Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
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| the State. The free public library—the New York Society Library—was revived on a very much larger scale, and a good building erected, wherein to house the books. The new constitution of the independent State of New York completely did away with the religious disabilities enforced under the old provincial government, and declared and maintained absolute religious toleration and equality before the law. In consequence a Catholic church was soon built; while the Methodists increased rapidly in numbers and influence. |
| The New York Medical Society began its career in 1788; and one of the most curious of New York’s many riots occurred shortly afterward. The mob engaged in this riot was always known as “the doctors’ mob,” because their wrath was directed against the young medical students and their teachers. Rumors had been rife for some time that the doctors rifled the graveyards to get subjects for dissection, which excited the populace greatly. One day a boy looking into the dissecting-room saw the medical students at work on a body, and immediately ran home and alarmed his father. Without any more reason than this, the mob suddenly assembled, hunted the doctors out of their homes, entered houses and destroyed property, refused to obey the commands of the civil officers when called on to disperse, and finally |