to time, to ask his way, until he came to a little
square brick house in Vesey Street, below Church, bearing the number
43, the home of William Irving. There he went in and was given a good
hug by Mrs. Irving. The boy was James Kirke Paulding, and she who
welcomed him was his sister, with whom he was to live until he should
get a start in the ways and work of the city.

William Irving lived in a house delightfully situated, though no one
would think so now when the spot is jammed with merchants' warehouses,
and sounds of trade fill the air. When Paulding came to town, it was
beyond the ken of the business section, and there were not so many
houses about but that he could enjoy an inviting view. From the front
door he looked straight before him over the grounds of Columbia
College, and to the left across green gardens to the river. From his
little window in the upper story he saw the city to the south, and to
the east St. Paul's Chapel, with the steeple that came to be so gray
with age looking then so new, for it had just been added to the
church. Beyond the graveyard and across Broadway, he had a good view
of the park with its three buildings--the Bridewell, the Almshouse,
and the Prison,--and across the park could see the Park Theatre and
the Brick Church. He could catch a glimpse of Broadway winding over a
hill toward the Stone Bridge at Canal Street, and other roads leading
into the country towards the north, where level stretches led past
rude farmhouses and quaint inns.

The first few years of Paulding in the city, when he was clerk in the
United States Loan Office, were years of hard work. But there were
relaxations, too, for his relationship to William Irving brought him
in contact with the other members of the family--young Washington
Irving and Dr. Peter Irving. When, in a few years, Dr. Irving
published his newspaper, the _Morning Chronicle_, Paulding wrote bits
of prose and verse for it. So his first writings appeared in the same
publication and at the same time as the first writings of Washington
Irving, and it was the interchange of thought in the Vesey Street
house and the opportunities afforded by the _Morning Chronicle_ that
led Paulding's thoughts towards writing as a profession.

Meantime there was much going on in the way of improvement. The new
City Hall was erected in the park; the first free schoolhouse was
opened; and Fulton's _Clermont_ sailed up the Hudson, the first
successful steamboat. A c