Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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

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He was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of June, 1813, and is
now in his fifty-ninth year, though he looks very much younger. He was
the eighth child of Dr. Lyman Beecher, and was regarded as the dunce of
the family, and, according to his own account, had the usual unpleasant
experience of ministers' children. Being of a naturally strong, vigorous
constitution, his body far outran his mind, and the little fellow lagged
behind until nature asserted her rights. The forcing process
accomplished very little with him. He was quick-witted, however, and
fond of fun. The gloomy doctrines of his learned father made him
shudder, and he came to the conclusion that Sunday was a day of penance,
and the Catechism a species of torture invented for the punishment of
dull boys. At the age of ten, he was sent to a boarding-school in
Bethlehem, where he studied by shouldering his gun and going after
partridges. Then his sister, Catharine, took him in hand, but he spent
his time in teazing the girls of her school, and she was compelled to
give him up as a hopeless case. The boy of ten could not be made a
mental prodigy, do what they would. The result is that the man of
fifty-nine is as fresh and vigorous in body and mind as most others are
at thirty-five.

[Picture: HENRY WARD BEECHER.]

When he was twelve years old, his father removed to Boston, and there
Henry began to show his true powers. He learned rapidly, and was soon
sent to the Mount Pleasant Institute, at Amherst, from which he passed to
Amherst College, where he graduated with distinction in 1834. While at
Mount Pleasant, he formed the resolution of entering the ministry, and
all his studies were thenceforward shaped to that end. In 1832, his
father had removed to Cincinnati, to assume the presidency of the Lane
Theological Seminary, and, after leaving Amherst, Henry followed him to
the West, and completed his theological course at the Lane Seminary in
1836. In that year he was admitted to the ministry of the Presbyterian
Church.

Immediately after his ordination, Mr. Beecher married, and accepted a
call to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the Ohio River, twenty miles below
Cincinnati. He did not stay there long, but passed to the charge of a
church in Indianapolis, where he spent eight years--eight valuable years
to him, for he says he learned how to preach there. In the summer of
1847, he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of Plymouth
Church, in Brooklyn, which had just been founded, and on the 11th of
November, 1847, he was publicly installed in the position which he has
since held.

Few persons of education and taste ever come to New York without hearing
the great preacher. Plymouth Church is a familiar place to them. It is
located in Orange street, between Hicks and Henry streets, Brooklyn. It
is a plain structure of red brick. The interior is as simple as the
exterior. It is a plain, square room, with a large gallery extending
entirely around it. At the upper end is a platform on which stands the
pulpit--an exquisitely carved little stand of wood from the Garden of
Gethsemane. In the gallery, back of the pulpit, is the organ, one of the
grandest instruments in the country. The seats are arranged in
semicircles. By placing chairs in the aisles, the house will seat with
comfort twenty five hundred people. The congregation usually numbers
about three thousand, every available place being crowded. The
upholstering is in crimson, and contrasts well with the prevailing white
color of the interior.

The singing is congregational, and is magnificent. One never hears such
singing outside of Plymouth Church.

The gem of the whole service, however, is the sermon; and these sermons
are characteristic of the man. They come warm and fresh from his heart,
and they go home to the hearer, giving him food for thought for days
afterward. Mr. Beecher talks to his people of what they have been
thinking of during the week, of trials that have perplexed them, and of
joys which have blessed them. He takes the merchant and the clerk to
task for their conduct in the walks of business, and warns them of the
snares and pitfalls which lie along their paths. He strips the thin
guise of honesty from the questionable transactions of Wall street, and
holds them up to public scorn. His dramatic power is extraordinary. He
can hardly be responsible for it, since it breaks forth almost without
his will. He moves his audience to tears, or brings a mirthful smile to
their lips, with a power that is irresistible. His illustrations and
figures are drawn chiefly from nature, and are fresh and striking. He
can startle his hearers with the terrors of the law, but he prefers to
preach the gospel of love. His sermons are printed weekly in the
_Plymouth Pulpit_, and are read by thousands.

His literary labors, apart from his ministerial duties, have been
constant. He has published several books, has edited _The Independent_
and _The Christian Union_, and has contributed regularly to the _New York
Ledger_ and other papers. He has been almost constantly in the lecture
field, and has spoken frequently before public assemblies on the various
questions of the day.

