The Secrets of the Great City | Page 6

bustle and uproar are very great,
generally making it impossible to converse in an ordinary tone. From
early morning till near midnight this scene goes on.
A gentleman from the remote interior, once put up at the St. Nicholas
Hotel. He came to the City on urgent business, and told a friend who
was with him, that he intended to start out early the next morning. This
friend saw him, about noon the next day, waiting at the door of the St.
Nicholas Hotel, surveying the passing crowd with an air of impatience.
"Have you finished your business?" he asked.
"No," said the gentleman, "I have not yet started out. I've been waiting
here for three hours for this crowd to pass by, and I see no signs of it
doing so."
The friend, pitying him, put him in a stage, and started him off, telling
him that crowd usually took twenty-four hours to pass that point.
At night the scene changes. The crowd of vehicles on the street is not

so dense, and the "foot passengers" are somewhat thinned put. The
lower part of the city, which is devoted exclusively to business, is
deserted. For blocks the only persons to be seen are the policemen on
their beats. Above Canal street, however, all is life and bustle. The
street is brilliantly lighted. The windows of the stores and restaurants,
and the lamps of the theatres and concert saloons, add greatly to the
general illumination, while the long lines of the red, green, and blue
lights of the stages, rising and falling with the motion of the vehicles,
add a novelty and beauty to the picture. Strains of music or bursts of
applause, float out on the night air from the places of amusement, not
all of which are reputable. The street is full of all kinds of people, all of
whom seem to be in high spirits, for Broadway is a sure cure for the
"blues." One feature mars the scene. At every step, almost, one passes
women and girls, and even mere children, seeking for company, and
soliciting passers by with their looks and manner, and sometimes by
open words. The police do not allow these women to stop and converse
with men on the street, and when they find a companion, they dart with
him down a side street. This goes on until midnight. Then the street
gradually becomes deserted, and for a few hours silence reigns in
Broadway.
THE BOWERY.
Leaving the City Hall, and passing through Chatham street, one
suddenly emerges from the dark, narrow lane, into a broad square, with
streets leading from it to all parts of the city. It is not overclean, and has
an air of sharpness and repulsiveness that at once attract attention. This
is Chatham Square, the great promenade of that class generally known
as "the fancy."
At the upper end of the Square is a broad, well paved, flashy looking
street, stretching away to the northward, crowded with street cars,
vehicles of all kinds, and pedestrians. This is the Bowery. It begins at
Chatham Square, and extends as far as the Cooper Institute on Eighth
street, where Third and Fourth Avenues, the first on the right hand, the
other on the left, continue the thoroughfare to the Harlem river.
The Bowery first appears in the history of New York under the

following circumstances. About 1642 or 1643, it was set apart by the
Dutch as the residence of superannuated slaves, who, having served the
Government faithfully from the earliest period of the settlement of the
island, were at last allowed to devote their labors to the support of their
dependent families, and were granted parcels of land embracing from
eight to twenty acres each. The Dutch were influenced by other motives
than charity in this matter. The district thus granted was well out of the
limits of New Amsterdam, and they were anxious to make this negro
settlement a sort of breakwater against the attacks of the Indians, who
were beginning to be troublesome. At this time the Bowery was
covered with a dense forest. A year or two later, farms were laid out
along its extent. These were called "Boweries," from which the present
street derives its name. Bowery No. I. was bought by Governor
Stuyvesant. His house stood about where the present St. Mark's
(Episcopal) Church is located. In 1660, or near about that year, a road
or lane was laid off, through what are now Chatham street, Chatham
Square, and the Bowery, to the farm of Governor Stuyvesant, beyond
which there was no road. To this was given the distinctive name of the
"Bowery Lane." In 1783, the Bowery again came into prominent notice.
On the 25th of November of that year, the American army, under
General