SOURCE: "Publisher's Notice. Shakespeare Gallery, New York. Saturday, January 24, 1807," in Salmagundi; or, The Whimwhams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq., and Others, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1860.

In this 1807 preface to the Knickerbockers' magazine Salmagundi (reprinted in book form in 1860) the editors display the wit and playfulness characteristic of the writing in that magazine and indicative of the spirit of cultured amusement in which the editors wished it to be regarded by their reading public

As everybody knows, or ought to know, what a Salmagund is, we shall spare ourselves the trouble of an explanation; besides, we despise trouble as we do everything low and mean, and hold the man who would incur it unnecessarily as an object worthy our highest pity and contempt. Neither will we puzzle our heads to give an account of ourselves, for two reasons; first, because it is nobody's business; secondly, because if it...