Area History: Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, 1857, Vol I: 
Innovations and New Modes of Conducting Business

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       WATSON'S  ANNALS  of  PHILADELPHIA  and  PENNSYLVANIA

               Vol. I    Written 1830 - 1850

 Chapter 23.  INNOVATIONS AND NEW MODES OF CONDUCTING BUSINESS, &c.

   It is very natural that the youth at any given time, should, without
inquiry, infer that all the familiar customs and things which they beheld
were always so before their time, when often, many of them may have been
just introduced.  This fact I often realize in my  observation even now
among the rising generation.  This reflection leads us to think that
hereafter many customs may be introduced, after the practices of older
cities, to which we are now strangers, but which without some passing notice
here, might not be known to be new after they had been familiarized among us
a few years.  I mention, therefore, customs which do not exist now, but
which will doubtless come to our use from the example of Europe --- such as
shoeblacks soliciting to clean shoes and boots on the wearer, in the streets
--- dealers in old clothes bearing them on their shoulders and selling them
in the public walks --- men drawing light trucks with goods, in lieu of
horses --- men carrying a telescope by night to show through to street
passengers --- women wheeling wheelbarrows to vend oranges and such like
articles --- cobblers' stalls and book stalls, &c., placed on the sides of
the footpaths --- men and women ballad singers stopping at corners to sing
for pennies --- porters carrying sedan chairs --- women having meat and
coffee stalls in the street for hungry passengers, &c.
   From thoughts like these we are disposed to notice several of the changes
already effected within a few years past, as so many innovations or alleged
improvements on the days by - gone.

   CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE --- Those who now occasionally set forth their
claims to public favour, by detailed statements in their proper names, would
have met with little or no countenance in the public suffrages in the olden
time.  Sheriffs have usually taken the precedence in these things, and it is
known that the first person who ever had the boldness to publish himself as
a candidate for sheriff, and to laud his own merits, occurred in the person
of Mordecai Lloyd, in the year 1744, begging the good people for their votes
by his publications in English and German.  At the same time Nicholas Scull,
an opposing candidate, resorted to the same measure, and apologized for "the
new mode", as imposed upon him by the practice of others.

   RUM DISTILLERIES --- Rum distilled from molasses was once an article
largely manufactured and sold in Philadelphia.  It bore as good a price as
the Boston or New England rum, and both of them nearly as much as that
imported from the West Indies.  About the year 1762, there used to be
frequent mention of Wharton's "great still - house", on the wharf near the
Swedes' Church; also, Sims' and Cadwallader's  still - house below the
Drawbridge; one in Front above Arch street; two large ones in Cable lane;
one at Masters'  above Point Pleasant in Kensington; one out High street,
between Eighth and Ninth streets.

    POT  AND  PEARL  ASHES --- A manufactory of these was first established
in Philadelphia in the year 1772, in the stores on Goodman's wharf, (since
Smith's) a little above Race street.

   MILLINERY STORES --- It is still within the memory of the aged when and
where the first store of this kind was introduced into the city.  It was
begun by the Misses Pearson, (one of whom married Capt. Sparks) in a small
frame house in South Second street, a little below Chestnut street, and long
they enjoyed the sole business without a rival.

   HUCKSTERS --- A genus now so prevalent in our market --- an
irresponsible, unknown, but taxing race, odious as "the publicans" of old,
were without their present motives or rewards in the former days.

   PAWNBROKERS --- are altogether of modern establishments among us, rising
in obscurity and with little notice, till they have spread like a malaria
over the morals of the community.  Their alarming progress is a real blur
upon our character, as it evidences so powerfully the fact of bad living
among so many of our population.  Only thirty years ago a pawnbroker would
have starved among us !   Since those in the city have been put under some
legal surveillance and control, we are enabled to arrive at some estimate of
the contributors taxed to their onerous support. In making some researches
among the records of the city police, it has been ascertained, as the result
of one year's waste in these founts of wretchedness and misery, that there
have been 180,000 pledges, and that the exhibit for one week in winter, has
shown an array of articles to the following effect, to wit:
       Articles of women's dress ------------------------- 945
         Do.  of men's dress ----------------------------- 825
       Clocks and watches -------------------------------- 240
       Gold watches --------------------------------------  45
       Silver, table and tea spoons ---------------------- 235
       Ear and finger rings, chains and brooches --------- 224
       Bibles -------------------------------------------    9
       Other articles not enumerated -------------------- 966
                                                          ____
                                                    Total 3489 in one week

   There were, indeed, poor among us in former years, but then they were in
general a virtuous poor, who had the compassion of their neighbours, and for
that reason, could have found temporary relief from articles such as above
stated, without the resort to usurious imposts.  In short, they did well
enough without pawnbrokers, and the change to the present system is
appalling !

   LOTTERY BROKERS --- These also are a new race, luxuriating on the
imaginative schemings of some, and the aversion to honest labour in others.
They are a race who hold "the word of promise to the ear and break it to the
hope" of thousands !  Their flaring and intrusive signs and advertisements,
which meet the eye at every turn, are so many painful proofs of the lavish
patronage they receive from the credulity of their fortune-seeking votaries.
I never see their glaring signs without a secret wish to add a scroll, both
as a satire on them, and as a sentence conveying in much point the pith of
all they promise, to wit:

       "Batter'd and bankrupt fortunes mended here !"

   Our forefathers, it is true, much resorted to lotteries for raising money
wanted for public purposes before the Revolution, (as will be noticed in
another place) but then, as "the public good was the aim" the citizens
cordially lent their aid to sell the tickets without fee or reward, and in
effect gave the price of their tickets as so much willing gift to the object
intended by the lottery.

   SECOND - HAND  CLOTHES AND SHOEBLACKS --- Shoe blacking and the sale of
cast off clothes, as now opened in cellars by the blacks, is quite a modern
affair.  Old clothes were never sold formerly; when it was rather a common
practice to turn them, or to cut them down for children; and all boots and
shoes were blackened at home, by children, apprentices, or domestics, with
spit-balls held in the hand, and much less shining than now. Even the houses
now so common for selling ready made garments for gentlemen's wear is quite
a new thing, and was first began at the Shakespeare buildings by Burk, who
made enough thereby to allure others to his imitation.

   OYSTER CELLARS --- These, as we now see them, are the introduction of but
a few years.  When first introduced, they were of much inferior appearance
to the present, were entirely managed by blacks, and did not at first
include gentlemen among their visitors.  Before that time, oysters were
vended along the streets in wheelbarrows only; even carts were not used for
their conveyance, and gentlemen who loved raw oysters were sufficiently in
character to stop the barrow and swallow their half dozen without the
appendage of crackers, &c.

   INTELLIGENCE OFFICES --- These offices for finding places for servants,
began within a very few years and upon a very small scale, were very little
resorted to except by strangers, and were generally conducted at first by
blacks.  There was, indeed, an "Intelligence Office" advertised in the
Pennsylvania Journal before the Revolution, but it combined other objects,
gained no imitations, and died unnoticed.  A better scheme than any of these
has been recently got up by the citizens themselves, to help servants to
places, and to guard and improve their morals, which promises to be a
general benefit.

