Show NEW YORK YEARS AGO peter kalm j the swedish botanist and the favorite pupil of Linn linnaeas seas was fleat by the swedish government to the american colonies a century and a half hgo to find what they were like who inhabited the country what grew there how the budd budding I 1 dg cities compared corn pared with those in sweden and whether it would be a good place for the subjects of king frederick to come to or to stay away from his hie expenses paid by the swedish kalm landed in philadelphia and from that town came by post poet chaise to now new york kand and putting up over night at elizabeth was over to new york a little after sunrise on a cold morning in october the first thing which impressed him about now new york was the frogs according to the new york sun these theme were so 0 clamorous and created such a disa he declared they drowned the singing of the birds anu ana made it 16 difficult for a person in old new york to make himself heard the streets ne he observed aiu so BO straight am those of philadelphia and hod bad considerable bendin gc however they were were very spacious and well built and most moat of them were paved pared except in high places placed where paving had been found useless most moat of the houane were built of brick and were gone generally raft strong and neat some borne had bad turned the gable ends toward the but the newer houses ww w altered in this re spool many had a balcony on the roof on which the people used to sit it in the evenings in the summer seasor and from thence they had a view kaluga kalms investigation led him to the conclusion that there was waa 0 o good water to be met with in the town itself but at a little distance there was waa a small of goud water from which the inhabitants used to make tea the wine drank in new york was brought kalm declared irom from the isles islea of maderia and was very strong and fiery there were but two printers in the town and every week some gazettes in english were published by them which contained news from all part of the world the inhabitants of now new york he found to be greatly troubled with mosquitoes which either followed the hay bay made near the town in the low meadows which were quite impregnated with salt wa wat eror tersa they accompanied the eattle cattle at night when the blasts were driven home 1 I have myself experienced perien ced observed kalm and nave have noted in others how bow much these little animalcules animal cules can disfigure a per sons face during a single night for the skin akin is sometimes so covered over with little blisters from their stings that people are ashamed to appear in public the water watermelons melons which kalm found cultivated ia new york were elarge large they are esteemed delicious he says saye gaud and are better than in ia other parts of north america though they are planted in the open fields fielda aud and never in a hotbed hot bed I 1 saw a watermelon at which weighed forty seven english pounds and at a merchant s in town another of forty two pounds weight however these were the biggest seen in the country the observer gave this description of the introduction of lobsters into new york lobsters are caught hereabout and I 1 was told of a very remarkable circumstance cum stance about three lobsters the coast of now new york had already had european inhabitants for a considerable time yet no lobsters were to be met with on the coast aud and though the people fished ever so often they could never find any signs of lobsters being in this part of the sea they were there brought in great well boats from now new england where they were plentiful but it happened that one of these well boats broke into pieces near hell gate about ten english miles from now new york and all the bobst lobsters ere in it got off since that time they have so multiplied in this thia part of the sea they are now caught in great abundance N one advantage which kalm enjo enjoys 9 as an authority over the other historians of old new with its crooked street quaint dwelling houses brick walls wooden gables and scattered farm settlements Ts to the fact that a majority of these chroniclers have bee been englishmen of strong prejudices against everything american and of acknowledged edged distaste for all things not essentially english the other historians of the town in its infancy have been for the most part mere superficial continental tourists ets who have given flattering expression to the delight which all intelligent persons experience in a locality which is entirely new to them and in which they are hospitably entertained but the they y furnish little data W but few facts of present interest so if you want to get a clear cut matter of fact unembellished and trustworthy view of old new york as it existed before the revolution revo revolutionary lutio n war kalm the swede is a safe dependence pen dence i his quaint views about the lobsters the melons and the mosquitoes |