"There is a history in all men's lives, Figuring the nature of the
times deceased, The which observed, a man may prophesy With a near
aim, of the main chance of things, As yet not come to life."
KING HENRY VI
The following morning the baronet breakfasted in Hudson Square. While
at table, little was said concerning the events of the past night,
though sundry smiles were exchanged, as eye met eye, and the
recollection of the mystification returned. Grace alone looked grave,
for she had been accustomed to consider Mrs. Legend a very
discriminating person, and she had even hoped that most of those who
usually figured in her rooms, were really the clever persons they
laid claim to be.
The morning was devoted to looking at the quarter of the town which
is devoted to business, a party having been made for that express
purpose under the auspices of John Effingham. As the weather was very
cold, although the distances were not great, the carriages were
ordered, and they all set off about noon.
Grace had given up expecting a look of admiration from Eve in behalf
of any of the lions of New-York, her cousin having found it necessary
to tell her, that, in a comparative sense at least, little was to be
said in behalf of these provincial wonders. Even Mademoiselle
Viefville, now that the freshness, of her feelings were abated, had
dropped quietly down into a natural way of speaking of these things;
and Grace, who was quick-witted, soon discovered that when she did
make any allusions to similar objects in Europe, it was always to
those that existed in some country town. A silent convention existed,
therefore, to speak no more on such subjects; or if any thing was
said, it arose incidentally and as inseparable from the regular
thread of the discourse.
When in Wall street, the carriages stopped and the gentlemen
alighted. The severity of the weather kept the ladies in the chariot,
where Grace endeavoured to explain things as well as she could to her
companions.
"What are all these people running after, so intently?" inquired
Mademoiselle Viefville, the conversation being in French, but which
we shall render freely into English, for the sake of the general
reader.
"Dollars, I believe, Mademoiselle; am I right, Grace?"
"I believe you are," returned Grace, laughing, "though I know little
more of this part of the town than yourself."
"_Quelle foule_! Is that building filled with dollars, into which the
gentlemen are now entering? Its steps are crowded."
"That is the _Bourse_, Mademoiselle, and it ought to be well lined,
by the manner in which some who frequent it live. Cousin Jack and Sir
George are going into the crowd, I see."
We will leave the ladies in their seats, a few minutes, and accompany
the gentlemen on their way into the Exchange.
"I shall now show you, Sir George Templemore," said John Effingham,
"what is peculiar to this country, and what, if properly improved, it
is truly worth a journey across the ocean to see. You have been at
the Royal Exchange in London, and at the _Bourse_ of Paris, but you
have never witnessed a scene like that which I am about to introduce
you to. In Paris, you have beheld the unpleasant spectacle of women
gambling publicly in the funds; but it was in driblets, compared to
what you will see here."
While speaking, John Effingham led the way upstairs into the office
of one of the most considerable auctioneers. The walls were lined
with maps, some representing houses, some lots, some streets, some
entire towns.
"This is the focus of what Aristabulus Bragg calls the town trade,"
said John Effingham, when fairly confronted with all these wonders.
"Here, then, you may suit yourself with any species of real estate
that heart can desire. If a villa is wanted, there are a dozen. Of
farms, a hundred are in market; that is merely half-a-dozen streets;
and here are towns, of dimensions and value to suit purchasers."
"Explain this; it exceeds comprehension."
"It is simply what it professes to be. Mr. Hammer, do us the favour
to step this way. Are you selling to-day?"
"Not much, sir. Only a hundred or two lots on this island, and some
six or eight farms, with one western village."
"Can you tell us the history of this particular piece of property,
Mr. Hammer?"
"With great pleasure, Mr. Effingham; we know you to have means, and
hope you may be induced to purchase. This was the farm of old Volkert
Van Brunt, five years since, off of which he and his family had made
a livelihood for more than a century, by selling milk. Two years
since, the sons sold it to Peter Feeler for a hundred an acre; or for
the total sum of five thousand dollars. The next spring Mr. Feeler
sold it to John Search, as keen a one as we have, for twenty-five
thousand. Search sold it, at private sale, to Nathan Rise for fifty
thousand, the next week, and Rise had parted with it, to a company,
before the purchase, for a hundred and twelve thousand cash. The map
ought to be taken down, for it is now eight months since we sold it
out in lots, at auction, for the gross sum of three hundred thousand
dollars. As we have received our commission, we look at that land as
out of the market, for a time."
"Have you other property, sir, that affords the same wonderful
history of a rapid advance in value?" asked the baronet.
