Chapter 6 Notes
1. It is not always possible to know whether these menu items would have been served in Pfaff's cellar at 647 Broadway, the restaurant and beer garden at 653 Broadway, or even "C. Pfaff's Restaurant" in its last location, 9 W. 24th Street. This time, I have included those foods and drinks that were described in remembered accounts of "Pfaff's" and/or in periodical sources regardless of address. I have also included the wine list provided by Albert Parry since Pfaff's wines were what attracted many of his customers, and it makes sense that he would maintain a fairly consistent, if ever-expanding menu of offerings. See Garrets and Pretenders, 22-23.
2. New York Times, "In and About the City," 2.
3. Daily Graphic, "Bohemia: The New York Bohemians—Who They Were and What Became of Them," October 13, 1873, 723, http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html; Karbiener, "Whitman at Pfaff's," 20.
4. Francis Wolle, Fitz-James O'Brien: A Literary Bohemian of the Eighteen—Fifties, University of Colorado Studies Series B, Studies in the Humanities, Vol. 2. no. 2, May 1944 (Boulder, Colorado: 1944), 129; New York Times, "In and about the City, 2; E. D. P., "New York Sketches: Old Pfaff and a Rare Bohemian Reminiscence," Chicago Tribune 41, November 20, 1881, 22, Launcelot, "Our New York Letter…Some Account of the Bohemians of New York [. . .]," The Chicago Press and Tribune,, April 6, 1860, 2. http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html.
5. Louis N. Megargee, "Round Table Knights: Reminiscences of Bohemia Revived by the Death of Pfaff," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 4, 1890, 9, https://sslvpn.uni-dortmund.de/iw-search/we/HistArchive/; NUPM 2:528.6. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 23; Luther S. Harris, Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 53.
7. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. "Town Gossip," June 9, 1866, 178, Michael and Arianee Batterberry, On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating and Drinking, and Entertainments (London: Routledge, 1998), 95; Chicago Tribune, "The 'Bohemians' of New York," January 31, 1864, 1.
8. Fitz James O'Brien, "At Pfaff's," In the Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, vol. 13, between pgs. 72-73.
9. The Undersigned, "The Country. Opinions of the Undersigned," Vanity Fair 5, no. 127 (May 31, 1862), 261.
10. A. L. Rawson, "A Bygone Bohemia," The American Magazine 41, no. 1 (January 1896): 107.
11. Renée Sentilles, introduction to Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of the American Celebrity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 8.
12. Menken may have been married and divorced as many as four times, and she may have had earlier marriages. There remains some question as to whether her marriage to Alexander Isaac Menken was legally contracted even before she claimed marriage to John Heenan in January 1860. Sentilles, introduction, 7.
13. Ibid., 8.
14. Ibid., 7; Batterberry, On the Town in New York, 95; Karbiener, "Whitman at Pfaff's," 22.
15. Batterberry, On the Town in New York, 95.
16. This account suggests that at least sometimes the Bohemians did enter the beer cellar during the day. Utica Daily Observer (Utica, NY), "The Bohemians of Former Days," 3.
In a diary entry written in late 1860, just after the death of Getty Gay, Thomas Butler Gunn called her "one of the literary – unfortunate females and Bohemians." He recorded her maiden name as "Gertrude Louise Vultee" and stated that her married name was "Wilmshurst." She and her husband may have both lived with Ada Clare. According to Gunn, N. G. Shepherd had even told him that "the Bohemians had a whispered rumor that the affection between these women was of a Parisian, Sapphic character." Gunn speculates, "[I]t may be so, or only a monstrous canard originating in the depraved minds of such men as Clapp and O'Brien. Judging from "Ada's" writings, one might credit it." Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, vol. 14, (September 23, 1860 to December 31, 1860), 12-13, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
In 1860, a writer identified only as Launcelot wrote in The Chicago Press and Tribune's "New York Letter" that Ada Clare was a "tall, magnificently beautiful blonde." The writer went on to report that the pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk fathered Clare's son and that Clare "boldly avows that a woman has the right to choose the father of her own child, and that she has nothing to regret." In fact, even though Clare never married her son's father, Launcelot claims that she "proudly shows her little one to those who are introduced to her, pointing out its resemblance to its sire, which are displayed in a breastpin that she always wears." "Our New York Letter…Some Account of the Bohemians of New York," The Chicago Press and Tribune, 2.
17. Utica Daily Observer (Utica, NY),"The Bohemians of Former Days," 3.
18. Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1896), 206.
19. Rawson, "A Bygone Bohemia," 107; Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 22-23; Launcelot, "Our New York Letter…Some Account of the Bohemians of New York [. . .]," 2.
20. Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 754.
21. Caryn Neumann, "Beer," in Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, ed. Thomas Adam and Will Kaufman (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO: 2005), 132.
22. Neumann, "Beer," 132; Hermann Schlüter, The Brewing Industry and the Brewery Worker's movement in America (Cincinnati, OH: International Union of United Brewery Workmen of America, 1910), 51.
