The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York (56 page)

249
Little more than a gloss:
This similarity Brewster freely admitted: “There can be little doubt, however,” he remarked about Willis’s earlier pamphlet, “that the secret has been discovered.” Brewster, 248.

249
So did Poe rely heavily on Brewster:
In his essay “Poe and the Chess Automaton,” W. K. Wimsatt Jr. considers the question of how much of his analysis Poe owed to Brewster, and concluded that “the answer is: almost everything, all that was correct, as well as much that was incorrect. As far as Brewster is right, Poe is right. Where Brewster is wrong, Poe is wrong.”

Wimsatt, 147.

249
Poe acknowledged his debt by disparagement:
Wimsatt, 149.

249
“Highly ingenious”:
Thomas and Jackson, 205.

249
“The most successful attempt”:
Thomas and Jackson, 216.

249
His detective fiction:
See Standage, 181.

249
“A curiously constructed automaton”:
Cook, 8.

C HAPTE R 15: “J O I C E H ETH I S N OT D EAD”

251
“Our audience again largely increased”:
Barnum (1855), 157.

252
More than ten thousand specimens:
See the report of the fair in the
Journal
of the American Institute
1, no. 2 (November 1835).

253
Not a single church:
Sante, 12.

253
“Mr. Dinneford, I beg your pardon”:
Barnum (1855), 161.

254
“Ailing from a cold”:
Reiss (2001), 126.

254
“Faithful colored woman”:
Barnum (1855), 171.

254
Aunt Joice . . . was no more:
This is how Barnum characterized the note’s description of her death. Barnum (1855), 171.

254
Pioneered several surgical techniques: Medical Register of New York, New
Jersey, and Connecticut
16 (1878): 189.

254
“Expressed a desire to institute a postmortem”:
Barnum (1855), 171.

255
Medical offices on Chambers Street: Medical Register,
189.

255
“Doctors’ riot”:
See, for example, Headley, 31–39.

257
Exchanging the scalpel for a handsaw:
Reiss (2001), 138.

257
“Spoiled half a dozen knives”:
Barnum (1855), 173.

257
“I believed the documents in her possession”:
Reiss (2001), 21.

258
“Always ready for a joke”:
Barnum (1855), 172.

258
“Gave great dignity to his whole deportment”: Medical Register,
189.

258
“In not very good humor”:
Barnum (1855), 172.

258
“The most stupendous scientific imposition”:
Barnum (1866), 193.

259
He placed the responsibility on Lyman:
“Lyman determined to put a joke upon James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald.” Barnum (1855), 173.

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262
Increasingly claimed the right to vote:
Property qualifications for voting had been removed in 1821 for white males, and starting in 1834 the mayor was elected by direct vote rather than appointed by the Common Council.

262
Their democratic right to judgment:
See the excellent discussion in Tucher, 57.

262
“That’s just the question
”
:
Harris, 77.

262
“Two-thirds of the working men”:
Wilentz, 220.

262
Cartmen now called their employers “Mister”:
Lyon, ix.

262
Doff a cap and bow deeply with averted eyes:
Larkin, 155.

262
“Invariably the custom to shake hands”:
Larkin, 155.

262
“At the outset of my career”:
Tucher, 48.

263
“Putting on glittering appearances”:
Barnum (1866), 8.

263
Requires consent from those who participate:
Tucher, 56.

263
“A full equivalent for their money”:
Barnum (1866), 9.

263
Competition between patron and promoter:
Harris, 77.

264
A daily circulation of 27,000:
O’Brien, 69.

C HAPTE R 16: TH E B E ST S E LF-H OA XE D MAN I N N EW YO R K

268
Nearly five hundred dollars an acre:
Burrows and Wallace, 612.

268
Ten thousand mechanics:
Schlesinger, 220.

268
“At no period of its history”:
Schlesinger, 220.

