THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT WASHINGTON A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK AND MY SUMMER ACRE BEING THE RECREATIONS OF fIDr, ffeliy BY JOHN FLAVEL MINES, LL.D. \\ " Nothing is so really new as that which is old'^ ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1893 Copyright, 1892, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All rights reserved. ' TO MY DEAR SON MASTER FELIX OLDBOY, JR. WHO HAS BEEN THE PLEASANT COMPANION OF THESE ROADSIDE RAMBLES AND DAYS OF SUNSHINE, AND TO WHOM I COMMIT THE PLEASANT TASK OF WRITING UP FORTY YEARS HENCE THE SCENES HIS EYES HAVE WITNESSED IN OUR WALKS THROUGH THE CITY WHICH WE BOTH HAVE LEARNED TO LOVE THIS VOLUME Is DcDicateO 282718 PREFATORY NOTE THE sketches gathered in this volume were written by the late Colonel John F. Mines for newspaper publication, and appeared, first, the "Tour," in the New York Evening Post, and afterwards the " Summer Acre," in the New York Com- mercial Advertiser. From their beginning they had singular good-fortune in engaging public attention and exciting in- terest, and many requests for preservation of them in per- manent form were received by their author and his editors. After the death of Colonel Mines the sketches were found among papers in possession of his family, and are here presented in the order of arrangement which he had in- dicated. The text remains after revision substantially as it was written ; a few passages have been transferred to new relations for the sake of congruity, a few have been reduced to foot-notes ; duplications have been avoided, and some al- lusions to mere news of the day have been removed. The passage on Governor Morgan Lewis, in Chapfer XX., is taken, by kind permission of the Rev. Dr. Dix, from a paper by Colonel Mines in a late number of the Trinity Record. Editorial notes are marked by the letter " L." The work has been enriched by many pictures of scenes referred to by the author, and further illustrations not directly called for by his text have been introduced, that the volume may be made Viii PREFATORY NOTE more complete pictorially ; all of them, it is believed, will be welcome to New Yorkers who find pleasure and pride in the history of their city. The reader of these ingenious and instructive papers may find it useful to identify the time of their production as in the years 1886-90 inclusive. JAMES E. LEARNED. NEW YORK, September, 1892. CONTENTS AROUND NEW YORK CHAPTER I Suggestions from an Anniversary Celebration New York near Half a Century Ago A Reminiscence of the Days when Trinity Church was New Preachers and Laymen of a Past Generation . . . Page i CHAPTER II An Obliterated Park Some Old Churches Departed Glories of Varick and Laight Streets Mr. Greenough's School Riley's Museum Ho. tel The " Troop A" of the " Forties" 10 CHAPTER III Columbia College as It Was A Commencement Forty Years Ago Riots that Cost Life Landmarks of Chelsea An Ecclesiastical Romance 23 CHAPTER IV To Albany by Sloop An Incident of Steamboat Competition The Romance of a Convict Genesis of Fashionable Parks The " Pro- fessorship of New York " 34 CHAPTER V Echoes of the Streets Merchants of a Past Generation Solid Men who Enjoyed Life Museum Days The Old Auctioneers The Heroes of Commerce 43 CHAPTER VI Broadway in Simpler Days Among the Old-time Theatres May Meet- ings at the Tabernacle The First Sewing-machineBroadway Gar- dens and Churches A Night with Christy's Minstrels The Ravels at Niblo's . 55 X CONTENTS CHAPTER VII The Poetry of Every-day Life A Protest Against the Goth My Grand- mother's Home An Era Without Luxuries Stately Manners of the Past Page 73 CHAPTER VIII Ecclesiastical Raids by Night Bowery Village Methodists Charlotte Temple's Home A Book-store of Lang Syne Old Lafayette Place The Tragedy of Charlotte Canda A Reminder of Tweed . 86 CHAPTER IX Eccentricities of Memory Queer Street Characters The Only Son of a King Idioms of a Past Generation Old Volunteer Firemen A Forgotten Statesman 98 CHAPTER X Christmas in the Older Days A Flirtation Under the Mistletoe Six- penny Sleigh-rides Literature of Our Boyhood Santa Claus in Our Grandmothers' Homes Decorating the Churches ill CHAPTER XI A Metropolis of Strangers Some Old Mansion-houses on the East Side Characteristics of Bowery Life Bull's Head and the Amphitheatre The Stuyvesant Pear-tree A Haunted House 124 CHAPTER XII Our City Burial-plots Illustrious Dust and Ashes A Woman's Fifty Years of Waiting Three Hebrew Cemeteries The Burking Epi- sodeSlaves of the Olden Time 135 CHAPTER XIII Echoes of Sweet Singers Old Theatres on Broadway An Accidental Thoroughfare Evolution of Union Square A Street that was Not Opened History of a Church Bell 14? CHAPTER XIV Summer Breezes at the Battery A Soldier of the Last Century Knick- erbockers and their Homes An Old-time Stroll up Broadway . 161 CONTENTS Xi CHAPTER XV Life at Eighty-seven Years Memories of Robert Fulton What the First Steamboat Looked Like Sunday in Greenwich Village A Primitive Congregation Flirting in the Galleries . . . Page 175 CHAPTER XVI On the East Side The Old Shipping Merchants Jacob Leisler A Paradise of Churches The Dominie's Garden Moral and Religious Sanity of Old New York , 184 CHAPTER XVII When Harlem was a Village Fishing for flounders The Canal Mania An Ancient Toll-bridge Twenty Years After Mott's Canal and His Haven 201 CHAPTER XVIII The First Brass Band " The Light Guard Quickstep " General Train- ing-day A Falstaffian Army Militiamen in their Glory Our Crack Corps 213 CHAPTER XIX Colonial Footprints Haunts of Washington and Howe- Country-seat of Alexander Hamilton East Side Journeyings Old Days in York- ville and Harlem The Beekman Mansion 225 CHAPTER XX A Civic Pantheon First Blood of the Revolution Merchants who were Statesmen The Disinherited Daughter In an Old Tavern . 242 CHAPTER XXI Teakettles as Modes of Motion Two Leaves from an Old Merchant's Itinerary Quaker Nooks and Covenanters' Haunts City Farm- houses Up Breakneck Hill Harlem Lane in Its Glory Summer Attractions of Manhattan Streets 259 CHAPTER XXII The Ancient Mill at Kingsbridge Marching with Washington A Pa- troon in the Hay-field Ghosts of Old Houses The Stryker and Xll CONTENTS Hopper Mansions Richmond Hill The Warren and Spencer Homesteads Ancient Earthworks Page 272 CHAPTER XXIII Politicians of the Olden Time Samuel Swartwout's Strange Career Thurlow Weed and Horatio Seymour Statesmen of the New School Harmony in Old Tammany Hall 287 CHAPTER XXIV Public Opinion Opposed to Banks Birth and Growth of the System The Yellow-fever Terror Personal Reminiscences Origin of Some New York Banks Circumventing the Legislature Wild-cat Banking 297 CHAPTER XXV Pudding Rock An Ancient School-house A Temperance Hamlet gone Wrong Landmarks and Memories of the New Parks Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay The Unknown Land of the Bronx Rural Scenes in a City's Boundaries 309 CHAPTER XXVI Manhattan Island Some Ancient Homesteads Work of the Wood- man's Axe A Mystery of Dress and Architecture Block-houses and Earthworks A Sacred Grove 322 CHAPTER XXVII An Unexplored Region Traces of Cowboys and Hessians Lords of the Manor Through a Glass Darkly Old Homes and Haunts . . 