royal of the 
 ferries. Mr. Stranahan has always been a sort as 
 you know by the sketches that we have all listened 
 to, if you do not know by your own observation 
 has always been a sort of high commissioner of 
 immigration for Brooklyn. Before the Bridge days 
 he was a ferry man, a very devoted ferry man. 
 In fact, I may say he was the St. Christopher of
 
 41 
 
 the East Kiver, the patient bearer of all comers to 
 our shores. Only I think if he could have so 
 arranged it he would have had the boats run but 
 one way [laughter], so that no one could escape 
 from this Eldorado of homes when once landed, 
 and to those eager, arriving throngs he would have 
 had Palinurus, the pilot, proclaim from his point 
 of vantage as the boat entered the dock: "Brook- 
 lyn! Unlimited time for refreshments! [Laughter.] 
 Next and last station, Greenwood!" [Laughter.] 
 
 Well, when the bridge was finished it was Chris- 
 topher Stranahan who had the courage, ignoring 
 because he scorned to receive the charge of interested 
 motives, to stand up in the Bridge Board and 
 demand that the bridge should not enter into a 
 ruinous competition with the ferries. He brought to 
 his aid all the resources of sentiment, of equity and 
 of policy. He depicted those faithful servants which 
 had brought to Brooklyn its already vast population, 
 and pleaded that they should not be deprived of 
 their occupation, because another medium of com- 
 munication had arisen for service by their side. 
 Then in common justice he urged that the private 
 investments in the ferries made in good faith had 
 a right to protection from public assault, and, lastly 
 and chiefly, he insisted upon it as the highest public 
 policy that Brooklyn should foster every means and 
 every form of service which would make her borders 
 most convenient and most accessible at the greatest 
 number of points to the greatest number of people. 
 "If you destroy the ferries," he said, "you will 
 depopulate South Brooklyn and the grass will grow
 
 42 
 
 in the Wallabout, and thousands of people who live 
 below the bridge termini or do business below the 
 bridge termini will rise up and call you anything 
 but blessed/' And so he said to his colleagues: "Gen- 
 tlemen, this won't do. We not only need the bridge 
 in Brooklyn, but we need the ferries, too." [Ap- 
 plause.] And so, gentlemen, it comes to pass we 
 have them both and all to the present day. And 
 so we see that " grand old man " for he fairly 
 shares the title with the English statesman, whom 
 in many points he resembles [applause] we see him 
 looming in the history of the bridge, even as the 
 Brooklyn tower looms above the shifting tide. His 
 memory, whether you erect to him a statue or not, 
 will be as imperishable as that granite pile. 
 
 It has been often whispered, and more than once 
 before to-night spoken of aloud, that it would be a 
 great thing for both cities if they could be united 
 under one corporation. Reflection along that line 
 of thought makes it easy to fancy those two 
 mighty bridge towers, representing on the one hand 
 the inspired engineering of Roebling, and on the 
 other the faithful trustee Stranahan, swinging 
 between them the cradle of the future consolidated 
 metropolis. [Loud applause.] 
 
 The Chairman We have heard from the 
 park side; we have heard from the bridge side, 
 and, to make the story complete, we want to 
 hear from the side of the city as well ; and 
 who can speak to us so well as the Hon. Seth 
 Low?
 
 43 
 
 The handsome ex-Mayor arose, amid much 
 applause, to respond. This was what he said : 
 
 SPEECH OF EX-MAYOR SETH LOW. 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN It has been to 
 me a great pleasure to take part in this Dinner 
 given in honor of Mr. Stranahan. I am sincerely 
 glad to have this opportunity to lay my tribute of 
 appreciation at Mr. Stranahan's feet for the value 
 of his services and life in our midst. I may not 
 speak altogether from the standpoint of a contem- 
 porary, although I made my own appearance in 
 Brooklyn only six years after Mr. Stranahan [laugh- 
 ter], and only four years after Dr. Storrs. But if 
 I speak for a younger generation, I trust that it 
 will detract nothing from the satisfaction of our 
 guest to know that his life here is treasured and 
 respected and honored by those who are so much 
 younger than he. There is one point in connection 
 with his life that it seems to me our attention has 
 not yet been called to, that is well worthy of mark. 
 There may be some good cause which has asked for 
 help in the City of Brooklyn since Mr. Stranahan 
 has been a citizen of Brooklyn which did not 
 receive his help, but if there be such a cause it 
 never has been my fortune to hear of it. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 I think there is no institution calculated to make 
 Brooklyn a pleasanter place to live in, a place offer- 
 ing more to those who are dwelling here, that has 
 ever appealed to Mr. Stranahan without meeting a 
 cordial and glad response. Some men, you know,
 
 44 
 
 only take an interest in those things which they 
 themselves originate. Mr. Stranahan never has been 
 such a one. While inventive in the best sense, as Dr. 
 Storrs has said, for the good of Brooklyn, he has 
 never withheld his co-operation, so far as my knowl- 
 edge extends, from any good enterprise desired by 
 others. That quality entitles him, as I conceive, to 
 high honor. Mr. Stranahan has been from . the 
 beginning one of that small group of worthies of 
 whom it used to be said that they took the happy 
 and fortunate Brooklynite on the other bank of the 
 river and brought him across the stream ; they 
 then received him in the cars of the Brooklyn City 
 Railroad and carried him whither he would; they 
 then offered him amusement in the Academy of 
 Music, instruction in the Mercantile, now the 
 Brooklyn Library, the resources of wisdom in the 
 Historical Society, and finally a resting place, as 
 General Barnes has said, in Greenwood. It has 
 been said slightingly sometimes sometimes as a 
 jest. But it all covers service service for the good 
 of his fellow citizens. 
 
 I sometimes have thought it was rather charac- 
 teristic of Mr. Stranahan that from his high point 
 upon the bridge he has been able to look down 
 upon his colleagues in the ferry and say, as he 
 might say if he please, "I told you so!" His 
 prophetic faith in the complete success of the 
 bridge led him, I think, with more steady assur- 
 ance than any of his colleagues to believe that it 
 would profoundly affect the ferry system of Brooklyn. 
 He has lived to see his faith justified completely. 
 But, as has been said, Mr. Stranahan's chiefest
 
 45 
 
 memorial in the minds and hearts of the people 
 of Brooklyn is the Prospect Park. The old Roman 
 poet said, you know, when he committed his songs 
 to the leaves of literature, " I have erected a 
 monument more enduring than brass." Mr. Stran- 
 ahan has committed his fame to the songs of the 
 forest leaves. It may be said that the grass withers 
 and the flowers fade, but it is also true that the 
 grass withers only to spring up again in the Spring 
 with a new verdure, and the flowers fade only to 
 bloom once more. So, I believe, it will be in 
 regard to Mr. Stranahan's fame in connection with 
 our beautiful park. As long as the flowers, the 
 grass and the trees continue to delight our people, 
 so long the people will hold his name in grateful 
 remembrance. [Applause. ] 
 
 But there is another matter in connection with 
 the park and the bridge that I think calls for a 
 word of notice. Dr. Storrs spoke of the inventive 
 policy, of the foresight of those days. He spoke of 
 the heroic persistence with which those works then 
 planned were carried out. He did not speak of 
 the immense faith in Brooklyn which marked the 
 devising of the park at the time when it was begun. 
 It- is easy enough for us to-day, a city of 800,000 
 people, to say that Prospect Park is only such a 
 park as we ought to have ; but I imagine it took 
 immense courage, gentlemen, twenty-eight years ago, 
 when Brooklyn was a city less than one-third of its 
 present size, to believe she was capable financially 
 of carrying that work and her share of the Brooklyn 
 Bridge through to complete success. It is true 
 that when the panic struck the city in 1873 it
 
 46 
 
 brought everything to a standstill, just as it did 
 many another enterprise the land over. For ten years 
 and more the city was obliged to pursue a policy 
 entirely the opposite of that which had ruled before. 
 She was obliged, under every administration, to take 
 in sail in every direction, to throw overboard what 
 could be spared, and to shape her course with refer- 
 ence simply to carrying successfully the load that 
 those early days had placed upon her. But the 
 faith which those gentlemen had in Brooklyn was 
 abundantly justified. She has come through it 
 triumphantly. She carries her park and her bridge 
 to-day with an ease that makes us all unconscious 
 that she carries it. 
 
