tion. In 1783 St. Peter's, the first Roman Catholic Church, was
erected at Barclay Street, and much trouble they had, if account may
be relied on. The reported tales of an escaped nun did much to
inflame the bigoted populace, but this passed, and today St. Joseph's,
which was built in 1829, stands on the corner of Washington Place and
Sixth Avenue.

It is not far away, by the bye, that the old Jewish cemetery is to be
found. Alderman Curran quaintly suggested that an unwarned stranger
might easily stub his toe on the little graveyard on Eleventh Street.
It is Beth Haim, the Hebrew Place of Rest, close to Milligan Lane. The
same Eleventh Street, which (as we shall see later) was badly
handicapped by "the stiff-necked Mr. Henry Brevoort" cut half of Beth
Haim away. But a corner of it remains and tranquil enough it seems,
not to say pleasant, though almost under the roar of the Elevated.

The Presbyterian churches got a foothold fairly early;--probably the
first very fashionable one was that on Mercer Street. Its pastor, the
Reverend Thomas Skinner, is chiefly, but deservedly, renowned for a
memorable address he made to an assembly of children, some time in
1834. Here is an extract which is particularly bright and lucid:

"Catechism is a compendium of divine truth. Perhaps,
children, you do not know the meaning of that word.
Compendium is synonymous with synopsis"!!!

[Illustration: THE CRADLE OF BOHEMIA. The first and most famous French
restaurant in New York.]

The old Methodist churches were models of Puritanism. In the
beginning they met in carpenter shops, or wherever they could. When
they had real churches, they, for a long time, had separate entrances
for the sexes.

It was after I had read of this queer little side shoot of asceticism
that I began to fully appreciate what a friend of mine had said to me
concerning the New Greenwich.

"The Village," he said, "is a protest against Puritanism." And, he
added: "It's just an island, a little island entirely surrounded by
hostile seas!"

The Village, old and new, _is_ a protest. It is a voice in the
wilderness. Some day perhaps it will conquer even the hostile seas.
Anyway, most of the voyagers on the hostile seas will come to the
Village eventually, so _it_ should worry!

The Green Village is green no longer, except in scattered spots where
the foliage seems to bubble up from the stone and brick as
irrepressibly as Minetta Water once bubbled u