January 1, 1897 This New year's afternoon the recently built City Hall occupying the block on Grove street between Montgomery and Mercer streets, was thrown open to the public and the Mayor and City officials held a reception. I threaded the structure and looked it over. I looked with interest at the people streaming up and down the stairways of the rotunda - an animating scene. In passing through his offices I greeted Mayor Wanser and congratulated him on the new order of things. He expressed his pleasure at seeing me and wished that my father were alive today to see the new municipal building. I found myself in a great mixed crowd, and passed out, it appears, somewhat hastily, for, as Corporation Counsel Blair remarked, I seemed to be in a hurry to get away from the Government! Faults of architecture and defects in construction were generously overlooked, and a note of general satisfaction prevailed. The assembly chamber in particular was much admired. To practise a profession actively may not put out but turns down low the ideals, yet it increases the strong, living Entente'*. Practice approaches the ordinary business life - too full of incident and interest to be humdrum, as the superficial are wont lightly to say, but moves restrictedly in a circle, a compromised and temporizing thing. It is very different, it is rare to be a master of laws and learning, that is to be a professor, yet more than a scholar, ripe though he be, a great mind, a prophet in the land, an avant courier* of better things! Such a seer and enactor of the better way is now much needed to improve, to reorganize our adjective law. The principles of law should perforce be re-examined carefully, philosophically, with a view to their more subtle truth and statement; but it is in their application in courts and tribunals that hardship comes. Who with a heart and eye has not seen and felt the presumption and tyranny of law? It as yet realizes but a rude and ill-adjusted kind of justice, unfitted to so fine a creature as man. *an understanding, *a herald

January 7, 1897

Being so pitilessly prone toward the absolute, the ideal, and knowing that lawyers and law courts are witnesses to the imperfect state of our civilization, temporizing adjusters of society's ill-adjustments, and yet whose occupation, largely viewed, though transient, tentative, unbeautiful, amid trouble and contention, is still noble in good offices and lavish of sacrifice in its long slow evolutionary process of justifying man's ways till happen that better state of harmony and peace, - my spirit grows restive, impatient of delay, feels confined, compromised in the legal profession, and casting ahead falters strenuously against the steel barred gates, to be away and enjoy the widest individual freedom and self-government.

January 8, 1897

Speaking of freedom and law, the outcome of our civilization is this, that one can not well make a move without pitching his foot against a stone or statute.

January 9, 1897

Humanly considered the truest happiness in life will only come in union with nature and in national and international confraternity.

January 13, 1897

At the Hotel Normandie tonight I listened to a post-century trial of the historic traitor Benedict Arnold. It was before the Empire State society, Sons of the American Revolution, acting as the jury, and proved to be entertaining. It freshened history. Col. Sackett of Gov. Block's staff prosecuted and Col. Sumner defended in a bright speech. Mr. Chauncey Depew presided as judge. It was too late for him to sum up and charge the jury judicially; but he made some graceful remarks, a taking one being that Benedict Arnold like some men nowadays could resist anything but temptation! A spirit of fairness, consonant with the times, while considering Arnold's condemnation just, tempered it with credits for brilliant services and military genius.

January 18, 1897

Miss Ida A. A. Sperling, of this city, consulted me with a view to studying law and entered her name in my docket as a clerk with that end in view. Personally I do not fancy much a woman's going from the fine precinct of home, even from a doll's house, if you will so have it, into the strenuous ranks of a profession. But I am not opposing any trend or influence of the times that may really make for her welfare. And who knows or presumes to stand upon her going? Certainly a serious study of law will steady and make her more reasonable! even if the freedom and independence sought in its practice steels and steals her softer and better nature. Try all things; adhere to the best. By and by it may be discovered, after much heart-burn and struggle, that woman is woman, and willy nilly, her lot must be borne. Nor is it such a horrid scrape, as Bagehot thought, to be a woman!

January 20, 1897

The person who pretends to scuttle genius and believe in mastery from practice must, if a wit after all his observation of infinite patience and toil, see that the supreme thing falls out happily, simply happens.

January 21, 1897

At the Savoy Hotel the Princeton Club dined to-night. I was there. I met a few of the old boys of ྉ and enjoyed short talks with them. President Patton touched aptly on President Cleveland's good, if somewhat ponderous, speech at the recent Sesquicentennial Celebration, and Prof. West put in a plea for a graduate college at Princeton, along its own and most advanced lives, but similar to Balliol at Oxford. President Low of Columbia praised the proposed charter for Greater New York. Lawyer Carter asked "when is all this worth?" and hoped that trained intellect and wisdom might guide this age of mechanical and made as distinct from natural power. Judge Howland rehearsed for the most part jokes and although I tickled myself with his bright sallies (pardon me, Judge, I may be wrong), I felt like the king listening to the king's jester. Editor Aunin was not just like himself as at our class board, and hence not so good as himself. Mr. John L. Cadoralader presided.

January 23, 1897

Accepted $1800 in settlement of the Manners claim against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

January 29, 1897

A college education is a wonderful prescription for those who are at all defeated of life's hopes. 'Twill save you in the self-wrecking business! 'Tis a medicine given before the disease and lasts for life.

1897, article inserted loose next to Jan29:

In view of the 150th anniversary of Princeton University, the remarkable part played by the graduates of that institution in the Revolution and Constitution-making period deserves commemoration, the New York Sun thinks. Of the four hundred and sixty-nine graduates belonging to that period, one hundred and fourteen were clergymen, thirteen of whom became Presidents of colleges; of the remaining three hundred and fifty-five, one, James Madison, was for eight years President of the United States; one was Vice-President; six were members of the Continental Congress; twenty became Senators of the United States; twenty-three entered the House of Representatives; thirteen were Governors of States; three were Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and some twenty served as officers in the Revolutionary army. These facts which Professor Hibben has collected demonstrate that Witherspoon's administration gave Princeton an illustrious name, and placed the college on a high ground of esteem where continuous progress was assured.

February 4, 1897

(First) District Court, City Hall
Called today: -
Self vs. James Riley -
Settled: discontinued.
Self vs. John B. Faunce -
Ready for the plaintiff: at the defendant's request, adjourned, for one week, to the 11th instant.

February 6, 1897

It was not Delmonico's at six, but Delmonico's at seven, when I sat down to dine this evening with the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Eldred Johnson was on my right and Col. William Barret of Concord, Mass., on my left. The Colonel had known Emerson and knew the Emerson family well. He spoke familiarly of them, and I felt when I touched his elbow a link that connected me with one of my literary loves. Gen. Thomas Wilson, U. S. A., held the end of the table near by with good nature and comraderie, yet there was a grave import in his face - the fight-marks and story of an old soldier. The banquet celebrated the French alliance of 1778 with America, and rose to historic and international significance. A friendly cablegram was received from Felix Faure, President of France, and other messages of amity and good will from other distinguished Frenchmen and Madam Sara Bernhardt were read. Gen. Horace Porter in happy view his right and left. Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. N., of "sea-power" fame gave high place to the French navy in effecting the result of the American Revolution, and advised that our only present fear of danger could come from the sea, our land neighbors being comparatively harmless.

Return-day - Manners v. Ricco.

February 11, 1897

M. vs. Faunce, today - adjournment-day.

Judgment entered for plaintiff, i. E. self, for $35.50.

