Last days of Knickerbocker life in New York

Contents

Introduction. By Richard B. Kiinball . . xvii

Note to the Illustrated Edition. By Charles

W. Dayton xxiii

Chapter I

The New York of 1830 — The city's extreme limit — How large fortunes came from the old farms — Sunday in those times — The old Knickerbocker Home — Hospitable habits — Early hours — Knickerbocker drinks — Dutch Reformed Church — The sermon — The walk home — Fashions in woman's dress — Mrs. Croesus — Madame Nouveau-Riche — Woman's modesty and charm — Knickerbocker hospitality — Grandmother's pantry— Grandmother's parlor — The thin-legged piano — Grandfather's toddy — Change from simplicity to display ..... 1-29

Chapter II

The Battery — The fashionable promenade — Castle Garden — Yachting and rowing — Tompkins Blues and Pulaski Cadets— Origin of the "Old Guard" — y[ Contents.

Washington Hotel - Whitney, Phoenix, Schenck, Schermerhorn, and Ray move up-town— Peter Bayard the epicurean-Turtle soup and port-Miss Mann's boarding-house-Her guests-The City Hotel-Its famous furniture— Its table-Its wine-cellar-The Knickerbocker dinner-hour— Colonel Nick Saltus— His costume— Werckmeister the toy importer— Hollingsworth and his self-imposed duties . 30-55

Chapter III

Captain Barker, the would-be philanthropist-His disapproval of the Colonel and Hollingsworth— Trans- Atlantic package ships and clippers— Agam the City Hotel— Its ladies' dining-room— Dancing — John Charruaud,dancing-master-Public balls and concerts held in the dining-room— Henry Russell the English balladist— Captain Marryat writes a verse for Russell —Willard and Jennings— Niblo opens a new place of entertainment— WiUard's troublesome acceptance of an invitation— His wonderful memory for names- Jennings, the disciplinarian— Partnership conferences —Private residences— Stores— Anthony J. Bleecker and Company— Real-estate brokers and speculators— The lawyer's office— Insurance companies—" High Constable" Hays-" Dickey" Riker, the Recorder- " Leather-head " watchmen— Wall Street— Colonel James Watson Webb— His duel with Marshall- Banks— Gold-headed canes— Prime, Ward, and King, Brown Bros —Exchange offices— Wild-cat money- Securities— Inflated currency— Reckless gambling- Gold and the paper dollar— A scene in the Stock Exchange — The purchase of "100 Erie"— War

Contents. vii

rumors — Stock fluctuates and is sold — Lotteries — Mayor Clark ...... 56-92

Chapter IV

The old Tontine Society — Cheap residences — The Wall Street Presbyterian Church — The first Express Companies — Their extraordinary success — John Hoey — The fashionable tailors — The old barbers — The original Grace Church — Doctor Wainwright — Miss Gillingham — Famous choir singers — The old post-office — The Middle Dutch Church — Three great divines — Doctors Brownlee, Knox, and De Witt — The elders and deacons — Several rules for youngsters — Chorister Earl and his tuning-fork — Dr. Samuel H. Cox — Grant Thorburn — The " Mulberry Mania" 93-119

Chapter V

" Eating-Houses" — Fulton Market — Thompson's — Clark and Brown's " English Chop-House " — St. George Cricket Club — The Auction Hotel — United States Hotel — Marine Telegraph — Downing's a political rendezvous — Harlem Railroad and the " great tunnel " — Commodore Vanderbilt — George Law — Jacob Barker — Manhattan Company tea water — Oyster Houses — Windust — His theatrical patrons and collection of mementos — The elder Booth — Kean — Cooper — Tyrone Power — Manager Mitchell — Harry Placide — Delmonico's start — Delmonico's at Fourteenth Street — The Man of the World — Guerin — Palmo introduces Italian Opera and loses his fortune 120-152 viii Contents.

