When Irving was a boy, the greater part of what is now New York City was
picturesque country. He mingled with the descendants of the Dutch, passed
daily by their old-style houses, and had excellent opportunities for
hearing the traditions and learning the peculiarities of Manhattan's early
settlers, whom he was afterwards to immortalize in American literature. On
his way to school he looked at the stocks and the whipping post, which had
a salaried official to attend to the duties connected with it. He could
have noticed two prisons, one for criminals and the other for debtors. He
could scarcely have failed to see the gallows, in frequent use for offenses
for which the law to-day prescribes only a short term of imprisonment.
Notwithstanding the twenty-two churches, the pious complained that the town
was so godless as to allow the theaters to be open on Saturday night.
Instead of going to bed after the family prayers, Irving sometimes climbed
through a window, gained the alley, and went to the theater. In school he
devoured as many travels and tales as possible, and he acquired much early
skill in writing compositions for boys in return for their assistance in
solving his arithmetical problems--a task that he detested.
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