Early Days in the i8oo's

A well known citizen of New York, the late Dr. Has¬
well, enjoyed a span of life much beyond the allotted
Biblical period of three score years and ten. He kept
a diary from 1816 to almost 1900. We present below
a few excerpts describing incidents which reflect the life
of his day and have a peculiarly fascinating interest for
ours:

1819. May 25. A party left Tompkinsville, S. I., in a post
stage, at 3 a. m., for Philadelphia, and returned at 8 p. m. This
was an endeavor to illustrate the great despatch of the route.
Fare, eight dollars each way.

1819.    A piratical vessel was seen off Sandy Hook.

1819.    There were not in this year ten private carriages
proper. Many years past I essayed to recapitulate the number
of citizens who possessed them, and I could not exceed seven,
and to meet some one or more I m.iy have missed, I put the
number as first above.

1820.     In March of this year was built the steamer Savannah
—of 80 tons, old measurement, said to have had folding water-
wheels, which were taken out and laid on deck when not in use,
presumably when she was under sail alone. She sailed to Savan¬
nah and thence to Liverpool, where she arrived on June 20,
the first steam -vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1820.    A daily paper recited, as a matter of interesting in¬
formation, that in Paris there were street shoeblacks, and the
announcement gave rise to much speculation and even wonder¬
ment, for at this time the industry of boot and shoe blacking
was confined to persons usually occupying a low-rent cellar, who
called at your residence in the forenoon, received your boots
and shoes of the previous day's wear and returned them cleaned
in  the  afternoon,  terms  one  dollar  per month.

1821.    April 22 the packet ship Albion, hence to Liverpool,
was lost off Tuskar Island, with her captain, Williams, and
forty-four others, being the greater part of her passengers and
crew. As this was the first disaster of the kind, and as the
population of the city was small, the occurence was a leading
topic of conversation among all classes, and a subject of natural
reference for some years afterward.

1821. Tammany Hall, then at the corner of Park Row and
Frankfort Street, was advertised by its proprietor as a very
salutary location, being on high and open ground, and airy.

1821. October 18.^ The Advocate, edited by Mordecai M.
Noah, published a notice of a man with a hand-organ, accom¬
panied by a woman, as having appeared in the public streets

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