February 15, 1897

Dropping in at St. Mark's yesterday, I felt again the spell, the old charm and beauty stealing over me. The ritual of the Church, the forms, the ceremony and services of the Anglican Catholic Church, - it all seems so far removed from the simple Galilean fishermen, their simple white faith, and yet it is so chromatic visibly and spiritually, so touching, impressive, reverent, beautiful, that one loves to believe, to find it really so much, if not all, so satisfying and to account for so much. It realizes sensibly the beauty of holiness. This is very much, perhaps the highest thing, yet it may savor of pleasantry to certain devotees. It may not be the faith once delivered to the saints, but a faith developed. With the Bible questioned, if not seriously discredited, the Church must more and more come to the front and find more and more in estheticism and poetry its deepest hold and influence.

February 18, 1897

Appeared for J. D. P. Mount in an action brought against him by one of his creditors.

At the lawyers' dinner tonight I listened to able talks by Mr. C. L. Corbin of the local bar and Mr. W. B. Hornblower of the New York bar. Other speeches were good. There is seldom a very bad number when lawyers talk, and their banquet has a guild-like interest and compactness that turn a harmony of spirit. The effect is less ragged than in certain other feats hereabout.

February 19, 1897

Mercer Beasley, for many years Chief Justice of this State, died today at Trenton. His long and excellent service on the bench in opinion and courage is of public record. He took my hand kindly and spoke words of appreciation when I was admitted as a Counsellor at Law. His face had an Indian cast and the long dark hair accented the type. His death removes a juridical landmark.

February 20, 1897

Yesterday John D. P. Mount, an old merchant, made an assignment to me for the equal benefit of his creditors. He had been in business for forty years, and for more than twenty of them a tenant of ours. An honorable man, an old soldier, his failing health, of late, prevented him from giving due personal attention to his affairs: this coupled with the pressure of the times and of creditors, did the rest, caused his failure.

February 25, 1897

Sometimes I think that the doctors, the physicians, and I are mistaken about me. Sometimes I think that we are wrong in regarding me as frail and precarious in health. Certain it is that there is precious metal in my make-up. Certain it is that I have done what has broken down many and laid not a few to rest, yet I recuperate wonderfully. I possess certainly a vitality that defies the enemies of life. How absolute I now am! Here comes in a client who shakes me by the hand in a way that shows the iron of a healthy man. My poor hand I fancied not soft was so gentle and crushed in his big manly vise! Can one with so hard a hand have fine feelings? I know not: perhaps he can afford to be without them! And yet 'twas only last week I talked with such son of ((Avak))* and felt his strength: today, poor fellow, he is dead.

March 1, 1897

When one sees the perennial poetry of the eternal poetic, he is not far from the end: he may not have said the last word thereupon, but he has discovered the highest peak of beauty upon which the eye may rest and kindle at.

At the Herald Square Theatre to-night with B.

March 4, 1897

Exit Cleveland; enter McKinley.

March 6, 1897

Birthday returns and with it much of memory and joy; but missed is something of the iris and enchantment.

No matter how or where man is placed, clear contemplation shows his fate to be or seem pathetic and sinister. This is earth: the satisfactions are in heaven. I am not complaining. No, no; that would be ungrateful and shortsighted. I see too many of fate's unhappy comedies and tragedies lying around loose, uncovering to view, unless one arraigns that which makes one a part of these. Yet one is not, nor should be, always optimistic, nor is one always sound physically.

Pessimism and discontent often will creep in and oft times lead out to the better sought, the higher living. I find myself now nursing and speculating on certain personal anguishes. But I must be reticent, yet truthful. I acknowledge the measure due to self-conduct. I am reticent of acute meetings of spirit and sense, of intimacies forbid. I speak not of some home untowardness and affliction. And although the law of compensation is at work, these more obvious discouragements occur: To see and know a little, yet to be set upon fiercely and at times borne down by those who do not know, by "ignorance with spurs on"; to have a book or project in the stays, with the concerning disposition brave and erect, but the hand nerveless to complete it to satisfaction, to launch it afloat; to penetrate darkly great schemes that require more persistence and strength to carry to light than I can muster; to be harnessed to an estate not very profitable, nor developing, because of technical and other difficulties, and exhausting time and energy in nice attention to its petty yet exacting details, behold high place at the bar or in the state slipping my grasp, and to feel the sorrow and chain of ill-health holding back the impetuous spirit eager to bound forth and lead a revolt or command an army!

Yet these attained or overcome could only ease in time's fashion: they could not cure the eternal ache bred in the heart when eyes have glimpsed that isle of light, where questioning souls are honored with answers and revealing views. And notwithstanding the dear ones about me and my constant contact with people, likeable enough, if not always understanding, there sets in at times a singular loneliness. I seem to stand singly upon a vast steppe of prairie or polar peak - alone with the universe, yet in a mystical presence: there is something fearsome in this, a facing of first principles, the awe of agony, and the peteous appeal of forsakenness is unanswered save by divination and the collection of the soul in its own saving good and persistence.

March 18, 1897

Papers executed, files and recorded, in the Mount assignment.

Herbert Spencer has recently put a period to his long enduring work, his attempt to reach or catch a rational system of society and life, in fine, to formulate a scientific scheme of these with the evolution hypothesis. To have devoted a life-time to an undertaking of this kind - a heavy tax on the pocket and a strenuous user of the spirit - is something notable and distinguishing. All praise to the patient hero of ideas! Yet admirable as his magnum opus* is in many ways, clearly but coldly written, a monument of observation and research, it falls nevertheless far short of its aim, of the object set; indeed, it fails utterly to achieve a rounded criticism or philosophy of life. It is valuable therefore, more as a store-house of fact and illustration than as a theory verified. Its facts are not always reliable, its inferences do not always follow, and in some instances are given the lie by the course of events. I have read it only in parts and curiously, and do not appreciate or depreciate in detail. My purpose here is different. Perhaps ungracious and in a narrow sense unwarranted, my purpose is to contrast unfavorably the method of knowledge, the scientific method, with that which best interprets the form and truth of life. Can any code or system, four square, cap least wise that strange chameleon-like creature called man in society and nature? 'Tis elementary to say that Balzac sees better and tells more truly of man in his environs than Spencer, while Shakespeare at large and Hawthorne within limits reflect him with a still subtler veracity and a magic that satisfies and fills as bloom the unexpressed. Barring the impossibility of any perfect human conception of so vast, so comprehensive a theme, the rational measure brought to bear upon it mainly is an inadequate, unilluminating one; it is only partially but never completely true either in outline or finish - hardly a skeleton masquerading as a living man. Such a scheme falsifies the living whole. Such an unhappy handling is felt in all modes of life - expression other than the poetic. The poet suffuses atmosphere, color, light and by a subtle, suggestive, prehensile grasp seizes upon the salient or representative points of quick man and his moving earth, the mystery and divinity of it all, not by the reason alone or chiefly, but by the flow of all his faculties, by his whole being, uplifted and attuned, swaying in happy concert, with the currents and rhythms of the universal spirit, and so far as he goes sincerely, speaks with the divine voice absolute truth, the beauty of truth, the truth of beauty.
*

