ddress: CHESTER. & C9 ED. '/ a v.t>n4ntSi&zs PI/, /ty&usi/ a^ccffi^z^i^e^ !4 feet 4 inches. 65 feet o inches. Depth ... 22 feet G inches. 43 feet. Tonnage ... 1,154. ... 12,1)50. Horse-power 740. ... 30,000. Speed ... 8| knots. ... 21 knots. Accommodation 115 passengers.... 1,400 passengers. First class passengers are accommodated in the centre of the ship the state rooms being on the promenade, upper and main decks ; the second class arc 1 located on the same' decks aft of the engines, whilst the third are accommodated on the lower decks. There is a grand stretch of clear deck on either side for promenading, so that by a circuit of the ship four times you traverse 1 fully a mile and yet scarcely, if ever, appreciate the fact. The 1 grand stairway, wide enough for four or even six passengers to ascend abreast, opens from the promenade deck, is covered with a beautifully curved roof light, and is panelled in teak and enriched in gold, and leads to the principal public rooms, and many of the best state rooms ; a central hand rail, in addition to the 1 usual side rails, gives a better opportunity of obtaining greater support. The dining saloon is of immense si/e, being about 100 feet long by 62 feet wide. The general style is Italian. The walls arc 1 old Spanish mahogany, chaste and effective. The upholstering is in dark rod figured frio/e velvet. An important feature is the height of this room, which is 10 feet throughout. Another feature is the want of uniformity in the 1 saloon, as ventilating shafts, stairways, etc., break up the area ; by judicious planning a large number of nooks and corners have 1 been secured, where, small parties may dine in almost complete seclusion amid A MER1CA N l\rEl\fOR7ES. immense bevelled mirrors, or richly carved panellings. Accommodation is provided for the whole of the first class passengers in this saloon, enabling all the passengers to dine at one lionr. The sideboard, instead of having the usual marble top with brass rail, is entirely of Spanish mahogany, in keeping with the general finish of the saloon. For lighting as well as ventilating the saloon, a central well is earned up and through the upper and promenade decks, the covering above the line of the shade deck being a curved dome of stained glass. The extreme height from dining room floor is 33 feet. The well is decorated ivory white, relieved with gold lines. The outer side of the well, forming part of the walls of the drawing room, is panelled with heavy clear bevelled glass, mounted in sashes, each swinging on a centre pivot. The fireside is one of the most charming features of the beautiful drawing room, unusually large, well lighted and decorated in admirable taste. The, " ingle-neuk " is quite a feature of this room without any of those discomforts which Dickens has narrated in his inimitable style. The mantel and overmantel are both in satinwood, richly carved, with three arched mirrors. The general scheme of decoration is in the Eenaissance style ; the grate is of brass, and the hearth is laid with Persian tiles. Electric lamps are arranged in alternate panels. In the saloon is a grand piano and in a recess an American organ ; like the other furnishings they are of satinwood, the polished top and panels of which are in fine contrast to the duller cedar. Both instruments are specially protected from damp and moths, the stools in each case being made receptacles for music. The settees, ottomans, etc., upholstered in rich velvets and brocades, the rich Persian wove carpet, and the delightful variety and irregularity of the furniture 1 , give the room a very attractive 1 appearance. The smoking room has powerful attractions. This appartment is situated on the promenade deck aft. There is a feeling of homeliness in the fire burning brightly in the, bronze dog grate, the reflected flames dancing in the dark blue tiles of hearth and cheeks. The beautifully carved fireplace and overmantel are in excellent keeping, the woodwork being entirely of fumed oak, while the upholstering is in pigskin of the natural colour. The style is Jacobean with tables and chairs to suit. OUTWARD BOUND. The tone is subdued and suggestive of ease and comfort. All round the smoking room are arranged small alcoves each with little tables and chairs round the sides. The library is on the promenade deck, convenient to the grand staircase. The general effect suggests French Renaissance. The bookcase contains volumes suited to all classes of readers. Comfort is suggested by the two large ottomans in the centre of the room. Writing tables and chairs are arranged close to the walls. The room is finished in richly carved mahogany with Amboyna panels. The electric lamps take the form of rosettes in beaten