Early in the spring of 1868 we removed to Brooklyn Heights near the Ferry, much nearer my husband's office in Liberty Street. New York had not then stretched an arm across East River and taken into its bosom Brooklyn—already the third city in the union. The two cities, now one in name, were practically one in interest as early as 1867. A great multitude of the dwellers of Brooklyn crossed the ferry every morning on their way to their daily work in New York. Brooklyn was a huge, overgrown village; a city of churches, a city of homes, and of children innumerable. Every year in May a mighty army—thousands and thousands—of these children paraded the streets under banners from their respective Sunday-schools,—a unique spectacle well worth a pilgrimage thither, provided one could content himself with a precarious footing on a crowded sidewalk; for these children had the "right of way"—and knowing their right, dared maintain it.
In 1867 streets were so deserted—was not everybody in New York for the day?—that little children adopted them as a perfectly safe playground. There were no elevated railroads, no trolley cars, no automobiles, no bicycles, no electric lights, no telephones.
Our move was signalized by a complication of 331difficulties. Four of my younger children found this an altogether suitable time to indulge in measles. Hasty visits to a near-by auction room resulted in a few needful articles of furniture which were lent to us—for we could not purchase. The auctioneer was to own them, and reclaim them if not paid for in a certain time. A small room was shelved for the books that had survived the sacking of our house, and to our great satisfaction we found that the much-used books—books of reference—had proven too bulky or too shabby to be stolen. These and other well-worn, well-read books became the nucleus of a large library, and hold to-day in their tattered bindings places of honor denied newer lights of more creditable appearance. We were not aware when we moved to Brooklyn Heights that we had descended into the very centre of the wealthiest society of the city. Had we known this, it would have signified nothing to us. Our extreme poverty forbade any expectation of indulgence in social life, even had we felt we had the smallest right to recognition. We had never known anything about the social ambition of which in later years we hear so much—still less did we now regard it. We "asked our fellow-man for leave to toil," and asked nothing more.
We soon discovered that the people around us lived in affluent ease and elegance—but that was not our affair! We had no place in their world, nor did we desire it. To conceal our true condition was our instinctive impulse, and to that end we shunned notice. Sometimes a great wave of desolation 332and loneliness—a longing inexpressible for companionship—would possess me. At this time there was a bridge over Broadway below Cortlandt Street. I sometimes, at seasons of great depression, accompanied my husband to his office, and would ascend the steps to this bridge and look up and down the restless sea of passing crowds. Such a sickening sense of loneliness would come over me, I would feel that my heart was breaking. All seemed so desolate, so hopeless, for us in this great unknown world. We knew ourselves not only strangers but aliens, outcasts.
Dear little Willy came to me one day and advised me to change his terrier's name, "Rebel,"—a name he had borne by reason of his own disposition, and not at all in honor of the "lost cause." "The boys will stone him," said Willy; "I am going to call him 'Prince' in the street and 'Rebel' at home." On another day his younger sisters were decoyed into the garden of a neighbor, and there informed by the children of the house that we would not be allowed to live in the street—that we were "Rebels, and slave-drivers, and awful people!" These painful incidents were of everyday occurrence. "Mamma told me," said one of the little ones, "that God loves us. Will everybody else hate us?" Before very long, however, the little rebels made friends and were forgiven all their enormities.
The good people of Brooklyn at that time were taking up their cobblestones and laying a wooden pavement on Pierpont Street, and fascinating blocks of wood were piled at intervals in the street. Of 333course, the boys immediately built of them a village of tiny houses, and one day a committee of bright-eyed fellows—Tom and Charley Nichols and Dr. Schenck's boys—waited on me with a request that my little girls be permitted to "come out and keep house" for them. The little girls, they added gallantly, would be allowed to choose the boys! That was not difficult. The small housekeepers walked off with Tom and Charley. "Say," said one of the proud owners of real estate, with a pristine recognition of woman's place in the household, "will your cook give you some potatoes and apples? We've got a splendid fire around the corner."
"Sure, an I'll not lave you do it," said Anne out of the basement window. "Is it burnin' down the place ye'll be afther doin'?"—but a "Please, Anne, dear," from the smallest housekeeper settled the matter. A fire in the street would be a strange spectacle in the Borough of Brooklyn to-day.
A family of healthy children well governed cannot be unhappy, even in the most depressing circumstances. My own little brood positively refused to be miserable. They had literally nothing that must be acquired with money, but their own ingenuity supplied all deficiencies. In the vacant space in the rear of our house there was a cherry tree which never fruited, but bore a wealth of green leaves and blossoms. There the children elected to establish a menagerie. They soon stocked it from the "estray" animals in the street. They were "Rebel," the terrier; "Vixen," the dachshund; "Tearful Tommy," the cat; "Desdemona," a white rabbit; and "Othello," 334her black husband, purchased from a dealer; and "Fleetwing," the pigeon, which had trustfully entered one of Roger's traps. As there were no stockades, no cages, Fleetwing was tethered to the cherry tree, and as cord might wound her slender leg, a broad string of muslin was provided for her comfort.
One day I heard lamentation and excited barking in the menagerie. Fleetwing had vindicated her right to her name, and was calmly sailing in the blue ether, like a kite with a very long tail—her muslin fetter trailing behind her. We hoped she would return, but she never did. Othello and Desdemona were very interesting. They always came, like children, to the table with the dessert, hopping around on the cloth from corner to corner for bits of celery; but when the fires were kindled, Desdemona breathed coal gas from the register, keeled over, and expired. Othello's mourning coat expressed suitable sorrow and respect, but very soon he too experimented with the register and followed his helpmate.
The time came (with these healthy children to feed) when, like Mrs. Cadwalader, I had to get my coals by stratagem and pray to heaven for my salad oil—with this difference, that my prayer was for daily bread, and that alone. Long and painfully did I ponder the dreadful problem—how to keep my family alive without driving the dear head of the house to desperation. Study, work, unremitting study and work from early morning until late at night was his daily portion. Not until the last expedient 335had failed should he know aught of my household anxieties.
At last I resolved to go to a dignified old gentleman I had observed behind the desk at a neighboring grocery and tell him the truth. But I remembered my New York experience with the silver. So be it! I had borne rebuff more than once—I could bear it again.
I told Mr. Champney—for this was the name of the old gentleman—that I was the wife of General Pryor, that we had come North to live, that my husband's profession was not yielding enough for our support, nor had we any immediate ground upon which to build hope for better fortune; that I did hope, however, to pay for provisions for my family—sometime, not soon, but certainly if we lived; and that certainly, without food, we should not live!
He wished to know if I was the mother of the children he had seen in his store. I answered in the affirmative, and with no further parley he drew forth a little yellow pass-book and handed it to me. "Use this freely, madam," he said; "I shall never ask you for a penny! You will pay me. General Pryor is bound to succeed." He kept his word. His German porter, Fred, came to me every morning for my frugal orders, and gave me every possible attention. At every day of reckoning demanded by myself, my creditor politely remarked, there was "no occasion for hurry"! His name, "S. T. Champney," was, thenceforward, with my children, "the St."—and as such remains in my memory.
The city of Brooklyn had grown almost as rapidly 336as the Western cities—Chicago, Seattle, and others, and a great number of poor people were crowding into it, seeking homes. Perpetually recurring instances of distress and homelessness appealed to the good women of Brooklyn Heights—Mrs. Bulkley, Mrs. Packer, Mrs. Alanson Trask, Mrs. Eaton, wife of a professor of the Packer Institute, Mrs. Rosman, Mrs. Craig, and others, and they finally resolved to found a home for friendless women and children. They r............