Excerpt from John Doe and Richard Roe, or Episodes of Life in New York

As you cross the Park diagonally between the City Hall and the Hall of Records, you observe a crowd of men on the steps, and around the steps, of a square, brown-stone, four-story building - which, to be precise, has one front on Chambers-street and another on the Park.

You inquire, What's the matter there? What's the excitement? Is anything up?

Nothing special. At least, nothing unusual. That building has its own uses and its own history.

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