 Our debt to-day, our net debt, the first of this 
 year, was more than $6,000,000 less than it was 
 when it was my fortune to be elected Mayor, and 
 
 in those six years a city larger than Kochester has 
 
 / 
 been added to the Brooklyn of that day. I want 
 
 to ask for the present time some of that confidence 
 in the power and capacity of Brooklyn that marked 
 the earlier period. I want to ask for our present 
 Mayor the support of the people of Brooklyn in 
 the large plans for our future that he is asking us 
 to consider. [Applause.] I believe he is absolutely 
 right in his belief that the City of Brooklyn as 
 she is circumstanced now for mind you, with the 
 settlement of the arrears problem the whole condition 
 of Brooklyn's finances has been changed I believe 
 the Mayor is absolutely right in his contention that 
 Brooklyn can better afford to borrow money at 2f 
 per cent, interest for the wholesale repaving of our
 
 47 
 
 streets than by declining to do so, to tax ourselves 
 heavily for a comparatively small improvement, and to 
 go without the large impetus to our future growth 
 that would come from such a system of well paved 
 thoroughfares as he has suggested. [Applause.] 
 
 I think the experience of Berlin, gentlemen, is 
 to the point. In 1870, or thereabouts, it was one 
 of the worst paved cities of Europe. They began 
 then to repave it, and they tried to do it through 
 the annual tax levy. They discovered, after a year 
 or two, that it would take forty years to repave 
 Berlin at the rate at which they could tax them- 
 selves. They therefore borrowed $4,000,000 from 
 the Imperial Government and repaved Berlin, and 
 made it in ten years one of the best paved cities 
 of Europe. Now, I ask you, if the Brooklyn of 
 267,000 people could devise and carry through to 
 success the Prospect Park, and a little later could 
 bear two-thirds of the burden of the Brooklyn Bridge, 
 whether the present Brooklyn of 800,000 people pro- 
 poses to flinch before a proposition of this kind, 
 bearing upon its surface, as it seems to me, every 
 mark that entitles it to support. I think the city 
 is to be congratulated that we have reached once 
 more the point at which the enthusiastic believer in 
 Brooklyn can, as Dr. Storrs said, devise and carry 
 forward works for the future. 
 
 Then, Brooklyn has reached in another respect a 
 point that Mr. Stranahan, I am sure, has long 
 hoped for, and which some of us have sometimes 
 thought might never come. Men of wealth and 
 power in the city have begun to do largely out of
 
 48 
 
 their own means for the honor of the city. The 
 Adelphi Academy has been the recipient of splendid 
 gifts from one of our fellow citizens. [Applause.] 
 The same liberal heart and hand have erected the 
 Pratt Institute [applause], which is calculated, in 
 my judgment, not merely to do a beneficent work in 
 Brooklyn, but to add honor to the name of Brook- 
 lyn all over the Union. Another of our fellow citi- 
 zens has erected the Hoagland Laboratory [applause], 
 and there he proposes, if his hopes are borne out, 
 as I am sure they will be, that the study of the 
 human body shall be made with so much of skill 
 and patience and research that the name of Brook- 
 lyn will be written upon the medical and scientific 
 annals of the country in imperishable letters. 
 
 Gentlemen, these are great things to be thankful 
 for, and they are partly due to the guest of the 
 evening and to the other men who, twenty-five or 
 thirty years ago, believed largely in Brooklyn. 
 They believed, and therefore we have the bridge and 
 the park, and because we have those things, these, 
 their successors, are willing to do things for Brook- 
 lyn of the kind to which I have alluded. Now, 
 we need another thing in Brooklyn. We need a 
 public library. I do hope that before many years 
 go over our heads, either some munificent individual, 
 or private citizens co-operating with the city, will 
 take hold of the Brooklyn Library and make it 
 free. [Applause.] It is not possible, it sems to 
 me, to overestimate the importance of the public 
 library in the education of the masses of the people, 
 according to modern methods. If any of you know
 
 49 
 
 how the university extension scheme has worked 
 in England ; if you know that in connection with 
 the classes of the Chautauqua Literary and Scien- 
 tific Circle there are a hundred thousand students 
 reading all over this broad land in their homes, 
 and reading under intelligent direction and advice, 
 you must appreciate how important it is that those 
 who want so to read should have the means at 
 their disposal. A great city like Brooklyn needs 
 a public library. I believe we never shall be the 
 city we ought to be until we have it. I bespeak 
 of those who are in this room that we take that 
 up as one thing to speak for and to struggle 
 for until we add it to the other attractions of this 
 great city. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, have I wandered far afield ? I 
 think not, because we are standing in the presence 
 of Mr. Stranahan, whose constant devotion of forty- 
 four years has been to make Brooklyn a nobler, 
 lovelier and pleasanter city in which to dwell. He 
 has taught us that lesson of implicit faith in her 
 capacity and in her future. I think we should 
 miss completely the meaning of this gathering 
 those of us who are younger if we did not take 
 from this presence the inspiration of such a faith, 
 such a trust, such an absolute belief in the Brook- 
 lyn that is to be. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman We had hoped to have the 
 Mayor with us, but be sent a note stating 
 that it was impossible for him to be here. We 
 are, however, fortunate in having with us 
 
 4
 
 50 
 
 General John B. Woodward, the President of 
 the Park Commission, whom I now present. 
 
 General Woodward was cordially received. 
 He talked as follows: 
 
 SPEECH OF GENERAL WOODWARD. 
 
 MB. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN I count it very 
 fortunate, indeed, that I am able to be with you 
 here to-night to join with you in a personal and 
 in some way official recognition of the services of 
 Mr. Stranahan. All of you see the results of his 
 labors from the outside. I am fortunately so sit- 
 uated that I see much of them from the inside, 
 and as I study the annals of the park in the 
 office I cannot fail to receive an inspiration for the 
 faithful performance of the duties which have been 
 temporarily consigned to me. And I want to say 
 to you that, from the few months' experience I 
 have had there, I marvel that any man could have 
 remained for twenty-two years performing the ardu- 
 ous and vexatious duties devolved upon the office. 
 I know something of what I say when I assure 
 you that the cranks and persons who come to offer 
 advice are a troublesome lot. [Laughter.] 
 
 If you could go forward as you do in your busi- 
 ness with a feeling that the citizens of Brooklyn 
 had confidence in you when you were placed there, 
 and would leave you to perform your duties in 
 such way as your best judgment may dictate, the 
 path of public officers would be one of roses. As 
 it is now, to guard themselves from assault on the
 
 51 
 
 one hand and on the other to do only what is 
 right, is indeed a task which few men, unless they 
 had the courage of Mr. Stranahan, would hold for 
 so many years. The work he has done, if you will 
 consider it for a moment, as shown by the record, 
 has been a vast one. The total cost of the park 
 has been over $9,000,000, and every dollar has been 
 accounted for on the books of the department. 
 Then, for twenty-two years he had the annual 
 appropriations to look after, varying from $125,000 
 to $175,000 watching all points and guarding 
 against the intrusion of the hordes who would like 
 to have participated in all that vast sum of 
 money. 
 
