Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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On the night of the reception of the news of Napoleon's capitulation at
Sedan, the Atlantic Garden was a sight worth seeing. The orchestra was
doubled, and the music and the songs were all patriotic. The hall was
packed with excited people, and the huge building fairly rocked with the
cheers which went up from it. The "German's Fatherland" and Luther's
Hymn were sung by five thousand voices, hoarse or shrill with excitement.
Oceans of beer were drunk, men and women shook hands and embraced, and
the excitement was kept up until long after midnight. Yet nobody was
drunk, save with the excitement of the moment.

The Central Park Garden, at the corner of Seventh avenue and Fifty-ninth
street, is more of an American institution than the Atlantic. It
consists of a handsome hall surrounded on three sides by a gallery, and
opening at the back upon grounds a moderate size, tastefully laid out,
and adorned with rustic stalls and arbors for the use of guests. At the
Atlantic the admission is free. Here one pays fifty cents for the
privilege of entering the grounds and building. During the summer months
nightly concerts, with Saturday matinees, are given here by Theodore
Thomas and his famous orchestra--the finest organization of its kind in
America. The music is of a high order, and is rendered in a masterly
manner. Many lovers of music come to New York in the summer simply to
hear these concerts.

The place is the fashionable resort of the city in the summer. The
audience is equal to anything to be seen in the city. One can meet here
all the celebrities who happen to be in town, and as every one is free to
do as he pleases, there is no restraint to hamper one's enjoyment. You
may sit and smoke and drink, or stroll through the place the whole
evening, merely greeting your acquaintances with a nod, or you may join
them, and chat to your heart's content. Refreshments and liquors of all
kinds are sold to guests; but the prices are high. The Central Park
Garden, or, as it is called by strangers, "Thomas's Garden," is the most
thoroughly enjoyable place in the city in the summer.

XLVI. JAMES FISK JR.

James Fisk, Jr., was born at Bennington, Vermont, on the 1st of April,
1834. His father was a pedlar, and the early life of the boy was passed
in hard work. What little education he received was obtained at the
public schools. At the age of seventeen he obtained his first
employment, being engaged by Van Amburgh to clean out the cages of the
animals in his menagerie and to assist in the erection of the tents. He
made himself so useful to his employer that he was soon promoted to the
position of ticket receiver. He remained with Van Amburgh for eight
years, travelling with him through the United States, Canada, and Europe,
and, at the age of twenty-five, left him to begin life for himself in the
calling of his father. He went back to Vermont, and began peddling such
small articles as steel pens and lead pencils through the towns of the
State. He succeeded in acquiring and saving a small sum of money, and
was able to borrow a little more. He then purchased a horse and wagon,
and began a series of more extended operations as a pedlar of dry goods.
He visited all the principal towns and villages of Vermont, and met with
a ready sale for his goods. His energy and business tact were eminently
successful, and his business soon grew to such an extent that his
one-horse wagon was too small for it. He accordingly sold this vehicle,
and purchased a handsome "four in hand," with which he travelled through
Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as Vermont. He was very popular
with his customers, and established a reputation for fair dealing,
selling good articles at a moderate profit.

His energy and success attracted the attention of the Boston wholesale
house from which he bought his goods, and they thinking that he would
prove a useful acquisition to them, offered him an interest in their
business. Their offer was accepted; and, in 1860, he became a partner in
the house of Jordan, Marsh & Co., of Boston. He was sent South by the
firm, and though he succeeded in conducting for them several large and
profitable transactions during the early part of the war, and though they
remained his friends to the close of his life, the connection was not
altogether satisfactory to them, and, in 1862, they purchased his
interest in the business for the sum of $64,000.

About this time, some capitalists in Boston were desirous of purchasing
the Stonington line of steamboats, then owned by Daniel Drew. Fisk
became aware of their desire, and, coming to New York, in 1863, obtained
an introduction to Daniel Drew, and so won the favor and confidence of
that gentleman that he was employed by him to manage the negotiation for
the sale of the steamers, which he did to Mr. Drew's entire satisfaction.
From that time, Drew became his friend, and soon gained him a position in
Wall street.

Upon entering the street, Fisk began a series of speculations on his own
account, and, in the short space of two years, he lost all his money. It
is said that he swore a mighty oath that as Wall street had ruined him,
Wall street should pay for it. Daniel Drew now came to his aid, and, in
1865, helped him to form the firm of Fisk, Belden & Co., stock-brokers,
and assisted the new house by employing them as his brokers in many of
his heaviest transactions.