268
A profit of twenty thousand dollars:
O’Brien, 79.

268
On Staten Island:
Richard Adams Locke can be found in the 1840 Census Records for Staten Island, Richmond County, where he is identified as belonging to the occupational category “Learned professionals and engineers.”

268
Woods and fields and a patchwork of farms:
Smith (1970), 103.

268
Joined by two sons:
National Archives and Records Administration, 1850

Census Records, Film Series M432, Roll 587, page 24.

269
“Clear profits”:
This was the phrase used by Locke in his discussion of his own economic arrangements with the proprietors of the
New Era,
published in the issue of January 5, 1837.

269
“Mr. Locke’s columns”:
Harrison (1902), 15:135.

272
A euphemism for drunkenness:
Silverman, 7.

273
“More conservative and hard working”:
Schroth, 39.

273
“He would have been a first-rate man”:
This remark can be found in the interview Day gave to the
Sun
for its fiftieth-anniversary issue, September 3, 1883.

273
A court order obtained by Bell:
New York Chancery Court, October 26, 1839, Reference No. BM 865-B.

273
Double parlor:
Allen, 542.

273
The evening’s guests :
Thomas and Jackson, 619–620.

273
“The man in the moon”:
Thomas and Jackson, 619–620.

274
His letter of reply:
The letter was published in the
New World
as “Mr.

Locke’s Moon Story,” on page 1. All of the quotes that follow are contained therein.

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275
“Christianity reigns without obstacles”:
Tocqueville, 292.

277
“A short time ago”:
Tocqueville. The footnote runs from page 245 through page 246.

280
“So thoroughly was the popular mind”:
Griggs, 16.

280
“Disappointment and chagrin”:
Griggs, 30.

280
“If the story be either received”:
Griggs, 30.

E P I LO G U E: THAT TYR AN NY S HALL B E N O LO N G E R

283
Forty thousand dollars:
O’Brien, 79.

283
Another fifty-two years:
Day died at his home at 55 East Twenty-fifth Street on December 21, 1889.

283
“I owned the whole concern”:
O’Brien, 79.

283
“These papers”:
Mott (1962), 241.

284
The
Daily News
and the
Daily Express: For newspapers’ names, see Payne, 245; Jackson (1995), 814; O’Brien, 85.

284
“The consequences of the scheme”:
Harrison (1902), 15:126.

284
“Occupied the editorial chair”: Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, 95.

284
A population of just under 13 million:
These statistics are from O’Brien, 86.

285
His twenty-five-year-old son:
The younger Bennett, familiarly known as

“Jamie,” was even more eccentric than his father, and more generally dis-liked. He was headstrong, erratic in his decision making, and he led the extravagant life of a millionaire playboy. Eleven years after taking over as proprietor of the
Herald
Jamie moved from New York to Paris, after fighting a duel of honor with the brother of his fiancée, in whose fireplace he had urinated during a New Year’s celebration.

285
The most widely read newspaper in the world:
Carlson, 300.

285
“He is like the mother mountain of gold”:
Seitz, 144.

285
“Been in the habit”:
Seitz, 148.

285
Passing derogatory stories:
See Saxon, 178.

286
In early 1851:
The story can be found in Seitz, 145–146.

286
A mile up Broadway:
Caldwell, 80.

287
“Are you in earnest?”:
Barnum (1888), 254.

288
Black walnut doors:
Carlson, 380.

288
“The Herschel Hoax”:
See De Morgan, 1:326–327.

288
Born in Savoy, France:
Nicollet was born in 1796; unaccountably, De Morgan dates the birth to thirty years earlier. De Morgan, 1:326.

289
“Any very tangible evidence”:
De Morgan, 1:326.

289
“I have no doubt”:
De Morgan, 2:132.

289
“Richard Alton Locke”:
Proctor, 242.

289
“One of Clark’s most successful achievements”: National Cyclopædia,
8:455.