 It has been told to you that Mr. Stranahan 
 came to Brooklyn in 1844. Let me say this : It's 
 a great pity he did not come here sooner. I will 
 give you a few figures to prove this. Brooklyn has 
 in its park area 678 acres of land; New York has 
 5,157 ; Philadelphia, 3,000 ; Chicago, 3,000 ; Boston, 
 2,000 ; St. Louis, 2,232 ; Baltimore, 770 ; San Fran- 
 cisco, 1,181 ; Washington, 1,000 ; Buffalo, 900. Of 
 these nine cities Brooklyn is at the bottom. Where 
 would it have been but for Mr. Stranahan p 
 [Applause.] Brooklyn has one acre of park area 
 to 1,100 of its people. Imagine 1,100 citizens of 
 Brooklyn, if they all wanted to use the park at 
 once 1,100 on one acre. New York has one 
 acre to 232 ; Philadelphia, one acre to 282 ; Chicago, 
 one to 168 ; Boston, one to 170 ; St. Louis, one 
 to 157 ; Baltimore, one to 428 ; San Francisco, one 
 to 198 ; Washington, one to 188 ; Buffalo, one 
 acre to 178 people ; Brooklyn only one acre to 1,100
 
 52 
 
 people. Now compare Brooklyn with Europe. Lon- 
 don has 22,000 acres of parks ; Paris, 58,000 ; 
 Berlin, 5,000 ; Vienna, 8,000 ; Tokio, 6,000; Brus- 
 sels, 1,000 ; Amsterdam, 800 ; Dublin, 1,000. Brook- 
 lyn behind the great cities of Europe. Brooklyn 
 has one-fifth of the average of American cities and 
 one-ninth of the average of the cities of Europe. 
 What would our position have been without Mr. 
 Stranahan ? 
 
 Let me say that Mr. H. B. Pierrepont in 1825 
 tried to preserve for public uses the ground now 
 known as Columbia Heights. He had prepared at his 
 own cost a plan for making a park and submit- 
 ted it to the trustees of the village and the parties 
 in interest. It was approved, but was defeated by 
 the exertions of one individual who had a small 
 interest in the property. If Mr. Stranahan had 
 come to Brooklyn in 1825 this park on the Heights 
 would have been preserved to Brooklyn, and the 
 ground between the westerly side of Hicks street 
 and the river would have been Iphetonga Park, 
 and every citizen of Brooklyn would have been 
 as proud to take visitors there as when you go to 
 Boston they are to haul you across the Common. 
 
 In 1835 Governor Marcy appointed a commission 
 to devise a system of parks for Brooklyn. They 
 devoted four years to this work, and in 1839 recom- 
 mended eleven sites for parks and squares, John- 
 son Square, Lafayette Green, Bedford Green, Marcy 
 Square, Prospect Square, Reid Square, Fulton Square, 
 Mount Prospect Square, Tompkins Park, Washing- 
 ton Park, City Park. Of these the three latter only 
 survive ; and as late even as 1868 a very deter-
 
 53 
 
 mined effort was made to cut up Washington Park, 
 Fort Greene, and sell it off in building lots. Mr. 
 Stranahan stopped that. If he had come to Brook- 
 lyn in 1835, nine years before he did, these eleven 
 parks would have been added to the park area of 
 Brooklyn. I want to emphasize the fact that when 
 Mr. Stranahan took hold of the matter Brooklyn 
 got some park area. If he had come here and 
 begun that same course in reference to the original 
 laying out of Brooklyn, what a different place it 
 would have been. Here we have the streets built 
 up solid without any public squares, and right here, 
 let me say, it has been a matter of great embarrass- 
 ment to the Beecher Memorial Committee to find a 
 place in the city in which to erect the statue of 
 that great man, and it has been forced to go out 
 to Prospect Park. Even there they suggest the 
 removal of the bust of Washington Irving to some 
 other place, so that Beecher and Irving may take 
 turn about in that position. It may be wise to 
 reserve another spot in Prospect Park where we can 
 erect this statue of Mr. Stranahan, which has been 
 suggested, and I know I can assure you that the 
 present Park Commissioners will take great pleasure 
 in trying to give it a proper and permanent place. 
 The Commissioners feel that they have a light 
 duty to perform now in respect to the park, as 
 their work is mostly that of maintenance. We are 
 simply to preserve what Mr. Stranahan has pre- 
 pared. Those of us who remember the land as it 
 was before he took hold of it cannot but wonder 
 that he had such faith in the future. Compare 
 what it was then with what it is now, and it must
 
 54 
 
 be to all of you a source of great happiness and 
 glory that this gentleman came to us in 1844. I 
 hope that the plan proposed to my fellow Park 
 Commissioner (Dr. Storrs) to-night may result in 
 something substantial, so that in the future the 
 citizens of Brooklyn may have before them the 
 faithful likeness of Mr. Stranahan in enduring 
 bronze. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman next introduced Mr. Waldo 
 Hutchins, of the New York Park Commission. 
 Mr. Hutchins was cheered, and having arisen, 
 spoke in this way : 
 
 SPEECH OF WALDO HUTCHINS. 
 
 MB. CHAIRMAN I feel that I am here to-night 
 under false pretenses. I came over to shake hands 
 with my old friend Mr. Stranahan, whom I have 
 known longer than any gentleman in this room, I 
 presume. I came over to listen and not to speak. 
 You don't expect me to speak of New York. She 
 is in an eclipse to-night and our friend Stranahan 
 has put her there. What Mr. Stranahan has done 
 for Brooklyn has incited us to try to do something 
 a little better. You are not only indebted to him 
 for your Prospect Park, but I think that the inspira- 
 tion coming by him to us has induced us to 
 add to our parks something like 4,000 acres within 
 the last two years, all of which I think Brooklyn 
 is entitled to the credit of, and our friend Mr. 
 Stranahan. There is no citizen whom it would 
 give me more joy to come and meet and see
 
 55 
 
 honored to-night, as Mr. Stranahan has been, than 
 himself. It has been said that a man in private 
 life could not do as much as a man in public 
 life. I think Mr. Stranahan is an instance of what 
 a man in private life can do. And undoubtedly it 
 is true that Brooklyn to-day is more indebted to 
 him than to any other one individual for its great 
 public works which have been undertaken and 
 carried through within the last few years, and 
 which have made Brooklyn famous the world over. 
 Fifteen years ago a man going abroad even my 
 friend Judge McCue would not register himself as 
 coming from Brooklyn, but as coming from New 
 York. [Laughter.] Now I am sure he registers 
 himself as from the City of Brooklyn and its great 
 bridge. Why, any one coming from abroad now 
 looks at the great bridge uniting the cities of 
 Brooklyn and New York as the first thing to be 
 seen and to admire. It is the greatest architectural 
 and engineering undertaking that has ever been 
 accomplished in the history of the world, and adds 
 to the seven wonders of the world, and has become 
 the eighth wonder of the world. But it seems to 
 me, gentlemen, that we must not overlook in this 
 gathering here to-night some qualities which our 
 friend Stranahan possesses, which, although they do 
 not come under the term of public improvements, 
 have a mighty bearing, and which endear him to 
 the people of this city more than all else his gentle 
 acts of kindness and his love to his fellow man. 
 [Applause.] I would ask you, gentlemen, who ever 
 saw him in a passion ? As stern a man as ever 
 lived ; decided in his views ; a man whom a child
 
 56 
 
 could lead, but whom a giant cannot drive. 
 [Applause.] There is not a child in the City of 
 Brooklyn who does not love him, nor is there an 
 adult who does not admire and respect him. And 
 it is this which has endeared him to you as much 
 as these great public works with which he has 
 been connected ; genial in his heart's intercourse 
 in life, honest in all his business engagements, 
 having but one end in view, the interest, protec- 
 tion and advancement of the citizen. 
 
