Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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

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The clock tower and the upper portions of the building were set on fire
by the pyrotechnical display in honor of the Atlantic Telegraph of 1859.
They were rebuilt soon afterwards, in much better style.

"Previous to the completion of the new cupola, our city fathers
contracted with Messrs. Sperry & Co., the celebrated tower-clock makers
of Broadway, to build a clock for it, at a cost not exceeding four
thousand dollars, that our citizens might place the utmost reliance upon,
as a time-keeper of unvarying correctness. During the month of April the
clock was completed, and the busy thousands who were daily wont to look
up to the silent monitor, above which the figure of Justice was
enthroned, hailed its appearance with the utmost satisfaction. It is
undoubtedly the finest specimen of a tower-clock on this side of the
Atlantic, and, as an accurate time-keeper, competent judges pronounce it
to be unsurpassed in the world. The main wheels are thirty inches in
diameter, the escapement is jewelled, and the pendulum, which is in
itself a curiosity, is over fourteen feet in length. It is a curious
fact that the pendulum bob weighs over three hundred pounds; but so
finely finished is every wheel, pinion, and pivot in the clock, and so
little power is required to drive them, that a weight of only one hundred
pounds is all that is necessary to keep this ponderous mass of metal
vibrating, and turn four pairs of hands on the dials of the cupola. The
clock does not stand, as many suppose, directly behind the dials, but in
the story below, and a perpendicular iron rod, twenty-five feet in
length, connects it with the dial-works above."

[Picture: THE CITY HALL.]

To the east of the City Hall, and within the limits of the Park, is the
Hall of Records, a stone building, covered with stucco. It was erected
in 1757, as a city prison. It is now occupied by the Registrar of the
city and his clerks.

In the rear of the City Hall, and fronting on Chambers street, is the New
County Court House, which, when completed, will be one of the finest
edifices in the New World. It was begun more than eight years ago, and
is constructed of "East Chester and Massachusetts white marble, with iron
beams and supports, iron staircases, outside iron doors, solid
black-walnut doors (on the inside), and marble tiling on every hall-floor
of the building, laid upon iron beams, concreted over, and bricked up.
With a basis of concrete, Georgia-pine, over yellow-pine, is used for the
flooring of the apartments. The iron supports and beams are of immense
strength--some of the girders crossing the rooms weighing over fifty
thousand pounds. The pervading order of architecture is Corinthian, but,
although excellent, the building cannot be said to be purely Corinthian.
An additional depth of, say, thirty feet, would have prevented a cramping
of the windows on the sides, which now necessarily exists, and have added
power and comprehension to the structure as an entirety; but the general
effect is grand and striking in the extreme. The building is two hundred
and fifty feet long, and one hundred and fifty feet wide. From the
base-course to the top of the pediment the height is ninety-seven feet,
and to the top of the dome, not yet erected, two hundred and twenty-five
feet. From the sidewalk to the top of the pediment measures eighty-two
feet; to the top of the dome two hundred and ten feet. When completed,
the building will be surmounted by a large dome, giving a general
resemblance to the main portion of the Capitol at Washington. The dome,
viewed from the rear, appears something heavy and cumbrous for the
general character of the structure which it crowns; but a front view,
from Chambers street, when the eye, in its upward sweep, takes in the
broad flight of steps, the grand columns, and the general robustness of
the main entrance, dissipates this idea, and attaches grace and integrity
to the whole. One of the most novel features of the dome will be the
arrangement of the tower, crowning its apex, into a light-house, which,
from its extreme power and height, it is supposed, will furnish guidance
to vessels as far out at sea as that afforded by any beacon on the
neighboring coast. This is the suggestion of the architect, Mr. Kellum,
but, whether or not it will be carried out in the execution of the
design, Mr. Tucker, the superintendent of the work, is unable to say.
The interior of the edifice is equally elaborate and complete, and
several of the apartments are now occupied by the County Clerk, the
Supreme Court, and as other offices. The portico and stoop, now being
completed, on Chambers street, will, it is said, be the finest piece of
work of the kind in America."

It was this building which furnished the Ring with their favorite pretext
for stealing the public money. The manner in which this was done has
been described in another chapter.