23. Burrows and Wallace, Gotham 741; Julia Solis, "Breweries, Speakeasies, and Wine Cellars," New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City (New York: Routledge, 2006), 207.
24. Schlüter, The Brewing Industry, 53, 53n1.
25. Ibid., 57.
26. Neumann, "Beer,"132.
27. "Observations on Brewing and Beer: With an Analysis and Scientific Testimony Relative to the Lager Beer of the Speyers' Lion Brewery" (New York. Speyers' Lion Brewery. 18??) Pamphlet, New York Historical Society, PDF, 12; Neumann, "Beer," 132.
28. James L. Ford, "New York's Bohemia: A Kingdom Which Still Exists, Although Pfaff's Restaurant is No More," Philadelphia Inquirer 127.150, November 27, 1892, 14, https://sslvpn.uni-dortmund.de/iw-search/we/HistArchive/.
29. Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man, 206; Megargee, "Round Table Knights," 9.
30. Chicago Tribune, "The 'Bohemians' of New York," 1; G. J. M. "Bohemianism," 9. According to a pamphlet produced by Albert Speyer, one of the owners of the brewery, Speyers' lager was brewed and went through the "malting and every following process on the premises" of "The Speyers' Lion Brewery" located in the "upper section" of the city of New York, occupying sixteen acres of ground "between 8th and 10 Avenues, and 107th and 109th streets." Speyers "Observations" 13. Trow's New York Directory for 1859 lists Albert Speyer and James Speyer as merchants with a brewery at "W. 108th c Ninth Avenue." Trow's (1859), 757. The Speyer brothers' Lion Brewery was the first steam brewery in New York George Derby and James Terry White, eds., "Simon Bernheimer," in The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 5 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1894), 375. The brewery, home of Speyer's Lion Lager Bier, burned to the ground on October 2, 1859; the whole establishment was destroyed. New-York Times, "News of the Day," October 3, 1859, 4, The Speyer brothers lost $40,000 worth of barley, and the loss of property amounted to $278,000. The fire was believed to have been the work of an incendiary. New-York Times, "Burning of the Lion Brewery," October 4, 1859, 5, hnpnewyorktimes/. In 1860, Simon W. Bernheimer, the son of Emanual Bernheimer—a pioneer in the brewing of lager bier in the United States—formed a partnership with James Speyer, and they rebuilt the Lion Brewery, now under the name of Speyer and Bernheimer. An article published in the New York Times in 1861, locates the newly rebuilt beer brewery at the corner of 109th Street and Ninth Avenue New York Times, "General City News," January 7, 1861, 8, Speyer and Bernheimer remained in business together for two years, when Mr. Speyer sold his shares. Derby and White, "Simon Bernheimer," 375. New-York Times, "Burning of the Lion Brewery," October 4, 1859, 5,
31. Megargee, "Round Table Knights," 9.
32. Daily Graphic "Bohemia: The New York Bohemians—Who They Were and What Became of Them," 723.
33. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 22-23.
34. Chicago Tribune, "The 'Bohemians' of New York," 2; Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 22-23.
35. Gary Schmidgall, ed. Intimate with Walt: Selections from Whitman's Conversations with Horace Traubel 1888-1892 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001), 245.
36. Cummings, "'Bohemians' and 'Tips,'" 3.
37. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 23.
38. G. J. M., "Bohemianism," 9.
39. Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, vol. 13, (June 1, 1860 to September 22 1860), 72. Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
40. William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman with Extracts from his Letters and Remarks on his Writing. Volume 3. London: Alexander Gardener: 1896. Albert Parry maintains that George Arnold did not really have Southern sympathies, but rather "took sides with unpopular issues merely for the fun of it." In effect, Parry asserts that Arnold "made his patriotism secret and came out with challenging speeches in defense of the South," presumably for the sheer pleasure of debating the topic with other Pfaffians and Union supporters. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 41.
41. Walsh, Pen Pictures of Modern Authors, 166.
42. Hugh Farrar McDermott, "The Ghosts of Bohemia," New York World, June 27, 1886, 12, http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
43. New York Sun, Obituary for Charles Pfaff, April 26, 1890, 3, http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
44. New York Times, "In and about the City," 2; "Town Gossip," 178; Wolle, Fitz James O'Brien, 129.
45. Levin, Bohemia in America, 1858-1920, 44.
46. Parry, 23, Garrets and Pretenders, 44.
47. The Critic: A Weekly Review of Literature and the Arts, "[Response to death of Charles Pfaff]," Announcement under "The Lounger" heading, vol. 13, no. 331 (May 3, 1890): 224.
48. Lause, The Antebellum Crisis, 49.
49. Rawson, "A Bygone Bohemia," 32.
50. Julius Chambers, "Do Lovers of Literature Recognize Debt to Bohemia," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 13, 1906, 5, http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html.