"These walls are covered with maps of estates in the same
predicament. Some have risen two or three thousand per cent. within
five years, and some only a few hundred. There is no calculating in
the matter, for it is all fancy."
"And on what is this enormous increase in value founded?--Does the
town extend to these fields?"
"It goes much farther, sir; that is to say, on paper. In the way of
houses, it is still some miles short of them. A good deal depends on
what you _call_ a thing, in this market. Now, if old Volkert Van
Brunt's property had been still called a farm, it would have brought
a farm price; but, as soon as it was surveyed into lots and mapped--"
"Mapped!"
"Yes, sir; brought into visible lines, with feet and inches. As soon
as it was properly mapped, it rose to its just value. We have a good
deal of the bottom of the sea that brings fair prices in consequence
of being well mapped."
Here the gentlemen expressed their sense of the auctioneer's
politeness, and retired.
"We will now go into the sales-room," said John Effingham, "where you
shall judge of the spirit, or _energy_, as it is termed, which, at
this moment, actuates this great nation."
Descending, they entered a crowd, where scores were eagerly bidding
against each other, in the fearful delusion of growing rich by
pushing a fancied value to a point still higher. One was purchasing
ragged rocks, another the bottom of rivers, a third a bog, and all on
the credit of maps. Our two observers remained some time silent
spectators of the scene.
"When I first entered that room," said John Effingham, as they left
the place, "it appeared to me to be filled with maniacs. Now, that I
have been in it several times, the impression is not much altered."
"And all those persons are hazarding their means of subsistence on
the imaginary estimate mentioned by the auctioneer?"
"They are gambling as recklessly as he who places his substance on
the cast of the die. So completely has the mania seized every one,
that the obvious truth, a truth which is as apparent as any other law
of nature, that nothing can be sustained without a foundation, is
completely overlooked, and he who should now proclaim, in this
building, principles that bitter experience will cause every man to
feel, within the next few years, would be happy if he escaped being
stoned. I have witnessed many similar excesses in the way of
speculations; but never an instance as gross, as wide-spread, and as
alarming as this."
"You apprehend serious consequences, then, from the reaction?"
"In that particular, we are better off than older nations, the youth
and real stamina of the country averting much of the danger; but I
anticipate a terrible blow, and that the day is not remote when this
town will awake to a sense of its illusion. What you see here is but
a small part of the extravagance that exists, for it pervades the
whole community, in one shape or another. Extravagant issues of
paper-money, inconsiderate credits that commence in Europe; and
extend throughout the land, and false notions as to the value of
their possessions, in men who five years since had nothing, has
completely destroyed the usual balance of things, and money has got
to be so completely the end of life, that few think of it as a means.
The history of the world, probably, cannot furnish a parallel
instance, of an extensive country that is so absolutely under this
malign influence, as is the fact with our own at this present
instant. All principles are swallowed up in the absorbing desire for
gain; national honour, permanent security, the ordinary rules of
society, law, the constitution, and every thing that is usually so
dear to men, are forgotten, or are perverted, in order to sustain
this unnatural condition of things."
"This is not only extraordinary, but it is fearful!"
"It is both. The entire community is in the situation of a man who is
in the incipient stages of an exhilarating intoxication, and who
keeps pouring down glass after glass, in the idle notion that he is
merely sustaining nature in her ordinary functions. This wide-spread
infatuation extends from the coast to the extremest frontiers of the
west; for, while there is a justifiable foundation for a good deal of
this fancied prosperity, the true is so interwoven with the false,
that none but the most observant can draw the distinction, and, as
usual, the false predominates."
"By your account, sir, the tulip mania of Holland was trifling
compared to this?"
"That was the same in principle as our own, but insignificant in
extent. Could I lead you through these streets, and let you into the
secret of the interests, hopes, infatuations and follies that prevail
in the human breast, you, as a calm spectator, would be astonished at
the manner in which your own species can be deluded. But let us move,
and something may still occur to offer an example."
"Mr. Effingham--I beg pardon--Mr. Effingham," said a very
gentlemanly-looking merchant, who was walking about the hall of the
exchange, "what do you think now of our French quarrel?"
"I have told you, Mr. Bale, all I have to say on that subject. When
in France, I wrote you that it was not the intention of the French
government to comply with the treaty; you have since seen this
opinion justified in the result; you have the declaration of the
French minister of state, that, without an apology from this
government, the money will not be paid; and I have given it as my
opinion, that the vane on yonder steeple will not turn more readily
than all this policy will be abandoned, should any thing occur in
Europe to render it necessary, or could the French ministry believe
it possible for this country to fight for a principle. These are my
opinions, in all their phases, and you may compare them with facts
and judge for yourself."