The Bible House is a massive structure of red brick, with brown stone
trimmings, and covers the block bounded by Third and Fourth avenues and
Eighth and Ninth streets. It covers three-quarters of an acre, its four
fronts measuring a total of 710 feet. It was completed in 1853, at a
cost, including the ground, of $303,000, and is to-day worth nearly
double that sum. It contains fifty stores and offices, which yield an
aggregate annual rent of nearly $40,000. These rooms are occupied
chiefly by benevolent and charitable societies, so that the Bible House
has become the great centre from which radiate the principal labors of
charity and benevolence in the City and State.

The Bible House is owned by, and forms the headquarters of the American
Bible Society. The Bibles of this Society are printed here, every
portion of their publication being carried on under this vast roof. The
receipts of the Society since its organization in 1816 have amounted to
nearly $6,000,000. Thousands of copies are annually printed and
distributed from here. The entire Union has been canvassed three times
by the agents of the Society, and hundreds of thousands of destitute
families have been furnished each with a copy of the Blessed Book. The
Bible has been printed here in twenty-nine different languages, and parts
of it have been issued in other languages.

About 625 persons find employment in this gigantic establishment. Of
these about three hundred are girls, and twenty or thirty boys. The
girls feed the presses, sew the books, apply gold-leaf to the covers
ready for tooling, etc. About a dozen little girls are employed in the
press-room in laying the sheets, of the best description of Bibles,
between glazed boards, and so preparing them for being placed in the
hydraulic presses. Every day there are six thousand Bibles printed in
this establishment, and three hundred and fifty turned out of hand
completely bound and finished.

[Picture: TAMMANY HALL.]

Tammany Hall, in East Fourteenth street, between Irving Place and Third
avenue, is a handsome edifice of red brick, with white marble trimmings.
It contains several fine halls, and a number of committee rooms. The
main hall is one of the handsomest in the city, and was formerly used as
a theatre. It was in this hall that the National Democratic Convention
of 1868 was held. The building is the property of the "Tammany Society."
This Society was organized in 1789 as a benevolent association, but
subsequently became a political organization and the ruling power in the
Democratic politics of the City and State.

[Picture: NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.]

The Academy of Design is located at the northwest corner of Fourth avenue
and Twenty-third street. It is one of the most beautiful edifices in the
city. It is built in the pure Gothic style of the thirteenth century,
and the external walls are composed of variegated marble. It has an air
of lightness and elegance, that at once elicit the admiration of the
gazer. The interior is finished with white pine, ash, mahogany, oak, and
black walnut in their natural colors; no paint being used in the
building. Schools of art, a library, reading room, lecture room, and the
necessary rooms for the business of the institution, occupy the first and
second stories. The third floor is devoted to the gallery of paintings
and the sculpture room. At certain seasons of the year exhibitions of
paintings and statuary are held here. None but works of living artists
are exhibited.

[Picture: STEINWAY AND SONS' PIANO FACTORY.]

One of the most imposing buildings in the city is the new Grand Central
Depot, on Forty-second street and Fourth avenue. It is constructed of
red brick, with iron trimmings painted white, in imitation of marble.
The south front is adorned with three and the west front with two massive
pavilions. The central pavilion of each front contains an illuminated
clock. The entire building is 696 feet long and 240 feet wide. The
space for the accommodation of the trains is 610 feet long and 200 feet
wide. The remainder of the edifice is devoted to the offices of the
various railways using it. Waiting-rooms, baggage-rooms, etc. The
car-shed is covered with an immense circular roof of iron and glass. The
remainder of the building is of brick and iron. The principal front is
on Forty-second street. This portion is to be occupied by the offices
and waiting-rooms of the New York and New Haven and the Shore Line
railways. The southern portion of the west front is occupied by the
offices and waiting-rooms of the New York, Harlem, and Albany Railway,
and the remainder of this front by the offices and waiting-rooms of the
Hudson River and New York Central railways. These roads are the only
lines which enter the city, and they are here provided with a common
terminus in the very heart of the metropolis. The waiting-rooms and
offices are finished in hard wood, are handsomely frescoed, and are
supplied with every convenience. The height of the roof of the main body
of the depot is 100 feet from the ground; the apex of the central
pavilion on Forty-second street is 160 feet from the ground.