336 CONTENTS Xiii MY SUMMER ACRE CHAPTER I Felix Oldboy's Hot Weather Home On the East River, Facing Hell Gate A Stately Mansion of Seventy-five Years Ago Solitude in the City Page 349 CHAPTER II The Dark Phantom which Dogged a Postman's Feet A Garden Calen- dar Notes of the Farm Acre 358 CHAPTER III The New World Venice Panorama of East River Islands A Lovely Water Journey An Old-time Sheriff in his Home .... 365 CHAPTER IV Happiness in a Canal-boat Pulpit Criticisms The Story of Ward's Island In the Days of the Redcoats 373 CHAPTER V Manhattan Birds and Fishes Feathered Denizens of Hell Gate Pri- meval Haunts on the City's Islands A Matter of Piscatorial Con- science 381 CHAPTER VI The Battle Story of the East River Monuments of Revolutionary Days A Defeat at Randall's Island The Patriotism that Clustered about Hell Gate Catching a Snook 390 CHAPTER VII Panorama of Ancient East River Homes A Low Dutch Farm-house At Turtle Bay Farm The Grove in the Woods Old Graves at the Water-side 403 CHAPTER VIII The Hell Gate Colony Glimpses of East River Homes St. James's Church The Astor Country-house Where Irving wrote "Astoria" The Home of Archibald Gracie New York and its Visitors 420 XIV CONTENTS CHAPTER IX Unsolved Problems of Life The Old Post -road and its Hell Gate Branches Homes of Merchant Princes Manhattan's Biggest Tree Page 435 CHAPTER X A Glance at Harlem The Lesson of the Woodpecker A Great Mill- pond that has Disappeared The Otter Track and Benson's Creek Grist-mills on Third Avenue Old Dutch Homes and Names . 447 CHAPTER XI Rambles Around Harlem In My School-boy Days Early Settlers and Their Homes An Interior View The Stage-coach Era A Village Alderman of the Olden Time 459 CHAPTER XII Indian Raids and Massacres A Roll of Honor The Old Dutch Church St. Andrew's Parish Days of Pestilence and Death . 477 CHAPTER XIII Wrestling with Harlem Genealogies Changes in Old Dutch Names The Village Patentees and Their Descendants Governor Nicolls Changes the Name to Lancaster The Ancient Ferry-man and His Fees 495 CHAPTER XIV Criticised by a Crow Farewells to the Old House by the River Con- vinced that One Acre is Enough An Old-time Harlem Letter Our Family Dinner The Last Night of ' ' My Summer Acre " . . 508 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Inauguration of President Washington Frontispiece Trinity Church 3 Trinity Church (second edifice) 5 St. John's Chapel and Park 13 The French Church in Pine Street 15 Riley's Fifth Ward Hotel 18 Statue of the Earl of Chatham 19 Fort foot of Hubert Street 20 The Jersey Prison Ship 22 The General Theological Seminary 23 Columbia College in 1850 25 The Moore House 32 Old Fire Bucket - . 33 King's Bridge 35 Map of New York, 1782 37 The State Prison 39 The Kennedy, Watts, Livingston, and Stevens Houses .... 45 View in New York, 1769 48 The Jail (now the Hall of Records) 51 Seal of New York City 54 St. Paul's Chapel 58 The Burning of Barnum's Museum 6r Washington Hall 63 The Residence of Philip Hone, Broadway near Park Place ... 67 Lispenard Meadows 72 The Federal Hall in Wall Street 74 City Hall Park, 1822 81 St. George's Church, Beekman Street 89 Grave of Charlotte Temple 92 Grave of Alexander Hamilton 94 The Fire of 1835 99 "The Race" 107 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Illumination in New York on the Occasion of the Inaugura- tion of President Washington 119 Copper Crown from Cupola of King's College 123 The Walton House in Later Years 125 Doorway in the Hall of the Walton House 127 An Old Goose-neck Engine 129 The Stuyvesant Pear-tree 134 Coenties Slip in the Dutch Times 136 Tomb of Albert Gallatin 138 Tomb of Captain Lawrence 140 Grave of George Frederick Cooke . . 142 \Vebb's Congress Hall, 142 Broadway 149 Masonic Hall 152 The Middle Dutch Church 160 The Fort at the Battery 163 The Old McComb Mansion 165 Trinity Church (first edifice) 168 Ruins of Trinity Church ..... 170 City Hotel, Broadway, 1812 172 Monument to General Montgomery 173 Sir Peter Warren's House, Greenwich Village 177 The Clermont 179 In Broad Street 185 No. 2 Broadway, 1798 188 Fraunce's Tavern, Broad and Pearl Streets 190 The Stadt Huys 191 North Dutch Church, Fulton Street 193 Presbyterian Church, Wall Street 194 Methodist Church, John Street 195 Lutheran Church, William and Frankfort Streets 196 The BricH Church, Park Row 197 View of New York from the North-east 202 View of New York from the South-west 203 Mill Rock Fort 207 Shakespeare Tavern 214 View of New York Bay from the Battery, 1822 221 Apthorpe Mansion, Bloomingdale 226 The Jumel Mansion 230 The Hamilton House 233 The Gates Weeping Willow, Twenty-second St. and Third Ave. . 235 1! ILLUSTRATIONS xvii PAGE Van der Heuvel (afterwards " Burnham's " House) 237 Fort Clinton, at McGowan's Pass 239 The Beekman House 240 Fire in Olden Times, from a Fireman's Certificate 241 Fort George, from the Water Front of the Present Battery . . . 243 Plan of Fort George, Battery 245 The Royal Exchange, Broad Street 247 A Plan of the City of New York, from an Actual Survey, 1728 . 248 Foot of Wall Street and Ferry-house, 1629 252 Foot of Wall Street and Ferry-house, 1746 253 The Sugar-house, Liberty Street 255 Sugar-house in Liberty Street 258 Pearl Street House and Ohio Hotel 261 The Independent Battery, Bunker Hill 271 Phillipse Manor-house f 273 Washington House, foot of Broadway 276 The Stryker Homestead 278 Richmond Hill .... 280 Map of the Fortifications around New York, 1814 283 Tammany Hall, 1811 293 Tammany Hall in Later Times 295 Old Walton House in 1776 299 Tontine Coffee-house 301 Manhattan Water-works, Chambers Street 303 Van Cortlandt's Sugar-house 308 Van Cortlandt Manor-house 317 Distant View of the Palisades from Van Cortlandt Park . . . .319 Petersfield, Residence of Petrus Stuyvesant ........ 323 Claremont 327 House of Nicholas William Stuyvesant 331 Block-house Overlooking Harlem River, 1860 332 Flag-staff, Fort Washington 334 Plan of Fort Washington 335 Confluence of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Hudson 337 The Lane in Van Cortlandt Park 341 Van Cortlandt Manor-house 343 New York from Brooklyn Heights, 1822 353 An Old-time Fire-cap 357 Dutch Houses , 363 Pulpit, St. Paul's 375 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Mill Rock 377 Reservoir 385 Kip's House 393 Plan of New York Island and Part of Long Island, showing the po- sition of the American and British Armies, August 27th, 1776 . 395 Turtle Bay 396 Old Storehouse at Turtle Bay 397 Tower at Hallett's Point 397 Fort Stevens and Mill Rock 398 Fort Clinton and Harlem Creek 399 Fort Fish 401 Mechanics' Bell-tower 405 The Walter Franklin House 407 Jacob Harsen House 408 Jacob Arden House 411 The Beekman Greenhouse 414 Colonel Smith's House 415 Richard Riker's House 422 Atlantic Garden, No. 9 Broadway 427 The Gracie House 432 Hell Gate Ferry 437 Monument to Thomas Addis Emmet 441 I and 3 Broadway in 1828 443 A Dutch House 446 View from Mount Morris 451 Courtney's (Claremont) from Harlem Tower 455 Head over Window of the Walton House 458 The Rotunda, City Hall Park 461 McGowan's Pass in 1860 468 Works at McGowan's Pass, War of 1812 470 Bull's Head Tavern, on the Site of the Bowery Theatre .... 