View source for Lorenzo Brown Mission Journal

[pg 6]
...
30 [April 1875]
Express train. Slept very little.
Came into Pittsburg at dusk & to
Harrisburg at daybreak 

May 1 [1875]
& to New York at 11.13 am through
Indiana & Ohio saw many manufacturing
towns where large quantites of wagons
threshers mowers are made

[pg 7]
Saw yesterday & today millions
& millions of feet of lumber of all
kinds sorts & sizes also staves &
shingles by acres  Farming
interests are not as well developed
as the manufacturing but through
Pennsylvania near Philadelphia
& New York farming seems to be 
carried on scientifically. Not very
large orchards but some of them very
old judging from the size of the trees
Crossed the river on steam ferry &
took a room at the Stevens hotel no. 27
Broadway near the Battery and
Castle Garden where there is a fine
view of the harbor of sail & steamers
continually coming & going. The
little steam tug boats towing large
ships out & in & the lubberly canal
boats to & from their moorings at
the dock & wharves the street cars are in
abundance & drive to all parts of the
city fare five cents

[pg 8]
May 1st 1875
This being May day there is  unusual 
bustle & stir as yearly leases expire
& many are removing to new homes
which brings the drays & other vehicles
into active employ. The constant rumble
of the different conveyances over the 
rough pavement is almost deafening
and the throng of passers on the walk
is immense. A constant stream
either way so that one cannont avoid
an occasional collision. One thing I 
notice that all both Gents & Ladies walk
rapidly very fast there seem no idlers
all are busy ask a question or direction
of a passer an answer is given civilly
& pass on no time to talk or speak except
in emergencies.
One month today since I left my
home in St.George & a week tomorrow
morning since leaving Salt Lake
City. Shall not hear from there for some
weeks.  Got & paid for our tickets for Liverpool
intermediate passage $35,00

[pg 9]
May
2 Sunday not so much business
doing to day all large houses closed but
street cars & carriages are busy by the 
thousand. Took a walk up Broadway
to Central Park a distance of 5 miles.
I think saw many places of interest
such as Trinity Church which was ringing
a chime quite musically as I passed.
Here is a very old cemetery noticed some 
very plain tomb stones more than 100
years back & some splendid monuments
of late date Saw Tribune Herald Sun
appletons & many other large
publishing houses some of these buildings
are superb almost magnificent
Saw Wallacks Niblos Booths Colosceum
Barnums & many other theaters and
places of resort but I must hasten on
to the park which is or was a rough
hilly rocky swamp place of  I
presume three miles long  & I don't know
the width & 1/2 mile wide [inserted later]  This was purchased some
years since by the city & converted

[pg 10]
into a place of public resort with its
neatly paved walks & carriage drives
over arches of hewn rocks or brick with
granite steps 15 or 20 feet wide Summer
houses bowers small groves which are
more than natural. The marsh has been
converted into a Lake of near two miles
in circuit with neat row boats Black & 
white swans are floating lazily along or
sitting quietly on their nests. There a
huge peacock is feeding among the trees
The Museum was not open But saw
the menagerie Lions Tigers Hyenas
Leopards Zebras Bears from India & to
the Poles including an immense grizzly
a nest of alligators were sleeping 
quietly & a pair of sea Lions one was 
diving & swimming around raising
his head accasionally with a hideous bellow
While the others lay quietly on the bank
apparently enjoying a nap Saw a great
variety of birds among them an ostrich
Fountains were playing in numbers

[pg 11]
saw one spring running from a 
huge rock as natural apparently as
any in the mountains. These ground
must have cost an outlay of many
millions & must with shrubbery and
flowers & various surrounding be an 
exceedingly beautiful in summer
as nothing seems to be ommitted
I mus not omit to mention some
small but regular open carriages each
drawn by a pair of goats in nice harness
for the childrens benefit. Came back by 
street car for five cents cheap riding 5 miles
May 3 Took a turn down to the docks and
back by Wall street a short narrow street
To make so much stir in this big world
Then to top of Trinity Church the highest
elevation in town. There are ten bells
which are rung cheerfully several times
on the sabbath. The longest pipe in the 
organ is 32 feet The main body of the
church is lofty & gloomy Service is read by
candles light the windows are painted

[pg 12]
High in the Center gothic arched & massive
two rows of stone columns that rise to the arch
The pulpit is richly ornamented
The churchyard contains many
illustrious dead. Here are Perry Hamilton
Woolf & many others some of the stones 
are gone to decay & the inscriptions gone
I saw one dated 1680.
I next went to the new Post Office
building which will cost about ten
million dollars I am told is 320 by 
260 feet & four stories I went to the Dome
& looked over the city There are glleries & 
many elevators from basement to 
upper floor the furniture of cherry the 
heavy doors 10 or 12 feet high are made of 
mexican mahogany commonly called
Bay Wood. Door & window panes also
the base with mouldings are iron. The 
framework of the two domes are of iron
I spent about two hours & could have
been much longer with interest
saw several places of fine arts with
Engravings painting & statuary
which interested me very much
saw some of the higher class of furniture
rooms which I cannot attempt to describe
went into several large Bookstores
Bought a pocet Bible of the N York
Bible Society 70 cts Went to A T
Stewarts large retail store near the 
upper end of Broadway which covers 
an entire block & massive as it is
each floor is the entire size of the
building. The basement appeared a
place for doing up parcels & packing
The ground floor for general Dry goods
The second for ribbons laces & fancy
goods I saw on this floor few but Ladies
& Lady clerks. Third floor is exclusively
carpeting. Three other floors are for
manufacturing which I was not
permitted to see There are I am told in
this house two thousand employes
and the customers without end I stood
at one of the five entrances on 
Broadway for not more than five 
minutes & counted one hundred
going in & coming out there are
four or five doors on each of the four
sides but those most thronged were on
Broadway. This between three & four pm
the busiest time I presume. The carriages
were two lines almost the entire three 
sides of the house Stewart has another
house almost as large at or near the city Hall
which is exclusively wholesale. This wound
up the day & came back tired & foot sore
Evening wrote some letters also saw the
towers for suspension wire bridge across
East River to Brooklyn.
The two young men who have come
with me from SL are Wm A.C. Bryant
and David Udall both from Nephi
They have this evening gone to Booths
Theater
4th Rain & gloomy Brethren came from
Salt Lake Bought a few necessaries
at 2 PM went on board the steam
ship Manhattan bound for Liverpool
Mr. Gibson the agent at N Y came on
board with us showed us our rooms

[pg 15]
and did all he could to
give us rooms together four being
the number for one room in my
room there is one stranger who treats
us civilly. Left pier no 46 at 3 PM
were towed into the stream by the
steam tug [? V Seymour ?] We were then
brought by the Pilot through the
channel past the points of Long 
Island. the hospitals Sandy Hook
and after dark saw on our left 
the Light Hous of [? Man ?] island clouds have
lifted & weather fair. Had a good
nights rest clean bed. Three of our
number have taken steerage and
ten intermediate fare but
all are very kind. The of
5 A fine day after breakfast met and passed two large
German steamers bound for N York Raised
our flag to them by way of salute I presume & 
passed on
6th another fine day met and passed 2 or 3 sails at a 
distance saw numbers of Mother Careys
chickens in our wake to day & yesterday also gulls 

....


===Description===
Transcribed from Lorenzo Brown's missionary journal 1875-1876, page images available at the Harold B. Lee Library website, Brigham Young University, [http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/mmd/ Missionary Diaries] collection.

[[Category:Source_Documents]]