VALENTINE'S MANUAL

A Fire Incident 1796

This morning (Dec. 9, 1796) about one o'clock a most dreadful
fire broke out near the centre of Murray's Wharf, Coffee-house
slip, which notwithstanding all the exertions of all the engines,
and a vast concourse of the citizens could not be got under,
until it terminated at the Fly Market, consuming nearly fifty
buildings, the property of a number of citizens, some of whom
are reduced from affluence to indigence.

During this dreadful fire a gentleman belonging to the Com¬
pany of the Bag-men, returning home with a bag filled with
papers of considerable importance to the owners, in order to
insure their safety met with two "sons of the sea" evidently dis¬
interested in the horrors of the night standing idle at the corner
of one of the streets. The gentleman, observing their want of
duty to their fellow citizens in distress, expostulated with them
on the impropriety of their absence, when one of them more
impertinent than the other, retorted with, "Blast the fellow;
What business is it to you—you've got your booty";
 

Table Customs of Long Ago

Steel knives were used exclusively. The head of the house
cut the bread at the table, usually by holding it under his arm
and carving ofif the big thick slices, and passing them around.
Bones from the table were thrown on the crumb cloth for the
dogs, who were watching for the crumbs that fell from the
master's table. Coffee or tea was poured out into the saucer and
light breezes blown over it from the puckered up mouth until
it was cool enough to drink. The butter was in a large dish,
usually a pound or two, and each person helped himself, plaster¬
ing his portion on the edge of his plate. The plate was large
enough to hold a buckwheat cake six or seven inches in diameter
without hanging over the edges.
 

A New York Dresser at Palm Beach

I get up and put on llama gray wool socks, brown leather
brogued shoes with heavy soles of rubber, a gray flannel shirt
with cricket collar of the same stuff attached, a deep red sailor's
knot scarf and a, loose jacket and bag trousers of woolly gray
flannel and I am dressed and ready for my first meal of the
day and an hour of. motor-boating. Later in the morning there
is no humidity with the heat and I find linen is the nicest thing
to wear. A white silk shirt with a slightly starched linen collar,
a plain dark brown silk sailor's knot scarf and polished buck
shoes tipped at heel and toe with varnished brown leather—and
I am ready.   I wear no hat—I never wear one here.

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