 There is not a tenement house in this city to- 
 day not healthier and better for his living here. 
 Not a street that is not in better condition than 
 it would have been if he had not lived here. I 
 think the spirit he has always manifested among the 
 citizens of this city, the noble purpose of always 
 doing that which was best for his fellow citizens, 
 regardless of himself and his own private interests, 
 is that which brings you here to-night to do him 
 honor. It is too late for me to say much more, 
 but as I have been seated here the lines of Leigh 
 Hunt have come into my mind and they seem to 
 me to have been for our friend Stranahan. At 
 any rate, if he did not have him in mind it was 
 a man just like him. They are these: 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) ! 
 Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
 And saw within the moonlight in his room, 
 Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
 An angel writing in a book of gold ; 
 Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
 And to the presence in the room he said, 
 "What writest thou ?" The vision raised its head, 
 And with a look made of all sweet accord,
 
 57 
 
 Answer'd, " The names of those who love the Lord." 
 
 "And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
 
 Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
 
 But cheerily still ; and said, "I pray thee, then, 
 
 Write me as one that loves his fellow men." 
 
 The angel wrote and vanish'd. The next night 
 
 It came again, with a great wakening light, 
 
 And show'd the names whom love of God had bless'd, 
 
 And, lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 
 
 The Chairman We are always anxious to 
 know what the press think, and particularly 
 what the Eagle thinks of Brooklyn men and 
 events. Brooklyn, indeed, would not be Brook- 
 lyn without the Eagle's expression being nightly 
 known. We have with us this evening the Hon. 
 St. Glair McKelway, the Editor of the Eagle, 
 who will now address you, so you can tell now 
 what he thinks before the account of this Dinner 
 is reviewed to-morrow. [Applause.] Mr. McKel- 
 way was heartily cheered on rising, and spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. ST. CLAIR McKELWAY. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT I shall not make ray remarks so 
 long this evening as the distance of 150 miles I 
 have traversed to-day to participate in the pleasant 
 proceedings of to-night. The mention of Mr. 
 Stranahan has on all sides elicited the statement 
 that to think of him is to think of the park, of 
 the park from inception to completion, and from 
 completion through the many years of maintenance in 
 which it was under his fostering care. I take it that
 
 58 
 
 the reference which Mr. Stranahan made to those 
 legislators who stood in important relations to the 
 grant of power to him and his associates, to work 
 out the trust committed to their hands, was deliber- 
 ately uttered by him. It has been my fortune in 
 the last three days of absence from the city, in the 
 discharge of official duties for the State, to be asso- 
 ciated with one formerly a resident of Brooklyn, who 
 was instrumental largely in helping forward the legis- 
 lation necessary to the power to acquire and create 
 Prospect Park. I refer to the Hon. Henry R. Pier- 
 son, formerly of this city [applause], now a member 
 of the Board of Regents and Chancellor of that body. 
 It was his privilege to be, while a resident here, the 
 President of the Brooklyn Club, the only Club of 
 the kind to be compared with this one, and the best 
 members of which, with a few exceptions, are mem- 
 bers of both organizations. [Laughter.] When Mr. 
 Pierson left Brooklyn for larger fields of activity 
 that organization gave to him a parting dinner of 
 recognition and tribute, which was, I think, up to 
 that period, the most significant social ovation in 
 the history of our town ; and I can see in the 
 faces of certain here present the working of the 
 mellow memories of the profound condition of ani- 
 mal and of ardent spirits into which they plunged 
 on that occasion. [Much laughter.] To-day he bade 
 me bear to his friends and all Brooklynites are his 
 friends, as your applauding hands attest the assur- 
 ance of his honor, gratitude and sense of deep 
 appreciation of the labors of the guest of this 
 evening. [Applause.] I know that I could not be 
 original without a contradiction of Solomon, who
 
 59 
 
 said, " There is nothing new under the sun ;" and 
 I would be more than human could I add any- 
 thing of novelty or much of value to the accordant 
 tributes which have been heard around this table 
 to-night to the career and character of the eminent 
 young man [applause] who is our guest upon this 
 occasion. 
 
 All this concurrent expression of the worth of Mr. 
 Stranahan in the forty-four years of his residence 
 in Brooklyn which numbers more years than I 
 have been a resident anywhere involves certain 
 qualities which have been guardedly, gently, and, in 
 some of the speeches, even grandly, suggested. I 
 think that a distinguishing trait of our friend is 
 his urbanity. His manners of courtly distinction, 
 yet of refined simplicity, have always encased him 
 like an atmosphere, or radiated from him like a 
 solar light. Then, as Dr. Storrs has remarked, is 
 that "longanimity" of the man, that long suffer- 
 ing and much enduring patience. He has known 
 and shown that the best answer of any man to 
 calumny and criticism, or misinterpretation of any 
 sort, or from any source, is the rounded record of 
 a blameless life. He has known and shown that 
 vilification is the tribute which malignity and envy 
 pay to merit and success. [Tremendous applause.] 
 
 The first time I was ever interviewed in my life 
 was when I made an attempt to interview Mr. 
 Stranahan. [Laughter and applause.] I remember 
 very well he had a red handkerchief. It was an 
 oriflamme of more evasive power than the bandana 
 of contemporaneous human interest. [Laughter.] I 
 told him what I came for. He told me what I
 
 60 
 
 was not going to get. He made me as unanimous 
 as the Park Board under his administration 
 [laughter], and when I came back to my chief, he 
 said to me, " Young man, you are no more of a 
 failure than many of your predecessors in the 
 same line." [Laughter.] His control of temper has 
 been spoken of. Commissioner Hutchins, of the 
 lesser Brooklyn [laughter], has said that no man 
 ever saw him in a passion. Gentlemen, that is a 
 Washingtonian characteristic which I think demands 
 special commendation at this time. By it he made 
 doubters disciples, opponents allies, and enemies 
 friends, and by it he has indicated and vindicated his 
 sublime reliance on science, and on time, and on 
 the maturing public spirit of this city. [Applause.] 
 
 He has told you that an industry which has had 
 its genesis in his brain, and which under the wand 
 of his mind, like the earth, sprang from almost 
 nothing into beauty, now pays one two-hundredth 
 part of the taxes of this city. Is there a man who 
 can say of any other institution of equal power I am 
 it, and it is I, in this or any other American munici- 
 pality, or in an European municipality around the 
 globe? I think not. [Applause.] He has also spoken 
 to us in the character of a prophet, and predicted the 
 consolidation, the eventual union, of these two cities 
 by the sea. I am, perhaps, from not unselfish 
 reasons, proud of the autonomy of Brooklyn, and 
 reverence for our guest does not involve the neces- 
 sity of agreeing with all his propositions. I hope 
 that never will be the time when Brooklyn shall lose 
 her identity and be merged with New York or any 
 other municipality. I believe that the genius of
 
 61 
 
 American statesmanship is manifested in the smaller 
 rather than in the larger municipalities. I believe 
 that the interests of our people are enhanced by 
 the division and distribution, rather than by the 
 centralization, of political powers. I want Brooklyn 
 to remain Brooklyn, and to develop as Brooklyn in 
 all the future. [Applause.] 
 
 One of the speakers to-night, less embarrassed than 
 myself, because he came earlier, said he wondered 
 whether he was himself or somebody else. Now, sir, 
 as there is only one Dr. Storrs, I marvel at his sur- 
 prise. [Applause.] As a member of Parliament 
 said " Ditto to Mr. Burke," so I would be glad 
 to say now "Ditto" to what the leader of the 
 American pulpit has advanced here to-night con- 
 cerning our eminent guest. I shall not enlarge in 
 these remarks upon any further points illustrative of 
 Mr. Stranahan's career and character. For age, by 
 itself considered, we all have a tender feeling ; but, 
 at best, longevity is but sheer and mere duration, 
 and it is not necessarily either admirable or impress- 
 ive. No number of yards or years of time, 
 measured to us off as our own, can constitute dis- 
 tinction. To exist is only not to die. To be and 
 to do something is to live. It is Mr. Stranahan's 
 distinction to have identified great age with great 
 achievements. [Applause.] 
 