[Picture: JAMES FISK, JR.]

In 1867 occurred the great struggle between Drew and Vanderbilt for the
possession of the Erie Railway. James Fisk and Jay Gould now made their
appearance as Directors in the Erie Railway. The following is the New
York _Tribune's_ account of this affair:

"When the crisis came, on the eve of the election for Directors, in
October, 1867, there were three contestants in the field. Fisk was
serving under the Drew party, who wanted to be retained in office.
Vanderbilt, master of Harlem, Hudson River, and Central, seemed to be on
the point of securing Erie also. Eldridge was the leader of the Boston,
Hartford, and Erie party, which wanted to get into the Erie Directory for
the purpose of making that Company guarantee the bonds of their own
worthless road. Eldridge was assisted by Gould. As a result of the
compromise by which the three opposing interests coalesced, Fisk and
Gould were both chosen Directors of Erie, and from the month of October,
1867, dates the memorable association of these two choice spirits since
so famous in the money markets of the world. They were not the
counterparts, but the complements of each other. Fisk was bold,
unscrupulous, dashing, enterprising, ready in execution, powerful in his
influence over the lower and more sensual order of men. Gould was
artful, reticent, long-headed, clear of brain, fertile of invention,
tenacious of purpose, and no more burdened with unnecessary scruples than
his more noisy and flashy companion. They were not long in joining
fortunes. At the time of the famous Erie corner, the next March, they
were ostensibly working on opposite sides, Gould acting for Vanderbilt,
and Fisk being the man to whom Drew intrusted 50,000 shares of new stock,
secretly issued, to be used when Vanderbilt's brokers began to buy. The
mysteries of that transaction are fully known only to a few of the
principal actors. An injuction of Judge Barnard's had forbidden Drew or
anybody connected with the road to manufacture any more stock by the
issue of convertible bonds. But Drew was 'short' of Erie; the Vanderbilt
pool threatened ruin; and stock must be had. The new certificates had
already been made out in the name of James Fisk, jr., and were in the
hands of the Secretary who was enjoined from issuing them. Mr. Fisk saw
a way out of the difficulty. The Secretary gave the certificate books to
an employe of the road, with directions to carry them carefully to the
transfer office. The messenger returned in a moment empty-handed, and
told the astonished Secretary that Mr. Fisk had met him at the door,
taken the books, and 'run away with them!' On the same day the
convertible bonds corresponding to these certificates were placed on the
Secretary's desk, and as soon as Vanderbilt had forced up the price of
Erie, Fisk's new shares were thrown upon the market, and bought by
Vanderbilt's agents before their origin was suspected. Mr. Fisk
unfortunately had not yet cultivated the intimate relations with Judge
Barnard which he subsequently sustained. When the Drew party applied for
an order from Judge Gilbert in Brooklyn, enjoining Barnard's injunctions,
the petitioner who accused that ornament of the New York bench of a
corrupt conspiracy to speculate in Erie stock, was none other than Fisk's
partner, Mr. Belden. The next morning Barnard issued an order of arrest
for contempt, and Fisk, with the whole Erie Directory, fled to Jersey
City, carrying $7,000,000 of money and the books and papers of the
Company. Among the most valuable of the assets transferred on that
occasion to Taylor's Hotel was Miss Helen Josephine Mansfield. 'I went
to Jersey,' testified this fair creature some weeks ago, in the suit
which has just come to so tragical a termination, 'with the officers of
the Erie Company, and the railroad paid all the expense.' Mr. Fisk could
afford to amuse himself. He had made fifty or sixty thousand dollars by
his day's work in Broad street, and he had the satisfaction of knowing
that he had not only beaten Vanderbilt and Barnard, but outwitted even
his particular friend and patron, Mr. Drew. He had now practically the
greater share of the management on his shoulders, though in name he was
only Controller. He softened public indignation by subsidizing a gang of
ruffians, ostensibly in the Vanderbilt interest, to besiege 'Fort
Taylor,' as if for the purpose of kidnapping the Directors, and
organizing a band of railway hands to mount guard about the hotel. He
dogged the steps of Mr. Drew, who was stealing over to New York by night
to make a secret compromise for himself alone with Mr. Vanderbilt, and
when Drew carried off the funds of the Company, Fisk compelled him to
bring them back by putting an attachment on his money in bank. A bill
was now introduced at Albany to legalize Drew's over-issue of stock. It
was defeated. Mr. Gould visited the capital with half a million dollars,
and came back without a cent, and the bill which three weeks before had
been rejected by a vote of 83 to 32 was carried by a vote of 101 to 6.
This was followed by a general suspension of hostilities. The scandalous
network of injunctions had become so intricate that one general order was
obtained sweeping it all away. Judge Barnard was placated in some manner
not made public. Mr. Peter B. Sweeny, who, as the representative of
Tammany, had been appointed 'Receiver' of the property of the railway
company after it had been carried out of reach, was allowed $150,000 for
his trouble of taking care of nothing; and the exiles returned to New
York. In one of his characteristic fits of frankness, James Fisk
afterward on the witness stand described the settlement which ensued as
an 'almighty robbery.' The Directors of Erie took 50,000 shares of stock
off Vanderbilt's shoulders at 70, and gave him $1,000,000 besides.
Eldridge got $4,000,000 of Erie acceptances in exchange for $5,000,000 of
Boston, Hartford, and Erie, which became bankrupt very soon afterward.
Drew kept all he had made, but was to pay $540,000 into the Erie treasury
and stand acquitted of all claims the corporation might have against him.
Nearly half a million more was required to pay the lawyers and
discontinue the suits. Fisk, getting nothing personally, stood out
against the arrangement until the conspirators consented to give him--the
Erie Railroad! Drew and some others were to resign, and Fisk and Gould
to take possession of the property."