289
“The secret history of the ‘Moon Hoax’”:
Lossing, 361.

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289
“Mr. Moses Y. Beach”:
Lossing, 361–362.

290
“A mortified but impotent littérateur”:
Moss, 95.

290
“Noticeable for nothing in the world”:
Harrison (1902), 15:115.

291 The Letters of Willis Gaylord Clark: Willis Gaylord Clark, a poet, was Lewis Gaylord Clark’s twin brother.

291
“Took an active part”:
Dunlap, 16.

291
Further observed:
According to Dunlap, the suggestion was first made to him by the Poe scholar Thomas O. Mabbott. Dunlap, 16.

291
“The one of which”:
Harrison (1902), 15:129.

291
“Having stated the case”:
Harrison, 15:129.

291
Attended the theater:
Silverman, 238.

291
“Uncommonly fine”:
Wilson, 343.

292
“An event in one’s life”:
Silverman, 279.

292
“A wife of matchless beauty”:
Allen, 332.

292
The village of Fordham:
Today it is part of the Bronx.

292
“Bloated and unwashed”:
Allen, 672.

293
“The sun will shine”:
Locke (1842), 6.

293
“The great theme of their poets”:
Locke, 5.

294
“Mr. Locke is now engaged”:
Harrison (1902), 15:136.

294
In his lifetime:
A posthumously published poem entitled “The Scythe and the Sylphids” appeared in the art journal
Aldine
in February 1874.

294
An inspector for the Customs Service:
Locke began work on August 1, 1842.

U.S. Customs Service, New York,
Register of Employees, 1843–1854,
National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Office.

294
“Partisan zeal and work”:
Eaton, 1.

295
“Quietly returning money”:
See the discussion of Melville at the Custom House in Delbanco, 291–292.

295
Did not own his own home:
Ownership of the house was listed under the name of his son Richard. National Archives and Records Administration, 1860 Census Records, Film Series M653, Roll 850, page 22.

295
“Have you any thing for me”:
Beach Family Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Collection, LC 820561812.

295
The same year:
Locke began work at the Staten Island office on January 31, 1850. U.S. Customs Service, New York,
Register of Employees, 1853–1864,
National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Office.

296
“Complacency and satisfaction”:
“Richard A. Locke and the Clergymen,”

New York Times,
October 2, 1858, 4.

296
“Mr. Locke has in great perfection”:
“Richard A. Locke and the Clergymen,” 4.

296
“Handsome, bearded, and self-possessed”:
Abbott, 40.

296
“No impulse of the human heart”:
“Kossuth,”
New York Evangelist,
December 11, 1851, 199.

296
“Go on then, Great Kossuth”:
Abbott, 40.

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297
Retired from the Customs Service:
U.S. Customs Service, New York,
Register
of Employees, 1853–1864,
National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Office.

297
Silver Mount Cemetery:
When I visited the Silver Mount Cemetery, Locke’s marble tombstone was lying facedown on the ground, apparently toppled by the root of a large tree growing nearby. The cemetery’s director, Dora Ar-slanian, very kindly commissioned a work crew that lifted the stone and set it upright, and cleaned it until it shone.

297
Three of their children:
According to Lockwood Rianhard, who is a great-great-grandson of Richard Adams Locke, Locke’s eldest son Richard was court-martialed, while his third son, John, died in January 1865 in the Southern prison camp at Andersonville. His two other sons, Lewis and Walter, moved to Colorado and never returned. Lockwood Rianhard notes as well that Locke’s youngest daughter Emma never married. Letter to the author, October 19, 2004.

298
“The incident of all others”:
Locke (1840), 1.

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S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Abbott, Mabel. “An Old Manuscript: Locke’s Address to Kossuth.”
Proceedings of
the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
12, no. 2 (January 1950): 37–41.

Albion, Robert Greenhalgh.
Square-Riggers on Schedule: The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938.

Allen, Hervey.
Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.