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 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 
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TWELFTH-NIGHT 
 
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■felftli-ligjit. 
 
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 Amongst the pleasant anniversaries wliicli a new year brings 
 with it, comes the ever-welcome Century Festival. This event, 
 so interesting to loyal Oenturiaus, took place, as usual, on 
 Twelfth-Night, sixth of January, which this year fell upon 
 Thursday evening. It was attended with all the ceremonies 
 peculiar to this festival, one of which is the ceremony of elect- 
 ing a Queen; it being common to both May-day and Twelfth- 
 Night, and one that throws a brighter veil of poetry over these 
 holidays than characterizes any other days on the festive cal- 
 endar. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the attractions of the 
 Century rooms; the elegant saloon and charming ladies' boudoir 
 were as beautiful and impressive as the year before, nor is it 
 incumbent on us to state that an immense crowd of fair ladies, 
 in tasteful and rich costume, imparted more life and brilliancy 
 to the saloon than black coats do in a business or convivial 
 
4 
 
 meeting. Several smaller rooms were thrown open, and used 
 as dressing rooms, conversation rooms, etc. We cannot avoid 
 noticing, however, out of our sensitiveness for pictorial 
 features, that one of the most beautiful, as well as peculiar 
 effects of this brilliant assemblage, was to be seen in its per- 
 fection only by those loyal subjects and guests who gathered 
 in the great room at an early hour, or who lingered in or 
 around the dance after the midnight hour had somewhat 
 thinned the apartments. It is most happily described by a 
 writer in a contemporary journal (The Home Journal), with the 
 feeling and judgment of one alike skilled in female beauty and 
 in the magic effects of light and color. In his words: " While 
 the grand saloon was filling, the effect was marvellously beau- 
 tiful — the elegant dresses of the fashion and beauty of the city 
 telling with great value and relief against. the crimson back- 
 ground. Single figures and combined groups — the sharp intag- 
 lio of a fine profile — the luminous brilliancy of full shoulders, 
 or rounded arms — the varied and picturesquely-becoming head- 
 dresses, having a detached and picture-like impressiveness, 
 which a room of such size and hangings can alone give." 
 
 All this is true, and "yet scarce half the truth is told." But 
 we must proceed. Before glancing at the order of proceedings, 
 we have to state that the lower story of the club edifice was 
 less elaborately decorated than the year before; festoons, gar- 
 lands, and variegated rosettes, intermingled with evergreens, 
 were appended to walls, ceilings, cornices, and staircases, pro- 
 ducing, if not so imposing an effect as middle-age trappings, yet a 
 
s 
 
 social and cheerful aspect. Conspicuous among these was an im- 
 mense "salve" in the hall facing the entrance, assuring the fair 
 guests as they arrived that they were most cordially welcome. 
 
 The company assembled at half-past eight, and at ten o'clock 
 the cake was cut, and passed round, one fair lady finding (by 
 chance, undoubtedly) an emblem of eternal sovereignty — a ring 
 — in one of the pieces of cake, and she was accordingly dis- 
 covered, and announced as Queen. Some spiritual and, we 
 think, jealous descendant of the Eastern Magi, must have pre- 
 sided over the revels, for oue of the wisest of the wise men of 
 the club, its president, was elected as the Queen's consort ; our 
 republican candor constrains us to say that the title of King, 
 allowed him openly by courtesy, was traitorously coveted 
 by some of his junior peers. "We must here, by the way, men- 
 tion one peculiarity of the etiquette of the Oenturial Court, 
 variant from ordinary usage, though we do not at all doubt that 
 it is founded on the highest authority, and was adopted after 
 profound research and grave deliberation. It is this: Her 
 Majesty the Queen is regarded as the reigning sovereign, and 
 receives the homage of her subjects, whilst His Majesty has 
 only the place and honor of a King Consort, and announces 
 and bears himself as " Her Majesty's highest and most de- 
 voted subject." The election over, and the ring having 
 been placed on Her Majesty's finger, the Queen and King 
 were invested with the regal insignia. A tastefully designed 
 cap, after the fashion of that of the Doge of Venice, made 
 of ermine and crimson velvet, surmounted by a golden orb, 
 
6 
 
 was set upon His Majesty's head; a red cordon was passed 
 over his neck, and a golden sceptre was placed in his hand. 
 The Queen was crowned with a crimson cap, d la grecque, and 
 a classic gold coronet-wreath, while the grand cross of the order 
 of the Century, attached to a blue cordon, was suspended over 
 her shoulder. After the robing ceremonies were completed, 
 acclamations burst forth, and the assembly of loyal and enthusi- 
 astic subjects chanted, as if in one voice, the following anthem : 
 
 queen's anthem. 
 