[Picture: JAY GOULD.]

Out of his first operations in Erie stock, Fisk is said to have made
$1,300,000. The Legislature of New York legalized his acts, through the
influence, it is said, of Mr. William M. Tweed. It is certain that this
act was followed by the entrance of Tweed and Sweeny into the Board of
Directors.

Once in possession of the Erie road, Fisk and his colleagues managed it
in their own interests. It was commonly believed in the city that Fisk
was but the executor of the designs which were conceived by an abler
brain than his own.

He figured largely in the infamous Black Friday transactions of Wall
street, and is credited by the public with being one of the originators
of that vast conspiracy to destroy the business of the street. How near
he came to success has already been shown.

Soon after coming into possession of the Erie road, he purchased Pike's
Opera House for $1,000,000 in the name of the Erie Railway Company. The
Directors, however, refused to approve the transaction, and he refunded
to them the amount of the purchase, taking the building on his private
account, and repaying the road in some of its stock owned by him.
Subsequently he leased the front building to the road at an enormous
rent, and opened for it a suite of the most gorgeous railway offices in
the world. He subsequently bought the Fifth Avenue Theatre, and the
Central Park Garden, and the Bristol line of steamers, and the steamers
plying in connection with the Long Branch Railway. He made himself
"Admiral" of this magnificent fleet, and dressed himself in a gorgeous
naval uniform. When President Grant visited the Coliseum Concert at
Boston, Fisk accompanied him in this dress, having previously played the
part of host to the President during the voyage down the Sound on one of
his boats. A year or two previous to his death, he was elected Colonel
of the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard.

Previous to his purchase of the Grand Opera House, Mr. Fisk was an
unknown man, but the ownership of this palatial establishment gave him an
opportunity of enjoying the notoriety he coveted. His career in
connection with this establishment, and his unscrupulous management of
the Erie Railway, soon made him notorious in all parts of America and
Europe. His monogram was placed on everything he owned or was connected
with, and he literally lived in the gaze of the public. He can scarcely
be said to have had any private life, for the whole town was talking of
his theatres, his dashing four in hand, his railway and steamboats, his
regiment, his toilettes, his magnificence, his reckless generosity, and
his love affairs. He had little regard for morality or public sentiment,
and hesitated at nothing necessary to the success of his schemes. His
great passion was for notoriety, and he cared not what he did so it made
people talk about him. He surrounded himself with a kind of barbaric
splendor, which won him the name of the "Prince of Erie." Some of his
acts were utterly ludicrous, and he had the wit to perceive it, but he
cared not so it made James Fisk, jr., the talk of the day. His influence
upon the community was bad. He had not only his admirers, but his
imitators, and these sought to reproduce his bad qualities rather than
his virtues.

