Not so the younger and newer portion of the population.  We learn from one of the letters of the ill-fated Blennerhassett, who arrived in New York from Ireland in 1796, that the people were so busy there in making new docks, filling in the swamps, and digging cellars for new buildings, as to bring on an epidemic fever and ague that drove him from the city to the Jersey shore.  He mentions, also, that land in the State doubled in value every two years, and that commercial speculation was carried on with such avidity that it was more like gambling than trade.  It is he that relates the story of the adventurer, who, on learning that the yellow-fever prevailed fearfully in the West Indies, sent thither a cargo of coffins in nests, and, that no room might be lost, filled the smallest with gingerbread.  The speculation, he assures us, was a capital hit; for the adventurer not only sold his coffins very profitably, but loaded his vessel with valuable woods, which yielded a great profit at New York.  At that time, also, the speculation in lots, corner lots, and lands near the city, was prosecuted with all the recklessness which we have been in the habit of supposing was peculiar to later times.  New York was New York even in the days of Burr and Hamilton.

As mistress of Richmond Hill, Theodosia entertained distinguished company.  Hamilton was her father’s occasional guest.  Burr preferred the society of educated Frenchmen and Frenchwomen to any other, and he entertained many distinguished exiles of the French Revolution.  Talleyrand, Volney, Jerome Bonaparte, and Louis Philippe were among his guests.  Colonel Stone mentions, in his Life of Brant, that Theodosia, in her fourteenth year, in the absence of her father, gave a dinner to that chieftain of the forest, which was attended by the Bishop of New York, Dr. Hosack, Volney, and several other guests of distinction, who greatly enjoyed the occasion.  Burr was gratified to hear with how much grace and good-nature his daughter acquitted herself in the entertainment of her company.  The chief himself was exceedingly delighted, and spoke of the dinner with great animation many years after.

We have one pleasant glimpse of Theodosia in these happy years, in a trifling anecdote preserved by the biographer of Edward Livingston, during whose mayoralty the present City Hall was begun.  The mayor had the pleasure, one bright day, of escorting the young lady on board a French frigate lying in the harbor.  “You must bring none of your sparks on board, Theodosia,” exclaimed the pun-loving magistrate; “for they have a magazine here, and we shall all be blown up.”  Oblivion here drops the curtain upon the gay party and the brilliant scene.