s; with the addition now in progress this
edifice will be one of the 'wonders' of the Western world. Three or four
good brick houses on the corner of Broadway and Spring Street have been
levelled, I know not for what purpose--shops, no doubt. The
houses--fine, costly edifices, opposite to me extending from Driggs's
corner down to a point opposite to Bond Street--are to make way for a
grand concert and exhibition establishment."

It is far from being all mellowness and amiability, that Diary. Hone had
his prejudices and dislikes and strong political opinions. In the
portraits that have been preserved there is the suggestion of
intolerance and smug self-satisfaction. Also life did not turn out quite
so rosy as it promised in 1828, when he retired from business with a
handsome competence. In 1836, during the commercial depression, he met
with financial reverses which forced him to return to the game of
money-getting. He became president of the American Mutual Insurance
Company, which was ruined by the great fire of July 19, 1845.

"A fire has occurred," he recorded in the entry of that date, "the loss
of which is probably $5,000,000; several of the insurance companies are
ruined, and all are crippled. My office, I fear, is in the former
category. We have lost between three and four hundred thousand dollars,
which is more than we can pay.

"This is a hard stroke for me. I was pleasantly situated with a moderate
support for my declining years, and now, 'Othello's occupation's gone.'"

But he met his reverses in a courageous manner, and in 1849 President
Taylor appointed him Naval Officer of the Port of New York, a place
which he held until his death.

As became his day, Hone was a good trencherman. In the index to the
Diary there are one hundred and sixteen pages marked as containing
reference of some kind to dinner parties. The old New York names appear
again and again. H. Brevoort, Chancellor and Mrs. Kent, Mr. and Mrs.
W.B. Astor, Bishop Hobart, C. Brugiere and Miss Brugiere, Robert
Maitland, Dr. Wainwright, Mr. and Mrs. Anthon, Judge Spencer, Judge
Irving, Dr. Hosack, Peter Jay, P. Schemerhorn. And only the formal
dinner parties are indexed. Aside from them there are scores of
allusions to where the diarist dined and who dined with him. Small
wonder that the passing of a cook of unusual abilities was an event to
be recorded. An early entry, that of February 17, 1829, reads: "Died
this morning, Simon, the celebrated