and a half to nine inches, and inclined to be a trifle stout. There was
no peculiarity about his voice; but it was pleasant and had a good
intonation. His smile was exceedingly genial, lighting up his whole face
and rendering it very attractive; while, if he were about to say anything
humorous, it would beam forth from his eyes even before the words were
spoken. As a young man his face was exceedingly handsome, and his head
was well covered with dark hair; but from my earliest recollection of him
he wore neither whiskers nor moustache, but a dark brown wig, which,
although it made him look younger, concealed a beautifully shaped head."
We can understand why he was a favorite in the society of Baltimore,
Washington, Philadelphia, and Albany, as well as of New York, and why he
liked to linger here and there, sipping the social sweets, like a man
born to leisure and seemingly idle observation of life.

It was in the midst of these social successes, and just after his
admission to the bar, that Irving gave the first decided evidence of the
choice of a career. This was his association with his eldest brother,
William, and Paulding in the production of "Salmagundi," a semimonthly
periodical, in small duodecimo sheets, which ran with tolerable
regularity through twenty numbers, and stopped in full tide of success,
with the whimsical indifference to the public which had characterized its
every issue. Its declared purpose was "simply to instruct the young,
reform the old, correct the town, and castigate the age." In manner and
purpose it was an imitation of the "Spectator" and the "Citizen of the
World," and it must share the fate of all imitations; but its wit was not
borrowed, and its humor was to some extent original; and so perfectly was
it adapted to local conditions that it may be profitably read to-day as a
not untrue reflection of the manners and spirit of the time and city.
Its amusing audacity and complacent superiority, the mystery hanging
about its writers, its affectation of indifference to praise or profit,