 Hail to our gracious queen, 
 Well hath she chosen been, 
 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 Freely we own thy sway, 
 Humbly our homage pay, 
 Gladly we all obey, 
 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 
 Honor the newly crowned, 
 Raise high the festive sound, 
 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 Here on this festive night, 
 Gathered to grace our rite, 
 Subjects we all unite, 
 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 
 Earth knows no queen like ours, 
 Strew, then, her path with flowers, 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 
 Here on our bended knee, 
 Homage we pay to thee, 
 Queen of the Century, 
 
 Hail gracious queen. 
 
7 
 
 Ushers of the golden rod then approached, and presented 
 distinguished guests, among them the ladies of our national 
 representatives at the courts of Spain and Austria, including a 
 number of representatives of the home court of Beauty ; the 
 whole of the court present then made a circuit before their ma- 
 jesties, being rapidly introduced as they passed. The presenta- 
 tions being over, the King and Queen arose, and, to the sound of 
 music, led the way to the banqueting rooms below, followed 
 by their subjects, and preceded by two high officers of state, hold- 
 ing golden rods, and walking backward, facing their majesties, 
 down the grand staircase ; their majesties took seats on chairs 
 of state placed upon a dais erected behind the rich and 
 luxuriantly spread table, upon which the customary boar's 
 head was not forgotten. The scene that followed baffles 
 description. No baronial hall on Christmas day, or Greek 
 symposium could present a more animated picture. None 
 but a combatant in the thickest of the fight could do jus- 
 tice to the gallantry of the cavaliers, who so eagerly pressed 
 forward to do service for the ladies. As soon as — to use the 
 Homeric phrase as rendered by Pope — " the rage of hunger 
 was appeased," the King, commanding silence in the court, re- 
 minded the assemblage that, according to immemorial usage, it 
 was their duty to offer their congratulations to the new Queen 
 in the form of a toast, and this duty, as her majesty's first and 
 most devoted subject, it was his proud office to discharge by pro- 
 posing 
 
 U TUE TTEALTn OF THE QuEEN." 
 
8 
 
 To this toast, Mr. P. A. Porter replied, honored by Her 
 
 Majesty's commands : 
 
 As a loyal subject, standing by chance near the throne, I have been 
 honored by Her Majesty's commands. I am instructed to thank the 
 assembly for the enthusiasm just manifested. Her Majesty is aware 
 that it is not usual for crowned heads to acknowledge the applause of 
 their subjects by more than a faint smile of approval ; but Her Majesty 
 desires to begin her reign by an act of great condescension, and, more- 
 over, she recognizes around her a roomful of sovereigns. If the loyal 
 subjects of this realm expect an inaugural address from their gracious 
 Queen, they are doomed to disappointment. Inaugurals are plenty — 
 they are also dangerous. Gratitude, Her Majesty knows, has been de- 
 fined to be a lively sense of benefits to come. Let a grateful people 
 look forward, therefore, to a long future of possible favor. Some sove- 
 reigns have reigned, but have not governed ; some have governed, but 
 have not reigned (long). It is hoped that the present government will 
 be a judicious mixture of the two sorts of rule ; and, that Her Majesty's 
 subjects on the next new year — unlike Her Majesty's subjects on the 
 last new year — will regret that the reign (rain) is over. The future 
 of all political authority, however, is uncertain ; but I dare to exceed 
 my instructions, and to predict that there is one authority and one 
 empire which will suffer nothing in Her Majesty's hands — an empire 
 that depends on neither chance nor choice — older than kingdoms or 
 republics — that began in Eden, and is to end with the last man and 
 the empire of her sex. 
 
