NEW YORK CITY. 



621 



by Waldo Hutchins. President of the Park 

 Board, and then the chorus sang " Star Spangled 

 Banner," in which the voices of the multitude 

 joined. George William Curtis was the orator 

 of the occasion. He spoke of Memorial Day, 

 recalling memories of American soldiers from 

 Bunker Hill to Appomattox, then passed to the 

 fitness of this city as an historical spot for a 

 memorial to Washington, and closed with a 

 tribute to the greatness of the influence of the 

 greatest of our early American heroes. He said : 

 " Whatever may betide, whatever war, foreign or 

 domestic, may threaten, whatever specious soph- 

 istry may assail the political conscience, of the 

 country, or bribery of place or money corrupt 

 its political action, above the roar of the mob 

 and the insidious clamor of the demagogue, the 

 voice of Washington will still be the voice of 

 American patriotism and of manly honor." 



The corner-stone was laid with Masonic cere- 

 monies by John W. Vrooman, grand master of 

 the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, in- 

 cluding the reading of a few verses from the 

 page of the Bible on which Washington's hand 

 is said to have rested when he took the oath of 

 office, and a prayer by the Rev. Robert Collyer. A 

 brief address by Grand Master Vrooman, with the 

 singing of " America " by the chorus, completed 

 the ceremonies. The fund on that day reached 

 the sum of $82,999.98. 



Holley Memorial. During the week begin- 

 ning Sept. 29 a joint meeting of the British 

 Iron a,nd Steel Institute of London and the 

 American Institute of Mining Engineers was 

 held in New York. At the close of the meeting 

 a memorial bronze bust of Alexander Lyman 

 Holley, modeled by J. Q. A. Ward, was unveiled 

 in Washington Square. A eulogy on Mr. Holley 

 was delivered at Chickering Hall by James 

 Dredge, editor of the London "Engineering," 

 after which the two societies marched to the 

 square, where James C. Baylis, as chairman of a 

 committee representing the American Institute 

 of Mining Engineers, the American Society of 

 Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society 

 of Civil Engineers (through which organizations 

 the money to build the memorial had been 

 raised), formally presented the memorial to the 

 city in a brief address. The monument was 

 accepted for the city by Albert Gallup, Presi- 

 dent of the Department of Public Parks, who 

 said : " It is indeed fitting that in this country 

 where genius and invention are triumphant our 

 citizens should turn aside now and then from 

 their labors to pay just tribute to those who have 

 made her great. Among them truly was he who 

 has been so honored to-day, as one of the great- 

 est of engineers, and of whom it can be well 

 said, borrowing the words from another, that he 

 ever strove to hide his light under a bushel, yet 

 it was ever the strongest and brightest light that 

 burned. I would that all our parks and squares 

 might contain such object lessons as this, not 

 alone because of the art that fashioned it, but 

 because of the energy, enthusiasm, intensity of 

 purpose, great honor, and great achievements of 

 him whom it calls to mind." 



Historical Landmarks. The preservation 

 of historical landmarks by the erection of brass 

 plates has been undertaken by the Holland So- 

 ciety, and in September the "first of these was 



fastened to the front of No. 4 Bowling Green. It 

 bears the following inscription : 



The site of 

 FOBT AMSTEKDAM, 



built in 1626. 

 Within the fortification 



was erected the first 



substantial church edifice 



on the Island of Manhattan 



in 1787. The fort 



was demolished 



and the Government house built upon this site. 



This tablet is placed here by 



THE HOLLAND SOCIETY, ' 



Sept., 1890. 



Another plate was put up at the corner of 

 Pearl and Broad Streets to mark the site of 

 Fraunces's tavern, the first Chamber of Commerce, 

 and the spot where George Washington bade fare- 

 well to his Generals in 1783. Another was 

 placed at Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue, 

 where Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree stood. Other 

 plates are to be put up at No. 45 Broadway, to 

 mark the site of the habitations of the 'first 

 white men on Manhattan Island ; at No. 73 Pearl 

 Street, to mark the site of the first Dutch house 

 of entertainment, afterward the Stadthuys or 

 City Hall ; at the Mills Building corner, the spot 

 where the merchants first formally met in ex- 

 change and barter; at the northeast corner of 

 Cedar and Nassau Streets, to mark the site of 

 the old Middle Dutch Church ; and at No. 115 

 Broadway, to preserve the location of the his- 

 toric De Lancey house, afterward successively 

 the Province Arms, the City Arms, and the 

 Burns coffee house and tavern, where, on Oct. 31, 

 1765, the first agreement against the Stamp Act 

 was signed. 



The tablets are of solid brass, of good propor- 

 tions, and bear brief inscriptions explanatory of 

 the event to be commemorated. They are 3 feet 

 long by 2 feet wide, weigh about 200 pounds, and 

 cost about $300 each. 



Post-Office. The total number of pieces of 

 mail matter of all kinds handled during the year 

 was 1,024.198,721, a daily average of 3,113,066, 

 and an increase over the previous year of 135,- 

 110,258. There were delivered through lock 

 boxes and by carriers 343,497,329 pieces of ordi- 

 nary mail matter, divided as follows : Letters 

 through boxes, 57,146,060; by carriers, 170,118,- 

 702. Postal cards through boxes, 6,660,856 ; by 

 carriers, 35,070,828. Other mail matter through 

 boxes, 34,114940; by carriers, 40,385,943. In 

 the registered-letter department 1,435,633 pieces 

 were delivered, and 1,248,359 of domestic, and 

 484,348 of foreign origin were recorded and dis- 

 tributed to other offices. In the distribution de- 

 partment a total of 677,533,052 pieces were han- 

 dled, divided as follow : Letters of local origin, 

 225,430,486 ; received by mail, 34.855,675 ; foreign 

 dispatched, 24,808,981. Postal cards of local 

 origin, 34,681,612 ; received by mail, 8,713,919; 

 foreign dispatched, 1,181,380. Other matter of 

 local origin, 250,761,527; received by mail, 53,- 

 849,060: foreign dispatched, 43,250.412. The 

 aggregate business of the money-order depart- 

 ment for the year amounted to $101,334,178.28, 

 giving an increase in the business over the pre- 

 vious year of $10,329,924.73. The total receipts 

 of the'office were $6.267.278.24, and the total ex- 

 penditures 2,370,805.90 (including $1,073,268.58 



