A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Dietrich | Page 3

historical sin in helping out
the few facts I could collect in this remote and forgotten region with
figments of my own brain, or in giving characteristic attributes to the
few names connected with it which I might dig up from oblivion.
In this, doubtless, I reasoned like a young and inexperienced writer,
besotted with his own fancies; and my presumptuous trespasses into
this sacred, though neglected, region of history have met with deserved
rebuke from men of soberer minds. It is too late, however, to recall the
shaft thus rashly launched. To any one whose sense of fitness it may
wound, I can only say with Hamlet----
"Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil Free me so far in your most
generous thoughts That I have shot my arrow o'er the house, And hurt
my brother."
I will say this in further apology for my work: that if it has taken an
unwarrantable liberty with our early provincial history, it has at least
turned attention to that history, and provoked research. It is only since
this work appeared that the forgotten archives of the province have
been rummaged, and the facts and personages of the olden time rescued
from the dust of oblivion, and elevated into whatever importance they
may actually possess.
The main object of my work, in fact, had a bearing wide from the sober
aim of history, but one which, I trust, will meet with some indulgence

from poetic minds. It was to embody the traditions of our city in an
amusing form; to illustrate its local humors, customs and peculiarities;
to clothe home scenes and places and familiar names with those
imaginative and whimsical associations so seldom met with in our new
country, but which live like charms and spells about the cities of the old
world, binding the heart of the native inhabitant to his home.
In this I have reason to believe I have in some measure succeeded.
Before the appearance of my work the popular traditions of our city
were unrecorded; the peculiar and racy customs and usages derived
from our Dutch progenitors were unnoticed, or regarded with
indifference, or adverted to with a sneer. Now they form a convivial
currency, and are brought forward on all occasions; they link our whole
community together in good-humor and good-fellowship; they are the
rallying points of home feeling; the seasoning of our civic festivities;
the staple of local tales and local pleasantries; and are so harped upon
by our writers of popular fiction that I find myself almost crowded off
the legendary ground which I was the first to explore by the host who
have followed in my footsteps.
I dwell on this head because, at the first appearance of my work, its aim
and drift were misapprehended by some of the descendants of the
Dutch worthies, and because I understand that now and then one may
still be found to regard it with a captious eye. The far greater part,
however, I have reason to flatter myself, receive my good-humored
picturings in the same temper with which they were executed; and
when I find, after a lapse of nearly forty years, this haphazard
production of my youth still cherished among them; when I find its
very name become a "household word," and used to give the home
stamp to everything recommended for popular acceptation, such as
Knickerbocker societies, Knickerbocker insurance companies,
Knickerbocker steamboats, Knickerbocker omnibuses, Knickerbocker
bread, and Knickerbocker ice; and when I find New Yorkers of Dutch
descent priding themselves upon being "genuine Knickerbockers," I
please myself with the persuasion that I have struck the right chord;
that my dealings with the good old Dutch times, and the customs and
usages derived from them, are n harmony with the feelings and humors

of my townsmen; that I have opened a vein of pleasant associations and
quaint characteristics peculiar to my native place, and which its
inhabitants will not willingly suffer to pass away; and that, though
other histories of New York may appear of higher claims to learned
acceptation, and may take their dignified and appropriate rank in the
family library, Knickerbocker's history will still be received with
good-humored indulgence, and be thumbed and chuckled over by the
family fireside.
Sunnyside, 1848.
W.I.

Notices.
WHICH APPEARED IN THE NEWSPAPERS PREVIOUS TO THE
PUBLICATION OF THIS WORK.
From the "Evening Post" of October 26, 1809.
DISTRESSING.
Left his lodgings some time since, and has not since been heard of, a
small elderly gentleman, dressed in an old black coat and cocked hat,
by the name of Knickerbocker. As there are some reasons for believing
he is not entirely in his right mind, and as great anxiety is entertained
about him, any information concerning him, left either at the
Columbian Hotel, Mulberry Street, or at