Chapter VI

The promenade — Its limits — How the young men adorned themselves — The attire of young women — The bonnet of the day — The conventional bride and groom a study in black and white — Contoit's garden entertainment at small cost — Trade drives residents from Broadway — Door-plates of distinguished citizens — A mistaken purchase of land — Columbia College — New York Hospital — John Anderson's cigar shop and Mary Rogers — St. John's Park — Contiguous residents — Samuel H. Cox, D.D. — His powerful eloquence — Again on Broadway — Its "characters" — The mad poet — The Ginger-Bread Man — The Lime-Kiln Man — His strange death — Dandy Cox and his turnout 153-173

Chapter VII

The first omnibuses — Their distinguished names — Their several routes — Rivalries and races — Brower's stables — Sol Kipp of Kipp and Brown — His benevolence and popularity in Greenwich village — He fights construction of Eighth Avenue Railroad and dies poor — The Broadway House the Whig headquarters — Its habitues — Selection of local candidates — The Tyler Campaign, 1840 — General Harrison — Martin Van Buren, the " Kinderhook Magician " — The Campaign of '44 — " Harry of the West " — Frelinghuysen responds to the election of Clay — Defeat announced next morning — Vauxhall Garden — Its mystic bowers — Barnum and the manufactured mermaid — The Astor Place Riot — American and Peale's Museums — Their

Contents. ix

collection of horrors — Wax figures — Their lecture rooms — Spiritualism — Yankee Hill — Daddy Rice — Barnum absorbs the American and Peale's and establishes the " high moral drama " . . . 174-192

CHAPTER Vni.

Retirement from business — Very few capitalists — Social distinctions not based upon pecuniary standard — Dignity of age and the respect it commanded — Veneration for home — The house closes at ten — Parties — Receptions — The bridal feast — Toilets of bride and bridesmaids — Grandmother in brocade — Taking tea — Spending the evening — Deliberation in purchases — The two cashmere shawls — True woman in appropriate costume — Modest social gatherings — Formal dinner parties exceptional — Bon Vivants — Thanksgiving-Day dinner — Knickerbocker Puritanism — The advent of the Teuton — The dance — The song — Lager beer — Tammany Hall — Apollo saloon — Annual balls — The Volunteer Firemen and their companies — Names of the prominent foremen — The Bowery boy and girl described and how they disported themselves at a ball at Tammany Hall — A Broadway swell invades the festive scene and retreats under fire, somewhat damaged — The Apollo ball-room — Young America covertly enjoys an evening with the grisettes of New York — The attempt to inaugurate monthly balls at the City Hotel defeated by the dowagers and the ministers — Young America driven to " Apollo " by unyielding formality .... 193-230

X Contents.

Chapter IX

The Park Theatre described— The pit the jury box — Mr. and Mrs. Wood from England provoke a local international cataclysm — Manager Simpson alarmed — Mrs. Wood saves the day and captures the audience — The Park Theatre orchestra — The modest conductor — Mr. Drum and his odd ways — English Opera — Mrs. Austin — Harry Placide — William F. Brough — Galaxy of stars — Mrs. Wheatley — Mrs. Vernon — Misses Emma Wheatley and Clara Fisher — The old time Ballet — Mrs. Gurner — Mrs. Barry — Miss Charlotte Cushman's rise and progress — Miss Wheatley's marriage with Mr. Janies Mason — Her farewell performance at which Junius Brutus Booth makes a characteristic speech — Mrs. Mason's misfortune — Her return to the stage — Her death — Harry Placide's art — Tyrone Power — Charles Kean's first appearance at the Park — His performance of " Richard IH." — The elder Booth in the audience — Audibly commends young Kean 231-265

Chapter X

Peter Richings — His singular versatility as an actor — John Fisher and John Povey in low comedy — William Wheatley — Charles K. and John Mason arrive with Charles Kemble and Fanny Kemble — Saturday night at the Park devoted to experimental acting — An embryo " Romeo's " experience — The stage and scenery of the Park contrasted with more modern appointments — Old New Yorkers who patronized the Park — Edwin Booth at his new theatre — The

