Bloomberg quotes O. Henry (new cites from 1850)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

It appears that George Thompson's original 1999 post here has been  lost.
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I've added some new cites.
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_http://www.barrypopik.com/article/206/new-york-will-be-a-nice-town-when-its-f
inished_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/article/206/new-york-will-be-a-nice-town-when-its-finished) 
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New York will be a nice town when it's finished
On January 1, 2006, in his inaugural address, New York City Mayor Michael  
Bloomberg stated: “It was O. Henry who once wrote that ‘New York will be a 
great  place—if they ever finish it.’” 
The expression had been in use at least half a century before O. Henry’s  
time. Why didn’t the speechwriter(s) consult  me?
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http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/ny-inaug1002,0,2440124.st
ory?coll=nyc-manheadlines-politics
“After  all,” Bloomberg said, “it was O. Henry who once wrote that ‘New 
York will be a  great place – if they ever finish it.’ But over the next four 
years, we will  neither turn back nor hold back. Staying united, we will renew 
the promise of  our city—and commit ourselves to finishing our unfinished  work.
”
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6 July 1850, Scientific American, pg.  330:
This is but a hint of what is going on in the way of improvement, and  there 
can be no doubt that New York will be a great place when it is  done.
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8 July 1853, New York Daily Times, pg. 4:
It is  a common remark among strangers in, or transient visitors to, our 
great  Metropolis, that “New-York will be a superb city when it is finished;” but 
when  that is to be, they argue, is a matter very hard to  determine;...
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5 June 1856, New York Observer and  Chronicle, pg. 183:
“New York will be a great city if it ever gets  built.”
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21 January 1894, Boston Daily Globe, pg.  16:
New York will be a great place 25 years from now.
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15  January 1903, New York Times, “Vaudeville in Harlem,” pg. 9:
“I must  say New York will be a great city—when it is finished.”
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15  March 1908, New York Times, pg. SM10:
FIERMAN, JACK, Bronx, N. Y.—“New  York will be a fine place when it’s 
finished.”
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29 June 1913,  New York Times, pg. SM7:
IT’S an old saying that New York will be a  fine city when it is finished, 
but few who say it realize how far the city has  gone in laying down lines on 
which its future must develop and how many great  works are now under way which 
will be sufficient for its needs for years to  come. 
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13 July 1930, New York Times, pg. 120:
THE familiar  remark attributed to the visiting Englishman—“New York will be 
a great city when  they get it finished”—may also be applied to the States’s 
highway  system.
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George Thompson, NYU Elmer Bobst librarian and  word hunter extraordinaire, 
traced the expression to the 1820s. Unfortunately,  his post of this citation 
has been lost in the American Dialect Society  archives. He posted this 
information to the American Dialect Society web site in  June 1999:
A couple of months ago, I posted a paragraph from that day’s  New York Times 
containing the slur on The Big Apple that “it’ll be a nice town,  when it’s 
finished”. I accompanied the quotation from the Times with one with  the same 
message from a New York newspaper of the 1820s, noting that although  the Times 
had claimed to be quoting Will Rogers, and a friend had told me the  line was 
in O Henry, I could offer nothing to bridge the 170 year gap.  
This afternoon I had the chance to spend a few minutes looking at a  
marvelously attractive new book by Nancy Groce called New York: Songs of the  City, a 
survey of popular songs about New York, heavily illustrated with  sheet music 
covers and other good stuff. It’s likely to contain riches, but at  least it 
contains this: “Arthur Guiterman’s 1919 poem ‘New York’”, set to music  
several decades later. As quoted, the poem reads 
The city is cutting away, / The gasmen are hunting a leak, / They’re putting  
down asphalt today, / To change it for stone in a week. / The builders are  
raising a wall, / The wreckers are tearing one down, / Enacting a drama of all  
[/] our changeable, turbulent town. 
For here is an edifice meant / To stand for an eon or more, / And there’s a  
gospeler’s tent, / And there is a furniture-store. / Our suburbs are under the 
 plow, / Our scaffolds are raw in the sun, / We’re drunk and disorderly now, 
/  But—‘Twill be a great place when it’s done. (p. 113) 
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