reason of which I conclude
to be, that either the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger or the
persons of the ladies smaller; this, however, is a question for
physiologists to determine.

But there was a secret charm in these petticoats which no doubt entered
into the consideration of the prudent gallants. The wardrobe of a lady
was in those days her only fortune, and she who had a good stock of
petticoats and stockings was as absolutely an heiress as is a Kamschatka
damsel with a store of bear skins or a Lapland belle with a plenty of
reindeer. The ladies, therefore, were very anxious to display these
powerful attractions to the greatest advantage; and the best rooms in
the house, instead of being adorned with caricatures of Dame Nature in
water colors and needlework, were always hung round with abundance of
homespun garments, the manufacture and the property of the females--a
piece of laudable ostentation that still prevails among the heiresses of
our Dutch villages.

The gentlemen, in fact, who figured in the circles of the gay world in
these ancient times corresponded, in most particulars, with the
beauteous damsels whose smiles they were ambitious to deserve. True it
is their merits would make but a very inconsiderable impression upon the
heart of a modern fair; they neither drove their curricles nor sported
their tandems, for as yet those gaudy vehicles were not even dreamt of,
neither did they distinguish themselves by their brilliancy at the
table, and their consequent renconters with watchmen, for our
forefathers were of too pacific a disposition to need those guardians of
the night, every soul throughout the town being sound asleep before nine
o'clock. Neither did they establish their claims to gentility at the
expense of their tailors, for as yet those offenders against the pockets
of society and the tranquility of all aspiring young gentlemen were
unknown in New Amsterdam; every good housewife made the clothes of her
husband and family, and even the goede vrouw of Van Twiller himself
thought it no disparagement to cut out her husband's linsey-woolsey
galligaskins.

Not but what there were some two or three youngsters who manifested the
first dawning of what is called fire and spirit, who held all labor in
contempt, skulked about docks and market-places, loitered in the
sunshine, squandered what little money they could procure at hustle-cap
and chuck-farthing, swore, boxed, fought cocks, and raced the