   GENERAL REMARKS ON VARIOUS ITEMS OF CHANGE --- I notice as among the
remarkable changes of Philadelphia, within the period of my own observation,
that there is an utter change of the manner and quantity of business done by
tradesmen.  When I was a boy, there was no such thing as conducting their
business in the present wholesale manner, and by efforts at monopoly.  No
masters were seen exempted from personal labour in any branch of business
--- living on the profits derived from many hired journeymen; and no places
were sought out at much expense, and display of signs and decorated windows,
to allure custom.  Then almost every apprentice, when of age, ran his equal
chance for his share of business in his neighbourhood, by setting up for
himself, and with an apprentice or two getting into a cheap location, and by
dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his
neighbourhood.  Thus every shoemaker or tailor was a man for himself; thus
was every tinman, blacksmith, hatter, wheelwright, weaver, barber,
bookbinder, umbrella maker, coppersmith, and brassfounder, painter and
glazier, cedar cooper, plasterer, cabinet and chairmaker, chaisemaker, &c.
It was only trades indispensably requiring many hands, among whom we saw
many journeymen; such as shipwrights, brickmakers, masons, carpenters,
tanners, printers, stonecutters, and such like.  In those days, if they did
not aspire to much, they were more sure of the end --- a decent competency
in old age, and a tranquil and certain livelihood while engaged in the
acquisition of its reward.
   Large stores, at that time, exclusively wholesale, were but rare, except
among the shipping merchants, so called, and it is fully within my memory,
that all the hardware stores, which were intended to be wholesale dealers,
by having their regular sets of country customers, for whose supplies they
made their regular importations, were obliged by the practice of the trade
and the expectations of the citizens, to be equally retailers in their
ordinary business.  They also, as subservient to usage, had to be regular
importers of numerous stated articles in the dry goods line, and especially
in most articles in the woolen line.  At that time, ruinous overstocks of
goods imported were utterly unknown, nor resorted to.  The same advance "on
the sterling"  was the set price of every storekeeper's profit.  As none got
suddenly rich by monopolies, they went through whole lives, gradually but
surely augmenting their estates, without the least fear or the misfortune of
bankruptcy.  When it did rarely occur, such was the surprise and the general
sympathy of the public, that citizens saluted each other with sad faces, and
made their regrets and condolence a measure of common concern.  An aged
person has told me that when the inhabitant and proprietor of that large
house, formerly the post office, at the corner of Chestnut street and
Carpenter's court, suddenly failed in business, the whole house was closely
shut up for one week, as an emblem of the deepest family mourning; and all
who passed the house instinctively stopped and mingled the expressions of
their lively regret.  Now how changed are matters in these particulars !
Now men fail with hardy indifference, and some of them have even the
effrontery to appear abroad in expensive display, elbowing aside their
suffering creditors at public places of expensive resort.  I occasionally
meet with such, by whom I have been injured, who indulge in travelling
equipages, with which they delight to pass and dust me, and who,
nevertheless, would feel their dignity much insulted at even a civil hint to
spare me but a little of the disregarded debt.  It might lower the arrogancy
of some such, to know, there was once a time in our colony when such
heedless and desperate dealers and livers were sold for a term of years to
pay their just debts.
   The overworked and painfully excited business men of the present day,
have little conception of the tranquil and composed business habits of their
forefathers in the same line of pursuits, in Philadelphia.  The excited and
anxious dealers of this day, might be glad to give up half of their present
elaborate gains, to possess but half of the peace and contentment felt and
enjoyed by their moderate and tranquil progenitors.  In the former days, all
prices were alike; the percentage of gain was uniform --- there was no
motive to run about town to seek out undersellers.  They aimed at no such
thing.  They would have deemed the spirit of monopoly a sin of discreditable
selfishness.  The selfish spirit since introduced, has had its own reward;
and the generation which now aims to engross, have become their own
tormentors.  They have increased their necessary cares and labours, without
producing the proposed monopoly; for where all are necessarily constrained
to aim at rivalry, and to struggle for self-existence, the competition has
to become general, and thus we go on afflicting ourselves without avail !
Truly, in all these matters, our tranquil, contented, moderately prosperous
forefathers, far surpassed the present race of business men in their just
estimate of life and happiness.  They understood and practised upon the word
"comfort" in all they did !  At that they steadily aimed.
   It strikes me as among the remarkable changes of modern times, that
blacksmith shops, which used to be low, rough one story sheds, here and
there in various parts of the city, and always fronting on the main streets,
have been crowded out as nuisances, or rather as eyesores to genteel
neighbourhoods.  Then the workmen stood on ground floors in clogs or
wooden-soled shoes, to avoid the damp of the ground.  But now they are seen
to have their operations in genteel three story houses, with warerooms in
front, and with their furnaces and anvils, &c., in their yards or back premises.
   "Lines of packets" as we now see them, for Liverpool and for Havre
abroad, and for Charleston, New Orleans, Norfolk, &c., at home, are but
lately originated among us.  The London packet in primitive days made her
voyage but twice a year.  And before the Revolution all vessels going to
England or Ireland used to be advertised on the walls of the corner houses,
saying when to sail and where they laid.  Some few instances of this kind
occurred even after the war of Independence.  In those days vessels going to
Great Britain, were usually called "going home".
   Kalm, when here ninety years ago, made a remark which seemed to indicate
that then New York, though so much smaller as a city, was the most
commercial, saying, "It probably carries on a more extensive commerce than
any town in the English colonies, and it is said they send more ships to
London than they do from Philadelphia".
   From the period of 1790 to 1800 the London trade was all the channel we
used for the introduction of spring and fall goods.  The arrival of the
London ships at Clifford's wharf used to set the whole trading community in
a bustle to see them "haul into the wharf".  Soon the whole range of Front
street, from Arch to Walnut street, was lumbered with the packages from the
Pigou, the Adriana, the Washington, &c.
   Great and noisy were the breaking up of packages, and busy were the
masters, clerks and porters to get in and display their newly arrived
treasures.  Soon after were seen the city retailers, generally females in
that time, hovering about like butterflies near a rivulet, mingling among
the men, and viewing with admiration the rich displays of British chintses,
muslins and calicoes of the latest London modes.  The Liverpool trade was
not at that time opened, and Liverpool itself had not grown into the
overwhelming rival of Bristol and Hull --- places with which we formerly had
some trade for articles not drawn from the great London storehouses.

