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Thursday, December 22, 2005

Interesting notes about 1893 Trenton

One of the joys of this research project is stumbling across interesting bits and pieces of life as it was lived many years ago. This fascinating clip was manually transcribed way back in the 70's on my IBM "Selectric" typewriter. (Remember the "Selectric?")

Daily State Gazette, AUGUST 24, 1893
* It has taken two years to get the trolley road extended westward to Warren Street, and the outlook is not good even now.
* There are 4 to 6 girls to every man on the street. Trenton men are not matrimonially inclined.
* The town has two breweries, and another is in the planning stage.
* Hangings only take place at intervals of 40 years. The last hanging took place in 1863.
* There are 6 all night saloons.
* There are 45 weather vanes in the city. The only silent and lazy one is on top of city hall. * Street cleaning is not a fine art yet, but will be in the year 2000.
* Standing in the center of Warren and State Streets, 12 drinking places can be seen; however, this section of Trenton is the dryest neighborhood in the city.
* There are only 2 building and loan associations in one of the busiest industrial towns in the state. Only 2 savings banks. The workingmen are not as thrifty as they could be. * The great center for wet groceries is on South Broad Street. Eleven drinking places are to located between Front and Livingston Streets.
* The population is 15,458.
* There are 366 drinking places, or an average of one for every 33 males.
* Male voters: 13,900, based on the presidential election of 1892. The average beer glass counts 3 to the quart. One half of the dealers water their whiskey. Over a third of them stay open on Sunday. There are 56 police patrolmen.
* There are 63 houses of ill-repute, one for every 200 male voters. They sell both hard and soft stuff. Twenty have licenses; the rest risk being caught.
* There are 12 regular poker rooms where card games are played night and day.
* There are 20 clubs of all kinds, where poker is played for money.
* There are 2 men to every 3 women who attend church. The best attendance of men is in the Presbyterian church. The Catholic faith is the strongest denomination in the city.
* It costs $3.00 to get drunk for fun.
* There are 93 bridges of all kinds; more waterways than any other town in the state, and fewer drownings.

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