USA > New York > Old New York : or, Reminiscences of the past sixty years > Part 6
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His familiarity with English writers addieted to verbal dignity, and his own partiality for effective phrases, made his written style often deficient in simplicity ; it often rounded his talk into periods, as if modelled for print or elocution. This is often observed in men who are in the habit of addressing the publie, frequently with no oppor- tunity to arrange their ideas or study expression. As a leeturer and a colloquist, Dr. Franeis was so continually ealled upon to " give an opinion," advocate a eause, or
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discuss a public question, that he unconsciously acquired a somewhat oratorical style, and would fall into an elab- orate dissertation by the fireside, or a professional expo- sition at the table, rehearsing, as it were, a public charac- ter or argument, and sometimes with a force and humor that was "as good as a play," and better than the average of popular discourses. In the very last interview which the writer of this enjoyed with him, when bodily weakness necessitated economy of words and slow utterance, this habit of expression revealed " the ruling passion strong in death." In taking lcave, he fixed his eyes with friendly sadness on his visitor, and, reading in his face an inevi- table look of anxiety, instead of asking, " Do you think I will get well ?" said : " From what you know of my con- stitution, habits of life, and present condition, do you think there is any prospect of my recovery ?"
Not only in his love of conversation, his vocabulary, and his ancedotical and critical turn of mind, was Dr. Francis a disciple of Samuel Johnson, but all the salient points of Boswell's memorable biography of the morbid yet heroic dogmatist, were familiar and favorite topics ; and the spirit of Johnson's colloquial experience, and much of his philosophy of life, associated the Knicker- bocker physician with the author of " Rasselas;" the same love of knowledge for its own sake, the same zest in an encounter of wit, the same fondness for speculative talk, relish of original character, interest in literary history, appreciation of personal independence and intelligent com- panionship, marked the habits and dispositions of both. Of the thousands who have assented to Johnson's famous declaration that " whatever makes the past, the distant, and the future, predominate over the present, exalts us in the scale of thinking beings," few have responded thereto with heart and mind more earnestly than Dr. Francis. He emulated his literary hero's skill in character-paint-
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ing ; and the better enjoyed his own attempts to impar- tially estimate, and graphically delineate, Dr. Mitchill and Kean, Christopher Colles, Gouverneur Morris, and scores of other celebritics, because such studies assimilated somewhat with the lexicographer's Biographical Es- says.
Among the many enthusiastic friends-we might almost say, lovers-of Henry Clay, no one in New York more ardently espoused his claims or cherished his memory, than Dr. Francis, To him the Presidential election that resulted in the defeat of the Kentucky statesman was a personal gricf ; he attributed this result, in his own State, to the assiduous tactics of a few active and shrewd Demo- cratic partisans, foremost among whom was a political writer of considerable academic reputation and social prominence, who, during several years of very precarious health, was a patient of Dr. Francis, and the object of gratuitous devotion. A few weeks after the election, the Doctor and the Democrat accidentally met at the house of a lady alike distinguished for beauty and social grace ; the one having called to cheer, and the other to watch over the convalescence of her who was to both an object of admiration and solicitude. It is from her that I have the details of the scene which followed : the politician, whose address was as insinuating as his principles were perverse, greeted the physician with his sweetest smile, and expressed the most vivid pleasure at the sight of his ven- erable benefactor. "My dear Doctor," he exclaimed, " I can never see you without emotion ; three times have you saved my life." "Yes, sir," replied the Doctor, " and when I reflect to what that life has been devoted- how you have abused the gift of God by intrigue and cor- ruption, prolonging the reign of dishonest politicians, and preventing the election of that noble patriot and statcs- man, Henry Clay-I ask forgivencss of Heaven for my ef-