In some respects he was a strange compound of good and evil. He was
utterly unprincipled, yet he was generous to a fault. No one ever came
to him in distress without meeting with assistance, and it adds to the
virtue of these good deeds that he never proclaimed them to the world.
Says one of his intimate friends: "His personal expenses were, at a
liberal estimate, not one-fifth as large as the amount which he spent in
providing for persons in whose affairs he took a kindly interest, who had
seen misfortune in life, and whom he felt to be dependent upon him for
assistance. He gave away constantly enormous amounts in still more
direct charities, concerning which he rarely spoke to any one, and it was
only by accident that even his most intimate friends found out what he
was doing. He supported for some years an entire family of blind persons
without ever saying a word about it to his nearest friends. He was
particularly generous towards actors and actresses, who, whenever they
suffered from misfortune, would always appeal to him; and one lady,
herself an actress of considerable repute and of very generous nature,
was in the habit of coming constantly to Mr. Fisk to appeal to him for
assistance to aged or unfortunate members of their profession, assistance
which he never refused. Very recently a lady, who was formerly a New
York favorite, but who made an unhappy marriage, and to escape from a
drunken husband had carried her child to England, where, after struggling
in provincial theatres for more than a year, she came to almost her last
penny and had hardly the means to return to this country, without a
change of clothing and without being able to bring away her child, made
her case known to the lady before-mentioned, who immediately, after
helping to the extent of her own scanty means, sent her with a note to
Mr. Fisk. Mr. Fisk listened to her story, advanced her $250 on the spot,
procured her an engagement in a theatre at $75 a week, and interested the
captain of one of our finest sea-going vessels in the case so far as to
provide a free passage for the child to this country, the captain, in
order to please Mr. Fisk, taking great pains to discover the whereabouts
of the child and restore her to its mother. These are but incidental
illustrations of what Mr. Fisk was daily doing, and always doing with the
utmost privacy and with the greatest reluctance to allow it to become
known. He would rarely subscribe to any public charity, because he
disliked to make any pretence of liberality before the public."

In the fall of 1867, Fisk made the acquaintance of Mrs. Helen Josephine
Mansfield, an actress, who had just been divorced from her husband, Frank
Lawler. He became deeply enamored of her, and she became his mistress
and lived with him several years, her main object being, it would seem,
to obtain from him all the money he was willing to expend upon her. Fisk
subsequently introduced one of his friends, Edward S. Stokes, to Mrs.
Mansfield, and the woman was not long in transferring her affections from
her protector to Stokes. This aroused Fisk's jealousy, and led to
constant trouble between his mistress and himself. His quarrel with
Stokes was complicated by business disputes, which were carried into the
courts, where Fisk was all powerful. The matter went from bad to worse,
until at length Stokes and Mrs. Mansfield instituted a libel suit against
Fisk, which was commonly regarded in the city as simply an attempt on
their part to extort money from him. The suit dragged its slow way
through the court in which it was instituted, and every day diminished
the chances of the success of the plaintiffs.

For reasons which he has not yet made public, Stokes now resolved to take
matters into his own hands, and on the afternoon of the 6th of January,
1872, waylaid Fisk, as the latter was ascending the private stairway of
the Grand Central Hotel, and, firing upon him twice from his hiding
place, inflicted on him severe wounds from which he died the next day.
The assassination was most cowardly and brutal, and awakened a feeling of
horror and indignation on the part of all classes.

XLVII. TRINITY CHURCH.

On the west side of Broadway, facing Wall street, stands Trinity Church,
or, as it is commonly called, "Old Trinity," the handsomest
ecclesiastical structure in the city. It is the third edifice which has
occupied the site. The first church was built in 1697, at the
organization of the parish, and was a plain square edifice with an ugly
steeple. In 1776, this building was destroyed in the great fire of that
year. A second church was built on the site of the old one, in 1790. In
1839, this was pulled down, and the present noble edifice was erected.
It was finished and consecrated in 1846.

