The old merchants of New York City / by Walter Barrett.

OF AEW YORK CITY

261

I have the satisfaction of rescuing the memory of one
man from undeserved reproach. That man is Samuel
Swartwout.
It seems to be a kind of respect due to the memory
of good old-fashioned merchants, especially those whose
fame has soared above the common run of merchants,
and who have made fame in other as well as in the commercial walks of lite, to give some account of their houses,
their location, and their habits. It is a new source of
pleasure to the merchants of the present day to read
about the merchants of the past, and they treasure up
little personal stories of the great merchants of old
New York. I find this to be the case, for, on calling at
Carleton's yesterday, I learned that he was pretty nearly sold out of his second edition of " Old Merchants."
This shows that merchants of to-day are not unmindful
of those of other days. They like to read about the
families of the old merchants - the business that they
did - the common incidents and events of their daily
lives; they even like to read about the shape, the make,
and the very features of these old school men. This is
a very natural curiosity, and I try to gratify it all in my
power, even to the very clothes they wore, and, as
Mr. Clancy once suggested, "1 tell how the old fellows
used to take their tod in those days."
I long had a sketch written of one of the crdme de la:crime (tip top in every respect is the American of this
French) of old merchants of New York city. He was
not only a leading merchant, but he was a leading politician long before the Revolutionary war; he not only
sold and bought merchlandize, but he made his name
immortal by signing the Declaration of Independence,