XIV INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 



The playlet, inimitable as it was, will be fully described, and 

 may be omitted here. However, Esquire Conklin, portrayed by 

 Judge F. V. Sanford, deserves more than a passing notice. His 

 costume was one of the perfect ones of the day, deserving more 

 than passing notice, especially for its butternut color of old-time, 

 perfectly matched with a butternut brown beaver. Collar and 

 lapels of brown velvet finished the finely-cut coat, and fawn- 

 colored trousers, flowered waistcoat and stock completed a hand- 

 some costume. Whiskers, wig, and assumed demeanor truly 

 represented the ancient Squire, who was Somebody in the days 

 when class reigned. His daughter, Miss Marian, representing 

 Mary Burt Herrick, her grandmother, wore a blue flowered silk, 

 with tight bodice and full, wavy ruffled skirt. Her hair, in curls, 

 showed beneath the blue poke bonnet with black velvet streamers. 

 A fichu, old-time brooch and black mitts made a costume which 

 earned her in the minds of many the title of: "The Lass with 

 the Delicate Air," borrowed from the quavery old colonial song 

 now once more popular. 



"Old "Squire Burt," (Senator James), whose house was For- 

 ester's home when he visited Warwick, for weeks at a time 

 (figuring in one of his novels as "My Shooting Box,") was per- 

 sonated by his descendant, Mr. J. Everett Sanford, who received 

 modestly the plaudits of friends for the results achieved. He was 

 dressed in a pinkish-brown court costume, with elegant vest and 

 deep lace falls for cravat and wrist, perfect in cut and fit, which 

 made one wish that the styles would go backward for men, — at 

 least for ceremonial dress. The gray beaver he wore, with its 

 long nap, was a creation, — no less. Mr. Sanford received the 

 obeisances and homage of his cousins as his recreated ancestor 

 with dignity and modesty, and deserved the praise he received. 



Mr. Lewis J. Stage and Mr. Henry Pelton, screamingly funny 

 in red wig and nose-ended glasses; Mr. G. F. Ketchum, as his 

 ancestor "Ellis" (Enos) Ketchum, master-of-ceremonies of the 

 day; Mr. Harry W. Smith and his friends, Messrs. Freeman and 

 others, were all pictures long to be remembered. 



Mr. Remsen Holbert, as his ancestor, Henry Board Wisner, 

 of the Lake, and builder of the mansion there, in high silk hat and 

 frock coat and stock, with carpet-bag, was a beau, and he led 

 about, as a companion-piece of attractiveness, his sister. Miss 

 Grace Holbert, in flower-wreathed bonnet and cork-screw curls, 

 which framed a rosy little face most becomingly. Her costume 

 was of the flat long-shouldered effect of Forester's day. 



The sisters, Mrs. Harold Hawkins and Miss Genevieve Van 

 Duzer, both wore costumes notable for beauty and costliness. 

 The latter's dress was of brown and blue striped tafTeta of lustrous 

 weave, and the mantle accompanying was of net, very handsome, 

 an open-flaring, flower-filled bonnet topping the whole. 



