The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-06-22

who had paid the debt Of nature during the
long interval Of my absence. Some reinem-
bered, my companions In boyhood, who bad
sported with me on the very sod under which
they were now Numbering others who IN
! those days had been the flower Of the yeoman-
ry, figuring in Sunday fnery on the church
green; others, the white haired elders OF the
sanctuary, once arrayed in awful snnctiiy
around the pulpit, ami ever ready to reDuke
the ill-imed mirth OF the wanton stripping,
who, now man, sobered by years and school
ed by vicissitudes, looked down pensiyely
upon their graves. "Our fathers thought
I. s.where are they land the prophets, can
they live foreverp
was disturbed in my meditations by the
noise of troop of idle urchins, who came
gamboling about the place where | had so
often galnbolled. They were checked, as |
and my playmates had often been, by the
voice OF the sexton, man staid IN years and
demeanor. | looked wistfully in his face
had met him any where else, should pro-
badly have passed him by without remark
but here | was alive to the traces OF former
| times, and detected in the demurc features Of
this guardian of the sanctuary, the lurking
| neaments of one Of the very playmates |
have alluded TO. We renewed our acquaint-
ance. lie sat down beside me, on one Of the
tombstones over which we had leaped in our
juvenile sports, and we talked together about
our boyish days, and held edilying discourse
on The instability of all sublunary things, as
instanced in the scene around US. He was
rich in historic lore, as TO the events oil the last
thirty years, and the circumference OF thirty
miles, and from him learned the appalling
revolution that was taking place throughout
the neghborhood. All this clearly perceived
he attributed to the boosted march Of intel
lect, or rather the all-pervading influence Of
steam. He bewailed the times when the only
communication with town was by the weekly
market boat, the "Farmers Daughter" which,
under the pilotage Of the worthy Gabriel
Requa, braved the perils Of the Tappan Sea.
Alas Gabriel and the j" farmers Daughter"
slept in peace. Two steamboats, now splash
ed and padded up daily to the little rural port
of Tarrytown. The spirit of speculation and
Improvement had seized even upon that once
quiet and unambi,ious little dorp. The whole
neighborhood was laid out into town lots. In
stead OF the little tavern below the hill, where
the farmers used TO oter on market days, and
indulge in cider and gingerbread, an ambitious
hotel, with cupalo and verandahs, now crested
/ the summit, among churches built in the Gre
clan and Gothic styles, showing the great in
crease of piety and polite taste in the neigh
borhood. As to Dutch dresses and sunbon-
nets, they were no longer tolerated, or even
thought Of; not n farmers daughter but now
went to town for the fashions nay, a city
milllner had recently set up in the village,
/ who threatened to reform the heads Of the
whole neighborhopd.
l had heard enough! thanked my old
playmate for his intelligence, and departed
from the Sleepy Hollow church, with the sad
conviction that | had beheld the last lingerings
| of the good old Dutch times, in this once ia
vored region. II any thing were wanting to
confirm this impression, il would be the intel
ligence which has ust reached me, that
. bank is about to be established in the aspiring
little port just mentioned. The fate of the
nelghborhuod Is, therefore, sealed. | see no
hope Of averting it. The golden mean is at an
end. The country is suddenly to be deluged
\ with wealth. The late simple turner's are to
become bank directors, and drink claret and
champagne and their wives and daughters to
figure in French hats and feathers for French
vines and French fashions commonly keep
pace with paper money. How can | hope
that even Sleepy Hollow can escape the ge-
neral inundaton In a little while, fear the
sumber OF ages will be at all end; the strum
of the piano will succeed to the hum OF the
spinning wheel; the tril Of the Italian opera
to the nasal quaver Of lchabod Crane; and the
antiquarian visiter to the Hollow, in the petu-
lance Of his disappointment, may pronounce
all that have recorded Of that once favored
region, a fable.