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page number 3 Sunday, March 17th, 1844. When the following was recorded. "There is a tide in the affairs of Men," saith the proverb, and I think it ebbs and flows with me about as often as that of the sea, although with less regularity. Ten months ago I opened a modest little bookstore in which, for a time I managed to get a living, but business growing worse and worse as fall and winter set in I was obliged to look about me for something better to do, and on the 10th of January last opened, in connection with N.Y.D. . - the "Metropolitan Reading Room and Circulating Library," and have, in consequence, entered more into the world’s folly and festivity than ever before. We have given four fancy dress balls, which were well attended, and presented an array of beauty and fashion unequaled by any thing of the kind in New York. So far our enterprise gives strong hopes of ultimate success. From this time my notes were kept with such irregularity that I shall continue my Journal in the narative form. In taking the rooms for the above enterprise we had only a verbal agreement with the landlord, at a very low rate of rent, with the promise of a lease from the first of May ensuing at a fixed rate, the rent up to that time to be paid at our own convenience, in or