The New York herald., 1922-07-30


dean OF Wall Street, is scarce
ly to be measured in years. Though
he sturdily supports eighty-nine, and
With the vigor of pioneer-for great
cities have their pioneers-it is not
SO much the aggregate that mag
netizes interest as it is the fascinat-
Ing retrospect Of such eminent age.
Such men, few indeed, should be pre-
served as the most eloquent and
lively records of New York's meta
morphosis from infancy to maturity.
Born in New York and living in
New York through this sweep Of
years, Mr.. Whitehouse has not only
enjoyed with younger generations
the material miracles that are even
now becoming commonplace = such
as electric illumination. electric
transportation, wireless, airpianes-
but has felt the human thrill of the
announced perfection of railway
travel itself and transatlantic cross
lngs by steam; of communication by
wires over land ard under sea. The
old magic and the new have been his
heritage.
He came into life in the. Presi-
dency of Monroe. He was a school,
boy. near the New York City Hail.
when John Quincy Adams governed.
and since Adams ne has known
twenty-three occupants of the White
House and has voted for or against
nineteen. OF the Governors of New
York he has known a long line.
He has seen the town change and
change again, most marvelously.
made over in a thousand ways, each
transition extraordinarily interest
ing. He was a sizable baby when
THE Sun came into being in 1893
and when Bennett launched THE
Nsw YoRK HERALD two years later.
He knew intimately the life of a city
much smaller. much quieter and,
possibly, more pious than it Is to-
day. He has watched the social life
Of the city form and transform from
the days Of Philip Hone. He was a
boy when New York was still guarded
by the old Leather Heads, when
Dickens first came here in 1912 and
when the clubs, not such magnifi-
cent retreats for the hard pressed
male as they are to-day. had not yet
moved to Fifth avenue, and when
the lower reach of the avenue had
not been abandoned by the Knieker-
lockers.
The City That Has Gone.
In such long past episodes Of the
life Of the town Mr. whitehouse
knows how to discourse brightly and
cheerily-when in the mood-ran-
dom recollections, all the more en-
tertaining because Of casualness
.rIt Is not easy to wave wand
and summon pictures of the calm,
dignified old New York, the New
York Of three-quarters of a century
ago. before vast tides of immigra-
tion had rolled over its quarters and
deposited so much sediment" Mr.
Whitehouse says. Certain duties
and ceremonies of existence which
are taken lightly nowadays were
matters Of almost religious obser-
vance then. Seventy-five years ago
people were very serious about
ehurchgoing. Sunday had not lost
ita- old Puritanical character. derived
from New England. Sundays were
silent. except for much ringing OF
church bells. At 10 in the morning
and at z at night the streets were
filled with sedate churchgoers. And
the sermons they listened to!
Preachers were earnest and long
winded and had not lost oldtime con-
ceptions of heaven and hell. Two
hour sermons were customary and
long hymns.
AFTER church families considered
II to be in the best taste to- seclude
themselves and take the injunction
as regards the day of rest very
seriously. Cold meals were the rule.
The important meal of the day was
at noon in weekday life, and the
boards of those days were heaped
with substantial food. 1t was not
until the younger generation began