Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/502

Rh 462 NEW YORK [CITY. The schools, colleges, ana other institutions not connected officially with the Government are very numerous, beginning with Columbia College, founded in 1754, and now the oldest university in the State, and the richest in the United States. Though not formally denominational, it is managed chiefly by members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It has well-equipped law, medical, and mining schools, besides its academic department, a library of about 20,000 volumes, and a rapidly growing income from advance of its property in the city. There are also several denominational colleges belonging to Catholics, which offer a full course from the primary to the most advanced stage ; and two theological seminaries, one the Protestant Episcopal, and the other the Union Theological Seminary, belonging to the Presbyterians. The endowment of the non-sectarian University of the City of New York is small, so that it makes but little figure in the educational field. There are also numerous medical colleges, and a large number of private schools frequented by children of the wealthier classes. Libraries. The principal public libraries are the Astor Library, the Mercantile Library, and the New York Society Library, which have been described in vol. xiv. pp. 535, 536. Periodical Press. There is probably nothing in which New York more nearly occupies the place of a metropolis than in the position of its periodical press towards that of the rest of the country. See NEWSPAPERS, supra, p. 434. The modern American newspaper may indeed be said to have originated in New York, which is naturally the chief centre for foreign news, as well as the chief financial and commercial centre, and the chief entrepot of foreign goods. In fact, as early as 1840 it had become plain that any one proposing to address the whole country through the press could address it more effectively from New York than from any other point. As popula tion has spread and other cities have grown in wealth and numbers, New York newspapers have of course lost more or less of their early superiority, but they are still more widely read than any others, and absorb more of whatever journalistic talent there may be in the country. In the field of literary and artistic and musical criticism they are exposed to but little competition, from any quarter. The periodical literature of the city is now very large ; there is hardly an interest or shade of opinion, religious or political, which does not possess a New York organ, as the subjoined table will show: Periodicals published in New York City, May 1, 1883. Class.

S Q

3 Es o ua j&amp;gt;. 3 1 Bi- Weekly and Semi-Monthly. Monthly. Bi-Monthly. Quarterly. I Commerce, finance, and trades 1 1 4 62 15 49 1 1 143 33 4 35 1 4 77 General literature 31 27 68 1 | 4 27 1 46 13 4 19 36 Medicine and surgery 4 15 1 4 24 3 13 &quot;&amp;gt; 18 Education 1 4 11 1 17 1 7 1 4 13 Juvenile literature 7 1 4 12 2 10 12 Sporting 8 1 1 10 Law 9 4 1 1 8 4 4 Sanitary subjects 2 2 Politics and literature 1 1 Class, secret society, and miscellaneous 10 4 1 15 In foreign languages 11 1 1 16 77
 * p

