There was no happier couple in all the settlement thanHanz and Angeline Toodleburg. Page 13.THE
VON TOODLEBURGS;
OR,
THE HISTORY OF A VERY DISTINGUISHED FAMILY.
BY
F. COLBURN ADAMS,
AUTHOR OF "MANUEL PERIERE, OR THE SOVEREIGN RULE OF SOUTH CAROLINA;""OUR WORLD;" "CHRONICLES OF THE BASTILE;" "AN OUTCAST;" "ADVENTURES OFMAJOR RODGER SHERMAN PORTER;" "THE STORY OF A TROOPER;" "THE SIEGE OFWASHINGTON," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY A.R. WAUD.
PHILADELPHIA:
CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER,
819 and 821 Market Street
1868.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
F. COLBURN ADAMS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for theEastern District of Pennsylvania.
PREFACE.
I never could see what real usefulness there was in a preface to a workof this kind, and never wrote one without a misgiving that it would domore to confuse than enlighten the reader.
The good people of Nyack will pardon me, I know they will, for takingsuch an unwarrantable liberty as to locate many of my scenes andcharacters in and around their flourishing little town. I have no doubtthere are persons yet living there who will readily recognize some of mycharacters, especially those of Hanz and Angeline Toodleburg. That thevery distinguished family of Von Toodleburgs, which flourished soextensively in New York at a later period, as described in the secondseries of this work, will also be recognized by many of my readers Ihave not a doubt. Nyack should not be held responsible for all the sinsof the great Kidd Discovery Company, since some of the leading menengaged in that remarkable enterprise lived on the opposite side of theriver, many miles away.
The reader must not think I have drawn too extensively on my imaginationfor material to create "No Man's Island" and build "Dunman's Cave" with.About eighteen years ago I chanced to have for fellow traveller an oddlittle man, of the name of Price, (better known as Button Price,) whohad been captain of a New Bedford or Nantucket whaleship. He was anearnest, warm-hearted, talkative little man, and one of the strangestbits of humanity it had ever been my good fortune to fall in with. Hehad lost his ship on what he was pleased to call an unknown island inthe Pacific. He applied the word "unknown" for the only reason that Icould understand, that he did not know it was there until his shipstruck on it. He regarded killing a whale as the highest object a manhad to live for, and had no very high respect for the mariner who hadnever "looked round[Pg iv] Cape Horn," or engaged a whale in mortal combat. Hewas on his way home to report the loss of his ship to his owners. An actof kindness, and finding that I knew something of the sea, and couldsympathize with a sailor in misfortune, made us firm friends to the endof our journey.
To this odd little man, then, I am indebted for the story of the oldpirate of "No Man's Island," and what took place in "Dunman's Cave;" forit was in just such a place, according to his own account, t