the full metropolitan
glory of the decade of his death. This wonderful municipal history is
too commonly regarded from a special standpoint, as if it were but the
record of a continually renewed and often unsuccessful struggle against
corrupt and incompetent city government. Contests of this kind, under
democratic institutions, always occupy more space in the press, and make
more noise in public oratory, than the quiet but steady progress of
commercial undertakings, and the labors of unselfish citizens for
education, art, and social improvement, which go on beneath the
turbulent surface. Americans have long suffered under the unjust
imputation of peculiar devotion to "the almighty dollar." The fact is
that in no other country do individuals give so much or do so much
without pecuniary reward--whether for personal friendship or for public
spirit--as in the United States. The munificence of private benefactions
and endowments, far surpassing the government support given in other
nations to similar institutions, furnish an abundant proof of the first
half of this proposition; while the other half is proved by the
innumerable boards, committees, and other organized bodies, to which
active business men give time and thought without remuneration.

This spirit has never been wholly missed in public affairs, even in the
city of New York, so often charged with the lack of it. All the great
features of its municipal progress, even those which have been, at some
stage, tainted with lamentable corruption, have been originated or
supported by unselfish public spirit. It might even be said that
without this support, innocently given and deceitfully misused, the
schemers for private gain could not have achieved their periodical and
temporary successes.

Peter Cooper was an illustrious example of good citizenship in this
respect. First elected to public office as "assistant alderman," in
1828, he turned his attention immediately upon the subject most
important to the growth and welfare of a city, yet most likely to be
neglected until it is forced upon the community as an unwelcome
necessity,--namely, the water supply. Up to that time, New York had
depended upon the springs of Manhattan Island, some of which supplied
water, conveyed through the streets by means of wooden pipes (bored
logs), while most of them were utilized by means of pumps only, to which
the inhabitants sent for their supply.[6]

Mr. Cooper induced the water committ