copper. The floor is laid with oak parquetry, with a large richly coloured Turkey carpet in the centre. The tout ensemblv of the library is very elegant and comfortable. By the time we reached the upper deck, our " home on the ocean wave " for the next week had already glided the motion was almost imperceptible some distance down the Mersey ; the towers and tapering spires of Liverpool were fast fading ; the evening breeze softly skimming the glittering river gently curled the blue wavelets, as they danced an unceasing minuet, and far away over the bar the radiant waves told that the dying sun in majestic calm was again preparing his golden grave 'neath the western skies. Before the 1 last echoes of the trumpet summons to prepare for our first meal had died away, the fading daylight had deepened into darkness, but the gloom of night was chased away by the bright shining of a thousand electric lamps leaping into life and shedding around the glory of their mystic beams. There are 1,350 lights throughout the ship ; the electric current is distributed by about 50 miles of wire ; the light given is equal to 22,000 candles making the illumination at once brilliant and effective, whilst the atmosphere is kept pure, and comparative freedom from accident secured. We tripped down the grand staircase into the grand saloon to a grand dinner, whilst the " Roast Beef of Old England," with variations, not the composer's, was trumpeted from the companion way. We enjoyed the melody and the dinner, but not always ; there were times when the melody was anything but melodious, and the thought of roast beef abhorrent ; these seasons were spent in enforced seclusion, and oiir gratitude, A M ERIC A N MEMORIES. had received for what we if any, Avas not so much for what we had lost. The incense of thankfulness still rose from our hearts, and the flavour. of Chartreuse was on our lips as we took our evening walk on the promenade deck never was minster triforium or cloistered ambulatory so worn hy footfall. By this time we had got "outside"; the level river had changed to the swell of the Channel, but our legs remained obedient and under control; the night was clear and the wind freshening ; the water, ruffled by the kissing breeze, caught and reflected the rays flung from the beacon lights on the Welsh coast that guide the mariner o'er the pathless deep ; the " Queen of Xight," gleaming through the clear water, floated in majestic shadow along the silvery sea, illuminating the liquid path she traces, and burning her beams into the ocean's face ; Venus, queen of kisses, held an undisputed throne in the starry courts above, and as we gaxed on that spangled sphere, every star seemed a beauteous eye, a loving friend. Most of us are the slaves of some ruling passion. Bosco, my guide, philosopher, and friend, on this and many journeys, is an influential member of the family of trumps, and his august presence at the whist table is marked by that inflexible propriety usually reserved for princes of high degree. When my friend is in good form, his homilies to an THE CAMPANIA. PROMENADE. OUTWARD r,O[\\D. indiscreet or inept partner are entertaining, though, excepting to himself, not always convincing. These homilies contain a mixture of reproof and correction ; sometimes the advice is general, at others specific, but rarely meets with appreciation. Perhaps it is better to use words than try and conceal thought, for each man at the table is perfectly aware of the subject matter, and it is such a relief to turn strong thought into language. QUEEXSTOWX HAKBOUK. Leaving Bosco with his cards and companions in the stifling atmosphere, of the smoke room, I sought my couch, wooed sleep, and found repose. Sunday morning broke bright and clear ; the sky was blue and cloudless; the '' sundawn had already slain the withering moon;" the" sea was a vast blue meadow alive with little froth-people. AMERICAS MEMORIES. About the time that good people on land wore obeying tho rail to mass or matins, tho Campania stoamed into Queenstown hay to embark mails and passengers. Nothing can be finer than tho appearance of Cork harbour in the early morning of a bright spring day ; it has a charm of its own, ranking with two of the other most beautiful stretches of marine scenery in the world, the Bay of Naples and Sydney harbour. Lofty cliffs, superb ramparts of nature, descend to the water's edge, their base alternately laved by the gentle swell, or rudely dashed by the giant waves of the rolling Atlantic, have for countless generations waged ceaseless Avar with the ocean, and resisted its encroachments. To the right the rock bastions are crowned by extensive fortifications, and on a lower ridge stands a beneflcient lighthouse ; to the left houses, white and bright in the youthful sun, are dotted at long intervals over the gently sloping upland, amid the bright emerald of pasture land, and dark patches of pine woods ; whilst cracks in tho granite cliffs trace the lines of sunless ravines, or follow the course of some gloomy gully through the brown barriers of barren rock. The city of (!ork lies some distance from the sea ; the river Lee expands to a great width below the city, and forms a fine sheet of clear water, liquid emeralds flowing from the " Emerald Isle " a shading of bright green, mingled with patches of dark sapphire, stirred into sunny ripples by the fan of the matutinal breeze. Busy craft in full sail, or dragged along by some toiling tug, passed in and out ; bumboat women, vendors of lace and lemons, oranges and blackthorns, with raven hair and sparkling eyes, enthralled us by their fascinating manners and bewitching smiles ; seabirds unnumbered wheeled and whirled overhead, or skimmed lightly over the white crested wavelets. Besides II. M. Hoyal Mail, we embarked a large number of steerage passengers, many with uncovered heads and scantily clad limbs ; the hollow laugh and forced merriment of some were but a thin cloak wherewith to hide the sadness of the heart on " leaving for fortune their dear native laud." Before evening shadows fell, the gentle breeze had been displaced by scolding winds, the milk white froth of the encountering foam new OUTWARD BOUND. up oil the salt laden gale, warring winds joined battle with raging billows, and a tempest swept o'er all the main. A considerable period of enforced seclusion followed ; I went below, down amongst the half-dead men, near the coral caves where mermaids sing, but I listened vainly for their siren songs, nought but the howling storm broke on my ears. Bosco paid visits at rather long intervals usually to inform me, with a refined cruelty, how many courses he had tackled in his just finished meal, and to show how thoroughly inv friend is at home on the rolling deep, 1 may mention that the average number, 1 kept count, was five for breakfast, eight for lunch, and a doxen, more or less, for dinner, but, with his well-known modesty, he always added : " You see I had only a moderate meal ! ! " But even Atlantic storms cease. My first recollection of this " happy ending " was a call at 7 o'clock one morning on the ship's barber to announce I was " next for shaving," and to find that we were ploughing our way merrily over a furrowless ocean at a speed of fully 21 knots an hour. Heats in the saloon were no longer vacant ; the revolving chairs revolved at meal times with the same regularity as the screw ; deck chairs Avere drawn up in double line like battalions at drill, whilst young men and maidens, old men and children, made the most perseverin" 1 efforts to break the record over the measured mile, without the risk of breaking their necks. Passengers vary as much in character as faces ; there is the vulgar man who perpetually intrudes Avhen not wanted, until slain by a desperate " cut " ; the talkative man who never knows when he has said enough ; the funny man with : " I'll tell you a good tale," and he tells you a do/en ; the intelligent and intellectual man of whom you feel at parting you have seen too little ; and those charming ladies who you find, when alas! too late, are not all ice bound, but melt into gracious condescension, when, with- trembling lip, and faltering tongue, you enquire who is their favourite composer or author, and the last song they have sung, or novel they have read ; the thought of my natural timidity, and the resultant loss, makes me sad. The funny man on the outward voyage Avas of a most excellent 10 AMERICAN MEMORIES. spirit. Ho told us of a settlor from the Western States, who had never been in a steamship before, coming on board the Campania in New York harbour, and falling down the hatchway, and who was greatly aggrieved at not having been told that the " darned ship was hollow," and another, an Irishman, who, seated on one of the huge ten-ton anchors, refused to go ashore until he had seen " the fellow that used that pick." This brought up the pleasant Virginian, who had stood by listening. lie thought he could beat our friend Falstaff, so he told of two Yankees trying who could tell the greatest crams. The Arkansas man said the rain fell so heavily in his country that he had seen it standing solid three feet deep within ten minutes ! ! " That's nothing," said the Texan, "in our state if you knock the ends out of a barrel, and lay it on the ground bung-hole up, the rain runs through the hole so fast that it can't get out at the ends ! ! ! " We had now passed beyond the storm track ; all around