With an unclouded sky, and a sun as bright and genial as we would desire
on a May morning, the first day of January 1834 makes its bow to the New
York public; and in no place does this same day meet heartier welcome,
or witness better cheer.
On this day, from an early hour, every door in New York is open, and all
the good things possessed by the inmates paraded in lavish profusion.
The shops and banks alone are closed: Mammon for this day sees his
altars in one spot on earth deserted. Meantime every sort of vehicle is
put in requisition; and if a man owns but a single acquaintance in the
wide city, he on this day sets forth in kind heart to seek and shake him
by the hand.
On this day all family bickerings are made up; fancied or real wrongs
admitted, explained, and forgiven. The first twenty-four hours of the
new year in New York is a right _Treve de Dieu_, during which foes
cease from strife, the long divided are re-united, and friendly compacts
renewed and drawn closer: even Avarice, more wary of approach than the
hare, on this day forgets to bolt his door, or calculate the cost of
bidding welcome to his visitor.
The stranger is also made sensible of the benevolent influence of this
kindly day, if I may draw any inference from my own case. At an early
hour a gentleman of whom I had a slight knowledge entered my room,
accompanied by an elderly person I had never before seen, and who, on
being named, excused himself for adopting such a frank mode of making my
acquaintance, which he was pleased to add he much desired, and at once
requested me to fall in with the custom of the day, whose privilege he
had thus availed himself of, and accompany him on a visit to his family.
I was the last man on earth likely to decline an offer made in such a
spirit; so, entering his carriage which was in waiting, we drove to his
house in Broadway, where, after being presented to a very amiable lady,
his wife, and a pretty, gentle-looking young girl, his daughter, I
partook of a sumptuous luncheon, drank a glass of champagne, and, on
the arrival of other visitors, made my bow, well pleased with my visit.
My host now begged me to make a few calls with him, explaining, as we
drove along, the strict observances paid to this day throughout the
State, and tracing the excellent custom to the early Dutch colonists.
I paid several calls in company with my new friend, at each place met a
hearty welcome, and witnessed the same abundant preparation; but to
lunch at each was, with the best intentions possible, quite out of the
question. After a considerable round, my companion suggested that I
might possibly have some compliments to make on my own account, and so
leaving me, begged me to consider his carriage perfectly at my disposal.
This was very kind, but I at the time knew only two or three families;
and indeed, on being left to myself in solitary state, where every
carriage that whirled by was filled with merry stranger faces, my
courage oozed away. So, leaving a card or two, and making a couple of
hurried visits, I returned to my hotel, to think over the many
beneficial effects likely to grow out of such a charitable custom, and
to wish for its continued observance.
We have days enough of division in each year, and should indeed welcome
and cherish one which inculcates peace and good-will to all; a day on
which little coolnesses are explained away, past kindnesses confirmed,
and injuries consigned to oblivion.
At night, the theatre was filled to suffocation by a joyous throng,
although this portion of the season is not propitious to theatricals;
but on to-day, as though no house must be left unvisited by any of its
ordinary frequenters, the Park came in for a full participation in the
benefit of this honoured custom.
_Friday, 3rd._--The prevailing topics of the new year are the President
and his _quondam_ chum, Major Jack Downing;[6] the agitation of the
community on the Bank question becoming daily more violent, as the
limitation placed on credit embarrasses trade by narrowing its
resources. I observe, however, that, in the midst of much wordy
violence, the bulk of the people appear confident that matters will, to
use a coinage of their own, "_eventuate_ for their ultimate benefit."
Meanwhile, the government and the laws appear equally omnipotent; and
although much embarrassment is unquestionably felt in the money-market,
and all stock become unseasonably low for the sellers, yet is the
country generally admitted to be very prosperous, and perfectly able to
meet this shock without any permanent or ruinous difficulty. We shall
see.
Went to Mrs. H----'s box at the opera,--the "Donna del Lago," for
Bordogni's benefit: a very pretty woman, very well instructed; but with
a little pipe, in which sweetness cannot make up for want of force.
Fanti, a really good actress, and, although with a veiled voice, a
capital singer, is not so much considered, I discover, as Bordogni.
The house was quite filled, the boxes rejoicing in a display of pretty
faces few _salles d'opera_ might be admitted to rival. The prevailing
head-dress exceedingly showy and fanciful, a little too much so
perhaps:--but these are doings which, after all, change with each
season; therefore fashion can alone be arbiter. On the subject of beauty
I speak fearlessly, all men, having clear eyesight, being, upon this
point, admitted as competent witnesses. The _parterre_, too, was
occupied by a few parties of well-dressed women; but its prevailing
character, stalls included, was sombre and great-coatish,--not quite up
to the pit of the King's Theatre;--there was more applause though,
therefore I presume more enjoyment, which is the main object after all.
