The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-02
THACKERAY IN NEW YORK.
His Arrival--His First Lecture-At the
 Captirrv ClI1j-At Dp]p1OnicO'S

l century CluD-tAl i)CililplilN'
 l Accompanied by his secretary, Eyre l Grove, young English artist Thack-
 cray sailed for Boston, October 30, 1852, | in the steamer Canada. Just as she was
 casting off her lines a package was 1 placed aboard the Cunarder containing | letters from his London publishers and ! the first copies of Henry Esmond.' V
 Among his fellow passengers were James Russell Lowell fresh from Italy,
 and Arthur Hugh Clough, who as a | youth had spent several years in this 1 country. The voyage was a rough one,
 and in one of his letters the Oxford scholar mentions that the great writer
 was a poor sailor, also that he had been chatting with "Titmarsh' when con- fined to his berth. On the occasion of
 the usual entertainment during the last evening aboard the Canada, after leaving Halifax, Thackerays health was proposed, to which he responded
 in an amusing and appropriate man.
 ner; then LoWell's, who concluded by
 proposing the health of Clough the
 English poet. The steamer arrived at her Boston dock at sunset, and an hour later Thackeray, with Clough and his artist secretary, was enjoying his first
 American dinner at the Fremont House. Among the earliest to welcome him
 the next morning was William H. Pres
 colt, with whom he dined on the fol-
 lowing day, and to whom he became
 greatly attached. In one of his first
 letters from Boston Thackeray writes:
 MT Prescott the historian is delight
 ful. It's like the society of
 rich cathedral town in England-grave
 and decorous, and very pleasant and
 well read" A friend met Thackeray
 in Beacon street with the three volumes
 of Henry Esmond' tucked under his
 arm. Here is the very best I can
 do." he said, and I am carrying it to
 Prescott as reward of merit for hay
 ing given me my first dinner in Ameri-
 ca. l stand by this book and am will
 ing to leave it where I go as my card"
 Thackeray arrived in New York from
 Boston on the 16th of November, read
 ing on the way the Shabby Genteel
 Story of a dozen years before, which
 
 checked little peripatetic book mer- chant, who accosted him with "Thaek- erays Work" quite unaware that he
 was standing before the great author himself. His first visitor at the Claren- don Hotel, on the evening of his arrival,
 was George Bancroft, who surprised Thackeray with the statement that in
 May, 1922, he had carried compliment tary messages from Goethe at Wemar to Lord Byron, who was then living in Pisa. As a memorial of the young Americans visit copy of Don Juan,' which he received from its author at that time, may be seen in the Lenox Library, with the inscription, MT. George Bancroft from Noel Byron Two subsequent evenings were spent by Thackeray In witnessing Homes spirit-rapping manifestations at Ban croft's house, and in listening to an address delivered by the historian be- fore the New York Historical Society.
 Among the audience of about twelve hundred that filled every seat in Dr. Chapn's Universalist Church on the east side of Broadway, little below Prince street. on Friday evening, No vember 19, 1852, were an unusual num- Der of literary, artistic, and profes- sional celebrities Besides an imposing array of society leaders, the writer re- calls, O'Conor and Verplanck, President King and Professor Morse, with the editors, Greeley, Morris, Webb and Will lis. Thackeray appeared in the pulpit promptly at s o'clock, and was cor dially welcomed by the sympathetic au- dience. He seemed "a very caste of a man. as Irving said of Fenimore Cooper. His breadth of shoulders was quite in Keeping with his six feet three inches. He was in his forty-sec- ond year. but his silvered hair and gold spectacles gave him the appearance of a person past fifty. His subject was Swift His exceedingly fine presence, with his charm of manner and the melody of his rich tenor voice, created most favorable impression. Never rising into the declamatory, the lecturer read with g. quiet, graceful ease, and a few notes above the con versational level. He occupied about | an hour, but there was no sense of the | lapse of time with at least one youth ful listener. It was a happy hour too | swiftly sped" Many years later, in the readings of Thackeray | and Dickens, George William Curtis re- marked: "The style of Boz was that | of the perfectly trained actor; of l that of the accomplished | gentleman amateur"
 Perhaps there was no place in New | York so popular with Thackeray as the | Century Club, in Clinton Place, where | he was first taken by MT. Appleton. | There he sat with an admiring circle. | including Curtis and CoZzens and 1 Daly, and smoked and slipped, and sang | his Little Bilee'' and Larry O'Toole' and "Dr. Luther" or listened to a sentimental song from Curtis, or lively Irish air from Judge Daly. The artist Cranch also contributed charm ing songs, and droll limitations of Websters oratory. He would draw forth huge red bandana handkerchief, and unfolding it with Dutch delbera- ion, would, after many -pullings md trumpet-blasts, proceed with his sentences
 Soon after Thackeray's arrival in New York about twoscore friends and admirers among the leading literary md social celebrities of the city gave i'm delightful dinner at Delmonico's Washington Irving was invited to pre-
 tide, but remembering his unfortunate