Contents. xi

" Hamlet " of Charles Kean and Edwin Booth contrasted — How the stage moon at the Old Park was eclipsed — Thomas S. Hamblin — The Bowery Theatre — The arena of Edwin Forrest's first triumphs — John R. Scott — The pit of the Bowery Theatre and its masters — Josephine Clifton, the tragedy queen — Mrs. Shaw, the excellent actress — The combat between *' Richard " and " Richmond " . . . 266-289

Chapter XI

The Franklin Theatre — " Wake me up when Kirby dies " — National Theatre, Church and Leonard Streets — Chanfrau as " Mose " — James W. Wallack — Browne — Blake — Nickerson — Popular operatic airs — The Vandenhoff family — The Olympic — Mitchell, the actormanager — Burlesque — Mitchell as Fanny Ellsler — Mary Taylor — " Our Mary " demands increase of salary — Mitchell refuses, but the pit demands Miss Taylor's reinstatement — Mitchell yields — Niblo's Garden — Mrs. Niblo the business manager — The Garden becomes a Theatre — The Lafayette and Richmond Hill Theatres — Charles W. Sandford's brief career as a manager — The Broadway Tabernacle, a shrine of fanaticism — Jenny Lind .... 290-312

CHAPTER Xn.

Equipages few and well known — John Hunter of Hunter's Island — " Dandy " Marx, the exquisite — Dr. Valentine Mott — Mayor Philip Hone — A carriage not a necessity — Hackney coaches — Light (?) wagons — Commodore Vanderbilt — Harlem an expanse of fields xii Contents.

— Madison Square surrounded by brick walls — Land speculators — Charles Henry Hall and his domain — Lovers of the horse — Third Avenue the trotting road — Trotters compared — Cato's road house and its frequenters — Five cigars for one shilling — Dollars and population increase in number — Cato's Lane — Yorkville and Harlem 'buses — '' Ion," the road horse — Hazard House — Horses trotting — The Red House speedway — Flora Temple, queen of the trotting turf — Lady Suffolk — Lew Rogers — " Dandy " Marx and his horses Z'^Z-ZZl

CHAPTER XHL

An afternoon on the Road — The Red House and its adornments, Lewis Rogers its proprietor — Edmund Jones — " Dandy " Marx — William Harrington, leader of the Bowery Boys — Sam Segue, the artistic horse dealer — " Mr." Rowan, the church-going horse trader — William T. Porter, the true sportsman and cultivated gentleman — Professional drivers and trainers — Hiram Woodruff — Road racing — Ned Luff, the jolly, free-hearted host — Bradshaw's hotel at 125th street and 3d Avenue — George W. Thompson, the famous ball player — The old clock — William Vyse — — " Gentleman " George L. Pride ; the mystery concerning him — Gilley Browne — Bruce Hunter — Burnham's Mansion House and its attractions — Corporal Thompson's hostelry, where the Fifth Avenue Hotel now stands — Its distinguished frequenters — Adieu to the Bloomingdale Road — Transformation in equipages 334-366

Contents.

CHAPTER XIV xiu

Modern New York — Grandmother's lecture — The Knickerbocker Home ...... 367-371

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Portrait of Abram C. Dayton . . Frontispiece From an oil portrait by Nims, 1838

The Battery in 1830 32

From a drawing by C. Burton

City Hotel, Trinity and Grace Churches, Broadway, in 183 i .....

From a drawing by A. Dick

South Street, near Dover Street, 1831

From a drawing by A. J. Davis

Banks in Wall Street

From a drawing by C. Burton, in 1830

Middle Dutch Church and Sugar-House,

Portrait of Grant Thorburn — y£t. 73 . Junius Brutus Booth ....

Contoit's Garden, 1830 ....

Broadway and Grand Street in 1840 . Tammany Hall in 1830 ....

