3 February 1854 • Philadelphia, Pa. (Muscatine Journal, 17 Feb 54, UCCL 09400)
The Consolidation Bill, which has kept our citizens in such an excitement so long, has at length passed both houses of the Legislature, and when the Governor’s signature is affixed to it, Southwark, the Northern Liberties, &c., will be among the things that were. This bill brings the various Districts, boroughs, &c., and also Philadelphia county under one municipal government.1explanatory note Philadelphia as consolidated, is now the largest city in the United States. Although New York has much the larger population, Philadelphia has a far greater number of houses, and covers a much larger space than New York, or any other city in the Union. The police came out yesterday in their uniform. It is very neat, and gives them a kind of military appearance.2explanatory note
I went, with a few friends, yesterday, to the Exchange, to see the reception of the two lions, Captains Low and Crighton. The Reading Room, at 12 o’clock, was densely crowded. About five minutes past twelve the two heroes made their appearance, and were received with three times three by the assembled populace. After a few remarks by the President of the Testimonial Committee, the shaking of hands commenced, and the two Captains were borne through the crowd, to the great danger of their lives and limbs, and were thus squeezed and cheered into the street, where a carriage was in waiting to convey them to the State House. The crowd followed them on a run, yelling and huzzaing till they were out of sight. The money subscribed for each, I believe, was about $2,500, in addition to which they will receive several medals. Capt. Crighton is about thirty-three Ⓐemendationyears of age, and is a native of New EnglandⒶemendation.3explanatory note
The people here seem very fond of tacking a bit of poetry (?) to the notices of the death of friends, published in the Ledger. Here are a few lines of most villainous doggerel, and worse measure, which may be found in the “death”Ⓐemendation column of that paper three or four times every day. This will serve as a contrast with the pretty gems of your fair correspondents “Nannette” and “Virginia,” &c.:
What Ⓐemendationdo you Ⓐemendationthink of that? Will not Byron lose some of his popularity now?4explanatory note
The great California tree, or rather part of it, Ⓐemendationhas just arrived here, and is now lying in Front street. It was sawed off about seven feet above the roots, and is about 23 feet in diameter. It is quite a curiosity. ⒶemendationSome of the sailors of the ship in which it came, are Chinese.5explanatory note
The Sabbath School children of the Methodist E. Churches, of Philadelphia, have contributed a block of marble for the Washington Monument. It bears an appropriate inscription.6explanatory note
The journeymen rope makers of Philadelphia, have demanded an advance of 25 cents a day on their wages. This demand has generally been complied with.
They have lately placed a new chime of bells in the tower of St. Stephen’s Church, here, the largest one of which weighs 2800 pounds. This is a large bell.
Climaxing ten years of effort by advocates of consolidation, on 2 February Governor William Bigler of Pennsylvania signed the bill bringing the original two-square-mile city of Philadelphia and the twenty-eight districts, townships, and boroughs of the county of Philadelphia under one government (Philadelphia Public Ledger: “Passage of the Consolidation Bill,” 1 Feb 54, 2; “The Consolidation Bill,” 4 Feb 54, 2; Jackson, 2:516–17).
On 11 November 1853 the Philadelphia Board of Police had passed a resolution requiring all policemen to be in uniform by 1 February 1854. Improved police discipline, performance, and recognizability outweighed objections that uniforms were undemocratic and inappropriate to the American character. A number of the city’s policemen, accustomed to wear only a star insignia, protested against the new uniform—a blue cloth cap, a navy-blue frock coat with standing collar and gilded buttons, and dark-gray trousers—particularly since they were obliged to pay the fourteen dollars it cost (Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette: “Police Uniform,” 28 Nov 53, 1; “Police Reform,” 16 Dec 53, 2; Philadelphia Public Ledger: “The Police Board,” 12 Nov 53, 1; “Opposition to the Police Uniform,” 17 Jan 54, 1; “The Police Uniform,” 21 Jan 54, 1).
This reception, in the rotunda of the Philadelphia Merchants’ Exchange, was for two national heroes: Captain E. T. Low of the Boston bark Kilby and Captain Robert Creighton of the steamer Three Bells out of Glasgow, Scotland. The Kilby and the Three Bells had led in rescuing survivors of the steamer San Francisco, which lost some three hundred of its seven hundred passengers and crew to drowning and cholera after a gale wrecked it and set it adrift in the mid-Atlantic on 25 December 1853. After their arrival at American ports in mid-January, Captains Low and Creighton went from city to city in triumph. Philadelphia awarded $1,000 to Low and $2,000 to Creighton (New York Times: “Total Loss of the San Francisco,” 14 Jan 54, 1; “Wreck of the San Francisco,” 16 Jan 54, 1; “Arrival of the Bark Kilby,” 19 Jan 54, 6; Philadelphia Public Ledger: “The San Francisco Testimonial Fund,” 2 Feb 54, 2; “Enthusiastic Reception of Captains Creighton and Low,” 3 Feb 54, 1).
In his 1870 essay “Post-Mortem Poetry,” Clemens gave a tongue-in-cheek account of the Ledger’s custom of
appending to published death-notices a little verse or two of comforting poetry. Any one who is in the habit of reading the daily Philadelphia “Ledger,” must frequently be touched by these plaintive tributes to extinguished worth. . . . There is an element about some poetry which is able to make even physical suffering and death cheerful things to contemplate and consummations to be desired. This element is present in the mortuary poetry of Philadelphia, and in a noticeable degree of development. (SLC 1870, 864–65)
Paine reported that Clemens unsuccessfully submitted his own “contributions to the Philadelphia Ledger—mainly poetry of an obituary kind. Perhaps it was burlesque; he never confessed that, but it seems unlikely that any other obituary poetry would have failed of print” (MTB , 1:98). Clemens himself, speaking in Philadelphia in 1885, denied the “dreadful assertion” that he had written “obituary poetry in the Philadelphia Ledger,” admitting, however, that “once, when a compositor in the Ledger establishment, I did set up some of that poetry, but for a worse offense than that no indictment can be found against me. I did not write that poetry—at least, not all of it” (SLC 1885, 194). The verses Clemens quotes in this letter appeared in the Public Ledger three times between 30 January and 3 February. The Muscatine Journal had published sentimental poetry by “Virginia” on 11 November and 9 December 1853 (“The Lock of Hair” and “Lines on Visiting Home”). It published a sentimental poem and a tearful story by “Nannette” (“The Poets’ Wreath for ’54” and “Nathalie. A New-Years Tale”) on 6 January 1854, and another poem by her (“To *——”) on 20 January. Both women were regular “correspondents” of the Journal.
On 27 January the clipper Messenger out of San Francisco brought to Philadelphia a ten-foot, hollowed-out section of a giant redwood from California, a tree some three thousand years old and three hundred and twenty-five feet in height. Approximately ninety feet in circumference, the section could easily enclose one hundred standing men. From Philadelphia it was taken for exhibit to Boston and New York (various notices, Philadelphia Pennsylvanian and Philadelphia Public Ledger, 28 Jan–15 Feb 54).
The inscription read: “A preached Gospel—a free press. Washington—we revere his memory” (“Another Block for the Washington Monument,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 22 Feb 54, 1). The contribution of such blocks was encouraged by the Washington National Monument Society as a means of funding construction (Harvey, 48–49, 125–29).
“From Philadelphia. Correspondence of the Journal,” Muscatine Journal (weekly), 17 Feb 54, 1, in the Historical Library, The State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.
L1 , 37–39; Branch 1984, 2.
unknown.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.