The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-08-21
,MISCELLAN EO U S .
From The Men York TGsSls.
A BIRDaS-EYE PEEP AT THE VILLAGE
- nrN HEDGEN

A BIRDS EYE PEEP AT THE VILLAGE
OF BERGEN.
The queerest little village in Chrlstendon' or
ont of it, is the village OF Bergen situated on
the slope of Bergen Hill in New jersey. -Nas
Dutch settlement; so Dutch indeed, thab'We We
r,lv believe nine-tenths of its Older inhabitants
IMAGINE themselves to be in the beart OF Eol-
land and that their voyage TO ASnemca YVES
dream. which is almost forgotten To the more
rerfect realization of this idea, every many NO
man and child in the4village is van. - he
census NAV be four hundred, out OF NAlhlchdLere
are about one hundred Van Wrinkles, hity~s an
Cliefs thirty Van Bruntss twenty Van AmpurSs'
and three hundred Van EPps, Van Invaders : an
plumbers. and Van every thing else There is
NOT \ child in the place that don't chatter Dntch
like an Amsterdam parrot the very pays seen 10
grunt in Dutch, and if you were to speak 10
bergen dog, in any thing but Dutch, he Woalu
either treat your advance with silent contempt,
as being out of the pale of his comprehension,
or else turn to and bark at you in tonsof'v esce
that would instantly let YOU into the secret that
he knew no more of the Queens English than Of
the degree of relationship in which he stood, TO
. the rrimeval dog that kept watch In the gaDdsn
of Eden 1t is not to be iE serred from this, that
all tie Bergenites women, plgs, days, ana
other bipeds and quadrupeds-wefe born in Itol-
land, No such thing; for of the majority, their
grancfathcrs anderandmothers before thenn' hrst
saw the light in the spot, nag in the very houses
now inhabited ty their offspring; and Fstwe
dare be sworn if old Rip Van Wrinkle himself
was suddenly to appear ameng them, he would
find nothing to awaken his surprise, OR eNcE@ .hiS
indignation, for Bergen is no1y precisely what a
VILLAGE in Holland was hundred years ago.
II is indeed. more like ancient Holland, than
Holland ITSELF for Holland hGs progressed sFlth
the times, while Bergen has Eemained where 1T
was in the beginning.
We lvill not pretend to deny, however, taat
Bergen has given birth to some great retormers,
who at one time or ether attempted to turn Inc
village tepsy turvy, and to make the old hgktS
sur1nise that they had arrived Yithin. a. weeks
tourney or so OF the and Of the world. On one
occasion, Justice of the peace repudiated his
old Dutch pipe in favor of cigar7 which created
a great -sensaton. Or another, aAFaiss Van WIZ
kle mounted a pair of Gorsets, and three 1eunceS,
whereby the whole fenale portion OF the village
was thrown into uproar, and two sermons
preached on the following Sunday, the one IN
Dutch and the other in broken English, on the
enornity of the existence of such spirit OF re-
bellion. vanity, and innovation And on third,
tLe presumption of French dancing master,
who opened an academy for the propagation of
the mysteries of cotillions, Sc, threw the place
into such fever of wenderment and indlgna-
ton that public meeting was calledFTesolutlons
passed, and the ofendertbanished the Village by
the proclamation of the bell man, who added
sundry awful words to the effect that.T he was
caught there again he would be setin the stocks,
and have his cropt
After this occurrence, the quiet and antt4uated
notions of Bergen and its inhabitants renamed
undisturbed for nearly quarter OF century,
when they were again invaded by an attempt to
erect the county court house on the brow sss the
hill This naturally stirred up all hearts like
the throb of an earthquake; the more so, as pecu-
piary motives induced somesof the mynhee-s to
take sides with the enemy, and to talk OF the pro-
posed building as an improvement. However,
the public voice was against 1T; ministers de-
nounced it from the pulpit; Judges from the
bench orators from the forum; the bell man YVES
again put in requisition to cali the village to
arms; rnstv muskets, some without stocks-ot,-
ers without locks, and not few without bar
rels. were shouldered in all objections; and ar
old 6eld-piece, which, for any number of years
Had formed the domicile of an ansiquated Dutch
rat. and his respectable and numerous family,
was hunted up, and cut quite jerocious and
blood-thirsty appearance, as 1t was borne up and
down the main street on wagon; albeit, 1T was
discovered that it could be made no use of, other
than that of striking terror into the hearts OF the
court-housetes by reason of the fact that it had
been spiked so long ago that the memory OF man
r1nneth not back 80 the time when it Was known
to have reoiced in the possession OF an open
touch-hole And. besides, these dreadful notes
of preparation, thss memorable occasion drew
forth number Of petitions three OF which
emanated from the Van Wrinkles alone; and 1t is
rumored, though we cannot say on what authori-
ty that one of these petitions was addressed to
his Majesty, the King of Holland, and signes by
twenty-nine of that illustrious family who de-
clared themselves to be his 'Emajestys very loyal
subjects"
Such demonstration naturally led to the aRan-
dsnment of the idea Of the court honse, and the
muskets were again resigned to their positions
o,,f.af ,.la foII -N.aa fo f,.nr afc
and all things returned back into their proper
channels And then it was that Bergen became
herself again in all her purity, for his honor had
returned to the affections of his pipe; sfthe lady
had dismissed her iounces and corsets.n and a
stout gentleman, one of the Van Brunts, who
had broken his leg in fierce attempt TO cut the
@tieeon wing" thoroughly vetoed the cotillions
so that, as we indicated, Bergen was Bergen once
more: and as much unlike any other place in the
world out of Holland as Dutch bum-boat is
unlike Baltimore clipper, or a sea gull.
And in this manner 'our village continued for
sa,en Years after the last hubbub. Even railroad
=, 81, steamboat had no effect on it;-nor that yet
greater revolutionist, the penny press; and for
{b;s esreeial reason that there is no penny paper
q unfinished in Dutch; and real bergenite would
81 lief undertake to turn double somerset upon
a slack rope with Herr Cline, or to dance the
Cracovienne with Fanny Ellsler, as to read a
= ,oaraoraIlh af the Queens English During thi:
time we paid visit to it, and found It as natuia
as the year it was born. Out of twenty m IN VIZ
saw In the street, nineteen were smoSinE Wooaei
pipes; and the twentieth was speaking lew llntei
10 an apepletic looking Amsterdam terrier, wht
buw-wow'd an answer I'M the same 'angfaaeI
The women wesaeanally iaLt 81 'iAdeIlapl,
with their tHielz shoes, toll embroNned faces
everlasting blue inen aprons, end waists On th
topol them shoulaeJs anl when we went INTO
,,,kis, house ard 4 led for 50 me dinner we yer