in unclouded vision lay an almost even plain of liquid sapphire, stirred but to dapple its placid bosom with the glint and gleam of the sparkling sunbeams ; the sharp coulter of our sea plough was upturning the glistening water, and spinning endless foam threads white as driven snow, Avhich Avere quickly woven into fantastically designed coverlets, no two alike, such as human shuttle never lacfid or interlaced, but they left no trace behind. The fourth or fifth day out we passed within fifteen miles a number of icebergs, and a great -quantity of floating ice, miles in extent ; one of " Greenland's icy mountains," a thousand leagues away from home, an exceptionally large berg, lifted its head high in the centre of the pack. It was in the afternoon, the streaming lights were still at play; from " the deep sea's verge to the xenith high " we could easily distinguish the pinnacled ice mountains, ranged in majestic grandeur, and robed in a shroud of matchless white ; the glistening and sparkling gold and silver of the sunshine was reflected in the pure crystals of ice and snow ; the sky of clear blue, and sundown of deepest gold, whilst the frolicsome waves danced merrily around the glittering ice-belt, a combined scene, to me, novel and most impressive. In the Cunard liners the supply of food is ample, in fact the OUTWARD BOUND. menu is far too large to ensure all round good cooking and hot food. One night I tried a sandwich of " Epicurean " tongue ; it sounded dainty, it tasted like the half worn sole of a ladies' slipper ; violent indigestion ensued. You are largely indebted to your stewards for the degree of comfort you attain, our experience was favourable, one of our companions told us he had asked for an additional clean towel, hut was told " This is the Cunard line, we never lost a life, I am very sorry hut you cannot have a clean towel." Bosco is a man who in life has played many parts, on the whole, well ; he shines equally at the card table, or in the chair, fulfilling some public duty. Bosco has played many " rubbers ; " his caustic homilies addressed to an erring partner after the '' last round " are usually listened to with something like awe, but it is when IK; has " kindly consented " to preside at some function in the cause of charity that my friend rises to those higher levels that some of us envy. Little wonder then, that when " Bosco, J.P." was announced to take the chair " at a Concert in aid of the Seamen's Charities," on the evening of Thursday, April 16th, 18%, the programmes were sold in advance by the " lady suppliants " from half-a-crowu to a sovereign each. Bosco was in rare form and if possible excelled himself ; amidst a gratifying welcome signified in "the usual manner" the J.P. cleared his throat, an inevitable and considerable preliminary, and commenced " Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel great pleasure in presiding on the present occasion because I feel that the time has come and is rapidly arriving (Bosco has been in Ireland) when this pleasant and I may say (glancing sweetly at the surrounding ladies) most agreeable voyage must come to an end, but before we part, never all to meet again on land or sea (we thought this idea not quite new), we are to be favoured by some of our talented fellow voyagers with a selection of vocal and instrumental music. " Ladies and gentlemen, ' Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast ' (not. original my dear boy), it dates back to the time when Jubal struck the chorded shell and awoke from its hollow the sweet sounds that have sung on so long and so well. Apollo's lute, strung with his hair, more bright and musical than a siren's voice ; David's harp whose soul entrancing song, wafted down the ages, still awakens magic notes with 12 AMERICAN MEMORIES. sacred memories." All these were passed in rapid review ; then the developments of the harpsichord in its many stages to the perfect grand piano, to which we were about to listen, were touched upon. Boseo is great in perorations, always carefully prepared, they are eloquent and effective, if remembered. It was an easy transition for him to take us in mind from the music that appeals to the ear to the higher music of the soul ; reminding us of the financial object of the concert, he said that during the early part of that trip we had all heard the scolding winds howl and roar like thunder and seen the ambitious ocean, clothed with a raiment of white waves, swell and rage and foam, but had we thought of the noble men who all life long " go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great Avaters," whose devotion to duty in the hour of peril and danger was so well known, and had we thought of the widows and orphans of