Asbury - All Around the Town

This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHINGwww.pp-publishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our bookspicklepublishing@gmail.com

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1934 under the same title.

Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publishers Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

ALL AROUND THE TOWN

BY

HERBERT ASBURY

Contents

To Hannah S. Hahn

Many of the stories in this book were originally published in The New Yorker; two appeared in Detective Story Magazine and The New York Herald Tribune. Several, however, are here published for the first time. The material on which they are based came from standard historical works of reference, from newspapers and magazines, and from various official records. Some of the incidents described are referred to in my previous books on New York Ye Olde Fire Laddies and The Gangs of New York, but are here presented in greater detail.

H. A.

Beverly Hills

California

September 15, 1934

LORD CORNBURY

DR. TANNER IN THE SECOND WEEK OF HIS FAST

DR. TANNER ON THE THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY OF HIS FAST

CARTOON BY F. OPPER FROM THE NEW YORK JOURNAL, JULY 8, 1901 (BY COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK JOURNAL)

MOLLIE FANCHER ASTOUNDS THE SCIENTISTS

MOLLIE FANCHERS PRAYER, IN HER OWN HANDWRITING

THE QUEEN OF HACKENSACK

THE QUEEN OF HACKENSACK DETHRONED

A BELLE OF THE 1870S

THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN TAKES A WALK

BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN THEATER

RUINS OF THE BROOKLYN THEATER

OLD LEATHERHEAD

HIGH CONSTABLE JACOB HAYS

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1835

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1835. THE BURNED DISTRICT

WILLIAM J. SHARKEY

MURDERERS ROW IN THE TOMBS

A MURDERERS CELL

SHARKEYS ESCAPE

THE BISHOPS MITRE AND THE SHOWERBATH

THE CAT-O-NINE-TAILS

THE PILLORY AND THE STOCKS

BRISTOL BILL

JAMES GULICK

ALL AROUND THE TOWN

ON MAY 3, 1702, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of Clarendon and first cousin to Queen Anne of England, to whom he bore an extraordinary facial resemblance, arrived in New York to become His High Mightiness the Governor of the Colonya resounding title employed by the Dutch governors and retained for some fifty years by their English successors. He was accompanied to the New World by Lady Cornbury, who was a granddaughter of the Earl of Richmond. They landed at the Battery with much fuss and ceremony, while guns boomed from the battlements of the Fort, and the assembled populace greeted them with loud and enthusiastic huzzas. Lord Cornburys reputation in London had been that of a fop and a wastrel, but he was known to be high in the favor of his royal kinswoman, and the loyal colonists were confident that he would be able to remedy some of the many abuses which had been heaped upon them by his predecessors.

In the first flush of fervent welcome the city authorities voted Lord Cornbury two thousand pounds to defray the expenses of his voyage from England. The money was presented to him at a formal banquet attended by the leading citizens, including members of such famous colonial families as the Van Cortlandts, the De Peysters, and the Van Rensselaers. His High Mightiness had announced that he would address his subjects at the conclusion of the feasting, and the colonists expected him to outline his policies and tell them what sort of government they might hope for during his administration. Instead, he delivered a rhapsodic eulogy of Lady Cornburys ears, which he described in flowery language as the most beautiful in Christendom. He required every gentleman present to march past and feel for himself their shell-like texture. This embarrassing task was at length completed to the satisfaction of His High Mightiness, and the leading citizens went home slightly bewildered. They were even more perplexed a week or so later when the Governor and Lady Cornbury gave a grand ball at the gubernatorial mansion in the Fort and compelled the guests to pay admission. Several who had been invited failed to appear at the function, and His High Mightiness said angrily that he would ask the colonial assembly to levy a special tax on them and force them to pay his admittance fee. However, if he ever did make such an extraordinary request, there is no record of it.

These exploits were the first of a long series of eccentricities in which Lord and Lady Cornbury apparently strove to outdo each other. The staid citizens of New York had scarcely ceased talking about the Governors ball when he scandalized them anew by riding his horse up the steps and through the doorway of the Kings Arms Tavern, on the west side of Broadway just north of the English Church, as Trinity was then called. His High Mightiness spurred his steed to the bar and ordered the landlord to bring drinkwhisky for himself and water for his beast. Then he clattered out, smashing a few chairs and tables as he went.

A few nights later the night watchman was amazed to see a feminine figure prancing along the ramparts of the Fort, coyly calling the colonial equivalent of Yoohoo! Brandishing his staff, the watchman rushed forward to take the obviously tipsy lady into custody, but he had no sooner seized her than she flung her arms around his neck and began pulling at his ears, which were decidedly not shell-like in texture. The gleam of the watchmans lanthorn fell upon the industrious figure, and imagine his surprise and horror to discover that the supposed inebriated female was none other than His High Mightiness, the Governor of New York, becomingly clad in Lady Cornburys best silks and satins, both mentionables and unmentionables! The watchman fought fiercely, preserved his honor and gained his freedom, and fled into the night, while Lord Cornbury, shrieking and giggling, danced gayly back into the Fort.

Thereafter, two or three times a week, but always at night, His High Mightiness appeared on the streets of New York wearing Lady Cornburys clothing. He was invariably drunk and disorderly, but he was not molested, for the night watchman realized that to interfere with the Governors little outings would imperil his job, and probably his liberty as well. It was the embarrassing custom of His High Mightiness to hide behind a tree, and from this shelter pounce upon a belated pedestrian and rapturously pull his ears.

Criticism of these curious antics inevitably came to the knowledge of Lord Cornbury, and in order, as he said, to still the lying tongues of malicious gossips, he made several explanations of his penchant for dressing as a woman. He said first that since he resembled Queen Anne to such a remarkable degree, he occasionally donned skirts and paraded the streets solely that he might acquaint the colonists with the appearance of their sovereign, whom none of them would probably ever see. This explanation didnt seem to satisfy anybody, so His High Mightiness said that he sometimes dressed as a woman simply because he was the New World representative of the Queen, and he thought that the people should be reminded from time to time that they were ruled by a woman. Colonial eyebrows were still lifted, so Lord Cornbury finally announced with considerable dignity that he had made a vow which compelled him to wear dresses one month each year. And if that wasnt sufficient for the citizens, he implied, they could concoct a few explanations of their own.