d, to my mind,
Greenwich Village has a very personal soul that requires very personal
and very careful handling. This little foreword is to crave pardon
humbly if my touch has not been light, or deft, or sure. There are so
many things that I may have left out, so many ways in which I must
have erred.

And I want to thank people too,--just here. So many people there are
to thank! I cannot simply dismiss the matter with the usual
acknowledgment of a list of authorities--to which, by the bye, I have
tried to cling as though they were life-buoys in a stormy sea of
research!

There are the kindly individuals,--J.H. Henry, Vincent Pepe, William
van der Weyde, J.B. Martin, and the rest,--who have so generously
placed their own extensive information and collected material at my
disposal. And there are the small army of librarians and clerks and
secretaries and so on, who have given me unlimited patience and most
encouraging personal interest.

And finally, beyond all these, are the Villagers who have taken me in,
and made me welcome, and won my heart for all time. Everyone has been
so kind that my "thank you" must take in all of Greenwich.

It is said that hospitality, neighbourliness and genuine cordiality
are traits of any well-conducted village. Then be sure that our
Village in the city is not behind its rustic fellows. For, wherever
you stray or wherever you stop within its confines, you will always
find the latch-string hung outside.

"Does a bird need to theorise about building its nest, or
boast of it when built? All good work is essentially done
that way--without hesitation, without difficulty, without
boasting.... And now, returning to the broader question, what
these arts and labours of life have to teach us of its
mystery, this is the first of their lessons--that the more
beautiful the art, the more it is essentially the work of
people who ... are striving for the fulfilment of a law, and
the grasp of a loveliness, which they have not yet
attained.... Whenever the arts and labours of life are
fulfilled in this spirit of striving against misrule, and
doing whatever we have to do, honourably and perfectly, they
invariably bring happiness, as much as seems possible to the
nature of man."

--JOHN RUSKIN.

CHAPTER I

_The Chequered History of a City Square_

... I know not whether it is owing to the tenderness of
early associa