The sun., 1919-11-02
Historic Spots In and Near New York
Abound in Associations of the Au-
thor Scenes Pictured as They
Were in His Day
By ARTHUR B. MAURICE.

I York and Philadelphia Washington's
| father, William Irving. was a mer-
chant in New York at the outbreak of
the Revolution. His quiet dwelling
and other quiet dwellings about were
| threatened by the guns of the English
warships in the harbor. In the nat
ural panic there was a general flight
| to the country, and William Irving
and his family took refuge in Railway.
| There, in the old house still to be seen
| facing what is known as lower Main
street. they lived for two years be-
| fore returning to New York. In view
| of Washington Irving's close asso-
citation with John Howard Payne, the
| author of Home, Sweet Home"-in
Paris in 1928 and 1924 the two worked
together on the adaptation of French
plays for presentation on the English
stage-it is an odd coincidence that
at the other end of the New Jersey
| town in which Washington Irving's
| father found refuge there Is a struc-
| ture. known as the Squier house.
| which the old documents seem to
,, prove beyond dispute to have been
built by the father of John Howard
; Payne
Irving's 18th Century New York.
Nos. 131 and 12S William street
have been mentioned. 1t was In the
! chapel OF St George in the nearby
| Beekman street that Washington
Irving was baptized, soon after Gen.
| Washington reentered the city. Reared
! in the flavor of the old Scotch Coven-
anters. 1t was in an Episcopal house
J OF worship that Irving had his
, spiritual birth, albeit the actual rite
was performed by n Presbyterian.
| Most OF the authors boyhood was
| passed in the region between Broad
way and what has ever been known
! as 'the swamp" His earliest school
| was one kept by Mrs. Kilmaster. in
Ann street. between William and Gold.
! His second school was at 1913 Fulton
street, then 81 Partition street.
In the old John Street Theatre he
| witnessed his first plays, in company
| with James X. Paulding, who was four
and half years his senior, and con-
ceived such a fondness for the stage
that he wrote a play of his own. In
/ this neighborhood his formal educa.
ton was finished before he reached
his sixteenth year, for although his
| brothers, Peter and John, had been
sent to Columbia College he did not
| enjoy the same advantage His first
venture from the familiar scenes was
| In 1898, at the age of is, when
he spent a holiday in Westchester
county exploring the recesses OF
| Sleepy Hollow. that he was afterward
| to immortalize in the Legend" Two
| years later came his first real Jour
! ney-his trip up the Hudson. 1t was,
he wrote half century later, sin the
| good old times before steamboats, and
| railroads had annihilated time and
space and driven all poetry and ro-
nance out of travel. A voyage to
! Albany then was equal to a voyage TO
| Europe at present, and took nearly as
much time. We enjoyed the beauties
| OF the river in those days; the
| features OF nature were not all jum-
bled together, nor the towns and viii
! lagos huddied one into the other by
railroad speed as they are now"
Essays at the Law.
In the spring of 1904 Washington
Irving came of age. but in a state Of
| health so precarious that his father
and brothers decided that his only
hope was in trip TO Europe. He
sailed for Bordeaux on May 10. his
vessel reaching the mouth of the
| Gironde on June 20. Almost two years
elapsed before he again saw his native
Manhattan. Sixty-six days were re-
quired for the passage of the ship
Remittance from Gravesend to New
York. The town that he found in
1906 was. to use his own word, a
handy" city. Everybody knew every
body and there was more Of good fell
lowship and careless ease OF manners
than in later years. The literati en-
tered more into society and gave II
something OF their own tone and
character. Irving's associates at this
time were Peter and Gouverneur Kem-
BILE. Henry Brevoort, Henry Ogden and
James X. Paulding. who, with his
brother Peter and a few others.
made up a small circle of intimates
designated by Peter as the mine
worthless" though Washington In his
correspondence more frequently al