The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-07

knlck crnocke or New York.

UIV ""
There are some Of us still surviving who
came to New York in the later SOS. and who.
possibly. for that reason can best appreci-
ate the truthfulness and vividness of the
"reminiscences recorded in the volume en-
titled Ldst Days OF Knickerbocker Late in
Neu York. by ADRIAN c. DAYTON Putnams).
I've. the most cursory notice Of this book
should begin with an attempt TO denne
what is meant by the -Knickerbockers'
Originally the term comprehended primarily
those families which for at least two CEN
turtles had enjoyed social eminence in the
Island of Manhattan. but from early days
it included also those great landed mag
mates of the colony. invested in many in
stances With manorial rights, whose estates
divided between them the shores OF the
North River. As in the days of repub-
lican and imperial Rome, these families
were continually recruited 10y marriage
or by adoption from those possessed OF no
immemorial claims in the colony: to cite
but two examples, il was "A Presbyterian
clergyman named Livingston who, emf
grating from Scotland about the middle
Of the seventeenth century. acquired a
great estate by marriage with a Miss Van
Rensselaer,, and more than a century later
il was by his marriage with a Miss Schuyler
that Alexander Hamilton gained a social
position which Aaron Burr never attained
although better born han his great
rival. As late az the close Of the sixth
decade of the nineteenth century the names
that still were socially paramount were
those of Van Rensselaer,. Livingston. Van
Cortland. Schuyler. Stuyvesant, Cruger and
Schermerhorn. but sharing to some ex-
tent their authority and more or less closely
connected with them by intermarriages
might be- name1 at least a hundred others.
who considered az a whole constituted
what might be described "a the inner circle
OF New York society.
Not only, however, is the origin Of
Knickerbocker ascendency in New York
society worthy Of some consideration. but
the same thing may be said of its decline
and fall. Many politico-economic causes
contributed to its ~decadence, among which
may be mentioned the abolition Of entail
and the rent war which struck at the root
Of the dominance of the lords of manors;
and. secondly. the tremendous stimulus
impaired to the creation of great mercantile
fortunes by the opening Of the Erie Canal.
To these agencies must Of course be added
the opportunities afforded for great acou-
mutations Of money through the introduce
ton and quick extensio" Of railways. Dur
ing the third quarter Of the nineteenth CEN
fury sagacious and far sighted Knicker-
bockers began to realize that "a a caste they
no longer possessed sufficient money 10
sustain social ascendency, and that IL be-
hooved them IN effect Al intimate alliance
with the noureouI riches. The process may
be said. indeed. to have begun "a early a.
Is4o, but it reached its elimination when the
coup de prfce was given to the old social
regime through the acceptance of invita-
tions to the Vanderbilt ball hv almost all of
the leaders of the Knickerbocl5er set. Since
then. by an inevitable reaction. the old
Knickerbocker families have sunk more or
less into the background. until at last only
the new rich and those few Knickerbockers
who have intermarried with them excite
tho curiosity and command the Difference
Of the New York community.