Chapter XIV: The Modern City (1)

1877-1890

Rapid Transit. James Howell, Jr., elected Mayor. Work on the
Bridge. Passage of "Single Head" Bill. John Fiske on the
"Brooklyn System." Seth Low elected Mayor. His Interpretation
of the "Brooklyn System." Reëlection of Low. Opening of the
Bridge. Bridge Statistics. Ferries and Water Front. Erie Basin.
The Sugar Industry. Navy Yard. Wallabout Market. Development
of the City. Prospect Park. Theatres and Public Buildings.
National Guard. Public Schools. Brooklyn Institute. Private
Educational Institutions. Libraries. Churches, Religious
Societies, Hospitals, and Benevolent Associations. Clubs.
Literature, Art, and Music. The Academy of Music. "The City of
Homes."

Brooklyn had now fairly entered upon what may be called its modern period. The first wires had been stretched for the great Bridge, and soon afterward the six years' labor at Hell Gate culminated in the long-anticipated blast. Ground had been broken for the new Municipal Building, the Ocean Parkway had been opened for travel, work had begun on the Brooklyn elevated road, rapid transit trains had begun running on Atlantic Avenue, the Manhattan Beach and Sea Beach railroads were opened to Coney Island, which had started upon its career as a great popular watering-place and pleasure resort, and a line of Annex ferryboats was opened between Jewell's Wharf and Jersey City.

In the mayoralty contest of 1877 James Howell, Jr., was elected on the Democratic ticket. The bill which had passed the Legislature at the previous session reduced the Mayor's salary from $10,000 to $6000. Mayor Howell took a strong interest in the progress of the Bridge, and succeeded Henry C. Murphy as a trustee.

Work on the Bridge advanced steadily during the years 1877 and 1878. The breaking of a strand of the cable at the New York anchorage in June, 1878, resulted in the death of several workmen. In April, 1880, farewell services were held in St. Ann's Church, at Washington and Prospect streets, preparatory to the removal of the building, to make way for the Bridge approach. The prospective area of the approach necessitated the removal of much property, and the slow work of demolition and advance still continues, after fifteen years, to present unsightly pictures at the threshold of the city.

Mayor Howell's message in January, 1880, revealed the fact that the taxable value of property in the city had reached $232,925,699, which was an increase of nearly $3,000,000 over the figures for the previous year.

An important event for the city was the passage in May, by the Legislature, of the "Single Head" bill, by the provisions of which the system of triple heads of departments was abolished, and complete appointive power and responsibility vested in the Mayor. This radical step toward municipal reform and good government was one which could not fail to attract the attention of the country, since Brooklyn was the first great city to take it, and the experiment was watched with the liveliest interest by all students of municipal government.

John Fiske, in his admirable work on "Civil Government," thus succinctly describes the new system of city government: "Besides the council of [nineteen] Aldermen, the people elect only three city officers,--the Mayor, comptroller, and auditor. The comptroller is the principal finance officer and book-keeper of the city; and the auditor must approve bills against the city, whether great or small, before they can be paid. The Mayor appoints, without confirmation by the council, all executive heads of departments; and these executive heads are individuals, not boards. Thus there is a single police commissioner, a single fire commissioner, a single health commissioner, and so on; and each of these heads appoints his own subordinates; 'so that the principle of defined responsibility permeates the city government from top to bottom.'[40] In a few cases where the work to be done is rather discretionary than executive in character, it is intrusted to a board; thus, there is a board of assessors, a board of education, and a board of elections. These are all appointed by the Mayor, but for terms not coincident with his own; 'so that, in most cases, no Mayor would appoint the whole of any such board unless he were to be twice elected by the people.' But the executive officers are appointed by the Mayor for terms coincident with his own, that is, for two years. 'The Mayor is elected at the general election in November; he takes office on the first of January following, and for one month the great departments of the city are carried on for him by the appointees of his predecessor. On the first of January it becomes his duty to appoint his own heads of departments,' and thus 'each incoming Mayor has the opportunity to make an administration in all its parts in sympathy with himself.'

"With all these immense executive powers intrusted to the Mayor, however, he does not hold the purse-strings. He is a member of a board of estimates, of which the other four members are the comptroller and auditor, with the county treasurer and supervisor. This board recommends the amount to be raised by taxation for the ensuing year. These estimates are then laid before the council of Aldermen, who may cut down single items as they see fit, but have not the power to increase any item. The Mayor must see to it that the administrative work of the year does not use up more money than is thus allowed to him."[41]

The first Mayor to act under this charter amendment was Seth Low, who was elected, in 1881, over Howell by a vote of 45,434 to 40,937.[42] Low, who was born in Brooklyn, where his family had occupied a distinguished position, and had graduated from Columbia College in 1870, afterward entering the business house of his father, was in his thirty-second year when elected to office, a circumstance which, added to the novelty of the conditions under which his administration must work, did not fail to attract special attention throughout the country.

