Richard Riker. dergone the operation are sufficient ' wit nesses to its not being executed with any painful or disagreeable circumstances to the subject." Browere's method consisted in taking a plaster cast from life. He nearly killed Thomas Jefferson in the operation, but fortunately sacrificed his cast rather than the President. The same volume contains a facsimile of a letter addressed on behalf of the cor poration by the Recorder and others to Adams, Jefferson and Carroll, the three sur viving signers of the Declaration of Inde pendence, accompanying gold medals struck by the city on the opening of the canal. The facsimile appended to the other por trait is from his signature on the title-page of a book of " Poems by St. John Honeywood, A.M., with some Pieces in Prose," dedicated to Josiah Ogden Hoffman by the editor in "gratitude for his patronage of its publication." Honeywood was a lawyer, born in 1763, died in 1798, settled at Sa lem, N. Y., and was one of the electors who chose John Adams for President. His poems celebrate Washington's declination of a third term of the Presidency, and de scribe Shay's rebellion. Riker's signature is of the John Hancock order, and although he did not risk so much as the Signer by making it, yet doubtless if the occasion had demanded he would have done so, and proved worthy of the Roman toga in which he is portrayed. "The Croakers" is a source of a great deal of information on the social and politi cal history of the times. Here one learns that a lottery was resorted to for the pur pose of building the almshouse in the city of New York, and here one is reminded (or learns) that more than $72,000 was raised for building the Erie Canal by a tax on travelers by steamboat. "The Croakers" denounced Surveyor-General De Witt for the Latin and Greek names attached to new towns in western New York, dubbing him "godfather of the christened West," but
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Mr. Curtis, in the " Easy Chair," pointed out that this was a gross injustice. Here one can learn about all the distinguished men and popular resorts, and the business people of the little city. New York at that time was but a large village, where every body knew everybody and gossiped about everybody. The town hardly extended above Canal Street. The Battery was the favorite promenade, and the City Hall Park answered to the present Central Park. Niblo's Garden was then in vogue, Cato Alexander kept a tavern, the resort of sport ing men, four miles out, and Hoboken Meadows was a day's journey for picnic parties. The chief banks were the Frank lin and the Tradesmen's, and the great bankers were Prince, Ward & King (Prince drove "mouse-colored ponies"). Jacob Barker was the king of Wall Street. The Park and the Bowery were the principal theatres; the owners of the former were Beekman and John Jacob Astor, and Oliff was the prompter; the managers were Hamblin, Price and Simpson; the favorite actors were Kean, Kemble, Cooper, Cooke, Wallack and Mrs. Barnes; the playwright (much ridiculed) was Minshall; the scenepainter was Holland. Dominick Lynch, Jr., was the first patron of the opera, and Garcia was the first star. The museum was Scudder's (afterward Barnum's). The public hall was the Washington, on the site where Stewart's down-town store after ward stood. The public market was Fly Market, near Fulton Ferry. The City Hotel was the fashionable inn. Vandervoort & Flandin kept the principal dry goods shop; Adam Geib a music shop, and taught music; Mrs. Poppleton was a confectioner, and "Mother Dawson" kept a livery stable; Christie kept china and glass, and William Cobbett a seeds store; A. P. Goodrich sold books; Eastburn kept a reading room; Saunders made wigs; Baehr was the smart tailor, and Jennings scoured clothes; Pierson was a great iron manu
