"THE ROCHESTER KNOCKINGS AT BARNUM'S HOTEL"--HARD WORK--OUR VISITORS--A POISONED BOUQUET--HAIR OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON I.--HAIR OF JOHN C. CALHOUN--INVESTIGATION AT RESIDENCE OF REV. RUFUS W. GRISWOLD, BY THE LEADING LITERARY CELEBRITIES OF NEW YORK.
We arrived in New York City on June 4, 1850, and had engaged rooms at Barnum's Hotel, corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane. (This proprietor must not be confounded with the great showman of that name.)
Horace Greeley was our first caller. He advised us to charge five dollars admission fee. I told him that would be altogether too much; but he feared greatly for our safety, and thought this exorbitant sum would keep the rabble away. I told him I thought it decidedly better to follow the directions of the Spirits, and trust in Providence for protection and success. He announced our arrival in the _Tribune_, and published our rules of order. The editors of the _Tribune_ and many other papers were in our rooms daily. Mr. Ripley used to say to us: "Ladies, you are the lions of New York." Mary Taylor, in a Broadway theatre, sweetly sang "The Rochester Knockings at Barnum's Hotel," as a popular topic of the day. Many things in stores, on sidewalks, and newspaper advertisements, were paraded and labelled with the words "Rochester Knockings."
What a time, to be sure, we had of it during that first visit, of nearly three months, to the great metropolis! Our party was seven in number. Our parlor was a large room opposite to the main one of the hotel, from which it was separated by a wide corridor. A long table with thirty seats occupied the centre of it, and we gave three receptions each day, for which our advertised hours were: 10 to 12 A.M., 3 to 5 P.M., and 8 to 10 P.M.; but the midday meeting would often lengthen out till we had barely time to get ready for dinner, and the evening one to midnight. The public parlors served as ante-rooms, in which visitors waited their turns to be admitted by one of our attendant gentlemen. Private sittings were often extorted from us by importunity, which would begin at the earliest hours before breakfast. With what degree of exhaustion of muscles, nerves, mind and spirit, we would reach our beds (in our rooms on the floor above), where sleep was often slow to come to our over-strained systems, may be imagined by my readers. The mere pressure upon us of the three successive crowds would, alone, have been a strain hard to bear; but every individual had his or her colloquies to be held with their respective Spirit friends. The burthen of it fell upon us all, but most heavily upon our dear mother, who took it so deeply to heart when she knew we were so unjustly suspected and so severely tested. She was of course always present with us, but only as a spectator and for protection. Ministers of all denominations, members of all professions, legal, medical, literary, and commercial, were among our guests, and many of them were frequent visitors. The occasions were rare when the slightest want of courtesy, respect, and kindness occurred to wound or displease us; and the only thing approaching an indignity we had to complain of among ourselves, was the frequency with which committees of ladies would retire with us to disrobe and reclothe us, the holding of our feet, etc.