JANUARY 1926
Page Seven
THE UNITED AMERICAN
conscious of its future, unconscious of its destiny.
Had even one of those who had vision and dreamed
of its greatness to be, ventured a prediction, vaguely
depicting America of one hundred years in the future,
as we know it today, his compatriots would have con
sidered him a victim of a dangerous, form of halluci
nation,
The City of New York, with its six million in
habitants today, was only a modest little town, one
hundred years ago. Columbia College, with its mag
nificent buildings, monuments to our age of learning,
spreading out over several acress of ground at sub
station One Hundred and Fifteenth street, was then
located at the foot of Park Place, a little school of
unpretentious proportions and no one at that time
dreamed of its educational influence in 1925 or its
dynamic leader, the matchless Nicolas Murray Buttler.
Greenwich Village, one hundred years ago, was only a
small section of “little ole” New York. The “Village” is
now noticeable, shall we say, mostly for its anti-<
quated buildings and some freak inhabitants. At that
time it was the northernmost section—the Bronx
(pronounced in the dialect of its Yiddish residents,
the Bronox) of that day. And Alexander Hamilton,
the lawyer, whose residential home was at No. 26
Broadway, where now stands the new giant home
office building of the Standard Oil Company, right
at the foot of Broadway, had not yet fought his famous
duel with Aaron Burr, another legal light of that day.
The New York City directory of 1921 shows that
Cornelius Vanderbilt was a cartman at Renwick Street,
corner of Greenwich, and John Jacob Astor & Son
were just plain merchants with an unpretentious
shop. The governor of New York, who at that tims
happened to be De Witt Clinton, had “offices in the
City Hall.” The present publishing house of Harper,
was at that time J. & J. Harper, known only as
plain job printers. Duncan Phyfe was at that time
a well known cabinetmaker, who carved his name so
well in America’s early furniture history that the
1925 collectors of antiques in furniture are raving over
every article that bears his name. The advertisements
of that day tell much of the value of waterproof
beaver hats, walking canes, with or without swords,
but there are no glowing tales of the values in silk
hosiery or silk underwear, with attractive pictures to
draw the attention. The wigs must have been very
popular in those days for the advertisers of 1825 offer
them this special inducement: “Measure your own
head and send in your order from anywhere.” Daniel
Klauberg advertised that he “sharpened edged blades
equal to any in Europe.” He was probably an
artist in his line. Toothpaste was evidently not an
essential article at that time and the manufacturers
were most likely not producing the very best grades,
for one manufacturer advertised: “Toothpaste—
genuine, efficacious and innocent. All orders thank
fully received.”
Thirty-eight hours was required for the mail couch
to reach Boston from New York, and traveling on
“the main line” from New York one would have to
leave at five o’clock in the morning in order to reach
Philadelphia by night. The postal rates were some
what complicated, something like our present second
class mail rates—some sort of zoning arrangement.
One sheet of paper, we are told, cost two cents
through the mails a distance of thirty miles, and two
sheets required four cents.
The letter carriers must have been very prominent
persons in those days. New York had four of them,
and they are specially listed in the New York city
directory of that illustrious age of early beginning.
“Them were the days” of professional callings. Among
other indications sustaining this point, the record
notes that Henry Pine was a scavenger ; Adam Dolmage
tallow chandler; P. Byrne, pen cutter and wafer
maker ; and Rebecca Demarest, mantuamaker.
The product now advertised extensively in an
abreviated form on huge signboards all over New York,
as “SOCONY,” (it’s another crossword puzzle which
stands for a well-known brand of flivver fuel) was
evidently unknown in those days, for it is not men
tioned in the directory, and “service” stations and
garages are not listed.
Ad infinitum we may quote records which tell the
story of the beginning of our development as a nation,
only going back one hundred years to make the marvel
more pronounced.
Give sorrow words; the grief that does speak.
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
—Shakespeare.
The man who’s afraid to do too much for people he does
business with, needn’t be afraid of having too much business
to do.
The radiant sun sends from above ten thousand blessings down,
Nor is he set so high for show alone.
—Granville.
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