man believed that an electric current could be transmitted
through a wire and so make it possible to convey a message from one
point to another. One night, after having worked on his idea for years,
he invited a few friends to the University building, which overlooked
Washington Square, and showed them the result of his labors. It was the
first telegraph in the world. This was a crude affair, but Professor
Morse proved that he could send a message over a wire. In the year 1845
he had advanced so far that a telegraph line was built between New York
City and Philadelphia. Then all the world recognized the genius of
Morse. The people of New York especially honored him, and even in his
lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can see to-day in
Central Park.

By this time the city had crept up to both Greenwich Village and Bowery
Village, and had engulfed them. On every side were houses, some of them
five and six stories high, where before they had been but two stories.

An open space nearby Bowery Village was called Astor Place. This was the
scene in 1849 of a famous riot, which came about in this wise: Edwin
Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles Macready, an English
actor, had quarrelled about some fancied slight. So when Macready came
to the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, some friends of
Forrest's gathered and sought to prevent his acting by shouting their
disapproval. This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather outside the
theatre and storm the house with stones. Macready escaped by leaving
the theatre by a rear door. Then a regiment of soldiers came and after
using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, fired upon the mob
and killed many of them before the space was cleared and quiet restored.

[Illustration: Crystal Palace.]

Castle Garden, which had once been Fort Clinton, had become a place of
amusement. Here Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale," sang, and many
another artist of rare ability was seen and heard.

Now, too, a World's Fair was opened on Murray Hill. Held in a
fairy-like building of glass, made in the form of a Greek cross, with
graceful dome and arches, it was a Crystal Palace in fact as in name,
where all the products of the world were shown. But, unfortunately, a
few years later it was burned to the ground.

There are always some wise and thoughtful people who think of the
comfort of others, and some of these realized that it would not be long
before