What Williamsburg Wants
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WHAT WILLIAMSBURGH WANTS.
In older countries than this we may meet with towns and villages which have preserved for half a century a uniform sameness of condition and appearance; which have apparently sank into a Rip Van Winkle slumber, preserving their identity and making no progress, while all the world around is hastening on at a rate which leaves the sleepers in the rear. But amid the restless and ever-shifting scenes of the panorama of life on this continent, no room can be spared for the gradual petrification of fossils like these. "Keep moving," is the motto both of persons and communities, and those who do not make "excelsior" their motto and "forward" their countersign are sure to retrograde, and indeed stand a fair chance of being wiped out.
We are afraid that Williamsburgh is falling into this latter condition. Ever since consolidation it seems as if a blight had fallen upon the district—business languishes, property value diminishes, everything assumes a woe-begone, forlorn, and dilapidated condition. Unless something is done to stem the torrent of retrogression, we are bound to go down hill faster than we have climbed up. Fortunately one good step has been taken in this direction. Cheap ferriage—cheaper to this district than to any of the suburbs of New York—will be one great inducement, if permanently secured, for swelling our population and fostering our prosperity. If the mechanics of the 14th ward could cross the upper ferries for two cents, we should doubtless experience a large addition to the population from persons now residing on the other side.
But the crowning misfortune of Williamsburgh lies in the fatuity of her "solid men." They go on heaping up wealth, and adding lot to lot and house to house, grumbling at taxation and cursing the times, because their real estate does not increase in value as rapidly as they would wish it to. Does it never occur to them that they must sow the seed if they expect a harvest? They must infuse an enterprising spirit into the history of the place, if they would see it prosper. The millionaires of the Western District have found out this secret. Their recent establishment of a Mercantile Library shows their consciousness of the wants of a thriving city, and their knowledge of the elements of its prosperity.
Here we not only have no such association as this, but any institution that we ever have had, in the slightest degree analogous to it, has been suffered to droop and die. Our Mechanic's Institute, our Lyceum, have successfully expired, and our Young Men's Christian Association, after making a final splurge into municipal politics, gave up the ghost also.
The truth is, we have plenty of rich men here, but we have no philanthropists of the Peter Cooper stamp—none who will lay out cash except for a valuable "consideration," and a pretty profitable return to their own pockets. If we had, a noble building like the Odeon, which is well adapted for many a laudable purpose of intellectual improvement, would not be suffered to stand empty and dismantled, but would soon become the headquarters of an organization which would supply mental and intellectual food to our young men, and save the best of them from the necessity of crossing the river for purposes of study, and others from being driven into haunts of dissipation. There is plenty of intellect here, and abundance of taste for study and mental improvement. Which of our "leading men" will record his name imperishably as a public benefactor, by affording the means for its development?