208 THE RfGHT TO BE WELL BORN 



Now let us go back to our old New York 

 sturdy Dutch families, and those New 

 Year's Day customs of calling. They were 

 the aristocracy and as such were very 

 proud. The Van Eensselaers of Albany 

 were their "Patroons" and their landed es- 

 tates covered many hundreds of square 

 miles ; their tenants were numbered by the 

 thousands. The haughty imperious man- 

 ners of the then ruling "Patroon" brought 

 about the loss of these great entailed es- 

 tates and thus closed out forever the only 

 American Peerage. They took little or no 

 exercise. They lived well and drank to ex- 

 cess, gin, Suydam Schnapps, imported by 

 Schuchard & Gebhard, and hot toddies; 

 and the ladies, Madeira. Consequently, 

 they had poor kidneys. It was among these 

 old Dutch settlers that the term ' ' Two-Bot- 

 tle-Men" originated. They could walk 

 home without showing the effect of alcohol 

 but it was a death blow to their descend- 

 ants. My aunt's sister married one of the 

 last of the descendants of Peter Stuy- 

 vesant, and her husband was always be- 