In his first message (January, 1882) Low touched upon the important question of the appointing power:--

"The manifest purpose of the act is to make the Mayor the
responsible head of the city government, and to secure a
homogeneous government by laying upon each Mayor the necessity
of making his appointments at the beginning of his term. To
accomplish this purpose the act does some things by direct
provision and some things by implication. It provides, in
section I, that the terms of office of certain specified
officers shall expire on the first of February, 1882. It then
provides, in section 6, that 'after the first day of January,
1882, the Mayor of the city of Brooklyn shall have sole and
exclusive power to appoint the successor of any commissioner
or other head of department (except the department of finance
and the department of audit), or of any assessor or member of
the board of education of said city, when the terms of such
officers shall respectively expire, or as by law may then or
thereafter be required to be appointed.'

"There are certain officers in the city whose terms of office
expired some time in the year 1881, to wit: The corporation
counsel, the city treasurer, the collector of taxes, and
the registrar of arrears, and to these officers the charter
amendment makes no distinct reference. The reason that the
present incumbents hold over is that, by section 5 of that
amendment, all power to appoint during 1881 was taken away
from the Mayor and Common Council, where it formerly resided,
without being lodged anywhere else, except that the sole power
of filling vacancies during 1881 was lodged with the Mayor. The
evident purpose of this provision was to place the appointment
of the successors to the present incumbents of these offices in
the hands of the Mayor to be elected by the people in 1881. So
much is clear; but it leaves two points uncertain: First, when
are the successors to the present incumbents to be appointed?
Second, when appointed, is it for the balance of an unexpired
term, or for two years?

"I shall be governed by what I believe to be the clear and
intelligent purpose of the law. I shall appoint the four
officers alluded to so that their terms shall begin practically
on the first of February, or at the same time with the officers
distinctly mentioned in the act, and I shall appoint them for
two years."

Speaking further of appointments and removals, Low said:--

"It is a matter of grave public concern for the people to
know in what spirit an officer intrusted for the first time
in the history of our city with such powers purposes to use
them. The whole theory of the law is that the Mayor shall be
responsible for the administration of the city's affairs,
and for the policy which animates the different departments.
It makes the relation of the different commissioners and
heads of departments to the Mayor practically that of the
cabinet officer to his chief. I feel it to be a matter
of no less importance to my successors than to myself to
emphasize this thought. It is no reproach to Mr. Evarts that
President Garfield placed Mr. Blaine at the head of the State
Department. It is no reproach to Mr. Blaine that President
Arthur has called Senator Frelinghuysen to succeed him; and
what is true of the State Department is equally true of a
purely administrative department like the post-office. It
will, therefore, be a great injustice to any official who may
be retired through my action to interpret it into reproach
upon him, just as it would be equal injustice to me to assume
that I meant it as such; or to my successor, to hamper him
with any obligations toward my appointees. The Mayor being
responsible to the people must be left free from such personal
embarrassments. I claim this right, as I believe, in the
interest of good government, for my successors and for myself.

"The law does not give the Mayor the absolute power of removal.
I presume it was not thought to be necessary. But the whole
purpose of the law will be defeated unless the Mayor knows at
all times and under all circumstances that he is responsible
because his appointees represent him. If any of them get out of
harmony with him he must ask for their resignations, and he is
entitled to receive them on demand. I hazard nothing in saying
that the people of Brooklyn elected me Mayor with the full
purpose of placing precisely this responsibility upon me. As
there is no precedent to govern in this case, I wish to state
distinctly that the acceptance of an appointment at my hands
will be evidence to the community that the gentleman accepting
it has personally given me his assurance that he will without
delay give me his resignation whenever I ask for it."

The remainder of the message was in the same spirit, and left the people of Brooklyn in no doubt that the new Mayor meant to interpret the movement represented by the charter amendments in its most radical and reformatory light.

Low was renominated in 1883. The Democrats nominated Joseph C. Hendrix,[43] who led a brilliant campaign. In a hotly contested election that drew out an extraordinary vote, Low was elected by a vote of 49,554 against Hendrix's 48,006.

The two administrations of Low demonstrated beyond question the availability of the "Brooklyn system." In his message for 1884 the Mayor offered a strong plea in behalf of the public schools, in which free books had just been introduced.

The president of the board of education made the following urgent presentation of the case:--

"Notwithstanding the number of new buildings erected and
occupied during the year, I am unable to report any relief
from the general crowded condition that existed at the time
of my last report. The children come faster than we can make
room for them, and in some localities for nearly every seat
provided there are two applicants. As evidence of the demand
made upon our new schools, at their opening, by primary pupils,
I cite the following: The new primary building to relieve No.
24 was opened on the 4th inst., this being the last of the new
buildings. The crowd of children with their parents seeking
admission was so great and the excitement so intense that for
two days two policemen were required to preserve order at the
doors. In a building seating 676 pupils 899 were registered,
the average age being 8 years. Only the fifth and sixth primary
grades are admitted to this building. It is not pleasant for me
to state that many of these children, 9 and 10 years old, have
never before had a day's schooling, because there was no public
school into which they could gain admittance. From the first
day the class-rooms have been devoted to half-day classes.

"The registry of attendance in October of this year numbered
67,314 pupils. Our regular seating capacity is but 64,200, or
3,114 less than the actual attendance. We have 76 classes,
numbering over 90 pupils each, and of this number 16 classes
have over 140 each, the largest class having 218 pupils. A
large proportion of these crowded classes are from necessity
divided into half-day sessions.

