Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1877 — New York Street-Lamps in 1697 and 1876. [ARTICLE]

New York Street-Lamps in 1697 and 1876.

It appears that in the seventeenth ccna, when the city of New York was but : more than a village, there was for a' long time no system of lighting the streets. On dark nights, each citizen who ventured out-of-doors was expected to provide himself with a lantern; and at long intervals one might see a lighted lamp hung in front of the door of some wealthy citizen. were charged to enforce the duty, “that every seventh householder, in the dark time of the moon, cause a lantern and a candle to be hung out of his window on a pole, the expense to be divided among the seven families.” This was probablv considered an excellent way of street-lighting at the time. But what a change would one of the Aldermen of 1697 find, could he now follow

ou some moonless night the double line of gas-lamps extending from the Battery to Fordham, a distance of fifteen miles! Who would not like to accompany him as he silently passed over the well-paved ways, once so wild and swampy, and to see his astonished gaze as the long lines of lighted lamps revealed tall fronts of stately marble stores and brown-stone houses; and on through the beautiful Central Park, and—still further, over well-made roads—out into the open country beyond it, yet still within the city’s limits? Do you think that the ancient Aiderman would recognise in the great new oity the quiet village that he once knew and loved ? —St. NichoUtfor February.