KECOLLECTIONS, 1838. 113 



An incident in my life, in 1838, in Astoria, L. 1., 

 N. Y. Expelled out of the railroad cars for want 

 of ten cents change, with forty dollars bills of good 

 money. 



In March, 1838, I had been in the employ of Mr. 

 Geo. Thorburn, of New York, on his place, at Astoria, 

 since 1st of October, 1837, and by that time I had not 

 received one cent having no need of money I had 

 not asked for, as I had a few dollars in reserve, but to 

 try my proficiency in writing English, for as speaking 

 it tolerably I was backward. So I wrote to him that 

 I should like a few dollars, if convenient. The very 

 same day he sent me $40 in bank bills, all single dol- 

 lar bills, and probably of forty different banks of New 

 York State, but not of New York city. Those forty 

 dollars were such dirty looking in appearance, that if 

 they had been spread over the pavement in the street, 

 I would not have stooped down to pick them up. 

 True, I knew nothing about the money. The follow- 

 ing day was a Sunday. I decided to go to New York, 

 so I went to the Hell Gate ferry to cross the river, 

 thence went to Yorkville to take the steam cars to go 

 to the city. Yorkville was the terminus of the rail- 

 road. The tunnel between Yorkville and Harlem was 

 not finished then. There was no station for the railroad, 

 but close to the stairway to go down to get into the 

 cars there was a saloon, or a tavern, and I went in, riot 



