The Secrets of the Great City | Page 8

be seen. These will be noticed further on.
Respectable people avoid the Bowery, as far as possible, at night; but
on Sunday night, few but those absolutely compelled to visit it, are to
be seen within its limits. Every species of vice and crime is abroad at
this time, watching for its victims. Those who do not wish to fall into
trouble should keep out of the way.
THE AVENUES.
The Avenues of New York commence with First Avenue, which is the
second east of the Bowery. They are numbered regularly to the
westward until Twelfth Avenue is reached. This street forms the

western shore of the island in the extreme upper part of New York. East
of First Avenue, above Houston street, there are five short avenues,
called A, B, C, D, E,--the first being the most westerly. There are also
other shorter avenues in the city, viz.: Lexington, commencing at
Fourteenth street, lying between Third and Fourth Avenues, and
extending to Sixty-sixth street; and Madison, commencing at
Twenty-third street, lying between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, and
running to Eighty-sixth street. Second and Eighth are the longest. Third
Avenue is the main street of the east side, above Eighth street Eighth
Avenue is the great thoroughfare on the west side Hudson street, of
which Eighth Avenue is a continuation is rapidly becoming the
West-side Bowery. Fifth and Madison are the most fashionable, and are
magnificently built up with private residences, along almost their entire
length. The cross streets connecting them, in the upper part of the city,
are also handsomely laid off, and are filled with long rows of fine
brown-stone and marble mansions.
The streets of New York are well laid off, and are paved with an
excellent quality of stone. The side-walks generally consist of immense
stone "flags." In the lower part of the city, in the poorer and business
sections, they are dirty, and always out of order. In the upper part they
are clean, and are often kept so by private contributions.
The avenues on the eastern and western extremities of the city are the
abodes of poverty, want, and often of vice, hemming in the wealthy and
cleanly sections on both sides. Poverty and wealth are close neighbors
in New York. Only a block and a half back of the most sumptuous parts
of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, want and suffering, vice and crime,
hold their court. Fine ladies can look down from their high casements
upon the squalid dens of their unhappy sisters.
CHAPTER III.
THE CITY GOVERNMENT.
The City of New York is governed by a Mayor, a Board of Aldermen
and a Board of Common Councilmen. The Mayor has been stripped by

the Legislature of the State of almost every power or attribute of power,
and is to-day merely an ornamental figure-head to the City government.
The real power lies in the Boards named above, and in the various
"Commissioners" appointed by the Legislature. These are the
Commissioners in charge of the streets, the Croton Aqueduct, Public
Charities and Corrections, the Police and Fire Departments.
We do not seek to lay the blame for the mismanagement and infamy of
the government of this City on any party or parties. It is a fact that
affairs here are sadly mismanaged, whoever may be at fault.
In place of any statements of our own concerning this branch of our
subject, we ask the reader's attention to the following extracts from a
pamphlet recently published by Mr. James Parton. He says:
The twenty-four Councilmen who have provided themselves with such
ample assistance at such costly accommodation are mostly very young
men,--the majority appear to be under thirty. Does the reader remember
the pleasant description given by Mr. Hawthorne of the sprightly young
bar- keeper who rainbows the glittering drink so dexterously from one
tumbler to another? That sprightly young barkeeper might stand as the
type of the young men composing this board. There are respectable
men in the body. There are six who have never knowingly cast an
improper vote. There is one respectable physician, three lawyers, ten
mechanics, and only four who acknowledge to be dealers in liquors.
But there is a certain air about most of these young Councilmen which,
in the eyes of a New-Yorker, stamps them as belonging to what has
been styled of late years "our ruling class,"--butcher-boys who have got
into politics, bar-keepers who have taken a leading part in primary
ward meetings, and young fellows who hang about engine-houses and
billiard-rooms. A stranger would naturally expect to find in such a
board men who have shown ability and acquired distinction in private
business. We say, again, that there are honest and estimable men in the
body; but we also assert, that there is not an individual in it who