"This is our condition after redistricting the city and
reorganizing several schools, thereby decreasing the number of
grammar classes, and increasing the number of primary classes
by eighteen, and after building eight new school buildings,--we
have been compelled to crowd and pack our school rooms
without due regard to the convenience, comfort, and health of
the pupils and to the proper facilities and conditions for
imparting instruction....

"We have exhausted every means at our disposal to utilize space
save one. It is now the purpose of the Committee on Studies to
so revise the course of study that all grammar class-rooms will
be full. When this has been done we shall have no resource left
by which to gain space but to build new buildings."

Possibly the most important achievement in Low's administration was the framing and passage of the Arrears Bill, which had an immediate and salutary effect in the management of the city's finances.

An historic event during the period of Low's mayoralty was the opening of the Bridge on Thursday, May 24, 1883. The two cities were greatly aroused by the event, and much enthusiasm prevailed.

The ceremonies were held at the Brooklyn Approach, and the formal programme of ceremonies was as follows:--

MUSIC:
23d Regiment Band.

PRAYER:
Rt. Rev. Bishop Littlejohn.

PRESENTATION ADDRESS:
On behalf of Trustees,
William C. Kingsley, Vice-President.

ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS:
On behalf of the City of Brooklyn,
Hon. Seth Low, Mayor.

ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS:
On behalf of the City of New York,
Hon. Franklin Edson, Mayor.

ORATION:
Hon. Abram S. Hewitt.

ORATION:
Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D.

MUSIC:
7th Regiment Band.

The ceremonies over which James S. T. Stranahan, who had won the distinction of being called "Brooklyn's first citizen," presided, drew a large and memorable company. The military marshal of the day was Maj.-Gen. James Jourdan, commanding the Second Division of the National Guard, and the arrangements were as follows:--

"The President of the United States and Cabinet, the Governor
of the State of New York and Staff, with other distinguished
Guests, will be escorted from the Fifth Avenue Hotel to the New
York Anchorage by the 7th Regiment of the 1st Division, N. G.,
S. N. Y., Emmons Clark, Colonel Commanding, and there received
by the Trustees and escorted to the Brooklyn Anchorage, from
which point the 23d Regiment, 2d Division, N. G., S. N. Y.,
Rodney C. Ward, Colonel Commanding, will act as escort to the
Brooklyn Approach.

"To avoid confusion, it is requested that holders of BLUE
TICKETS will enter Gates marked A at the Roadways on either
side of the Bridge. Holders of WHITE TICKETS will enter at
either Gates A or B.

"Officers of the Army and Navy and the National Guard are
requested to appear in Uniform. Officials of New York and
Brooklyn are requested to display their badges of office."

In the course of his address Mayor Low said:--

"As the water of the lakes found the salt sea when the Erie
Canal was opened, so surely will quick communication seek and
find this noble bridge; and as the ships have carried hither
and thither the products of the mighty West, so shall diverging
railroads transport the people swiftly to their homes in the
hospitable city of Brooklyn. The Erie Canal is a waterway
through the land connecting the great West with the older East.
This bridge is a landway over the water, connecting two cities
bearing to each other relations in some respects similar. It is
the function of such works to bless 'both him that gives and
him that takes.' The development of the West has not belittled,
but has enlarged New York, and Brooklyn will grow by reason of
this bridge, not at New York's expense, but to her permanent
advantage. The Brooklyn of 1900 can hardly be guessed at from
the city of to-day. The hand of Time is a mighty hand. To those
who are privileged to live in sight of this noble structure
every line of it should be eloquent with inspiration. Courage,
enterprise, skill, faith, endurance,--these are the qualities
which have made the great bridge, and these are the qualities
which will make our city great and our people great. God grant
they never may be lacking in our midst. Gentlemen of the
Trustees, in accepting the bridge at your hands, I thank you
warmly in Brooklyn's name for your manifold and arduous labors."

Speaking of a glance forward for twenty-five years, Mayor Edson said:--

"No one dares accept the possibilities that are forced upon the
mind in the course of its contemplation. Will these two cities,
ere then, have been consolidated into one great municipality,
numbering within its limits more than five millions of
people? Will the right of self-government have been accorded
to the great city, thus united, and will her people have
learned how best to exercise that right? Will the progress of
improvement and the preparation for commerce, manufactures,
and trade, and for the comforts of home for poor and rich,
have kept pace with the demand in the great and growing city?
Will the establishment of life-giving parks, embellished with
appropriate fountains and statues and with the numberless
graces of art, which at once gladden the eye, and raise the
standard of civilization, have kept abreast with its growth
in wealth and numbers? These are but few of the pertinent
questions which must be answered by the zealous and honest
acts of the generation of men already in active life. Here are
the possibilities; all the elements and conditions are here;
but the results must depend upon the wisdom and patriotism and
energy of those who shall lead in public affairs. May they be
clothed in a spirit of wisdom and knowledge akin to that which
inspired those who conceived and executed the great work which
we receive at your hands and dedicate to-day."

