The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-12
"reminiscences of
Old New York

DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY. BY Matt
land Armstrong. Charles Scribner's
Sons.
Reviewed by ELEANOR HAYDEN
Before the new generation has swept
us completely off our feet It is pleas
ant TO linger over the DAY Before
Yesterday" To share with Maitland
Armstrong "reminiscences of varied
life" is like slipping hqueur from a
stock that is almost exhausted. 1t
may not be a heady drink. but it has
a suave charm that is not found in
firewater.
A life whose paths lay among the
pleasantest roads Of his day and gen.
eration-not among swamps and over
rocky mountains, but through genial
green meadows and beneath lovely
orchards in spring-that was the road
as this artist travelled it.
Born at Danskammer on the Hudson
in 1886, of distinguished ancestry on
both sides OF the family, Maitland
Armstrong grew up in an atmosphere
of friendly, hospitable folk who repre-
scented some of the best elements OF
American tradition and breeding.
Danskamner, wooded point jutting
out into the river-Duyviis Dams
hammer Devils Dancechamber) pre-
sumably so-caled by Henry Hudson
formed a very important part in the
ordering of his life This house where
he lived as a boy, and to which he re-
turned through the years, grew into
his personality, as old houses will.
The book is filed with little intimate
personal "reminiscences that make II
consistently good reading. In one
place Mr. Armstrong writes naively,
Il seem to remember more about the
clothes Of 1S4S than I do about its
politics." He also remembered the
food That there were ever boarding
houses with excellent food, long.
handsome tables shining with bright
linen and silver" seems almost tmpos-
sible. and yet so it is recorded. AS
a very small boy Mr.. Armstrong came
TO New York, attended a school near
Washington Square, when it was
Washington Parade Ground" for the
militia. "reminiscences of the Square,
that antedate even his memory, are
included in a conversation with an
other old New Yorker who remem-
through, making it damp and misty,
and when it was also the Potter's
Field.
Early experiences at Niblo's Gar
den are given with sighting refer-
ences to a COW seen peeking through
a fence at Twenty-third street and
Fifth avenue, then occupied by "a
road house, cottage and outbuildings,
called Corporal Thompson's, and back
of which was a green paddock and
open field running down to Sixth ave-
nue." That deer and flamingoes played
around the fountain In the Bow
ling Green" that rear windows on
Fourteenth street used to face open |
fields with nothing else to the north,
that Forty-second street, between
Fifth and Sixth avenues, used to be
n common where boys loved to skate, |
and that orchards and pastures be-
tween Seventeenth and Twenty-third
streets were another happy hunting
ground for the young and adven-
turous boyish heart-these are things
that Mr.. Armstrong makes us see
clearly.
Here are sketches of New York dur |
ing the civil war. the draft riots |
Broadway in flames, the visit of the |
Prince of Wales in 1850, and Walt |
Whitman on Broadway. about that |
time. wandering hatless and with open |
shirt. gazing at the sky: visits Of
Dickens and Thackeray. balls in the |
Grinnells' old house at Fourteenth |
street and Fifth avenue, that Del
monico's (moved from their original
pastry shop in William street) had |
taken over.
Mr.. Armstrong had happy faculty |
for being in the right place at the |
psychological moment. After attend |
ing Trinity College at Hartford and
contemplating Harvard law school
and eventually drifting into law prac-
tice. he found himself in Rome, as
Consul TO the Papal States Living
in a charming old sixteenth century
palace near the top of the Spanish
Steps. he and his bride enjoyed to the
full the Roman society Of that day
(then far more strict than now)
riding to the hunts on the Campagna
with the dashing and reckless young
bloods of the day. attending the balls.
watching the disappearance of the
Middle Ages in Rome after the italian
Army entered in 1870, entertaining the