t if there were so few persons enlightened
enough to understand and appreciate it in its true sense.

Chapman was indeed not one of those men who carry blessings into a
community with them, but rather one of those who seem to delight in
planting curses wherever they go, and leaving their victims to reap the
bitter fruit in poverty and ruin. Himself a mental deformity, none of
his enterprises had been of any real benefit to the community, while his
last and most reprehensible one had resulted in emptying the pockets of
the old Dutch settlers, and leaving them bits of worthless paper to
remember him by.

And yet this man could talk of himself like a very saint. He had the
power, too, of making many of those who had suffered by his acts believe
him honest. Indeed, while one portion of the community was cursing him
for a knave, another was defending him as a really useful man--an
opinion Mrs. Chapman was always ready to endorse. In short, Chapman had
supporters in Nyack who would have sent him to Congress out of sheer
love for his talents, which they were sure would have found a happy
field for their development. Mrs. Chapman always sought to conciliate
these friends, and would invite them to tea. On these little occasions,
after discussing the merits of cider-vinegar and homemade pumpkin pies,
and the care respectable people should exercise over the company they
kept, for there was pure New England "grit" in the lady, she would recur
to her dear husband.

"All Nyack will confess how intellectually great he is," she would say;
"and show me the person who has done more to elevate the moral
respectability of Nyack. Nyack was such a dull, sleepy place when--when
we first honored it with our company. See what it now is. My dear
husband worked up these low Dutch people so; yes, and he improved their
morals. And I flatter myself I have elevated its society--a little."

Chapman had now thoroughly developed Nyack, financially and religiously.
He had saved up a nice little fortune, enough with care and good
management to keep him comfortable and give Mrs. Chapman a wider field
for the exercise of her love of display. There was now little chance of
making any more money out of Nyack, either by getting up quarrels
between neighbors or inventing new religions. So the Chapmans resolved
to go into the city and set up for very respectable people. As nobody
wanted the big house for a church Chapman rented it to Titus Bright for
an inn,