""Philadelphia in Slices" h Qeorge Q. Foster HE ELEVEN short essays entitled "Philadelphia in Slices" which follow were published in the New York tribune be- Ttween October 21, 1848, and February 15 of the following year. Their author, George G. Foster, sometimes called Gaslight Foster, wrote them while serving as a reporter on the tribune. He was well equipped to write of Philadelphia for he had previously lived in that city and had served for several years as a reporter on the Philadelphia North ^American. For more than a century and a half his series of thumbnail sketches about Philadelphia has been buried in the files of the tribune where, purely as a serendipity, they came to my attention. I ran across them when reading Foster's series of thirty-four essays in the Tribune, "New York in Slices," which appeared at intervals in that newspaper from July through November, 1848. These New York essays, though providing uniquely valuable contemporary accounts of people, places, and social conditions, have been surprisingly neglected by students of social history and urban development. However, at the time of their appearance they attracted much popular interest and were reprinted anonymously the following year as "a two shilling pamphlet" with the title New York in Slices by an experienced Carver. The author claimed, probably with some exaggeration, that the tribune series on New York was copied in whole or in part in more than two hundred newspapers and that thirty to forty thousand re- prints of the collected essays were sold within one year of publica- tion.1 Several months after the 'Tribune began publication of "New York in Slices," a letter signed "Triangle" appeared in that newspaper urging a similar series for Philadelphia.2 The style as well as the con- 1 George G. Foster, New York Naked (New York, 185?), 16. 2 New York Tribune, Oct. u, 1848. *3 24 GEORGE ROGERS TAYLOR January tent leave no doubt that Foster was the author. Although his other writings have been occasionally noted,3 "Philadelphia in Slices" ap- pears to have been completely lost to sight. Reprinted here for the first time, these "Slices" provide contemporary sketches of Philadel- phia which are of unusual interest to the social and economic his- torian. The author's comparison of Philadelphia and New York businessmen, his portrayal of the retail clerks and especially the shop women, his perceptive account of the black population, his romantic yet realistic description of the parks and streets of Philadelphia, as well as his somewhat sensational revelations concerning the rowdy clubs, drinking houses, and dance halls, all provide an intimate pic- ture of the Pennsylvania city seldom equaled in contemporary accounts. Foster's high-flown rhetoric reflects the taste of the romantic pe- riod in American literature and, no doubt also, his own early aspira- tions to become a poet. The sentimentality is not unexpected in the age of Dickens nor, indeed, in Philadelphia where George Lippard's novels enjoyed such wide popularity. But the flowery exuberance of his style led to criticism by his conservative contemporaries. Thus, a writer in the Philadelphia Sunday T>ispatch for November 26, 1848, reproduced the following from a Tribune item, probably written by Foster: "Mr. GungTs violin, in this part, spoke like a voice full of sorrowful longing, brooding over the pain of absence, till his 'bow lay down in tears' and sobbed itself into silence." The critic in the Sunday ^Dispatch then commented, "What a piteous sight to see the poor bow, Niobe-like, weeping plenteous tears from each particular horsehair until the very rosin was washed off by the deluge, and then sobbing itself into silence, its ivory handle quivering the while in intense agony." Foster defended his expose of the seamy side of urban life as neces- sary in order to call attention to existing evils. In his only published novel, Celioy or Js(ew York zAbove-Qround and Underground, he de- clared his purpose was to show that vice and misery are not a neces- sary result of human life. He succeeded in directing public attention to the unsavory conditions in the slum areas of the cities though some 3 In addition to New York in Slices (New York, 1849) and New York Naked, Foster was the author of New York by Gas-Light (New York, 1850), and Fifteen Minutes around New York (New York, 1854). 