ee that it's so much the fashion.
After supper, for dancing we'd plenty of room,
And so pleasant it was, that I did not get home
Until three--when the ladies began to look drowsy,
The lamps to burn dim, and the Laird to grow boosy.
The ball being ended, I've no more to tell--
And so, my dear Fanny, I bid you farewell.

In the old pamphlet from which I have already quoted, edited in 1845 by
Moses Y. Beach and compiled for the purpose of furnishing information
concerning the status of New York citizens to banks, merchants and
others, I find the following amusing description of George Douglas:
"George Douglas was a Scotch merchant who hoarded closely. His wine
cellar was more extensive than his library. When George used to see
people speculating and idle it distressed him. He would say: 'People get
too many _idees_ in their head. Why don't they work?' What a blessing he
is not alive in this moonshine age of dreamy schemings." Mr. Beach
apparently was not capable of appreciating a thrifty Scotchman.

This same pamphlet gives an account of a picturesque character whom I
distinctly remember as a highly prominent citizen of New York. His
parentage was involved in mystery, and has remained so until this day. I
refer to Mr. Preserved Fish, the senior member of the firm of Fish,
Grinnell & Co., which subsequently became the prominent business house
of Grinnell, Minturn & Co. Sustained by the apparel peculiar to infants,
he was found floating in the water by some New Bedford fishermen who,
unable to discover his identity, bestowed upon him the uncouth name
which, willingly or unwillingly, he bore until the day of his death. He
and the other members of his firm were originally from New Bedford, one
of the chief centers of the whale fisheries of New England, and came to
New York to attend to the oil and candle industries of certain merchants
of the former city. Few business men in New York in my day were more
highly respected for indomitable energy and personal integrity than Mr.
Fish. He became President of the Tradesmen's Bank, and held other
positions of responsibility and trust. He represented an ideal type of
the self-made man, and in spite of an unknown origin and a ridiculous
name battled successfully with life without a helping hand.

In connection with the Douglas family, I recall a beautiful wedding
reception which, as well as I can remember, took place in the autumn of
1850, at Fanwood, Fort Was