A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume II.

by Stephen M. Ostrander

Among the leading musical associations of the city are the Apollo Club, the Seidl Society, the Brooklyn Choral Society, the Arion Society, the Brooklyn Maennerchor, the Zoellner Maennerchor, the Amphion Musical Society, the Cæcilia Ladies' Vocal Society, the Concordia Maennerchor, the Euterpe Chorus and Orchestra, the Deutscher Liederkranz, the Saengerbund, and the Prospect Heights Choral Society. In recent years there has appeared a disposition to regard Brooklyn as a musical city. The increase in the number of musical societies and the patronage of opera and concert have unquestionably been great. Among the musical composers, resident in the city, who have made national reputations, Dudley Buck has been of first prominence.

The Brooklyn Art Association, a development of the Sketch Club, formed by Brooklyn artists in 1857, erected a handsome building adjoining the Academy of Music in 1872. The exhibitions held in the association galleries have been the chief displays of pictures seen within the city. In recent years the Brooklyn Art Club, a society composed of artists solely, has attained a large membership, and has exhibited annually in the Art Association galleries. The Art Association maintains a free art school. The leading society of art connoisseurs is the Rembrandt Club.

The Society of Old Brooklynites, the Franklin Literary Society, and the Bryant Literary Society have won prominence, and a position of influence has been assumed by the Brooklyn Woman's Club.

In private libraries and art collections Brooklyn has grown rich within the past twenty-five years. The development of certain valuable picture collections has induced the wish that the city had a great museum similar to the Metropolitan in New York, which might receive contributions by bequest. The advancement of the Brooklyn Institute promises to supply this need.

The newspapers of Brooklyn have acquired an increasingly influential position in the life of the city. We have seen how the "Eagle," the "Times," and the "Freie Presse" attained their established positions. The "Standard-Union" represents some interesting newspaper history. The "Union" was started in the midst of the war period, its first editor being Edward Cary. The paper was purchased in 1870 by Henry C. Bowen, and Gen. Stewart L. Woodford became editor-in-chief, and H. E. Bowen (son of Henry C.), the publisher. When General Woodford retired a few months later, he was succeeded by Theodore Tilton, whose skillful pen was in the service of the paper until January, 1872, when Henry C. Bowen assumed the editorship. In the following year the control of the paper passed to Benjamin F. Tracy, F. A. Schroeder, John F. Henry, and others associated with them, and Robert Burch, who afterward became managing editor of the "Eagle," took the post of editor-in-chief. Later the property came into the hands of Lorin Palmer, and in 1877 the purchase of the name and good-will of the Brooklyn "Argus," which had been established as a weekly in 1866 and as a daily in 1873, resulted in the change of title to "Union-Argus." When the Union Publishing Company was formed, the name "Argus" was dropped, and the paper was again known as the "Union" during the aggressive editorship of John Foord, formerly of the New York "Times," and afterward editor of "Harper's Weekly." In 1887 the "Standard," which had been established in 1884, was consolidated with the "Union," and John A. Hatton assumed the editorship of the "Standard-Union." Soon afterward William Berri became principal owner of the paper, and in 1890 Murat Halstead, long the master spirit of Ohio journalism, was called to the chair of editor-in-chief. The qualities which gave Halstead a national reputation while editor of the Cincinnati "Commercial Gazette" have not failed to make his pen a power in Brooklyn and throughout the State.

The "Citizen," established in 1886 by leading Democrats of the city, since has been a forceful and consistent organ of the local Democracy. The editorship of Andrew McLean has been one of eloquence and energy, uniting a consummate knowledge of Brooklyn with a rare sagacity in estimating men and affairs.

The establishment of "Brooklyn Life" by Frederick Mitchell Munroe and John Angus McKay was a felicitous stroke in Brooklyn journalism. "Life" has enjoyed a unique popularity as a weekly review of Brooklyn social, artistic, and literary affairs.

Brooklyn journalism has been quick to reflect the life and sentiment of the city. It has been energetic, original, and clean. The fact that only two of the newspapers, the "Eagle" and the "Citizen," publish Sunday editions, is one which of itself indicates the presence of a conservative element in the city. The establishment of Travelers' Bureaus by the "Eagle," under the direction of the assistant business manager, Herbert F. Gunnison, was a piece of characteristic enterprise.

The political complexion of Brooklyn and Kings County during the past two or three decades has become increasingly Democratic, with periodical Republican relapses. In the incumbency of the sheriff's office, for example, there has been an interesting alternation in parties since 1875. During the same period the two parties have been represented with approximate evenness in the Mayor's office. In leadership of the Democratic party Henry C. Murphy was succeeded by his energetic lieutenant, Hugh McLaughlin, who has retained the position at the head of the party since before the Rebellion. The period and completeness of this local leadership probably finds no parallel in American political history. No analogous situation has ever existed in the Republican party, which has never had a generally recognized leader, and whose successes at the polls have been those of a party or a public feeling in opposition to the dominant organized party. Both independent Democratic and independent Republican movements and leaderships have played an important part in the later activities of political life.

Of the commercial development of Brooklyn since 1876, it is to be said that it has advanced more remarkably on the water front than elsewhere. The traffic in grain, sugar, and oil, with the extensive cooperage and ship-building and repairing operations, constitutes an important element in any estimate of the city's prominence in manufactures.