 Her Majesty commanded me to be brief. I obey with reluctance ; 
 but I am instructed by the Queen to present for the acclaim of all loyal 
 subjects, the exalted personage who sits beside her — who is alike King 
 of Twelfth-Night and President of our little republic, — a royal Presi- 
 dent and a presiding King, who derives one set of powers from the 
 cake, and another from the constitution. Out of respect to that con- 
 stitution and to that great republic, which overshadow both our little 
 kingdom and our little republic, 1 give as the next name to be 
 honored — "The President. 1 '' 
 
9 
 
 To tills toast, which was enthusiastically received, His Majesty 
 was graciously pleased to respond in person. But before com- 
 mencing his speech he respectfully submitted to Her Majesty 
 the Queen the propriety of conferring some high dignity upon 
 the last orator, to which Her Majesty graciously assenting, the 
 honors of a peerage were conferred in due form. 
 
 The King then observed, that by " the President," on this occasion, 
 but one individual could be meant. However many might bear that 
 title, whether in a political, financial, or literary rule, here the title 
 could have no other in view than the President of the Century. Hav- 
 ing known that high functionary longer than any one else, knowing 
 him better than any one could, even as " his other self," he was 
 bound to pronounce his eulogy. He then proceeded to recapitulate the 
 merits and glories of the President's gentle government, equalling in 
 quiet, in good nature, and in good fellowship Beranger's good King of 
 Yvetot, whilst he far surpassed even that classic monarch in the glories 
 of his administration. Under his sway the arts had flourished, and 
 the walls of hundreds of halls and saloons throughout the land glowed 
 with the living genius of the artists of the Century; whilst on all sides 
 noble churches, palatial residences, and commercial edifices of more 
 than palatial magnificence, had arisen — rapid and lofty as the moun- 
 tain mists, firm and solid as the mountains themselves — from the con- 
 structive skill of our architects. Letters had been fostered, and the 
 varied talent of the members of this intellectual State poured forth in 
 every form, from the light song or gay satire to the massy Cyclo- 
 pedia. The " Century " had been recognized among the powers of 
 the earth in the Literary Congress at Brussels, in the person of its 
 gifted ambassador. But it was the peculiar happiness of the distin- 
 guished personage whose health had been so cordially received now to 
 reign by a double right. It was the special praise of the greatest of 
 the Bourbons, Henry IV"., that he reigned by a double right, " by the 
 right of conquest and the right of birth." So the President of the 
 
10 
 
 Century now reigned over a loyal and loving people by the double right 
 of popular election and the divine right of Twelfth-Night choice by the 
 mysterious cake and ring. His majesty said that he could acknow- 
 ledge but one contemporary sovereign having a similar title. This 
 was his imperial brother the Emperor and former President of France. 
 He then expressed a fervent wish that his brother President Buchanan 
 might resemble himself in happy fortune, and not only pass quietly to 
 regal honors, but have the higher happiness of receiving with them a 
 Queen, as young, as brilliant, and as beautiful as her who now shared 
 the Centurial throne. His Majesty then entered on a glowing though 
 rapid view of the future fortunes of civilization under such a triple 
 presidential royal reign. Then he said, the imperial Eagle of France 
 would, from her Alpine perch, overshadow Italy and the Mediterra- 
 nean with one wing, and bathe the pinions of the other in the wild 
 and stormy North Sea. Then the American Eagle, hovering over the 
 Rocky Mountains, would stretch her wide plumage from the Pacific to 
 the Gulf of Mexico, whilst far above all, the Centurial Eagle, grasping 
 the pallet of art in one talon, and wielding the thunderbolt of the press 
 in the other, would soar in the very highest heaven of invention. 
 
 Here His Majesty, overpowered with the magnitude and mag- 
 nificence of these conceptions, paused, and then added : 
 
 It will take these three eagles a longer time than we can now 
 spare to wait for them to descend to the earth again from their airy 
 height, and we have other duties to discharge. There need not be any 
 apprehension on their account. Our eagles are exceedingly well trained 
 and in constant practice, and will come down from their rhetorical 
 flight very safely, and quite in time for the use of the various orators 
 here and elsewhere who have engaged their services. 
 