March 26, 1897

For most people - I do not mean the goody-good, emasculated or atrophied, - but for most healthy, well-conditioned and constituted human beings, there is a fascination in evil. I do not for the moment mean attraction in the doing of it, in being bad, although the attraction is too truly there too, but in its essence or nature, in its view and aspect, in the story of the vicious and criminal. This interest is natural and well-placed in the deep and underlying mystery of evil; for however cleverly motives may be catalogued and classified, and however apparent the motive of a certain wrong-doer may be in a particular case, beneath and finally a secret lies hid and much remains to be solved. This was my first feeling anent the matter and comes in the end to be my last. In the meantime my observations of evil in reality, in the concrete, of misdemeanants and felons in the courts repulsed me and led me to conclude that sin or evil or insensibility to right living was a disease and a sordid thing, and that the doers of it were a weak, stupid lot, numb of feeling and obtuse of point, evincing little novelty or ingenuity in their violations of the law. I was astonished at the sameness and monotony, for the greater part, of their acts and the mean, beggarly motives for them. The criminal calendar made up day after day of the same common offenses showed rarely a bright exception indeed or inducement to spice the program and performance. Even murders turned upon some petty, ordinary point. In a measure this must be, yet this is not all. I recognized the cruel uncertainty of the law's administration, even when clear and straitly handled, and the disastrous results that flow in many ways when crooked and corrupt practices obtain and obstruct its frown or favor. I watched with increasing absorption the hopper of a still primitive justice grind out its victims into something worse than they were before, I felt with deep pathos the lack of human knowledge and of a true gauge in dealing with the accused. Soon I came to distinguish the variety of circumstance and phase of intent that differentiated each and every cause at bar, and the personality of the defendant; but difficulties undefined were there and there still dangled a question that stared for an answer.

If then the sinner, so-called, is so interesting, how much more the one of worth, the saint, the good great man. To know this is to know the center and the circle. Although virtue seems to be less striking, less attractive than vice, it is really not so; of a truth it is more varied and original. How it braces all the faculties! Compare the rich and noble language of the just with the morbid, meager utterance of the bad. What a tonic there is in goodness. How a bare resolution for righteousness sets the right foot forward and makes the countenance shine like a little sun on the planet! Indeed the good holds the highest interest and most exquisite charm.

April 5, 1897

A likely woman dropped into my office this morning to rent some rooms on Grand street. She was one of those large good-natured creatures, wide-rounded, but as fresh and dimpled as a baby. After the business interview, I detained her with a few words, while my eyes foraged a moment her fair field of affection and wistful regard.

April 9, 1897

Torrey's check for $200, due. At T.'s request, to be held until the ((sixth).

April 13, 1897

Spring Election: a Mayor and other city officials elected: the Democrats prevail. In the jail on the Hill two murderers, Paul Genz and John Mackin, were executed. The one sentimental German who approached his victim Clara Arnim, his faithless sweetheart, with bouquet and pistol, the rose and thorn, virtue and infidelity, and weeping over her dead body wished to go hence and be with his beloved Clara, his Edelweiss (noble purity!) as he said. The other a beardless young man who got caught in the drag-net of domestic difficulties and wrought upon by being deprived of his child, found no better way out of it than the ((dram-shop)) and the shooting to death of his wife and mother-in-law and the wounding with intent to kill of his father-in-law - a holocaust indeed. The one went out of life, saying,* "All right, I am ready", and though religious in claim and no doubt so in a wide sense, with a pagan boldness that appealed to me. The other became, under the influence of priests, repentant and pathetic, and then when this influence and the pressure and peril of his post had worked the miracle of regeneration, had filled him anew for life, he was cruelly strangled to death. This is the pitiless tenderness of Christianity! The criminal law in code and practice is crude, barbarous, and if in part moral, for the most part expedient, unmoral and even immoral. Medical jurisprudence has helped to improve it on one side; but there is as yet no effective spiritual jurisprudence. If not yet of much practical effect, we consider intelligently the pathology of crime. Who will formulate a system of mundane salvation by the spirit's regeneration and rise? Does salvation mean only safety in nubilus*? It may mean that, but surely not that only: it means also for those that truly believe real salvation here and now, salvation from the hangman's halter. If young Mackin truly believed he should have been saved from his horrid fate; otherwise Christianity is not lived, is a mockery and no sincere faith exists amongst men. This is a subtle subject of spiritual jurisprudence, to be dealt with by the piercing thought of noble and sympathetic minds. Genz was half-crazed, but looked finely at his crime as a dream. If he had a better understanding and mental grasp (but then he would have avoided his forlorn doom), he could the better pity his executioners and the know-not-what-they-do civilization that sanctions such a wretched business for all concerned. The law as it stands clearly forfeited these two lives, and a great majority of the people still hold fast to this pentateuchal law. I differ; but believe, if punishment is the only end, that death is the punishment most dreaded by the many, and a curious compensatory justice they who suffer the extreme penalty - are of those who most approve it.

There was sunshine by the City Hall as I passed, but a grim shadow rested on the hill.
*"to the hangman" written, then crossed out)
*in the clouds

April 21, 1897

Consulted Dr. Morrow of West 40th street. He confirmed my diagnosis of local causes of irritation, and prescribed a course of treatment that will, he believes, greatly benefit my health.

Going uptown this morning on the Sixth avenue elevated railway, I looked furtively around and discovered the faces aligned in the car. I felt that I had come upon the human face anew, and wondered how all these people could venture to expose to my pitiless or boldly clear gaze their plain and naked countenances. I knew that I was reading secrets that I should not know. I saw the illusion of the veil. I recognized instinctively the reason of the custom in oriental countries to cover the woman-face: man's too should be concealed - that pitiless palimpsest of life's strange doings. What wicked people we are to be so bold as to show our faces! We have got too bravely rid of the Garden of Eden feeling. If we have any shame left, we should clothe ourselves completely cap-a-pie *: if we are without guile, we may well do without clothing!
*from head to foot

April 23, 1897

Dr. M.

With B. at the Broadway Theatre to-night.

April 27, 1897

Dr. M.
Grants' birthday. Witnessed the great Grant parade from a point of vantage on Fifty-ninth street, opposite to the Central Park. His permanent tomb on the Riverside Drive was dedicated. The wind blew and the dust flew! But the soldierly held up bravely and without let marched right on, while the music of the many bands swooned in the waves of the wind and came to life again in its pauses. In 1885, I saw Grant's funeral procession with the Gen. Hancock, the superb, riding ahead. I was much more impressed than today, and naturally, for death deepened the impression, and the dwarfed casket, a-top the huge funeral car that crawled slowly along like some black monster, symbolized both the reduction and crystal of a world-wide fame. My mind was startled into ideas of contrast and morning reflections.

April 30, 1897

Dr. M.

May 3, 1897

Dr. M., of New York.

Before going over the river I stopped at the City Hall and congratulated Mr. Edward Hoos on his entry into office as Mayor of Jersey City. I did not advise him what to do or how to conduct the office: there were fools a-plenty doing that! And he did not apparently mind it. In the words of St. Paul a politician needs to be all things to all men.

