A Classified Glimpse of New York In 1855

I really, really like reading old newspapers. It comes in handy for researching when you're writing historical fiction, too. And that is a perfect excuse for delving into all the digitized old papers there are - right down to my favorite parts, the little classified ads. So today I wanted to share a little bit of the New York Times in February 1855 (the 27th, to be exact, page 5). I have not done the Situations Wanted or the Real Estate ads, as they will make up another post, another time.  These are just the particular items that caught my eye.

Lost and Found

-There was a bank clerk over at the Bank of America who was in deep trouble, having lost $18,500 worth of specie certificates on his way from the Clearing House back to the Bank. The ad was posted by "George Ellis, Cashier" - probably the unhappy clerk in question. How did he lose them? Did he drop them in the sewer? Did he put them down while he went off  to do something he wasn't supposed to do - like shopping, or having lunch and a drop of something fortifying in a saloon? George, we want to know. And also we'd like to know if anyone turned them in.

-E. Chapin lost a gold pen and pencil case; if you found it you could return it to 1 Hague Street in New York or you could go over to Jersey City and leave it at an address there. How convenient!

-And an anonymous lady lost a Scotch Pebble Bracelet between Abingdon-square and 24th Street. She wanted it back, of course, but offered no specific reward. Scotch Pebble meant Scottish agate, and this sort of jewelry had recently been made popular by Queen Victoria. The cross at the right is Scotch Pebble, and the image is from Celtarts.com. I can see why the lady wanted her bracelet back.

Matrimonial

-G.W.R., "a young man of genteel and prepossessing appearance" - and modest, too! - wants a wife. He is "tired of a bachelor's life." The lucky lady must be young (under 25), accomplished, of good family and "from the country." And I'm sure many young, accomplished rural ladies were eagerly scanning the Times for husbands.

Miscellaneous

-The Mayor of New York, Fernando Wood, had a notice published concerning the sleigh-driver who ran over and killed a 13 year old boy named John Betts at Broadway and 71st Street. He offered $500 reward to anyone who turned in the driver.

-At 349 4th Avenue they were selling all their furniture cheap. You could find bargains on "magnificent rosewood and yellow damask parlor furniture," crimson plush furniture, looking glasses, bedsteads and "fancy ornaments." In fact "all the house-keeping articles" were being sold. Why? Had someone gone bankrupt? Were they moving? The "Stylish Parlor" stereograph, though from 1885 (and from the NYPL Digital Gallery), shows the kind of elegant things that might have been on offer at 349 4th Avenue.

-The American Institute Farmer's Guild was having a meeting about gardening at the Repository and there was going to be a seed exchange, too. "Strangers are always especially welcome." They were, no doubt, even more welcome if they brought seeds.

-If only Samson had known about R.G. Graham's Unguent, he would still have his hair! "Now puffing aside" (writes Graham, after the Samson remark and assorted boasts about glossy whiskers) "it is good, as a trial will show." It cost a dollar a bottle and you could go over to 597 Broadway (in the basement) or even Albany of Philadelphia, to get some. In a publication called Young America (1856) we find the "Young New York's Soliloquy," a parody of Hamlet which begins "To shave or not to shave - that is the question," and contains the lines

The useless care of Phalon's mighty band,
The thoughts of Graham's unguent cosmetique,
And all those aids to dye and grow moustaches!

At the end, Young New York decides he might as well save himself Hamlet-like despair, and shave. Edward Phalon was famous for his hair preparations in the 1850s, including Vitalia, Or Salvation For the Hair (hair dye) and Paphian Lotion (aftershave lotion). The wonderful Phalon's ad is from the library of the New York City Bar.

-Mrs. Stone (at 443 Pearl Street) just got some lovely new "French and English wove corsets" in. You had better go and see them before you go anywhere else. Mrs. Gaynor, at 45 Third Avenue (near 10th Street), has some French Wove Corsets too, and continues to receive them "by almost every steamer"- she is clearly in touch with the very latest in corset fashions. The image, from NYPL Digital Gallery, is of an 1854 corset called the Tournure (I couldn't find a picture of the Wove Corset, unfortunately, but it was probably just as uncomfortable-looking as this one).

-And finally, Joseph N. White, a billiards player, was leaving New York and his friends were putting on a Benefit for him at the Eureka Billiard Saloon at Mercer and Grand Streets - which sounds like a fun place. Though not as much fun as the Saloon of Wonders, where "the Great Wizard Prince," magician Robert Heller, performed in the 1850s ("Amusements," New York Times, May 9, 1853, p. 8).