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forts to preserve an existence so inimical to my country and humanity." Much more, in a strain of mingled irony and pathos, the worthy Doctor uttered-standing, said my fair informant, before the man he thus accused, with the intent, solemn manner of a criminal judge, and with fluent indignation and sorrow accumulating epithet upon epithet, going back to the days which initiated a policy that sacrificed statesmen to party ; indicating its method and means with searching invective ; describing, in glow- ing terms, the comprehensive and honest statcsmanship of the carlier civic leaders ; and lamenting the ingratitude, injustice, and short-sighted partisanship which betrayed the cause of Clay : and then, by a sudden application, connecting this series of abuses, and of national misfor- tune, with the theories and the conduct of the man before him-until the latter bowed his head and wept ! It was one of those instances, by no means rare in the experience of the intimate friends of Dr. Francis, when, under the impulse of strong personal fcelings, and quickened by the right kind of audience, his remarkable powers of expres- sion found vent in such natural eloquence as to make him, for the time, an improvisatore, such as seldom find scope beyond the facile tongue of Italy. The hoarded in- dignation and love of years secmed to outflow, and the only witness of the extraordinary scene declared it the most rhetorical, dramatic, and impressive, she ever beheld in private life. Sometimes, when blessed with an auspi- cious companion or occasion, the same dramatic tendency would be exhibited by the versatile Doctor, in a less serious way. His first interview with Mrs. Jameson is described as memorable : he addressed her half in earnest and half in badinage, with hyperbolical but apt devotion ; and she, catching at once the infection of his bonhommie, and rec- ognizing an original character, more relished from its con- trast to the formal and conventional party assembled to
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do her honor, gayly responded to his exaggerated style until they magnetized the whole company into frank hilar- ity, and let themselves quietly down to a mood of genial and sensible talk.
For many years Dr. Francis was the favorite spokes- man of various public and private associations ; his " med- ieal report," or " response for the Faculty," being the most humorous and genial, or suggestive and eloquent, feature of those occasions. Some of his old friends recall memo- rable instances of this kind, when he playfully made a diag- nosis of some departed worthy, using the terms of his own profession, and applying them to moral and mental traits with rare wit and aptitude, or giving the reins to his retro- speetive mood, and reproducing many an original ehar- acter or publie benefactor "as he lived." The Anniver- saries of the St. Nicholas, Dramatic Fund, Typographical, Medieal, and other Societies, and the meetings of the Hone, Webster, or Clay Clubs around the festive board, were thus signalized and made genial. It was observed by a medieal friend, when Dr. Franeis died, that the pro- fession, as such, in this country, and especially in New York, was singularly deficient in the genius of expression ; few physicians being able writers and speakers, otherwise than in a technical sense. The exigencies of our age and country make it highly desirable that medical men, like the elergy and lawyers, should be en rapport with public opinion. Dr. Francis was pre-eminently an auspicious and efficient medium in this regard ; in losing him, the Profession lost their best popular expositor. Dr. Mar- shall Hall, after dining in company with Dr. Francis, when the latter was in the most communicative and be- nign humor, was so eharmed with the vividness of his descriptive powers, and his eopious stores of aneedote and broad sympathies, that he declared he had found in Amer- ica his ideal of the social eharms of a Doctor of Medi-
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eine .* If sueh was the vivid impression made upon a new acquaintance by the genial side of the Doctor's nature, what must have been that of such as were intuitively familiar with its exuberant and habitual exereise !
"I sce his gray eyes twinkle yet At his own jest, gray eyes lit up With summer lightnings of a soul So full of summer warmth, so glad, So healthy, sound, and clear, and whole, His memory scarce can make me sad."
XI.
Soon after his marriage, Dr. Franeis had taken up his residenee at No. 1 Bond street, and there, for many years, was the home still so fondly remembered as a shrine of be- nevolenee, hospitality, and genial intereourse. Perhaps there is no minor avenue in New York more endeared to some of our own older citizens. When Bond street formed the " up-town" centre of the most eligible private resi- denees, it was the seene of the choicest social enjoyment. Lined with trees, in the early summer, the lamps gleaming amid the leaves, reminded one of Paris. At the Broadway corner stands a mansion remarkable for its wide dimen- sions-far more desirable than the lofty narrow fronts of the present fashionable domiciles; in the rear, is a large picture-gallery, lighted from above ; here lived Samuel. Ward, Esq., the banker, and his numerous friends ever found there the most refined hospitality, and heard diseussed or saw exhibited whatsoever of interest, at the moment, obtained in literature and art. The author of the day, the cloquent clergyman, the rising artist, the dis- tinguished foreigner, were always encountered in that eultivated eircle. A few doors east lived General Dix,
* See Appendix V.
Richardson ..
