The Municipal Library’s rare book collection includes a volume titled “Some of Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches.” Published in 1913, it is a compendium of the Mayor’s writings on “…a wide range of topics . . . from lively to severe,” as noted in the introduction by W. B. Northrop. “The Mayor’s Letters are, on the whole, genial; or, even, as he says in one of them, jovial. Mostly he says just what he likes…”. This letter had been published in The Independent newspaper, on June 1, 1911. It is in conversational form, and was dictated. Look for more of Mayor Gaynor’s literary output in future blogs.
Mayor William J. Gaynor, portrait, frontispiece, “Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches,” New York, Greaves Publishing Company, 1913. Municipal Reference Library
I fear you are taking me too seriously as a walker. It is true that I have been walking for a good many years, but I do not pretend to be anything more than an ordinary trudger. During the sixteen years that I was a Justice of the Supreme court I made it a rule to walk from five to seven miles a day. I did this to keep myself in health. L I sat in bad air in the courtroom. In the morning I walked a few miles, and after leaving court in the evening I walked a few miles more.
When I became Mayor I simply continued my walking. I walk from my house to the City Hall in the morning and back in the evening. That gives me seven miles a day. But I am no walker, nor am I an athlete. I walk for health, and for the joy of walking.
In 1911 construction of the Municipal Building was well underway. This is the view that Mayor Gaynor would have seen as he exited City Hall on his journey home to Brooklyn. May 4, 1911. Department of Bridges Plant & Structures Collection. NYC Municipal Archives
I have for many years done my principal work while walking. As a judge I frame my decisions and opinions in my mind while walking. I can think best while walking, and then I can come in and sit down and write off-hand the whole subject. But let me say again that I am no scientific walker although I take long walks.
It is with my walking as with my being a disciple of Epictetus. During the campaign for the mayoralty, while every abuse and lie was being heaped upon me, I casually remarked in one of my speeches that what another saith of thee concerneth more him who saith it than it concerneth thee, as Epictetus says. This seemed to astonish the whole journalistic fraternity in New York City, as though they had never heard of Epictetus before. My walking seemed to astonish them in the same way.
New Yorkers have always enjoyed walking. In the 1930s the WPA Federal Writers’ Project created a series of photographs called “Street Scenes,” to illustrate the New York City Guide and other publications. Pedestrians window-shopping on Fifth Avenue, near 53rd Street, April 5, 1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
I prefer to walk alone and think. I do not hurry; I just go along at my leisure. It is true, now and then some one comes alongside of me and thinks the gait is not a very leisurely one, but to me it is leisurely because I am used to it. I do not see why many or most people do not walk to and from their business every day. A man wrote me a letter that it was all very well for me to do it, but that his business was two miles away from his house. I wrote him back that mine was over three. There is a feeling of independence and freedom when you are walking, and your blood warms up and flows freely, and your body becomes purified. As I walk over the bridge every night and see the cars packed with anemic young men and women, some of them with cigarettes, I cannot help pitying them. Why do they not get out and walk and make their bodies ruddy and healthy? Some of them look out of the car windows, and point at me though I was a curiosity because I walk. I think they are curiosities because they ride, and I injure themselves with the foul air of the cars.
Mayor Gaynor may have preferred to “….walk alone and think,” but not Mayor Edward Koch. The Koch photograph collection includes dozens of pictures of the Mayor and his entourage walking and greeting constituents throughout the city. Walking tour of the Bronx, August 7, 1985. Mayor Edward Koch Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
I used to be a horseback rider, but you have to keep that up or else drop it altogether, and you cannot always have time for it. Besides, it is a rather violent exercise. I do not think I know any one who has got a dividend out of it. Then I drove for years. Out of that I really got nothing. The street car I always abominated. They used to have stoves in them, and now they heat them by electricity, and the air becomes foul. Some people write to me complaining that the cars are too cold. They ought to be made to walk.
Streetcar on the Brooklyn Bridge, March 3, 1914. Photographer: Eugene deSalignac. Department of Bridges Plant & Structures Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
You ask me the best time for walking. The best time is in the sun in fall and winter, but if you cannot walk then, the best time is whenever you can walk. Of course, if you walk home at night during the long winter months you walk after dark. Morning walking is very refreshing.
Yes, the walking of men like Weston does much good by example. It starts other people waking.
In the country, the best companion for a walk is a dog. A half dozen dogs is better yet.
No, you do not want any book while you are walking. You want to think. In the country you can loiter about. You do not need to walk fast and should not do so. Observe nature. When you come to a barnyard go in and see the pigs, and the fowl and the cows. Climb a fence now and then and go into the fields and look at the crops or the cattle. I know of no place where there is more philosophy than in a barnyard. You can learn much from animals. Within their circle they know much more than we do. Some of them see and hear things that we are incapable of seeing and hearing. Very few animals improve by age. A little pig a day old knows as much as his mother, and it is the same with a calf or a colt.
I do not like to walk in a park. I hate the roads and walks in parks. I do not like winding roads. I like to see where I am going. Crooked roads are irksome.
You want to know what about mountain climbing. I have done some that in this country and in Switzerland, but I do not recommend it. The hear should not be abnormally taxed. Of course, if your weight is in your favor you can do some climbing. I went down the other day and walked up ten flights to the top of the building where the terrible fire was, as I wanted to see the floor which were burned out. If you want to test your heart just walk up ten flights without stopping. If you can do it, you are all right, no matter what your age is.
Yes, I regret the falling off in bicycling. I enjoyed it for years and it did me the world of good. If people will not walk I would advise them to ride the bicycle. It will renew their lives. They will be so changed in a month that they will be astonished.
The Queens Borough President photograph collection includes a series of hand-colored lantern-slides. This image of a bicyclist is undated. Queens Borough President Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
What nation, you ask, gets the most out of walking. The English. They are great walkers. When I go to London I love to just stand and see them walking down into London in companies in the morning. The sight is inspiring to me. They walk in from miles around. Here people are afraid to walk a mile. The greatest rapid transit facilities in the world are right here in our American cities, notwithstanding all the grumbling that is going on. Wherever you are here in the city of New York you have a street car at your elbow. The result is that everybody rides and almost nobody walks. This is harmful. It would be a good thing if we had to walk more or less. In England they walk way out to places of recreation. Now, I do not what else to say to you. The subject is summed up very easily. Cultivate the habit of walking and you will never give it up, and it will keep you in health and make you charitable and forbearing. If you take no exercise you become dyspeptic. Your blood gets thin, and you find fault with everybody, and by and by you hate everybody, and then you want to be mean to everybody. That is a terrible condition to be in. Don’t you think so? But if you are in it just get out of it by walking a few miles every morning and evening. Go out and walk in the dark if necessary.
William J. Gaynor died at age 65 on September 10, 1913. In 1926, Mayor James J. Walker presided over a ceremony dedicating a monument to the late Mayor on the Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge, May 12, 1926. Photographer: Eugene deSalignac. Department of Bridges Plant & Structures Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.