Williamsburgh Word Portraits, No. 2
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WILLIAMSBURGH WORD PORTRAITS.
By Apelles —No. 2.
I am rather gratified to find that my first sketches were generally recognized, and their fidelity admitted. Let me now proceed with
PORTRAIT No. 4.
A man of florid complexion, middle age, and latterly inclining to corpulence—with a physique not unlike that of George IV. of England, who in his youth was styled “the first gentle man in Europe.” My subject is wealthy, and a bachelor—and I need hardly add, therefore, that he likes fun, amusement, independence, and good cheer. He is one of the most social men living; and there are few prominent citizens of the Burgh who have not shared his profuse aquatic hospitality. He stands at the head of a “monopoly,” as it is the fashion to call every large pecuniary enterprise; yet he never obtained the smallest share of the odium which has been so abundantly heaped on the heads of similar enterprises. He is not deficient in public spirit, but until laterally has hardly shown that interest in city matters which might have been expected from one of his means and abilities. He seems to prefer water to land, since he derives both his income and his pleasures from the rolling deep of the river and the bay. Some of our hard, matter-of-fact people, who never talk or think of anything but dollars and city lots, suggest that our subject ought to invest money more largely in real estate here, and build rows of fine houses; but he prefers, after interesting himself largely in our local stocks, to invest superfluous cash in floating houses, which are not tied to one spot like brown stone front domiciles, but in which he and his friends can occasionally enjoy themselves right heartily, forgetting the cares of business and indifferent for the time even to the attractions of the almighty dollar.—My subject never runs for office, seldom or never attends a public meeting; and, we verily believe never reads the papers, and therefore will not see this sketch of himself, so that I may be all the freer in describing him. Latterly, however, he seems waking up to a greater interest in local matters, and has placed himself at the head of a projected enterprise which, if carried out, will confer untold benefits on the north eastern portion of the city.
PORTRAIT No. 5
Is that of a smooth shaven man rather above the middle height and of a stalwart frame, which shows very little indication of being in the autumn of life, though its owner has a grown-up family and is doubtless on the furthest confines of the sixth decade. Our subject is attired probably in a dark blue overcoat, which he wears unbuttoned, but closely gathered around him like a Roman Senator holding the folds of his toga virilis. As he passes along the street everyone accosts him, and he has to nod, smile, and bow, in every direction. He does it, too, with right good will, for if ever there was a good-natured man, he is one. On every corner and oftener he is stopped by men he meets. Applications of all kinds are showered upon him. This man wants an office—that man a recommendation—the other an endorser—the fourth advice—the fifth information—the sixth, a favor of some kind or other. And with an abrupt, Napoleonic manner, but real kindness of intention and wish to oblige, our subject listens to each, and complies with every request if he rightfully can. And he is able to do a good deal, and has done much, both individually and politically, for the benefit of others. He is the Senator Douglas of local Democracy—the favorite of the masses and the antipathy of the wire workers. Like Douglas, however, he is too rash and impulsive, too brave and honest, not to be supplanted and tripped up once in a while by men who descend so much below him that he cannot see their intrigues. Our subject, nevertheless, cannot be altogether put down. Though he has not as yet attained the acme of his political ambition, he is and has been by all odds the leading member of the city government; and though another has beat him in Convention more than once, one word from him will upset at any time any measure of his rival’s policy. Like “the last of the Barons,” the subject is more powerful than the monarch. But it is not only as a politician that this man deserves notice. Many, who don’t care about his party standing, or regret that he stooped to dabble in politics at all, love and esteem the man, in spite of a somewhat excessive self-appreciation, which makes him adhere to his opinion all the more stoutly when all his friends condemn it as mistaken. What they like about him, and what makes him by all odds the most popular man in the city, with the masses, is his affable though blunt manners, and his genial heart, which places his purse as freely as his personal services at the disposal of those who are in need. Many men who are now well to do in business, were started by him; his was the capital—though he is not a millionaire and owns no huge monopoly—which enabled many worthy men to tide over difficulties, or to make their first onward step in business.
PORTRAIT No. 6.
I have said enough of the “solid men,” for the present. Let me turn to a ward I have as yet overlooked, and picture one of the celebrities of that part of the late city popularly called Deutschetown. A little man, with saturnine, almost Irish cast of countenance; short and thick, as if likely to expand under the influence of increasing years and accumulating dollars into an Orthodox Teutonic rotundity. But I ought not to call my subject “a little man,” after all—for is he not a great man? Hath he not for years enjoyed a dignified and most honorable official prefix to his brief name? And did he not in the days when consolidation was unheard of, and even afterwards, act the part of Rhadamanthus in a manner most fearful and wonderful? There was no accusing him of collusion with criminals, or of undue leniency. No! “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” was his motto, and he exacted “the uttermost farthing” that could be found in the pockets of the bummers. When he could not do exactly the right thing, he did the nearest practicable thing to it; when he could not extort a penalty of ten dollars he wisely compromised for five, rather than put the city to the expense of incarcerating the offender. Justice was administered in primitive and original fashion, by our subject, in those days; and doubtless had one of the illustrious Avocats of the locality recorded His Honor's decisions, they would have formed a standard of jurisprudence thenceforth and ever hereafter. Our subject, since descending from the bench, has been rather more obscure in his history than accords with the prominent part he once played. It is said his influence among the natives of hif bailiwick has deceased; but we are loth to credit this report, and expect again to see our subject standing prominently forth as the chosen and appropriate representative of the Teutonic element in Brooklyn.