The New York of 1870 is the gaslight city of the MYM chronicle reached through the Beach Tunnel: a winter city of filthy snow, markets and steaming grates, with the Brooklyn Bridge over the river.
Description
The Civil War is over, won by the North. It is a city of gangs where newcomers must belong to someone: the Tammany (“Holtamani” in the oral archive), the Italians’ people, trade favors against hunger, facing the Irish. Loyalty is bought with free pizza and a handwritten sign: Estamos con vos. Acá no va a haber hambre (“We’re with you. There will be no hunger here”).
The era still slips between 1870 and 1890, though it is stabilizing. Ragged children sell corpses for two shillings to a man in a bloodied apron, for doctors doing forbidden tests; among the bodies lies one covered in white powder, in burned clothes not of the era.
History
The travelers settled in: one bought property knowing its future worth, another handed out hundred-dollar bills that did not yet exist, another gambled. The theater over a future safe house is here a major theater whose actresses leave by carriage for their other work. Passing the moon door changed some of what they carried (a black fur coat now has a moonlight sheen); under its light things change, so travelers believe the sea of time is discontinuous, which it is not.