428 



NEW YORK CITY. 



pie inscription : " Erected by the citizens of New 

 York, MCM." A flag presented by the James 

 Monroe Woman's Relief Corps was unfurled, and 

 Wilson's Battery fired a salute of 19 guns. 



Mayor Van Wyck and the Ice Trust. On 

 May 1 the American Ice Company notified its 

 customers that the price of ice for the season 

 would be 60 cents for 100 pounds, and that no small 

 pieces would be sold. The daily newspapers at 

 once criticised this course, and showed that great 

 suffering would ensue among the poorer classes. 

 This led to considerable agitation, which resulted 

 in showing that the American Ice Company had 

 secured extensive dock privileges, and possessed 

 a complete monopoly of the ice market in the 

 city. Further investigation developed the fact 

 that among the stockholders were a number of 

 Tammany politicians, including Mayor Van 

 Wyck. On June 4 a formal request in the form 

 of an affidavit for the removal from office of 

 Mayor Van Wyck was presented to Gov. Roose- 

 velt on behalf of W. R. Hearst, one of the stock- 

 holders of the American Ice Company. The 

 Governor referred the charges to the Attorney- 

 General, who investigated the matter and re- 

 ported back his opinion, in consequence of which, 

 on Nov. 23, Gov. Roosevelt gave the following 

 decision : " I concur in the Attorney-General's 

 opinion. My judgment is that the so-called Ice 

 Trust is not a corporation in which the Mayor of 

 New York should have stock, but no proof has 

 been offered of any willful violation of law on 

 the part of the Mayor such as would justify the 

 drastic measure of removing him from office." 

 Meanwhile the price of ice had been lowered to 

 30 cents for 100 pounds, and the agitation resulted 

 in saving to the community an amount esti- 

 mated to be not less than $6,000,000. On May 

 28, 1900, the Attorney-General instituted proceed- 

 ings to annul the certificate of the ice company. 

 The corporation, through its counsel, fought the 

 action at every stage on technicalities, not on the 

 merits of the case. The first decision was in 

 favor of the State, and an appeal was taken, 

 which was decided on Nov. 20 in favor of the ice 

 company. 



Attack on the Police. An appeal to Police- 

 Captain Herlihy, of the Twelfth Precinct, for " the 

 protection of the young, the innocent, and the de- 

 fenseless against the leprous harpies who are hired 

 as runners and touters for the lowest and most 

 infamous dens of vice," by Canon Paddock, of the 

 Pro-cathedral in Stanton Street, having been re- 

 ceived " not only with contempt and derision, 

 but with coarsest insult and obloquy," Bishop 

 Potter, in accordance with instructions laid upon 

 him by the Convention of the Episcopal Church 

 of the Diocese of New York, on Nov. 15, ad- 

 dressed Mayor Van Wyck, protesting " against a 

 condition of things in which vice is not only 

 tolerated but shielded and encouraged by those 

 whose sworn duty it is to repress and discourage 

 it, and, in the name of unsullied youth and in- 

 nocence, of young girls and their mothers who, 

 though living under conditions often of privation 

 and hard struggle for a livelihood, have in them 

 every instinct of virtue and purity that are the 

 ornaments of any so-called gentlewomen in the 

 land. I know those of whom I speak; their 

 homes and their lives, their toil, and their aspira- 

 tions. Their sensibility to insult or outrage is as 

 keen as theirs who are in your household or 

 mine, and before God and in the face of the citi- 

 zens of New York I protest, as my people have 

 charged me to do, against the habitual insult. 

 the persistent menace, the unalterably defiling 

 contacts to which day by day, because of the base 



complicity of the police of New York with the 

 lowest forms of vice and crime, they are subjected. 

 And, in the nazne of these little ones, these weak 

 and defenseless ones, Christian and Hebrew alike, 

 of many races and tongues, but of homes in 

 which God is feared and his law reverenced, and 

 virtue and decency honored and exemplified, 1 

 call upon you, sir, to save these people, who are 

 in a very real way committed to your charge, 

 from a living hell, defiling, deadly, damning, to 

 which the criminal supineness of the constituted 

 authorities, set for the defense of decency and 

 good order, threatens to doom them." This letter 

 was acknowledged by the Mayor, who said that 

 he had sent copies of the bishop's letter to the 

 Police Commissioners and to the District Attor- 

 ney of New York County, " with the request that 

 they assist and co-operate with you and with the 

 Police Department. I wish here to assure you 

 that I will exert every power which the law has 

 given me to right the wrongs and do away with 

 the conditions of which you complain, and to se- 

 cure a hearty and efficient co-operation by the 

 Police Department with all who are working to 

 do away with public violations of law and de- 

 cency." On the same day that Bishop Potter's 

 communication was sent to Mayor Van Wyck. 

 Richard Croker called a meeting of Tammany 

 Hall Executive Committee, at which an Anti-Vice 

 Committee was appointed consisting of Lewi;- 

 Nixon (chairman), Michael C. Murphy, John W 

 Keller, George C. Clausen, and M. Warley Plat 

 zek, to examine into vice as found on the East 

 Side, and to devise means for its eradication. 

 Subsequently public addresses were made l>y 

 Bishop Potter, calling attention to the iniquitous 

 condition of affairs, and later Captain Herlihy 

 was brought to trial for his behavior. At tin- 

 close of the year an improved condition of morals 

 prevailed in the objectionable districts. 



Close of the Old Century. On Dec. 18 the 

 Municipal Assembly appropriated $5,000 for a 

 celebration to welcome the new century, and ac- 

 cordingly on the night of Dec. 31 City Hall \\a- 

 decorated with flags and electric lights, A\ith the 

 inscription over the main entrance of " 1900 

 Welcome 1901. 20th Century." An elaborate 

 exhibition of fireworks was given, and at 10.4.") 

 P. M. the official ceremonies were held, consisting of 

 the following programme: Overture by Sou-a '- 

 Band; address by Randolph Guggenheimer, Presi- 

 dent of the Council; song, Der Tag des Herrn. by 

 the United German Singing Societies; overture by 

 the band; song, America, by the People's Choral 

 Union; overture; song, The Star-spangled Hai 

 ner, by the People's Choral Union; overture: 

 song, Ring Out, Wild Bells, by the People's 

 Choral Union; overture; song. Hallelujah Chorus, 

 by the People's Choral Union; overture: song, 

 Sea, Mountain, and Prairie, by the People's Choral 

 Union; overture; song, Hymn of Thanks, by the 

 People's Choral Union; overture; song. Aus d<r 

 Heimath, by the United German Singing Soci- 

 eties; and overture. 



Post Office. The charge of the mail is under 

 the can- of the National Government, and tl.e 

 Postmaster is Cornelius Van Cott. The PoMt 

 Office building is at the junction of Broadway and 

 Park Row. Besides the general post olliee. there 

 are 32 branch ollices. and of these 1 '.ranch 0. Ml 

 the corner of Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, w;i 

 opened on Oct. 29 with an increased force. A - 

 cording to the report of the Postmaster for the 

 year ending .luno 30, 1900, the grand total of 

 mail matter handled for the year was 684,7(58,4(4 

 pieces, as compared with 645,878,017 pieces for 

 1899, a gain of 38,890,447 pieces. The total id- 



