establishment of Meech & Co., also extensive flour-dealers. But the store of S. H. Herrick & Co., coming first in their way, they commenced an attack on that. The windows were first smashed in with a shower of brickbats, and the doors immediately afterward broken. Some thirty barrels of flour were then rolled into the street, and their heads staved in. The citizens and police, however, advancing in large force, compelled the mob to desist, and soon dispersed it, capturing, also, some of the rioters.

"At eight o'clock in the evening," writes Colonel William L. Stone to a friend on the morning after the occurrence, "all was quiet. I took a stroll over the scene of the principal riot, wading for a considerable distance kneedeep in flour and wheat. Several hundreds of people were yet lingering about, but the police were strong, and the patrols of troops frequent. I saw several women stealing away with small sacks of flour; but the weather was too intensely cold for people to remain abroad, and before nine all was quiet and still. The night was bright moonlight, and the glittering of the burnished armor made quite a striking appearance. Thus has ended the first attempt of the sovereign wisdom of this country to reduce the price of provisions by reducing the quantity in the market!"

A detachment of the military, consisting of the National Guards, under Colonel Smith, and Colonel Helas's regiment, were under arms the entire night, with muskets loaded and cartridge-boxes well supplied with powder and ball, ready to act promptly on hearing the signal from the great bell of the City Hall; but, happily, their services were not called into requisition.

Regarding this riot, the city authorities were greatly blamed for not taking official measures for the preservation of the peace of the city in anticipation of the meeting in the Park. They had had, it seems, full warning.

An anonymous letter had been found a day or two previous in the Park, addressed to a Mr. W. Lennox, informing him that Hart's store would be attacked soon by a large number of people; and that, the better to carry out this project, two alarms of fire were to be given, one near the Battery, and the other higher up Broadway; and while the attention of the police was thus distracted, the conspirators were to break into Hart's store and carry off as much flour as they could. Besides this letter, several other anonymous letters, to the same import, were received by the Mayor. It would therefore appear that the censure of the authorities by the public was not entirely undeserved.

In this riot some forty of the rioters were captured, and afterward indicted, tried, and sent to State Prison. The ringleaders, however, almost to a man, escaped. Not a single person who signed the call, nor, as can be discovered, a single orator who harangued the meeting, was tried. Nor did the mob succeed in bettering their condition. "One effect," says Niles' Register for the week after the riot, "has resulted from the doings of the Political Economists (!), which will add to the distress of that class they affected a desire to relieve. The stock of flour having been reduced, the price has naturally risen, and fifty cents per barrel more is now asked than was demanded previous to the mob."

The Great Fire of 1835, narrated in the preceding chapter, convinced the people of New York that the question of an ample supply of water could no longer be postponed. It had now been nearly seventy years since the subject of supplying New York with water began to attract the attention of the city authorities. Prior to the year 1799, the dependence of the people of the city for water was on the old "Collect Pond," the famous "Tea

Water Pump," and wells in different parts of the city. In 1774, when the total population of the city did not exceed 22,000, works were constructed by Engineer Collis, on the east line of Broadway, between the present Pearl and White Streets. Here a reservoir was built, and a large well sunk in the "Collect Pond," now filled up and covered with costly buildings. The breaking out of the Revolutionary War in 1775, and the occupation of the city by the British, caused these works, while yet uncompleted, to be abandoned. The "Tea-Water Pump" was situated in Chatham Street, east of Pearl. Its water was pure and soft, and the pump was resorted to from all parts of the city. As late as 1797, the records of the Common Council indicate its popularity, a resolution having been passed to prevent the street being obstructed by the water-carts, and the owner required to raise and lengthen the spout for the convenience of passers on the sidewalk. A fruitless effort was again made in 1798-'99 to obtain water for the city from the River Bronx, but no further action was taken at that time, owing to the organization of the Manhattan Company. This Company, which was incorporated April 2d, 1799, supplied the city until 1822. The Manhattan Works, however, had long since proved comparatively worthless; and, after much discussion-the people meanwhile having decided the question of "water or no water" in the affirmative, by a large majority vote-it was resolved to construct an aqueduct from the Croton River, distant forty miles from New York, which should conduct the waters of that stream into the city. The work was, accordingly, forthwith begun, and finished in 1842. Never was there a better investment made than that of the Croton Aqueduct by the citizens of any other city. It has proved itself of great benefit, not only in a sanitary and financial point of view, but as a real source of enjoyment-its construction having given rise

1842.