472 Rose Street Sugar-house 473 The Old Federal Hall before Alteration 481 King's College 485 The Federal Hall on Wall Street 491 An Old Advertisement 494 The Exchange, foot of Broad Street 499 Old Bridge and Dock at the Whitehall Slip 5<>5 Broad Street and Exchange Place, about 1680 513 Tomb of William Bradford, Trinity Church-yard 518 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK CHAPTER I SUGGESTIONS FROM AN ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION NEW YORK NEAR HALF A CENTURY AGO A REMINISCENCE OF THE DAYS WHEN TRINITY CHURCH WAS NEW PREACHERS AND LAYMEN OF A PAST GENERATION I AM not a very old boy, but already the events of years gone begin to stand out with a vividness which does not belong to these later days, and I find myself more than eager to recall them. In passing Trinity Church on a soft June morning of 1886, 1 found the services of Ascension Day in prog- ress, and this brought back the recollection of the part I had taken in the consecration services that were held there forty years ago that day. I was then one of the foundation scholars of Trinity School. This amply endowed academy held its sessions in a large building on Varick Street, near Canal, and numbered 150 pu- pils. Its rector was the Rev. William Morris, LL.D., a stalwart graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and a rigid disciplinarian. Solomon's rod in his hands meant something. On that eventful day he marshalled his pupils in the school, and then, placing himself at the 2 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK head in Oxford cap and resplendent silk gown, marched them down Broadway to the Globe Hotel, where the procession was formed. The boys led the van in the stately march to the church. Then followed theological students, vestry- men, and a long line of clergymen, ending with the Bishop of the diocese, Dr. Benjamin T. Onderdonk. At the chancel rail we stopped, opened ranks, and the rest of the procession passed up the broad centre aisle between our lines, reciting the grand psalm of conse- cration, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates!" Of the long service that followed I remember only the read- ing of the first lesson by Dr. Morris the consecration prayer of Solomon's Temple and at this lapse of time I can still hear his sonorous voice repeating its magnificent petitions. Dr. Hodges presided at the organ, and he had prepared for the occasion an ap- parently interminable " Te Deum," which I had the pleasure of learning when I became a member of the choir. The consecration of Trinity Church was a great event in New York, and gave rise to no end of discus- sion. It had been darkly whispered in private circles that some of the parish clergy intended to " turn their backs upon the people," as they all do now, and the public were ready to protest against the innovation. Up to that time the chancel arrangements that existed in St. John's Chapel, where I usually attended church, had been the prevailing ecclesiastical fashion. A cir- cular chancel rail surrounded a wooden structure com- posed of a reading-desk below and pulpit above, and with a little square white wooden altar in front of the desk in which prayers were read. Into this desk each TRINITY CHURCH afternoon two clergymen, one arrayed in a surplice and the other in a black silk gown, would shut them- selves, carefully closing the door, apparently from the fear that one of them might fall asleep and tumble out. At the proper time the black -robed minister would go out and reappear in the pulpit, while his companion apparently enjoyed a nap. But in the 4 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK new Trinity Church only the altar was to stand within the railing. The pulpit was to be outside and oppo- site to the prayer- desk. This was a change, indeed. But when it was understood that a brazen eagle was to support the Bible from which the lessons of the day were to be read, criticism took up the cudgels and went to work. Bishops and sectarian preachers, lay- men and professors, sought the columns of the news- papers to vent their opinions, and the liveliest kind of a controversy was waged for a while. It ended in a laugh, when a bogus letter from Bishop Chase of Illi- nois was published, in which he was made to say that he knew nothing of the merits of that particular eagle, but if they would fill his pockets with good golden American eagles for the benefit of Jubilee College, he would be content to drop all controversy. As the son of a clergyman it was my good- fortune to know all the eminent clergymen of that day at least, to know them as an observant boy does. Our family were ardent supporters of Bishop Onderdonk through all his troubles: he had a patriarchal way with us children which seemed to leave a benediction be- hind him. Dr. Berrian, rector of Trinity Parish, was personally all kindness, but I thought him the poorest preacher I was compelled to hear. It was said of the good old man that when a country clergyman, half starved on a salary of $500, came to him and asked his influence to get him another charge, he remarked, " I do not see why you young clergymen want to change so often. Why, I have been in Trinity Church forty years, and never have thought of leaving." A poor preacher, he was a fine executive officer. His assistants were courtly Dr. Wainwright, who had the A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 5 famous newspaper con- troversy with Presby- terian Dr. Potts on the text, "A Church with- out a bishop, a State without a king;" Dr. Higbee, an eloquent Southerner, scholarly Dr.Ogilby,and Dr. Ho- bart, son of a former bishop of New York. Dr. Higbee was the favorite in the pulpit, TRINITY CHURCH [The second edifice, erected in 1788] and divided his preaching laurels with Dr. Tyng, who had recently come to old St. George's, in Beekman Street, to succeed Dr. Milnor, and Dr. Whitehouse of St. Thomas, afterwards called to be Bishop of Illinois. 