One may be associated with
Rebeldom, another with trade; this be frequented by Eastern, and that by
Western travellers; and nationalities may be identified with certain
resorts. But the tendency is towards the eclectic and homogeneous;
individuality not less than domesticity is trenched upon and fused in
these extravagant caravanseries; and there is no fact more
characteristic of the material luxury and gregarious standard of New
York life, than that the only temple erected to her patron saint is a
marble tavern!
Broadway has always had its eccentric or notable _habitues_. The Muse of
Halleck, in her palmy days, immortalized not a few; and many persons
still recall the "crazy poet Clarke," the "Lime-Kiln man," the courteous
and venerable Toussaint,--New York's best "image of God carved in
ebony,"--tall "gentleman George" Barrett, and a host of "familiar faces"
associated with local fame or social traits. The representative clergy,
physicians, lawyers, merchants, editors, politicians, bards, and
beauties, "men about town," and actors, were there identified, saluted,
and observed; and of all these, few seemed so appropriately there as the
last; for often there was and is a melodramatic aspect and association
in the scene, and Burton, Placide, or the elder Wallack walked there
with a kind of professional self-complacency.
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