May 5, 1897

Gov. Black gave finality to what is popularly called the Greater New York by signing to-day the charter for its government. Under the circumstances he did well, notwithstanding some intelligent opposition. The new charter, though clumsily expressed, is an improvement in several respects, on the old, and makes for the city, paradoxical as it may seem, a nearer approach to home rule. I can sympathize with the small place sentiment, especially when the small place has good government and a distinction of its own; but our cities as yet are little rounded, and there certainly is a strong attraction in the very mass and energy of a great city. It developes a centripetal power that draws to itself from all quarters whatever is best in commodity and mind. I am picturing green fields and forests cool and cattle standing in clear streams against the arches of stone bridges - idyllic scenes. I pant for nature's charms. And yet my soul is city-centered: as I walk the crowded street my whole being is sensibly quickened by this wonderful concentration of human forces, and it is here that I read best the human story.

May 7, 1897

Dr. M.

When the clergyman fails so disastrously and the physician picks man up so beautifully, one is apt to become impatient of creeds and pin his faith to science and his own great trust.

May 10, 1897

Torrey's check by agreement tobe deposited to-day.

May 11, 1897

Dr. M.

May 14, 1897

Dr. M.

May 18, 1897

Note endorsed by Louis Franke due; made by an Italian to Franke's order and endorsed by him over to me. Note duty paid today.

Dr. M.

May 21, 1897

Dr. M.

(Loose article from the Journal, May 19, 1897)

THIS CITY'S MAYORS.
Proposition to Perpetuate Their Memory in Oil Paintings.
A CITY HALL GALLERY.

Wanser's and Romar's to Be the First Portraits Hung in the New Municipal Building - Others will follow - Pictures to Be Unveiled with Pomp and Ceremony.
The New City Hill is going to have a portrait gallery. It will consist of oil paintings of the city's former Mayors. It is proposed to introduce this art gallery with elaborate ceremonies, speeches, &c.
Artist Harrison, when the propriety of embellishing the City Hall with oil paintings was alluded to recently, offered to paint the pictures of one or two Mayors free of charge as a starter. He has already finished the portrait of ex-Mayor Wanser, and it is in the City Hall waiting to be put in place.
Mr. Harrison is at work on the picture of ex-Mayor John Romar, who was Jersey City's war Mayor from 1862 to 1864.
The portraits of other former Mayors will be painted upon the order of relatives or friends of the deceased executives.

Counsellor Jacob Weart, Corporation Council Blair, Counsellor Manners, son of the late ex-Mayor David Manners, have interested themselves in this proposed gallery. One plan suggested, is to have a formal unveiling of the portraits in the City Hall as soon as the first installment of pictures shall have been completed. There is to be a speech by Mayor Hoos, who will formally accept the pictures on behalf of the city.

It has been proposed that Counsellor Jacob Weart make an historical address. Mr. Weart is very familiar with Jersey City's history and was an active participant in some of the important municipal episodes before and after the war.

HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.

Among the interesting historical documents which may figure at the ceremonies is a book with the original minutes of the Whig convention which renominated David S. Manners for Mayor of Jersey City in 1856. The convention was held in Franklin Hall. Jacob Weart was secretary and he has preserved the minutes to this day. They show that Mr. Manners, after having been renominated, was waited upon by a committee and that he declined to accept the nomination. When the delegates heard this they reconvened and again nominated Mr. Manners by acclamation. The Whigs gave notice that they would elect Mr. Manners Mayor whether he accepted it or not. Mr. Manners finally accepted and was elected.

There was no salary attached to the office then.

DEATH NOT NECESSARY.

It is not necessary for the ex-Mayor to be dead in order to have his portrait adorn the walls of the City Hall. Pictures of live ex-Mayors will be just as acceptable. The pictures are to be hung in the corridors, somewhat on the plan in vogue in the State House in Trenton. The corridors of the State Capitol, especially in the rotunda, form a fine picture gallery.

FORMER MAYORS.
Here is a list of Jersey City's Mayors:
Dudley S. Gregory, 1838, '39, '41, '58 and '59; Peter Martin, 1840; Thomas A. Alexander, 1842; Peter Bentley, 1843; Phineas C. Dummer, 1844-47; Henry J. Taylor, 1848-49; Robert Gilchrist, 1850-51; David S. Manners, 1852-56; Samuel Westcott, 1857; Cornelius Van Vorst, 1860-61; John B. Romar, 1862-63; Orestes Cleveland, 1864-66, 1886-92; James Gopsill, 1867; Charles H. O'Neill, 1868-70-74; William Clarke, 1869; Henry Traphagen, 1875-76; Charles Siedler, 1877-78; Henry J. Hopper, 1879-80; Isaac W. Taussig, 1880-84; Gilbert Collins, 1884-86; Peter F. Wanser, 1892-97.

May 25, 1897

Dr. M.

May 27, 1897

Last night I lost abed until my sheets became ribbons. And yet I was in the stillest of places. I stood, I actually thought, in a landscape of fearsome night. A deserted house nearby - a ruin - toppled toward me. The bare ground, spotted with scrubby vegetation, stretched out monotonously to heavy molted streams, which lay lifeless between black bushes. Over the black hills beyond, through the sullen obscuring air, the unburnished scene grew duller and died. I was stupefied with the lethargy, the smoke and calm; yet sickening accesses of a sense of failure, the unfulfilled, an impending doom, still moved pitilessly what remained of me undead. A sudden collapse of all things impended; but faith in its last retreat kept firm my footing. I could not even cry out to this dumb show. And in this world of void and sorrows I was conscious of the presence of a sweet young girl, recently married. Why crossed she there my vision? Why was she the only one there? What relation had this persistent face - untouched but beautiful - with this drear solitude and waste? Did I love her? I know not. I knew her but slightly - but who knows hows truly? Perhaps she led over the mountains to dreams-come-true. Ask the moon, its glimpses here, or the stony-hearted sphinx in Egyptian sands.

May 28, 1897

Dr. M.

May 31, 1897

Dr. M.

Last Saturday morning, I quizzed young Edward H. Hoos, son of Mayor Hoos, preparatory to his examinations before the Supreme Court, for admission to the Bar, and signed in connection with other counselors his preliminary certificate.

June 1, 1897

In fancy at least, and I think really, I enjoy the homage of the young; for a few have made it plain in so many ways and words. This is exquisite. And I have the delicious feeling that I am an enigma to many - that I elude classification. What could be more delightful than that, and at the same time more true! Yes, it is much tobe desired to escape a scientific label or a name that does not indicate the essence but stands for the adventitious, and be simply a man, ((conned)) as a man - marvelous man!

June 3, 1897

Dr. M.

The other day, June first, I believe, I received notice of my election as a director and vice-president of the New-Jersey Central Building and Loan Association, whose home-office is at Newark. I hesitated to accept, chiefly because I instinctively fight shy of business concerns: at bottom they all subsist of prey, as a kind of robber-band, on the community, and are barren or of little concern to the spirit. Seeing that this position, however, true, looked absurd and ludicrous, amid a hive of lawyers, of busy men, I soon got down from this perch and bethought me of the helpful side of corporations and the necessity of standing in with present matters until better matters appear. So I doubtfully accepted. Moreover, I dislike to identify myself with anything that I can not personally over see or direct. Directors nowadays do not direct, but look wise and connive at the inevitable, the inevitable being a general-manager who knows it all and does it all. And with whatever good intentions, interference with him would probably do more harm than good. Directors therefore are largely figureheads, whose names are supposed to give confidence to stock-takers and attract capital.