6 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK These clergymen were all present at the consecra- tion of Trinity Church ; and there were many other famous divines there also, including Dr. Thomas House Taylor, rector of the new Grace Church, at the head of Broadway; Dr. Lyell, rector of Christ Church, in Anthony (now Worth) Street ; Dr. Haight, the able theologian who presided over All Saints', in Henry Street, and who subsequently declined the mitre of Massachusetts ; Dr. Creighton, of Tarrytown,who might have succeeded Bishop Onderdonk, had he so desired ; Drs. Potter, Vinton, Cutler, Duffie, etc. Chief among the bishops who were present was Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, who looked every inch the prelate in his robes, and who, in my judgment, was the finest orator in the Church. Speaking of pulpit orators recalls an anecdote which I caught as a boy from the lips of confidential clerical critics. At one time Drs. Onderdonk, Wainwright, and Schroeder were the three chief preachers in Trin- ity Parish, and a witty layman undertook to give the style of the dogmatic Onderdonk, flowery Schroeder, and courtly Wainwright, as exemplified in brief ser- mons on the text " Two beans and two beans make four beans," somewhat as follows : Dr. Onderdonk loquitur: " The Church in her wisdom has decreed that if two beans be added unto two beans, the prod- uct shall be four beans; and if any self-sufficient mor- tal shall presume to question this conclusion of the law and the prophets, together with the canons, let him be anathema." Dr. Schroeder, after enunciating his text, was supposed to wake at sunrise, wander into the dewy fields, and pluck one pearly bean after an- other, and finally go into ecstasies over the quartet of A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 7 shining beauties which he held in his hand. But the point of the satire was reached in Dr. Wainwright's case, who was made to say : " It has generally been conceded, and nowhere that I know of denied, that if two beans be added unto two beans, their product shall be four beans. But if there be in this intelligent and enlightened audience any who may venture to have conscientious doubts upon the subject, far be it from me, my brethren, to interfere with such a per- son's honest convictions." Dr. Wainwright was a cold, didactic preacher in his parish pulpit, but when elected bishop he astonished everybody by warming up into an earnest evangelist, and he died universally regretted. Bishop Onderdonk passed away under a cloud which had hung over him for many years, and whose gloom was never dissipated. At one time Dr. Schroeder was the favorite preacher of the city, and it was said of him that if you wanted to know where Schroeder preached on a Sunday, you had only to follow the crowd. But his fame was eva- nescent, and when he resigned in a pet he was aston- ished to find that his resignation was accepted by the vestry of Trinity, and was still more astonished to find himself a failure when he attempted to set up a church of his own. The building he reared faces Lafayette Place on Eighth Street ; afterwards it was for some time occupied by St. Ann's (Roman Catholic) con- gregation, and has recently proved a failure as a theatre. Forty years ago the vestrymen of Trinity Parish were a famous race of men. Philip Hone, the most courtly Mayor that New York ever had, was one of them. Major-general Dix, Cyrus Curtiss, John J. 8 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK Cisco, Major Jonathan Lawrence, of the Revolutionary Army, and other men of note were of the number. Our seat in St. John's Chapel was two pews behind General Dix, and I used to see the present rector of Trinity Parish there a slender, spectacled youth of severely studious aspect, whom I never remember to have seen smiling except when a strange minister in the reading-desk fell sound asleep and failed to be awakened by the retiring congregation. The families of Gen. Alexander Hamilton and Gen. Philip Schuyler were also attendants, as well as those of Dr. Hun- ter, General Morton, Philip Lydig, Dr. Green, Rob- ert Hyslop, Oscar Smedberg, Lewis Delafield, and Elias G. Drake. They have beautified the chancel end of St. John's Chapel since those days, but they have not improved much on the contents of the pews. The ecclesiastical chronicle of Trinity Church in 1846 would be incomplete without mention of David Lyon, the stalwart sexton, whose robust presence was a standing terror to the small but mischievous boys of the choir. David was an institution. Proud of the church building committed to his care, he grudged the hours he was compelled to spend away from it. His management of the consecration procession was a miracle of unostentatious energy. The clergy always treated him as a friend, and he deserved their confi- dence. In after-years I gratified a laudable ambition by bestowing half a dollar on David for permitting me with a friend to mount up the steeple. The New York of forty years ago was a different community from what it is now. When Dr. James Milnor, rector of St. George's, in Beekman Street, died. A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 9 the city newspapers turned their column rules and went into mourning. The dead preacher had resigned his seat in Congress to enter the ministry. The Cou- rier and Enquirer published the controversial letters between Dr. Potts and Dr. Wainwright, and made a great sensation out of it. The reason for this neigh- borly state of affairs was that the city had then devel- oped only the rudiments of its present glory. People of wealth still clustered about the Battery and Bowl- ing Green, or built solid up-town homes of brick on Bond, Bleecker, and Great Jones streets, or facing Washington Square. The rector of Trinity kept open house with his wife and three handsome daughters at No. 50 Varick Street, opposite St. John's Park, which was then the most aristocratic quarter of the city. Dr. Wainwright lived in Hubert Street and Dr. Hig- bee in Chambers Street. The residence of Bishop Onderdonk was in Franklin Street, between Church Street and West Broadway. Trinity, St. Paul's, and St. John's had large and fashionable congregations, who lived within walking distance of the churches, and the Battery had a highly select circle of fre- quenters, and was the starting-point of many a love- match among Knickerbocker circles. Fourteenth Street was far up-town. The site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel was vacant lots roughly fenced in with boards. Stages crept along leisurely every hour to the pleasant rural hamlets of Yorkville, Harlem, Bloomingdale, and Manhattanville ; and, strange as it may seem, honesty was so much the rule that people who rode in Kipp and Brown's stages were allowed to pay their fare at the end of the ride, instead of being compelled to stand and deliver at the start, IO A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK CHAPTER II AN OBLITERATED PARK SOME OLD CHURCHES DEPARTED GLORIES OF VARICK AND LAIGHT STREETS MR. GREENOUGH's SCHOOL RILEY'S MUSEUM HOTEL THE "TROOP A" OF THE "FORTIES" AT the time when the present century was born a wide sandy beach extended from the foot of Duane Street to the mouth of the estuary by which the brook that ran from the Collect Pond, at the present site of the Tombs, through Canal Street, issued to the Hud- son River. The adjacent land, sandy for the most part and barren, was laid out in streets and dotted here and there with the comfortable homes of solid burghers. The infant city had just recovered from the untoward effects of its long occupation by the British troops and the removal of the seat of Government, and, mindful of this progress, Trinity Church began, about ninety years ago, the erection of the handsome and commodi- ous church known as St. John's