The car-house constitutes the main body of the depot. It is lighted from
the roof by day, and at night large reflectors, lighted by an electrical
apparatus, illuminate the vast interior. The platforms between the
tracks are composed of stone blocks. Each road has a particular portion
assigned to it, and there is no confusion in any of the arrangements.
The roof is supported by thirty-one handsome iron trusses, each weighing
forty tons, and extending in an unbroken arch over the entire enclosure.
The glass plates in the roof measure 80,000 feet. The interior of the
car-house is painted in light colors, which harmonize well with the light
which falls through the crystal roof.

About eighty trains enter and depart from this depot every day. The
running of these is regulated by the depot-master, who occupies an
elevated position at the north end of the car-house, from which he can
see the track for several miles. A system of automatic signals governs
the running of the trains through the city.

The building was projected by Commodore Vanderbilt. Ground was broken
for it on the 15th of November, 1869, and it was ready for occupancy on
the 9th of October, 1871.

LXXII. PATENT DIVORCES.

It may not be generally known in other parts of the country, but it is
very well understood in the city, that New York is the headquarters of a
powerful Ring of corrupt and unscrupulous lawyers, whose business is to
violate the law of the land, and procure by fraud divorces which will not
be granted by any court after a fair and full hearing of the case. It
may be asserted at the outset, that those who are fairly and justly
entitled to such a separation, never seek it through the Divorce Ring.

In any issue of certain city newspapers, you will see such advertisements
as the following:

ABSOLUTE DIVORCES LEGALLY OBTAINED, in New York, and States, where
desertion, drunkenness, etc., etc., are sufficient cause. No
publicity; no charge until divorce obtained; advice free. M--- B---,
attorney, 56 --- street.

The all-sufficient cause with these lawyers is the desire for a
separation on the part of the husband or wife, and they never trouble
themselves with questions of law or morality. The law of New York allows
a divorce with the right to marry again, upon one ground only--that of
adultery.

"The lawyers of the Divorce Ring are the pariahs of their profession--men
who have been debarred in other States (sometimes in other countries) for
detected malpractice; men who began life fairly, but sank into ignominy
through dissipation, political failure, or natural vicious tendencies;
men, even, who never opened a law-book before entering upon their present
avocation, but gleaned a practical knowledge of the legal alternative of
'wedded woe' by a course of training in the private detective's trade.
These latter worthies often hire the use of practising lawyers' names.
Occasionally they hire the said lawyers themselves to go through the
mummeries of the courts for them; and we could name one of our most
eloquent and respectable criminal pleaders who, on a certain occasion at
least, permitted himself to be nominally associated with one of the
boldest operators of the Ring.

"The dens of the divorcers are situated chiefly on the thoroughfares most
affected by lawyers of the highest caste, though even Broadway is not
wholly exempt from them; and Wall street, Pine street, and especially
Nassau street, contain a goodly number each. Without any ostentatious
display of signs or identifications, they are generally furnished in the
common law-office style, with substantial desks and chairs, shelves of
law-books, and usually a shady private apartment for consultations.
Sometimes the name upon the 'directory' of the building and name over the
'office' itself will be spelled differently, though conveying the same
sound; as though the proprietor thereof might have occasional use for a
confusion of personalities. Along the stairs and hallways leading to
these dens, at almost any hour of the day, from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M., may be
met women in flashy finery and men with hats drawn down over their
eyes--all manifestly gravitating, with more or less shamefacedness,
towards the places in question. They may be dissolute actresses, seeking
a spurious appearance of law to end an old alliance and prepare for a new
one. They may be the frivolous, extravagant, reckless wives of poor
clerks or hard-working mechanics, infatuatedly following out the first
consequences of a matinee at the theatre and a 'Personal' in the
_Herald_. They may be the worthless husbands of unsuspecting, faithful
wives, who, by sickness, or some other unwitting provocation, have turned
the unstable husbandly mind to thoughts of connubial pastures new and the
advertising divorcers. They may be the 'lovers' of married women, who
come to engage fabricated testimony and surreptitious unmarriage for the
frail creatures whose virtue is still too cowardly to dare the more
honest sin. They are not the wronged partners of marriage, who, by the
mysterious chastising providence of outraged hearths and homes, are
compelled, in bitterest agony of soul, to invoke justice of the law for
the honor based upon right and religion.