  Chapter 24.       PROGRESS AND STATE OF SOCIETY

   When foreigners speak scoutingly of us, because we have not this and that
refinement of foreign luxury, they do not consider, as a cause, that we are
still a "new world", and a still newer nation; and that the wonder is not,
why we are not so "finished" as they desire, but that we are already so
wonderfully advanced and improved.  Our own people, too, are not
sufficiently aware of this as a cause, just because so very few of the
middle aged among us are acquainted with the facts of things as they were,
even so recently as the revolution.  We were then, in Pennsylvania, but one
hundred years of age as colonists; and it is only since the period of 1800,
when, as self-ruled and independent, we "went ahead" in wealth, improvement,
credit and renown.  Till then, we had the plain simplicity and frugal habits
of colonists, and were still struggling through the immense debt of costs
and losses, incurred as the price of our independence.  Before the year 1800
we were unacquainted with the use of carpets, sideboards, massive plate,
gigs, barouches and coaches; and were sufficiently satisfied with sanded
floors, white washed parlours and halls, rush chairs, plain chaises, corner
chimnies, corner clocks and glass door buffets and cupboards.  Since then
our roads, bridges, farms, houses, hotels and villas, were all to be made
from the rough, by the power of the woodman's axe, &c., and especially so in
the state of New York, all westward of Albany and Schenectady.  Our
mechanism, machinery and manufactures were all to invent and fabricate.  Our
colleges and schools of learning, and churches, to raise and endow; our
literature, publications and press concerns, to originate and sustain;
authors, artists, poets and painters, to create and cherish.  These, and
hundreds of other achievements, not here named in so brief a review of our
progress from infancy to manhood --- all done in one hundred and sixty
years, since Pennsylvania was "a waste howling wilderness", the home of the
aborigines; or in about sixty-six years, since we were set free as a "little
people", to begin a national establishment for ourselves !  These are things
which ought to be our perpetual praise, and ought to excite the admiration,
and not the spleen, of the Halls, Hamiltons and Trollopes, and other
visiting journalists of the day.  We have sufficient answers to all their
sneers and self-complacency, if we duly respect ourselves, when we point
them to the rapid growth of our cities, and inland improvements and
embellishments, every where manifest where we journey; and last, but least,
if justly estimated, our rapid progress in the luxury of decoration,
entertainment and display.  For these last, as republicans pledged to
simplicity of manners and economy of government, we have least cause to
glory or exult; and could we but duly appreciate our own best interests, we
should scout the most of them, as being, at best, but corrupting and
enervating imitations of kingly pride and exotic vain-glory --- not becoming
either our profession or our wants.  Our proper character and just dignity,
as a self-ruled people, should be to make our country a  pattern and
praiseworthy example to the corrupt governments and oppressed people of the
old world; not the servile and debased imitator of courtly modes and forms,
from which our fathers so earnestly and devotedly divorced themselves and
their posterity.  It might be pertinently remarked, that it is a fact, that
all the foreigners who visited us as colonies, and they were chiefly
British, gave us full commendation for every thing; but, as soon as we set
up for ourselves, and especially when we went fearfully ahead, then we
excited their envy and jealousy, and gave full vigour to their carping at
every thing !  It is still, however, true, that while a class of Englishmen
scout at our state of society, another portion of them are actually
overrunning us with the number who desire to unite themselves to our state
and condition forever.
   Our kind and quantity of reading, and polite literature, is wholly
changed since the great increase of our printers and publishers.  Since the
year 1800 there has been an entire change, rapidly invading all the formerly
received principles.  New books, in every form, have since been flitting
across the Atlantic --- mere ephemera to live and perish in the month !  As
good old Bishop Usher said, even in his day, "the press must be kept going,
and if a good book could occasionally be eked out, it might be endured !"
But how vastly has times changed since then !  Who now can tell the number
of forgotten books, which have had their popularity, within the last thirty
years, in this country !  It requires but the time of a middle aged person
among us, to remember when we possessed a stable and standard course of
belles-lettres reading; and when it was such, the quotations from them were
much more frequent in writing and conversation. A man then could provide
himself with a library at one purchase, and deemed it an affair finished for
a life of good reading; but now paper-covered books come out, and must be
bought, to keep current with the times, faster than we can conveniently find
binders to re-cover and finish them !  Novels, romances and fictions were
scarcely known --- Fielding had furnished our needed supply.  The Vicar of
Wakefield, Don Quixote and Gil Blas, were conned almost by heart.  We read,
for style in composition, Addison's Spectator, Johnson's Rambler, and
Blair's Lectures and Sermons; but since then, we have quite a new formation
of sundry adverbs, made on the authority of sundry popular writers.  "The
invaluable works of our elder writers, (says Wordsworth) even Shakespeare
and Milton, are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid
German tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse."
All the poetic works of Pope and Dryden had to be read then as now.
Grecian, Roman and English history were really and effectively studied ---
not at the schools, as now pretended, but at home, in reading families.
Blackstone's Commentaries, and Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, were then fully
read by unprofessional gentlemen, as a necessary part of English literature.
Milton's, Young's, Thomson's, Wolcotts and Goldsmith's poetry, possessed the
mind, and influenced the imagination of every instructed person. Even the
school books of that day were wholly different, and children's minds were
beguiled to story reading by a course of class books, now unknown. Thomas
Dobson gave the first impulse to book printing.  He came soon after the
peace of 1783.  Before his time, five or six printers used to join to print
a "Testament" &c.!   Aitken got Congress to help him print a small Bible in
two volumes !
   There was once far less dependence upon "place and office" than now.  No
men were to be found living, as now, by the trade or profession of a
politician.  When every man's mind was influenced by the moderate things
prevailing around him, all seemed contented with their individual callings,
as learned from their boyhood; and they rested in the same till death, or
increase of goods, changed their position.  It is easy now to remember such
men as Burd, Biddle, Frebiger, &c., as perpetual Prothonotaries, Clerks of
Courts, Registers, Recorders, &c.  Indeed, it was once as common to see
official papers, stating a record as done "at Brockdens" as at "the
Recorder's office".  In short, it was only in the annual elective offices
that we ever witnessed any changes.  It was only about the time of Governor
M'Kean's service, 1799, that the community ever saw the new principle
