1174





The   Record   and   Guide.





September 17, 1887





Conoerninq  Men and Tblngs.

♦ **

Travelers in Europe hav© noticed what pains were taken at railway
stations and the entrance of towns to give a good impression to foreigm
visitorfl. Generally on the Continent all unsightly buildings and outhouses
are removed, while the stations are comfortable and often luxurious. This
i« rendered possible by the cheapness of labor in the Old World. For many
long years Httle attention was paid to this matter in this country. One
object seems to have been to build as many liues of railroad as possible at
the least cost; he'Ce there waa no pretence of supplying comfortable or
pleasing way stations. But of late years a spirit of emulation has sprung
up among the leading railways, and several of the great lines can boast
not only of elaborate and handsome depots, but of outlying grounds,
planned by landscape gardeners and embellished with shrubs and flowers.
The Pennsylvania, Fort Wayne, Cleveland & Pittsburg and the Boston &
Albany, among otherp, employ architects and landscape gardeners to plan
their stations and lay out the adjoining grounds. Even our Harlem road,
which haa not been particularly generous towards Its patrons, indulges in
the luxury of ornamental grounds, in which in summer the name of the
station is given In a flower-bed, while in winter letters made of white stones
are Fubstituted. Our railway system has made great progress in oonjfort
and luxury even, while lately the managers of roads seem disposed to appeal
to the iBsthetlo tastes of the traveling public.

*•*

The financial writers of the dally pre^s have been quite at sea about the
market since the beglnniog of this year. As a general thing, they expected
that the Interstate Oommerce law would smash the stock market, but the
railroads have all done better since the law went into force last April.
The writers turned bulls in May and June, but the market has favored the
bears during the sumiier. in sptt© of general prosperity and large railroad
earnluKs. The clever gentleman who writes the Times' " Financial World"
in its Sunday Issue turned b^ar J ust before the springing of the Baltimore &
Ohio deal on the '* street " He was bearish last Sunday, and gave the best
of reasons why the market phould go down. The Tribune blows hot and
cold. In its money article it ia bullish every day in the week, but on Mon¬
day it always publishes an editorial article on the bear side. The Mail and
Express has the best and fullest market reports of any city journal. Of
the Wall street Jiurnals the Indicator is intensely bullish all the year
round, while the Financial Record hops frora one side to the other, accord¬
ing to the apparent drift of things. The Daily Stockholder is tbe most
read of the Wall street Journals, and its proprietor, Mr. Matthew Griffln,
etijiys the personal acquaintance of Mr. Jay Gould, who frequently gives
his views of the situation through that paper. The Stockholder has been
expecting all summer a bull movement which never came. Perhaps it may
b© more lucky this fall.

***

It seems we are to have a national American opera this year, but it is to
be managed by an individual Instead of a corporation. Mrs. Thurber and
her a^sociate^ did admirable work In raising the standard of operatic per¬
formances sung In Bagli^h. But her management was not economical
enough, and hence It c&m^ to grief. A director with sole responsibility
would not be likely to ppend money qntte so lavishly or pay such extrava¬
gant salaries; hence we may have thi^ year a native opera that will vie
with the German opera, and which will be better, very far better, thau any
Italian opera we have had, with the single exception that we oannot expect
American Marios, Campaninnls, Pattls or Nillsons. But in orchestra,
chorus, sceneries and ensemble, the American musical public will expect;
something better than that given by the Italian Impressarios.

*•*

Charles Bradlaugh, when in this oouutry, made a good impression as a
public speaker. He wa^ logical, forcible and eloquent. Since he has got
Into Parliament he has made hid mark, for he is a ready debater and has
full command of all the weapons In the arsenal of controversy. He can
hold his own with the readiest speakers In the House of Commons. But
his name never appears In the leading English Journals nor in the regular
press reports that are sent to this country. His atheism, republicanism,
and his objectionable views of social topics have created a bitter prejudice
against him In the minds of conservative Englishmen. In the press
there Is a conspiracy of silence against him. In self-defense Bradlaugh
is forced to publish a paper, the National Reformer, iu which he prints
his speeches. The Sun's London correspondent mentions Bradlaugh occa¬
sionally, and this is what was said about him last week:

If anv one doubts the q lality of Churchill's talk, Bradlaugh does not
leave them in doubt. In a very few minu^e^ he dissects Churchill, and the
more Churchill bobs up and down and tries to defend himself the more he
is hammered by a brain at least nine times as big as bis own. After a
little while his lordship gets up and goes away. As he sails out his coat
tails are just as voluminous, bat the dignity seems to have been taken out
of them. Bradlaugh always has that effect on Churchill, whom he hates.
At the end of bis speech the universal verdict is that Bradlaugh is getting
to be a bigger man every day. The fat police sergeant in the inner lobby,
who swfUs Salvation Army choruses when off duty, even confided to me
his belief that Providence must either check tbe atheist very soon, or let
some deserving Christian beat him in debate just once.
Parnell and the Irish members were bitterly opposed to Bradlaugh when
he was claiming his seat as a member of Parliament. They vied with the
Tories in their denunciations of the atheist. But this has not prevented
Bradlaugh from heartily supporting Home Rule and taking sides with the
Parnellites against the Tory coercion ists.





The new elevated road in Brooklyn is well under way. The foundations
for the elevated structure are nearly all laid to the ferry, and the work of
putting up the iron work which began at Grand avenue has reacbed Flat¬
bush avenue. The bridge connection will be made with the present Sands
street station. An elevated station of considerable magnitude will be made
at the triangle formed by Pulton, Main and Prospect streets; fully half the
train** will stop at this point. This new elevated road will be a fine thing
for Brooklyn real estate, but will it pay the stockholders? The conditions
in Brooklya>nd New York for an elevated structure are very different.