June 7, 1897

Dr. M.

June 9, 1897

T's check renewed to this date.

June 10, 1897

Dr. M.

So many stories are written of a small place where life is thin and simple; hence the characters, though more readily limned and kept distinct, are of little comparative experience and interest. Who will adequately grasp and picture the situs* where life falls thick and varied as in this great city of New-York, where women and men are traveled and stored, intense, chromatic and complex, yielding the highest beauty and music- here where the flowing multitudes of men and waters crowd down to the universal sea!

*

June 12, 1897

Dr. M., this noon.

June 14, 1897

Slipped away to Princeton this afternoon to attend the reunion of my class, 1877, after twenty years. About sixty of us came together and had a jolly good time. There was some horseplay, and the smaller proprieties were set at defiance. Wine flowed freely, yet it only tended to thaw out the ice in our natures, without overcoming the thinker in the cockloft. I was glad to see the ranks of my class so full, and each one of us so full - of the good things of life! The brightness and memories of the younger days revived, yet the occasion was more than one of memory. It was an actual performance by a company of fine fellows who acted well. It made for better fellowship, and made us truer than ever to the mystic bond of '77.

June 16, 1897

Dr. M.

June 19, 1897

Dr. M.

June 22, 1897

Dr. M.

A magnificent pageant took place in London today in celebration of the Queen's jubilee - diamond jubilee, they call it. 'Tis vain for pomp and circumstance and people with more gallantry than wit to attempt to make of Queen Victoria anything more or other than a very ordinary person. She is generally spoken of as a good woman, but goodness is not singular among women, let us hope! And the Victorian kin is of a commonplace order. I judge individually and rightly. What has the world been fighting for? What does America mean? What does political evolution anywhere mean, if it does not mean the discovery of the individual beneath the husks and trappings that overlay and conceal it? It is real worth, the real man or woman differentiated, and as far as possible disengaged from the adventitious and circumstantial that we seek. Yet so far short have we as yet come, that more than half of the people still judge a person by artificial standards - by an arbitrary title or assumption or by the length of the pole he is perched upon! As a demonstration of the power and majesty of the British Empire, the event was impressive and politically important; indeed America has a great stake in the British Empire, and rejoices in her triumph, though it be misdirected and little appreciative of the real causes for rejoicing.

June 25, 1897

Dr. M.

(Loose note on this page:)
When Grant Was Buried
A Literary Expedition
The Religion of Literature
A National Ceremony of Inauguaration.
Universities as Creators
Thought and Thought Movements
City.
Austerity of the High Muse.
A Literary Duet
The Grand Disgust.

June 29, 1897

Dr. M.

B. and I went to Manhattan Beach this afternoon. The air was fresh and damp. After dinner, a light rain coming on, we turned into the theatre or music hall and enjoyed Dewolf Hopper in "El Capitan", with its taking airs.

July 1, 1897

Bought to-day a Luthy wheel, the highest grade and best-made bicycle in the market.

July 2, 1897

Dr. M.

July 8, 1897

After skirmishing around to settle or close for the time being several matters, I got away to the farm. I took my bicycle with me and it was pronounced a beauty by the trainmen who handled it, and seemed to attract the curiosity or admiration of all who saw it.

(Article entitled "To Enlarge Trade" from Journal, Aug. 7, 1897, left loose on this page)
TO ENLARGE TRADE.
Petition Signed for Improving Hackensack River Front.
WHARF AT DUNCAN AVE.

Finance Board Requested to Authorize an Appropriation - Plan of the Great Commercial Project and Present Status of the Law on the Subject.

The petition requesting the Board of Finance to provide money with which to improve the Hackensack River front of Jersey City, by building a public wharf at the foot of Duncan Avenue, has been signed by the requisite number of property owners. It will probably be formally submitted to the Finance Board in the coming fall.

The original intention of the promoters of this project was to submit it to the Finance Commissioners at once, but the somewhat strained relations which now exist between the Board of Finance and the Street and Water Board because of the pay-roll and other controversies, convinced the gentlemen who have gotten this petition that it would be better to wait awhile instead of imperiling the petition's chances by its presentation at this time.

The law contemplates that, while dents on the West Side and in fact all over Jersey City are enlisting in this movement in favor of the development of the Hackensack River front is largely due to the deplorable lack of wharfage facilities which now hamper Jersey City. The Hudson River front, as everybody knows, was long ago gobbled up by railroad companies and other corporations until to-day the solitary public wharf on the Hudson River front of Jersey City is at the foot of Morris Street.

Under the circumstances the people who believe in the commercial development of Jersey City are anxiously looking toward the Hackensack River front, They see there acres upon acres of meadow land fronting on the Hackensack River, and lying idle. The old portion of lower Jersey City is rapidly becoming crowded and the day is not far off when the vast stretches of marsh land along the Hackensack must be utilized.

ADDITIONAL WHARVES COMING.

The property owners who have singed the petition in favor of a public wharf at the foot of Duncan Avenue are hoping that this will only be the beginning of a series of such improvements, and that before many years there will be wharves and docks all along the Hackensack River front.

Streets could be laid out across the marsh lands to the water's edge so as to make the piers readily accessible by land, and thus connect the wharves with the business portions of the city. Several mills and factories have already been established on these marsh lands. The construction of public wharves would, it is claimed, greatly stimulate the real estate market, cause the construction of factories, stores and other business houses, and result in the building of dwelling houses in abundance.

Portions of Newark Bay are not as deep as some skippers might wish, but if Jersey City were to inaugurate the policy of developing the Hackensack River front, it is claimed that the federal authorities would help Jersey City's cause by dredging those portions of Newark Bay which do not now allow vessels of the largest size to navigate there. Schooners, steamers, and other craft of moderate size have no difficulty in navigating Newark Bay and there is nothing to prevent the carrying on of an extensive commerce.

(map is included.)

July 16, 1897

Dr. M.

July 20, 1897

C. C. Jewell's note due - $100.

August 6, 1897

Dr. M.

J.'s note paid by T.

(partial article regarding Hackensack River Wharves.)

August 16, 1897

Ran into town to-day on some business and to see Blanche off for Lake George.

A fire occurred at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark Avenue yesterday afternoon about five o'clock, and damaged our property there to the extent of a thousand dollars. I was just in the nick of time to notify the insurance companies and get estimates on which to predicate the loss. I expect to remain in town a few days.

August 17, 1897

This summer my room is over one occupied by a blooming Irish girl. This sense of sex is a curious thing; as Webster said on a certain occasion, it levels all distinctions. On a few nightly occasions I heard her talking in sleep - a solemn and pathetic thing, it always seemed to me, and the searchlight of my mind turned into every imaginable dark corner to find something it felt but failed to find. Her voice was young and sweet - purring mellow, yet I caught in it with a kind of heart-break the sob of the Irish sea.

Along the far line of humanity I am looking, from the dawn of history to the present moment - dear tried, tired old humanity, yet still persistent, pleased - and there is a tear in one eye and a smile in the other.