those brave fellows whose lives had been so jeopardized and lost, who had no requiem sung at their burial, save the deep mellow voice of the ocean's surfy moan, whose last resting place is found amid pale glittering pearls and rainbow coloured shells in the chambers of the vasty deep ? In urging a liberal response to his appeal on behalf of the funds of the Seamen's Charities, the chairman said he appealed with confidence, for he was quite certain that his hearers recognised that Charity was one of the primal duties of life, a duty that shone aloft like the stars, those soft lamps that hang above like burning flowers ; that the opportunities to soothe and bless mankind abounded, and in fact " they lie scattered at the feet of men like flowers," and concluded, amidst loud applause, by asking us to water plentifully the special flowers of Charity for which he had been pleading. I cannot do my friend justice by a verbatim report, memory fails ; the result of his impassioned eloquence was a collection of about 30, not bad for the small number of cabin passengers. There was of course the usual mild criticism when the concert ended. I enquired from the chairman, who had sat in the midst of the sirens, why Miss Ilighnote sang in such a falsetto voice, her screeching being quite painful. " I really can't imagine," replied Bosciis Sarcasticus, "unless it is that she has falsetto teeth!" Xaughty Bosco ! OUTWARD BOUND. 13 Tho voyage generally ends in you getting " thick " or even " confidential " with some of your fellow passengers ; one informed me that it was said that married people lived longer than single, "but," said he, " I don't believe it ; " he admitted, however, judging from his own experience that they scented to do so, for before marriage he was miserable, but since then he wished he was dead. 1 thought he had reached the " confidential " stage. The murmuring billows had languished into well-nigh silence, and the mimic waves were sinking to a restful sleep, as we anchored for the night outside Xew York habour; the air was still and overhead scarce floated a cloud to dim the " Star lit and planetary vales," whilst a thousand clustering buds of light shone from the bright floor of the azure skies. i *if i XKW YORK HARHOUH. M AMERICAN MEMORIES. CHAPTER II. NEW YORK (PART I). HE morning broke haxy ; a grey confusion hung around, making objects on the river dimly seen ; the turbid air at first veiled the land, but ere long the glorious sun burst from its misty prison, and nature's great eternal painter limned .the heavens with pencil dipped in roseate colours of the morn, chasing away the last star that feebly twinkled in the west. The smile on the ocean's face had its counterpart and was reflected in the smile on many a human cheek on the deck of the Cimipinihi that bright April morn. Few cities in the world are so grandly situated with reference to the sea and navigable rivers as Xew York, and these advantages are combined under a beautiful landscape, which cannot escape the admiration of the observant. The harbour is pleasingly irregular in its outline, is broken up by small islands, girt about Avith low hills, and surrounded by cities and villages gleaming in the sunshine, and nightly forming a galaxy of brilliants. Approaching the " Battery," the name given to a triangular park standing at the southern or seaward extremity of Manhattan Island, on which Xew York is built, the scene becomes very charming ; the lawns and trees luminous with fresh and tender foliage ; the curving sea wall where tides " green as grass," twice in the natural day, break into gentle foam borders of everlasting flow r ers. To the left stretches the broad level of the Hudson River, relieved by the background of Jersey City, and to the right the full breadth of East River, and the looming heights of Brooklyn with its graceful suspension bridge, the marvel of the world. Ear down the harbour the lower bay, a broad indentation, is bounded by the horizon of the blue Atlantic. We were told I suppose it is true -that it is possible to embark in a canoe at the " Battery " and float, save for an occasional short NEW YORK (Part I). carry, to the borders of Alaska, as the Hudson river, in connection with the Erie canal, forms a water highway as extensive as the Missisippi or the Volga. One of the most striking objects on entering New York harbour is undoubtedly Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty. This colossal figure, symbolizing Liberty enlightening the world, the largest statue of modern times, made of ham- mered plates of copper, is 101 feet in height, and stands upon a pedestal 105 feet high, and was given ten years since by Frenchmen to the American llopublic. The statue cost $200,01)0, the found- ation and pedestal $200,000 more, the latter being provided in the States. Bed- loes Island on which it stands, was select- ed by tht 1 sculptor himself as " there 2,000,000 people could plainly see the great bronze figure from their homes, and another million in country homes could see her lamp by night, whilst men and women ^of every nation would pass in ships beneath her mighty arm," an ideal, STATUE OF LIBEHTV. 