Mr. Beecher is young-looking and vigorous. He has the face of a great
orator, and one that is well worth studying. He dresses plainly, with
something of the farmer in his air, and lives simply. He is blessed with
robust health, and, like his father, is fond of vigorous exercise. He
has a fine farm on the Hudson, to which he repairs in the summers. Here
he can indulge his love of nature without restraint. He is said to be a
capital farmer, though he complains that he does not find the pursuit any
more remunerative than does his friend, Mr. Greeley.

LIV. BLACK-MAILING.

To live at the expense of other people, and to procure the means of
living in comfort without working for it, is an art in which there are
many proficients in New York. Certain of those who practise this art are
known in city parlance as "Black-mailers," and they constitute one of the
most dangerous portions of the community. The Blackmailer is generally a
woman, though she is frequently sustained or urged on by a rough,
professional thief, or pick-pocket. The indiscretions of men of
nominally spotless character are constantly becoming known through the
instrumentality of the gossips, and as soon as these reach the ears of
the Blackmailers, who are ever on the watch for them, they proceed to
take advantage of them to extort money from the person implicated. They
are not content, however, with making victims of those who are really
guilty of indiscretions, but boldly assail the innocent and virtuous,
well-knowing that nine persons out of ten, though guiltless of
wrongdoing, will sooner comply with their demands than incur the
annoyance of a public scandal. Such persons think the wretch will never
dare to charge them with the same offence or endeavor to extort money
from them a second time, and make the first payment merely to rid
themselves of the annoyance. They ought never to yield, whether innocent
or guilty, for the Blackmailer is sure to repeat her demand. The law
makes it a crime for any one to endeavor to extort money in this way, and
no person so threatened should hesitate to apply to the police for
protection.

As a rule, the Blackmailer is easily driven off with the aid of the
police, but sometimes her plans are so skilfully laid that it requires
all the ingenuity of the most experienced detectives to ferret out the
plot. These women act upon the well-established fact that respectable
people dread scandal, and that a man guilty of an indiscretion will make
many sacrifices to conceal it. They rarely assail women, as there is not
much money to be made out of them, but they know that almost any story
about a man will be believed, and they fasten themselves like leeches
upon men. Young men about to make rich marriages are their favorite
victims. These generally yield to them, not caring to risk a scandal
which might break off the whole affair. If a young man refuses one of
them on such occasions, she goes boldly to the lady he is to marry, and
declares herself the innocent and wronged victim of the aforesaid young
man. This is her revenge, and the majority of young men, knowing them to
be capable of such a course, comply with their demands on the spot.
There is nothing these wretches will not do, no place they will not
invade, in order to extort money from their victims.

Persons from the country, stopping at the hotels of the city, are
frequently the objects of the attacks of the Blackmailers. A man's name
is learned from the hotel register, and he is boldly approached and
charged with conduct he never dreamed of being guilty of. The scoundrel
professes to know him and his whole family, and names the price of his
silence. Too often the demand is complied with, and the money paid. The
proper course to pursue when accosted in such a manner, is to call upon
the nearest policeman for assistance in shaking off the wretch.

A few years ago a minister, in charge of a prominent and wealthy city
church abruptly left the city. There had never been a whisper of any
kind of scandal connected with his name, and his friends were at a loss
to account for his strange action. He refused, at first, when his
retreat was discovered, to give any reason for his conduct, and begged
that his hiding-place should be kept secret. At length, however, he
confessed that he was the innocent victim of a female Blackmailer. He
was a weak man, proud of his reputation, and more than usually timid in
such matters. The woman had approached him, and had boldly charged him
with a crime of which he was innocent, and had demanded a sum of money as
the price of her silence. Finding it impossible to get rid of her, and
dreading a scandal, the minister had paid the money. The demand was
repeated again and again for two years, until the woman had wrung from
her victim a sum of several thousand dollars, and had driven him to such
a state of despair that he had abandoned his home and his prospects, and
had fled to escape from her clutches. His friends came to his aid, and
by securing the interposition of the police, compelled the woman to
relinquish her hold upon her victim.