Chapel, located on Varick Street so named after one of the early Mayors, who was also an officer in the Revolutionary Army. The chapel was so large and situated so far up-town that the neighbors all wondered when the time would come that a congregation would be found to fill its pews. In front of the chapel a wide beach of sand, unshaded by a tree, stretched down to the river. In order to attract settlers to the neighborhood, the vestry of Trinity Parish, to which most of the adjacent land be- A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK II longed, determined to lay out a large square directly in front of the chapel as a private park, for the benefit of those who should build homes fronting upon it. Trees were planted, broad gravelled walks laid out, flower-beds and vases of shrubbery set at intervals, a greensward was cultivated, and the wilderness was made to blossom as the rose. Thus was St. John's Park born. It was a thing of beauty in its day. " Old Cisco," who had been a slave in the family of that name, was made its keeper, and warned to keep a sharp eye upon the boys of the period. The park became a paradise for birds ; robins and wrens and bluebirds abounded, and the Baltimore oriole hung its nest on the branches of the sycamores. The loveliness of St. John's Park soon attracted many of the best citizens of the young metropolis to its vicinity. They reared substantial houses of brick, plain on the outside, but luxuriously furnished within, and in the gardens they built cisterns and sank wells. The city had no water-works, but at every convenient corner they dug and found water, and erected wooden pumps. There was wealth enough on the square to pay for all these improvements, and most of the names of the householders had been known in colonial days. The families of Alexander Hamilton, General Schuyler, and General Morton were among them, as were also the Aymars, Drakes, Lydigs, Coits, Lords, Delafields. Randolphs, and Hunters. They owned their houses, and had their own keys to the massive gates of the park, from which all outsiders were rigorously excluded. The neighborhood formed an exclusive coterie, into which parvenu wealth could find no passport of ad- mission. 12 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK There was no trouble now to gather a congregation that filled St. John's Chapel. Indeed, there arose a demand for other churches in the neighborhood. The Presbyterians erected a house of worship on Laight Street, at the corner of Varick, facing the park, and here for for a number of years the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox ministered. He was the inveterate foe of slavery, and when the abolition troubles began and developed into riots that threatened life and proper- ty, the congregation took alarm, Dr. Cox resigned his charge, and they called as their pastor the Rev. Flavel S. Mines, a Virginian, who a few years subsequently became an Episcopal clergyman, and was followed into the church by so many of his congregation as practically to end its existence. Both of Dr. Cox's sons became Episcopal clergymen also, and one of them is now Bishop of Buffalo. Roe Lockwood, the publisher, Henry A. Coit, Daniel Lord, and Mr. Ay- rnar, the great shipping merchant, were elders and pillars of the flock ; but the one of all others whom the children loved most was " Grandma " Bethune, mother of the distinguished divine of that name. In the closing years of her life she used to gather a class of forty or fifty children at her home every Sunday, and we were all eager to go and sit at the feet of the dear old lady. The late Charles F. Briggs, well known in journalism years ago, and the " Harry Franco >v of the past genera- tion of novelists, used to attend Laight Street Church very often, and in the congregation were a bevy of his pretty cousins, daughters of a famous ship-owner of that day one of the Marshalls. It was long before the dawn of aesthetic taste ; art was looked upon in A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 15 solid commercial circles as the luxury of idle hours, and the profession of artist as a mere excuse for lazi- ness. No merchant would have dreamed of allowing his daughter to marry " a painter." Yet a young art- ist had dared to avow his love to the prettiest of the above-named bevy of young girls, and she had boldly ventured to say that she loved him in return and in- tended to marry him. Society was shocked. It mat- tered not that the young man had talent (and, indeed, eventually he made a name for himself that all de- lighted to honor) ; society drew the line at artists, and did not recognize them as eligible. One day, as Mr. Briggs entered the house, the entire chorus of its women threw themselves upon him and begged him to remonstrate with Emily and save the family honor. " The family honor," said Briggs, with the gruffness he assumed on such occasions, and that was only relieved by a telltale twinkle of the eye ; " what has Emily been doing now?" " Doing !" shrieked the chorus, u she's going to disgrace us all by marrying an artist." " Pooh !" came the quick reply, '* he isn't enough of an artist to 1 ., ,1 f J '. M'Hit frKKNLH CHUKC make it anything of a disgrace. ' STREET The women folk were indignant at his apparent indifference, but when the sibylline utterance of Briggs was carried to the father, he was so amused by it that he withdrew his opposition to the marriage. Other churches were scattered about in the vicinity of the park. There were Methodist houses of worship in Duane and Vestry Streets; a Dutch Reformed THE FRENCH CHURCH IN PINE 16 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK church in Franklin Street; a Presbyterian church in Canal Street, and the portly white marble edifice of the old Huguenot Congregation that had emigrated from Pine Street to the corner of Church and Frank- lin, and had united its destinies with the Episcopalians. These churches have either disappeared or have fol- lowed the exodus of the church-going population up- town. They were practically put hors de combat when St. John's Park was obliterated from the city map. It was a cruel act. In my eyes it seemed an outrage wholly unjustifiable. The only public execution I ever witnessed was the slaying of those great trees under which my sisters and I had played, and I would as soon have seen so many men beheaded. A fatal fascination drew me to the spot. I did not want to go, but could not help going out of my way to pass it by. The axes were busy with the hearts of the giants I had loved, and the iron-handed carts went crashing over the flower-beds, leaving a trail of death. The trees lay prone over the ploughed gravel-walks, and a few little birds were screaming over their tops, bewail- ing the destruction of their nests. It was horrible. As I looked upon the scene I knew how people must feel when an army passed over their homes, leaving desolation in its wake. It boots not to ask who was at fault for blotting out this oasis. There are some who do not want to know, because they do not