At the close of the performance several delicate bouquets, together with
a pretty coronal or two of choice flowers, were showered on the stage in
compliment to the fair _beneficiere_.
_Wednesday, 12th._--Winter has at length arrived in person, and his
active bridge-maker is laying for him a firm icy path across the waters.
It was reported yesterday that the passage between Staten Island and New
Jersey was no longer open, Amboy Creek being thickly frozen from Newark
Bay to the Raritan. On reaching the steamboat this morning, I found that
the report was a correct one, and that our only practicable passage lay
through the Narrows and round the south end of Staten Island. The
occasion thus presented of a winter view of the bay quite reconciled me
to this more exposed and circuitous route, as it, in truth, amply
compensated for it.
It was just seven A.M. when I reached the dock where the boat lay, to
all appearance firmly imbedded in thick ice; the river, I perceived, was
still pretty clear. Punctual as usual, the bell ceased to clang; the
paddle-wheels were vigorously applied; and in a few moments we burst our
bonds, thrusting the thick flakes of ice aside, and darting into the
clear river free from all farther impediment.
There were very few passengers, and I had the promenade deck to my
exclusive use. Although day had not long broke, the clearness and purity
of the atmosphere gave to the most distant parts of the landscape an
outline cold and distinct, and brought all objects apparently much
nearer to each other, and to the looker-on, than they had ever before
appeared. The city of Jersey, the woods of Hoboken, and the far-off
bluffs of the Palisadoes, were each seen to stand separated and alone;
not blended together into one harmonizing mass, as, through the medium
of a rich warm atmosphere, I had hitherto viewed them. The effect was
for a moment to render this scene, which frequent observation had made
familiar, quite strange to me; and at the same time to invest its now
separate portions with new and peculiar attractions.
The yet quiet city soon dropped astern; and on a good plan of its
streets one might have traced the earliest and most notable of its
sections, if not the particular houses, by the thin spiral lines of
smoke which curled distinctly high above the chimneys from which they
escaped.
We held our course close along the east side of Staten Island; and as we
shot by the quarantine establishment, with its hospital and many
offices, the sun rose, without one attendant cloud, over the forest
heights of Brooklyn, burnishing, as with gold, every window and
weathercock opposed to its radiance.
The drooping boughs of the graceful willow tribes, and all the
neighbouring shrubs, which only a moment before I had shivered to look
upon, bent down, as they appeared, beneath a load of ungenial icicles,
were now, as though touched by some enchanter's wand, sparkling and
brilliant, reminding one of the diamond-growing trees of young Aladdin's
cave.
The Narrows were next passed, but the view seaward was bleak and
cheerless: the Neversink hills for the first time appearing to me worthy
such a high-sounding distinction. Not a symptom of frost was here,
although the wind had ceased to stir the waters of the bay, and to the
sun alone was left the task of opposing the advance of the ice-king.
Sol, though with diminished powers, had made a glorious rally on this
day; for not a thicket or creek within sight but rejoiced in his
cheering rays, and gladly owned his supremacy.
The smoothness of the sea enabled our boat to make rapid way; and by a
little after ten o'clock we were landed at Amboy, where we found the
train awaiting our arrival. As we left our first stage, Hights-town, an
accident occurred similar to the one I had, on my last trip southward,
seen attended by such fearful consequences. We were proceeding, luckily
at a moderate rate, when the axle of the engine-tender broke in two:
the car occupied by myself and three others led the van, yet the first
intimation we got of the break-down of our tender was our running foul
of it with a bump that fairly unshipped us all, pitching the occupiers
of the hind-seats head-on into the laps of those _vis-a-vis_ to them.
Happily, this was the worst of the present mischance: the engine was
speedily arrested, a sound axle drawn from the near car to replace the
one fractured, myself and the others belonging to the carriage thus
hauled out of the line were stowed in, as supernumeraries, elsewhere,
and, after a delay, of some forty minutes, off we bowled again.
Halting for a few moments at Bordentown, where the Delaware steamer
waits when the river is practicable, it now spread away below us in a
solid mass; and we pursued our journey by the railroad provided for such
seasons so far as it was at this time completed, that is, for some eight
or nine miles farther on. This point achieved, we discovered a group of
the clumsy-looking stage-coaches of the country, to the number of
twelve, each having a team of four horses, ready harnessed, standing
amongst the trees below.
