HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY1883 Hoboken, New Jersey, is a town bearing a Dutch name, once largely inhabited by people of German descent. The majority of the houses were of red brick, agreeably shaded by locust and linden trees. In good weather the citizens of Hoboken enjoyed (and still enjoy) sitting on benches along the waterfront watching the ships entering and leaving New York harbor. A great deal of beer was brewed and drunk in Hoboken, but the consumption in the various beer halls was sedate and ruminative rather than boisterous. The town contained an engineering school. Most of its students came from a distance and made fun of the town and its brewers; when they wished to enjoy themselves they took the ferry to New York, where “life” was reported to abound. One Sunday morning in the spring of 1883 John Ashley, twenty-one years old, was sitting on a waterfront bench with Beata Kellerman, nineteen, daughter of one of the more prosperous brewers. He was wearing the new suit that he had bought for Easter.