carried out, that "the spoils of office belong to the victors" in the
election !  Since then, we have often witnessed the distribution of offices
without regard to merit or to qualifications.  "They had served their
party", and that constituted their claim to reward !  On this new principle
of action, we have been but too often reminded of our Bible declaration ---
that "it is a sorry sight to see princes walking on foot and servants riding
on asses"; or, like the cave of Adullam, we find places occupied by every
one that is in debt or distress, and every one that has been discarded !
There was no such thing as petitioning and urging for office in Governor
Mifflin's time, and none in Washington's or Adams' administration.  The
turning out system began with M'Kean, Governor of Pennsylvania, to a great
degree, and Mr. Jefferson, as President, in a lesser degree; but they were
the beginners.
   The restrictions set upon our mechanics before the Revolution is in
general but very little known now to the mass of the people.  The mother
country proposed to engross the making and vending of almost all we used.
Even our very minds were put under her teaching, and we were scarcely
permitted to think, but in such kind of literature as she chose to command
and bestow.  In this way, we had our Primers and Dilworth's Spelling books
and Arithmetics.  We made no books for ourselves; and since we have, in more
modern times, essayed to form our own literature, we have seen it
perpetually abused in foreign reviews, &c., as defective and imbecile.  Some
of our own people have so far subscribed to this selfish and perverted
design, as to give no value to our home productions, until they had
previously, by unbecoming subserviency, gained first the foreign passport of
approbation !
   But to return to the former colonial state of our mechanics, to notice
which this article as specially intended, viz : --- The state of former
restriction had so far passed away that when the fervid debate in Congress
occurred in 1833, upon the tariff, there were hardly any individuals then
found who could rightly discuss the real foundation upon which the mechanics
of the Revolutionary period entertained hopes of free trade and of
protective rights and privileges.  The debaters, who pretended to remember
the past, affected to claim far more for the working class of common
tradesmen than they ever desired or expected from their original purpose of
self-government and freedom !
   Mr. Webster's speech, of February, 1833, against Calhoun, made the case
plain, that all who debated at the time of our infancy of government, did
admit then that our mechanics should be "protected and encouraged"; and so,
the earliest act for our revenue spoke also.  But mark sundry coincident
facts also: --- It was the universal expectation and promise of the
Revolution, that the former restrictions of the parent country on our
domestic industry should be released, and that therefore, numerous trades
(not properly manufactories) would be allowed free exercise, and have also
the help of a duty, such as a necessary revenue could grant.  It was upon
this principle that the first petitions which came before Congress, coming
from Baltimore and New York, claimed protection for some domestic trades.
There was at no time, in the early days, any hesitancy to grant such
requisite aid to any of the branches, which could reasonably expect to
stand.  In fact, they were only asked by those branches which had already
been exercising in the country.
   The tariff advocates now, however, used the foregoing facts, so far as
understood by them, to bespeak a gratuity to all kinds of manufactories,
upon large scales, and with a right to tax the community from 50 to 100 per
cent, for their own support.  Against this indulgence to a part of the
community, many came forward and demanded protection against the selfishness
and taxation, which the others affected to claim as all their own !  In the
strife which this dilemma of opposing interests created, it came to be
discovered, by some, that although the first framers of the Constitution,
and the earliest legislators acting thereon, had thought themselves
warranted to couple protection with revenue, the reading was not to be found
in the Constitution itself !  From this necessity of providing for others,
we had been protected by an overruling Providence, which had made our
fathers to overlook such an onerous grant !  It is from this cause that the
friends of "free trade" feel assured, as they say, that if any revenue act
shall now pass, having the words "for the protection of domestic
manufactures" included, and as a cause of revenue, the act can be nullified
by the Supreme Court of the United States !
   Under such circumstances, the truest system of tariff is, for each State
that has the most interest to encourage any given staples or fabrics, to
bestow premiums and bounties at their own costs.  The failure of the
intended tariff act to take place, was boldly declared to be a general
national calamity --- such as would shake society to its foundation !  The
Connecticut Conrant, for instance, deliberately published thus, viz:
"Manufactories must stop; mechanics' shops must be shut up; all kinds of
business must be reduced.  The change of the tariff will destroy tenfold
more property, and deprive tenfold more persons of wages and employment, and
produce more pecuniary distress, than the burning of every merchant ship in
the United States !!"  The Baltimore Gazette, at the same time, asserted in
substance the same amount of distress.  It said, sugar would be abandoned
--- so, also, all iron works would cease, and flour would fall to $2.50, and
beef and pork be at $4 and $5 !  Not one of the predicted evils came to
pass; and it is a part of the history of our country and countrymen, that
political prophecies are not to be trusted, although vehement and
passionate.  God, who "careth for men" will still take care for men;
society, if virtuous and just, will still live and prosper !  God, as a
common Father, has equally provided and intended free trade for all mankind;
but such is the prevailing selfishness of man, that until nations can
reciprocally agree to free trade, the selfish policy of home protection must
be adhered to for necessary self-defence and protection.
   In Philadelphia, before the existence of banks, which have been the life
and soul of city trade and fortune making --- when all the business was
engrossed by the men of estate and property, there was a marked difference
of respect and feeling towards the rich, --- chiefly because they were then
of rare occurrence.  Now we have become so familiar with the sudden rise of
the fortunate poor to wealth, power and pride, that we no longer feel
reverence.  The swing of the pendulum now goes too far the other way; for
now very little men, with nothing but their self-conceit to sustain them,
push into every post of elevation and rank !  "Princes go now on foot, and
servants ride aloft on asses!"
   "No relics of past time (said the Hon. Jonathan Roberts), ought to be
held more precious or more worthy of preservation, than the samples of
apparel of our functionaries, civil and military, of the time of the
Revolution, and more especially of our mothers of that day".  "At the era of
the Revolution, when so many were exhausted by the struggle, the people had
learned the true value of food and raiment.  They then lived frugal in all
things.  But since then, our money is absorbed by a wanton consumption of
imported luxuries; and we are almost perpetually afflicting and scourging
ourselves by onerous balances of trade on the wrong side".  We are our own
tormentors !

