Fifty years ago

A backward peep at the world and its handsome doings of half a century past

CHARLES G. SHAW

■ With 1910 and 1900 we have, in recent memoirs, already dealt. In the present treatise we would turn our gaze to the days of fifty years past —an age vastly different from either of these other eras—to the year Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-nine. That life, at the time, was a far simpler business; that things moved at a rate to-day laughable cannot, for a moment, be disputed. But let us consider the period.

New York City's population was a meagre million and its City Hall Park post office comprised the tallest building in town. Horse-hauled stages rolled along Broadway and up and down the Hudson plied the side-paddle Sylvan Glen. The streets were lit solely by gas, and Mr. Ward McAllister was arbiter elegantarium and the busiest man on earth doing nothing. Gold and silver tooth picks were the vogue, as, too, were bustles, rubber plants, painted coal-scuttles, and wax flowers under glass. The British waged war in Africa and in China; Li-Yang-Tsai, the rebel chieftain, was captured. Victoria was Queen of England, and Rutherford B. Hayes served as President of the U.S.A. In France M. Martel was elected head of the Senate and in Zululand Prince Louis Napoleon was slain while reconnoitering. Bismarck, before the German Parliament, disclaimed all relation with the liberal party, and Admiral Batsch was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for the loss of the ironclad, Grosser Kurfürst, which had been sunk in collision off Folkstone. Prince Henry, the Dutch King's brother, died in Holland and in Spain ten thousand families were left houseless due to raging inundations, while their monarch wed the Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, both of whose lives were sought the month following by the unsuccessful assassin Francisco Otero y Gonzalez.

Strikes against the reduction of wages shook Liverpool and a bill to abolish Queen's University and to set up a school for Roman Catholics was introduced in Ireland. In Italy, Giovanni Passanante, a would-be killer, was given life imprisonment and scientific works in English were published for the first time in Tokio. Policemen flaunted side-whiskers, the youth of America amused itself with marbles and tops, and pajamas were practically unheard of. Bathrooms wore pale green interiors, Turkish lamps and antimacassars garnished the nation's "parlours", and young men about town gadded about in Congress gaiters and low-crowned bowlers. Paper money was supplanting gold and silver, and the chief sports of the day were rowing and rifle shooting, while cricket was as popular as baseball and bicycles were of the velocipede brand. Vacations then were fewer and shorter and office hours lasted from 7:30 A. M. till six o'clock in the evening. Department stores were called "bazaars" or "emporiums", there was no such thing as "athletic underwear", and the polka, waltz and quadrille were the accepted forms of ballroom stepping.

From St. Petersburg came the news of a suppressed revolt of Tartars and a public flogging of two hundred rioters, Warden Davis reported SingSing's profits for the past December to be §3,039.53, and in the Personal notices appeared such flashes as: "Wanted—Acquaintance of young lady who is fond of attending places of amusement. Address Means, Herald office," "Rosebud—Will meet you today (Friday). Was at place appointed yesterday, thinking you might possibly be there—R," "8th Ave. Car. January 3 at 3:15 P. M.—The two ladies who noticed gent in the car as he ivas leaving at 11th St., would like to know their present address. OLD FRIEND." Money on call in Wall Street was easy at four per cent and in West Twelfth Street "nicely furnished" rooms were to be had for three dollars a week. While a group of fashionable idlers wasted the winter in Pau, the press rang with the lurid details of the Cobb-Bishop poisoning case, General Khan-ed-din Pacha was inaugurated as Grand Vizier of Turkey and Lord Teignmouth, in two hefty volumes, had just published his Reminiscences of Many Years.

Intrigue broiled in Russia, and England's House of Commons rejected a motion in favor of female suffrage by a vote of 217 to 103; Charlie Rowell, at Gilmore's Garden, won the Astley Belt from Ennis and Harriman in a grueling six-day foot race; Spain's Minister of the Interior announced the Cabinet's policy to be both liberal and conservative; and in Alveria Street, Los Angeles, gold was said to be discovered. In remote Afghanistan the British waged war. Columbia College graced Madison Avenue at Forty-ninth street, "hot corn" and "hokey-pokey" rang through the town's thoroughfares, and during the winter months Central Park tinkled with the sound of sleigh bells. Sea Gate, at the time, was known as Norton Murray's Point, and Manhattan Beach was the essence of gayety. Torchlight parades lent color to political campaigns, and white cotton stockings sheathed the limbs of the most demure débutante. In Hungary terrific loss was caused by flood, while Rogers groups, horsehair sofas, and be-ribboned picture frames adorned our country's nicest drawing rooms.

Joe Jefferson, in '79, w7as playing Rip Van Winkle at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Frank Mayo acted Davy Crockett, Dion Boucicault, as Con The Shaughraun, played the Grand Opera House, Cinderella filled the Aquarium, and Tom Thumb, with the "little people", performed at the Masonic Temple. Opera was given at the Academy of Music; Augustin Daly had taken over the old Broadway; Philadelphia's Broad Street Theatre harboured Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore; and Ada Rehan's salary came to thirty-five dollars a week, Billy Paterson was tending bar at the Star and Garter on Sixth Avenue and the nearby I lay market, in a coat of new paint, had just re-opened. Joe Goss claimed the heavyweight championship of America and for the first lime in inter-collegiate football history "interference" was used. On Gotham's South Street stood an eel market and O'Neill's and Dorian's were the places to go for oysters. Gabe Case's was a festive roadhouse and "Satan's Circus" abounded in "concert saloons." Cooper was New York's Mayor and in the late spring the Metropolitan Museum was instituted with Mr. John Taylor Johnson as first president.