The address of Abram S. Hewitt contained these significant words:--

"I am here by your favor to speak for the city of New York, and
I should be the last person to throw any discredit on its fair
fame; but I think I only give voice to the general feeling,
when I say that the citizens of New York are satisfied neither
with the structure of its government, nor with its actual
administration, even when it is in the hands of intelligent
and honest officials. Dissatisfied as we are, no man has been
able to devise a system which commends itself to the general
approval, and it may be asserted that the remedy is not to
be found in devices for any special machinery of government.
Experiments without number have been tried, and suggestions
in infinite variety have been offered, but to-day no man can
say that we have approached any nearer to the idea of good
government which is demanded by the intelligence and the wants
of the community.

"If, therefore, New York has not yet learned to govern itself,
how can it be expected to be better governed by adding half a
million to its population, and a great territory to its area,
unless it be with the idea that a 'little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump'? Is Brooklyn that leaven? And if not, and if
possibly 'the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be
salted?' Brooklyn is now struggling with this problem, it
remains to be seen with what success; but meanwhile it is
idle to consider the idea of getting rid of our common evils
by adding them together. Beside, it is a fundamental axiom in
politics, approved by the experience of older countries as
well as our own, that the sources of power should never be
far removed from those who are to feel its exercise. It is the
violation of this principle which produces chronic revolution
in France, and makes the British rule so obnoxious to the Irish
people. This evil is happily avoided when a natural boundary
circumscribes administration within narrow limits. While,
therefore, we rejoice together at the new bond between New York
and Brooklyn, we ought to rejoice the more that it destroys
none of the conditions which permit each city to govern itself,
but rather urges them to a generous rivalry in perfecting each
its own government, recognizing the truth that there is no
true liberty without law, and that eternal vigilance, which is
the only safeguard of liberty, can best be exercised within
limited areas. It would be a most fortunate conclusion if the
completion of this bridge should arouse public attention to the
absolute necessity of good municipal government, and recall the
only principle upon which it can ever be successfully founded.
There is reason to hope that this result will follow, because
the erection of this structure shows how a problem, analogous
to that which confronts us in regard to the city government,
has been met and solved in the domain of physical science."

The brilliant oration of Dr. Storrs closed with the following glowing passage:--

"Local and particular as is the work, therefore, it represents
that fellowship of the nations which is more and more
prominently a fact of our times, and which gives to these
cities incessant augmentation. When by and by on yonder
island the majestic French statue of 'Liberty' shall stand,
holding in its hand the radiant crown of electric flames, and
answering by them to those as brilliant along this causeway,
our beautiful bay will have taken what specially illuminates
and adorns it from Central and from Western Europe. The
distant lands from which oceans divide us, though we touch
them each moment with the fingers of the telegraph, will have
set their conspicuous double crown on the head of our harbor.
The alliances of nations, the peace of the world, will seem to
find illustrious prediction in such superb and novel regalia.
Friends and fellow-citizens, let us not forget that in the
growth of these cities, henceforth united and destined ere
long to be formally one, lies either a threat or one of the
most conspicuous promises of the time. Cities have always been
powers in history. Athens educated Greece as well as adorned
it, while Corinth filled the throbbing and thirsty Hellenic
veins with poisoned blood. The weight of Constantinople broke
the Roman Empire asunder. The capture of the same magnificent
city gave to the Turks their establishment in Europe for the
following centuries. Even where they have not had such a
commanding preëminence of location, the social, political,
moral force proceeding from cities has been vigorous, in
impression, immense in extent. The passion in Paris, for a
hundred years, has created or directed the sentiment of France.
Berlin is more than the legislative or administrative centre
of the German Empire, and even a government as autocratic as
that of the Czar, in a country as undeveloped as Russia, has
to consult the popular feeling of St. Petersburg or of Moscow.
In our nation, political power is widely distributed, and
the largest or wealthiest commercial centre can have but its
share. Great as is the weight of the aggregate vote in these
henceforth compacted cities, the vote of the State will always
overbear it. Amid the suffrages of the nation at large it can
only be reckoned as one of many consenting or conflicting
factors. But the influence which constantly proceeds from
these cities--on their journalism not only, or on the issues
of their book presses, or on the multitudes going forth from
them--but on the example presented in them, of educational,
social, religious life--this, for shadow and check, or for fine
inspiration, is already of unlimited extent, of incalculable
force. It must increase as they expand, and are lifted before
the country to a new elevation. A larger and a smaller sun
are sometimes associated, astronomers tell us, to form a
binary centre in the heavens, for what is doubtless an unseen
system receiving from them impulse and light. On a scale not
utterly insignificant a parallel may be hereafter suggested
in the relation of these combined cities to a part, at least,
of our national system. Their attitude and action during the
war--successfully closed under the gallant military leadership
of men whom we gladly welcome and honor--were of vast advantage
to the national cause. The moral, political, intellectual
temper which dominates in them as years go on, will touch
with beauty or scar with scorching and baleful heats extended
regions. Their religious life, as it glows in intensity, or
with a faint and failing lustre, will be repeated in answering
image from the widening frontier. The beneficence which gives
them grace and consecration, and which, as lately, they follow
to the grave with universal benediction; or, on the other
hand, the selfish ambitions which crowd and crush along their
streets, intent only on accumulated wealth and its sumptuous
display, or the glittering vices which they accept and set on
high--these will make impressions on those who never cross the
continent to our homes, to whom our journals are but names.
Surely we should not go from this hour, which marks a new era
in the history of these cities, and which points to their
future indefinite expansion, without the purpose in each of
us that so far forth as in us lies, with their increase in
numbers, wealth, equipment, shall also proceed, with equal
step, their progress in whatever is noblest and best in private
and in public life; that all which sets humanity forward shall
come in them to ampler endowment, more renowned exhibition; so
that, linked together, as hereafter they must be, and seeing
'the purple deepening in their robes of power,' they may be
always increasingly conscious of fulfilled obligation to the
nation and to God; may make the land, at whose magnificent
gateway they stand, their constant debtor, and may contribute
their mighty part toward that ultimate perfect human society
for which the seer could find no image so meet or majestic as
that of a city, coming down from above, its stones laid with
fair colors, its foundations with sapphires, its windows of
agate, its gates of carbuncles, and all its borders of pleasant
stones, with the sovereign promise resplendent above it--