 His Majesty then graciously concluded by a cordial welcome 
 to the fair guests of the evening, wishing them long years of 
 continued health, happiness, and beauty. Then, receiving 
 
11 
 
 from the chief butler, the Hon. Mr. Sparrowgrass, the ancient 
 massive Gov. Stuyvesant two-handled silver goblet, he requested 
 the whole court to join in the health of " Our Fair Guests," 
 which was drank with great applause. 
 To this toast Mr. W. C. Bryant responded. He said : 
 
 May it please the King, and above all, may it please the Queen. 
 I hope it will not be regarded as a departure from strict propriety if a 
 poet should respond to the toast just given. In all ages, from the 
 time of Homer to this day, it is the writers of verse who have been 
 foremost in celebrating the praise of woman. Who wrote the Merite 
 des .Femmes? A poet, of course. Inasmuch, therefore, as this is one 
 of the cases in which it does not seem to be expected that any repre- 
 sentative of that eloquent sex will stand forth to address the assem- 
 bly, I will venture to say a word or two. 
 
 I am aware that there are many of that sex, in honor of which this 
 toast has been proposed, who regard associations like ours as hostile 
 to their own just and proper influence. They look upon all clubs as 
 not only selfish and exclusive, but as absolutely seditious — as so many 
 centres of rebellion against the mildest, most heneficent, happiest and 
 best government of which the mind can conceive — as monastic in the 
 worst sense — combinations of men held together by the love of eating, 
 drinking, and smoking, and contempt for the women. I beg leave to 
 ask if there is anything in the proceedings of this evening which gives 
 a shadow of countenance to this opinion? Of all clubs of which I 
 have any knowledge, the Century has distinguished itself by instituting 
 periodical and frequent festivities for the ladies' sake. Everything we 
 see about us this evening, all the preparations for this brilliant festi- 
 vity, this hanquet. the music, the decorations of these halls are so 
 many propitiatory offerings laid at the feet of woman — so many 
 expressive and, I hope, persuasive salutations to a league of perpetual 
 amity. When these apartments were designed and built, what idea 
 was uppermost in the minds of those who directed the architect? I 
 
12 
 
 was so to construct them as best to minister to the convenience and 
 pleasure of those who now grace the floor as our guests. 
 
 It is related in ancient history — you will find the record in an old- 
 fashioned book called the Spectator, which was much in the hands of 
 our grandmothers, and which I believe has been seen by some ladies 
 of the present generation whose tastes are decidedly antiquarian — that 
 long ago, in a distant country, a tribe of Amazons were at war with a 
 large army of the other sex who had encamped against them. The 
 exigencies of the warfare, by some means, led to a truce. I am sorry 
 that I cannot be more particular — that I cannot state the occasion and 
 terms of the truce, nor the era and scene of these events ; they are im- 
 portant points in history, and worthy of a careful investigation ; but 
 not being able to consult the very scarce work I have named, I must 
 pass them over. 
 
 The history proceeds to relate, that to while away the dull hours of 
 the truce, the contending parties paid each other occasional visits in 
 their respective encampments. At these times the men, to divert 
 their new acquaintances, made a rude music by clashing their swords 
 against their bucklers, keeping regular time, and the women, not to be 
 outdone, took their lighter weapons, their long slender arrows, and 
 pattered on their empty helmets, which they had taken off to let their 
 long locks flow down loose upon their shoulders. The younger of both 
 sexes capered with delight to these sounds, until at length their leaps 
 and other movements grew into regular dances, such as we shall have 
 to-night, after this refection is over. At length the parties made them- 
 selves so agreeable to each other, that when the truce had expired, they 
 could not find it in their hearts to renew the war. The truce was pro- 
 longed, and finally grew into a solid, unbroken, perpetual peace; the 
 two tribes became blended into one, and formed a prosperous, peace- 
 ful, and highly civilized nation. 
 
 So may it perhaps be with the Century. The imperfect civilization 
 in which it had its origin may, through the gentle influence of woman, 
 pass into a stage of higher refinement. Ours is a barbarian institution, 
 we acknowledge, but it may prove a transition to something better. 
 
>3 
 
 If our gracious Queen and her illustrious maids of honor, and the 
 bright company of matrons and damsels who compose her court, have 
 done us the honor to look at the programme of the evening, they have 
 seen that for to-night there is to be no smoking in any part of the 
 house. Let them well weigh the magnitude of the sacrifice which has 
 been made for their sake — the "luxury of a tenth cigar" voluntarily 
 and freely abandoned. From such a beginning what may we not hope 
 for the future. The time may arrive, sooner perhaps than any who 
 are here now expect, when, at some happy epoch, to be denominated 
 in history the era of the feminine invasion, those who are now 
 our visitors shall become the joint possessors of these apartments, and 
 if joint possessors, they are sure to bear absolute sway ; when our ex- 
 cellent and honored president, now our King, and the finest scholar that 
 ever wore a crown, having voluntarily divested himself of his autho- 
 rity, our fair Queen, with due pomp and ceremony, and with demon- 
 strations of rejoicing that shall shake this building from the roof to 
 the foundation-stones, shall be installed as the Lady President of the 
 Century, and smoking be banished, not for a single night, but forever. 
 