August 20, 1897

After some parleying and discussion yesterday afternoon, with the adjusters of insurance companies, we agreed upon an amount to be paid for the loss by fire at 75 and 77 Newark avenue, and I contracted with Henry E. Nibleth, carpenter, to repair the damage. Proofs of the fire, loss and adjustments were today prepared, sworn to and filed. In passing in and out of many offices, I observed with keen interest how these hounds of business scent with sagacity the thing in hand; how much intelligent energy is absorbed in these important but temporizing affairs. What a concentrated mind is this great business world of down-town New-York! How refreshing it is to rediscover it occasionally by thrusting one's head into it; to feel its power of attraction and repulsion; to see the vast vortex of concerns swallow and the fountain of commerce throw out its unending streams!

September 27, 1897

Returned this morning or noon with Marie and maid from the farm, and am as busy as a bee, with work-a-day res augusta et id genus onine*.

Of Me and Mine.

Perhaps one-tenth - the thinking remnant - knows otherwise and better, but the ((the)) other nine-tenths of those who look meward* or concern themselves with me at all consider, I presume, in the careless way of opinion, that I lead an idle life or have in abundance the much coveted leisure - a desideratum only for those who know truly how to use it. Would that I had more real leisure! What with professional attention, whether exercised in great things or small, with property and business management and cares, of limitless detail and constant demand, it is seldom indeed that I can seize a sufficient measure of time, of peace and quiet, as I some times brush all obstacles aside to do, even to jot down a note in my diary or momentarily to sit, to look, to dream and think! But the very outside pressure forces the mind to focus on the thought or thing in hand, and turn its form concisely. And perhaps I gain thereby power, more information, more knowledge of humanity, than most literary exclusives possess, whose very habits keep them from the vital touch of reality and tend to thin and contract their utterance. And then in these spared moments to feel the propulsion of the pen, the waft and sway of winged words, and the magic voices in the lines! Ah, good God be thanked, these I enjoy and the paradise they bring!

Yet I confess to indulgences in recreation and to a certain indolence, constitutional or poetic, which, notwithstanding the indiscriminate skofts of the moralists, is the proper soil of fruit, flower, of humor and greatness.

Franklin in his last will and testament remarks on the saying that the inheritors of estates should leave them to posterity. The inheritors of some estates might well be rid of them to posterity or the very present, and may they have the energy to support them and cheerfully bear the burden! When an estate is made up of safe securities and real property so improved that it can be managed with relatively small concern and expenditure, the outgo still leaving a comfortable balance, it may truthfully be said that the heir or recipient is fortunate for ease and otherwise. He can lay little claim to individual credit save in the manner of his stewardship, the permanent improvements made, the increment of income resulting therefrom and the use of his trusteeship for the larger good. But when one receives at the hands of his ancestor or otherwise a falling estate - properties that will not stand by themselves or without much help; that require constant watching, good judgment, endless trouble about details, diplomacy to save from technicalities or other difficulties and conciliate conflicting interests, even sagacity and a high order of administrative ability to maintain, - then I say, it is not alone the increase of revenue, but the entire income of the estate that the possessor by devise or purchase truly earns and to his great credit and honor. Such management absorbs largely or wholly his time and energies; it keeps him from other enterprises and is practically for him as a new undertaking: the resulting fortune it made de nous*. The truth must be sought in the facts of each particular case; but speaking broadly a due measure of any esteem there may be should be bestowed on both the former and the present owners. Yet generally hard-working, well meaning but short-sighted people consider an heir of whatever estate favored of fortune - a real lucky dog and idle fellow - save the mark! Society people on the contrary think more of a man who inherits wealth than they do of him who made it. Both sides are in error or wide of the discriminating mark. Truth lies in the particular.

However, estates are a great school, whether rising or falling. The government of a city or state is often compared to the conduct of a large business-house. A better analogy would be with the directory of a great estate. The training of an administrator or manager of lauded properties owned by tenants in common more nearly befits one for the offices of statesmanship. Besides there is a virtuous sentiment in holding land of whatever extent that no amount of money in funds will give a good government instinct, a feeling of nobility and obligation, that is perfectly just and makes for higher citizenship.
*toward me
*

October 11, 1897

Contracted a severe cold last week, which has resulted in quinsy tonsillitis, -a most wretched kind of sore throat, and put me, under the doctor's care, to bed. This is a new dish of disease for me, and strangely served. It is only a few days since I returned home, feeling remarkably well, after a summer of open country air, horseback and bicycle riding.

October 14, 1897

At this end of the century period, if not always in our short history, American life proves most varied, complex and typical in New-York, New-Jersey and Connecticut: it is here that it beats most intensely. All the other states, notwithstanding certain strong eddies and currents in them, are but tributary to these. Why not say the City of New-York alone? This I can not truthfully say, except by way of synechdoche; for the identical life of which I speak beats as quickly and fully in near-by New-Jersey and adjacent Connecticut as at the center and is essential to its wholeness. Indeed the axis or diameter of the metropolitan circle extends from Hartford to Trenton. Herein lies concentrated America; herein is focused the Western hemisphere and much of the Eastern. This statement will bear the closest scrutiny. I mean very much more than that this area contains the densest aggregation of population - a fact in itself of great importance. I mean that the elemental factors of civilization work here most free and fast; that the social, intellectual and spiritual life, in its very mixed, various character, is seen here characteristically at the highest point in its uneven course and evolution. Other American centers, apparently distinct, are, when broadly considered, sympathetic and supporting ganglia of this mighty brain and heart!

October 21, 1897

My young lady law-student sends me word today to the effect that she has concluded to discontinue the study of law, but with thankfulness for my part in aiding her. This is perhaps as it should be and as I anticipated. Alas, dear woman, thy sphere is otherwhere! It may be, say, in musical murmur, with embroidery on lap or babe in arms - a picture indeed that always fills delightly the fancy. True, one is at times repelled or contracted or spiritually chilled by the chiefly passive creature with no other interests, than those of the cow kind, though even in this kind there are charmers. Many accomplishments should be woman's, and wit, grace, fascination; but for learning and great affairs, she lacks the three C's - concentration, continuity and constitution.

October 28, 1897

How stirring is Shelley's Ode to the West Wind! I am stirred to the depths when I read it. What is it? you will say. 'Tis only the wind, heard spiritually everywhere - only the voice of a strenuous living soul, - but, oh, how it wakens the sleeper "beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay" and makes its fierce spirit! Eyes are moistened by it with the sorrows and limitations of earth, and spew away in dreams with it to the state of the joyous, of the limitless, free!

October 30, 1897

Almost any acute mind with a few sharp phrases or sentences, well-directed, could prick to nothing the wordy bubbles which the politicians for the most part blow.

November 2, 1897

Robert A. Van Wyck, Tammany democrat, was elected to-day Mayor of New-York, after an unusually exciting and bitter campaign. He who made the least noise received the highest vote. Henry George, the candidate of the most spirit, died suddenly last Friday morning - a striking break in the canvass. Seth Low and the citizens' union, supported by some able men with the best motives but without a trained organization, polled a large vote, sufficient to give the politicians pause. The candidacy of Gen. Tracy, probably the best equipped man offered for the city's choice and chief magistracy, was too evidently the outcome of a scheme or political deal to find more than the most partisan following. It would seem that the republican, an opportunist party mainly, and independent or reform movements, however productive of good, are unpopular, and when given the reins of government, they have a way of making government narrow and unpopular. 'Tis the party of the Demos that is naturally popular, and at bottom the cause of its popularity is its larger and subtler regard for personal liberty - a principle fraught with grave responsibility, but invaluable and as enduring as the human race. No doubt this and other principles are much perverted in practice, and the machinery of party is strained sometimes to cover and protect favored crimes; but notwithstanding the prominence given in picture, print and actual evidence, to political corruption, it is incidental and not prevailing. A cosmopolitan community like this, for the most part law-abiding, feels instinctively that most individual freedom is to be had under Democratic control, and this feeling is in reality well founded. And in general where legal restraints are broken through, or disregarded, it is mainly in those particulars where the fixed and rigid law has not come up or accommodated itself to venial human indulgence and the inveterate customs of varied people.

