Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/501

CITVT. NEW Y O E K 461 along the south side of Long Island. Its western extremity is distant from the Battery about 8| miles in a straight line, and its extreme length is about 5 miles. Since 1874, when capitalists suddenly woke up to the capabilities of the spot, a number of favourite resorts have sprung up on the island, with monster hotels, in one of which as many as four thousand people can dine at once, con veniences for surf-bathing, and a great variety of amuse ments. The island is reached by steam and horse cars, by steamboats, and by carriages. The Germans have beer gardens on a grand scale, both on Manhattan Island and elsewhere which they frequent in vast numbers. The Irish organize picnics to groves and woods along the Hudson and East Rivers, which are let for that purpose. Excursions by water down the harbour and up Long Island Sound are very numerous. For this species of amusement there are few cities in the world so well situated. New York has about thirty places of amusement using scenery, not including a few small variety theatres of little importance ; of all these the Metropolitan Opera House is much the largest. Its stage is 96 feet wide, 76 feet deep, and 120 feet high. There are seventeen outside entrances, six of them 10 feet wide; and the whole structure is fire-proof. The chief foyer is 34 feet wide and 82 feet long, with a parlour so connected that the foyer can be used as a lecture-room, the parlour giving place for a stage. The seating capacity of the auditorium is about three thousand. Of the other theatres the largest are Miner s Bowery, Miner s Eighth Avenue, Academy of Music, M Kee Rankin s, Niblo s, Fourteen Street Theatre (Haverly s), Thalia, Criterion, London, Harrigan and Hart s, Cosmo politan, Fifth Avenue, Star, Twenty-third Street, L T nion Square. Beside the theatres there are two fine concert and lecture-rooms Steinway Hall and Chickering Hall. The clubs of New York may be divided into two classes, the political and social, and the purely social. To the former belong the Manhattan and the Union League ; to the latter the Century (1847), Harmonic (1852), Knicker bocker (1871), Lotus (1870), New York, St Nicholas, Union (1836), and University (1865). The Manhattan Club (with some 570 members) is the local club of the Democratic party, founded during the closing years of the civil war, and reorganized in 1877. The Union League Club was founded in 1863, in order to give to the Federal administration during the war the organized support of wealthy and influential men in the city, and it has been ever since the Republican social organization of the city. The Century Club represents literature, art, and the learned professions, and owns a valuable collection of pictures and a well-selected library. All the members of the Harmonic Club speak German. The original plan of the Lotus Club looked^to a membership of literary men and artists, and members of the musical and dramatic pro fessions. Education. The Dutch West India Company, which settled the island of Manhattan, was bound by its charter to provide school masters as well as ministers for its colonists. The company conse quently maintained schools from the beginning, and private schools were also soon established, and drew pupils even from other colonies. When the colony passed into the possession of England, the schools of the city still continued in the hands of the Dutch Church and ministers, and were supported by them, receiving little or no aid from the Government. At a later period, the desire of the new rulers to hasten the substitution of the English for the Dutch language in the colony led to an attempt by the colonial Government to reserve to itself the appointment of the schoolmasters, but it was not suc cessful. Down to the middle of the 17th century the bulk of the population remained Dutch, and the support and control of the schools remained with the Dutch Church. The only outward sign of the growth of English influence during this period was the estab- lishnftnt of the still existing Trinity school, in 1710, in connexion with the Anglican Church. About the middle of the century the tide of English emigration, which lias never since ceased, began to flow in, and English influence in educational matters began to gain the ascendency. In 1754 King s College, afterwards Columbia College, was established, and, after a short struggle to preserve it from denominational control, became distinctively an Anglican institution. Before the Revolution the English language had practically carried the day, and taken possession of the schools, colleges, and churches ; but the political troubles which preceded the outbreak of the war, and the occupation of the city by the royal army during the war, closed them all, and for nearly ten years sus pended all educational progress. It was not until over ten years after the Revolution that the State legislature took any steps for the establishment of a system of popular education in the State at large. But within three years after the peace the beginnings were made in New York in the form which has made the educational history of the city so peculiar, namely, as a charitable organization. In 1785 the Manumission Society established free schools for the poor coloured children of the city, and they were continued under the same auspices until 1794. A Quaker society, known as the "Female Association for the Relief of the Poor," in like manner opened a school for white girls in 1802, and the organization extended its operations and continued them until 1846. It was the means of suggesting the formation in 1805 of the association known as the "Free School Society," and after wards as the "Public School Society," which has played so im portant a part in the education in New York. These were both charitable societies, and at first only sought to provide for children unconnected with the churches of various denominations, all of which maintained schools of their own. Of the Free School Society the mayor, recorder, aldermen, and assistant aldermen were made ex-officio members, and membership was open to all citizens offering contributions to the funds. This society was in 1826 converted into a still larger and more powerful one with a new charter, called the Public School Society, which continued to have charge of popular education in the city until 1853. It was supported in part by voluntary contributions, in part by subscriptions from those who desired to share in its management, and in a small degree, by a con tribution from the school fund of the State. For fifty years it may be said to have done all that was done for popular education in New York city, and its existence caused the exemption of the city for nearly thirty years from the operation of the common-school system established in the rest of the State, under which the schools were managed by trustees elected by the voters of each school district. During its existence 600,000 children passed through its schools, and it expended every year a large and increasing revenue, and when dissolved turned over 600,000 to the city. It gradually became plain, however, that the work of popular education in a lurge city was too great to be carried on by a charitable association, however able or energetic. In 1842 New York was brought under the system prevailing in the rest of the State, but the Public School Society was permitted to continue its existence and retain control of its own schools. It was found, after a few years trial, that the society could not flourish in competition with the official organiza tion, and in 1853 it was voluntarily dissolved, and its schools and property handed over to the city authorities, by whom the work of popular education has ever since been carried on. The municipal board of education was at first composed of repre sentatives elected by the different wards, but in 1864 the city was divided into school districts of equal school population, each of which sends three commissioners to the board. The ward schools were left in the control of elected trustees, subject only to a some what ill-defined power of supervision at the hands of a central board. This was found to work so badly, owing to the low character of many of the elected trustees, that in 1873 the whole system was reorganized . The power of appointing the twenty-one commissioners of the board of education, and three inspectors for each of the eight school dis tricts, was given to the mayor, and to the commissioners the power of appointing five school trustees for each ward. The commissioners and inspectors hold office for three years, and trustees for five. As an outgrowth of the common-school system there is a normal college for the education of teachers, with a model school connected with it, and also the college of the city of New York, which began in 1848 as a free academy for the advanced pupils who had left the common schools. It was empowered to grant degrees in 1854, and was formally converted into a university in 1866. The total number of scholars attending the city schools in 1882 was 289,917, and the number of professors and teachers employed was 2544. An Act providing for compulsory education was passed by the legislature in 1874, and came into operation in the city in 1875. It compels every person in the control or charge of any children between the ages of eight and fourteen to cause them to attend some public or private school at least fourteen weeks in each year, eight weeks of which are to be consecutive, or the pupils are to be instructed regularly at home at least fourteen weeks in each year in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, and arithmetic. The law is enforced in the city by the city superintendent, who has twelve assistants known as "agents of truancy."