Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/341

301 AND JAMES NISBET. 301 is said by forwarding early intelligence, to propitiate the enemy, he was allowed to continue his paper, which soon died for want of subscribers ; but until 1802 he lived in New York, leaving many descendants there. Even in those early and unsophisticated days, Yankee gentlemen had contracted the habit of " cowhiding" obnoxious or impertinent editors, and the wit of the Royal Gazette was in its time sufficiently stinging and personal to involve its proprietor in many of these little difficulties. James Rivington relates rather an amusing story of an interview with Ethan Allen, one of the republican heroes, who came for the express purpose of administering chastisement. He says : - " I was sitting down, after a good dinner, with a bottle of Madeira before me, when I heard an unusual noise in the street, and a huzza from the boys. I was on the second story, and, stepping to the window, saw a tall figure in tarnished regimentals, with a large cocked hat and an enormously long sword, followed by a crowd of boys, who occasionally cheered him with huzzas, of which he seemed quite unaware. He came up to my door and stopped. I could see no more my heart told me it was Ethan Allen. I shut my window, and retired behind my table and my bottle. I was certain. the hour of reckoning had come there was no retreat. Mr. Staples, my clerk, came in, paler than ever, clasping his hands ( Master, he has come !' ' I know it.' I made up my mind, looked at the Madeira, possibly took a glass. ' Show him up, and if such Madeira cannot mollify him, he must be harder than adamant.' There was a fearful moment of suspense ; I heard him on the stairs, his long sword clanking at every step. In he stalked. ' Is your name James Rivington ?' ' It is, sir, and no man can