51. G. J. M., "Bohemianism," 9; New-York Traveler And United States Hotel Directory 11, no. 33, "Our Secret Told, December 3, 1859, 5, http://search.ebscohost.com/.
52. Chambers, "Do Lovers of Literature Recognize Debt to Bohemia," 5.
53. Cummings, "'Bohemians' and 'Tips,'" 3.
54. Chambers, "Do Lovers of Literature Recognize Debt to Bohemia," 5.
55. Omaha World Herald, "The Gannymede of Bohemia, 4"; Cummings, "'Bohemians' and 'Tips,'" 3.
56. New York Herald, "Bohemian Days at Pfaff's," 8.
57. Ibid.
58. Chambers, "Do Lovers of Literature Recognize Debt to Bohemia," 5.
59. Charles Pfaff Restaurant, 647 Broadway, 25-cent scrip note, Lot #4311, Obsolete Notes, New York, New York City, Charles Pfaff Restaurant. NY-630-BF, 647 Broadway, 25-Cent Scrip. Note With Red Overprint, Punch Canceled Remainder, Uncirculated, The November 2012 Baltimore Auction - Us And World Lots - Live And Internet Only Sessions, in Wayne Homren, Ed. "Scrip Notes of Charles Pfaff, New York," The E-Sylum 15, no. 46 (November 4, 2012): Article 20, http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n46a20.html.
60. "Description: Lot #14059, New York—New York, Chas. Pfaff's Restaurant, Rulau-515, B- NY-3740. Very Choice About Uncirculated," From the Stephen L. Tanenbaum Estate, Earlier ex: Ralph Mitchell; Jess Peters, 1978 ANA, Stack's and Bowers, The January 2013 Americana Sale, http://stacksbowers.com/auctions/AuctionLot.aspx?LotID=430928.
61. "Copperheads. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Copper and Base Metal Currency issued in the several States of the United States commencing in 1862 and ending in 1864," American Journal of Numismatics and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society 2, no.5, Whole No. 17 (September 1867): 52, http://search.ebscohost.com/.
62. Nemo, "The Comic Side of Numismatology," American Stamp Mercury and Numismatist 2, no. 22 (August 1869): 86, http://search.ebscohost.com/.
63. Adolf Sonnenschein and James Steven Stallybrass, German for the English: No. I. First Reading Book (London: David Nutt, 1857), 75. Google Books, https://books.google.com/.
64. Chas. Pfaff's Restaurant. Rulau-515, The March 2013 Baltimore Auction, Lot #6166, New York—New York, Very Choice About Uncirculated, http://stacksbowers.com/Auctions/ AuctionLot.aspx?LotID=452738.
65. There is no evidence that Pfaff is a Dutchman; although, he is sometimes described as such. One of the Old Crowd, "Remembrances of the Bohemian Club," The Arcadian, May 8, 1875, 12, http://search.ebscohost.com/.
66. Ibid.
67. New York Herald, "Bohemian Days at Pfaff's," 8.
68. G. J. M., "Bohemianism," 9"; F. B. S., "A Visit To Walt Whitman," 10.
69. G.J.M, "Bohemianism," 9.
70. Ibid; Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 9.
71. Vidette, "Gotham Gossip," 2.
72. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders, 23.
73. H.C. Bunner, "The Bowery and Bohemia," Scribner's Magazine 15, no. 4 (April 1894): 452-460.
74. Daily Graphic, "Bohemia. The New York Bohemians—Who They Were and What Became of Them," 723.
75. Hugh Farrar McDermott, "The Ghosts of Bohemia," 12.
76. "Pfaff's [from the N. Y. correspondent of the Boston Saturday Express]," 2.
77. Ibid; New-York Saturday Press, "Pfaff's," March 3, 1860, 3. The Vault at Pfaff's. http://lehigh.edu/pfaffs. Ed. Edward Whitley and Rob Weidman.
78. Lause, The Antebellum Crisis, 23 & 68. For a history and an analysis of the American bohemians' relationship to French and German émigré groups and the internationalist coalitions in antebellum New York, see especially chapters two and four of The Antebellum Crisis & America's First Bohemians.
79. New-York Saturday Press, "Pfaff's!! Pfaff's!!," Advertisement, August 5, 1865, 15. The Vault at Pfaff's. http://lehigh.edu/pfaffs. Ed. Edward Whitley and Rob Weidman.
80. The Chatham Courier (Chatham, Four Corners, NY)—Supplement 23.5, "Bohemians in Literature," April 30, 1884, http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html.
81. Ibid.
82. Cummings, "'Bohemians' and 'Tips,'" 3.
83. Fireside Companion 1, no. 16, "The Secret of Success," February 15, 1868, [2]. http://search.ebscohost.com/.
84. Mark McWilliams, "Conspicuous Consumption: Howells, James, and the Gilded Age Restaurant," in Culinary Aesthetics and Practices in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, eds. Monika Elbert and Marie Drews (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 36.
85. Cummings "'Bohemians' and 'Tips,'" 3.