reparation for destroying the once intended promenade of the eastern side of Front street.

Munday's Run was once a brook which crossed High street at Tenth street, as seen and remembered by old Butler. Arch street at the same time was only laid out to Eighth street, and all beyond was woods. Woods in that street, came down as far as Fifth street in his time, say in 1748. When he was 18 he used to drive his father's wagon down that street from his father's place at the Gulf.

Elliott, in his "Enoch Wray," gives an emphatic description of a city, when advancing from its state of out-commons to the form of streets and houses—saying:

"Now streets invade the country; and he strays,
Lost in strange paths, still seeking, and in vain,
For ancient land marks, or the lonely lane,
Where oft he played at Crusoe, when a boy."

"All that was lovely then is gloomy now.
Then, no strange paths perplexed thee, no new streets,
Where draymen bawl, while rogues kick up a row-
And fish-wives grin, while fopling, fopling meets."

It may be worthy of remark, that in the earliest construction of buildings in the city, there must have been some difference from the present, in the magnetic influence of the poles, or other causes of error in ranging the houses-for instance Wigglesworth's old house in Second street above Chestnut, stood too much westwardly at its northern corner, and stood out too much on the pavement. So too Savial's house in Front street opposite to Combes' alley. The old house at the southwest corner of Walnut and Water streets did the same. In the streets ranging east and west, the oldest houses stood into the street too far north-for instance, the old Inn once on the corner where the Philadelphia Bank now stands, s'ood out so far on Chestnut street as to leave only two or three feet of pavement, and seven or eight of the houses on the opposite side of Chestnut street, stood as much back from the present range of houses. The bake house at the southwest corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, stood out too near the present gutterway in Walnut street. We have so often seen other old houses in sundry other places in the city, having the same relations and bearings, as to produce the conviction that there was, for a while, some prevailing misconception or error.

INNOVATIONS AND NEW MODES OF CONDUCTING BUSINESS, &c.

It is very natural that the youth at any given time, should, without inquiry, infer that all the familiar customs and things which they behold were always so before their time, when, often, many of them may have been just introduced. This fact I often realize in my observation even now among the rising generation. This reflection leads us to think that hereafter many customs may be introduced, after the practices of older cities, to which we are now strangers, but which, without some passing notice here, might not be known to be new after they had been familiarized among us a few years. I mention, therefore, customs which do not exist now, but which will doubtless come to our use from the example of Europe-such as shoeblacks soliciting to clean shoes and boots on the wearer, in the streets-dealers in old clothes bearing them on their shoulders and selling them in the public walks-men drawing light trucks with goods, in lieu of horses-men carrying a telescope by night to show through to street passengers-women wheeling wheelbarrows to vend oranges and such like articles-cobblers' stalls and book stalls, &c, placed on the sides of the footpathsmen and women ballad-singers stopping at corners to sing for pennies -porters carrying sedan chairs-women having meat and coffee stalls in the street for hungry passengers, &c.

From thoughts like these we are disposed to notice several of the changes already effected within a few years past, as so many innovations or alleged improvements on the days by-gone.

Candidates for Office.-Those who now occasionally set forth their claims to public favour, by detailed statements in their proper names, would have met with little or no countenance in the public suffrages in the olden time. Sheriffs have usually taken the precedence in these things, and it is known that the first person who ever had the boldness to publish himself as a candidate for sheriff, and to laud his own merits, occurred in the person of Mordecai Lloyd, in the year 1744, begging the good people for their votes by his publications in English and German. At the same time Nicholas Scull, an opposing candidate, resorted to the same measure, and apologized for "the new mode," as imposed upon him by the practice of others. Rum Distilleries.-Rum distilled from molasses was once an article largely manufactured and sold in Philadelphia. It bore as good a price as the Boston or New England rum, and both of them nearly as much as that imported from the West Indies. About the

year 1762, there used to be frequent mention of Wharton's "great still-house," on the wharf near the Swedes' Church; also, Sims' and Cadwallader's still-house below the Drawbridge; one in Front above Arch street; two large ones in Cable lane; one at Masters', above Point Pleasant, in Kensington; one out High street, between Eighth and Ninth streets.

Pot and Pearl Ashes.-A manufactory of these was first established in Philadelphia in the year 1772, in the stores on Goodman's wharf, (since Smith's) a little above Race street.

Millinery Stores.-It is still within the memory of the aged when and where the first store of this kind was introduced into the city. It was begun by the Misses Pearson, (one of whom married Capt. Sparks,) in a small frame house in South Second street, a little below Chestnut street, and long they enjoyed the sole business without a rival.

Hucksters. A genus now so prevalent in our market—an irresponsible, unknown, but taxing race, odious as "the publicans" of old, were without their present motives or rewards in the former days. Pawnbrokers are altogether of modern establishment among us, rising in obscurity and with little notice, till they have spread like a malaria over the morals of the community. Their alarming progress is a real blur upon our character, as it evidences so powerfully the fact of bad living among so many of our population. Only thirty years ago a pawnbroker would have starved among us! Since those in the city have been put under some legal surveillance and control, we are enabled to arrive at some estimate of the contributors taxed to their onerous support. In making some researches among the records of the city police it has been ascertained, as the result of one year's waste in these founts of wretchedness and misery, that there have been 180,000 pledges, and that the exhibit for one week in winter, has shown an array of articles to the following effect, to wit:

There were, indeed, poor among us in former years, but then they were in general a virtuous poor, who had the compassion of their neighbours, and, for that reason, could have found temporary relief from articles such as above stated, without the resort to usurious imposts. In short, they did well enough without pawnbrokers, and the change to the present system is appalling!

