Before passing on, in direct course, to the most interesting portion of
Officer McWatters' life, in which the character of the man, in his
intensely benevolent nature, is most beautifully and nobly illustrated
in a thousand ways, we pause here to revert to him as a gentleman of
general literary tastes, and to his friendly and genial associations
with men of letters. Mr. McWatters, in his almost countless letters,
and other contributions to the public press, has ever seemed to avoid
anything like notoriety,--to be, in short, quite unambitious to secure
to himself anything like popular distinction by his pen; for nearly all
his contributions to the press have been unaccompanied by his name, and
when not literally anonymous, published over various _sobriquets_,
known only to a few of his friends at most. Not a few of his most
intimate acquaintances will doubtless be surprised when the spirited
and elegant series of articles which he now gives to the world in
"Knots Untied" reveal to them the man in his higher literary estate, so
unostentatious has he been, and so little merit did his modesty permit
him to attach to the articles in question, until diffidently submitted
by him to the inspection of a few of his critical literary friends,
who, delighted with their engaging style, and appreciating their
practical worth, urged the half-astonished author to give them to the
public, as a duty he owed to his fellow-citizens.
His course has been altogether a too modest one (if we be permitted to
speak in criticism thereof). But, for his own private happiness, Mr.
McWatters has never failed to appreciate the society of literary men,
and notwithstanding his multiplied duties, official and humanitary, has
always managed to find time to cultivate the acquaintance of the most
gifted and distinguished literateurs, artists, and so forth, who,
during the last fifteen years especially, have given lustre to the
great metropolis. A genial man, a good story-teller, courteous under
all circumstances, full of sparkling intelligence, generous to an
extreme degree, a man of excellent habits as well as refined
sentiments, he has always been welcomed by these men of lettered
distinction, to whom we refer above.
And here we should be pleased to introduce the names of the most
remarkable of Mr. McWatters' literary associates, up to the year 1871,
as illustrative of the good taste of our subject. But the record would
be too long for place here; besides, we might, while reciting the names
of some, fail, through fault of memory, in this hasty writing, to
recall those equally worthy of record here. But we have at hand an
article clipped from the New York Illustrated News of August 2, 1862,
in which is arrayed a list of many of those who at that time were
distinguished lights in the literary world, and some of whom have
achieved imperishable honors since, while others of the number have
been gathered to their fathers--borne to their tombs in the "laureate
hearse," after having won and borne upon their brows the bays of many a
literary victory.
The article in question descants upon "Pfaff's;" and its literary,
artistic, and other distinguished _habitues_. But we will quote it
entire for the reader's pleasure, and information, possibly, as well:--
"As so much has been said in the papers, from time to time,
about 'Pfaff's,' it may be well to state that the name is
descriptive, simply, of a 'restaurant and lager bier saloon,'
kept at No. 647 Broadway, by a Teuton of that name, and which,
partly from its central position, and partly from the
excellence of its fare, has been such a favorite resort, for
several years, for artists, literateurs, actors, managers,
editors, critics, politicians, and other public characters, as
to have become quite famous. It is not, as has been often
reported, the rendezvous of a particular clique or club of
Bohemians (whatever they may be), but simply a general and
convenient meeting-place for cultivated men, and one where,
almost any evening, you may meet representatives of nearly
every branch of literature and art, assembled, not by
appointment, nor from habit even, but 'met by chance, the usual
way.' Among the literary men whom we have met there from time
to time, during the last three or four years, may be mentioned
Walt Whitman, Aldrich, Winter, Stoddard, Bayard Taylor, W. Ross
Wallace, W. D. Howells, Frank Otterson, Charles Dawson Shanly,
W. H. Fry, Edward Howland, Charles Seymour, 'Doesticks,'
'Artemus Ward,' 'Figaro,' T. C. Evans, E. C. Stedman, Charles
F. Briggs, E. G. P. Wilkins, Charles Gayler, J. V. Sears, Harry
Neill, E. H. House, Frank Wood, C. Burkhardt, Rosenberg, A. F.
Banks, 'Walter Barret,' George Arnold, Charles D. Gardette,
'Howard of the Times,' and Thad. Glover; among artists,
Stillman, Palmer, Launt, Thompson, Cafferty, G. H. Hall,
Shattuck, Innis, Sewell, Henessy, Loop, Avery, Frank Howland,
Homer Martin, Eastman Johnson, Bierstadt, Van Beest, Hitchings,
Bellew, Mullen, Anthony, Eytinge, Nast, Baker, Sontag,
Boughton, Rowse; and of other well-known characters, Ullman,
Strakosch, Maretzek, Grau, Stigelli, Mollenbaur, H. L. Bateman,
Nixon, Dolly Davenport, Davidge, Young, Fisher, Floyd,
Reynolds, Stuart, Moss, Chanfrau, Mason, the Hanlons, Officer
McWatters, J. Augustus Page, Gill Davis, Schauss, Seitz,
Brisbane, Dr. Wainwright, etc., etc., including a good number
of politicians, and that large class of people, called Germans,
without end."
Of this goodly host, the gifted Wilkins; Fry, the erudite, then so
distinguished in the editorial and musical world; Arnold, the genial
young essayist, poet, and humorist; "Artemus Ward," and perhaps others,
long since made their last visit to Pfaff's--their lights of life going
out in the peaceful darkness of death, while "their literary torches
burn on,"--"stars which gleam forever."
And other of these,--Whitman, Stedman, Howells, Aldrich, and Edward
Howland, for especial example--(the last four being, in 1862, of the
very youngest of the above array), and Bierstadt, Shattuck, etc., have
climbed to the top of Parnassian heights, won bright and solid
victories in the field of prose as essayists, historians, etc., or
transferred nature to the canvas with that beauty and sublimity of
artistic truthfulness which have commanded for them the admiration of
the world.
It is with these men, and others of equal order of intellectual and
social gifts, that Officer McWatters has passed most of his leisure
hours for many years; thus keeping his genial nature and bright
intelligence free from the corrosion and canker which eat into the
moral and intellectual vitals of the mere business man; and preserving
himself physically, too, fresh and buoyant as youth itself. The great
number of personal souvenirs which Officer McWatters' author friends
have presented him, in the shape of copies of their respective works,
constitute quite a "library" in themselves,--a pleasing recognition,
grateful to himself and his family, of the excellent social merits,
intellect, and moral worth of the man and the officer.