"The manufacture of 'a case' by the contrabandists of divorce is often
such a marvel of unscrupulous audacity, that its very lawlessness
constitutes in itself a kind of legal security. So wholly does it ignore
all the conventionalities of mere legal evasion, as to virtually lapse
into a barbarism, knowing neither law nor civilization. A young woman in
flaunting jockey hat, extravagant 'chignon,' and gaudy dress, flirts into
the den, and turns a bold, half-defiant face upon the rakish masculine
figure at the principal desk. The figure looks up, a glance between the
two tells the story, and the woman is invited to step into the
consulting-room (if there be one), and give her husband's name and
offence. A divorce will cost her say twenty-five, or fifty, or
seventy-five dollars--in fact, whatever sum she can afford to pay for
such a trifle. She can have it obtained for her in New York, or at the
West, just as her husband's likelihood to pry into things, or her own
taste in the matter, may render advisable. Not a word of the case can
possibly get into the papers in either locality. She can charge
'intemperance,' or 'desertion,' or 'failure to support,' or whatever else
she chooses; but, perhaps, it would be better to make it adultery, as
that can be just as easily proved, and 'holds good in any State.' This
point being decided, the young woman can go home, and there keep her
luckless wretch of a husband properly in the dark until her 'decree' is
ready for her. If the applicant is a man, the work is all the easier;
for then even less art will be required to keep the unconscious 'party of
the second part' in ignorance of the proceedings. The case is now
quietly put on record in the proper court (if the 'suit' is to be 'tried'
in New York), and a 'summons' prepared for service upon the 'defendant.'
To serve this summons, any idle boy is called in from the street, and
directed to take the paper to defendant's residence or place of business,
and there serve it upon him. Away goes the boy, willing enough to earn
fifty cents by this easy task, and is met upon the stoop of the
residence, or before the door of the place of business, by a confederate
of the divorce-lawyer, who sharply asks what he wants. 'I want to see
Mr. ---,' says the boy. 'I am Mr. ---,' returns the confederate, who is
thereupon served with the summons. Back hurries the boy to the
law-office, signs an affidavit that he has served the paper upon
defendant in person, is paid for the job, and goes about his business.
The time selected for the manoeuvre is, of course, adapted to what the
'plaintiff' has revealed of her husband's hours for home or for business;
and, after the improvised server of the 'summons' has once sworn to his
affidavit and disappeared, there is no such thing as ever finding him
again! A 'copy of the complaint' is 'served' in the same way; or, the
'summons' is published once a week for a month in the smallest type of
the smallest obscure weekly paper to be found. This latter device,
however, is adopted only when the plaintiff (having some moral scruples
about too much perjury at once) charges 'desertion,' and desires to
appear quite ignorant of unnatural defendant's present place of abode.
If, for any particular reason, the party seeking a divorce prefers a
Western decree, the 'lawyer,' or a clerk of his, starts at once for
Indiana, or some quiet county of Illinois; and, after hiring a room in
some tavern or farm-house in the name of his client (to establish the
requisite fact of residence!), gives the case into the hands of a local
attorney with whom he has a business partnership. This Western branch of
the trade has reached such licence that, not long ago, a notorious
practitioner of the Ring actually issued an advertisement in a paper of
New York, to the effect that he had just returned to this city from the
West with a fresh stock of blank divorces! The wording was not literally
thus, but such was its obvious and only signification. Whether the
'trial' is to take place in New York or Indiana, however, there is but
one system commonly adopted in offering proof of the truth of the
complaint upon which a divorce is demanded. Plaintiff's villainous
attorney, after waiting a due length of time for some response from the
defendant in the case(!), asks of the Court, as privately as possible,
the appointment of a referee.

