Best and Worst

"New York is, par excellence, the city of extremes and contrasts. It is at once the very worst and the very best of all American cities, alike the very darkest and the very brightest. It is the city of crimes and the city of charities, the city of infidelity and irreligion, the city of the Sunday-school and the church, the city of the public rum-shop, and the city of the public school."
Thomas N. Doutney, Thomas N. Doutney: His Life-struggle, Fall, and Reformation

Not Conceited

Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park

"I know that New-Yorkers are sometimes said to be 'conceited' and so they are, but not of their individual selves, but of their city. No man can live in New York for years and have much individual conceit. New-York life 'knocks it all out' of him. No matter how smart and rich he may be, he meets every day people who are smarter and richer."
Thomas N. Doutney, Thomas N. Doutney: His Life-struggle, Fall and Reformation

What New York Cares For

Temperance Fountain in Union Square

"In the great American metropolis a man is gauged by himself, not by his ancestors nor their achievements. No one cares much for the past: that is 'ancient history.' Nor is much regard paid to a possible though distant future: that is 'imagination.' What New York Cares for is the present."
Thomas N. Doutney, Thomas N. Doutney: His Life-struggle, Fall, and Reformation