The cold was by this time extreme; bustle was the word, therefore,
amongst all parties,--drivers, porters, and passengers; and in a quarter
of an hour the transfer was completed, the luggage packed, the people
arranged, and the caravan in motion. The place had quite a wild, lone,
forest air; and it was a curious scene to view the bustle, and hear the
noise, so uncongenial to the spot, and no less so to observe the coaches
wheeling about amongst the trees as each Jehu sought to make the best of
his way into the lane at a little distance.
Miserably uncomfortable as the driver's seat is before these machines,
I, as usual where the course was strange to me, requested leave to share
it with him. I had cast about to select a team; and was soon seated,
well rolled in broadcloth and bear-skin, behind four dark bays that
might have done credit to a better judgment.
We soon got into a very narrow lane, through which lay the first few
miles. In this the ruts, or track, as it is here called, was over a foot
deep: on either side grew trees, thick and low-branched; therefore my
companion and I had as much as we could do to avoid broken heads and
keep the track. I looked impatiently, after practising this dodging
exercise some time, for the great road which the driver told me was "a
bit further ahead;" and at last we broke from our leafy shelter into it,
but with little advantage that I could discover; for, though our heads
were in less peril, our necks, I considered, required more especial
looking after than ever. We certainly had here wider space, and a free
choice of ruts or tracks, for there were several; but not one of them
less profound than those we had hitherto ploughed through. In one or two
places, the road was deeply trenched in every direction, and the edges
of these cuts so glazed with new-formed ice that I expected my friend
who was pilot would pass the box and back out. But no such thing, faith!
he steered round all impediments as coolly as the wind that whistled
through the half-frozen reins he held.
Finding one place in the road quite impassable, he cast his eyes about
him for a moment, and chose the best part of the right bank; when,
gathering up his leaders, he first vexed them a little with the whip,
and then, putting them fairly at it, gained its summit, drove along for
a hundred yards, crashing through a thick cover of shrubs growing
breast-high, when having thus turned the impracticable bit of highway,
he coolly dropped down into it again. On looking back, I saw each team
taking in succession the line we had thus led over.
This was all performed clumsily enough, as far as appearance went, I
allow; but cleverly and confidently, though with leaders hardly within
calling distance: and four snaffle-bits, and a pig-whip, being the only
means of dictation and control possessed by the coachman. The more I see
of these queer Whips the better I like them: it assuredly is impossible
to conceive anything more uncoachmanlike than their outward man; but
they grapple with the constantly occurring difficulties of their strange
work hardily and with superior intelligence.
I have seen a pass on the high-road between Albany and New York, where a
descending driver perceiving that collision with a coming carriage was
from the slippery condition of the hill unavoidable, and also being
aware that such an event would be fatal to both parties, on the instant
turned his horses to the near bank, and dashed down into the bed of the
Mohawk, a descent of more than a hundred feet, as nearly perpendicular
as may well be. His presence of mind and courage saved both his own
passengers and those in the other vehicle, with the loss of his coach
and one of his horses only. The man was publicly thanked and rewarded,
and, I believe, yet waggons the same road.
One might almost back one of these crack hands to hunt a picked team of
their own, a cross country, with the Melton hounds, coach and all; and
if it was not for the _pace_, it would not be such a very bad bet
either.
At Camden we quitted our vehicular mode of progressing, and took once
more to the water, or rather to the ice, since it certainly ruled over
the broad Delaware. In many places this was strong enough to sustain the
weight of our little steamer's bow, and only gave way beneath repeated
heavy blows of the iron-sheathed paddles.
After a hard fight we forced a path through all obstacles, and as the
clock struck four were alongside the Chestnut-street wharf; having,
notwithstanding the delays occasioned by our mishap and various changes,
accomplished the hundred miles in exactly ten hours.
I was expected, found a dinner prepared for five o'clock, and, going at
once to my chamber to dress, thought I had never seen the Mansion-house
look to greater advantage. A well-warmed and carpeted corridor led to my
snug little room, the window of which looking into the inner court,
afforded one of the most attractive winter prospects imaginable, in the
form of entire carcasses of several fat bucks all hanging in a comely
row, and linked together by a festooning composed of turkey, woodcock,
snipe, grouse, and ducks of several denominations. Although quartered
here for a month to come, I felt fortified against any fear of famine by
this single glance without; nor did my interior appear less inviting,
cheered as this was by a brisk fire of hickory, several logs of which
lay athwart my hearth, sustained by a couple of antique-looking brass
dogs, blazing and crackling most uproariously: this is a fire I prefer
even to one of Liverpool coal; and how it can ever be superseded by that
quiet, unsocial, unearthly-looking and smelling, anthracite, I am at a
loss to _guess_!