44 70 96

118 138 160 180 214

XVI

Illustrations.

EuTERPEAN Hall, Broadway, known as the

Apollo Rooms, 1830

The Park Theatre, Park Row, 1831 Portrait of Mrs. Vernon . . . •

Portrait of Mrs. Mason (Emma Wheatley) . Portrait of Henry Placide . . . • Portrait of William Mitchell NiBLo's Garden, about 1831 . • • •

From an old wood-cut pnnt

Burnham's Mansion-house, Bloomingdale

232 248 252 260 298 304

Introduction

BY RICHARD B. KIMBALL,

AUTHOR OF "ST. LEGER."

NO city of the United States challenges such romantic interest in its earlier life as the City of New York. The towns of New England, of the Middle States, and of the South were settled mainly by the English, who brought with them the, to us, commonplace traits and characteristics of the localities from which they came and in which there was little to inspire romance. The conditions were essentially different with regard to the settlement of New York. Hendrik Hudson landed on Manhattan Island in 1609. ^^ took possession in the name of the Dutch government, and sailed up the river which to-day bears his name as far as what is now the city of Hudson. His report led to the rapid colonizaxviii Introduction.

tion of the new territory. The location for the town to be called New Amsterdam was unrivalled. It was not an indigent class which came here to locate, nor a class which left their homes for greater relictions tolerance. The town was built up by thrifty Hollanders, who brought with them the quaint manners and habits of preceding generations, and these were handed down by the people of New Amsterdam from father to son. The Dutch extended their settlements along the Hudson to Albany and up the Mohawk River, where to this day in some families the langruaije of Holland is still familiar. Large manor estates were secured, and it is but a few years since the title of Patroon fell into disuse. In 1647 Peter Stuyvesant was appointed Governor. His " reign " was beneficent and prosperous. Those were palmy days for the Dutch in New Amsterdam during the years in which that doughty governor had sway. There was no change in the simple habits of the people or in their honest dealings with their neighbors. Stuyvesant was governor seventeen years, when in 1664 the town was captured by the English and its name changed to New York. The Dutch were restive under the new rule, and after the lapse

Introduction. xix

of nine years the place was recaptured by Holland and called New Orange, after the famous Prince of Orange. The new occupation lasted but a year. By a treaty with the States General it was restored to England and renamed New York. The Hollanders clung to their ancient customs and habits, and many of them were grafted upon the English ways and methods. The tide of immigration which swept into New York by degrees changed the strong Dutch element to an English atmosphere, but it was quite a hundred years before it faded away under the influence of the immense increase of population making a metropolis of New York with the habits of cosmopolitan life.

It would seem that no more interesting volume could be written than one describing the last days of Knickerbocker life in New York. Such a volume was before his decease prepared by Mr. Abram C. Dayton, of this city, a gentleman of great culture and refinement. Mr. Dayton was of an ancient and honorable lineage. His father, Charles Willoughby Dayton, was an opulent merchant of this city, who came to New York shortly after the beginning of the present century and who was identified

XX Introduction.

with its growth and prosperity. Mr. Dayton, the author of this work, was born here in 1818. He was an only son and had all the accomplishments that education, travel, and wealth could give. He was sent abroad to complete his studies. After finishing his course at the Dresden "gymnasium," which is similar to our " college," he completed a term of lectures at Heidelbere and then went on an extended European tour. While in Holland he was struck with the similarity between many of the customs of his native city and those of the Dutch towns, an impression greatly strengthened on coming back to America.

Some time after his return home Mr. Dayton married Miss Maria A. Tomlinson, a young lady highly intellectual and accomplished, the daughter of an eminent physician of New York, Dr. David Tomlinson.