"It is all General Jackson, sir--all that monster's doings. But for
his message, Mr. Effingham, we should have had the money long ago."
"But for his message, or some equally decided step, Mr. Bale, you
would never have it."
"Ah, my dear sir, I know your intentions, but I fear you are
prejudiced against that excellent man, the King of France! Prejudice,
Mr. Effingham, is a sad innovator on justice."
Here Mr. Bale shook his head, laughed, and disappeared in the crowd,
perfectly satisfied that John Effingham was a prejudiced man, and
that he, himself, was only liberal and just.
"Now, that is a man who wants for neither abilities nor honesty, and
yet he permits his interests, and the influence of this very
speculating mania, to overshadow all his sense of right, facts plain
as noon-day, and the only principles that can rule a country in
safety."
"He apprehends war, and has no desire to believe even facts, so long
as they serve to increase the danger."
"Precisely so; for even prudence gets to be a perverted quality, when
men are living under an infatuation like that which now exists. These
men live like the fool who says there is no death."
Here the gentlemen rejoined the ladies, and the carriages drove
through a succession of narrow and crooked streets, that were lined
with warehouses filled with the products of the civilized world.
"Very much of all this is a part of the same lamentable illusion,"
said John Effingham, as the carriages made their way slowly through
the encumbered streets. "The man who sells his inland lots at a
profit, secured by credit, fancies himself enriched, and he extends
his manner of living in proportion; the boy from the country becomes
a merchant, or what is here called a merchant, and obtains a credit
in Europe a hundred times exceeding his means, and caters to these
fancied wants; and thus is every avenue of society thronged with
adventurers, the ephemera of the same wide-spread spirit of reckless
folly. Millions in value pass out of these streets, that go to feed
the vanity of those who fancy themselves wealthy, because they hold
some ideal pledges for the payment of advances in price like those
mentioned by the auctioneer, and which have some such security for
the eventual payment, as one can find in _calling_ a thing, that is
really worth a dollar, worth a hundred."
"Are the effects of this state of things apparent in your ordinary
associations?"
"In every thing. The desire to grow suddenly rich has seized on all
classes. Even women and clergymen are infected, and we exist under
the active control of the most corrupting of all influences--'the
love of money.' I should despair of the country altogether, did I not
feel certain that the disease is too violent to last, and entertain a
hope that the season of calm reflection and of repentance, that is to
follow, will be in proportion to its causes."
After taking this view of the town, the party returned to Hudson
Square, where the baronet dined, it being his intention to go to
Washington on the following day. The leave-taking in the evening was
kind and friendly; Mr. Effingham, who had a sincere regard for his
late fellow-traveller, cordially inviting him to visit him in the
mountains in June.
As Sir George took his leave, the bells began to ring for a fire. In
New-York one gets so accustomed to these alarms, that near an hour
had passed before any of the Effingham family began to reflect on the
long continuance of the cries. A servant was then sent out to
ascertain the reason, and his report made the matter more serious
than usual.
We believe that, in the frequency of these calamities, the question
lies between Constantinople and New-York. It is a common occurrence
for twenty or thirty buildings to be burnt down, in the latter place,
and for the residents of the same ward to remain in ignorance of the
circumstance, until enlightened on the fact by the daily prints; the
constant repetition of the alarms hardening the ear and the feelings
against the appeal. A fire of greater extent than common, had
occurred only a night or two previously to this; and a rumour now
prevailed, that the severity of the weather, and the condition of the
hoses and engines, rendered the present danger double. On hearing
this intelligence, the Messrs. Effinghams wrapped themselves up in
their over-coats, and went together into the streets.
"This seems something more than usual, Ned," said John Effingham,
glancing his eye upward at the lurid vault, athwart which gleams of
fiery light began to shine; "the danger is not distant, and it seems
serious."
Following the direction of the current, they soon found the scene of
the conflagration, which was in the very heart of those masses of
warehouses, or stores, that John Effingham had commented on, so
lately. A short street of high buildings was already completely in
flames, and the danger of approaching the enemy, added to the frozen
condition of the apparatus, the exhaustion of the firemen from their
previous efforts, and the intense coldness of the night, conspired to
make the aspect of things in the highest degree alarming.
