26 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



done fur the night. Who done it I do'no, but there was Bill 

 Fairchild, John Stranahan, Pole Sherwood an' a lot on 

 'em there, an' they made out like they was awful sorry." 



Poor Bill Fairchild in after years died of burns re- 

 ceived while rescuing the books from the burning freight 

 house of the B. & A. R. R., for which he was a book- 

 keeper; the others have gone to rest with old Billy, and no 

 more will they grease his bow nor pour water in his fiddle 

 when he goes ot:t for " 'freshments ;" but I was told that 

 Billy learned Td take his fiddle and bow with him when 

 called from labor. The humor of these things did not 

 strike Billy in the least. This was evident when he asked 

 me: "Now, what fun was ther' in that? They hed to pay 

 me fur the evenin', and it stopped the dancin'. I tell ye 

 there was folks there that was mad, but, bless ye, they 

 couldn't find out who done it. No one done it. It done 

 itself! They tried to make me believe it was spooks, but 

 spooks don't come to dances where folks is; they catches 

 you all alone, in the dark." 



Some years later, probably about 1845, when a large 

 country store was kept in the brick building on the corner 

 of Columbia street and Broadway, and in great letters 

 announced "I. Fly, Headquarters," there was a large shad 

 seine being knit in the hotel of Isaac Fryer, just above. 

 About a dozen men had an interest in it, and they knit 

 away every evening, Billy Bishop and Jakey Van Hoesen 

 being busy filling the needles with twine. I somehow 

 used to drop in there and knit a little early in the evening, 

 but the men stayed late. No one went down Broadway 

 except Billy, and Mr. Fly would have a man or two in 

 waiting to scare him. Sometimes a few stones rolled 

 after him would be enough to start him on a run ; at others 

 "spooks" would spring at him from the churchyard, and 

 although the victim may have been well fortified with 