   I observe, in 1834-5, that the houses in Philadelphia are then being made
too high for comfort, convenience or even interest; although the last is
most manifestly the cause of the four storied elevation of stores.  Sad
havoc, it is to be feared, will some day occur to those buildings in the way
of fire; and then they will be found too high for extinguishment by our
engines, and thus be subjected afterwards to extra premiums for insurance.
I notice, as the old houses of the first erection of the city are receding
from use and observation, that as a general rule, the tops of the windows of
the second story exactly agree with the bottom or sills of the windows of
the second story
in the modern houses of respectable standing.  [ I wrote this just before
the great fire at New York, and in foresight of their inability to put out
the fires in such high houses --- so fully demonstrated.]
   I have been accustomed, for a few years past, to make use of New Year's
day, somewhat like a New Yorker, as a special occasion for visiting the
city, and there to hunt up my earliest and least familiar acquaintances ---
thus to keep alive early recollections, and to preserve their respect and
remembrance.  In January, 1836, (I mark the time for the sake of the present
special record) I made calls upon as many as twenty families.  I pass by the
notice of themselves personally --- such as their own waning persons, and
their new and growing progenies, just starting into life where I had once
begun --- as I wish only to notice the wonderful change of their houses in
furniture and in amplitude of rooms, &c.  The whole is such as to fully
convince me, that I can no longer employ my pen to illustrate the changing
manners and times of our city.  I must be done with that !  I can now only
say, in general terms, that the change from the olden time is so entire, and
the traces of the past are so wholly effaced, that there is now scarcely any
vestige left !  The former was an age by itself of homely and domestic
comfort, without pomp, parade or show; and this is now an entire age of
luxury and cumbrous pomp.  Now our "merchants are princes", and our
tradesmen are "men of fortune" : all dwell in palaces.  The former little
parlours are gone; even large parlours now are not enough --- but two must
be permanently cast into one, by double doors : --- this not for family use
and comfort, (they are too refined and delicate for use ! ) but for
admiration and show !  while the family itself, for the sake of indulgence
and freedom, seek other apartments behind, or upstairs, or in the basement
story !  These big rooms are necessary, because social visits being no
longer in vogue, but superceded by parties and "routes", they must thus have
halls sufficiently large to hold their semi-annual gatherings !  It is
really astonishing to contemplate the class of citizens who hold such
houses, and the annual expenditures they make, even in the same relations in
business wherein their fathers could only live moderately and frugally.  One
has only to walk along any given fashionable street, and read the names on
the costly dwelling houses, and see how generally they comprise the class of
fortunate dealers in all manners of merchandise and trades !  One cannot but
wonder how so many families can find the means to sustain their freedom of
expense.  It is, in fact, so common now to be lavish in show, that riches
can scarcely confer distinction !  Surely we have a wonderful country, where
the road to wealth is so broad and safe --- wherein so many travel and so
many "go ahead" !  We wonder, indeed, how long it may continue !  The
lessons of universal history has been, that luxury always produces its own
downfall and ruin.  Shall we ever see this?  Self-love and self-confidence
answer, NO !  NOUS VERRONS.
   The increased style of elegance of all public edifices is strikingly
manifest since the year 1830.  Every thing goes now upon a scale of
magnificence.  Such is our exchange, our banks, our poor house, our prisons,
hotels, theatres, market houses, colleges, churches, mint, water works,
Girard college, &c., &c.  Every thing is now as manifestly made for ornament
as for use.  This is sufficiently proved in the palace-like appearance as
the two great asylums provided for the poor upon the banks of the
Schuylkill.  The one for poor disabled sailors, and the other for paupers of
every kind. It may mark, too, the changing state of things, even beyond our
most sanguine expectations, that when the sailor's "Naval Asylum" was
constructing, it was strenuously reprobated by several, because it was
located where they could not refresh their eyes and revive their past
affections with the sight of sea-vessels.  Then there was not one to be seen
upon the Schuylkill, and now there is daily a whole fleet of two and three
masted vessels, come there for coal and merchandise to be brought from the
inland country !  Men of the former age never dreamed of a day to come, when
that river would become a place of navigation and commerce; and great has
been the rise of the value of property upon the banks of that river, near
the city, since the discovery of its advantages.
   The calamity which scourged the whole country in 1837, by the madness of
overtrading and speculation, promoted too, as alleged, by political favours
to partizan favourites, intentionally rewarded from the public crib and the
public lands --- will be long remembered for its destructive ravages in
families, by the stoppage of specie payments, and by the many persons thrown
out of business and labour.  Monopoly in all things seems to have been the
rage and the mania of the day.  Patient labour and cautious economy seem to
have been scouted as too tame.  Some prudent and well-wishing men have
indulged the hope, that the excess of such evils would tend to correct
themselves; but, so far, they seem only to be longest and strongest
remembered and avoided, in classes, --- and when the evil has been stopped
in one breach, another has been ready to open.  Thus, in 1838-9, succeeded
the silk and mulberry enterprise.  It was made so plausible to thousands who
had never had a passion for speculation, that they became deeply engaged;
and when it was likely to fail by its excess of tree cultivators, the
deceptive and knowing ones kept up the illusion by alluring promises and
prospects ahead, until the confiding and innocent were overwhelmed in ruin.
In 1840 came to its crisis the terrible explosion of all kinds of stocks,
especially of banks, railroads and public enterprises --- induced by the
overdealings of ambitious and greedy men, borrowing and lending beyond
measure on stocks, so that the revulsion, when it came, involved in ruin
thousands and thousands of women, orphans and aged persons out of trade.  On
the whole, we are an afflicted and deeply agitated people, self-tormented
even in the midst of aboundingly natural advantages, and continual means of
sure and moderate thrift.  The fullness of the travelling conveyances have
latterly marked our countrymen, as men devoted to the chase after wealth and
new enterprises; thus leaving the repose and comforts of home and family to
attain to some sudden elevation by their cherished hopes from speculation.
It is the more strange that Americans should thus jeopardise comfort and
ease to acquire great wealth, while our laws are so peculiarly unfit for the
permanency of family grandeur.  They are essentially agrarian, by reason of
our statutes of descents and distributions.  Those who may live sumptuously
and proudly today, as one family, fall into littleness when scattered into
pluralities.  The law of equal distribution, at the death of the parent
stock, operates quietly and silently in dissolving all the masses heaped up
by the toil and diligence of the successful adventurers.  How vain, then, is
the troublesome ambition of accumulating that which cannot possibly remain
long to confer distinction !  Successful speculation, after all, is oftener
an evil than a blessing.  It upsets all right notions of the value of time,
industry and money.  It is a moral evil, because it violates nature, which
wisely requires an every day employment for the good of body and mind.  The
man who has made a lucky hit, often cuts off from his future life a natural