want to withhold forgiveness from the barbarians. If the pretty little garden, fragrant with so many memories of old loves and domestic joys, had given place to a block of homes, it would not have been so bad ; but to rear in its place a coarse pile of bricks for use as a freight depot, to make it a centre of ceaseless noise A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK I/ and riot, was to create in an earthly paradise the abomination of desolation. Many years ago, previous to the outbreak of the war with Mexico, Jeremiah J. Greenough had a small select school at 82 Franklin Street, and when a very small boy I attended it. Among the pupils were Col. H. S. Olcott, the American apostle of Buddhism; George De Forest Lord, Bowie Dash, and Dr. George Suckley, who was chief surgeon of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's army corps. Mr. Greenough wielded the ruler and rattan with considerable force and persistency, but he was more than rivalled by Dr. Morris, of Trinity School, and Mr. William Forrest, who had a large acad- emy for boys on Franklin Street, west of Church. It was always a point of dispute between the pupils of these latter institutions as to whether " Billy " Forrest or " old Morris" could whip the most boys in a day. There are those who still lament the disappearance of the good old race of school-masters. Who knew them in the flesh fail to join in the lamentation. On our way to and from Mr. Greenough's modest temple of literature we used to pass a structure that had far more interest for us than the halls of Congress, or of the Montezumas either. It occupied the west corner of West Broadway and Franklin Street, and was widely known to fame as Riley's Fifth Ward Museum Hotel. Its interior was the prototype of the modern bric-a-brac " saloon," with its paintings from the Paris Salon, except that there was nothing on the walls or in the glass cases which stood on all sides of the main room, which was reached by an ample flight of stairs and were always open to inspection, that a child might not look at and inquire about. That was i8 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK a wonderful room indeed. It held original portraits of great statesmen and warriors, and displayed their swords and portions of their uniforms. Among its RILEY S FIFTH WARD HOTEL curiosities were a two-headed calf eloquently stuffed, the pig that butted a man off the bridge, one of the Hawaiian clubs that dashed out the brains of Captain Cook, Tecumseh's rifle, a pipe that General Jackson had smoked, and a large number of genuine relics of A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK STATUE OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM the colonial days of New York. Riley was a connoisseur in relics, and had good reason to congratu- late himself on his collection. He liked to have appreciative visitors, and his hotel was a model of re- spectability. Outside of the basement door on Franklin Street, surrounded by a little iron railing through which some grasses struggled feebly for existence, stood a relic of the past which I could never bear to pass without reading the inscription on it once again. It had once been a marble statue of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, placed by the grateful people of New York on the steps of the Royal Exchange ten years before the war for independence broke out, and dashed down and mutilated by the British soldiery in revenge for the destruction of the statue of King George on the Bowling Green. The head and one arm of the statue were broken off at the time, and the torso was wheeled away to the corpora- tion yard, where it lay for a quarter of a century among the rubbish, until Mr. Riley disentombed it. After his death the Historical Society got hold of the statue, and retain it in their collection. It was an un- fortunate coincidence for the Earl of Chatham that he incurred the enmity of the British soldiers in New York in 1776 and of the New York Aldermen of 1886. The latter signalized their displeasure by exchanging the name Chatham Street, which had an historical 20 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK and patriotic meaning, for Park Row, which is a mis- nomer in its application to a street lying entirely be- yond the City Hall Park. But in these busy days of railroad franchises, it is too much to expect that an alderman would devote any of his time to the study of history. In the early part of the century a round brick fort, fashioned after the style of Fort Lafayette, was erected at the foot of Hubert Street, out in the river, and it stood there during the war of 1812 and for some years afterwards as an alleged tower of defence against for- eign foes. No enemy's foot, however, has pressed the banks of the Hudson for a century, and this fort and a similar one that once stood at the foot of Ganse- voort Street gave way before the rapid march of commerce. The iJ-P. 1 -* lat ter was a des - olate rum forty years ago, and FORT FOOT OF HUBERT STREET ^ school . boys of the Fifth Ward used to make Saturday pilgrimages there and play fa- mous games of the period among its ruins. " How many miles to Babylon ?" was the last cry heard there before its walls were torn down and carted away. But there was another demonstration in the way of war which the boys always delighted to witness, of which St. John's Park was a favorite centre. On training days the citizen soldiery made their appear- A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 21 ance in their Sunday clothes, clustering gloomily around the official who drilled them with a small bam- boo cane, and swore furiously when they marched, as they usually did, all out of shape. They were an un- tiring source of amusement to. the street urchins, who guyed them unmercifully. But the militia of whom, as quaint John Phoenix remarked, it might be truly said that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these excited unbounded and genuine admira- tion, whether attired in the uniform of Austria, France, or Italy. The Highlanders, whom old Captain Man- son, a hero of the late war, commanded, generally car- ried most of the boys in their train. The plaids and plumes took the eye, and the great shaggy hats carried an impression of terror with them that made every man look every inch a soldier. Yet of all the militia- men of that time, "Dandy" Marx's hussars most pleased my boyish eye. Young Marx Henry Carroll was the Beau Brummel of his generation, and his sisters set the fashions to the ladies. They were an impressive sight as they walked down Broadway from their up-town house on that thoroughfare, near Prince Street, in the afternoons the handsome and elegantly attired sisters leading their greyhounds by a blue rib- bon, and escorted by their equally handsome brother in a costume that was always faultless. The sisters were devoted to their brother, and none of the three ever married. Harry died years ago, and was buried in Greenwood. The sisters lived many years, and be- came religious devotees in their