A History of the City of Brooklyn. Stephen M. Ostrander

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СКАЧАТЬ with silver lace and silver buttons, bright vests or waistcoats, velvet knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and low shoes with silver buckles.

      On holidays the people made a gay-looking company. Christmas was a happy festival with them always. In those early days people had to depend upon such family festivities even more than do later generations having many sources of amusement away from home. It was from the Dutch that American children learned to say Santa Claus, and it was from them that Americans learned that fashion, which has still not entirely died out, of making calls on New Year's Day.

      One of the prudent customs of the Dutch settlers was to begin, so soon as they came of age, to lay by money for their funeral expenses. No Dutchman wanted to be a burden upon any one if he could help it, even when he died, and this practice of laying by gold or silver pieces to pay the expenses of proper burial became very general. A Dutch funeral was one of the most singular features of life among the people. After the minister had seated himself beside the coffin and the company was duly assembled, the sexton or servants would appear with glasses and decanters, and wine would be given to such of the guests as cared to drink. Funeral cakes and other victuals were handed about in the same way, and then pipes and tobacco were brought in. The eating, drinking, and smoking being finished, the minister would rise and make his address and prayer, and then the sexton and minister would lead the procession to the burying-ground.20

      A people so prudent about matters of funeral expenses were likely to be prudent about other affairs of life coming earlier in the list. Young men were generally careful about saving money with which to get married, and the young women spun and sewed for many months getting ready the linen which they were in the habit of providing for the housekeeping.

      Furman instances this inventory of the goods a Breuckelen bride brought to her husband: "A half-worn bed, two cushions of ticking with feathers, one rug, four sheets, four cushion covers, two iron pots, three pewter dishes, one pewter basin, one iron roaster, one schuyrn spoon, two cowes about five years old, one case or cupboard, one table."

      That the course of true love, as it is observed after marriage, did not always run smooth, is shown by the early appointment in New Amsterdam of a "First Commissary of Marriage Affairs."

      In this era marriage was surrounded with many difficulties, and required both time and patience to secure its accomplishment. The following curious document is the form which was used in 1654 to secure a marriage license:—

      To the right Honourable the Lordships the Magistrates of Gravesend:

      Dear Friends—Whereas, on the date of this 10th day of February, 1654, a peticion is presented to the cort hereby, Johannes Van Beeck, that the banns (of matrimonie) between him and Maria Varleth, may bee hear registered and bee properly proclaimed, and wee hav understoode that the same Johannes Van Beeck ande Maria Varleth had prevusly too this maide procklemation of thare banns throgh youre cort att Gravesende wich (under Koncison) is contrarie too the stile and customes of oure Faderland. Itt is oure requeste to youre honourable cort in case such an ockacion should ockur in futur, that wee mai bee inn formed kincerneing the same, inn order on ether sydde to preventee all impropriertys, which allso wee engaige too doo on our parte spechally iz the praktize and custome off our Faderland that any one shal maike three procklamations inn the plaice ware his domercile is, ande then he maye bee maryed werever hee pleases, wherein wee ar ande remaine your right Honourable Lordships' affectionate friend.

      Arent Van Hattan.

      Bye order of thee Burgomasters and Shepens of New Amsterdam. Attest

      Jacob Kipp, Sec'ty.

      Amsterdam in Niew Netherlands, this 10th day of February, 1654.

       The next step taken by the candidates for matrimony was their appearance before the Court. This event in the old manuscripts is recorded as follows:—

      "Casper Varleth and Johannes Van Beeck appeared inn cort and praed most ernestly thatt onn thee perticion and remonstrance konserning the marriage between Johannes Van Beeck and Maria Varleth presented too the Burgomasters and Schepens may be disposed off, and in konsequence of the Bench note being kompleate itt iz posponed untill Thursda next, soe az inn thee meantime too notifie the other Lordships.

      "Johannes Van Beeck appeared in cort and requested az before thatt acion maye bee had onn his peticion, offering furthermore iff thort nesary att thee time ande the okeacion too bee readie to affirme under oathe whatt he stated inn his peticion, repeating especially three conversacions hadd with his Excellencie Petrus Stuyvesant."

      The subject-matter of the petition was important, and could not be hastily passed upon. The Burgomasters deliberated for three days, and doubtless viewed the subject in every phase and light imaginable. At last they reached a conclusion which cannot be better presented than in the precise language of the decision rendered:—

      "Bye the Burgomasters and Shepens of niew amsterdam—having been seen and examined the peticion as presentede too our cort, onn the 10th ande 16th days of this month, tochinge the bonds off matrimonie between Joh Van Beeck and Maria Varleth. Tharefore wee inquire into,

      "First—Who frome the beginning was the institutor of marriage, ande also whot the apostels off thee Gentiles teaches thareon.

      "Secondly—The proper and attaned age of Johannes Van Beeck ande Maria Varleth.

      "Thirdlie—Thee consente off the Fathure ande Mothure off the Dauter.

      "Forthly—The distance and remoutnes beetweene this and oure Faderland, together withe thee calamiters relacion betweene Holland and England.

      "Fifthly—Thee danegur in such case arisienge ffrom long retardacion, betweene these too younge persons beecominge publick blame being attachede to the fammelys onn either sidde.

      "Our Shurlogans ande wise Jurists doo saye korectly onn such mattus, that wee must nott commit any lesser sinns too avoyde grater ones; tharefore wee thinke (with due submission) thatt bye suteable marrage (the apostel inn his epistel to the Heebrues calls the bedd undefiled honurable) both thee lesser ande thee grater crimes are preevented. Tharefor thee Burgomasters and Shepens off the city of Niew Amsterdam doe judge thatt thee afforeseyde younge persons haveing mayde thare proper Ecklisiastical proclamations with the earlyst opportunitie, and that they folloe it upp with thee bonds of matrimonie immediatelie tharafter.

      "Done at the Stadt House inn Niew Amsterdam in Niew Netherlands this 19th Feberary, 1654.

      "Arent Van Hattan,

       P. L. Vandugrist,

       Pieter Wolferson,

       Martin Krigier,

       Wilh. Beeckman,

       Josh. P. R. Ruyter,

       Oloff Stevensen."

      The social life of the New Netherlands was in many respects characteristic of the hard conditions of life in any new country, but in many respects it was peculiarly different from that of New England. "The sharp and strong contrasts in social position," says Mr. Roosevelt,21 "the great differences in moral and material well-being, and the variety in race, language, and religion, all combined to make a deep chasm between life in New Amsterdam and life in the cities of New England, with their orderly uniformity of condition and their theocratic democracy." In fact, democratic as the Dutch theory was, the actual condition of the Dutch colony was aristocratic in its characteristics. "The highest rank was composed of the great patroons, with their feudal privileges and vast landed estates; next in order came the well-to-do merchant burghers of the СКАЧАТЬ