 I heartily second the erection in Prospect Park 
 of a monument to this great and good man. 
 Samuel Findley Breese Morse did not detract by 
 anything he did from the monument erected to him 
 in his lifetime. William Tecumseh Sherman will 
 not detract by anything he shall do from the one
 
 62 
 
 it is proposed to erect to him in his lifetime in 
 the City of Washington, which he preserved as the 
 capital of an indissoluble union of indestructible 
 States. Nor will our honored guest do aught to 
 detract from the intention here formed and soon, 
 I hope, to be carried into organized effect. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 I do not believe that, except in years, he is so 
 old as many men I see around me. He has caught 
 from nature the secret of perpetual youth. " He 
 is the youngest," as Dr. Holmes said on a semi- 
 centennial Harvard occasion, ''at our board to-night." 
 We wish him many long years yet ahead, and 
 when the summons which comes to all mortality 
 shall come to him, may it then be said of this 
 great civic American, as Dr. Storrs once said of 
 the greatest President of our own time and annals, 
 that " From the topmost achievement of man, a 
 life well spent, he stepped to the skies as the gates 
 of pearl swang inward at his approach." [Applause.] 
 
 At the conclusion of the applause excited by 
 Mr. McKelway's address, the guests joined in 
 singing tbe verses of " Auld Lang Syne," with 
 impressive effect. The gentlemen then paid 
 their parting respects to President Olcott and 
 to Mr. Stranahan, after which the memorable 
 occasion came to an end.
 
 63 
 
 The following speech was prepared by S. M. 
 Parsons, for delivery at the Stranahan Dinner 
 if volunteer speeches had been called for : 
 
 ME. PRESIDENT It is singular how difficult it is 
 to project and carry out great public improvements. 
 It seems to be given only to men of large brain 
 and unselfish public spirit to forecast the coming 
 needs of a growing people ; and, then, for one to 
 succeed, he must be a man of energy, and pluck, 
 and of iron determination, with an undoubting faith 
 in himself. He will be a target for ridicule and 
 misrepresentation, and, without a sublime confidence 
 in himself and his measures, he will succumb. 
 
 I well remember, years ago, meeting that prince 
 of men, who honored Brooklyn in her mayoralty 
 chair, for one or more terms, the late George Hall. 
 It was on the corner of Clinton and Livingston 
 streets, and we both were looking at the water 
 mains being laid in Clinton street. 
 
 "Why," he said, "the people will not yet believe 
 that water is to be introduced into their dwellings, 
 although they see the pipes going down under the 
 ground. They look upon the whole thing as a huge 
 job to gobble up the public money. They have no 
 faith that anything will come of it." 
 
 The same incredulity and suspicion marked the 
 inception of the park and bridge enterprises, and 
 but for the grit and public spirit and wise fore- 
 cast of our honored guest and his associates the 
 true prophets and seers of Brooklyn we should still 
 be discussing the propriety and feasibility of those 
 two wonderful works. It needs a man of nerve to 
 take the bull by the horns, and push, and push,
 
 64 
 
 no matter who is gored, himself or others, only that 
 he be master of the situation, and progress is made. 
 An impalement of himself now and then only lends 
 more vigor, and makes that progress the greater. 
 
 We recognize in Mr. Stranahan the man for the 
 occasion the wise projector, the skillful and suc- 
 cessful executor ; and it is fitting that his long years 
 of service to the people's good, without fee or 
 reward, should be acknowledged. 
 
 When triumph has crowned devotion like his, and 
 everybody is enjoying its fruits, we are apt to lose 
 sight of the great architects of our good fortune. 
 The result seems then as a matter of course a 
 necessary evolution, and not a special creation of 
 special brain, and energy, and forethought. How 
 often appear most simple the processes of a great 
 discovery, after it is made ! The falling of an 
 apple, the bubbling up of steam from the homely 
 tea kettle may prefigure a mighty revolution in 
 science and mechanics. 
 
 All honor then to our distinguished guest for the 
 part and lot he had in these great matters. 
 
 Ancient Greece and Rome would have perpetuated 
 his memory in enduring marble or bronze ; but he 
 needs no work of his fellow citizens to send down 
 his name to the future ; for they of the present 
 generation and their children to the latest day, and 
 the visiting strangers, as they enter the gates of 
 our beautiful park, and enjoy its charms of field 
 and forest and meadow and landscape, will read on 
 every tree and green walk and sequestered vale, 
 
 Stranahan fecit, 
 
 "Si queris monumentum, 
 Circumspice."
 
 LETTERS OF REGRET.
 
 LETTERS OF REGRET. 
 
 The following letters of regret were received: 
 
 [From MR. B. D. SILLIMAN.] 
 
 56 CLINTO 
 BROOKLYN, December 4, 1888 
 
 56 CLINTON STREET, 
 
 .1 
 
 GEORGE M. OLCOTT, ESQ., President, etc.: 
 
 My Dear Sir: A disabling cold compels me to decline 
 your kind invitation for the 13th inst. It would, I need 
 hardly say, give me very great pleasure to meet your excellent 
 guest and his hospitable hosts, and it is most reluctantly that 
 I forego the opportunity of doing so. During the more than 
 half a century in which I have enjoyed the acquaintance 
 and the friendship of Mr. Stranahan his course his advance 
 in life has been one of constant, generous and steadily pro- 
 gressive usefulness to others and honor to himself. His 
 wisdom, his energy and his efficiency have each been very 
 remarkable. In their combination they have been conspicu- 
 ous and effectual in the development and conduct of the 
 chief institution of our city. His name is identified as 
 his memory will be with all our great public improvements, 
 among them the park, the great marine basin, the ferries, 
 the bridge, and with our institutions of learning, of art and 
 of benevolence. These will be his monuments. His unchang- 
 ing integrity and untiring and generous fidelity to his friends 
 have given him a warmly welcome home in all their hearts. 
 Again expressing my sincere regret that I cannot enjoy the 
 privilege of being with you on the occasion of your recep- 
 tion of Mr. Stranahan, I am, dear Mr. President, 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 B. D. SILLIMAN.
 
 68 
 
 [From MR. STEWART L. WOODFORD.] 
 
 HAMILTON CLUB. i 
 
 THURSDAY. December 18. 1888. j 
 
 My Dear Mr. Stranahan : More than I can well tell you 
 ain I grieved and disappointed that I cannot join our fellow 
 townsmen to-night in their tribute of respect and affection to 
 yourself. But I must go to New York in fulfillment of a 
 promise made long ago before this Dinner was arranged. 
 May all good health and happiness be yours. 
 Faithfully, 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 STEWART L. WOODFORD. 
 To the Hon. J. 8. T. STRANAHAN. 
 
 [From Ma. A. W. TENNEY.] 
 
 EVENING PobT BUILDING, \ 
 
 206 BROADWAY, 
 NEW YOBK, December 13, 1888. ) 
 
 Hon. J. S. T. STRANAUAN : 
 
 My Dear Sir : I fully intended to be present at the Dinner 
 so appropriately given you to-night by the Hamilton Club, 
 but not being a member of this Club, I find myself unable to 
 obtain a seat. I regret exceedingly I cannot unite with the 
 citizens of Brooklyn in paying you this well-merited com- 
 pliment, but as I cannot, I send you this note conveying 
 to you my heartiest felicitations upon this rich occasion of 
 
 your life. 
 
 I trust the last days of your long and useful life may 
 be the best, and that the glory of the evening may be to 
 you brighter and more lasting than was the morning. 
 With assurances of high regard, I am, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 A. W. TENNEY.
 
 69 
 
 [From MB. FREDERIC A. WARD.] 
 
 161 REMSEN STREET, i 
 BROOKLYN, December 7, 1888. ) 
 
 My Dear Sir : I greatly regret that a professional engage- 
 ment at Albany will prevent me from being present at the 
 Dinner proposed to be given to Mr. Stranahan on the 13th inst. 
 