Many of the female Blackmailers are very young, mere girls. A couple of
years ago, Police Captain Thorne discovered a regularly organized band of
them. They are mostly flower girls, from twelve to sixteen years of age.
They are generally modest in demeanor, and some of them are attractive in
appearance. They gain admittance to the offices and counting rooms of
professional men and merchants, under the pretext of selling their
flowers, and then, if the gentleman is alone, close the door, and
threaten to scream and accuse him of taking improper liberties with them,
unless he consents to pay them the sum they demand.

A merchant of great wealth, high position, and irreproachable character,
called upon Captain Thorne, about two years ago, and "frankly stated that
he was the victim of one of these flower girls, who had already despoiled
him of large sums of money, and whose persecutions were actually killing
him. It appears that she always came to his counting-house on particular
days, and, watching until he was alone, went boldly into his private
office. In police parlance, they 'put up a job on her.' Captain Thorne
was secreted in the office the next time she called, and the gentleman
talked to her as previously arranged. He began by asking her why she
persisted in her demands upon him, for, said he, 'you know I never had
anything to do with you, never said an improper word to you.' The young
analyst of human nature answered, unabashed, 'I know that; but who'll
believe you if I say you did?' Captain Thorne, dressed in full police
uniform, stepped from the closet with, 'I will for one, Mary.' The girl,
young as she was, had experience enough in devious ways to see that her
game had escaped, and readily, although sullenly, promised to cease
exacting tribute in that particular quarter. The gentleman would go no
further, and to the earnest entreaties of Captain Thorne to prosecute the
girl, both for her own good and that of society, returned an absolute
refusal. Captain Thorne was, therefore, obliged to let her go with a
warning not to attempt her operations again anywhere. He also
remonstrated with her upon her way of living, and asked her why she did
such things. The hardened girl morosely answered that all the other
girls did them, and thus gave a clue which was followed until it
developed a gang of feminine blackmailers of tender years, working in
concert. Although the band was then dispersed, the method of robbery it
employed survived, and is yet extensively used by scores of girls, under
the cover of selling not only flowers, but apples and other fruits."

LV. FEMALE SHARPERS.

I. FORTUNE-TELLERS AND CLAIRVOYANTS.

The city journals frequently contain such advertisements as the
following:

A TEST MEDIUM.--THE ORIGINAL MADAME F--- tells everything, traces absent
friends, losses, causes speedy marriages, gives lucky numbers. Ladies,
fifty cents; gentlemen, one dollar. 464 ---th Avenue.

A FACT--NO IMPOSITION. THE GREAT EUROPEAN Clairvoyant. She consults you
on all affairs of life. Born with a natural gift, she tells past,
present, and future; she brings together those long separated; causes
speedy marriages; shows you a correct likeness of your future husband or
friends in love affairs. She was never known to fail. She tells his
name; also lucky numbers free of charge. She succeeds when all others
fail. Two thousand dollars reward for any one that can equal her in
professional skill. Ladies, fifty cents to one dollar. Positively no
gents admitted. No 40 --- Avenue.

It seems strange that, in this boasted age of enlightenment, the persons
who make such announcements as the above can find any one simple enough
to believe them. Yet, it is a fact, that these persons, who are
generally women, frequently make large sums of money out of the credulity
of their fellow creatures. Every mail brings them letters from persons
in various parts of the country. These letters are generally answered,
and the contents have disgusted more than one simpleton. The information
furnished is such as any casual acquaintance could give, and just as
trustworthy as the reports of the "reliable gentleman just from the
front," used to prove during the late war. The city custom of these
impostors is about equal to that brought to them from the country by
means of their advertisements. Some of them make as much as one hundred
dollars per day, all of which is a clear profit. The majority earn from
three to six dollars per day. Servant girls are profitable customers.
Indeed, but for female credulity the business would go down.

Still, there are many male visitors. Speculators, victims of the gaming
table and the lottery, come to ask for advice, which is given at random.
The woman knows but little of her visitors, and has no means of learning
anything about them. Sometimes her statements are found to be true, but
it is by the merest accident.