 And now, with the leave of our august monarch, the benefits, and 
 bounties, and benignities of whose reign we all heartily acknowledge j 
 and with the leave also of the royal partner of his throne, to whom our 
 obligations are no less profound, and towards whom our loyalty, 1 
 trust, is even more enthusiastic, I take the liberty of directing the 
 attention of the company to another subject by proposing this toast — 
 
 "The King of the Dutch, the firm and faithful ally of our gracious 
 Queen." 
 
 "Whether on principles of consanguinity or of nomenclature, 
 or, as there is reason to believe, of actual delegation from the 
 crown of Holland, we are unable to say, but Mr. Edgar S. Van 
 Winkle replied to this toast: 
 
 May it please your Majesties : Whether His Majesty, the King of the 
 Dutch, recognizes me as his minister plenipotentiary or no. I have no 
 
doubt he will consider me as a very extraordinary ambassador. The 
 honor you have intended to my royal master by including him as one 
 of the principalities and powers remembered on this occasion, namely, 
 your own royal selves, the fair sex, and the King of the Dutch, will be 
 to him an unheard of gratification. Personally, I also feel proud and 
 yet abashed at being an orator on this great event, and permitted to 
 speak after you have listened to the echoes of the thunders of the fall- 
 ing ocean of Niagara, and to the master of the music of that harp, 
 whose sighing strains and triumphant tones have become a national 
 possession and a national pride. The compliment you have paid my 
 sovereign will be peculiarly agreeable to him, coming from such an 
 ancient and honorable source. 
 
 As my diplomatic labors, since my sojourn at your Majesties' court, 
 have not been extremely arduous, I have beguiled my leisure by ran- 
 sacking the archives of that stupendous monument of literature, the 
 Century library. Fortunate in a McMullen, it needs not a ^iaglia- 
 bachi or a Cogswell — they would be but supernumeraries in that un- 
 paralleled collection. The prosecution of my studies has convinced me 
 that, with the exception of the imperial family of China, your Majes- 
 ties' lineal predecessors extend back beyond the point that any of the 
 royal lines in Europe or Asia can reach. Your Ptoyal Majesty has 
 established that fact in your elaborate history of Twelfth-Night, in 
 which, scorning the arts of vulgar historians, whose petty and pretty 
 ambition seems to be to invest truth with the garb of fiction, your 
 Majesty, rising to a loftier height, has draped the naked outlines of a 
 beautiful fiction with the romance of a more beautiful truth. May I 
 venture to say, that, coining from some sources, truth is stranger than 
 fiction. 
 
 Your Majesties' court also is composed of gentlemen and ladies that, 
 for aught I know to the contrary, may claim even a pre-Adamite 
 origin. The ladies are famous for their beauty, wit, and accompli>h- 
 inents, not only throughout the world, but even throughout the 
 universe of New York: so famous, indeed, that no rational belief can 
 ascribe their origin to any other than a celestial source. They have 
 
I 
 
 15 
 
 undoubtedly descended from heaven, but how far I cannot tell. As to 
 the gentlemen of your court I can only say, that if they are descended 
 from Adam, Adam could not have been the man he is usually taken 
 to have been. 
 
 I feel great pleasure in standing in this august presence, and wit- 
 nessing the prosperity of your Majesties' kingdom. Divine right and 
 popular election have, as your Majesty the King has said, concurred 
 in your elevation. I say nothing of chance having caused the morsels 
 of cake containing the rings to fall to your Majesties' possession, for I 
 have no doubt if the walls of an adjoining committee-room had tongues, 
 as they have ears, we would be told that, as some philosophers affirm, 
 the doctrine of chances can be reduced to a science and a certainty. 
 
 But to recur, I cannot look upon her Majesty the Queen without 
 acknowledging the divine right which the Creator has bestowed on his 
 handiwork to reign over us all — her merit is sterling, for she was a 
 sovereign before she possessed a crown. As to your Majesty the King, 
 I cannot say the same thing, for it would be an unmeaning repetition; 
 your Majesty's claim, moreover, not resting on beauty alone, but on 
 what is in your opinion, and in that of my master, a higher distinction, 
 namely, a current of genuine Batavian blood coursing through your 
 veins. 
 
