g-continued panic in
America.

Brooklyn had improved; still, we were threatened with a tremendous
influx of people. The new bridge at Fulton Ferry across the East River
would soon be opened. It looked as though there was to be another bridge
at South Ferry, and another at Peck Slip Ferry. Montauk Point was to be
purchased by some enterprising Americans, and a railroad was to connect
it with Brooklyn. Steamers from Europe were to find wharfage in some of
the bays of Long Island, and the passage across the Atlantic reduced to
six days! Passengers six days out of Queenstown would pass into
Brooklyn. This was the Brooklyn to be, as was seen in its prospectus,
its evolution in 1879-80.

Our local elections had resulted in a better local government. With the
exception of an unsuccessful attempt by the Board of Canvassers to
deprive Frederick A. Schroeder of his seat in the Senate, because some
of the voters had left out the middle initial in his name in their
ballots, all was better with us politically than it had been. To the
credit of our local press, the two political rivals, the _Brooklyn
Eagle_ and the _Times_, united in their efforts to support Senator
Schroeder's claim.

There was one man in Brooklyn at this time who was much abused and
caricatured for doing a great work--Professor Bergh, the deliverer of
dumb animals. He was constantly in the courts in defence of a lame horse
or a stray cat. I supported and encouraged him. I always hoped that he
would induce legislation that would give the poor car-horses of Brooklyn
more oats, and fewer passengers to haul in one car. He was one of the
first men to fight earnestly against vivisection--which was a great
work.

Just after we had settled down to a more comfortable and hopeful state
of mind Mr. Thomas Kinsella, one of our prominent citizens, startled us
by showing us, in a published interview, how little we had any right to
feel that way. He told us that our Brooklyn debt was $17,000,000, with a
tax area of only three million and a half acres. It was disturbing. But
we had prospects, energies. We had to depend in this predicament upon
the quickened prosperity of our property holders, upon future examiners
to be scrupulous at the ballot box, on the increase of our population,
which would help to carry our burdens, and on the revenue from our great
bridge. These were local affairs of interest to us all, but in December,
1879, we had a more serious problem of our own to