(52) Page 314.—For nearly half a century, Cato Alexander kept a house of entertainment on the old post-road, about four miles from the City Hall. It was the fashionable out-of-town resort for the young men of the day.
(53) Page 314.—The Baron Von Hoffman.—An adventurer styling himself a Dutch nobleman of high distinction, and by the fashionable circles courted and caressed accordingly, until detected as an impostor. “A fish can as veil live out of water as I can live out of de ladies,” was a favorite remark of the bogus baron, who came very near winning the hand of a noted New-York belle and heiress. Among his attempts at notoriety was that of shooting at himself with the wad of a pistol. He soon after disappeared from New York, and when last heard from was at Morrison’s Hotel, Dublin, quietly luxuriating in the blaze of his fame.
(54) Page 314.—Two lamps, or gaslights, are always placed before the door of the house occupied by a Mayor of New-York City.
(55) Page 316.—“Mr. German.”—From a speech of his when a member of the Legislature.
(56) Page 317.—John McLean.—A judge of the county court in the town of “Junius,” recently appointed by Governor Clinton.
(57) Page 319.—“Lines to Mr. Simpson.”—A twofold knowledge, that of the then acted plays, and of the personal peculiarities of the political gentlemen named, is requisite for the understanding and enjoying of these verses. For many of the names, and for the existing Council of Appointment, see previous notes. Among them, Peter R. Livingston was distinguished for persuasive and genial oratory, Charles Christian and James Warner were police justices, Pierre C. Van Wyck was City Recorder, and Hugh Maxwell City Attorney. Barent Gardenier was a member of Congress. He was renowned for a time as an eloquent speaker, and is noticed for all time in that matchless specimen of the pleasantry of genius, the “Knickerbocker” of Washington Irving.
The “Steamboat Bill.”—The members who had voted a tax on passengers on board the North- River boats.
(58) Page 319.—John Joseph Holland, the scene-painter of the theatre.
(59) Page 323.—Christian Baehr, a fashionable Wall-Street tailor.
(60) Page 323.—Stephen Bates, etc., were members of the Legislature; Tunis Wortman, etc., city judges and lawyers of party eminence.
(61) Page 328.—This amusing burlesque address, first published in the New-York Evening Post, was included in a small volume containing the Rejected Addresses, together with the prize address, written by Charles Sprague, and spoken by Edmund Simpson, on the reopening of the Park Theatre, September 1st, 1821.