The clairvoyants do not hesitate to confess to their friends, in a
confidential way, of course, that their pretensions are mere humbuggery,
and they laugh at the credulity of their victims, whilst they encourage
it. It seems absurd to discuss this subject seriously. We can only say
to those who shall read this chapter, that there is not in the City of
New York an honest fortune-teller or clairvoyant. They knowingly deceive
persons as to their powers. It is not given to human beings to read the
future--certainly not to such wretched specimens as the persons who
compose the class of which we are writing. The only sensible plan is to
keep your money, dear reader. You know more than these impostors can
possibly tell you.

Many of these fortune-tellers and clairvoyants are simply procuresses.
They draw women into their houses, and ply them so with temptations, that
they frequently ruin them. This is the real business of most of them.
They are leagued with the keepers of houses of ill-fame. No woman is
safe who enters their doors.

The women also offer for sale "amulets," "charms," or "recipes," which
they declare will enable a person to win the love of any one of the
opposite sex, and excite the admiration of friends; or which will "give
you an influence over your enemies or rivals, moulding them to your own
will or purpose;" or which will "enable you to discover lost, stolen, or
hidden treasures," etc., etc. For each or any of these charms, from
three to five dollars is asked, "with return postage," when sent by mail.
All these, as well as "love powders," "love elixirs," and the like, are
either worthless, or are composed of dangerous chemical substances.
Strange to say, the sale of these things is large. The world is full of
fools, and the best proof of it is that two of the most noted women of
New York, who practise the arts we have described, are worth respectively
one hundred thousand dollars and eighty thousand dollars.

II. MATRIMONIAL BROKERS.

There are several women in the city who advertise to introduce strangers
into the best society, and to procure wives and husbands from the same
element for their customers. As a general rule, these women are simply
procuresses. If, however, a man desiring to marry a woman in this city,
seeks their aid, they will always find some means of assisting him. The
charge for their services is either a percentage on the lady's fortune,
or a certain specified sum. The woman, or broker, will devise some means
of making the acquaintance of the lady against whom her arts are to be
directed, and will proceed cautiously, step by step, until she has caused
her victim to meet the man for whom she is working. The arts used vary
according to circumstances, but they rarely fail of success. Men who
wish to accomplish the ruin of some innocent girl, also seek the aid of
these brokers, and frequently, through their assistance, effect their
purpose. If it is necessary, the victim, after being allured to the
broker's house, is drugged. These women are the vampires of society. It
is very difficult for the authorities to make a case against them, and
they generally go unpunished.

The offers of these wretches to procure wives for men wishing to be
married, are often accepted by simpletons living in country districts.
The fool is induced to come to the city, where he is introduced to a
woman who is perhaps a prostitute, or a servant girl, or one who is
willing to marry any man who will support her. She readily enters into
the arrangement proposed by the broker, and marries the silly fellow, who
goes back to his rural home with her, thinking he has married a lady.

LVI. EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

I. THE FREE SCHOOLS.

The provision made by the city and the people of New York for the
education of the young is in keeping with their metropolitan character.
The public and private schools are numerous, and are well supported.

The first in importance are the Public or Free Schools, which are
acknowledged to be the best in the Union. The Free School system is
under the control of a Board of Education, whose offices are located in a
handsome brown stone building at the northwest corner of Grand and Elm
streets. The Board consists of twelve Commissioners, who have the
general supervision of the schools, the disbursement of the moneys
appropriated for the cause of education, the purchase of sites and the
erection of new buildings, the purchase and distribution of books,
stationery, fuel, lights, and all supplies needed by the schools. There
are also five Trustees for each ward, or 110 in all, who were, until
recently, chosen by the people. Besides these, are twenty-one Inspectors
of Schools, who were, until recently, appointed by the Mayor and
confirmed by the people. The charter of 1870, however, changed the whole
system, and gave to the Mayor the power of appointing all the officers
named above, taking the control of the school system entirely out of the
hands of the people. It is needless to add this was the work of the
Ring, and was done to secure to them additional power and plunder.

[Picture: A NEW YORK FREE SCHOOL.]

