n Riper did not like.

"Hullo, Dolph!" he hailed his friend. "What's this I heard about you
building a preposterous tom-fool of a town-house out by Greenwich? Why
don't you hire that house that Burr had, up near Lispenard's
cow-pasture, and be done with it?"

Mr. Dolph seized his chance.

"It's not so preposterous as all that. By the way, talking of Burr, I
hear from Richmond that he'll positively be tried next week. Did you
know that young Irving--William's son, the youngest, the lad that writes
squibs--has gone to Richmond for the defence?"

"William Irving's son might be in better business," grunted Mr. Van
Riper, for a moment diverted. "If we'd got at that devil when he
murdered poor Hamilton--'fore gad, we'd have saved the trouble of trying
him. Do you remember when we was for going to Philadelphia after him,
and there the sly scamp was at home all the time up in his fine house,
a-sitting in a tub of water, reading French stuff, as cool as a
cowcumber, with the whole town hunting for him?" Then he came back. "But
that house of yours. You haven't got this crazy notion that New York's
going to turn into London while you smoke your pipe, have you? You're
keeping some of your seven business senses, ain't you?"

"I don't know," Mr. Dolph mildly defended his hobby; "there is a great
potentiality of growth in this city. Here's an estimate that John
Pintard made the other day----"

"John Pintard! He's another like _you_!" said Mr. Van Riper.

"Well, look at it for yourself," pleaded the believer in New York's
future.

Mr. Van Riper took the neatly written paper, and simply snorted and
gasped as he read this:

_Statistical_.

By the numeration of the inhabitants of this city, recently
published, the progress of population for the last 5 years appears
to be at the rate of 25 per cent. Should our city continue to
increase in the same proportion during the present century, the
aggregate number at its close will far exceed that of any other city
in the Old World, Pekin not excepted, as will appear from the
following table. Progress of population in the city of New York,
computed at the rate of 25 per cent, every 5 years:

1805 75,770 1855 705,650
1810 95,715 1860 882,062
1815 110,390 1865 1,102,577
1820 147,987 1870 1,378,221
1825 184,923 1875 1,722,776
1830 231,228