alluding to the toast of General Jackson at the Tammany Dinner; on the next day appeared the “Epistle to Mr. Potter, the Ventriloquist,” on the next day, “The Battery War,” all written by Dr. Drake; and on. the same day (the 15th of March), Halleck’s Address to Mr. Simpson, then manager of the old Park Theatre, signed Croaker, jr., and on the day after that, Drake’s invitation to his unknown rival, proposing to make a poetical firm, as appears by the well-known verses:
“Your hand, my dear Junior! we’re all in a flame
To see a few more of your flashes!
The Croakers for ever! I’m proud of the name,—
But brother, I fear, though our cause is the same,
We shall quarrel like Brutus and Cassius.
“But why should we do so! ’tis false what they tell,
That poets can never be cronies;
Unbuckle your harness, in peace let us dwell,
Our goose-quills will canter together as well
As a pair of Prime’s mouse-colored ponies.
“Once blended in spirit, we’ll make our appeal,
And by law be incorporate too;
Apply for a charter in crackers to deal,
A fly-flapper rampant shall shine on our seal,
And the firm shall be Croaker & Co.
“Fun! prosper the Union—smile, Fate, on its birth;
Miss Atropos, shut up your scissors;
Together we’ll range through the regions of mirth,
A pair of bright Gemini, dropt on the earth,
The Castor and Pollux of quizzers.”
Is this local? The only allusion in it to New York, is Prime’s mouse-colored ponies. But the head of the firm of Prime, Ward & King, famous bankers in