old age, bequeathing their money in each case to a clergyman and a law- suit. When the brother started his company of hus- sars all the gilded youth of the city were eager to be 22 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK enrolled, and an enormous amount of wealth was cov- ered by their brilliant jackets. They were a dashing squad, but grew tired of the sport after a while and disbanded. " Troop A" will find it difficult to outshine u Dandy " Marx's men. At the foot of Canal Street a little brook from the Lispenard meadows joined the larger tributary from the Collect Pond. A short distance above, at the foot of Houston Street, once stretched a great swamp, through which the Minetta brook (which has given its name to a street, a " lane," and a " place ") made a tiny thread of silver. The Minetta was a famous stream for trout. The fishermen angling patiently for impos- sible bass at the ends of our wharves would hardly be- lieve the fact, but it is perfectly credible. The brooks and ponds of the Island of Manhattan were always famous for their fish. THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK CHAPTER III COLUMBIA COLLEGE AS IT WAS A COMMENCEMENT FORTY YEARS AGO RIOTS THAT COST LIFE LANDMARKS OF CHELSEA AN EC- CLESIASTICAL ROMANCE PAUSING for a moment under the trees of the old Theological Seminary, in ancient Chelsea village, and marking the march of improvement in the construc- tion of the great " quad," with its noble Chapel of the Good Shep- herd, I am re- minded that there is one green spot back in my path to which I have not yet paid my re- spects. From the door of the old Cushman home- stead, opposite the east end of the Seminary grounds, comes one of my old school-mates of that name. A freak of memory recalls him instantaneously in silken gown, in the old chapel of Columbia College. He was slender then and rosy ; now he is more or less gray and robust. His student gown would be a miserable misfit to-day. THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 24 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK In the old programmes of public processions the Faculty and students of Columbia College were al- ways awarded a place of honor. Omnibuses were as- signed for their conveyance, and they were expected to embark in these vehicles in their silken robes. As a very small boy, I used to stand on the sidewalk and look upon these superior beings with envy, wondering if I ever should arrive at the dignity of being exalted to an official omnibus. At this distance of time I have a stray suspicion that the students who rode in the processions were chiefly Freshmen. Later, it was my delight to attend the commencements and semi-an- nuals, and the speakers had always a deeply interested audience of one at least. Columbia College occupied an unbroken block be- tween Barclay and Murray streets and Church Street and College Place. Park Place went only to Church Street, and the street from College Place to the river was called Robinson Street. The buildings were not imposing, but there was a scholastic air about the quadrangle which did not fail to inspire awe. Two Revolutionary cannon partly sunk in the ground guarded the gate-way ; there was a legend to the ef- fect that they had been captured from the British by Alexander Hamilton, once a student of the college King's College, as it was in his day. It had been my ambition to be graduated at this institution, but fate sent me to an Eastern college. However, I kept up my acquaintance with " the boys," and visited them on all possible occasions. Here it was that my first silk hat met an untimely fate. I had just purchased it, and with its added dignity entered the side gate impressively, when a well-directed kick from the stout A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 25 boot of stout Cutler C. McAllister sent a foot-ball high in air and it came down with a crash directly upon my new tile. A second visit to the hatter was imperative, and I tried to smile, but I never admired the game of foot-ball afterwards. In those days President King was the academical COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN 1850 head of Columbia, but Professor Anthon, " Old Bull " Anthon, as the students irreverently designated him, was a bigger man than all the rest of the Faculty com- bined. It used to be said of him that he ate a boy for breakfast every morning, so severe was his disci- pline in the grammar-school over which he also pre- sided. In the college class-room his powers of sar- casm made him the terror of the careless or lazy student. His assistant, Mr. Drisler, had then won no 26 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK special laurels. Venerable Professor McVickar was a favorite with everybody, a gentle, landly man, whose erudition was proverbial, and of whose kindliness the students were prone to take advantage, even though it were with pangs of penitence. As a boy I had met him often, and been drawn towards him, but the other members of the Faculty inspired me with unspeak- able awe. I remember attending a commencement of Columbia College that was held in the Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion on Eighth Street, between Broadway and Fourth Avenue. It was soon after the Mexican War had closed that I attended the commencement at this church, and General Scott, tall and soldierly, was a conspicuous figure on the platform. One of the speakers, a son of Dr. Schroeder, rector of the church, turned and addressed the general, who bowed in a dignified manner to the plaudits of the audience. But the speaker who most challenged my admiration that day was " Billy " Armitage, whose popularity with his classmates seemed to be unbounded. He was sub- sequently Bishop of Wisconsin, and died in 1873, be- fore he had reached the prime of life. The men of that epoch were my seniors. A few years only intervened between us, but they made a great gulf in those days. Later I knew all the boys. Among these were John H. Anthon, afterwards the eloquent leader of the Apollo Hall Democracy, " Jack " Byron, Cutler C. McAllister, Dr. Thurston, Samuel F. Barger, the railway financier, Col. H. S. Olcott, Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, since Lieutenant-governor and Congressman ; Bob Chisholm, afterwards a Confeder- ate officer; a delegation from the neighborhood of A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 27 St. John's Park, consisting of the Smedbergs, Hamil- tons, Lycligs, Hyslops, and Drakes ; George C. Pen- nell, who lived in Chambers Street, and was popularly reputed to have weighed two hundred pounds when he was born (he had a voice to match, and when he spoke his great piece " Sampson " he almost literally brought down the house) ; a lot of quiet students who afterwards became parsons, J. S. B. Hodges, Brewer, Dickinson, etc. Why lengthen out the roster? There is another set of college buildings now, with new brands of professors, and a thousand catalogued stu- dents. We, who remember old Columbia College in the days when