source of pleasure.  If he has devoted all his time and energies to mammon,
then he is sold to him, and can no more live tranquilly even with his money,
than the man devoted to his bottle can live without the stimulus of strong
drink !  It is all unnatural; and the reward is discontent and petulance.
   The great increase of the two diseases of dyspepsia and apoplexy among
us, may justly incline us to regard them as diseases of increased
civilization, and as produced by the enlarged cares of the mass of our
citizens to sustain the increased modes of expensive living and display of
pomp and show.  Dr. M'Culloch, in one of his lectures, says, "a man should
undertake nothing requiring great intellectual exertion, or sustained
energy, after the age of 65.  Apoplexy is, perhaps, the natural death, the
euthanasia of the intellectual.  Even while their blood remains pure, and
the solids firm, a fragile artery gives away within the head, [it being too
much exercised] blood escapes, and by a gentle pressure dissolves
sensibility at its source forever".  On the other hand, tranquility and a
composed and cheerful mind may prolong life to the close of a century.
Savages have no dyspepsia, and rarely apoplexy.
   The word "comfort" is a very comfortable word; and it is a pity that the
French for their own sake, do not know what it means.  But it is a still
greater pity that we who have the word, and do know its meaning, should so
often sacrifice it for the most unsubstantial reasons.  The fact is, we are
ashamed to be comfortable, lest we should appear ungenteel.  The best
chamber in the house must be kept closed for the same reason.  We must have
a large house and few domestics, for the sake of appearances, and we
sometimes cut ourselves off from intelligent society, because we cannot
afford to receive them with quite so much show and ceremony as our
neighbours.  All this is foolish.  If we cannot afford to be elegant, we
can, at least be comfortable; and if we can procure the elegancies of life,
why not enjoy them every day?  Why must spring cushions, and warm carpets,
and airy rooms, and handsome walls, be shut up three hundred and fifty days
of the year, for the sake of making a grand show off, now and then?  Why do
we not consult our comfort by living in smaller houses, and keeping more
domestics?  Surely, leisure for intellectual and tasteful pursuits is better
than the reputation for lofty rooms and venetian windows.  Why should we
refrain from seeing cultivated people in a social, cordial way, because
another can give them better wine and rarer fruit?  I admire splendour, and
where circumstances warrant it, I am even strongly in favour of
magnificence; but above all things I do love comfort.  I believe few people
in the world have such concern for public opinion as the Americans.  To a
certain extent the check is a salutary one; but our domestic life is a
matter of much more concern to us than it is to the public; and we ought to
have sufficient courage to study our own comfort, and gratify our own
tastes.  Our manner of visiting, and of receiving visiters, is laborious in
the extreme. If friends are staying with us, we feel as if every moment must
be devoted to them.  We cannot sleep, or ride, or read, or visit, for fear
our friends should be left alone.  This is making visiting a burden to them,
as well as to ourselves. We soon become uneasy at such constraint, and they
are restless under a conviction that they impose upon us.  The fact is, it
is a luxury to a visiter sometimes to be left alone --- to read, or ramble,
or sleep, according to fancy.  Many a time, when I have really admired and
loved my hostess, I would have thanked her from my heart for a little
relaxation of attention --- the privilege of being sometimes left to my own
thoughts --- the luxury of a little more freedom, for her and for myself.
At the South, they manage these things better than we do.  Their hospitality
is unbounded.  Visiters may be at home in a mansion, without depriving the
inhabitants of the pleasure of home.  Every thing is at the service of
friends; but if the hostess wishes to visit, where her guest has no
particular inclination to go, she does not hesitate to leave her to herself,
to dispose of time as best suits her.  What a relief not to be obliged to
visit, or obliged to stay at home. This perfect freedom is the only thing
that can make visiting a real pleasure to all parties.  A friend lately told
me of a very elegant woman he had seen at the South, who formed the most
prominent attraction at the fashionable parties.  "I saw her once early in
the morning," said he, "buying some fine fruit at her door.  She had on a
calico morning dress, and a very neat plain cap.  I thought her an
uncommonly genteel domestic --- but never dreamed of its being the brilliant
belle I had seen the evening before, until she bowed and spoke to me.  We
entered into some conversation concerning the fruit she was buying, and
simple and commonplace as the remarks must have been, during such an
interview, I was absolutely enchanted with the graceful ease of her manner.
A New England woman would have escaped into the house, on my approach --- or
not recognised me; or, if I had spoken first, would have blushed, and
fidgeted, and apologized for her morning dress."  Which course is the
wisest? --- not to ask, which is the most comfortable : An ordinary woman
will never get a character for real elegance by decking herself for state
occasions; and a truly tasteful one will lose nothing by being sometimes
seen without coronation robes.
   As a looker on, I cannot forbear sometimes to augur from the growing
corruptions of the present time, what may be the fate of any country in the
future --- for I know that nothing but virtue and moderation can sustain
republicanism.  When we shall lack self -   government in our passions, we
shall need the strong arm of power to keep in check the overbearing and
lawless minds, which aim to engross every thing. I make these remarks in the
year 1838, upon the occasion of perusing Doctor Channing's letter to Mr.
Clay, upon the subject of Texas, to wit :
   "We are corrupt enough already.  In many respects, our institutions have
disappointed us all :  They have not wrought out for us that elevation of
character, which is the most precious, and in truth, the only substantial
blessing of liberty.  Our progress in prosperity has, indeed, been the
wonder of the world; but this prosperity has done much to counteract the
ennobling influence of free institutions.  Prosperity (with too many) has
become dearer than freedom, and government is regarded more as a means of
enriching the country, than of securing private rights.  It is an undeniable
fact, that in consequence of these and other symptoms of corruptions, the
confidence of many reflecting men in our free institutions is very much
impaired : Some despair.  A spirit of lawlessness and mob riot and
invasions of the rights of other states, (such as Texas and Canada, &c.)
which if not repressed, threatens the dissolution of our present forms of
society.  Men begin to think that we must seek security for prosperity and
life in a stronger government."   When I pen this, I do it with much feeling
for my country and its future welfare, I think of my sons, and wonder if
they, when of my age, will find things as peaceful and happy as in the days
of my youth.  Was ever a nation so blessed, and yet how prone, even now, to
abuse our mercies !  I see and feel it !!
   Sometimes, when filled with hopes and good wishes for my country, I look
ahead to the distant future, and say to my imagination what may we not
expect to be in 1888?  Then we shall number fifty millions of freemen and
be, indeed, "the great nation", Michigan, Wisconsin. and Iowa, now beginning
to be, will be the centre of civilization.  The Rocky mountains will be then
the middle or mountain states, while the great Pacific will be fronted by
the Pacific states.  The present "western states" will lose their
appellation, and be merged into part and parcel of the Atlantic and eastern
states, and the then western states, will be those only beyond the Rocky
mountains, and bordering on the Pacific ocean.  The seat of government
itself will be changed, and St. Louis as a place more remote, will be "the"
seat of American empire.

