THE CITY HALL PARK.

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originally a sort of garden around the City Hall, but is now well occupied by large buildings, for the New Court-house has been built north of the City Hall and the Post-office south of it, with Mail Street opened between. Chambers Street bounds the Park on the north, and upon it faces the New Court-house, a massive Corinthian building of white marble which was a dozen years in progress through the thieving of the notorious "Tweed Ring," who used it to extract fifteen million dollars from the city treasury on fraudulent bills, or more than five times what the work actually cost. This court-house, and the Stewart building on the north side of Chambers Street, occupy the site of an old fort which, in the days of the Revolution, was the British outpost commanding the entrance to the city by the "Northern" or "Bloomingdale" road, now Broadway. The court-house is substantially constructed, and has a large central rotunda, around which are the courts, with the county offices-the Sheriff, Surrogate, Registrar, County Clerk, etc. These are the rich political plums in the local government, and consequently the rotunda, corridors, and stairways are usually crowded by the small-fry "statesmen "who are the dependants of the chieftains holding these fat offices. The entrance on the northern front is impressive-a flight of broad steps flanked by massive marble columns. The New York City Hall is a less pretentious and much older building, constructed in the Italian style of white marble, with brownstone in the rear. Here is the office of the Mayor, and also the meetingplace of that highly-flavored body-the Board of Aldermen. It has a central rotunda also, and the usual copious supply of small politicians, and contains the "Governor's Room," adorned with the portraits of the governors of New York and Revolutionary heroes, and also a fine painting of Columbus. Here are treasured Washington's desk and chair which he used when first President of the United States; but, unfortunately, it must be recorded with sorrow

that some of the occupants of the New York City Hall have not imitated that illustrious man's example to any eminent degree.

THE DRY-GOODS DISTRICT.

Upon Broadway, near Chambers Street and just opposite the northern end of the Park, stands a noted building. It is a modest brownstone structure, without any pretension, but it contains the most famous bank in New York, whose phenomenal success is known in every financial community. This is the "Chemical Bank," originally started as a chemical manufacturing company with banking privileges. Its chemistry seems to have been a failure that was soon abandoned, but its banking talents have been so well developed that its shares of one hundred dollars' par value have sold for forty-two hundred dollars. The capital of this bank is only three hundred thousand dollars, but it has amassed a surplus that is nearly twenty times its capital, and in its reserves it often holds ten million dollars gold, besides being usually the strongest bank in New York in its excess of reserves. It has never suspended specie payments, and its deposits often exceed twenty-five million dollars. Among its largest stockholders are said to be three New York ladies who have married foreign titles-the duchess of Marlborough (who was Miss Pine, and afterward Mrs. Hamersley); the duchesse de Dino (Miss Sampson), and the comtesse de Trobriand (Miss Jones). Across Chambers Street, and occupying the entire block to Reade Street above, is the large white Stewart building, where Alexander T. Stewart made the most of his fortune in the dry goods trade—an edifice now converted into a vast caravansary for all sorts of tenants conducting every kind of business. This building is the outpost of what is known as the "dry-goods district." From the City Hall Park up to Broome and Grand Streets, stretching over a broad belt of adjacent blocks, this region deals with all kinds of staple products of the mills

THE DRY-GOODS DISTRICT.

27

and looms, clothing, and similar goods. Here are located the factors and agents for nearly all of the mills in this country and for many abroad, and the annual money value of the trade they carry on is estimated at seven hundred and fifty to one thousand millions of dollars. Here throbs the pulse of the dry-goods trade of the United States, weakening or strengthening as poor or good crops give the agricultural community a surplus to expend upon dress. Alexander T. Stewart once said that if every woman made up her mind to pass a single season without a new bonnet, it would sufficiently diminish business to bankrupt this whole district. From its centre Leonard Street goes off eastward down to the Tombs prison, standing where once was a swamp-a sombre gray building in the gloomy Egyptian style, which is unfortunately always full of criminals. Canal Street crosses the city through the northern portion of the dry-goods district-a broad highway, formerly a watercourse draining the swamp across Broadway to the Hudson River, but now conducting a busy and valuable trade, which makes its intersection with Broadway usually a lively place. Several large hotels, which were famous in the last generation before the newer houses farther up town eclipsed them, are features of the street beyond. Here are the St. Nicholas Hotel, of white marble, and the Metropolitan Hotel, of brownstone, enclosing the well-known Niblo's Theatre. Beyond, and opposite Bond Street, is the lofty cream-colored marble front of the Grand Central Hotel. It was here that Edward Stokes shot James Fisk, a tragedy that will not soon be forgotten.

ers.

IV.

BROADWAY CHARACTERISTICS.

In the leisurely promenade up Broadway we have reached the locality where the wholesale dry-goods trade of the famous street gives place to other trades and also to the retailIn the neighborhood of Bond Street one encounters the booksellers. This street, with Lafayette Place, Astor Place, and the adjacent parts of Broadway, is the home of much of the bookselling trade of New York. In Lafayette Place is the substantial brick and brownstone building of the Astor Library, one of the benefactions of the Astor family to the metropolis. The Mercantile Library is a very large institution, in Astor Place, between Broadway and Lafayette Place. This brick building was originally Clinton Hall, and in the streets surrounding it occurred the noted "Macready riots" in 1849. in 1849. In those days it was the "Astor Place Opera-House" and one of the chief theatres of New York. Edwin Forrest and Macready had had a misunderstanding, and when Macready came over here Forrest's friends declared he should not be allowed to play in New York. Macready arrived in 1848, and appeared, without molestation, a number of nights in October, but the next spring, when his farewell engagement was announced, serious opposition was menaced. Upon Monday, May 7, he appeared as Macbeth, but there was so much confusion in and around the house that the curtain had to be rung down before the play ended. He was then inclined to cancel the engagement, but a number of prominent people requested him to remain, promising protection, and he reappeared on the following Thursday. The thorough precautions taken to preserve order within the house enabled him to satisfactorily perform his part, but the Forrest faction outside the theatre, after vainly trying to secure entrance, attacked the building with stones. The police being

BROADWAY CHARACTERISTICS.

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unable to control them, the troops were called out, and, firing several volleys of musketry along Astor Place, they suppressed the riot and dispersed the mob, but some sixty persons were killed or wounded. The excitement at the time was tremendous, and Macready, declining further invitations to act in New York, soon after went home to England.

At the end of Astor Place stands the Cooper Institute, occupying an entire block-a brownstone building with a fine front, founded and endowed by Peter Cooper for the free education of both men and women in science and art. Opposite is an immense red building also occupying an entire block-the " Bible House," the home of the American Bible Society, where the Scriptures are printed by the million in all languages for distribution throughout the world, and where many religious societies have their offices. Between these two huge buildings the view is of the Third Avenue elevated railway beyond, with its rushing trains. Astor Place is continued diagonally north-east by Stuyvesant Street, originally the lane that led up to old Governor Peter Stuyvesant's country-house. Alongside this street stands St. Mark's Church, in sharp contrast with the modern buildings around it, and here several of his descendants are communicants. Across Second Avenue opposite is the Gothic Baptist Tabernacle and the fine building of the New York Historical Society. When St. Mark's Church was built here in the last century it was a mile out of town and surrounded by country-houses. The quaint little Stuyvesant House then still stood perched on a high bank near the church, and, with its odd-looking overhanging upper story, was built of small yellow bricks brought out from Holland. The whole of this region in the days of "New Amsterdam" was Governor Stuyvesant's "Bowerie" estate, and to it he retired when compelled to surrender to the English in 1664. The road out to the "Bowerie" has since become New York's broadest highway, the well