RIVINGTON THE PRINTER.

71

tenet does not prohibit the use of dry sarcasm, which here was unquestionably in its place.

It would be easy to extend these biographical details but my materials, at best, are too deficient in interest to warrant much presumption on the patience of the reader: I shall therefore only add to the list the names of Han cock and Washington, each of whom had at different times sojourned at our caravansary.

Yet another, of some eminence, though not exactly in the same kind, whom I ought not to omit, was Riving ton the printer, of New York. This gentleman's manners and appearance were sufficiently dignified, and he kept the best company. He was an everlasting dabbler in theatrical heroics. Othello was the character in

which he liked best to appear; and converting his auditory into the "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors" of Venice, he would deliver his unvarnished tale:

"Her father lov'd me, oft invited me," &c.

With the same magic by which the listening gentlemen were turned into senators, my mother was transformed into Desdemona; and from the frequent spoutings of Rivington, the officers of the 42d regiment, and others, who were then in the house, became familiarized to the appellation, and appropriated it. Thus, Desdemona, or rather Desdy, for shortness, was the name she generally afterwards went by among that set of lodgers; and Irecollect the concluding line of a poetical effusion of Lieutenant Rumsey of the 42d, on occasion of some trifling fracas, to have been

For Desdy, believe me, you don't become airs!

In the daily intercourse with her boarders which my

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RIVINGTON THE PRINTER.

mother's custom of sitting at the head of her table induced, such familiarities might be excused. They were only to be repelled, at least, by a formal austerity of manner, which was neither natural to her, nor for her interest to assume. The cause of umbrage was a midnight riot, perpetrated by Rumsey, Rivington, and Dr Kearsley, in which the Doctor, mounted on horseback, rode into the back parlour, and even up stairs, to the great disturbance and terror of the family; for, as it may well be supposed, there was a direful clatter. Quadrupedante sonitu quatit ungula domum.

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR'S GRANDFATHER.

73

CHAPTER III.

The Author mixes in new Society-Is destined for the Law -Philadelphian Theatricals-Anecdote-Debating Society -Causes of Youthful Follies-Junius's Letters.

ABOUT the year 1769 or 1770, my grandfather died. My inattention to dates disqualifies me for fixing the year, nor is it material. His disorder was a complication of dropsy and asthma. I well remember being with him a few evenings before his death, and seldom saw him in better spirits. He was anticipating my future consequence in life; and, as like too many others, I was destined in vain,

D'une robe à longs plis balayer le barreau

To sweep, with full sleev'd robe, the dusty bar.*

He was making himself merry with the fancy of my strutting with my full-bottomed periwig and small-sword, the costume he attached to a bannister of law, as he was pleased to term what in England is called a barrister. But it will be recollected, that I have already said the old gentleman was a German, no great adept in English, and let me add, no great scholar in any language; although his manners were those of a man of the world,

* This quotation would apply better, or at least more literally, if gowns had been worn at our bar.

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DANGERS OF IDLENESS.

and a frequenter of good company, somewhat blunt, however, and occasionally facetious. The story of the toper and flies, worked up into an ode by Peter Pindar, I have more than once heard related of him. The scene was laid in Philadelphia, where, being at a friend's house to dine, and asked to take some punch before dinner, he found several flies in the bowl. He removed them with a spoon, took his drink, and with great deliberation was proceeding to replace them. Why, what are you doing, Mr Marks," exclaimed the entertainer, "putting flies into the bowl ?”—“ Why, I don't like them," said he, "but I did not know but you might," his mode of suggesting that the bowl should have been covered: for decanters and tumblers, be it observed, are a modern refinement in the apparatus of punch-drinking. Whether the story really originated with my grandfather, and travelled from the continent to the islands, where Dr Wolcott picked it up; or whether the humour was of insular origin, and merely borrowed and vamped up by my grandfather, I pretend not to decide; but certain it is, that he had the credit of it in Philadelphia, many years before the works of Peter Pindar appeared.

If want of occupation, as we are told, is the root of all evil, my youth was exposed to very great dangers. The interval between my leaving the academy, and being put to the study of the law at about the age of sixteen, was not less than eighteen months; an invaluable period, lost in idleness and unprofitable amusement. It had the effect to estrange me for a time from my schoolcompanions, and, in their stead, to bring me acquainted

*

Joseph Marks; the name might have been mentioned before.

FEMALE SOCIETY-LOVE.

75

with a set of young men, whose education and habits had been wholly different from my own. They were chiefly designed for the sea, or engaged in the less humiliating mechanical employments; and were but the more to my taste for affecting a sort of rough independence of manners, which appeared to me manly. They were not, however, worthless; and such of them as were destined to become men and citizens have, with few exceptions, filled their parts in society with reputation and respectability. As I had now attained that stage in the progress of the mind, in which

Neglected Tray and Pointer lie,

And covies unmolested fly,

the void was supplied by an introduction into the fair society, with which these young men were in the habit of associating. It consisted generally of Quakers; and there was a witching one among them, with whom, at a first interview in a party on the water, I became so violently enamoured, as to have been up, perhaps, to the part of a Romeo or a Pyramus, had the requisite train of untoward eircumstances ensued. But as there were no feuds between our houses, nor unnatural parents to "forbid what they could not prohibit," the matter in due time passed off without any dolorous catastrophe. Nor was it long before I was translated into a new set of female acquaintance, in which I found new objects to sigh for. Such, indeed, 1 was seldom, if ever, without, during the rest of my nonage; and with as little reason, perhaps, as any one, to complain of adverse stars. Nevertheless, I should hesitate in pronouncing this season of life happy. If its enjoyments are great, so are its solicitudes; and although it should escape the pangs of