radford printed the first newspaper,
and though in Freneau's time it was still standing, a more stately
building was to take its place and bear a tablet telling of the old
one. It was here that the other early newspapers came into existence:
Parker's _Weekly Post-Boy_, in 1742; Weyman's _New York Gazette_, in
1759; Holt's _New York Journal_, in 1766. It was here, too, that was
prominently displayed the "Sign of the Bible and Crown," before the
house of Hugh Gaine. Freneau had flayed this man in his verse many a
time.

Gaine was an Irishman who published the _New York Mercury_, and
changed his politics to whichever side was uppermost--Whig to-day,
Tory to-morrow. He printed Freneau's satires against Great Britain as
a Whig, and then as a Tory fell under the power of Freneau's pen, for
Freneau hated inconstancy quite as much as he did Tory principles.

Then there was close at hand the home of Rivington's _New York
Gazetteer_. This Rivington, failing as a bookseller in London,
planted his sign in Hanover Square and proudly proclaimed himself as
the only London bookseller in America. He established his Tory
newspaper, the _New York Gazetteer_, and had it wrecked by patriots,
who threw the furniture out into Hanover Square and moulded the type
into bullets. It was he who printed the poems of Andre; who after the
war gave up a Tory paper and was strong for the cause of the new
nation and was in consequence denounced by Freneau.

Freneau smiled to see the signs of Gaine and Rivington changed to suit
the views of the new republic and rivalling one another in their show
of patriotism. Tempted into Gaine's bookstore by the display of
volumes, he chanced upon a friend who called him by name. And old Hugh
Gaine, turning slowly about at the sound of a name he knew so well,
stared at the enemy he had never seen:

"Is your name Freneau?" he asked. And the poet answered:

"Yes, Philip Freneau."

For just a moment the bookseller hesitated, then said:

"I want to shake your hand; you have given me and my friend Rivington
a lasting reputation."

It was in one of these very bookstores that Freneau met Lindley Murray
in the year after the peace was declared. From their first meeting the
two were friends. Murray had accumulated a fortune as a salt merchant
on Long Island during the British occupation. Strong patriot as
Freneau was, he was attracted to the son at first through the memory
of the parent, for it was Lindley Murray's mo