When Mr. Dayton came from Europe he was astonished to find how rapidly the old customs and traditions which were fresh in his memory from childhood were fading away into extinction. He felt that some effort should be made to picture the last days of Knickerbocker life here during his declining years, and prepared the book now published. He died

Introduction. xxi

August, 1877, ^'^ his 60th year. His wife and four children survive him. Mr, Dayton was a man of most engaging manners, charming in conversation which his travels and associations made especially interesting. He was remarkably fine looking, very courteous in his demeanor and elegant in his manners, after the style of the leading young men of his class. His fine literary tastes, his quick appreciation, and his aptitude in composition fitted him for the work he undertook and so happily finished. The publication of this volume has been carried out by his eldest son, the Hon. Charles W. Dayton, an eminent member of the New York bar and prominent in political affairs. The writer of this brief notice thus associates his own name with that of a dear and life-long friend.

NOTE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION.

THE growth, the advantages, and the development of the City of New York are without parallel in the annals of a self-governing people, and another generation will probably find it second to no city in the world.

Civic pride is becoming a motive force among its increasing and cosmopolitan population, a large majority of whom are constantly striving towards its more perfect administration and adornment.

The descendants of the earlier settlers are fond of traversing its older streets, of bringing to mind some of its old-time characteristics, and of drawing comparisons between the staid methods and manners of their ancestors and the methods and manners of Greater New York.

xxiv Note to the Illustrated Edition.

Twenty-five years ago, my father, doubtless, indulged in similar reflections. The last few years of his life were spent in retirement. His impaired health found relaxation in literary pursuits, and many will remember how inexhaustible was the fund of anecdote and pleasant humor, with which he was wont to entertain the household circle, concerning " New York forty years ago." This theme found expression in the sketches written in 1871 and printed in 1880. He was himself witness to the scenes described and contemporary with the events detailed. Those who knew him and whose eyes may meet these pages, will recall the delightful manner, the amiable, sparkling flow of conversation, the graceful modesty, the unreserved honesty, which charmed, attracted, and won all who came within his environment.

" A lovelier gentleman, Framed in the prodigality of nature,

The spacious world cannot again afford."

The typographical form of the original issue did not do justice to the literary quality or the historic value of the work, and the edition was

Note to the Illustrated Edition. xxv

practically limited to private circulation among the friends of the author.

To Mr. Douglas Taylor of this city, I am under obligations for a number of the designs utilized for the illustrations.

The volume is now presented to the public in the belief that it will make a place for itself in the literature of our city, and will aid to preserve pleasing and picturesque memories of an interesting transition period in the history of New York.

Charles W. Dayton.

New York, December, i8g6.

Author's Preface

IF it be an admitted fact that " a man is known by the company he keeps," it cannot be a wrong proposition, that a state of society can best be described and understood by a " bird'seye view " of the habits, customs, occupations, and amusements which ruled in every-day life at that particular epoch. In the endeavor to present these peculiarities, it matters little if occasional discrepancies or even exaggerations should creep into details which are honestly intended to be truthful and, in the main, exact. Time, despite the most conscientious resolves, will light up pleasurable reminiscences of the past with an enhanced glow ; it also will throw a denser shadow over recollections of those dark spots met with even in the sunny stage of childhood. Due allowance should always be made for the irresistible influence of prejudice :

xxviii Author s Preface.

once engendered it never slumbers ; it grows with our growth, strengthens with our strength, and, as if it had become a dominant part of our being, rules supreme over man's warring powers, when age weakens reason. The impressions made by early associations are indelibly stamped —

" for lives there one Whose infant breath was drawn, or boyhood's days Of happiness were passed beneath that sun.

That in his manhood's prime can calmly gaze Upon that bay, or on that mountain stand, Nor feel the prouder of his native land ? "

The landmarks of the Knickerbocker era are one by one disappearing, and very soon all will be swept from the face of Manhattan Island ; and scarcely a vestige will remain to bring to mind the staid customs and primitive mode of life which ruled in New York only forty years ago.