1969 PHILADELPHIA IN SLICES 2f people were critical of such exposures. The year following the news- paper appearance of Foster's "Slices" of New York and Philadelphia, Henry Mayhew began his similar but more famous exposes in the London tJMorning Chronicle, which were expanded later into his well- known work /j)ndon Xjibour a?td the J^pndon Toor. Foster cited the popularity and wide acceptance in Europe of Mayhew's essays as an answer to those who criticized his pioneering attempts to present a romantic age with a realistic picture of the more sordid aspects of city life in the United States.4 Of George Foster himself very little is known beyond his own writ- ings, including a brief autobiographical sketch which appears in the introduction to !J\(ew York ft(aked> apparently his last published work. We hear of him first in 1845 when he is credited with editing The Toetical Works of Tercy "Bysshe Shelley. During the first half of 1848, he served with Thomas Dunn English as editor of the humor- ous magazine John-Donkey. In the last half of the same year he col- laborated with English in writing a book entitled The French Revolu- tion of 1848, and he had published in Qrahams American (Monthly ^Magazine several short poems and a fairy tale. But he is best known for his essays descriptive of life in New York City. The date of Foster's birth has been generally believed to be un- known, but it must have been 1815 for he gives his age as thirty-nine in the introduction to J\(ew York ?h(aked.h On the other hand, the date of his death, which is reported without exception as 1850, must be seriously questioned, for it seems highly probable that he was alive in 1853. His penultimate book, Fifteen zJIfCinutes cAround ?h(ew York, published in 1854, quite possibly posthumously, could not have been written before 1853. Not only does it open with the statement "New York in 1853!", but it is apparently designed as a sort of guide for visitors to the great New York fair of that year. No author could have given directions for seeing the sights at the Crystal Palace be- fore it was built. Finally, a note appended to Fifteen cjfttinutes oAround J\(ew York and signed "The Publishers" states that the book was written by Foster with the exception of one essay. Furthermore, we know that ZKew York ZNaked, the publication date of which has * New York Naked, 17. 6 Or possibly 1816, if he wrote the introduction in 1855. Ibid. 12. 26 GEORGE ROGERS TAYLOR January been in doubt, could not have appeared before 1854 because on the outside cover of the pamphlet Fifteen ^Minutes Ground New York, an advertisement states that New York Naked is "Nearly Ready." Possibly, of course, someone may have written these two books using Foster's name. This seems most unlikely as his authorship has never been questioned and the flamboyant style points almost unmistak- ably to him. Cleutherian zMills-Hagley Foundation GEORGE ROGERS TAYLOR PHILADELPHIA IN SLICES6 (Well! Here I am in this venerable, beautiful, quiet, wholesome City once more, after a life in New-York long enough to render its repose and clean streets grateful to overweary brain and frame, and its crimson-lipped daughters and smooth-faced bourgeoisie as wel- come to the sight as the flowers and fruits of field and forest. There is an indescribable serenity in the air here which fills and soothes the heart. Upon looking about me a little, to see what points I had best pounce upon to make available for "Slice," it strikes me that I cannot do better than to commence with the Bourgeoisie, a class which have reached a higher state of development in Philadelphia than in any other city of the United States.) SLICE I. THE BOURGEOISIE. The last few months have rendered all readers of newspapers famil- iar with this word, although we do not undertake to say that even the Editors themselves who are most in the habit of using it know what it means. As the most distinguishing characteristic of Philadel- phia is its Bourgeoisie, we have taken a good deal of dictionary trouble to ascertain its true signification. To say nothing of bour- geois type (such as the "City Item" and the "John Donkey" are printed on), there are three works of nearly similar sound, with different meaning. A bourgeois is a man who keeps a shop or lives by making a profit from the product of the labor of others, a bourgeoise 6 The dates of publication in the Tribune are indicated at the end of each "Slice." 1969 PHILADELPHIA IN SLICES 27 is his wife or widow; and the "Bourgeoisie is the generic name of this class of citizens.7 In France they have the High Bourgeoisie and the Little Bourgeoisie; but in Philadelphia the attempt to make this dis- tinction would fail, and failures are what the Bourgeoisie particu- larly detest. In New-York they have, doubtless, some shops, and persons to keep them, and who are in turn kept by them. But it is in Philadel- phia alone that shop-keeping is recognized as [a] profession, expanded into a vast, complicated yet well-defined system.