OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8991, 16 May 1890, Page 7

OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

Recently, Virile Bhillips Brooke was preaching in oJ3'fXrii|ity} there was a Xpoet singular. phase in church-going developed. , As a usual thing, Episcopal congregations are the most decorous kind of Christianaj everything about /..their, attendance ie methodical'as/the Psalter. But while your good orthodox Episcopalian would no more misa a church service than he would fly, yet, I regret to add, that a great many of the / moat orthodox are almost invariably late in their pews. Not soli, however, last week at Trinity, Nearly two hours before the services opened.'the church began to fill up, .and an hoar before the preacher appeared there was standing only, and hardly that. The in»rim' .was occupied with reacing newspaperf, magazines,and conversation. Beside -me sis a florid-looking gentleman, reading a pocket edition of ‘The Woman in White/ by Wilkie Collins. He dropped his hook-for a'moment, and, looking at me, said; ‘ Fine fcbardh;’ sir.’ . ‘ Yes,’ I replied, fvpry fine church, probably one of the finest in the country.' ,1 Bo you know who owns it?’ he asked, looking at me iiiqairing'y. ‘.Owns it ?’ I answered, thinking for the moment that man might be a stranger or alnnatic, ‘Of course I do. It belongs to the Trinity Corporation of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America.’. ‘.Guess not,’ he said—‘ I guess not; I see you ain’t Eoated, sir. This church, and millions beside, along to the, estate of Anneke Jana Bogardus, and sooner or later her heirs will enter . infco possession of their own, and divide the millions now unjustly held from them, and don’t you forget it. It has been a pretty hard fight, sir; for these church people are very rich, and moat of our people are very poor; but we have as oar lawyer honest Eugene B, Travis, of who has worked on this case for years ; he has the papers that will prove onr clear title to all the property, and, as far as heard from, there is enough to give us a million or two apiece.’ Just then the deep diapason of the grand organ announced the opening of the service, and a chorus of sweet singers chanted an anthem of praise ; then all settled down to hear oue of those wonderful talks, you could hardly call them sermons, though they lifted the thoughts and ; hearts of men to God with the power of a Pentecostal rain. At the close of the service my attention was attracted to the crowd for a moment, and when I looked around r the heir of Anneke Jana Bogardus was gone. The story of Anneke Jans is ever interesting, and one of the early traditions of New York, which has been carefully nursed and kept, and, though sleeping for a time, has awakened full of life, growing more powerful and strong as the years roll by, till at last, it has taken form and shape in a corporation bearing the somewhat strange title of '* The Anneke Jans Bogardus Literary Association,’ the main object of which appears to be to get all the heirs in a compact working body, and when that is done the future action will be a matter of after consideration. Anneke Jans Bogardus has been in her grave two hundred and seventeen year's, and the entire property said to be her inheritance is valued at thousands of millions of dollars ;

