New-York as It Was, During the Latter Part of the Last Century; An Anniversary Address Delivered Before the St. Nicholas Society of the City of

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ... ADDRESS. Mr.President, And Brethren Of The Society Of St. Nicholas: Withdrawn for some years past from the busy haunts of men, and enjoying in the shades of a rural retirement the repose so grateful and becoming to my age, I am rarely tempted to emerge from my retreat, except to attend your annual festival: for then it is that I meet those few surviving friends whose heads, like my own, are silvered o'er with age--men whom I have known from boys--with whom I sat on the same form at the madam's school; cracked eggs with at Paas; skated on the Kolch; slid down Verlentenberg Hill on the same sled--whom I slung stones with or against in the battles between Broadway and Smith's Vly; or, in later years, I fought side by side with, or on opposite sides, at elections. In the early youth of the author, an old custom still prevailed among the boys of the city of enlisting in different local parties, which encountered each other in battle array in the environs, armed with the primitive weapons of slings and stones. There were originally but two parties: that of the eastern and lower parts of the city, which took its name from the Vly, or marsh, extending northward from the Vly Market at the foot of Maiden Lane; and that of the western and upper portion, known from the principal street within its bounds as Broadway. As the city extended northward and eastward, a third party arose distinguished as the Bowery Boys. This tiers ctat soon outnumbered the other two; and was, besides, composed of such formidable materials from the slaughter-houses in the neighborhood, as to compel the old ones to relinquish hostilities between themselves, and form an alliance offensive and defensive against the hardier hordes of the north. The conflicts between...