A tour around New York, and My summer acre; being the recreations of MrFelix Oldboy . he Island of first is applied to a small district in the vicinityof Corlaers Hook, while the last embraces the wholeisland; or the city and county of New York, as it istermed in the laws. The Manhattanese of sixtyyears ago were well acquainted with the distinctionbetween the titles, but to most New Yorkers of to-day the words convey no shade of difference. Indeed,I had wrongly written Manhattan Island on a re-cent occasion, when the keen eye of my editorial criticdetected the lapse of memory, an
A tour around New York, and My summer acre; being the recreations of MrFelix Oldboy . he Island of first is applied to a small district in the vicinityof Corlaers Hook, while the last embraces the wholeisland; or the city and county of New York, as it istermed in the laws. The Manhattanese of sixtyyears ago were well acquainted with the distinctionbetween the titles, but to most New Yorkers of to-day the words convey no shade of difference. Indeed,I had wrongly written Manhattan Island on a re-cent occasion, when the keen eye of my editorial criticdetected the lapse of memory, and I was admonishedof the outbreak of wrath that might be expected fromthe shade of the painstaking master of fiction who inlife liked no name so well as that which his personalfriends frequently bestowed upon him, The Path-finder. Manhattan Island was the name given to a highknoll of ground on the East River, above the foot ofRivington Street, containing about an acre of land,surrounded by creeks and salt-marsh, and at high tidepartly covered with sea-water. Lewis Street ran about. PETERSFIELD, THE RESIDENCE OF PETRUS STUYVESANT through the centre of it. Here were located the ship-yards of Henry Eckford and other great marine archi-tects of his day—when American enterprise, Americanmechanics, and American patriotism were bent on dis-placing the colors of other countries in the worldscommercial arena with the American flag. Just northof Manhattan Island a natural creek ran up throughthe centre of the present Tompkins Square to thevicinity of First Avenue. The mouth of the creeklay between Manhattan Island and Burnt Mill Point,or Branda Munah Point, as the septuagenarians ofto-day used to call it when they were boys. One ofthese late leaves of Times autumn tells me that thePoint used to be a great swimming and fishing place,and in the hot summer days a perpetual temptationto play truant. As he fiirst remembers the island,several creeks were crossed on small wooden bridges 324 A
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnewyorknybuildingsst
