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house of John Jacob Astor.
He was silent in general company, and usually fell asleep at the dinner-table.
This occurrence was indeed so common with him that the guests present only noticed it with a smile.
After a nap of some ten minutes he would open his eyes and take part in the conversation, apparently unconscious of having been asleep.
In his youth, Mr. Irving had traveled quite extensively in Europe.
While in Rome, he had received marked attention from the banker Torlonia, who repeatedly invited him to dinner parties, the opera, and so on. He was at a loss to account for this until his last visit to the banker, when Torlonia, taking him aside, said, ‘Pray tell me, is it not true that you are a grandson of the great Washington?’
Mr. Irving had in early life given offense to the descendants of old Dutch families in New York bly the publication of ‘Knickerbocker's History of New York,’ in which he had presented some of their forbears in a humorous light.
The solid fame which he acquired in later days effaced the remembrance of this old-time grievance, and in the days in which I had the pleasure of his acquaintance, he held an enviable position in the esteem and affection of the community.
He always remained a bachelor, owing, it was said, to an attachment, the object of which had
Houghton and Mifflin Company, 1899.
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