Residence of Dr. Francis, No. 1 Bond Street.
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whose fine collection of pictures and cultivated household made his dwelling also the nucleus of congenial associ- ations ; in the same block Gideon Lee entertained General Jackson ; opposite yet stands a house whose owner's name is intimately and honorably associated with Arctic Ad- venture; and among the other few and far between sur- vivors of the palmy days of Bond street, was the venerable Dr. Francis ; but, on one side of him, where the Rev. Dr. Spring long dwelt, rose a stove-factory, and, on the other, a dancing-academy ; so that, most reluctantly, he was obliged at last to remove ; for theatres disgorged nightly their crowds in the adjacent thoroughfare; barbers, milli- ners, dentists, and boarding-house keepers, asserted squat- ter sovereignty upon this once select domain ; and, although the most honest of New York brokers, and the most benev- olent of New York doctors, long retained their familiar places in Bond street, its social glory waned rapidly before the steady encroachments of trade.
The simple, old-fashioned furniture, the inexpensive but suggestive ornaments of the parlors and library, wero characteristic : a desk used by one of the members of the first American Congress ; china that had belonged to Franklin ; prints of Jean Paul and Edinburgh professors ; a scarce engraving of Fulton's; heads of eminent men ; fragments of Cook's ship, the Endeavor ; and mementoes of friendship and fame, slight in themselves; with books of rare interest or fresh beauty, were the permanent ma- terial attractions of the Doctor's home.
It was in view of his habitual and widely-extended pro- fessional benevolence, identified with this abode, that a writer in one of the leading journals, proposed a singularly appropriate local tribute to the memory of Dr. Francis :
" Few men," he observes, " have attained to a more just celebrity than the late Surgeon-General of Ireland, Sir PHILIP CRAMPTON. His name is associated with most
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of the recent public sanitary improvements in the metrop- olis of Ireland. A fitting memorial has recently been erected to his memory in Dublin, in the shape of a very handsome drinking-fountain. The Earl of Howth, as the representative of the contributors to the fund, handed it over to the Lord Mayor and Corporation, for the benefit of the citizens. There is one spot in this city about which the recollections of the good and the learned will frequently linger. No. 1 Bond street, now devoted to municipal charities, is, to many, classic ground. If the friends and admirers of him who made the locality inter- esting, would follow the example of Crampton's friends, how beautifully, appropriately, and usefully, would the name of Dr. Francis live among us and our children ! Eminently useful in promoting sanitary measures for the good of his native city, his name should not be allowed to pass soon from our memories. What more effectual means could be adopted to secure its preservation, and lasting good from his example, than to place near where he daily walked a beautiful and well-kept drinking-fountain, upon which should be written his name and virtues ? Indirectly, he would long continue to do good to mankind-his de- light while living. The poor would bless his name, as did their progenitors."*
His welcome was emphatically cordial. An old friend remarked, at his funeral, "I have known the Doctor fifty years, and never met him without feeling that he was sin- cerely glad to see me." His benevolence found perpetual utterance in a fervent "God bless you !" at parting. His lenity, as a charitable judge of character, was partly based upon uncommon knowledge of physical infirmities : for those of genius he had pure compassion ; and often, when rallied for apparent want of discrimination in his estimate
* American Medical Times.
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of those whose faults or uninteresting traits could plead no such redeeming quality, he would mention some ail- ment or misfortune, the thought of which led him to exer- cise forbearance. We remember, on one occasion, when the timid counsels and lack of moral courage exhibited by a man of intelligence and integrity, in the discussion of a vital interest of humanity, had provoked the severe com- ments of an eager group ;- after he had taken leave, the Doctor remained pensive and silent, and explained his neutral bearing by saying, "Gentlemen, he is the son of an old man;" thereby accounting for the conservative instinct which had been regarded as wilful cowardice.
