I am, Sir, your humble servant,
SETH HANDASIDE,
Landlord of the Independent Columbian Hotel,
Mulberry Street.
* * * *
*
From the same, November 28, 1809.
LITERARY NOTICE.
INSKEEP and BRADFORD have in the press, and will shortly
publish,
A History of New York,
In two volumes, duodecimo. Price three dollars.
Containing an account of its discovery and settlement,
with its internal policies, manners, customs, wars,
&c. &c., under the Dutch government, furnishing many
curious and interesting particulars never before published,
and which are gathered from various manuscript and
other authenticated sources, the whole being interspersed
with philosophical speculations and moral precepts.
This work was found in the chamber of Mr. Diedrich
Knickerbocker, the old gentleman whose sudden and
mysterious disappearance has been noticed. It
is published in order to discharge certain debts he
has left behind.
* * * *
*
From the “American Citizen” December
6, 1809.
Is this day published,
By INSKEEP and BRADFORD, No. 128, Broadway,
A History of New York,
&c. &c.
(Containing same as above.)
It was some time, if I recollect right, in the early
part of the fall of 1808, that a stranger applied
for lodgings at the Independent Columbian Hotel in
Mulberry Street, of which I am landlord. He was
a small, brisk-looking old gentleman, dressed in a
rusty black coat, a pair of olive velvet breeches,
and a small cocked hat. He had a few gray hairs
plaited and clubbed behind, and his beard seemed to
be of some eight-and-forty hours’ growth.
The only piece of finery which he bore about him was
a bright pair of square silver shoe-buckles; and all
his baggage was contained in a pair of saddle-bags,
which he carried under his arm. His whole appearance
was something out of the common run; and my wife,
who is a very shrewd little body, at once set him down
for some eminent country schoolmaster.
As the Independent Columbian Hotel is a very small
house, I was a little puzzled at first where to put
him; but my wife, who seemed taken with his looks,
would needs put him in her best chamber, which is genteelly
set off with the profiles of the whole family, done
in black, by those two great painters, Jarvis and
Wood: and commands a very pleasant view of the
new grounds on the Collect, together with the rear
of the Poor House and Bridewell, and the full front
of the Hospital; so that it is the cheerfulest room
in the whole house.
