“… He explains that the accordeon is not what it was; he broke it last New-Year’s night “out bell snicklin’.” This custom is known in other parts of the Neck as “New-Year’s shooting.” On New-Year’s Eve, crowds of men and boys dress themselves in fantastic costumes, and roam through the Neck and lower part of the city all night. This custom, doubtless a remnant of the old English Christmas “mumming,” grows year by year in Philadelphia, and the mummers, becoming bolder, penetrate as far north as Chestnut street.”