Lottery Brokers.-These also are a new race, luxuriating on the imaginative schemings of some, and the aversion to honest labour in others. They are a race who hold "the word of promise to the ear

and break it to the hope" of thousands! Their flaring and intrusive signs and advertisements, which meet the eye at every turn, are so many painful proofs of the lavish patronage they receive from the credulity of their fortune-seeking votaries. I never see their glaring signs without a secret wish to add a scroll, both as a satire on them, and as a sentence conveying in much point the pith of all they promise, to wit:

"Batter'd and bankrupt fortunes mended here!"

Our forefathers, it is true, much resorted to lotteries for raising money wanted for public purposes before the Revolution, (as will be noticed in another place,) but then, as " the public good was the aim" the citizens cordially lent their aid to sell the tickets without fee or reward, and in effect gave the price of their tickets as so much willing gift to the object intended by the lottery.

Second-hand Clothes and Shoeblacks.-Shoe blacking and the sale of cast off clothes, as now opened in cellars by the blacks, is quite a modern affair. Old clothes were never sold formerly; when it was rather a common practice to turn them, or to cut them down for children; and all boots and shoes were blacked at home, by children, apprentices, or domestics, with spit-balls held in the hand, and much less shining than now. Even the houses now so common for selling ready made garments for gentlemen's wear is quite a new thing, and was first began at the Shakespeare buildings by Burk, who made enough thereby to allure others to his imitation.

Oyster Cellars.-These, as we now see them, are the introduction of but a few years. When first introduced, they were of much inferior appearance to the present; were entirely managed by blacks, and did not at first include gentlemen among their visiters. Before that time, oysters were vended along the streets in wheelbarrows only; even carts were not used for their conveyance, and gentlemen who loved raw oysters were sufficiently in character to stop the barrow and swallow their half dozen without the appendage of crackers, &c.

Intelligence Offices.-These offices for finding places for servants, began within a very few years and upon a very small scale, were very little resorted to except by strangers, and were generally conducted at first by blacks. There was, indeed, an "Intelligence Office" advertised in the Pennsylvania Journal before the Revolution, but it combined other objects, gained no imitations, and died unnoticed. A better scheme than any of these has been recently got up by the citizens themselves, to help servants to places, and to guard and improve their morals, which promises to be a general benefit.

General remarks on various Items of Change.-I notice as among the remarkable changes of Philadelphia, within the period of my own observation, that there is an utter change of the manner and quantity of business done by tradesmen. When I was a boy, there was no such thing as conducting their business in the present wholesale manner, and by efforts at monopoly. No masters were seen exempted from personal labour in any branch of business-living on the

profits derived from many hired journeymen; and no places were sought out at much expense, and display of signs and decorated win. dows, to allure custom. Then almost every apprentice, when of age, ran his equal chance for his share of business in his neighbourhood, by setting up for himself, and, with an apprentice or two, getting into a cheap location, and by dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his neighbourhood. Thus every shoemaker or tailor was a man for himself; thus was every tinman, blacksmith, hatter, wheelwright, weaver, barber, bookbinder, umbrella maker, coppersmith, and brassfounder, painter and glazier, cedar cooper, plasterer, cabinet and chairmaker, chaisemaker, &c. It was only trades indispensably requiring many hands, among whom we saw many journeymen; such as shipwrights, brickmakers, masons, carpenters, tanners, printers, stonecutters, and such like. In those days, if they did not aspire to much, they were more sure of the end-a decent competency in old age, and a tranquil and certain livelihood while engaged in the acquisition of its reward.

Large stores, at that time, exclusively wholesale, were but rare, except among the shipping merchants, so called, and it is fully within my memory, that all the hardware stores, which were intended to be wholesale dealers, by having their regular sets of country customers, for whose supplies they made their regular importations, were obliged, by the practice of the trade and the expectations of the citizens, to be equally retailers in their ordinary business. They also, as subservient to usage, had to be regular importers of numerous stated articles in the dry goods line, and especially in most articles in the woollen line. At that time, ruinous overstocks of goods imported were utterly unknown, and supplies from auction sales, as now, were neither depended upon nor resorted to. The same advance "on the sterling" was the set price of every storekeeper's profit. As none got suddenly rich by monopolics, they went through whole lives, gradually but surely augmenting their estates, without the least fear or the misfortune of bankruptcy. When it did rarely occur, such was the surprise and the general sympathy of the public, that citizens saluted each other with sad faces, and made their regrets and condolence a measure of common concern. An aged person has told me that when the inhabitant and proprietor of that large house, formerly the post office, at the corner of Chestnut street and Carpenter's court, suddenly failed in business, the whole house was closely shut up for one week, as an emblem of the deepest family mourning; and all who passed the house instinctively stopped and mingled the expressions of their lively regret. Now how changed are matters in these particulars! Now men fail with hardy indifference, and some of them have even the effrontery to appear abroad in expensive display, elbowing aside their suffering creditors at public places of expensive resort. I occasionally meet with such, by whom I have been injured, who indulge in travelling equipages, with which Apprentices then were found in every thing;-now they often give a premium or find their own clothes, &c.