 I am quite in accord with the spirit of the occasion, and 
 should delight to join in honoring our distinguished fellow- 
 citizen, to whose disinterested and public spirited devotion 
 to her interests our city owes so much. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 FREDERIC A. WARD. 
 To WM. B. KENDALL, Esq., Chairman, etc. 
 
 [From MR. CHARLES PRATT.] 
 
 CHARLES PRATT & Co., \ 
 
 26 BROADWAY, 
 NEW YORK, December 4, 1888.) 
 
 Mr. WM. B. KENDALL, Chairman of Committee Hamilton 
 Club, Brooklyn, N. T. : 
 
 Dear Sir: I regret very much that the wedding of a 
 young friend will prevent my attending the Dinner to be given 
 in honor of our mutual friend, Mr. J. S. T. Stranahan. If it 
 is possible, however, for me to return by half-past ten I shall 
 come in, but am afraid I shall not have that pleasure, which 
 I very much regret. Should be glad if you will extend to 
 Mr. Stranahan my congratulations upon the continuation of 
 his good health, and the high honors which his honorable and 
 useful life entitles him to. 
 
 Regretting my inability to definitely promise to attend, I 
 
 remain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 CHARLES PRATT.
 
 70 
 
 [From MR. JAMKS P. WALLACE.) 
 
 14 SCHERMERHORN ST., } 
 
 BROOKLYN, December 13, 1888. f 
 
 Dear Mr. Orr : Will you please allow me a suggestion. 
 It is generally conceded that Brooklyn is indebted to Hon. 
 J. 8. T. Stranahan for the best features of Prospect Park and 
 Ocean Parkway. 
 
 Except for him it is almost certain the Manhattan Beach 
 Railroad would have crossed the Parkway on grade. It is 
 quite as certain that the Elevated Railroad would have planted 
 its posts in the center of the Parkway, had not the good sense 
 and powerful influence of Mr. Stranahan stood in their way. 
 And it is positively certain that if Mr. Stranahan was at the 
 helm, that splendid drive would be preserved to the public, and 
 not be ruined by any railroad corporation. 
 
 My suggestion is that the Dinner party being held at the 
 Hamilton Club this evening, start a petition to change the 
 name of Ocean Parkway to Boulevard Stranahan, in honor of 
 the man to whom Brooklyn is so greatly indebted. 
 
 Napoleon III., in recognition of less distinguished service, 
 gave the name of Boulevard Haussman to the finest avenue in 
 Paris. Should not Brooklyn do as much in honor of our first 
 citizen ? 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 JAMES P. WALLACE. 
 To MR. A. E. ORR. 
 
 [From MR. WILLIAM G. Low.] 
 
 58 REMSEN STREET, ) 
 December 11, 1888. f 
 
 My Dear Mr. Stranahan .-Finding that I shall be unable 
 to attend the Dinner in your honor at the Hamilton Club, I 
 write to express my appreciation of your public spirit, your 
 sagacity, your tenacity of purpose and your foresight, all 
 df which have been freely given to the advancement of 
 Brooklyn's interests. 
 
 Nor do I fail to appreciate the benignant courtesy with
 
 71 
 
 which you have treated me, as well as, doubtless, the other men 
 of my generation. 
 
 Hoping that for a long time yet you may sojourn among 
 us here, I remain with sincere respect, 
 Yours truly, 
 
 WILLIAM G. LOW. 
 To Hon. J. S. T. STKANAHAN. 
 
 KE, i 
 
 ' \ 
 
 [From MB. WILLIAM PEET.] 
 
 BRISTOW, PEET & OPDYKE, j 
 20 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, 
 December 13, 1888. 
 
 Dear Sirs: Sadness in my bereavement, in the loss of a 
 dear little grandchild, unfits me for the festivities of this 
 evening to do honor to our esteemed friend Hon. Jas. S. T. 
 Stranahan. 
 
 It is eminently proper that the oldest Club in Brooklyn, as 
 representing its older residents, should pay their respect to 
 one to whose prophetic vision, energetic action and unbounded 
 liberality in time, influence and estate, our city is so greatly 
 indebted. 
 
 Known to me personally for about forty years and appre- 
 ciated as a personal friend, as well as a life-long friend of 
 my honored father, now in the better world, I have, per- 
 haps more than any others, a higher duty to pay him great 
 respect ; especially as the Good Book says : " Thine own 
 friend and thy Father's friend forsake not." 
 
 Please make to Mr. Siranahan my apologies for my absence, 
 and my wishes that for many years he may yet live a noble 
 example to coming men of Brooklyn, as he has been for 
 many years to their fathers. 
 
 I remain, with great respect, 
 
 WILLIAM PEET. 
 
 To Messrs. WM. B. KENDALL, WILLIS L. OGDEN, C. S. VAN 
 WAGONER, GEORGE R. TURNBTJLL, Committee.
 
 PRESS COMMENTS.
 
 PRESS COMMENTS. 
 
 [From the BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, December 14, 1888.] 
 
 THE DINNER TO OUR CHIEF CITIZEN. 
 
 The Eagle to-day reports the merited but remarkable tribute 
 to the Hon. James S. T. Stranahan, tendered last night by 
 a representative gathering of his fellow Brooklynites. The 
 occasion was a recognition of signal achievement, of magni- 
 ficent character, of splendid abilities, and of the fact that the 
 chief citizen of this city has passed the eightieth milestone 
 on the road of life, his eye undimmed and his natural force 
 not abated. 
 
 Age is a gift of the gods rare enough to mark their capri- 
 ciousness, yet, in another sense of comparison, frequent 
 enough to make the celebration of it, merely for its own 
 sake, not especially impressive. A dullard may outlast his 
 century, and, so far as the world is concerned, may have 
 survived his usefulness by as many years as he has been 
 born. Oldness, by itself considered, is like largeness, small- 
 ness, tallness or shortness, purely incidental. In it is 
 neither excellence nor the reverse. What we do in our 
 period is the thing. The resultants of any stewardship are 
 the praise or the condemnation of it. If those resultants 
 have been wholly selfish, it may be better for the man that 
 he never had been born. If they make for the good of 
 kindred, city, commonwealth and country, for the nation 
 and for humanity, the man has been a blessing to his time 
 and clime. 
 
 Measured by these principles, the gentleman who honored 
 the Hamilton Club with his presence last night may be sure of 
 the verdict of the minds and of the hearts of Brooklynites 
 and of the verdict of history as well. He has been contem- 
 poraneous with some of the grandest events in the history
 
 76 
 
 of the world. He is 'older than the utilization of steam for 
 the purpose of navigation. He was entitled to be a voter 
 when the first locomotive started Echo from all her caves. 
 The United States had not long shaken off their dependence 
 on Great Britain on the land when he was born, and, after 
 he was born, they challenged successfully her supremacy 
 upon the sea. He has seen the number of our States 
 trebled, the area of our territory quadrupled, the birth of 
 the telegraph, the discovery of the miraculous telephone, the 
 wonder of the phonograph, the knitting of the continents 
 into instantaneous unity of thought by the cables, the growth 
 of our nation from 6,000,000 to 60,000,000 of people, the 
 establishment of the perpetuity of the Union, of the nationality 
 of liberty, and of the universality of suffrage on this side 
 of the earth. 
 
