Micah Hawkins, the Pied Piper of Catherine Slip [ 161 ] for the author" in 1824, an(i generally attributed to Micah Hawkins, support Mount's opinion of his uncle's gift of laughter.42 Particularly the first and longer of the poems, "Mynehieur Von Herrick Heimelman, the Dancing-Master: or The Confluence of Nassau-Street and Maiden-Lane, As it was Whilom" displays exceptional mastery of sharp satire and deftness of versification. Its hilarious portrait of the popinjay dancing master, In silver-gilded kid-skin pumps, Bespangled like an Indian fan, daintily sauntering through Gotham's mire- and pig-infested streets to meet his porcine nemesis at the corner of Nassau and Maiden Lane is a New York epic in microcosm. The shorter "Big Red Nose, and How to Bleach It" except for its inspired title, is less felicitous, but it vividly evokes the bygone delights of Fly-Market! -Old Fly-Market rare, And justly celebrated mart Of every dainty, where a classic brawl is enacted between the bullying Big Red Nose and his agile little tormentor Pat, "Hibernia's son!' Both fables are memorably illustrated by D. C. Johnson, oddly enough, a Philadelphia artist. Hawkins' charmingly titled collection of trios, Amusement, dated 1819-21, displays an advanced degree of musical sophistication over his earlier tunebooks. Consisting entirely of special arrangements for an uncommon combination of instruments—flute, clarinet, and ,viola—and written for three specific players, each of the part-books bears the name of the performer for whose "amusement" the music had been arranged. Hawkins was the violist, Alexander Ming the clarinetist, and John McKay, Jr. the flutist. Ming was a well-known New York printer, bookseller, and newspaper publisher, and a faithful amateur musician: he had been a member of the old St. Cecilia Society, was secretary of the Euterpean Society's Standing Committee in 1825, and he served as second vice-president of the Sacred Music 42 Originally attributed to Hawkins by The New York Public Library, where copies are to be found; also at The New-York Historical Society, the Library of Congress, and The Museums at Stony Brook.