"His Honor the Court, upon learning that 'defendant' does not oppose (of
course not!), names a referee, who shall hear the testimony in the case,
and submit a copy thereof, together with his decision thereon, to the
Court for confirmation. Then, before the referee--who is to be properly
feed for his officiation--go the divorce-lawyer and two or three
shabby-genteel-looking 'witnesses,' who from thenceforth shall never be
findable by mortal man again. The 'witnesses' swear to any thing and
every thing--that they have seen and recognized defendant in highly
improper houses with improper persons; that they know plaintiff to be
pure, faithful, and shamefully misused in the marriage relation, etc.,
etc. As 'defendant,' not even aware that he or she _is_ a 'defendant,'
makes no appearance, either in person or by counsel, to combat this
dreadful evidence, the referee must, of course, render decision for
plaintiff--'the law awards it, and the Court doth give it.' The judge
subsequently confirms this decision; a decree of full divorce is granted,
_in due and full legal form_, to the triumphant plaintiff; and the
'defendant' is likely to become aware of the suit for the first time on
that night."

The acts of the divorce Ring are no secrets in New York. Yet neither the
judges nor the Bar Association make any efforts to rid the courts of such
wretches. "A citizen of New York, whose misguided wife had secretly
obtained a fraudulent divorce from him through such practice as we have
described, and who, in turn, had successfully sued in the legitimate way
for the dissolution of marriage thus forced upon him, sought to induce
his legal adviser, a veteran metropolitan lawyer of the highest standing,
to expose the infamous divorce 'Ring' before the courts, and demand, in
behalf of his profession, that its practitioners should be at least
disbarred. The response was, that the courts were presumed to be
entirely ignorant of the fraudulent parts of the proceedings referred to;
that the offenders could be 'cornered' only through a specific case in
point against them, and, besides, that the referees in their cases were
nearly all connected, either consanguinely or in bonds of partnership
interest, with the judges who had appointed them, and before whom the
motion for disbarment would probably come! For this last curious reason
no lawyer could, consistently with his own best interests, inaugurate a
movement likely to involve the whole referee system in its retributive
effects. A lawyer so doing might, when arguing future cases in court,
find a certain apparent disposition of the Bench to show him less
courtesy than on former occasions--to snub him, in fact, and thereby
permanently prejudice his professional future likelihoods in that
jurisdiction!"

LXXIII. THE CROTON WATER WORKS.

There were many plans for supplying the city of New York with fresh
water, previous to the adoption of the Croton Aqueduct scheme, but we
have not the space to present them here. They were all inadequate to the
necessities of the city, and all in turn were thrown aside. The most
important was one for obtaining the water supply from the Bronx River.
It was believed that a daily supply of 3,000,000 gallons could be
obtained from this stream, but nothing was done in the matter, and it was
not until the prevalence of Asiatic Cholera in 1832 had impressed upon
the people the necessity of a supply of pure water, nor until the great
fire of 1837 had convinced them that they must have an abundance of
water, that the scheme for supplying the city from the sources of the
Croton River was definitely resolved upon. De Witt Clinton gave his
powerful support to the scheme, and the citizens at the municipal
elections expressed themselves unqualifiedly in favor of a full supply of
fresh water. It was decided to obtain the supply from the Croton River,
and in May, 1837, the work on the aqueduct which was to convey it to the
city was actually begun, and on the 4th of July, 1842, the Croton water
was distributed through the city.

The first step was to throw a massive dam across the Croton River, by
means of which the Croton Lake was formed, the water being raised to a
depth of forty feet by the obstruction. From this dam an aqueduct,
constructed of brick, stone, and cement, conveys the water to the city, a
distance of nearly forty miles. It is arched above and below, and is
seven and a half feet wide, and eight and a half feet high, with an
inclination of thirteen inches to the mile. It rests on the ground for a
portion of its course, and in other parts is supported by a series of
stone arches. It crosses twenty-five streams in Westchester County,
besides numerous brooks, which flow under it through culverts. It is
conveyed across the Harlem River by means of the High Bridge. The water
flows through vast iron pipes, which rest upon the bridge. The bridge is
a magnificent stone structure, 1450 feet long, with fifteen arches, the
highest of which is one hundred feet above high water mark. Its great
height prevents it from interfering with the navigation of the stream.
The High Bridge is one of the principal resorts in the suburbs of New
York. The structure itself is well worth seeing, and the scenery is
famed for its surpassing loveliness.