Forty years ago New York was by comparison a village ; one cargo of the mammoth Great Eastern would have stocked its warehouses with luxuries; the passengers of one train of cars from the far West would have overflowed its houses of entertainment ; its

Author's Preface. xxlx

limited places of amusement were kept alive, but the managers did not amass wealth ; its quiet streets offered little inducement for display, but at the same time they afforded limited scope for detective skill ; its aggregate municipal outlay would scarcely be considered an object by a modern politician. Home with its legitimate influences ruled supreme, and to the unintroduced traveller from the Old World our city offered but few attractions. It was unhesitatingly pronounced dull by the English sporting gentleman, " horrible " by the Parisian who had revelled in the ever-changing pleasures of the gay Capital.

After New York emerged from the financial crash of 1837, occasioned primarily by the disastrous conflagration of 1835, but augmented by the explosion of a land speculation which would be unheeded now, it sprang as if by magic into metropolitan proportions. It became the moneyed centre of the continent ; its banks were the depositories of the almost worthless tokens with which the country was flooded during the suspension of specie payments. This sudden accumulation of doubtful securities encouraged increased individual expenditure ; rents advanced, luxuries were introduced

XXX Author s Preface.

by foreign capitalists, and the proceeds invested in the rapidly appreciating lands lying adjacent to the city limits. The now crowning ''mortgage^' to which the prudent Knickerbocker only had recourse in the last extremity, was not considered a disgraceful fixture on the family mansion, and pretentious dwellings were erected on the surroundings of Washington Parade Ground. Albion, St. Marks, Lafayette, Waverley, Washington, and other grand places were inaugurated through the instrumentality of " wz*/^^^^" tenders, and grandfather's simple Knickerbocker home was abandoned for more sumptuous residences in fashionable quarters. This new order of things necessitated new appliances of every sort, and the regime of the past was banished as if by a wave of the " enchanter's magic wand." History scarcely presents the parallel of this sudden, marked transition from Dutch Gotham, with its noiseless, steady routine, to metropolitan New York, with its bustling, flighty excitement.

Abram C. Dayton.

New York, December, 1S71.

LAST DAYS OF KNICKERBOCKER LIFE IN NEW YORK.

IN NEW YORK.

Chapter I

The New York of 1830 — The city's extreme limit — How large fortunes came from the old farms — Sunday in those times — The old Knickerbocker Home — Hospitable habits — Early hours — Knickerbocker drinks— Dutch Reformed Church — The sermon — The walk home — Fashions in woman's dress — Mrs. Croesus — Madame Nouveau-Riche — Woman's modesty and charm — Knickerbocker hospitality — Grandmother's pantry — Grandmother's parlor — The thin-legged piano — Grandfather's toddy — Change from simplicity to display.

THE New York of 1830 was very unlike the New York of to-day. Its unprecedented change, or rather growth, was unheeded, and is yet not fully realized by very many of that class, who, though native born, have floated along without noting passing events, contenting themselves with the enjoyment of the rich fruits derived from their ancestral farms. Knickerbocker frugality was a blessing to such of the present generation as can trace their genealogy on Manhattan Island for a century, while those whose titles date back only fifty years, possess many substantial reasons to be thankful. They have not toiled, neither have they spun ; yet while they have slumbered in idle comfort, their inherited acres have changed to city lots ; and city lots, no matter how situated, represent dollars and produce income.

In 1830 Prince Street was on the very verge of civilization. Niblo's Garden was a garden in very truth, a rural spot ; and it was probably leased at a rental which would now be refused for the humblest plot on the Island, though Niblo's was situated on the only thoroughfare, except the Bowery, which the city of Gotham could boast. Thousands of the occupants of brown stone mansions which grace our leading avenues are, as is well known, not "to the manor born." They came from the North, South, East, and West, when the spirit of

Knickerbocke}' Life. 3

speculation settled upon the heretofore sleeping Dutch city. As a rule they brought little with them save the spirit of enterprise, an indomitable will, and a firm determination to win both name and fortune. The wiry, energetic sons of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont were among the first to step to the front in the new El Dorado, and the footprints of their industrious toil are to-day plainly discernible on Manhattan Island. Previous to the advent of this adventurous horde, Gotham under its primitive rule was satisfied to leave well enough alone ; and it is through that Gotham the writer purposes to ramble with his readers, to narrate nothing but facts, to describe person, custom and locality as they existed in his youth. This ramble will not prove dry or uninstructive, as the details appear, on our tramp from the old Battery. The marvellous progress which a few short years have witnessed cannot fail to excite both wonder and interest as the marked changes are one by one noted.

