^
 

PREFACE.

)T a great expenditure of time
and labor, we have reprinted this
fx(r^ most intereiling little volume—the
' ^^ *'New York Direaory for 1786,"
—the firft one of its kind in our
city. It was iffued at a time
when this great Metropolis of ours
^-^^^^^C was ilill in its infancy, and the
^S^O^j^ reader will note with intereft the
various items of information given herein—giving the
book a provincial tone and making it appear almoft
child-like, when compared to the ponderous volume ot
today that attempts to give modern readers iimilar in¬
formation.

An accurate and truftworthy defcription of New
York by Noah Webller is prefixed, and the reader
will doubtlefs glean from it more real knowledge of
** Every-day New York" of that period, than can be
gotten from any other brief treatife on the topic.
Telling as it does, of a period so interefting to
Americans—the time between the recognition of the
Colonies' independence and Wafhington's Prefidency
—this cannot fail to charm thofe who read its pages,
and the thorough diffimilarity between the quaint old
Dutch town of 120 years ago and the New York of
our day, will always intereft refidents who have
watched its growth and expanfion even in their own
time.

It is the hope of the publifhers that this work will
be prized for the intrinfic value of its contents, and
for its old flyle of typography, and that it may prove
an addition to any library.

The Winthrop  Press.
June 77,  igos.