at a large expense, for the reception of prisoner criminals; thence called the State prison. It occupies one of the most healthy and eligible spots on the island.

Having surveyed this thriving settlement, you may return to town by the Greenwich road, which will conduct you straight forward by Richmond Hill, St. John's church, the old air furnace, the Bare market, and the Albany bason, to the Battery; or you may proceed by the route of the public cemetery, or Potter's field, to the upper end of Broadway and drive into town, leaving St. John's church, the new Sugar-house, the New York Hospital, the College, etc., on the right; and Bayard's hill, the Collect, the Manhattan water-works, the County prison for criminals, the new City Hall, The Park, etc., on the left.

What a change the rapid growth of New York has brought to the East Side! We can scarcely imagine that the large area now occupied by swarming populations of foreigners, hailing from every quarter of the globe, was once the site of beautiful, quiet country homes with grounds sloping down to the clear waters of the East River. The transformation is astounding in the extreme; and when we consider that the entire distance from the Battery to Kingsbridge, not so long ago a rural district, is now covered with dwellings and intersected with busy streets, one realizes that New York is marching on at a prodigious speed.

B

EDWIN BOOTH

Recollections of Commodore E. C. Benedict

ECAUSE of my intimate association with Edwin
Booth during the later period of his life, for a

large portion of which (at his own request) he made my house his home, I have been thinking over a few incidents occuring in our companionship which may be of some interest.

Mr. Booth located in Greenwich in the early seventies. I realized that he came for rest and fresh air and having seen millions of human faces, naturally desired to see no more. So I abstained from making his acquaintance. Some few friends of mine called upon him and reported that he and his talented wife received them all quite hospitably. His nearest neighbor, named Rose, had been employed by George Peabody, the Philanthropist, and had retired. He was hardly a fullblown Rose, being not over five feet two with his high heels on, but he always wore a dress suit and plug hat and at once assumed to take charge of everything within Mr. Booth's fence.

He found Mr. Booth had a well with tanks and pipes, but without pumping facilities. He told Mr. Booth that he had a friend named Benedict who had just bought an Ericsson hot air pumping engine and invited Mr. Booth to accompany him over to my premises and see it work. Mr. Booth naturally objected as he was not acquainted with me. Rose replied: "He is not at home during the day and his man will show it to us." Finally Mr. Booth consented to come over and inspect

it. On arriving home that day my wife told me she had had a visit from him. "Did you see him?" I asked. "No," she replied, "I did not know he had been here until he had gone; he came to see our new pump work." Fearing he may not have obtained full information in regard to it, I took my wife over to call on him and explain the machinery more fully. He was exceedingly hospitable and his wife played the piano and sang some songs. One entitled "Hamlet" I remember. We invited them to come to dinner. They accepted and came several times that season.

Mr. Booth was emerging from his financial difficulties and was to appear in October of that year for a month under Mr. Daly's management. One morning five or six weeks previous thereto, he started over to Stamford to get his groceries, having hitched up a colt and its mother for the drive. The harness broke, the horses ran away and he was ditched out against a telegraph pole, breaking his left arm and two or three ribs. I called day by day to see what I could do for him and to try to cheer him up. He felt he could not keep his engagement with Mr. Daly because his arm was not set properly. He never was able thereafter to tie his cravat but he went through with his engagement, which netted him about $30,000. This he asked me to take care of for him and until his death I took charge of his finances and was one of his executors.

He narrated to me many interesting events connected with his career, beginning with the fact that on the 13th day of November, 1833, occurred that celestial phenomenon, which my parents, frequently enlarged upon as one of the most wonderful and thrilling sights that ever took place on earth. It was the