November 11, 1897

'Tis only when one has known and experienced a wide amount of good and evil, without being capsized or wrecked, and ridden safely into a haven of equilibrium and repose, that he can be said to be truly liberal, noble and great. The peace he finds is caused, after struggle and strenuous advance, by his final adjustment to the time and harmony of the universe. For the most part, it is the unbalanced, partial factors, both of good and of evil, relatively considered, that keep the world in constant turmoil and grate harsh music. People generally need not concrete particulars of this, but have in themselves an underlying sense of imperfection, of views and ideas unfitting and discordant, - a feeling that their destiny is unfulfilled, that they are going they know not whither but have not arrived. The shuttles, however, keep flying to and fro, and now and again a great man arrives.

November 18, 1897

Sold to-day house and lot, No 430 Fifth street to Rosario Damato.

Consideration, $1600.

November 19, 1897

The writers start in the race: some are morbid and vile; others are healthy and banal; one is plain, another odd - but how few, how very few reach the simple and strange. Yet these are they that achieve singular distinction and testify of genius.

It is refreshing to discover anew the old and turn morning faces of every day things to light.

November 22, 1897

Dispossession cases at 10 a. m.

November 23, 1897

This evening B. and I were at the Schubert Glee Club concert. It was given in the Tabernacle on Henderson street. The numbers were well rendered, but without the rapture of genius. I seldom follow music technically. To do so is to lose its bouquet and highest use. If it is very good, it ravishes me. This time it was not so good, but heightened agreeably my thoughts and recollections. I recalled how on that same platform nearly a quarter of a century ago, in 1873, I spoke a Greek oration with Demosthenian fervor and force. So said a clergyman much pleased. And on the same occasion, I acted a dramatic piece with such art as to call forth praises from certain actor-like men in the audience. One grey old man came up to me. He was affected to tears. He pressed my hand and said in a feeling manner, "You brought that home to me!"

November 25, 1897

This was a peculiar Thanksgiving-day for me. Usually at the family board and gathering at home, I spent this, I fear, in a fashion too Bohemian-like. Part of the family were at "the farm", where I did not care particularly to go. A cordial invitation from my sister Virginia Beekman, to dine with her at Perth Amboy, I intended to accept, but indifferently missed the proper train. So I dined alone at a French restaurant on Twenty-eighth street. If I felt a sense of loneliness, I had the advantage of strange impressions. The afternoon was dreamed away for the most part at Koster and Bials - Anne Held appeared. I ran off the evening and rounded the day's pleasures at the home of a pretty woman. Then to home, which I found deserted. Going in with night-key, I lighted up and read for a while until the servants came in, excusably late. The wailing maid prepared something in the nature of a night-cap: after drinking which I got to bed feeling how sweet a thing rest is.

November 27, 1897

If I seem to venture too much in music-halls, it is not, I trust, because my wit and taste run even with their juvenility and vulgarity, but because I find there in parts some of the most natural and genuine things now on the stage, things calculated to provoke and stimulate the genius of some new young Marlowe to lyrical expression and drama. Take the present, and outside of Shakespeare, a play of real literary merit is seldom seen on the boards. And between these upper reaches and the miscellany of the music-halls, there stretches a dreary waste of commonplace society pieces, flat and ugly enough intellectually to stop a clock, to use a concert-hall phrase. Vaudeville and burlesque certes show more spontaneity and grace than these. Yet such things indicate particularly the popular demand and taste. And adaptations of successful novels only spoil the novels and are uninformed for acting. Yet with all this before their eyes, there actually are educators and men of science who would substitute science and modern languages for the ancient classics, - think of it - when the very populace of Athens was held spell-bound by the tragic and constructive beauties of Sophocles! So, here's to more Greek on the stage and in real life!

December 1, 1897

Mr. Henry Harrison, the artist, of this city, called and conferred in regard to painting portraits of the former Mayors of Jersey City, to be hung in the City Hall. After a short talk on this and other subjects, he asked me for a card of introduction to Mr. Taylor Pyne of Princeton, which I gave. Pyne was a classmate of mine in the university.

December 2, 1897

Whatever the state before birth or after death may be, the conditions of the intermediate country - dear old earth - favor or force the citizen thereof to living along a wavy line, that, in the dialect of ethics, to use understood terms without accepting them, is neither good nor bad, or at least a mode of conduct or action that is neither all or too good nor all or too bad - a happy adjustment and quantum of each to the modus vivendi*. When I reached this conclusion, viewed from my stand-point, I began to gain in weight, to ballast my soul and sail freely with mediate but assured self-possession. Whereat I experienced great joy.
*

December 9, 1897

William II. of Germany, the present youngish emperor, continues to impress the world with the fact that he had a grandfather and that he is verily the war-lord of his people. This is not so bad: it may be really very good. What is needed now for the head of a nation, the bargain-counter feeling having had its day, is a chivalrous man with ancestors rather than a mud-turtle with all the business economies. The Germans are generous in spirit, ay, and poetic, and will put up with many vagaries in an emperor who shows much spirit.

December 13, 1897

B. and I went up to one hundred and twenty-fifth street yesterday afternoon and took a bracing walk along the fine Riverside Park and Drive. It was a dull gray day, and Grant's tomb, not very graceful but massive, harmonized with the weather and loomed up strikingly as a snowy peak against the cloudy sky. We went within and looked down for a pause on the polished sarcophagus. The wind blew freshly from the river. The sun broke out obscurely and presented some charming effects along the horizon and across the ruffled water.

December 20, 1897

To-night by special invitation I attended in the City Hall the presentation of portraits of former Mayors Wanser and Romar to the city. Mr. Jacob Weart, in his historical address, made some kindly and just references to my father.

December 31, 1897

To test everything anew, to be individual, particularly to retain individualism in a commonwealth or republic, combining it rationally with the normal, is going the right way to the discovery of truth. This is to be original and a propagandist of truth.

January 3, 1898

(Newspaper clipping, affixed:)

POPULATION OF NEW YORK.
Growth of the City Since Its Earliest Days.
1653: 1,120, 1661: 1,743, 1673: 2,500, 1696: 4,455, 1731: 8,256, 1750: 10,000, 1756: 10,530, 1771: 21,865, 1774: 22,861, 1786: 23,688, 1790: 33,131, 1800: 60,489, 1805: 75,587, 1810: 96,373, 1816: 100,619, 1820: 123,706, 1825: 166,136, 1830: 202,589, 1835: 253,028, 1840: 312,710, 1845: 358,310, 1850: 515,547, 1855: 629,904, 1860: 813,669, 1865: 726,836, 1870: 942,292, 1875: 1,041,886, 1880: 1,206,299, 1890: 1,515,301, 1892: 1,801,639, 1893: 1,891,306, 1897: *2,000,000, 1898: *3,388,000. *estimated

Cash Account. January 1897

(Newspaper clipping of Chief Justice Mercer Beasley with ink sketch portrait and caption "New Jersey's Loss" and Manners' note "died February 19, 1897.")