'And great shall be the peace of thy children.'"

The newspapers tendered homage to the leaders of the Bridge movement, and to the guiding minds of the vast mechanical triumph--to John A. Roebling, Washington A. Roebling, Henry C. Murphy, William C. Kingsley, J. S. T. Stranahan, and others who had been prominent in the labors of organization and of execution.

The original cost of construction amounted to $15,000,000. The total number of passengers on promenade, roadway, and railroad during 1883 was 5,332,500. The total number in 1892, the year after the promenade toll was removed, was 41,772,808. The statistics for 1893 show that the traffic was highest in December and lowest in August. The earnings of the Bridge are thus shown:--

From May 23, 1883, to Dec. 1, 1884 $682,755.42
" Dec. 1, 1884, " Dec. 1, 1885 622,680.31
" " 1885, " " 1886 870,207.43
" " 1886, " " 1887 938,281.21
" " 1887, " " 1888 1,012,254.82
" " 1888, " " 1889 1,120,024.16
" " 1889, " " 1890 1,239,493.90
" " 1890, " " 1891 1,176,447.95
" " 1891, " " 1892 1,801,661.48
" " 1892, " " 1893 1,590,140.03
--------------
Total $11,053,946.71

The receipts from all sources for the year ending December 1, 1893, were as follows: City of Brooklyn construction account, $150,000; city of New York construction account, $75,000; receipts from tolls, $1,252,908.04; material sold, labor, etc., $559.91; interest, $2,426.03; rent, real estate, and telegraph wires, $109,246.05. Total, $1,590,140.03.

The management of the Bridge was formed under control of a board of twenty trustees, eight being appointed by the Mayor, comptroller, and auditor of Brooklyn, and eight by the Mayor, comptroller, and president of the Board of Aldermen of New York city. Under an act of the Legislature, passed April 4, 1893, on April 12 following, this board was replaced by the present board of trustees, consisting of two persons appointed by the Mayor of the city of Brooklyn, two persons appointed by the Mayor of the city of New York, at a salary of $3000 each, and the mayors and comptrollers of the two cities, members _ex officio_, the appointed trustees to hold office for five years.

Supplementing the work of the Bridge are the elevated railroads and the electric or "trolley" system. Six steam railroads run into the city, four running to Coney Island, one to Rockaway Beach, and one, the Long Island Railroad, connecting with the railroad system of Long Island. Sixteen ferries connect the bay and river front with New York. The New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company carried about 16,000,000 passengers in 1893.

The boundaries of the city, measuring about thirty-two miles, include an extended water front that is one of the most picturesque in the country. The Erie basin and Atlantic docks on the southern extremity of the line represent an immense industry in grain shipments. Grain-elevators, coaling-stations, store-houses, the chief naval station in the United States, and the big establishments of the greatest sugar-refining district in the world, combine to give the river front an unusual interest.

The great docks on the southwestern water front represent important industries in which Brooklyn occupies a foremost place. The Atlantic basin covers forty acres, and is surrounded by brick and granite warehouses on three sides. These are 100 feet in depth, and three to five stories high. The basin contains four piers, three of which are covered, and are 700, 800, and 900 feet in length, by 80 feet in width. South central pier, 900 feet long, is the largest in the port. In the basin are seven elevators, six of which are controlled by the New York Grain Warehousing Company, the seventh being owned by Pinto Brothers. Atlantic basin is the largest grain-depot in the world. Its frontage line of basin and piers measures three miles. South central pier is leased by the Union Hamburg and the Nicaragua and Central American lines of steamships. Barber & Co. and T. Hogan & Sons control the east central pier; Funch & Edye's steamships dock at the south central pier, as do the lines to Bordeaux and Oporto. At the west central pier many goods from the Indies are unloaded, especially plumbago and cocoa-nut oil. The entrance to the basin is 200 feet in width. The north pier is much used by Italian barks. The basin has a uniformed police force of its own.

In this region also are finely appointed shipyards and dry docks, the Anglo-American docks, opened in 1866, being the largest in the United States. The chamber of Dock No. 1 is 510 feet in length, and that of Dock No. 2,610 feet. Most of the large iron ships that are docked at the port of New York are hauled up here. On the old Williamsburgh water front are the vast sugar-refineries, the greatest group of the kind in the world, and representing Brooklyn's greatest manufacturing interest. The output of most of these great hives of industry is now controlled by the American Sugar Refining Company. The largest of the refineries melts 2000 tons of raw sugar per day, producing over 12,000 barrels of refined sugar. Vessels from the West Indies and other points as remote as Java line the piers at this part of the water front, loading with barreled sugar.

