I have never been able to get this to play, and, needless to say, I'm very dismayed. Can anyone else do so? I tried changing my RealPlayer7 connection settings to no avail. It's the first link next to the top dot. I now find it even more intriguing from a linguistic (and character) standpoint, because an article in the new Smithsonian, "Manhattan Mayhem", about the upcoming Scorsese film, Gangs of New York (about the brutal street warfare waged between immigrant groups in early-to-mid 19th century New York City), says a major key to authenticating the dialect and accents of the time was this rare 1892 wax recording of Walt Whitman (a native Long Islander and New Yorker) reciting four lines from Leaves of Grass. Whitman's accent would've been indicative of the nativists speech (the English and Dutch gangs who despised the Irish and other immigrants, and considered themselves entitled to native American soil). Quoting from the article (which I'll also supply a link to):

"On it, the poet pronounces "world' as "woild," and the "a" of "an" nasal and flat, like "ayan." Tim Monich (the film's dialect coach) concluded that 19th century New Yorkers sounded something like Brooklyn cabbies of the mid-20th."

I'm astonished to consider, that for all his literary eloquence, Walt Whitman spoke with a hard New York accent!
That just never occured to me before. so you're in good company, of troy!

Also consulted by the dialect coach was The Rogue's Lexicon, a book of underworld idoms compiled in 1859 by a fomer New York City police chief who was fascinated by the inner life of gangs. (that Lexi sounds like a real treat for the hungry linguaphile! )

The voice recording:

http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/whitman.htm

The Smithsonian article:

http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/dec02/gangs.html