   The vicinity of Philadelphia to New Jersey has had the effect to
contribute a great deal of Jersey population to the city, and a good race of
citizens they make.  They may be considered as a people much formed from the
best of Yankee blood.  All along the seaboard the first settlers there, as
their names show, came from New England in colonial times, especially when
the cedar swamps were full, and afforded abundance of posts, boards, and
shingles for merchandise and shipment.  In the Revolution, the governor
(Reed) was from Jersey, so too, the attorney General Sargent, so also the
Commissary General Boudinot.  Not long since, all the officers of the
mayor's court --- the mayor, recorder, prosecuting officers, and even the
crier, were Jersey born, and now, even the "Annalist of Philadelphia",
(Parvis componera magna --- to compare little with great) though of
Philadelphia origin, happened to be born in Burlington county; and these
facts may tend to excuse, if apology be necessary, for this tribute of
respect to the land of "the Jersey blues", --- of whom my own father was
one, and his forefathers before him, from the time of the landing day, at
Salem.  The reader must pardon the last egotism for the sake of the
prominent intention --- the commendation of the "Jersey blues".  Water
street and Front street, used to be well filled, with business men from Jersey.
   I sometimes cannot refrain from picturing to myself the light canoes of
the Indians, as at no remote period they lay rocking beneath the shelter of
that very bluff where are now moored a fleet of deeply laden barges, [such
as we now see along the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna rivers.]
Indeed, these ideas constantly force themselves upon the mind, as one
wanders over the changeful face of this singular land, where the print of
the moccason is so soon followed by the tread of the engineer and his
attendants, and the light trail of the red men is effaced by the road of
iron; hardly have the echoes ceased to repeat through the woods, the
Indian's hunter cry, before it is followed by the angry rush of the steam
engine, urged forward !  still forward !  by the restless pursuer of the
fated race.  Each state, north, south, and west, is eagerly thrusting forth
her iron arms to knit in a closer embrace her neighbours.  Thus "the star of
empire is onward west !"
   I cannot but feel some gratification in seeing some of my conceptions and
feelings so truly expressed to my hands in a late number of the Daily
Chronicle of Philadelphia --- saying, to those who entertain a feeling of
affection for antiquities, and who look with an eye of veneration upon every
thing stamped with the impress of time, "the present rage of improvement"
must convey any thing but feelings of a pleasurable or enviable cast.  The
dwellings of our forefathers --- the relics of ancient architecture, meet
with no more respect at our hands than if they were old rubbish, fit only to
be carried off to the commons.  This proves us to be a perverted people, so
far as it goes.  Nay, this may be said to be the cause of our perversion, in
as much as by the obliteration of all that appertained to the days of our
fathers' greatness, we have at the same time disposed of the very
remembrance of their virtues too.   ***In a little while, we shall hardly be
left an atom to remind us of the hearts and days of "old lang syne!"
   In comparing the sober business of former times, it must be seen as quite
different from that of the overdone efforts of the present day.  I had said,
under the article of medical facts, that dyspepsia, was then scarcely known;
the cause, since, is to be found greatly, in the overworking of men's minds
by the distracting cares of ways and means of living in luxury.  "In nine
cases our of ten, in that disorder, it is the brain that is the primary
cause.  Give that delicate organ some rest.  Leave your business behind you
when you go to your home.  Do not sit down to dinner with your brows knit
and your mind absorbed in casting up interest accounts.  Never abridge the
usual hours of sleep.  Take more or less of exercise in the open air every
day.  Allow yourself some innocent recreation.  Eat moderately, slowly, and
of just what you please.  Above all, banish all thoughts of the subject from
the mind.  Live temperately and agreeably.  Do not make haste to be rich, [a
fruitful germ of dyspepsia in itself !] cultivate the social affections,
banish gloomy and desponding thoughts."  These hints may prevent the disease
--- but if the victim is already seized, he must give his stomach less to
do, and above all, his brain less to do.  Regimen of any kind will be
useless, so long as the brain is left in an over excitement.  Let that have
rest and the stomach will perform its functions.  But if a man passes
fourteen or fifteen hours a day in a study or a counting-room, the stomach
will inevitably become paralyzed --- so that even a biscuit a day would
distress it !  The fashion of the day is to live luxuriously --- to show out
in fashionable viands and wines.  The same class of persons, overwork the
brain to provide the ways and means of such display.  They are kept
constantly on the rack of excitement, are constantly worrying and fretting
about their business, and denying themselves needful rest, and equally
needful relaxation !  Thus the overstrained brain weakens the overloaded
stomach, the latter fails, and dyspepsia is the consequence !  A fine motto
in contrast to the foregoing is, or should be, the golden rule of "never
killing ones self to keep ones self !"
   When the writer was a lad, the class of frail women only showed
themselves along  the wharves.  They looked like their profession, shameless
and vulgar.  They were so conspicuous in their dress and manner as to be
hailed and jeered by most of the seamen from the vessels.  They were
generally in companies of two or three.  They never went abroad in the
streets of the city generally.  A genteeler looking class of women, such as
now imitate first rate ladies, and walk the streets any where, were I think
quite unseen and unknown.  There were some no doubt : but they lived retired
in by-places.  I believe that they first ventured abroad and made their
displays when the theatre (that "school of morals!") became a place of
resort.  After that, they increased with the luxuries of the times.  It was
certainly true, that gentlemen who were known to keep such society, were
named and avoided in good female society.  This subject --- sufficiently
unpleasant in itself, is not mentioned here, from unconsciousness of its
indelicacy of bearing, but for the sake of the moral, which may be inferred
from facts as they are.
   The badness of the roads near the city as they were in former days,
before turnpikes and more improvements were made upon them, is now very
little considered or known, I give some facts ----
   Jonathan Tyson, a farmer of 68 years of age, of Abington, saw, at 16
years of age, much of the difficulty of going to the city : a dreadful mire
of blackish mud rested near the present Rising Sun village, where is now the
long row of frame buildings.  He saw there the team of Mr. Nickum, of
Chestnut hill, stalled; and in endeavouring to draw out the forehorse with
an iron chain to his head, it slipped and tore off the lower jaw, and the
horse died on the spot.  There was a very bad piece of road nearer to the
city, along the front of the Norris estate.  It was frequent to see there
horses struggling in mire to their knees.  Mr. Tyson has seen thirteen lime
wagons at a time stopped on the York road, near Logan's hill, to give one
another assistance to draw through the mire; and the drivers could be seen
with their trowsers rolled up, and joining team to team to draw out; at
other times they set up a stake in the middle of the road to warn off wagons
from the quicksand pits.  Sometimes they took down fences, and made new
roads through the fields.  Now good turnpikes efface all such difficulties
upon the main roads.  When they first came into use, all farmers commended
them and used them; but, in time, they forgot their benefactors, and have
tried to shun them --- leaving the stockholders to get but half an income.
Had no turnpikes been made, roads would have become as claypits, by the
continual increase of population and use.
   I have always felt an objection to the prevailing air of sameness in
Philadelphia.  We seem to regulate every thing in the way of building by "an
act of uniformity".  I could wish that we had something more picturesque.
How different are we from the fanciful taste of the Hollanders : for
instance --- in their city of Saardam every house is separated by its own
garden, and every house is of different stye of architecture.  Such a place
must be like wandering in a perpetual museum.
   The first Philadelphia Directory, a small octavo volume, of the year
1785, is now become a curiosity in itself.  It was done by Francis White, a
broker, who also advertised an intelligence office, in Chestnut street near
Third street.  Such an office meant a different thing from now --- he meant
to give information in buying and selling scrips and brokerage.  In the same
year, the eccentric Captain John MacPherson also made a city directory of an
opposition kind of character --- only his subscribers had their occupations
given.  Some persons, who gave huffish answers had them so recorded : such
as, "no name" --- "what you please" --- "none of your business" &c.  In
White's Directory, there being then nonnumbers to the houses, names are
generally given thus, viz : "Alibone, Wm., captain, Front (between)
Callowhill and Vine streets".  The word "between" being the nearest
designation, unless on "corners" of streets.  In looking over this
directory, we are often struck with the fact of names of eminence or
reputation, then or now, who lived in places not now respectable.  Thus, Dr.
A. Chovet has his anatomical theatre in Water street near Arch street;
Doctor Benjamin Vanleer is in Water street between Race and Vine streets;
P.S. Duponceau, Esq., lawyer, is in Front street opposite the Coffee house,
at High street; Jacob Bankson, lawyer, is in Lombard street near Second
street; and Myers Fisher, Jno. D. Coxe and S. Sitgreaves are lawyers in
Front street; Gen. Thomas Mifflin (governor) is in Vine street between
Second and Front streets; Captain Charles Biddle, vice president of the
council is in Front street, between Callowhill street and Pool's Bridge;
Wm. Masters, Esq. magistrate, Front street, next door to Callowhill street;
the Probate of Wills office, by George Campbell, was at the corner of Key's
alley and Second street; the Prothonotary's office, by Edward Burd, Esq.,
was in Third street near Arch street; the Admiralty office, by Francis
Hopkinson, Esq., was in Race street, between Fourth and Fifth streets and
the Register's office, by James Read, Esq., was at the corner of Front and
Vine streets; the Sheriff's office, by Joseph Cowperthwaite, Esq., was in
Front street between Vine and Callowhill streets; the health office, by Jno
Jones, Esq., was in Water street below Spruce street; the Custom house and
Naval office were in Front street, corner of Black Horse alley.  We see in
this directory such  men as our great steamboat inventor, thus --- "Robert
Fulton, miniature painter, corner of Second and Walnut streets".  A name is
given (Jacob Lawerswyler) as "Collector of cash and notes for the American
bank".  Hogan published a directory in 1796 upon a new plan.  Clement Biddle
also published one, while he was marshal.
   When we consider the abundance and amount of cotton goods and calicoes,
and of woolens and cloths, now manufactured in our country --- malgre
[despite] all the early struggles and losses --- it affords some interest
now to set down the fact, little known, that cotton goods were tried to be
made here even in colonial times.  I find in the Complete Magazine, printed
in England for August 1764, this special notice of these efforts, to wit :
"Some beautiful samples of the cotton manufactures, now carried on at
Philadelphia, have been lately imported, and greatly admired".  To this we
may add the fact, that General Washington, when he first appeared as
President at New York, and took his public oath of office before the people
there assembled, was wholly clothed in beautiful cloth of American fabric.
   Mr. Cornelius now makes the most elegant mantel and hanging lamps :  his
manner of succeeding in that, and in silver plating, is a very curious
history, and would deserve to be well told at length.  How very plain were
the best candlesticks in my early years !  Dr. Betton's drug store first
showed argand lamps about the year 1795.  Several successive attempts were
made to import and sell Italian alabaster mantel ornaments --- such as vases
and urns :  one after another broke, and so their articles were distributed
cheap, and diffused the taste for such display.  They generally kept store
but for about a year.  In the same way the first large pictures with gilded
frames were all wondered at, but not bought, until they broke up, and
distributed them at low prices !  There are many curious facts concerning
the first efforts to introduce the arts --- especially in forming drugs,
paints, and dyes, &c., at our chemical factories.
   The outlots of the city have most surprisingly increased in value -- and
especially since 1800.  I saw a lease of Thomas and Richard Penn, of the
year 1727, to M. Hellier, of the whole square from High street to Chestnut
street, and from Tenth to Eleventh streets, Delaware side, which was then
leased for twenty-one years, at the price of 40s. sterling per annum ! in
consideration of his fencing and planting it with English grass.  Low as it
was, the same M. Hellier sells out his title and interest in the ground, in
1740, to Richard Nixon and Wm. Smith, for the remainder of his term, for
only 5 Pounds --- a sum possibly nearly consumed in fencing and tilling it !
Consider now the value of the same ground !  If sundry of the scriveners, as
I have before suggested, would be so considerate as to make memoranda of the
original prices given for city lots in colonial times, as told in old deeds
passing under their notice, how very greatly they would surprise the present
generation by their contrast.