Large cooperages and extensive oil refineries occupy the water front to the north, the great Standard Oil Company having its plant in this region.

The United States reservation, known as the Navy Yard, occupies about 112 acres in the bend of the river to which the Dutch gave the name that still clings, the Wallabout. This is the chief naval station of the United States. It contains trophies of the three great wars, and the 6000 feet of water front is always made interesting by the presence of one or more ships of war.

In 1884 Brooklyn obtained from the United States Government a lease of the 422,525 square feet of land on the east of the Navy Yard, and adjoining the Wallabout canal. On this plot a large market has grown up and supplied the city with a marketing centre of which it long stood in need. In July, 1890, an act of Congress authorized the sale of the fee-simple of the land to Brooklyn; the city authorities completing the purchase in November, 1891, at the valuation of $700,000. Later, an additional purchase of adjoining land from the federal government extended the market property to the Wallabout canal, and enabled the increase of the number of lots for stands to 120. The present area of the market lands is bounded as follows: On the north by the Wallabout canal; on the east by the lands of the United States Naval Hospital; on the south by Flushing Avenue, and on the west by Washington Avenue.

In December, 1892, the national government authorized the sale to Brooklyn of additional lands of the Navy Yard reservation, abutting upon the west side of Washington Avenue, and embraced between that avenue and a line on a continuation of Clinton Avenue, Flushing Avenue, and the East River,--a tract which would more than double in extent the area of the market possessions.

Brooklyn's boundaries on the east and south touch a number of large cemeteries, most noted of which is Greenwood, which holds many distinguished dead, and many notable monuments. In 1893 there were 5519 interments at the cemetery of the Evergeens, and during the same year 3000 at Cypress Hills, and 18,000 at Calvary Cemetery. There are not less than thirty cemeteries within the county, a fact that presents a serious problem in the extension of the city's lines.

The development of Prospect Park has been a matter of great pride and gratification to the city. In recent years the park has been adorned by a number of statues. J. S. T. Stranahan has received the unique honor of a public statue in his lifetime. In the plaza is the statue of Lincoln already mentioned. Within the park are busts of Thomas Moore, Washington Irving, and of John Howard Payne, one of Long Island's sons.

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in the Park Plaza was proposed by Seth Low in a speech at Greenwood, on Decoration Day. The Legislature voted $250,000, subscriptions were raised, the competition for a suitable design was won by John H. Duncan, the corner-stone was laid in 1889, and the monument was finished in 1892.

The Municipal Building was finished in 1878, at a cost of $200,000, and the Hall of Records adjoining the county Court House in 1886, at a cost of $275,000. The most imposing public building in the city is the Federal Building, bounded by Washington, Johnson, and Adams streets. This massive structure of Maine granite contains the central post-office quarters, and the federal courts and offices. The site cost $413,594.12, and the building $1,258,057.06.

Some of the most important building operations in recent years have expressed the enterprises of the great bazaars, gathered most thickly on Fulton Street, but appearing also on other leading thoroughfares.

A glance at the buildings of the city quickly suggests the remarkable increase in the number of theatres.

According to Gabriel Harrison's "History of the Drama in Brooklyn" the first dramatic performance in the city took place in a stone building on the north side of "the old road" (Fulton Street), near the corner of Front Street. This building had been known for thirty years or more as Corporation House, belonging to the corporation of the city of New York. It contained a tavern and a ferry room on its ground floor and a hall on the second. When the British gained possession of Brooklyn the house changed hands, and was known while they remained as the King's Head. It was fitted as a resort for officers and men, and all sorts of amusements were offered, from bull-baiting to games of chance. George III.'s birthday was celebrated by illuminations and fish dinners, to which the Tories of New York came over in rowboats. At the first dramatic performances here an original farce was acted, of which General John Burgoyne was the alleged author. It was called "The Battle of Brooklyn." The title-page reads: "The Battle of Brooklyn; a farce in two acts, as it was performed in Long Island on Tuesday, 27th day of August, 1776, by the representatives of the Tyrants of America, assembled in Philadelphia."

There were also dramatic performances in Greene's Military Garden in 1810, and later. An amphitheatre was built on Fulton Street in 1828. The assembly rooms of Military Garden were converted into a theatre in 1848. Chanfrau and Burke opened the Brooklyn Museum in 1850. The Odeon was built on the site of the present Novelty or Proctor's Theatre on Driggs Street, in 1852. It was afterward known as Apollo Hall. Washington Hall, afterward called the Comique, was built at the corner of Broadway and Fourth Street (now Bedford Avenue); Hooley's Opera House, at Court and Remsen streets, in 1862, and the Park Theatre was built a year later. The Brooklyn Theatre was opened in 1871, and rebuilt after the fire.[44] Hyde & Behman's Theatre was built in 1877, the Grand Opera House in 1881, the Criterion in 1885, the Amphion in 1888. The completion of the fine Columbia Theatre on Washington Street was due to the enterprise of Edwin Knowles, who had been a successful manager of the Grand Opera House, and subsequently of the Amphion.

The newer city armories are further important additions to the city architecture.