 The recitation of the marvels of God's working in his 
 time could be indefinitely extended, but generalizations, in 
 each of which are held myriads of details, will suffice for 
 suggestion. In as many of these changes as he has 
 been able to affect, his part has not been small. His has 
 been a constructive, a creative and a prophetic life. He 
 took part in laying out the first grand line of railway 
 which belted the East to the West with bands of iron. He 
 was the pioneer in this city by the sea of those enterprises 
 which make Brooklyn the entrepot and the depot of the 
 commerce of three continents. For long years he poured 
 in treasure, labor and faith, taking out nothing from the 
 deposit, until at last his hope, his energy and his prescience 
 were rewarded, and men saw that he had builded wiser than 
 they knew. His relations to the park and to the bridge we 
 need not recite, for they are household words in Brooklyn. 
 His relation to the cause of Union and of liberty is as 
 marked and distinctive as that of any of our citizens, and 
 stamps him as a man whose confidence in moral principles 
 equals his faith in the material resources of his country and 
 in the indomitable capabilities of our citizenship. None of 
 the men in the past who have built up the name and the
 
 77 
 
 fame of Brooklyn has failed to find him an invaluable 
 counselor and an indispensable coadjutor. None of the men 
 of the present who have succeeded to the trusts which the 
 founders of our city bequeathed has failed to realize that 
 in the career and character of James S. T. Stranahan reside 
 the indication and the vindication of a municipal patriotism, 
 of a municipal statesmanship and of a municipal spirit which 
 honor Brooklyn and which alike typify and account for the 
 quality and the degree of our prosperity. 
 
 We do not look upon him as old. In heart, in hope, in 
 resilience, he was the youngest at the board last night. He 
 has caught from life the secret of living. The Greeks had 
 a saying, "Call no man happy until he is dead." They 
 had a decree prohibiting the erection of memorials to the 
 living. Their theory was that, until the human account was 
 closed, something might at any time occur to mar its stately 
 proportions or to detract from its symmetrical and exemplary 
 character. No such apprehension need be felt about Mr. 
 Stranahan. We know that patient, gentle, wise and benignant 
 man has a right to happiness in the fact of a life lived for 
 others, and that from this table-land of time looking back- 
 ward on the past and forward on the future, we can say in 
 pride and he can say with confidence, " Whatsoever record 
 leaps to light, his never will be shamed." 
 
 The Eagle heartily seconds the proposition started last night 
 of a monument in the park to the man who made the park. 
 It is fitting that the project should be effected while the 
 man is alive to enjoy it, for not only would the fact be a 
 deserved and felicitous tribute to him, but it would also be 
 a proof of the gratitude and appreciation felt by Brooklyn 
 for her most achieving and her most illustrious citizen, who 
 has wrought for her so long and wrought for her in every 
 high and helpful department of endeavor so transcendently 
 well.
 
 78 
 
 [From the BROOKLVN STANDARD-UNION, December 14, 1888.] 
 
 BROOKLYN'S FIRST CITIZEN. 
 
 It is safe to say that the several hundred thousand people 
 of Brooklyn who were not at the Hamilton Club's Dinner 
 to Mr. Stranahan last night will partake of " the feast of 
 reason and flow of soul " which is served in the Standard- 
 Union's report of the proceedings to-day. Mr. Stranahan has 
 had a fulr share of the rough criticism that often falls upon 
 public men, but it never swerved him from his purposes, and 
 really seems to have acted upon him as friction upon the 
 diamond : it gave him a brighter polish. 
 
 Tenacity has been one of his distinguishing characteristics, 
 and if the belief that ultimate success was sure to transform 
 censure into praise in the end ever inspired him in the days 
 of his early struggles, it has been abundantly justified in 
 later years. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Storrs seems to have touched the point exactly 
 when he said that " no man wants to be flattered, but every 
 man wants to be appreciated ;" and that Mr. Stranahan's 
 grand life work is now appreciated has been shown to him 
 by many a public and private sign before this Club Dinner 
 was ever thought of. 
 
 As to that work, it is not easy to say which particular 
 branch of it has been of the greatest service to the com- 
 munity the Atlantic Docks, the Parks, or the Bridge. The 
 last two were essentially public works, and, therefore, they 
 have received the greater share of public attention ; but the 
 first, though a private enterprise, was the natural precursor, 
 if not progenitor, of the last two, and helped largely to give 
 this city the population that made them the necessities they 
 are to day. What the city is now it may largely thank him 
 for, and no one will now dispute his right to be called "the 
 first citizen of Brooklyn."
 
 79 
 
 [From the BROOKLYN DAILY TIMES, December 14. 1888.] 
 
 J. S. T. STRANAHAN. 
 
 The Hamilton Club honored itself last evening by paying 
 tribute to the distinguished services James S. T. Stranahan 
 has .rendered to Brooklyn. Mr. Stranahan has encountered 
 his fair share of criticism and misrepresentation during a 
 more than ordinarily long and busy life, but he has survived 
 it all, and to-day we doubt if there is one citizen of Brooklyn 
 who would not gladly join to do him honor. 
 
 The three great works with which Mr. Stranahan has been 
 identified from the beginning, as he stated in his speech 
 last night, are the Atlantic Docks, Prospect Park and the 
 Bridge. The first of these has had an incalculable influence 
 in fixing Brooklyn's position as one of the great seaports 
 of the world; the second has had scarcely less influence in 
 making Brooklyn attractive as a city of homes; the third 
 has given an unparalleled impetus to our growth and has prac- 
 tically made the two great metropolitan centers one city. 
 It is no small glory to any man to have been conspicuously 
 identified with all of these great enterprises. 
 
 [From the NEW YORK SUN, December 15, 1888.] 
 
 BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK. 
 
 The citizens of Brooklyn have good reason to hold Mr. 
 James S. T. Stranahan in honor, for during more than forty 
 years past he has been the leading spirit in every great pro- 
 ject for the improvement and development of that now vast 
 community. 
 
 When Mr. Stranahan first made his home in Brooklyn, in 
 1845, it was a town of only about 50,000 inhabitants, while 
 the population of New York was nearly ten times as many. 
 At that period, too, it was remarkable for a village-like 
 character, even among places of its own size ; and in all 
 respects it was a mere satellite of the greater town, with 
 comparatively few important industries of its own, and with 
 little public or private enterprise. The inhabited area did not
 
 80 
 
 extend far from the shores of the East River, and the only 
 way of access to it from New York was by ferries with 
 accommodations so indifferent that they retarded the growth 
 of the community. The fine City Hall was in process of 
 erection, but besides it there were no public buildings of 
 consequence, the city being noted only for the number of its 
 churches, all of which were without architectural impor- 
 tance. 
 
 In other words, Brooklyn was a very slow place in 1845, 
 but Mr. Stranahan at once began to infuse into it his own 
 energy, for even then he foresaw that because of its natural 
 advantages it was destined to become a vast community. He 
 first gave his attention to developing the water front by 
 pushing forward the Atlantic Docks to successful completion. 
 He was instrumental in improving the ferry facilities. He 
 conceived and brought about the establishment of the mag- 
 nificent Prospect Park, and he was the most strenuous advo- 
 cate for building the East River Bridge at a time when the 
 project was looked upon as chimerical. There has been no 
 wise enterprise for the development of Brooklyn which this 
 distinguished citizen has not aided and promoted. 
 
 It was therefore fitting that the leading men of the com- 
 munity should unite in giving Mr. Stranahan a Dinner on 
 Thursday evening in recognition of his great services to the 
 town. On that occasion, although he is now over 80 years 
 of age, he spoke with the vigor of youth, and showed that 
 the sagacity for which he has been so remarkable during his 
 long career as the foremost man in Brooklyn is in no wise 
 diminished. 
 
 He has witnessed the growth of Brooklyn from a sleepy 
 town of 50,000 inhabitants to a great city of more than 
 800,000 population, and yet he rightly foresees that its pro- 
 gress has only just begun. To accelerate that progress he is 
 convinced that the consolidation of Brooklyn with New 
 York is necessary, and that it is inevitable. As he said on 
 Thursday night, there is no other reason why the present 
 separation should continue than that it actually exists. The 
 two communities are one in interest, and their common
 
 81 
 
 advantage requires that their municipal policy should be the 
 same. 
 