a literary atmosphere still lingered about Park Place, and a stray milliner employed a half-dozen pretty apprentices in her fashionable estab- lishment on that thoroughfare, are gray-headed and have nearly finished our story. Morituri vos saluta- mus ! The University of New York still keeps its location on Washington Square. Its walls recall one of the early riots of the city, caused by an uprising of work- ing-men against the use of stone cut by State Prison convicts in the construction of the building. The military were called out, but there was no bloodshed. In my undergraduate days there was a feeling of jeal- ousy between the University and the Columbia Col- lege boys (I believe they all spoke of themselves as " men," by the way), and as the superiority of age was on the side of old Columbia, the college took airs upon itself accordingly. Theodore Frelinghuysen was Chancellor of the University then, if I remember, and his name, viewed socially and politically, was a tower of strength. I never pass the University building of 28 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK late years but I associate it with the " Cecil Dreeme " of Theodore Winthrop (poor fellow, the promise of his brilliant young life was dashed to pieces in the fight at Big Bethel), which has invested the structure with a fascinating interest. Remembrance of the working-men's riot at the Uni- versity induces me to step aside and visit the scene of the Astor Place riot. That was tragedy in dead ear- nest. A school-boy at the time, I remember the ex- citement that pervaded all classes as to the relative claims of Forrest and Macready. As a full-blooded American, I naturally stood up for home talent, and helped make life unpleasant for a youthful Londoner in my class at school. The sensation made by the bloodshed in Astor Place was like the opening of war at jur doors. With a school-boy's curiosity, I was at tl e scene early the next morning, and sought out with eager interest some little dingy spots of red that were pointed out to sight-seers, and the places on the north- ern wall of the big house at the corner of Lafayette Place which had been chipped out by the bullets of the soldiery. It was not thought safe for my sisters to go to Mme. Okill's school at the corner of Clinton Place and Mercer Street that day, and I had the glory of having visited the seat of war all to myself. The riot left one unanswered conundrum : Who gave the order to fire? No one desired to claim the honor of issuing the command, and the officers of the militia finally settled down to the conviction that the bruised and battered soldiery began the fire themselves. The locality was then a fashionable centre ; the slums in- vaded it, and left their mark upon it in blood. But to return to Chelsea. London Terrace was a A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 29 charming place of residence forty years ago, and still retains much of its old-time beauty. A few years later the solid men of the lower wards on the west side began building in the upper section of Chelsea, be- tween Eighth and Ninth avenues and Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth streets, and this locality to this day re- tains an air of eminent respectability, and its ample rear gardens are a ceaseless source of comfort to the residents. West of this settlement the city is still unattractive. It was a wild place when I was a boy, and the maintenance of the old Hudson River Rail- road depot there still retards public and private im- provements. But the river front is picturesque, and across the stream rise the heights of Hoboken, crowned by the Passionist monastery and church. The heights as they were, where nature left them covered with f-r- est trees, were still prettier, but one can be gratef 1 that man cannot mar the landscape utterly. Two landmarks of old Chelsea remain unchanged. At the corner of Twenty-eighth Street and Ninth Ave- nue stands the old Church of the Holy Apostles that is, it is old comparatively, though the painters have attired it in a new dress of red with brown trimmings. A generation ago the Rev. Dr. R. S. Howland was the rector, and the late Dr. George J. Geer was his assistant. They were excellent men, both of them, and Dr. Geer was always good com- pany. One of my uncles was a vestryman of the church, and he told me the story of its foundation. A young man, son of a great ship-builder, determined to study for the ministry of the Episcopal Church, though his father was not of that faith. The son persisted, and the father made his will, cutting off the disobe- 30 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK dient son with the proverbial shilling. Ordained and in the ministry, but cut off from the wealth he should have inherited, the son kept on his way unmoved but not unwatched by the father. Touched by his consistent conduct, the father made a new will, leaving to the once disinherited boy his entire possessions. Then the old man died. The son divided the prop- erty equally among the heirs, and out of his own share built the Church of the Holy Apostles as a thank-offer- ing. A good lesson for a church-spire to teach. Dr. Geer was always jolly, and dearly loved a good joke. The last time. I saw him he told me how one day, some years before, as his sexton helped him to put on his surplice, he noticed that the man had on a most doleful countenance, and he asked him what was the matter. " Oh, Mr. Geer/' said the sexton, " I wish we might have some Gospel preaching here. This morning the Methodist preacher at the Chelsea Church is going to improve the flood, and to-night he will im- prove the hanging. Can't you do it, too?" There had been an execution at the Tombs and a notable rise in the Hudson that week hence the outburst of ecstasy. The sturdy gray granite tower of old St. Peter's Church also shows no mark of the flight of years. On the contrary, I observe as I pass it with a tourist's eye that it has set itself off with certain modern furbelows in the shape of turreted wooden porticos at the door- ways, as pardonable a vanity as the fresh violet rib- bons with which my grandmother was wont to deco- rate her best Sunday cap. " It doesn't signify, Felix," she would say, " but I do like to see old folks spruce themselves up, and somehow I always want to look my best, even to my grandson." A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 3! There is a pathetic strain of association with the old church, which goes back to a day when a young student of divinity made more noise in the American ecclesiastical world than the whole bench of bishops. It was at the time when Puseyism, so called, was on everybody's tongue, and old-fashioned high and dry churchmen considered it a mortal sin for an officiating clergyman to " turn his back upon the congregation." On the day when Arthur Carey was to be ordained to the ministry, Drs. Smith and Anthon, rectors of St. Peter's and St. Mark's churches, respectively, stood up to object to proceeding with the service. Thence arose the wildest kind of