and it she were living now and in the enjoyment of her own, she could buy and sell all. the Asters, and Vanderbilts, and Jay Goulds, and Rothschilds, who now control the money marts of the world.. She was born'in Holland in 1602, and Was married to Ruloff Jons when she was twenty years of age ; she was the daughter of Woolfert Webber, who stood very near to William the Second of Holland, known as the Stad (holder, and from' whom he received some large and substantial grants of property in New Amsterdam. Woolfert Webber was a man of great importance from the first hour be set foot in the colony, and his daughter Anneke was one of the belles of the town. Gospel privileges were few in those days in old. Manhattan. A good, old Lutheran, one Dominie-Everardus Bogardus, had just; - been brought over from Holland, and be expounded. the Gospel in an old .wooden, bouse on Pearl-street, not far from the site of the present Produce Exchange. ■ Ruloff Jana paid the . debt of nature while Anneke was still-in the bloom of womanhood"; the Dominie Bogardus bad lost hia better half a' little while before; he discovered, no doubt, ibat it was not good for man to be alone, so be-proposed to (he widow Jans, . and she thereafter in history- is- known as Anneke: Jons Bogardus. A portion of her property! at her death is covered by the beautiful! Church of the Holy Trinity, and is said to be' held by a lease from Anneke Jans Bogardus, in 1666, just three years after Anneke JansBogardus was dead and buried. The lease wail said! to be executed for ninety-nine years, and consequently expired in 1766.At that t'me the whole country was iu a state of high ferment ; the Sons of Liberty were active, events . were rapidly hurrying on, which led to . the Revolution. The Anneke Jans leases were lost eight of by the heirs ; not so by the, Trinity Corporation, they claimed a renewal of the leases, which was duly executed by somebody in 1766 for ninety-nine years more, and these leases expired in 1866, and then the heirs began to organize to try and get their own. But that was not all;; there was a further grant that took a big slice put of Broadway, clear across the city, taking in old St. John’s Park, where the freight depOt of the Central Railroad now stands, worth several millions of dollars, and in further addition to the prospective fortune of her lucky descendants are seventy-two millions of dollars now in the banks of Holland just waiting for the -heirs to prove their title and come and take it away. The first 'Trinity Cburoh was begun in 1696, and. opened for worship in 1697, its first rector being the Rev. William Fletcher. A new building replaced the old one-in 1740, and .this was consumed in the great fire of 1776, when the Sons of Liberty were supposed to have fired, the city, just after Its occupation by the British. No attempt was made to rebuild Trinity Church till long the Revolutionary War; for until the Episcopal Ritual van amended the ministers would insist bn rsading prayersfor the king instead of the President, and nearly ! raised a.riot. . The next, church .was. built in 1788, .and stood till 1839, when it was torn down to make room lor the present beautiful structure. Its corporation has the right to perpetuate itself, and has sternly resisted all attempts at legislative inquiry into its condition or affairs,-and to the outside public it is a sealed, book, silent as the Sphynx and as impenetrable. That a strong effort will be made to call this rich corporation to an accounting, there is little doubt; hundreds, if not thousands of millions, are' involved In the fight. The heirs are quietly getting together, and believe they can win, and each side adopts the same battle cry, ' Dieu ot men droit,’ and let ns hope that God and the right may win. Tho. Trinity Coiporation is fabulously rich, and can well afford to give these heirs a million each and still have enough to spare. Fifty years ago there was a bruiser iu New Ydk whose very name was a terror among fighting men—he was known ns Awful Gardner. His name was Orville. In those days that name meant something, for every engine-house was a school for.knooking oat, and the prize ring was the high road to political preferment. John Morrissy reached Congress, and John Heenau coaid have died rich. Yankee Sullivan stood about as high as the Mayor, while Bill Harrington, Abe Yanderzee, Tom Hyer and Dutch Charley were regarded with most of our youthful citizens as infinitely better men than the Judges of the Supreme Court. It was in this desperate oiowd that Awful Gardner earned his name, end held it against all comers for years. If there was any one worse than be was I never heard of him or read of him. One day, many years ago, while the old Fultcn etrect Mission was in ful blast, '

Awful Gardner, half drunk, walked in there. In that mission were many earnest men and women, and they look np the ease of the drunken prize fighter, and ha heard the-voice of saving grace. Just imagine the ,howl that went up, from the Pngs, when the news got abroad .that Awful Gardner was converted, and gtfffcer still the amazement when he began ib call sinners to repentance. But the .devil jterapted him at last, and, to the } grief ftL bis Christian friends and the, delight of *ll ills : old' rum-drinking cronies. Awful Gardner went off on a tear, and for a time he succeeded in painting the town a very bright Vermillion. Then came repentance and the re-awakening, and onoe more he was gathered in the fold, I soon lost sight of him, and since then know nothing of his daily life. This week comes the pitiful story that the bid prize fighter is starving, and an appeal has been made on his behalf through one of our great city journals, and a'quiok response was made by one of the companions of his evil days. Across the old man’s path the shadows thicken -and the night grows dark, ’and he sits in the vale of sorrow waiting for the call, which, for him. Cannot be_ now far off; and so he watches and waits. The world has drifted away from him, and the priest and the Levite go by on the other side. In his great desolation, crime-branded and sin-scarred, perhaps he may realize the promise of the Lamb, ‘ Though thy sins be as scarlet, I will wash them as white as wool,’ and as the shadows deepen into the gloom of night, through the clouds he may hear a sweet voice as he sinks to sleep, saying, ‘My son, thy sins are forgiven thee.’ A few days of genuine winter weather has convinced us that there is a North Pole somewhere. Perhaps it’s all right after all. Broadbrim.