The vast majority of the citizens of New York now consider Sunday as a day set apart for pleasure and recreation, and in that respect our city is not very far behind the gayest capitals of the old world. It is true there still lingers a slight sprinkling of the old leaven of sti'zct observa7tce, which essays to make itself seen, felt, understood, and bravely tries to do battle for the " aiicien regime " against the marked and powerful encroachments of unchecked revelry. It is still decreed by Fashion that to attend church is respectable, but then the imperious dame designates where and how her votaries shall figure in the sanctuary. Matins, however, are the mode ; afternoon services in the churches as a rule are unattended, and the officiating clergymen could almost with impunity repeat their morning discourses, for empty pews are not supposed to be critical hearers. The popular theory, modern to us, that Sunday was intended as a day especially set apart for out-door exercise for the toiling artisan and his housed family, has been appropriated by the leaders of society, as is fully demonstrated by the fact that on no afternoon of the week is the Central Park or the Drive more crowded with equipages or more gorgeous in display of toilets and appointments. Our theatres as yet have not opened their doors on Sunday night ; still the initiative step has been taken in that direction. Concert halls and gardens are in full blast during the Summer months, where orchestras discourse choice selections of music, styled, for appearance, sacred melodies, some of which, to the unprofessional hearer, sound amazingly as if stolen from La Grande Duchesse, or Le Nozze. In this rapid age some sacred stanzas may have been composed for special adaptation to the popular " Music Lesson," or Le Sabre de Mon Pere. They must have been, or such a thoroughly educated musician as Theodore Thomas would not have directed his unrivalled orchestra to intone them on Sunday night for the edification of his enrapt audience.

What a contrast presents itself between the short rollicking Sunday of to-day with its music and dance ; its brilliantly lighted saloons filled with an eager crowd of pleasure-seekers ; its endless train of promenaders ; its open shops in the full tide of successful traffic, and the solemn, long Knickerbocker Sabbath, when the fourth commandment was in full force. The old time Knickerbocker Sabbath was in very truth a day especially set apart for worship. The laws of society so decreed, and public opinion was a stern master then ; so woe betide the man, woman, or child who dared to disobey or disregard its stringent rules. From early dawn all secular affairs were religiously avoided ; the family meals were but cold collations of Saturday baked meats — it was decreed that man servant and maid servant should rest.

No sound save the tolling of the church-bell broke the awful stillness. At stated hours, three times during the day, at ten o'clock, at three o'clock, and at seven o'clock, stereotype processions of solemn men and women, accompanied by subdued, silent children even of the most tender age slowly wended their way to church, as if they were assisting at the funeral of a dear departed friend. A bare cold nod of recognition was all that was vouchsafed to the most intimate passing acquaintance. The coy maiden looked as demure as her spectacled grandmother who led her protectingly by the hand ; the youth clad in best Sunday roundabout, appeared as stolid as the well-fed museum anaconda, for the boy had been crammed that morning with catechism ; pater and mater familias bore upon their countenances the consciousness of their awful responsibility ; while Betty, the help, arrayed in her best calico, cleanest pinafore, and brightest bandanna turban, trudged along in the rear of the family circle as an evidence that the family was doing its whole duty. When the bell ceased tolling and the service was about to commence, heavy iron chains were drawn tightly across the streets adjacent to the different places of worship, that no possible noise might distract the congregation from serious meditations.