9 2&amp;lt;U 38 209

14 573 Churches, Religion, and Charities. In the absence of official returns as to churches and religious denominations, the most trustworthy statistics are those of the City Missionary Society, which puts the number of places of religious worship in the city, including halls, chapels, and missions, at 489. Of these, 349 are churches properly so-called, each with a fixed congregation, and a settled pastor and a building appropriated to its own use. They are divided as follows anlong the various denominations: Protes tant Episcopal, 72; Roman Catholic, 57; Methodist Episcopal, 48; Presbyterian, 41; Baptist, 38; Jewish synagogues, 25; Lutheran, 21; Dutch Reformed, 20; African Methodist Episcopal, 7; United Presbyterian, 6; Congregational,* 5; Universalist, 4; Unitarian, 3; Quakers, 2; &quot; miscellaneous,&quot; 23. This last term covers spiri tualists and radicals o f various shades, who, without having any fixed creed, or definite object of worship, meet on -Sunday for speculative or ethical discussion. The Roman Catholic Church lays claim to 500,000 worshippers, or nearly half the population, which is probably a considerable exaggeration, as its hold on the natives is, beyond question, very slight, and the total foreign population of the city does not reach 500,000. The Irish are almost wholly Catholic, as are the majority of the Germans, and nearly all the French, Italians, and other per sons of foreign birth. The Catholic increase, too, is derived almost exclusively from foreign immigration. The priests are mainly Irish and German, the higher clergy being almost exclusively Irish either by birth or parentage. There is, too, a considerable Catholic element in social life, composed of the well-to-do French and German and Irish and Spanish, who, however, confine themselves very much to the company of persons of their own creed. All the places of worship in the city of one sort or another, taken together, are supposed to contain 375,000 sittings. The Protestant denominations lay claim to 83,400 communicants and 400,000 attendants or supporters. The value of all the church buildings, including the ground on which they stand, is estimated at $40,000,000. The annual church expenses, including the ministers salaries, are supposed to be $3,000,000. There are connected with the churches 418 Sunday schools, with an average attendance of 115,826 pupils. There are also in the city 326 local charitable institutions, of which 261 are Protestant, 38 are Roman Catholic, 18 are Jewish, and the rest are not classified. They disburse annually about $4,000,000. The most remarkable and successful of these charities is undoubtedly the Children s Aid Society, which was founded in 1853 by Mr Charles Loring Brace, the present secretary, for the purpose of helping friendless street children, especially street boys, both by sending them to the west and by opening schools and lodging-houses for them in the city. Since it began its work 67,287 children have been, by its agency, sent away from the city to country homes. During the year 1882 the society gave 14,122 boys and girls 230,968 lodgings in its six lodging- houses, of which 173,152 were paid for by the lodgers themselves ; and it furnished them with 305,524 meals at low rates or free. The income of the society has risen from $4, 732 78 in 1853 to $237,624 in 1882 from subscriptions and endowments. The richest and most fashionable denomination is the Protestant Episcopal, and it is the one which seems to grow most by accretion from the native population. On the other hand, while the Baptists and Methodists have always flourished in New York, the two denominations which owed their origin in the United States chiefly to New England the Unitarians and Congregationalists have never taken deep root in the city. Municipal Charities. The municipal charities are in the hands of a department of the city government called the Commissioners of Charities and Correction, consisting of three commissioners appointed by the mayor, who have charge of all prisons for persons awaiting trial, of all city hospitals, almshouses, workhouses, and lunatic asylums, and of the penitentiary and city prisons. Most of these institutions are situated on small islands in the East River, known as Blackwell s, Ward s, Randall s, and Hart s Islands, the last-named containing a municipal industrial school. Two charities are, however, exempt from the control of the department. One, the House of Refuge on Randall s Island, which is the property of a private corporation that receives vagrant and disorderly children, and gets its income partly from the labour of the inmates, partly from the proceeds of theatrical licences granted by the city, and partly from State grants. The other is the Juvenile Asylum, which also is managed by a private association, and partly supported by State grants. The influence of political partisanship on the appointment of the officers under the control of the department of charities and correction has been found to result in such serious defects of management, as regards the hospitals and charities especially, that a voluntary association, composed mainly of ladies, and known as the State Charities Aid Association, was formed in New York some years ago, and has obtained from the legislature powers of compulsory inspection. Its volunteer visitors are thus enabled to visit and examine all the institutions belonging to the city, as well as those of the State at large, and report on their condition both to the public and to the superiors of the officers criticized. The emigrants, of whom by far the greater por tion pass through New York, are also placed in charge of Commis sioners of Emigration, appointed by the mayor, whose duty is to afford all information and assistance which helpless strangers are likely to require on their first arrival in a foreign country. Their duties include also the discovery on shipboard, and detention for return to the country of their origin, of all paupers, cripples, and insane persons or others who are likely to become a charge to the city. These functions are discharged in a huge wooden structure known as Castle Garden, on the southernmost point of Manhattan Island, at the lower end of Broadway. Their magni tude varies from year to year. In 1883 about 405,000 emigrants of all ages and both sexes passed through the hands of the com missioners. Government and Administration. During the first stage of the colony the government was to all intents and purposes a military one. The governor, or director-general, appointed by the Dutch East India Company, exercised virtually absolute power, subject, of course, to the distant control of the directors in Holland. In 1652 the town received municipal magistrates appointed for one year by the director-general. They held office at his will, and were liable to have their decisions overruled by him on appeal ; but, subject to these conditions, they possessed the powers and