 My master will feel proud that his nation — famous for its states- 
 men, its scholars, and its artists — has furnished a King of Twelfth 
 Night, who is in one a statesman and a scholar, and possesses that 
 appreciative admiration of Art which is so necessary to the life of Art 
 itself. May the Century prove more grateful for this gift than your 
 Majesties' barbarian neighbors east of the Byram River have proved 
 to be for the inestimable gifts of town meetings, common schools, and 
 thanksgiving days, which Holland so freely bestowed upon them. 
 
 But I am growing grave, and fear any constitutional seriousness 
 may mar the general hilarity. I therefore conclude, by wishing to 
 your majesties long life and prosperity, by hoping that the many 
 estimable qualities of your male subjects, which are Unknown either to 
 themselves or others, may in due time be brought to light, and astonish 
 
i6 
 
 the world, and the charms of your ladies, unsurpassed and unsurpass- 
 able as they are, may continue to increase, if that be possible — may 
 bloom and blossom in luxuriant beauty, may be enduring and perennial, 
 and extend their bright influence far beyond this Century. 
 
 But little more remains to be added. Absorbed as we were in 
 listening to the eloquence just reported, we could not be present in 
 the saloon above, where our able knight of the quill previously 
 quoted seems to have retreated ; he says, " To divide the interest, 
 and give more room while the graver ones were listening to elo- 
 quent adulation, the younger members were assiduously courting 
 Terpsichore in the grand saloon, where the twinkling feet braided 
 footsteps till the witching hours were fled far away." Yielding to 
 his observation for a report of the ceremonies in honor of Terpsi- 
 chore, we add to our account of the joyous festivity a list of 
 the works of Art displayed upon the walls, and contributed 
 for the occasion, in addition to those belonging to the club. 
 There were " Sunset in South America," by Mignot; " Twelfth 
 Night," by Lang ; a fine copy of an Ostade, by Chapman ; 
 "Moonlight," by Gignoux; "The Wadswortli Oak, Genesee 
 Valley," by Kensett ; "Normandy Coast Scene," by Dana; 
 "The Sacred Lesson," by Huntington; "Birds and Dogs," 
 by Hays; "Joan of Arc," "Roman Girl," "Sibyl," and "Nydia," 
 by Lang ; "Nurse and Child," by Leutze; "Sketching Flow- 
 ers," an ideal, by Huntington ; " Children's heads," and a cabi- 
 net picture, by Rossiter; "An Evening Scene," by Suydam ; 
 "Governor Peter Stuyvesant," and "Governor John Winthrop," 
 the representatives of our mixed race, the one as the most dis- 
 
'7 
 
 tinguished of the Dutch governors, and the other of the first 
 English colonial governors; u Dr. Kane," by Hicks; and two 
 landscapes by Kensett. In the Ladies' Boudoir were " Bashbish 
 Fall," by Kensett ; " Quail chickens," by Tait, and other small 
 pieces. 
 
 We must not close our report of this bright festival without 
 informing our readers, that for much of the brilliancy and effec- 
 tive decoration of the apartments, the guests were indebted to 
 the practised and artistic eyes and voluntary labors of three or 
 four artist members; while the banquet-rooms, etc., bore equal 
 evidence to the science and taste of the sub-committee, under 
 whose direction it was prepared, consisting of two gentlemen 
 skilled alike in the learning and the luxury of the table. 
 
 The Century Club may now be fully congratulated on the 
 perfect success of their spirited endeavor, begun in 1856, to re- 
 vive in this over-worked and care-worn city, " the love and 
 honor (as the official report of last year's centurial Twelfth- 
 Night expressed it) due to this joyous ancient festival, with its 
 poetical and reverential associations and its picturesque and 
 pleasant usages, which had for ages annually contributed to the 
 innocent enjoyment and social affections of the mixed ancestry 
 of cosmopolitan New York." 
 
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
IE* ICtbrtH 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 ~t ' ~Fort nwuiv ^■im^€r<Li-m, oj> Je Manhatans 
 
 "When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 " Ever thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 O k ) (- Sboi 6 3 V f