                CHANGES IN THE PRICES OF DIET, --  NOTICES OF
                        THE FORMER FISH MARKET, &c.

     We cannot fail to be surprised at the former abundance (as indicated in
the cheapness of prices) of many articles formerly, which are now scarce and
dear.
     Sheepshead, now so high priced, used to be plentiful in the Jersey
market.  They came from Egg harbour.  The price was the same whether big or
little, say 1s. 6d. apiece --- some weighed six to seven pounds each.  The
rule was, that he who came first took the biggest.   Unreasonable as this
seemed, the practice long prevailed.  At last the sellers attempted to
introduce the sale by weight.  They fixed price at 4d. per lb.  (now they
are 1s. 10d ! ) but the purchasers stood aloof, and none would buy !  Then
they returned to 1s. 6d. apiece again.  However, sometime after, they
succeeded to sell at 4d. to 6d. per lb., and so continued for years.  These
things were told to me by Mr. Davenport Marrot, and old gentleman, when 80
years of age.  Mr. John Warder too, of nearly the same age, related much the
same facts, saying, that when he was a boy all their sea fish were brought
over land from Egg harbor and landed at the Old Ferry, (then the first and
only one) where a small bell was rung from the top of the house, which was
sufficient to inform the chief part of the town that the fish were come.
There, he said, sheepshead were always sold at 18d. apiece, without any
regard to size;  but the first comers getting always the best.
   This selling of sea fish, it is to be observed, occurred only in cool or
cold weather, because when there were no ice-houses, there was, of course,
no way of preserving them during their necessary transportation across the
Jerseys.  In those days we, of course, saw no sea fish or lobsters, as now,
in summer : --- but their lack was well supplied, by an abundance of fine
rock and perch, caught with hook and line, in the Delaware.  The fishing
then was far more successful than now; there were more fish, and fewer
people to consume them.  Increase of shipping and steamers have, probably,
contributed to scare them away from their former haunts.
   Wild pigeons were once innumerable.  Mr. Thomas Bradford, when aged 84,
remembers when they were caught in nets, and brought in cart loads to the
city market.  He said he had heard his forefathers say they once saw a flock
fly over the city so as to obscure the sun for two or three hours, and may
were killed from the tops of the houses.  They were, therefore, plentiful
enough in general to sell at from 6d. to 12d. per dozen.
   The same informer stated his recollections of the earliest market prices
thus, viz.;  Butter at 6d. to 9d.; fowls 1s.; ducks 15d.; geese 1s.10d.;
eggs 4d. per dozen; beef at 3d. to 6d. per lb.; greens, sallads, &c., were
as much for a penny as is now given for a 6d.  Shad used to be retailed at
3d. to 4d., and herrings at 1s.6d. a hundred.
   Colonel A.J. Morris, when 90 years of age, has told me of his
recollection of shad being sold, to several seasons of his early days, at
10s a hundred !
   The occasional prices, published in the ancient Gazettes, state prices as
follows, to wit : ---
   1719 --- Flour per cwt. 9s.6d. to 10s; tobacco 14s. cwt.; Muscovado sugar
40 to 45s. per cwt.; pork 45s. per barrel; beef 30s.; rum 3s.9d. per gallon;
molasses 1s.6d.;  wheat 3s.3d. to 3s.5d. per bushel; corn 1s.6d., and bohea
tea --- mark it, what a luxury --- at 24s. per lb.!
   1721 --- "Flower" 8s.6d.; turpentine 8s.; rice 17s.; fine salt 2s.6d.;
bohea tea at 30s.!  pitch 12s.; tar 8s.
   1748 --- The time of war, prices are high, say, wheat at 6s.4d. to 7s.;
flour 20s.; beef 43s., and pork 60s.
   In 1755, hay is named at 50s. a ton, and now it is occasionally at 20
dollars !
   1757 --- Flour is 12s.6d.; wheat 3s.6d.; corn 1s.9d.; beef 40s; pork 60
to 67s.; pipe staves 7 Pounds; barrel staves 67s.; West India rum 2s.11d.;
New England rum 2s 7d.; Pennsylvania rum 2s.7d.; molasses 2s.6d.; hemp 5s.;
pitch 11s.; tar 10s.; flaxseed 4s.3d.; and, last of all bohea is down from
30s. to only 7s.!
   In 1760, I notice the fact, that several thousand barrels of flour were
purchased in London for the American provinces at 8s.6d. per cwt. --- mark
that !
   In 1763, I perceive prices of sundry game, &c., incidentally stated to
wit: a quail 1 1/2d.; a heath-hen 1s.3d.; a teal 6d.; a wild goose 2s.; a
brandt 1s.3d.; a snipe 1d.; a duck 1s.; a cock turkey 4s.; a hen turkey 2s.6d.
   1774 --- Flour 18s.6d.; wheat 7s.9d.; Indian corn 2s.8d.; pipe staves 10
Pounds; barrel staves 70s.; West India rum 3s.1d.; pitch 17d.; tar 13s.;
turpentine 18s.; rice 17s.; Lisbon salt 15d.; hemp 5d.; cotton 16d.; bar
iron 26 Pounds; pig iron 8 Pounds 10s.; pork 4 Pounds 5s.; beef 2 Pounds 15s.
   The pebble stones used in paving the city, when first paved, cost but 4s
6d. per cartload, delivered from the shallops. [Note: shallops = a boat}
   PRICE OF FLOUR ---There is pecular interest at the present moment of the
great and rapid fluctutions of the market, and the fact that, at periods
when labour did not obtain more than half the price it now commands, flour
has sold at much higher prices than those which are now complained of.  In
1796, for instance, it sold as high as $15 a barrel.
    At and after the period of the Revolution, when wheat was 5s., a bushel,
the price of labour in the harvest time was 2s.6d., and for boys, 1s.3d a
day.  I have seen wealthy men, in Chester county, who had, in their boyhood,
worked many days at reaping for 1s.3d. a day, and afterwards, in manhood, at
2s.6d.  The sons of such men won't now labour at all !
   There were no two prices in stores and markets in Philadelphia, until
after the introduction of the French from St. Domingo; --- they would
insist, in all cases, upon abatement, and they and the public generally, in
time, found themselves accommodated accordingly !
   CHANGES IN PRICES OF LAND --- In such a growing city is was to be
expected that the occasional changes in the value of lots and property would
be very great.
   To begin with Gabriel Thomas' account of 1698, he says, within the
compass of twelve years that which might have been bought for 16 or 18
shillings, is now sold for 80 Pounds in ready silver, and some other lots,
that might have been purchased for 3 Pounds, within the space of two years
were sold for 100 Pounds a piece, and likewise some land that lies near the
city, that sixteen years ago might have been purchased for 6 or 8 Pounds the
hundred acres, cannot now be bought under 150 or 200 Pounds.
   The ancient Mrs. Shoemaker, told me that her grandfather, James Lownes,
was offered for 20 Pounds, the whole square from High street to Arch street,
and from Front to Second street, by William Penn himself.  He declined it,
saying, how long shall I wait to see my money returned in profit.
   The aged Owen Jones, Esq., informed me that he had heard at several times
that William Penn offered his hired man, a coachman,  &c., the whole of the
square of ground included between Chestnut and Walnut, and Front and Second
streets, in lieu of one year's wages --- probably of 15 Pounds.
   Mr. Abel James, the father of the late Doctor James, used to tell him
that one Moon, of Bucks county, a Friend, was the person above alluded to,
and that he used to visit Mr. James' family, and told him he had chosen a
moderate tract of land in Bucks county in preference to the above mentioned
square.*  [* I might mention, that I used to hear a tradition that Penn's
coachman had been offered the square on which Laetitia court is located; as
that was but half a square, it is the most probable story.   And possibly
the offer to Lownes was the same square also, and mistold in a lapse of
years.  The other squares were soon out of Penn's disposal, as belonging to
purchasers and drawn by lot.]
  The same Mr. Owen Jones said the greatest rise of city plots he had ever
known, were the sales of proprietaries' city lots after the sales of their
estate.  They did rise, in hundreds of instances, he said, to have ground
rents at more than double the price of the first purchase.
   He related to me what he heard from the grandson of the first or second
Samuel Powell, that he bought the two whole squares included between Spruce
and Pine streets, and Fifth and Seventh streets, for 50 Pounds each --- a
rise of more than one thousand for one !  Even when he gave those prices he
bought reluctantly, and at two or three several times --- for he afterwards,
I believe,added, at the same terms, the square from Fourth to Third street.
This was originally the property of the "Free Society of Traders", and is
certainly one evidence how ill they managed their interests for their
eventual good.  Powell, on the contrary, by holding on, realized a great
fortune for his posterity from such slender occasion.
   The aged Colonel Morris informed me that he heard old Tratnal say, that
Governor Palmer offered him a great extent of Kensington lots, fronting on
the river street, at six pence per foot ground rent forever.
   Anthony Duche', a respectable Protestant refugee from France, ancestor of
the well known Parson Duche' , came with his wife over to Pennsylvania in
the same ship with William Penn, who had borrowed a small sum of about 30
Pounds from him.  After the arrival Penn offered him, in lieu of the return
of the money, "a good bargain", as he said --- a square beween Third and
Fourth streets, with only the exception of the burial ground occupied by
Friends on Mulberry and Fourth streets, [It was first offered to Thomas
Lloyd, whose wife was the first person interred there.] the proprietor
observing that he knew the lot was cheap, but that he had a mind to favour
him in return for his kindness.  Mr. Duche' replied, "You are very good, Mr.
Penn, and the offer might prove advantageous, but the money would suit me
better".  "Blockhead !" (rejoined the proprietor, provoked at his
overlooking the intended benefit) "Well, well, thou shalt have thy money,
but canst thou not see that this will be a very great city in a very short
time?"  "So I was paid", said Duche', who told this story, "and have ever
since repented my own folly !"  The above anecdoe was told by Charles
Thomson, Esq., to Mrs. D. Logan, and to her brother, J.P. Norris, at
different times, saying he had received it from the son of Duche".
   During the whole time of the carrying trade in the Revolutionary war of
France, our city and landed property near it constantly rose in value --- as
men got rich in trade and desired to invest funds in buildings, &c.  In this
state of things, John Kearney contracted with Mr. Lyle to buy the estate
called Hamilton's wharf and stores, near the Drawbridge, for $50,000.  He
gave $20,000 in part payment, built $11,000 additional buildings thereon,
and after all, chose to forfeit the whole rather than pay the remaining
$20,000 !  This was, indeed, an extraordinary case; but it shows the great
reduction of value after the peace.
   The same James Lyle, as agent, sold the Bush hill estate of two hundred
acres to General Cadwallader and associates, for the laying out of a town.
They were to give a perpetual ground rent of nearly $100 daily --- say,
$36,000 per annum, and after actually paying in $200,000 they surrendered
back the whole !

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