The firemen of New-York have that superiority over those of other
places, that the veteran soldier obtains over the recruit. But the
best troops can be appalled, and, on this memorable occasion, these
celebrated firemen, from a variety of causes, became for a time,
little more than passive spectators of the terrible scene.
There was an hour or two when all attempts at checking the
conflagration seemed really hopeless, and even the boldest and the
most persevering scarcely knew which way to turn, to be useful. A
failure of water, the numerous points that required resistance, the
conflagration extending in all directions from a common centre, by
means of numberless irregular and narrow streets, and the
impossibility of withstanding the intense heat, in the choked
passages, soon added despair to the other horrors of the scene.
They who stood the fiery masses, were freezing on one side with the
Greenland cold of the night, while their bodies were almost blistered
with the fierce flames on the other. There was something frightful in
this contest of the elements, nature appearing to condense the heat
within its narrowest possible limits, as if purposely to increase its
fierceness. The effects were awful; for entire buildings would seem
to dissolve at their touch, as the forked flames enveloped them in
sheets of fire.
Every one being afoot, within sound of the alarm, though all the more
vulgar cries had ceased, as men would deem it mockery to cry murder
in a battle, Sir George Templemore met his friends, on the margin of
this sea of fire. It was now drawing towards morning, and the
conflagration was at its height, having already laid waste a nucleus
of _blocks_, and it was extending by many lines, in every possible
direction.
"Here is a fearful admonition for those who set their hearts on
riches," observed Sir George Templemore, recalling the conversation
of the previous day. "What, indeed, are the designs of man, as
compared with the will of Providence!"
"I foresee that this is _le commencement de la fin_," returned John
Effingham. "The destruction is already so great, as to threaten to
bring down with it the usual safe-guards against such losses, and one
pin knocked out of so frail and delicate a fabric, the whole will
become loose, and fall to pieces."
"Will nothing be done to arrest the flames?"
"As men recover from the panic, their plans will improve and their
energies will revive. The wider streets are already reducing the fire
within more certain limits, and they speak of a favourable change of
wind. It is thought five hundred buildings have already been
consumed, in scarcely half a dozen hours."
That Exchange, which had so lately resembled a bustling temple of
Mammon, was already a dark and sheeted ruin, its marble walls being
cracked, defaced, tottering, or fallen. It lay on the confines of the
ruin, and our party was enabled to take their position near it, to
observe the scene. All in their immediate vicinity was assuming the
stillness of desolation, while the flushes of fierce light in the
distance marked the progress of the conflagration. Those who knew the
localities, now began to speak of the natural or accidental barriers,
such as the water, the slips, and the broader streets, as the only
probable means of arresting the destruction. The crackling of the
flames grew distant fast, and the cries of the firemen were now
scarcely audible.
At this period in the frightful scene, a party of seamen arrived,
bearing powder, in readiness to blow up various buildings, in the
streets that possessed of themselves, no sufficient barriers to the
advance of the flame. Led by their officers, these gallant fellows,
carrying in their arms the means of destruction, moved up steadily to
the verge of the torrents of fire, and planted their kegs; laying
their trains with the hardy indifference that practice can alone
create, and with an intelligence that did infinite credit to their
coolness. This deliberate courage was rewarded with complete success,
and house crumbled to pieces after house under the dull explosions,
happily without an accident.
From this time the flames became less ungovernable, though the day
dawned and advanced, and another night succeeded, before they could
be said to be got fairly under. Weeks, and even months passed,
however, ere the smouldering ruins ceased to send up smoke, the
fierce element continuing to burn, like a slumbering volcano, as it
might be in the bowels of the earth.
The day that succeeded this disaster, was memorable for the rebuke it
gave the rapacious longing for wealth. Men who had set their hearts
on gold, and who prided themselves on their possession, and on that
only, were made to feel its insanity; and they who had walked abroad
as gods, so lately, began to experience how utterly insignificant are
the merely rich, when stripped of their possessions. Eight hundred
buildings containing fabrics of every kind, and the raw material in
various forms, had been destroyed, as it were in the twinkling of an
eye.
A faint voice was heard from the pulpit, and there was a moment when
those who remembered a better state of things, began to fancy that
principles would once more assert their ascendency, and that the
community would, in a measure, be purified. But this expectation
ended in disappointment, the infatuation being too wide-spread and
corrupting, to be stopped by even this check, and the rebuke was
reserved for a form that seems to depend on a law of nature, that of
causing a vice to bring with it its own infallible punishment.