88 



Indush'ial and Mater 'ud Progress 



northward, was then called Market street. It took its name from the 

 public market, which stood in the broad portion of it near Maiden 

 Lane. The street south of State street, to the steamboat dock, was 

 called Court street. South Pearl street, which then as now formed the 

 principal exit from the city to the south, was called Washington street. 

 The broad meadows south of the city had originally bt-en set apart as 

 a common for pasturing the cows of the citizens, and Mrs. Grant paints 

 us a pretty bucolic picture of the cows with their tinkling bells com- 

 ing home each night to be milked, each one seeking out and taking 

 her place quietly at her master's gate. But by this time the cow pas- 

 ture had been cut up into lots, and Mrs. Grant's bucolic picture had 

 been spoiled. 



The streets mnst have been as yet almost entirely unpaved. In 

 IT'29 the city fathers had indeed issued some kind of an ordinance that 

 the people should pave their streets, but they complained bitterly of 

 the burden, and on one pretense or another, got it put off, so that 

 still in 1792 we hear of General Schuyler's carriage getting mired in 

 State street, opposite Green, and of the whole neighborhood being 

 called out to extricate it. The incident may have made some stir, and 

 helped to work some improvement ; for two y^ars later a traveler in 

 giving an account of his visit, compliments the city on the condition 

 of the streets and pavements. Curb stones were a thing unknown at 

 that time, and only a shallow gutter separated the roadway from the 

 sidewalk. The pavement was, of course, the old cobble stone pave- 

 ment which continues with us till this day. I have T^ade some effort, 

 but unsuccessfully, to discover the inventor of the cobble stone pave- 

 ment, in order to award to him his due meed of gratitude for the 

 boon which he bestowed on mankind. I would like to have him here 

 to-night and hold up before him the miraculous mirror which the 

 angel of retribution presents to his victim when they are brought to 

 the Buddhist purgatory — a mirror in which he can see all the 

 crimes and evil consequences for which lie is responsible. 



There was still in the city no system of drains. The surface gutters 

 of the streets served the purpose of carrying off the sewage, and on 

 Mondays, which was the traditional washing-day, the streams of soap 

 suds whicli ran down the streets made crossing the streets a perilous 

 undertaking. 



Water-works were first projected for the city in 1799, at which time 

 a company was formed, Vrhich afterward, in 1802, was incorporated as 

 the "Albany Water-works Company." Previous to this time, the sup- 



