DRUNKS, URCHINS & FAST YOUNG MEN (1853)
Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes.
The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
Do you know the history of YOUR house?
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“Ragged little boys, with dirty faces, trousers out behind, who sleep in coal boxes on door mats and stoops, pitching pennies and searching in the gutter.”
So began a letter to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1853 from an anonymous reader known simply as “Atlas.” Atlas was wondering why theater in New York did not spring from everyday life – as he saw it.
And what he described painted a picture of Brooklyn life that has long drifted away, although it is still with us in other formats.
Here are the characters that Atlas saw in Brooklyn in 1853:
“Older boys with lips pouring out terrible oaths, disgusting obscenity, the fumes of penny cigars and cheap rum.
“Old men tottering from dilapidated vermin-infected tenements, to smoke and drink at some low-roguery, whose greasy, fancy-colored decanters are so enchanting to every Godforsaken drunkard.
“Slouchy, course-looking servant girls emptying slops into the gutter, and with pail in hand, stopping to exchange ribaldry with an idle neighbor, and retail scandal about the infidelities of their mistresses.
“Faded women, with low-necked dresses, who indulge in very liberal views about virtue and chastity, with painted cheeks and brassy looking countenances, searching for verdant countrymen, to indulge with them in beastly licentiousness.
“Lazy wives, with frouzy uncombed heads thrusts out of the windows to hail a fish wagon, the old clothes man or a potato cart, and drunken men in the grasp of police officers staggering to the station house, followed by their forlorn wives.
“Turn the corner. What a change!
“Liveried coachmen with prancing horses; servants polishing the windows; chambermaids airing the linen; nursery girls with clean light calico dresses and bare arms, promenading with fancy-dressed, petted puny children, who have been pampered with sweetmeats and luxury into paleness, ill-temper and disease; fast young men, levying new contributions upon the plethoric purses of their rich and gouty “old governors.
“Youthful rakes casting impudent glances at the poor but pretty sempstresses, and trying to peer under the brown veils of the black-eyed milliner girls.
“Rich merchants and wealthy bankers hurrying down town on business, while their voluptuous wives are also hurrying down the next avenue to meet their lovers at a Broadway ice cream saloon, or a fashionable assignation house.
“Silk, satin, and gold take the place of rags, dirt, and poverty. We have had the worth of our money.
“Drop the curtain!
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Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