On the first day of January, 1894, the military organizations of Brooklyn, comprising, with the Seventeenth Separate Company of Flushing, the entire Second Brigade of the New York National Guard, numbered about 3000 men. The strength of the brigade in 1892, as shown at inspection, was 3084. In this number were included the 403 officers and men of the Thirty-second Regiment, shortly afterward disbanded. Very few members of that organization are now in the service. In 1893, inspections of the several commands were held, as follows: Seventeenth Separate Company, April 3; Signal Corps, October 10; Third Battery, October 11; Forty-seventh Regiment, October 18; Fourteenth Regiment, October 19; Thirteenth Regiment, October 21; Twenty-third Regiment, October 26. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth regiments, which did not go to the state camp last year, were inspected in the afternoon at Prospect Park. Below is shown the attendance of each organization:--

MUSTER ROLL FOR 1893.

----------------------+----------+---------+--------+-----------
Organization. | Present. | Absent. | Total. | Percentage
| | | | Present.
----------------------+----------+---------+--------+-----------
Brigade Commander and | | | |
Staff | 11 | -- | 11 | --
Thirteenth Regt | 529 | 118 | 647 | 81.61
Fourteenth Regt | 532 | 149 | 681 | 78.11
Twenty-third Regt | 770 | 35 | 805 | 95.65
Forty-seventh Regt | 521 | 48 | 569 | 91.56
Third Battery. | 68 | 8 | 76 | 89.47
Seventeenth Sep. Co. | 51 | 9 | 60 | 85.00
Signal Corps | 40 | 1 | 41 | 97.56
+----------+---------+--------+-----------
Total | 2,522 | 368 | 2,890 |
----------------------+----------+---------+--------+-----------

The difficulties arising from inadequate school accommodations, to meet which Mayor Low and other mayors had urged broad and sufficient action, continued to hamper the action of the department of public instruction. The development of the department under the superintendency of William H. Maxwell has been along thoroughly modern lines. Recent reforms have had a tendency to improve the quality of teachers by placing obstacles in the path of the incompetent. To a considerable extent these reforms have diminished the chances of political interference in the working of the school system.

The successful establishment, in 1878, of a Central Grammar School, admitting graduates from the public schools, was followed by the organization of separate high schools for boys and girls, and afterward by a manual training school, and a movement for the establishment of kindergarten classes and definite means of physical culture. On October 31, 1893, there were on register in the public schools of the city 102,468 pupils,--more than 2000 in excess of the sittings. For many years preceding this date a large number of classes had provided a half day's schooling only for the registered pupils, forcing the teachers of these classes to assume responsibility for two large classes of children on each school day.

In his report for the year ending December 31, 1892, Superintendent Maxwell said:--

"The child that begins the school course at six ought to
complete it easily, and be ready to enter the high school,
at the age of fourteen. In every grade, however, the average
age is about one year higher than it ought to be. There is
now a well ascertained consensus of opinion among educational
authorities that this delay in reaching the high school--in
getting at such disciplinary studies as languages, geometry,
and natural science--is detrimental not only to the individual
child but to the public welfare. In some cases this delay is
doubtless caused by protracted illness or general physical
weakness; in some, by the mania--I can call it by no other
name--which some principals and teachers have for holding
back pupils from promotion; in some, by positive dullness or
slowness of wit; but in the majority of cases it arises from
the crowded condition of the lower primary classes. Instead
of accommodating more children by swelling the registers of
these classes, we are accommodating fewer. The teachers in
these classes, work as hard as they may, are able to prepare
but a small proportion of their classes for promotion; while
by reason of lack of proper teaching in the introductory
classes--a lack which is not chargeable to the teachers--the
pupils are less able than they otherwise would be to do the
work of the higher grades as they advance. The consequence
is that pupils are put through our schools more slowly and
in smaller numbers than they ought to be. If in a piece of
machinery or in a living organism a greater strain is put
on any one part than it is able to bear, the strength and
efficiency of the whole are proportionately diminished. Just so
it is with our school system. The strain put upon the seventh
primary teachers by choking up their classes impairs the
efficiency of the entire system. The only rational conclusion
is that _the number of pupils to a class must be limited_."

The movement toward centralizing responsibility in the school principals began at this time to gather force. It was warmly supported by the superintendent.

In the Girls' High School, in 1893, the number of registered pupils was 1626; in the Boys' High School, 692. The annual appropriation for schools in 1893 was $2,449,735.33; from the city, $1,996,500.00; from the State, $394,414.82; other sources, $58,820.51.

A training school for teachers was established in 1885. From this admirable institution the graduates increased in number from 48 in 1886 to 70 in 1892.

With the educational interests of Brooklyn the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences is closely associated. In the summer of 1823 several gentlemen, among whom was Augustus Graham, met at Stevenson's Tavern for the purpose of establishing for the apprentices of Brooklyn a free library.[45] They adopted a constitution, and issued to the citizens of Brooklyn a circular, in which they solicited donations of books and money with which to effect their purpose. On November 20, 1824, they were incorporated by the Legislature of the State under the name of "The Brooklyn Apprentices' Library Association," and on July 4, 1825, the corner-stone of the first building owned by the association was laid by General Lafayette, at the junction of Henry and Cranberry streets. As early as 1835 the association had outgrown its original quarters, and the property having been sold to the city the institution was removed to a new building in Washington Street, then the centre of the wealth and culture of our young city. The first lecture delivered in the newly completed structure was by Prof. James D. Dana.

