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AOn the. East.. Bfde—Tlie Old Shipping Afercliantft—A. Paradise or Churches— | Original Contract Politicians— Patriots and Pirates—The Iominted Garden—Moral and Religious Sanity or Old Kew York.“What is the matter with the east side!” writes a friend, whoee family homestead was once on Pearl Street.To which I make answer by turning the stepsof the tourist to a quarter of the city that wasthe earliest business centre, and that held thehomes of the wealthier colonists, at . time whenthe splendors of the old Walton house were quoted, in the British Parliament as an incentive to the tax-gatherer. Yet there are some recollectionswhich sadden me as 1 take my way up the waterfront of the East River. In my boyhood the wharves were filled with clipper ships and packets that bore the flag of the Union, and further up were great shipyards where we schoolboys went to see the great vessels launched. I am enough of a free-trader to be at tfar with the dog-in-the-manger policy of our Government which forbids our merchants on the one hand to go into the open market and purchase ships built in other lard*, and oir the other hand retains the heavy war (axes on material which prevents them from entering into competition with foreign shipwrights. My uncles were shipping merchants in South Street, near Wall (above the door I can still read the faded lettering of the sign), who were compelled to sell their ships when Confederate cruisers began their depredations. The ghost of our lost commercial marine haunts my steps as I pass by.Two v outcries ago the people of New Yorkbwd about Old Slip, Coen ties Slip, andtL»e Grejf Iio^k, and three quarters of a century ago «two raos-t fashionable dry-goods stores were W a ted on ‘William Street, near John, and on the ite oi the Astor House; and nearly all the wholesale stores were on Pearl Street. The east side filt;«m the earliest time was the cradle of mer-canfri** h*. The old Dutch founders of tho city -settled .t by locating their canal on Broad Streetdi*cu*ion . and the consumption of unlimited “ £dmppp,n both theologians finally became?1speechless. The domimVs successor, the RetrJ Everardus Bogardoa, married the celebrated! Aimek© Jans, at that tune a buxom and-wealthy widow. As * natural consequence feminine envy rcso to a higli-water mark, and one Bolid merchant^ wife was sued for slander because she had reported that the minister’s wife in crossing^thd streets “ exposed her ankles more than was necessary to avoid the mud.n The court decided that Mrs. Ann eke had reefed her skirts with proper propriety,andtheslanderer was dulyadmomshedand fined-aThe lower east side early became the paradise of churches. Protestantism held ihe fort there aitthe opening of the present century. The DuReformed had the' South Church on ExcPlace, Middle Church on Nassau Street, wherjethe Mutual TAle Building now stands, and North Church at Fulton and William Streets, where the noon-day prayer meeting still commemorates its site. These were large, substantial structures, each with its graveyard at the side, dotted with ancient tombstones,. The Presbyterians builttheir first church on Wall Street, where it stopd for more than a century. Jonathan Edwards was once its pastor. Their second congregation erected the old “ Brick Church ” upon the triangular lot bounded by Park Row, Beekman, and Nassau Streets, and known as 11 The Vineyard.*1'I remember the edifice well It was an architectural horror. But no man was more reveredthan its pastor, Dr. Gardner Spring, thoughhe was not a particularly attractive preacher.Another Presbyterian church stood on Cedar Street, and a fourth on Rutgers Street. Theologically the denomination was a power. Drs. Rogers, McKnight. Milledollar,. Romeyn, alhd Samuel Miller were men of wonderful strength in the pulpit, as were also* Dr. Mason of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Cedar Street, and Dr. McLeod of the Covenanters’ Church in Chambers Street. Drs. Miller and Mason wererbe intellectual leaders of the New York pulpit in their day, their only rival being Dr. (afterword* Bishop? Hobart. It used to be said of Dr. Livmgstone of the Dutch Church and Bishop Provcost of the Episcopal that “ when they met on Sunday and exchanged salutations, they took up the entire street, and reminded beholders of two frigates undt*r full sail, exchanging salutes with each other.”!
Newspaper Details
New York Evening Post
New York, New York, US
Mon, Sep 13, 1886
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NY, USA 23 Sep 2020
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