In his estimation, also, there was no more delectable pastime in life than the commerce of select intelligences, celebrated by Boswell and other literary annalists; those pleasant composition portraits so familiar through popular engravings of "A Party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's," and "Sir Walter Scott and his Friends," were, of all artistic me- morials, the most congenial to Dr. Francis, who succeeded in reproducing, in his own house, more of the true social freedom, grace, and fellowship of literature, than has been elsewhere realized in the city. Sure not only of welcome, but of sympathy, distinguished strangers made that hospi- table dwelling their favorite rendezvous; while every lover of art and letters, every original character, and aspirant for fame or fun-travellers, poets, doctors, clergymen, cdi- tors, and wits, there breathed an atmosphere unburdened with conventional formalities, and devoid of artificial vapid- ness ; where one could tell a story, hazard a conjecture, discuss history, describe character, advocate theories, give play to fancy, overflow with humor, and "flit the time lightly, as they did in the Golden Age."*
This abandon, rollicking enthusiasm, and impromptu
* See Appendix VI.
1
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humor, disconcerted literal people, especially when exhib- ited to entire strangers; and the effect was often very amusing to those familiar with the Doctor's cecentricities. We recall vividly the bewildered and alarmed look that gave temporary expressiveness to the somewhat vacant countenance of an embryo Scotch lord, who brought an introduction to the Doctor : it was a striking illustration of that obtuseness to humorous follies which Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith declared, with such jocose emphasis, to be characteristic of Scotchmen. The youth in question had been educated, or rather suffered to grow up, as a younger son, with little society but what he found in a pe- dantic tutor and in his father's stables, never being ad- mitted to the social circle, and thus kept in a callow state until dispatched on his travels-as ignorant of the world, and as unformed in manners, as if lie liad lived in the woods ; yet, as far as birth and technical information was concerned, wholly respectable, and able, when duly en- couraged, to talk about a Latin author and sport in tlio Highlands. It has been found a capital resource to send these imperfectly-developed specimens of humanity-mado so by a conventional system of education-to rough it in the United States ; and many are the instances where practical habitudes and facility of address have been thus attained on the free and fresh arena of our vivacious in- tercourse and enterprise. It so happened that on the rainy evening when this novice called to present his let- ter, tho Doctor, after a laborious day, having refreslied himself with his favorite beverage, " the cup that cheers, but not inebriates," was enjoying his favorito pastime- talk with an old friend, about the past, over a good fire, and a fragrant cigar : rising to greet, with his accustomed heartiness, the bashful student, he glanced at his creden- tials, enough to learn his nativity, and then burst forth : " Glad to see you, Doctor-welcome to New York-a
DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS. 1xxix
plate and a bed are at your service here at old No. 1. How comes on dear old Edinburgh ? How is the man-of- feeling, darling Mackenzie? How is Dugald Stewart? Scott ? Ferguson ? Dr. Gregory ? Playfair, and auld-lang- sync Burns, and all the rest ? Doctor, this is my old friend the Major-the descendant of the first white child born on the island of Manhattan-a walking chronicle, dear Doc- tor-will tell you every thing about old New York." To this address the astonished listener made no reply, ex- cept stammering a few incoherent words, but timidly gazed upon his host, whose face beamcd with genial excitement : retreating, he sat awhile on the edge of a chair, and then, murmuring that he would call again, beat a hasty retreat, notwithstanding the hospitable remonstrances of his face- tious host, one of whose friends encountered the departing guest, standing in a brown study outside the door, tapping his forehead and soliloquizing, "Can't be right here- singular man-Scott and Burns are dead, and I'm not ac- quainted with the rest ; I'm not a doctor, as he might have known if he had read the letter, and I don't care about that first white child ; curious people, the Americans, you know-crazy-don't you see ?" On another occasion, a rcad was brought the Doctor, while we were all seated at the tea-table ; the expression of his face, as he left the room, betokened the visit of a celebrity ; in a few moments he ushered into the room a palc, thin, and most grave- looking man, whose dark dress and solemn air, with the Doctor's own look of ceremonious gravity, produced an ominous silence, where, a moment before, all was hilarity ; slowly conducting his guest around the table, and turning to his wife, he waved his hand, and, with claborate court- esy, made this unique announcement : "The Raven !" and certainly no human physiognomy morc resembled that bird than the stranger's, who, without a sinile or a word, bowed slightly and slowly, with a fixcd, and, it al-
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most seemed, a portentous gaze, as if complacently ac- cepting the character thus thrust upon him. Instantly, the fancy of all present began to conjure up all the ravens they had ever heard of or seen, from those that fed Elijah to the one in " Barnaby Rudge ;" and it was not for some minutes that Edgar A. Poe was recognized, in the " fearful guest," to be " evermore" associated in the minds of all present, not with the "lost Leonore," but with that ex- traordinary presentation of the Doctor's. Had he antiei- pated and prepared for the character, he could not have looked and acted it better; his laek of humor contributing to the unconseious and bird-like solemnity with which he thus dramatically entered a strange cirele. Indeed, after his departure, one of the guests remarked that the effect of his presence irresistibly recalled the opening lines of Goldsmith's "Traveller," in both its verbal and rhythmic expression :-
"Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po."