In order to broaden the scope of the association, an amended charter was granted by the Legislature in 1843, and the name therein changed to "The Brooklyn Institute." For many years thereafter the Institute was a most important factor in the social, literary, scientific, and educational life of Brooklyn. Its library had a large circulation; in its public hall took place many social and historic gatherings, and from its platform were heard such eminent scientific men as Agassiz, Dana, Gray, Henry, Morse, Mitchell, Torrey, Guyot, and Cooke; such learned divines as Drs. McCosh, Hitchcock, Storrs, and Buddington, and such defenders of the liberties of the people as Phillips, Sumner, Garrison, Emerson, Everett, Curtis, King, Bellows, Chapin, and Beecher.

During this brilliant period of its history (1843-1867), the Institute received from Mr. Graham two very important donations. On July 4, 1848, the building, which had been heavily mortgaged, he presented to the trustees free from all incumbrance, and through his will, made known to the board of directors on November 28, 1851, shortly after his decease, he bequeathed to the Institute the sum of $27,000, as a permanent endowment fund. The will directs that the interest of $10,000 of this sum shall be used in the support of lectures on scientific subjects and in the purchase of apparatus and collections illustrating the sciences; that the interest of $12,000 shall be used in the support of Sunday evening lectures on "The Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God as manifested in His Works," and that the balance of $5,000 shall be used in the support of a school of design and in forming a gallery of fine arts.

For several years, however, prior to 1867, owing to the erection of the Academy of Music and other public buildings, the Institute building was regarded as behind the times. The income from rental of portions of the building was dwindling to a low figure, and the financial support of the free library was becoming inadequate. Under these circumstances the directors remodeled the building in 1867, at an expense of about $3,000, a part of which was raised by life-membership subscriptions of $50 and $100, and the balance by a mortgage on the building. For twenty years (1867-87) this indebtedness necessitated the application of a portion of the income from the rent of the building and from the Graham endowment fund to the payment of the interest and the principal of the debt. Final payment on the mortgage was made early in 1887.

The causes of the partial inactivity of the Institute during the twenty years (1867-87) are therefore apparent. The most that it was able to do was to circulate its library, keep up its classes in drawing, and provide for the annual addresses on the 22d of February. Freed from debt in 1887, the Institute was enabled once more to use the whole income from its funds and building for educational purposes, and again to become an important agent in the work of education in the city.

The property of the Institute in 1887 consisted of the Institute building and land, valued at $90,000, a library of 12,000 volumes, a collection of paintings valued at $10,000, and endowment funds of $46,000. These last comprise the $27,000 bequeathed by Mr. Graham, the William H. Cary fund of $10,000 for the support of the library, and an increment of $9,000 realized through premiums on the sale of bonds.

During the year 1887-88 a new era in the history of the Institute was inaugurated. The board of trustees determined to make the property of the Institute the nucleus of a broad and comprehensive institution for the advancement of science and art, and its membership a large and active association, laboring not only for the advancement of knowledge, but also for the education of the people, through lectures and collections, in art and science. It was observed that while Boston had the Lowell Institute, a society of natural history, and an art museum; while Philadelphia had the Franklin Institute, an academy of sciences, and a gallery of fine arts; and while New York had the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum, yet that Brooklyn had nothing corresponding to these institutions. It was felt that Brooklyn should have an institute of arts and sciences worthy of her wealth, her position, her culture, and her people; that it was her duty to do more than she was then doing for the education and enjoyment of her people, and that some step should be taken looking towards the future growth and needs of the city in matters of art and science.

Accordingly, a form of organization was adopted which contemplated the formation of a large association of members, and a continual increase of the endowment funds and the collections of the Institute. Provision was made for a subdivision of the membership into departments, representing various branches of art and science, each department forming a society by itself and yet enjoying all the privileges of the general association. A general invitation was extended to citizens specially interested in science and art to become members of the Institute. Courses of lectures on science and art were provided. The directors' room of the Institute was enlarged to accommodate the meetings of some of the departments contemplated, and a large lecture-room on the third floor of the Institute building was fitted up at an expense of $2600 for the occupancy of those departments that would make use of apparatus and collections at their meetings.

During the first fifteen months after the reorganization of the Institute a membership of three hundred and fifty persons was recorded. The Brooklyn Microscopical Society joined the Institute in a body, with sixty-four members, and became the Department of Microscopy. The American Astronomical Society, whose members resided mostly in New York and Brooklyn, became the Department of Astronomy, with thirty-two members. The Brooklyn Entomological Society united with the Institute, and became the Entomological Department, with forty-one members. The Linden Camera Club of Brooklyn became the Department of Photography, with twenty-six members. Departments of physics, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, geology, zoölogy, and archæology were successively formed. Each of the above twelve departments began to hold monthly meetings. The permanent funds and property of the Institute were increased $3000. Additions were made to the library, and its circulation increased from 12,000 to 36,000 volumes per year. The lecture courses were fully attended. The classes in drawing were enlarged, and a general citizens' movement to secure a museum of arts and sciences for Brooklyn was inaugurated.