 Brooklyn* now is as much an integral part of New York 
 as Harlem, and with the multiplication of bridges across the 
 East River, sure to come in the early future, it will be not 
 less closely linked with it. From an economical point of view 
 also, as Mr. Stranahan remarked, the maintenance of two muni- 
 cipal governments where only one is necessary does not exhibit 
 wisdom on the part of the two communities. The cost of 
 administration is increased without any corresponding benefit, 
 but to the actual disadvantage of both, since both would 
 gain by a uniform scheme of development. 
 
 The argument that the greater the community the greater 
 the dangers from municipal government under popular suf- 
 frage is not sustained by the experience of New York. With 
 a population of more than 1,600,000, it is better governed 
 now than when it was half the size, and when Brooklyn 
 adds 800,000 more the improvement is likely to go on. The 
 more important the interests and the more magnificent the pos- 
 sibilities, the greater will be the incentive for men of dis- 
 tinguished administrative ability to take part in municipal 
 affairs. 
 
 The two communities are bound to come together, and may 
 Mr. Stranahan live to see the day of the union. 
 
 [From THE NEW YORK EVENING POST, December 13, 
 
 BROOKLYN'S FIRST CITIZEN. 
 
 COMPLIMENTARY DENNEK BY THE HAMILTON CLUB OVER 
 
 ONE HTJNDKED OF His FELLOW CITIZENS 
 
 TO BE PRESENT. 
 
 A compliment is to be paid this evening to a man who 
 is often called "Brooklyn's First Citizen." He is James S. 
 T. Stranahan, and a Dinner is to be given in his honor by 
 the Hamilton Club in the Club-house, on the Heights. Mr. 
 Stranahan's long and honorable career of more than four- 
 
 6
 
 82 
 
 score years has just l>een crowned by his election as a 
 Presidential Elector for the Empire State, a position he first 
 filled when he aided in the re-election of President Lincoln. 
 For over forty years Mr. Stranahan has been identified 
 with the growth of Brooklyn, and the creation of Prospect 
 Park and the building of the East River Bridge will be 
 indissolubly connected with his name. 
 
 In his long and varied life Mr. Stranahan has followed a 
 variety of pursuits and has always enjoyed high honor ; 
 and now in a serene old age he enjoys the fruits of a labo- 
 rious career, amid the surroundings of competence, in a 
 happy home. A school teacher and civil engineer in his 
 youth in central New York, when only twenty-five years old 
 he founded and built up a flourishing village in Oneida 
 County. When thirty years old he represented it in the 
 State Assemby. Then, after a short residence in Newark, 
 where he promoted railroad interests, he went to Brooklyn 
 in 1845. That city, then ten years old, was just feeling a 
 new impetus after the panic of 1837, which stopped the 
 building of her immense City Hall. Mr. Stranahan saw the 
 commercial possibilities of the barren shores of South Brook- 
 lyn, and projected the great warehouse system there, now 
 known as the Atlantic Docks, which do an immense busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The first public honor Mr. Stranahan received was an elec- 
 tion as Alderman, and in 1850 he was the Whig candidate for 
 Mayor, but was defeated. Four years later, however, he was 
 sent to Congress, where he scored an excellent record. 
 Returning to Brooklyn, he was made one of the Commis- 
 sioners when the Metropolitan Police Board for this city and 
 Brooklyn was organized. When the plan of Prospect Park 
 was projected he took a deep interest in it, and was made 
 President of the Commission from its formation in 1860. 
 He held this position until 1882, and the entire system of 
 Prospect Park by competent authorities declared the finest 
 urban park in the country, with its connecting boulevards 
 and the Coney Island Race Course was largely due to his
 
 83 
 
 fertile brain and guiding hand. Meantime he became deeply 
 interested in the projected bridge linking the two great 
 cities, taking stock in the enterprise, and when it was made 
 a public work taking the position of trustee, which he held 
 a dozen years, and succeeding William C. Kingsley as Presi- 
 dent of the Trustees. For a third of a century he has been 
 identified with the Union Ferry Company, and hardly any 
 public matter in Brooklyn has failed to receive hearty sup- 
 port at his hands. In the war, as a member of the War 
 Fund Committee and in the work of the Sanitary Fair, 
 which raised $500,000, he was active and useful. His wife 
 has just completed an important work upon the history of 
 French painting. 
 
 The invitation which Mr. Stranahan has accepted to dine at 
 the Hamilton Club to-night has been extended by such well- 
 known Brooklynites as Alexander E. Orr, S. B. Chittenden, 
 the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Hall, George M. Olcott, ex- Mayor 
 Seth Low, Gen. Alfred C. Barnes, Isaac H. Cary, Gen. 
 Benjamin F. Tracy, W. B. Kendall, Willis L. Odgen, and 
 Robert B. Woodward. In it they say, "It is the desire of 
 your friends, in a simple and unostentatious manner, to 
 declare their appreciation of what you have been able to 
 accomplish for the welfare of the city in which for so many 
 years you have lived an honored and useful life." 
 
 The number who can be accommodated at the tables in 
 the Hamilton Club's dining-room is 110, and the applications 
 for seats have been so many that the Dinner Committee, 
 composed of Messrs. Kendall, Odgen, Van Wagoner and 
 Turnbull, have had difficulty in accommodating all who 
 desired places. There will be speeches, more or less informal, 
 after the coffee is served, for the guests of the evening, 
 ex-Mayor Low, Dr. Hall, Gen. Tracy, and others. Notwith- 
 standing the fact that he is in his eighty-first year, Mr. 
 Stranahan is in the enjoyment of good health, and he pre- 
 sided at a public meeting in the late campaign.
 
 84 
 
 [From the NEW YORK INDEPENDENT, December 30, 1888.] 
 
 The Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, last week, gave a splen- 
 did reception to the Hon. J. 8. T. Stranahan at a Dinner to 
 which he was invited, as the guest of the Club, in commem- 
 oration of his "honored and useful life " in that city. Mr. 
 Stranahan has been a resident in Brooklyn ever since 1844 ; 
 and during this period has made himself a great social power 
 of good to that city. He is now one of its oldest inhabitants, 
 having just passed his eightieth birthday. He has been in- 
 timately identified with three great public enterprises namely, 
 the Atlantic Docks, Prospect Park and the East River Bridge, 
 all of which have brought vast benefits to the city, and the 
 first two of which are mainly the creations of his brain. It 
 was eminently fitting that such a reception should be 
 extended to him in the evening of his life, when lengthening 
 shadows are pointing so significantly to Us close. Mr. Strana- 
 han in the speech which he made to the Club, gave a brief 
 sketch of the particular enterprises with which he had been 
 specially connected, suggesting at its close the expediency of 
 consolidating New York City and Brooklyn into one muni- 
 cipal corporation. His last words, falling as they did from 
 veteran lips and sobered age, which we here reproduce, de- 
 serve to be read and pondered throughout the world : 
 
 " I have one more thought, gentlemen, which, as I trust, will not 
 be deemed out of place on this occasion. My age forcibly reminds me 
 that, with me, the earthly things of which I have spoken to you must 
 soon give place to things of a different character and a much higher 
 order. It is no secret to you, as it is none to me, that before us lies 
 a yawning gulf upon which we must all at last be launched. Religious 
 faith, with its anchorages and towers resting upon the solid rock of 
 God himself, and that only, can bridge that gulf, and land thought safely 
 on the further shore. Such faith is the common necessity of our race. 
 No elevation of intelligence can supersede it or do its work. There is 
 no registration for man so exalted, or so rich in the privileges and 
 immunities which it secures and guarantees, as the one that places his 
 name in the 'Lamb's Book of Life.' May God grant us all a peaceful 
 and happy transit from this changing scene to the brighter and better 
 world above." 
 
 Mr. Stranahan did honor to himself in paying this appro- 
 priate tribute to religious faith as the final resting-place for 
 the human soul. All experience proves the truth of his words.