That the subject of this amusing episode appreciated the salient exception which the doctor presented to the monotonous uniformity of social life, and that he deteetcd the higher under the more superficial qualities of the man, is apparent from the following notiee appended by Poe to the Doctor's autograph :-
"His philanthropy, his active, untiring benevolenee, will forever render his name a household word among the truly Christian of heart. His professional services and his purse are always at the command of the needy ; few of our wealthiest men have ever contributed to the relief of distress so bountifully-none certainly with greater readiness or with warmer sympathy. His person and manner are richly peeuliar. He is short and stout- probably five feet eight in height; limbs of great museu-
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larity and strength; the whole frame indicating prodi- gious vitality and energy-the latter is, in fact, the lead- ing trait in his character. His head is large, massive- the features in keeping; complexion, dark florid; eyes, piercingly bright ; mouth, exceedingly mobile and expres- sive ; hair, gray, and worn in matted locks about the neck and shoulders; eyebrows to correspond, jagged and pon- derous. His general appearance is such as to arrest attention .*
"His address is the most genial that can be conceived ; its bonhommie irresistible. He speaks in a loud, clear, hearty tone, dogmatically, with his head thrown back and his chest out; slaps a perfect stranger on the back, and calls him 'Doctor,' or ' Learned Theban ;' never waits for an introduction to anybody ; pats every lady on the head, and (if she be pretty and petite) designates her by some such title as 'My Pocket Edition of the Lives of the - Saints.' His conversation proper is a sort of Roman punch, made up of tragedy, comedy, and the broadest of all possible farce. He has a natural, felicitous flow of talk, always overswelling its boundaries, and sweeping every thing before it right and left. Hc is very earnest, intense, emphatic ; his forte, after all, is humor, the richest conceivable."
Not less dramatic and far more exciting was the Doc- tor's first meeting with the author of "The Idle Man." Finish of style and psychological insight were too rare in our nascent literature when Richard H. Dana wrote and published those memorable papers, not to excite the ear- nest admiration of such a literary enthusiast as Dr. Francis. And while enjoying the pathos and free dis- crimination as well as pure diction they exhibited, he fully appreciated the heroism of the author who ventured
* See Appendix VII.
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bravely on a literary experiment involving pecuniary risk so much in advance of and above the taste and temper of the times and country. But there was another reason for his partiality for Dana: he had heard Edmund Kean, of whose genius he had made a study, and whose fastidious- ness as regards criticism was remarkable, declare emphat- ically, after reading Dana's analysis of his acting, " This man understands me." The modest and sensitive author of " The Buccaneer" had thus been, from the commencement of his career, an object of peculiar interest and admiration to the Doctor. One morning, as the latter went forth to his professional duties, a neighbor detained him in friendly chat, and incidentally mentioned that a clerical-looking gentleman, who was tranquilly walking towards Broadway, was Mr. Dana of Boston. " What!" exclaimed the Doc- tor, "do you mean to say that is ' The Idle Man ?'" and he rushed up to the astonished author with the query, " Are you the immortal Dana?" and, reading in the confusion
and surprise of the stranger an affirmative reply, he seized him in his arms, and, bearing him triumphantly across the street, succeeded in placing him, a living trophy of genius, upon his own hospitable threshold ; the frightened subject of his demonstration meantime appealing to the neighbor who had betrayed his identity, by vociferating, " Release me from this maniac !" Those familiar with the robust figure, and broad, rosy face of the Doctor, and the slender form and spiritual features of the poet, can easily imagine the extraordinary tableau. Notwithstanding this bold attempt at abduction, a life-long friendship was the result of an acquaintance so oddly begun.
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