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and New York would be legally married. Instead of Brooklyn being
depressed by New York, New York was to be elevated by Brooklyn. Already
we felt at that time, in the light of Senator Pierce's efforts, that
Brooklyn would become a reformed New York; it would be--New York with
its cares set aside, New York with its arms folded at rest, New York
playing with the children, New York at the tea table, New York gone to
prayer-meeting. Nine-tenths of the Brooklynites then were spending their
days in New York, and their nights in Brooklyn. In the year 1877,
80,000,000 of people crossed the Brooklyn ferries. Paris is France,
London is England, why not New York the United States?

The new charter recommended by Senator Pierce urged other reforms in a
local government that was too costly by far. Under right administration
who could tell what our beloved city is to be? Prospect Park, the
geographical centre, a beautiful picture set in a great frame of
architectural affluence. The boulevards reaching to the sea, their
sides lined the whole distance with luxurious homes and academies of
art. Our united city a hundred Brightons in one, and the inland
populations coming down here to summer and battle in the surf. The great
American London built by a continent on which all the people are free;
her vast populations redeemed; her churches thronged with worshipful
auditories! Before that time we may have fallen asleep amid the long
grass of the valleys, but our children will enjoy the brightness and the
honour of residence in the great Christian city of the continent and of
the world.

It was this era of optimism in the civic life of Brooklyn that helped to
defeat the Lafayette Avenue railroad.

It was a scheme of New York speculators to deface one of the finest
avenues in Brooklyn. The most profitable business activity in this
country is to invest other people's money. It seemed to me that the
Lafayette railroad deal was only a sort of blackmailing institution to
compel the property holders to pay for the discontinuance of the
enterprise, or the company would sell out to some other company; and as
the original company paid nothing all they get is clear gain; and
whether the railroad is built or not, the people for years, all along
the beautiful route, would be kept in suspense. There was no more need
of a car track along Lafayette avenue than there was need of one from
the top of Trinity Church steeple to the moon! The greater facili