Lorenzo Brown Mission Journal

Latest revision as of 21:07, 9 May 2008

[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

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Transcribed from Lorenzo Brown's missionary journal 1875-1876, page images available at the Harold B. Lee Library website, Brigham Young University, Missionary Diaries collection.