There are about one hundred buildings in the city used by the public
schools. About eighty-five of these are owned by the city; the others
are rented. The property under the charge of the Board of Education is
valued at more than $10,000,000. The annual expenditure for the support
of the schools averages $3,000,000. In 1869 it was $3,136,136. Of this
sum, $1,759,634, represented teachers' salaries; $41,908, was for the
support of the colored schools; and $164,717, was for the purchase of
school apparatus, maps, globes, blackboards, books, etc. The teachers
employed in the public schools number 2500, a large proportion being
women, The average annual attendance of pupils is 225,000.

The school buildings are generally of brick, tastefully trimmed with
brown stone, though some of those more recently erected are entirely of
brown or Ohio stone. They are among the most handsome edifices in the
city. They are generally four stories in height, with a frontage of 100
or 150 feet. All that were erected for the purpose are commodious and
comfortable, though the more recent structures are the best arranged.
They are provided with every convenience for teaching, and for the
comfort of both teacher and pupil. Some of them cover two city lots,
while others occupy as many as six of these lots. Some will accommodate
as many as 2000 pupils, and these large buildings have been found to be
more economical than small ones. Each is provided with several
fire-proof stairways, and each is in charge of a janitor, who resides in
the building. The entrances for pupils are at the sides of the building.
Visitors enter through the large door in the centre.

The public schools are divided into Primary, Grammar, Evening, and Normal
Schools. There are about 200 of these schools in the city, a Primary and
a Grammar School often occupying the same building. Some of the
Primaries are for boys or girls only, while in others both sexes are
admitted. The course in the Primaries is very simple, as very young
children are taught here. The pupils are divided, according to
qualification, into six grades. The lowest grade receives the simplest
instruction, such as conversational lessons about common objects, or
"object teaching," which is designed to form habits of accurate
observation; simple instruction in regard to morals and manners; reading
and spelling easy words from the blackboard or chart; counting; and
simple addition by the aid of the numerical frame. From this simple, but
substantial basis, the pupil is advanced as rapidly as his capabilities
will permit, from grade to grade; until the first, or highest, is
reached. In this the instruction embraces the four ground rules of
arithmetic, geography, writing, drawing on the slate, and advanced object
lessons. When the pupil is proficient in these studies, he is
transferred to the Grammar School.

The Grammar School takes up the course where it is dropped by the
Primary, and gives to the pupil a sound and practical "common school
education." It embraces in its various grades, such studies as English
grammar, history, astronomy (in its simpler form), physical geography,
composition, drawing, and book keeping, besides the simpler studies of
the lower grades which were begun in the Primary School.

[Picture: THE FREE COLLEGE OF NEW YORK.]

Girls who are found proficient in the Grammar School course, are advanced
to the Normal School, which is temporarily located at the corner of
Broadway and Fourth street. Here they may enjoy the benefits of a course
as thorough and extended as that afforded by the Free College.

Boys who have attended the Grammar Schools for a certain period, and are
found proficient in the course taught there, are promoted to the Free
College of the city of New York. This noble institution is located at
the southeast corner of Lexington avenue and Twenty-third street. It is
a handsome edifice of brick, stuccoed in imitation of brown stone, and
was founded in 1848. The President is Horace Webster, LL.D., and the
faculty includes some of the ablest men in the country. The course
taught here is full and thorough, and is about the same as that of the
best colleges in the land. The entire expense of the Female Normal
School, and the Free College is borne by the city.

The whole public school system is free to all the children of the city,
whose parents will avail themselves of it. Books, and everything needed,
are furnished without charge. The pupil is put to no expense whatever,
but is required to maintain habits of order and personal neatness. The
cost to the city is gladly borne by the tax payers, for it saves the
metropolis from an increase of the great army of ignorant and idle men
and women, which are the curse of all great cities. The very poorest men
or women can thus give to their children the priceless boon of knowledge,
of which their youth was deprived. Profiting by the advantage thus
acquired, these little ones, in after years, may rise to fame and
fortune. Thus not only the metropolis but the whole country reaps the
blessings of this magnificent system of free education. The poor,
however, are not the only persons who secure the advantages of the free
schools for their children. Many wealthy, or moderately comfortable
parents send their children to these schools, because they are the best
in the city.