Cash Account. March 1897

An Affair Twixt Landlord and Tenant.

A short time ago I passed on the street, on Grove street near Pavonie avenue, I believe, a dark visaged German, whom I knew, yet who foolishly avoided me with forbidding glance. I would willingly have shaken hands with him; but as I had defeated him several years ago in a bitter struggle over the possession of a lot of land, our feelings naturally were different. A true man, however, in like case, should rise superior to first feelings. He was the most stubborn man I ever contended with and caused me some trying moments. I need not go into details. It was a dispute over the construction of a lease. He claimed under it possession of a lot in the rear of the premises definitively leased, but that was not included by any fair intendment. Yet he seized it, locked the gates and defied any one to enter. Ejectment or summary proceedings were out of the question. Criminal process was inadvisable, nor would it solve the legal issues. I treated him as a trespasser, as he certainly was. How I had rented this very lot with stable and shed thereon to another tenant and must give immediate possession. The wrong-headed German doggedly refused to surrender. Every agent, officer or constable I sent to take possession for me failed to do so, for fear of being arrested or sued for damages, and by reason of moral and physical cowardice; for a crowd had gathered and the defiant trespasser was aided by a loudmouthed Irish alderman. So, strange to say, I had to fight my battle alone. My spirit was up. I went to the scene. I borrowed a sledge-hammer from a neighboring tenant, and going boldly up with it broke the padlock and chain and forced in the gates. Wild shouts and menaces assailed me. The hammer kept me from physical harm. The alderman independently ordered the police to arrest me - fool! - forsooth, for controlling my own property. One officer was at the point of doing so, but I warned him to be better advised or he would get himself into difficulties - he whose duty it was to keep the others in peace. He then resisted. Several ignorant abettors of the ignorant tenant ran with him to police justices to procure warrants for my arrest, but the justices sensibly refused to issue them. In the meantime I held the place, and put the rightful lessee into full possession. There was some talk of bringing civil suits against me, and one lawyer actually took the case but abandoned it upon investigation. Strange indeed seems all this bother on the wrong-side, when it was I who was injured and could justly complain. I had good legal grounds on which to predicate actions against the tortious tenant and alderman, but I deemed it not worth while in several senses to pursue them. I had cut the Gordian knot.

In the event an American standing by encouraged me and another Irishman coming upon the scene, true to his complex nature, began to berate his compatriot of the city fathers and decidedly supported my cause. Although almost exhausted with the strain of it, I brightened a little and got away without other harm, feeling indignant and put-a-bout, yet with a sense that I had there enacted, before a gaping vulgar crowd, jeering and boisterous, before two blue-coals and a desperate meddlesome alderman, a part that should have gained for me glory on a field of martial battle. And although I fought for my own interest, it was the enforcement of right and principle that animated me amid much doubt, opposing forces and threats. It required courage, physical and moral, to stand stoutly and win thus single-handed, and from the dark woe and stress in my breast sprang buds of heroism and moral beauty.

The story did not reach the local press or if it did, it failed to be valued or deemed worth mentioning; but the multitude that witnessed the conclusion of my part applauded and some of my tenants who had looked on unaiding or hostile, in the end, took off their hats and called me General Manners!

Cash Account. December 1897

(Printed photograph of Marie Studholme, and two newspaper articles, undated:)
A Page from History.

The address of Capt. ALFRED T. MAHAN at Saturday night's banquet of the Sons of the American Revolution might be called a new chapter in his study of the influence of sea power upon history.

Indeed, the toast to which he spoke, "The Decisive Influence of the French Navy on Our Revolution," crystallized his speech in a phrase, just as the book which has placed him at the head of naval historians had carried its purport in its felicitous title.

We may fairly assume, too, that it was not merely as an after-dinner compliment to our historic ally, on the anniversary of the treaty of 1778, that Capt. MAHAN ascribed to the maritime power which France brought to our aid, the result of the American Revolution. He was able to cite WASHINGTON himself in testimony to the decisiveness of the fleet of DE GRASSE in the final campaign.

It is an indisputable fact that, while our active cruisers made great havoc with British commerce during the Revolution, and while the name of PAUL JONES is immortal, yet the patriots had no line-of-battle fleet for a great naval engagement. France came to our aid with such resources, all the more important from the extent of our seaboard. It is true that her navy was only one decisive element in the help she gave us. The army of ROCHAMBEAU formed about 7,000 out of the total of 16,000 men that WASHINGTON had at Yorktown. But, on the other hand, the fleet of DE GRASSE not only had brought these troops to America, but, by defeating the British fleet of GRAVES, prevented both the reinforcement of CORNWALLIS and his escape north on his ships.

Capt. MAHAN'S view is not, however, directed wholly upon the past. He declares that our double seacoast makes us to-day "as much as England an insular nation." With Canada and Mexico our neighbors, both far weaker, and our enormous arms-bearing population, "we have nothing to fear on land. Whatever danger threatens us will come from the sea." That is a good thing for Congress to note, now that it is to provide for the ships and the forts.

1778-1897.

The Sons of the American Revolution, assisted by representatives of the French Republic, celebrated last evening by dinner and speeches a memorable anniversary.

February 6, 1778, was the day when a treaty was concluded between "the Most Christian King" of France "and the Thirteen United States of North America," the purpose of which was, as stated in the treaty, "a firm, inviolable and universal peace and a true and sincere friendship" between the two countries.

There are no nations on the globe which have more reason to stand shoulder to shoulder than France and the United States. When we were making our struggle for independence France lent us the aid of some of her noblest subjects. She was a second time represented on our battlefields when we spent lives and treasure to insure the perpetuity of our government. And during the awful days when France fought against the odds of every throne in Europe for what she at last achieved, the warm and cordial sympathy of this country was offered without stint.

The Republic of France last night sent her greetings to the great American Republic. Her voice was heard in congratulation, and in return our congratulations were sent to Paris. Two political giants shaking hands across the separating ocean! It recalls the past and is a good omen for the future. Both have made sacrifices for liberty, and made them with the courage which insures success. Both have gone through tempests of warfare and at last anchored in national peace. Both represent, one in each hemisphere, the foremost political ideas of the age-ideas which every other government must sooner or later adopt. There is, therefore, every reason why the mutual confidence and friendship of to-day should grow stronger as time passes.

The celebration of this anniversary last night was all that could be desired.

Memoranda 1897

America Most Free and Fair.
The man-god traveled far and wide:
He kept his seeing clear;
He cast deep look at the tide
And distant lands and near -
But in America 'twas where,
He found his home most free and fair!

Of many peoples he is mixed:
He gathers for here the best.
And here a standard he has fixed -
A true light in the west -
To which the fetterless repair
And find the land most free and fair!

O strange and great! the old world's eye,
At last blinks in the sun:
Instinct of wholes is the half-sky,
Man's race divinely run -
For souls high-built who love and dare,
America's most free and fair!