Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1905 — OLD TIME NEW YORK. [ARTICLE]

OLD TIME NEW YORK.

The City as Pictured by Jedldlali Hone In 1802. "The city of New York is inhabited principally by merchants, physicians, lawyers, mechanics, shopkeepers and tradesmen, composed of almost all nations and religions. They are generaljy respectable in their several professions and sustain the reputation of honest, punctual, fair dealers.” In such wise the affairs of New York city were summed up by .Tedifiiah Morse, I). D., in 18(2. The quotations are from Mr. Morse's “Geography Made Easy,” published in December, 1802, a few; copies of which remarkable book have come down in time yellowed pages to the. third and fourth generations of them that studied the fresh issues. Mr. Morse found still discernible among the inhabitants of his NeW York “the neatness, parsimony and industry” of the early Dutch settlers, and he had courage to believe that these qualities “will probably continue visible for many years to come.” .When geography was being made easy, in 1802, New York was the capital of the, state and Albany and Hudson were the only other incorporated cities. “The principal part of che city (New York),—wrote Mr. Morse, “lies on the east side of the island, although the buildings extend from one river to the other. The length of the. city on East river is about two miles, but falls much short of that distance on the banks of the Hudson. The houses are generally built of brick and the roofs tiled.” , «. The geography notes that New York “is esteemed the most eligible situation for commerce in the United States.” Moreover, “in ’point of sociability and hospitality New York is hardly exceeded by any town in the United States. ‘‘On a general view of this city as described thirty years ago,” the geography goes on, “and in its present state the comparison is flattering to the present age, particularly the improvements in taste, elegance of manners and that easy, unaffected civility .and politeness which form the happiness of social Intercourse.” There were sixteen states in the Union when Mr. Morse wrote. He had kind words for these and for the known countries of the world at large. Before concluding his work with a chronological table extending from the creation to his own date he indulged in a gentle prophecy thus as to the growth of the republic: “Admitting the population of the United States at present (1S02) to be 5,000,000 and that this number by natural increase and by immigration will be doubled in twenty years and continue to increase in that ratio for a century to come, at that period (1902) there will be in United America 160,000,000 inhabitants, nearly 20,000,000 more than there are at present in all Europe.” We have fallen far from Mr. Morse’s expectation, even, assuming that in “United America” he meant to Include Canada. Yet was he an able and kindly geographer and not more sanguine than his day.—New Y’ork World.