The
beautiful pigeons that used to coo and cluster on the cobble stones had
no resting-place for their coral feet on the Russ pavement, so thickly
moved the drays, and so unremitted was the rush of man and beast. In
fact, the one conservative feature eloquent of the past is the
churchyard,--the old, moss-grown, sloping gravestones,--landmarks of
finished life-journeys, mutely invoking the hurrying crowd through the
tall iron railings of Trinity and St. Paul's. It is a striking evidence
of a "new country," that a youth from the Far West, on arriving in New
York by sea, was so attracted by these ancient cemeteries that he
lingered amid them all day,--saying it was the first time he had ever
seen a human memorial more than twenty years old, except a tree! And
memorable was the ceremony whereby, a few years since, the Historical
Society celebrated the bicentennial birthday of Bradford, the old
colonial printer, by renewing his headstone. At noonday, when the
life-tide was at flood, in lovely May weather, a barrier was stretched
across Broadway; and there, at the head of eager gold-worshipping Wall
Street, in the heart of the bustling, trafficking crowd, a vacant place
was secured in front of the grand and holy temple of Trinity.
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