The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-17
Picturesque Land
marks Recall the
Writers Notable
for nte rpreting'
Complex Life of
New York in the
Early Part Of 10th
Century
BY ARTHUR B. MAURICE.

A N alliterative way Of linking the
~ literary associations and tradi-
\ tons OF the old city and the
new Is to speak Of "the town from Poe
to Porter" For William Sidney Por-
ter, to call by his real name the highly
talented man who made the pseudo
nym 30. Henry" familiar to so many
tens Of thousands of readers, was as
distinctively the interpreter OF the tur-
bulent, complex New York OF the first
decade OF the twentieth century as
Washington Irving and Edgar Allan
Poe were the conspicuous figures of
the old Knickerbocker. village Of the
first half of the nineteenth.
But where it Is q matter of the ia
nous squares OF the, metropolis the
literary pioneers may be summarily
dismissed. Washington Square was
an outpost of the Kniokerbocker city:
Irving strolled across it occasionally
on his way to the house in Irving
place at such times of his later life as
he temporarily deserted the repose OF
the Sunnyside estate on the Hudson,
and the improvident and unfortunate
Poe had several. makeshift homes in
the neighborhood. But Union Square,
Madison Square and Stuyvesant
Square, then only in the making. are
TO be regarded in the light of literary
properties of later generations.
Although having no existence out
side OF Hawthorne's Imagination, Ar
thur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne
ere two Of the most conspicuous fig
ures In the history Of the town Of
Salem For a generation or two the
shades Of Rip Van Wrinkle and his dog
dominated any one of half a dozen
sleepy Dutch villages at the foot Of the
Catskin Mountains. No name in the
chronicles of Sleepy Hollow Is more
Familiar than that OF Ichabod Crane,
the schoolmaster VINO fell in with the
gFis1y Headless Horsemsn. Little
Dorrh rather than any poor debtor Of
actual existence comes to mind at the
mention of the old Marshalsea prison
Of London, and Col "Tom" Newcome
ct The Thackeray novel Il stfll the
most famous of all the long line Of
pensioners who have passed their de-
rlining years at the Charterhouse. The
nrst literary resident of Madison
Square was the Flora McE1imsey Of
the William Allen Butler poem which
beganI
Mss Flora McFnmsey of Rfadisou
Square
Has made three separats Journeys ID
Paris.
Ana her father assures xna. each time
she was there.
That she and her friend ASs. Harris
c7ot the lady whose name 10 20 famous
IN history, 1850.
BuA plain Mrs. Il. without roananos On
mystery
Spent six consecutive weetz. wfrhou.
stopping.
In one continuous round OF shopping-
'NOthinE to wearts
In Literary Friends ana 40
<uaiutances" William Dean Howells
Told Of his first visit 20 New York
AZ the time of the civfl war. After
passing Clinton place, the old name
Tor a section OF Eighth street, he
wrote' Commerce was Just begin-
Ming 10 show itself in Union Square
and Madison Square was still the
home Of the McFlimsies, whose kin
and kind dwelt unmolested IN the
hrownstone stretches of Fifth ave-
nue." Buffers verses were designed
70 satirize aIniably the extravaganza
In feminine dress. The date of the
poem was 1857, but the condition was
one hitting any decade. Flora Nc
Flimsey inhabiting Madison Square
Then the centre OF town as fashion
able residence, was reduced 20 tears
~ her deplorable situation. Despite
the wealth Of sartorial acquisition
resulting from her Paris Journey she
telt that she had nothing to wear
The country. adopting the swing OF