The present church is a beautiful structure of brown-stone, built as
nearly in the pure Gothic style as modern churches ever are. The walls
are fifty feet in height, and the apex of the roof is sixty feet from the
floor of the church. The interior is finished in brown-stone, with
massive columns of the same material supporting the roof. There are no
transepts, but it is proposed to enlarge the church by the addition of
transepts, and to extend the choir back to the end of the churchyard.
The nave and the aisles make up the public portion of the church. The
choir is occupied by the clergy. The windows are of stained glass.
Those at the sides are very simple, but the oriel over the altar is a
grand work. There are two organs, a monster instrument over the main
entrance, and a smaller organ in the choir. Both are remarkably fine
instruments. The vestry rooms, which lie on each side of the chancel,
contain a number of handsome memorial tablets, and in the north room
there is a fine tomb in memory of Bishop Onderdonk, with a full-length
effigy of the deceased prelate in his episcopal robes.

Service is held twice a day in the church. On Sundays and high feast
days there is full service and a sermon. The choral service is used
altogether on such occasions. Trinity has long been famous for its
excellent music. The choir consists of men and boys, who are trained
with great care by the musical director. The service is very beautiful
and impressive, and is thoroughly in keeping with the grand and
cathedral-like edifice in which it is conducted. The two organs, the
voices of the choristers, and often the chime of bells, all combine to
send a flood of melody rolling through the beautiful arches such as is
never heard elsewhere in the city.

The spire is 284 feet in height, and is built of solid brownstone from
the base to the summit of the cross. It contains a clock, with three
faces, just above the roof of the church, and a chime of bells. About
110 feet from the ground the square form of the tower terminates, and a
massive but graceful octagonal spire rises to a height of 174 feet. At
the base of this spire is a narrow gallery enclosed with a stone
balustrade, from which a fine view of the city and the surrounding
country is obtained. The visitor may, however, climb within the spire to
a point nearly two hundred and fifty feet from the street. Here is a
small wooden platform, and about four feet above it are four small
windows through which one may look out upon the magnificent view spread
out below him. The eye can range over the entire city, and take in
Brooklyn and its suburban towns as well. To the eastward are Long Island
Sound and the distant hills of Connecticut. To the southward stretches
away the glorious bay, and beyond it is the dark blue line of the
Atlantic. Sandy Hook, the Highlands, the Narrows, and Staten Island are
all in full view. To the westward is the New Jersey shore, and back of
Jersey city rise the blue Orange Mountains, with Newark, Elizabeth,
Orange and Patterson in full sight. To the northward, the Hudson
stretches away until it seems to disappear in the dark shadow of the
Palisades. From where you stand, you look down on the habitations of
nearly three millions of people. The bay, the rivers, and the distant
Sound are crowded with vessels of all kinds. If the day be clear, you
may see the railway trains dashing across the meadows back of Jersey
City. The roar of the great city comes up to you from below, and beneath
you is a perfect maze of telegraph wires. The people in the streets seem
like pigmies, and the vehicles are like so many toys. You know they are
moving rapidly, but they seem from this lofty height to be crawling. It
is a long way to these upper windows, but the view which they command is
worth the exertion. The tower is open to visitors during the week, on
payment of a trifling fee to the sexton.

The chimes are hung in the square tower, just above the roof of the
church. The bells are nine in number. The smallest weighs several
hundred pounds, while the largest weighs several thousand. The musical
range is an octave and a quarter, rather a limited scale, it is true, but
the ringer is a thorough musician, and has managed to ring out many an
air within this compass, which but for his ingenuity would have been
unsuited to these bells. The largest bell, the "Big Ben," and several
others, are connected with the clock, and the former strikes the hours,
while the rest of this set chime the quarters. Five of the bells, the
large one and the four smaller ones, were brought here from England, in
1846. The other four were made in West Troy, by Meneely & Son, a few
years later, and are fully equal to their English mates in tone and
compass. The entire chime is very rich and sweet in tone, and, in this
respect, is surpassed by very few bells in the world. The bells are hung
on swinging frames, but are lashed, so as to stand motionless during the
chiming, the notes being struck by the tongues, which are movable. The
tongue always strikes in the same place, and thus the notes are full and
regular. From the tongue of each bell there is a cord which is attached
to a wooden lever in the ringer's room, about thirty feet below. These
nine levers are arranged side by side, and are so arranged as to work as
easy as possible. Each is as large as a handspike, and it requires no
little strength to sustain the exertion of working them. The ringer
places his music before him, and strikes each note as it occurs by
suddenly pushing down the proper lever. At the end of his work, he is
thoroughly tired. The ringer now in charge of the bells is Mr. James
Ayliffe, an accomplished musician.