Audubon Park,

The Evening Post is usually accurate in its '* news," so that we were
somewhat surprised to read in its columns recently, that Audubon
Park, which strangely was spoken of asi public property, was In a
disgracefully uncared-for condition. Audubon Park has always been
regarded by us as one of the choicest and most picturesque spots
in th© city, and being strictly private property {as much so, for
instance, as the Post building), and in the hands of individuals of
taste and means, we wondered what transformation had converted it
into an unkempt public park.

There are a great many persons who scarcely know where Audubon
Park is, who have no idea of its beauty, and who, consequently, care very
little one way or the other what is said about the place. Its reputation is
not their affair. But we are anxious, not only that every beautiful spot in
this city of much ugliness should be appredated to the fullest; but, in order
to Insure this, that the slightest neglect or tendency toward any delapida-
tion, such as alleged by the Pt^st concerning Audubon Park, should he
arrested. To see how matters stood we visited the Park and found, the
R)si to the contrary notwithstanding, that it was still private property,
maintained in the same excellent condition as for many years past. The
Posts article must have been written in Tompkins pquare aud a confusion
of Ideas resulted.

In case any of our readers who do not know Audubon Park care to visit it,
a word or two on the subject may not be out of place. It is a spot really
pleasant to contemplate in the dog-day?, when the thought of Sth avenue
increases one's temperature. The park lies on tha west side, between I55th
and 158th streets and llth avenue and the Hudson River. It can be
reached frora the Battery by the elevated road in about forty-five minutes.
In a recent number of the Evening Post, Felix Oldboy, in one of his
charming letters, deprecated the desire which people have to rush out of
town in the summer. He declared that there are spots in the city, almost
at one's door, as cool and deUcious as nine out of ten summer resorts. A
visit to Audubon Park almost makes one assent to this heresy. The builder
has indeed played havoc with the old beauties of Manhattan Island, but
in Audubon Park he has made as ample concessions as can possibly be
expected, when it is remembered that each tree there occupies land worth
several bundred dollars, Rits in urbe would be an appropriate motto for
the park; for the country, not merely a stunted tree or two, does really
linger there within the city. Once on those wooded slopes, wil hin ths
gates, overlooking the Hudson, it is ditBcult to imagine that the elevated
road and the city is within a stone's throw. The green terraces, the beds
of flowers, the grand old forest trees, opening her© aud there to let in
glimpses of the broad blue river beneath and the overfrowning, tree topped
Palisades beyond, do not, by any means, suggest the city. The only sounds
one can hear there In the noon of a summer's day are the rumble of the
distant traffic and the occasional splashing of steamers passing up or down
the river.

When Audubon, tho naturalist, settled |on the] spot uow bearing his
name, there was more of nature and less of brownjstone front on Man¬
hattan Island than at present. The Oenius loci, revealed in the peculiar
soft charm which pervades the Hudson scenery, had not yet been driven
from the region which a prosaic race were afterwards to designate 155th
street and llth avenue. Audubon converted the " Park" into a sort of
menagerie for his pets. He kept there his animals and birds gathered frora
every clime. He named, and always spoke of the place, as *' Minnie's
Land,'' after his wife. Thirty-flve or forty years ago it became known as
Audubon Park. At the death of the naturalist the ownership of the land
became divided, and a number of flue residences of the old substantial type
were built. They exist still. At the present time the park ia owned by a
few gentlemen, and within its limits there are about twenty residences.
For all intents and purpose the land Is held as it were in common, there
being no fences or other boundary marks between houses. William A.
Wheelock, of the Central National Bank; George B. Grinnell, William
Foster, Jr., Charles Francis'Stoue and other well-known men live there.
Within the past twelve months several new dwellings have been erected,
and they are worthy of considerable praise for the manner in which the
design has been made to suit the situation, and for their quiet elegance. In
building these houses several cannon-balls from revolutionary days were
found embedded deeply in the soil. The long-hidden rusty iron helped in
the making of history of which the marvelous growth of New York City ia
a part. Thus time turns human affairs around strangely—a hundred
years after these murderous missiles had spent their energy behold they
are quietly removed to make way for the firesidd and the home.

The district around Audubon Park contains some of the finest residences
in the city, and many others are now in course of erection. A fine dwell¬
ing house is building, facing the horae of the late Sheppard F. Knapp, on
158th street. Several houses are goiug up on 156th street. One row on
that street, near the Boulevard, is not only tasty in appearance, but is
unusually well-planed in the interior, to meet the conditions of the site,
etc. The Boulevard in this neighborhood is to be paved at once. The new
viaduct, to be built from St. Nicholas place to Tth avenue, will render thia
charming region still more easy of access as well to those who drive as to
those who use the elevated roads. The tendency of improvement, which
for years has been setting toward the west side, is also of necessity moving
northward, but this is not likely to interfere with the quiet beauty of
Audubon Park, which for years will probubly remain, imdisturbed, one of
the loveliest spots on Manhattan Island.





The space given to reporting sporting events in the daily press is exciting
much comment. Some years ago the American editors could not under¬
stand why the Titnes and other London papers gave so much space
to horse racing, cricket, yachting, boating and the like ; but lately our
daily newspapers literally give pa^es dally during eight months of the year
to horse racing and base ball news. This klud of journallsra is not satis¬
factory to old-fashioned people aud women. Happily the sporting aeoson
is now drawing to a olose.