and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, soon attracted wide attention both here and abroad. He spent much time in Europe, some of it in pursuit of literary treasures, and some in the service of his country. For four years he was Minister of the United States to Spain.

He wrote, in addition to his American sketches, many essays upon country life in England, somewhat after the manner of Addison. But it was his life in Spain that yielded the most to his ready pen. He wrote sketches and legends of the Alhambra, which are a veritable treasure. to those seeking to know the legendary history of this old monument. He also wrote a History of Granada and a Life of Washington.

Irving never married, but he lived with his nieces at his charming residence at Sunnyside, near Sleepy Hollow. His place in American literature is secure.

KNICKERBOCKER'S HISTORY OF NEW

YORK

The following selections from Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York show the author in a quite unique and wholly original vein. This book is a jolly, rollicking satire, poking good natured fun at the seriocomic doings of the Dutch settlers of what is now New York City, settlers whose good influence is still apparent in New York institutions.

The first selection gives a humorous account of the social manners and customs of the settlers on Manhattan Island.

I

HOW THE TOWN OF NEW AMSTERDAM AROSE OUT

OF MUD, AND CAME TO
ISHED AND POLITE

BE MARVELOUSLY POLTOGETHER WITH A PIC

TURE OF THE MANNERS OF OUR GREAT GREAT
GRANDFATHERS

I will not grieve the patience of my readers by describing minutely the increase and improvement of New Amsterdam. Their own imaginations will doubtless present to them the good burghers, like 5 so many painstaking and persevering beavers, slowly and surely pursuing their labors: they will behold the prosperous transformation' from the rude log hut to the stately Dutch mansion, with brick front, glazed windows, and tiled roof; from the 10 tangled thicket to the luxuriant cabbage garden; and from the skulking Indian to the ponderous 2 burgomaster. In a word, they will picture to themselves the steady, silent march of prosperity in a city destitute of pride or ambition, cherished by a 15 fat government, and whose citizens do nothing in a hurry.

3

The sage council, not being able to determine

1 Transformation, complete change. 2 Ponderous, heavy. 3 Burgomaster, city councilman.

the

upon any plan for the building of their city, cows, in a laudable fit of patriotism, took it under their peculiar charge, and, as they went to and from 20 pasture, established paths through the bushes, on each side of which the good folks built their houses,

which is one cause of the rambling and picturesque turns and labyrinths1 which distinguish certain streets of New York at this very day."

25

The houses of the higher class were generally constructed of wood, excepting the gable end, which was of small, black and yellow Dutch bricks, and always faced on the street, as our ancestors, like their descendants, were very much given to outward 30 show, and were noted for putting the best leg foremost. The house was always furnished with abundance of large doors and small windows on every floor, the date of its erection was curiously designated by iron figures on the front, and on the top of 35 the roof was perched a fierce little weathercock, to let the family into the important secret which way the wind blew.

b These, like the weathercocks on the tops of our steeples, pointed so many different ways, that every 40 man could have a wind to his own mind: the most stanch and loyal citizens, however, always went according to the weathercock on the top of the governor's house, which was certainly the most

1 Labyrinths, paths turning in many directions so as to be hard to follow. 2 Designated, shown.

45 correct, as he had a trusty servant employed every morning to climb up and set it to the right quarter.

In those good days of simplicity and sunshine, a passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy,' and the universal test of an able 50 housewife, - a character which formed the utmost ambition of our unenlightened grandmothers. The front door was never opened, except on marriages, funerals, New Year's days, the festival of St. Nicholas, or some such great occasion. It was orna55 mented with a gorgeous brass knocker, curiously wrought, sometimes in the device of a dog, and sometimes of a lion's head, and was daily burnished 2 with such religious zeal that it was ofttimes worn out by the very precautions taken for its preservation. 60 The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation,3 under the discipline of mops and brooms and scrubbing brushes; and the good housewives of those days were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting exceedingly to be dabbling in water, — 65 insomuch that an historian of the day gravely tells us, that many of his townswomen grew to have webbed fingers like unto a duck; and some of them, he had little doubt, could the matter be examined into, would be found to have the tails of mermaids,

1 Domestic economy, household management.

2 Burnished, polished.

3 Inundation, flood.

4 Amphibious, living in two elements, as air and water.

but this I look upon to be a mere sport of fancy, or, 70 what is worse, a willful misrepresentation.

The grand parlor was a sacred place where the passion for cleaning was indulged without control. In this sacred apartment no one was permitted to enter, excepting the mistress and her confidential175 maid, who visited it once a week, for the purpose of giving it a thorough cleaning, and putting things to rights, always taking the precaution of leaving their shoes at the door, and entering devoutly in their stocking feet. After scrubbing the floor, sprinkling 80 it with fine white sand, which was curiously stroked into angles and curves and rhomboids with a broom, after washing the windows, rubbing and polishing the furniture, and putting a new bunch of evergreens in the fireplace, the window shutters were 85 again closed to keep out the flies, and the room carefully locked up until the revolution of time brought round the weekly cleaning day.

As to the family, they always entered in at the gate, and most generally lived in the kitchen. To 90 have seen a numerous household assembled round the fire, one would have imagined that he was transported back to those happy days of primeval 2 simplicity, which float before our imaginations like golden visions. The fireplaces were of a truly 95 patriarchal magnitude, where the whole family, old and young, master and servant, black and white, 2 Primeval, early.

1 Confidential, trusted.