Chapter IX

At the Close of the Knicker¬
bocker Days

A BUSTLING, energetic, but pro¬
vincial city was New York be¬
tween the years 1830 and 1840, the
last days of the Knickerbockers.
After 1840 it changed greatly, speed¬
ing rapidly on in the making of a
metropolis. Looking back now it
is plain that the progress of enlarge¬
ment went steadily on year by year,
but then the changes came on imper¬
ceptibly enough.

To any one who knows the great
metropolis of this twentieth century,
it will seem remarkable that Hanover
Square was the place where merchants
and jobbers most did congregate, and
that the business part of the city (and
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