| Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917. | | | | Wouter Van Twiller, 1633 | | By Clinton Scollard |
| | | WHEN Wouter Van Twiller sailed over the sea, | |
| A shrewd store of wit in his noodle had he; | |
| And while he was sent as the Company’s son, | |
| His eye was alert to enrich number one; | |
| It was his pocket foremost—that busy old filler,— | 5 |
| Very aldermanlike was good Wouter Van Twiller! | |
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| A fine strip of land if he chanced to divine | |
| He straightway bethought him “that farm shall be mine!” | |
| And worthily working this excellent plan, | |
| Erelong he annexed all Sapponikan; | 10 |
| He pinched like a mercer, took toll like a miller; | |
| Truly aldermanlike was good Wouter Van Twiller! | |
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| In Minetta Water, when noontides were blue, | |
| He trouted from Fifth through to Sixth Avenue; | |
| And when (it was frequent) he’d mornings to spare, | 15 |
| He hunted the duck over Washington Square. | |
| “Times are ill,” groaned the traders; “the times might be iller,” | |
| Replied, with a wink, crafty Wouter Van Twiller. | |
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| Gone Wouter Van Twiller, but not all his kind, | |
| At least by the knowing it thus is opined; | 20 |
| While chiefly his own, he was every man’s friend; | |
| His image we’re likely to view to the end; | |
| You may see it today,—’tis our pride and our pillar,— | |
| The image of grasping old Wouter Van Twiller. | | | | |
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