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It was during these days that Alec Williams captained the Tenderloin, and Marm Mandelbaum was the age's most notorious "fence;" A. T. Stewart bore the title of merchant prince and George Leonidas Leslie was known as king of bank robbers; Mrs. Scott Siddons gave lectures at Chickering Hall and Harry Hill ran a dive in West Houston Street. In Washington the Government Printing Office was relieved of a package worth §10,000 and in Paris M. de Marcère was forced to resign, through a difficulty with the Prefect of Police. Sir John Tenniel cartooned Disraeli in Punch and Bulgaria's first parliament was opened at Tirnova. Peru and Bolivia had declared war against Chile and in St. Petersburg the new Alexander IT bridge across the Neva made its debut. Leo XIII was Pope at Rome and Porfirio Diaz became president of Mexico. In Burma, Wougyee, prince of Thebau, succeeded to the throne, Jezebel's Daughter was Wilkie Collins' latest gift to literature, and forest fires swept northern New York state.

Teeth, in Canal Street, were pulled for twenty-five cents and filled for twice the amount; from Cheyenne, Wyoming, came reports that Utes in war paint had been spotted in the mining section; in the world of feminine fashions painted evening bonnets were coming into vogue; Long Branch boasted a pier and was spoken of in the same breath with Newport; while yellow fever ran rampant in Memphis. Peter McManus, the twentieth of the "Molly Maguires" to die on the scaffold. was hanged on October ninth in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and in Springfield. Massachusetts, a priest was sued for the disruption of a liveryman's business. The Sun. then, was a four page sheet; Mark Twain and General Grant passed the summer in Europe; and John Thoman, a Bohemian living in Chambersburg, early one September morning drowned himself in a nearby canal, having first choked and kicked his wife to death. Professor Nordenskjold of Sweden was reported exploring the Arctic; Hopeful, in an exhibition race in Minneapolis, defeated the pacing mare Lucy for a two thousand dollar purse; and a marked decrease in the number of tramps was calculated for the year.

Aubrey Beardsley, who had just turned seven, was shipped of! to school at Hurstpierpoint, and P. T. Barnum, in his program notes, wrote: "The reverend clergy and school teachers of both sexes throughout our land are among my firmest friends and strongest supporters of my great moral exhibition." William M. Evarts was Secretary of State and Lord Cairns, Chancellor of England; Mephisto, a mechanical chess-player, disported at the Westminster Aquarium; the Comé-die-Française Company, including Madame Sarah Bernhardt and the MM. Coquelin, Got, and Delaunay, paid a visit to London; and the island of Cuba suffered a state of siege. Mr. George Waller rode 1404 miles in six days and Baron Rothschild's Sir Bevys romped away with the Derby. The Centenary of Thomas Moore's birth was celebrated in England, and at Catania in Sicily five villages were blotted out by earthquake. To promote political education the Eighty Club was founded and General Salomon was elected president of Hayti.

John Taylor ruled as czar of the Mormons, and the peace of Naples' citizenry was threatened by brigands. Aboard the good ship Thunderer, in the Sea of Marmora, two officers and eight men met death through the explosion of a 38-ton gun and Mr. James Gordon Bennett's expedition, under Lieutenant de Long, sailed merrily away in the yacht Jeannette. The Panama Canal plan was being discussed in Paris, E. P. Weston went for a walk of five hundred miles, and at Pottsdam the German emperor attended his golden wedding. In the provinces of Moscow, Kieff, Odessa, and Warsaw martial law reigned and Charles Peace (otherwise known as John Ward) was convicted of having attempted the life of a policeman and the murder of Arthur Dyson near Sheffield. Madeira and Hock were served at Cotillion dinners given at Delmonico's and apparati for cooking by the sun's condensed solar rays were exhibited about Paris. The year 1879, too, gave birth to the Carlyle and Helleric Societies, not to forget the Rabelais Club and Institute of Bankers, while in Switzerland a movement in favour of the St. Gothard railway was carried by a majority of one hundred and sixty thousand.

At Lebanon, Pennsylvania, one Charles Drews confessed in full to the killing of superannuated Joseph Raber; a fellow in Norwich was soundly horsewhipped by another fellow's wife; and at Stamford it was voted for the third time that no licenses to sell intoxicating liquors should be granted. King Stephen Pharoah, last of the Montauk Indians, journeyed that autumn to the "happy hunting ground" and Washington Nathan, of 683 Fifth Avenue, was shot in the Coleman House by Mrs. Frances Barrett, whose alias was "Birdie Bell." Five hundred page novels were selling at $1.50, Lord & Taylor's ladies' shoes went for $2.00, and in the ad columns one glimpsed "dry goods," "Broughton's Invigorating Syrup," and the Kentucky and Louisiana Lotteries.

All of which was in 1879 and fifty years have since slipped by. As heretofore noted, life has become a very different show. Costlier are the settings and larger the cast. There is, too, wider variety of scene, at a pace that never for a moment lags. But is it, we can't help wondering, with all its innovations, its wealth and vastness, a much gladder spectacle than of yore?