16 AMERICAN MEMORIES. raethinks, more lofty than the statue, compotmded of French and American gush and sentiment. The image of gold that Nebuchadnezzar the King set up in the plain of Dura must have been a pigmy compared with this colossus. Critics differ as to its good taste and merit as a work of art; I am neither an art critic nor censor of the canons of good taste, so refrain from passing an opinion, though I think my judgment would be benevolent, only recording one or two facts. Internal staircases in the pedestal lead to the base of the statue, and thence up the statue itself, finishing in the hollow at the top of the head, where it is said forty persons may stand at once ; a row of windows in the half circle of the coronet overlook the whole harbour, New York City, the Brooklyn shore, far back among the Long Island hills, and out past the narrows to the ocean horixon. The torch, held up aloft 30 or 40 feet above the head of the figure, is lighted by a cluster of electric lamps intended as a beacon for mariners, but in reality proving a source 1 of trouble and anxiety owing to the extreme brightness and glare of the rays it emits. The ''vulgar man" had not been much in evidence amongst our set since we floated down channel. He formed, with my friend, one of the whist parties on that first evening, addressing himself indiscriminately to the company gathered in that snug alcove, but with a very familiar glance at Bosco, he informed them that he was always happy in the company of thieves and liars ; no doubt his imagination was under some stimulating influence, for next , day he declared he had a wheel in his head. Bosco usually views thieves and liars from the elevation of the " Bench," not across the card table, so for the rest of the voyage Major O'Hooligan had a wide berth ; but on the eve of parting, no less than at the joy of meeting, the Major forced himself to the front, and addressing my friend (the magistrate confided to me his intense desire to give him " six months hard ") he said the docks of New York were the finest in the world, 50 miles in extent, we had nothing like them in all England (Mr. O'Hooligan scented his native air, and his foot was about to toxich his native heath), but Bosco, drawing himself up to a patriotic elevation on a pedestal of truth, told the Irish American he was talking rubbish, and wanted none of his Yankee brag, that the London NEW YORK fParl I). and Liverpool docks were far superior to the tottering timber structures, and miserable wooden shanties he called docks, for whilst nature had done everything for them, they had done little for themselves. Gentle reader, excuse my printing the adjectives. Xothiug can exceed the discomfort on landing ; utter confusion in dealing with luggage reigns ; an entire absence of any well regulated system ; porters crawl about at snail's pace, and in each other's way, with half empty trucks made expressly for creating the greatest noise on earth, all conspiring to a waste of time and temper that might easily be avoided ; finally our solid leather portmanteaux, gratuituous travelling advertisements for many hotels, were taken in charge by one of the baggage expresses, and safely carried to the Brunswick, the hotel at which my friend had engaged rooms. If less modem and showy than some of the newer ones, it provides excellent food, a certain channel whereby to reach Bosco's heart. 1 ventured to suggest we should have been more up to date at the 1'laxa, Savoy, or Waldorf, but the ice water was warm in comparison to the T.P.'s frigid retort, that if his friend Sir Rivers Wilson was content Avith it, and Her Britannic Majesty's representative made it his home when in Xow York, as well as other of his intimates who figure in Dod or Burke, whose names I would fain forget, it was surely good enough for me, whose name was most likely to be found, if anywhere, amongst my tailor's overdues ; so we remained at the Brunswick and were satisfied. An incident occurred early during our stay at the Brunswick which reminds me that I have been negligent in not introducing Bosco to my readers. In American hotels boots are not found at morning- dawn polished ready for wearing, but you go to a special department, usually in the basement, and there they are " shined like mirrors " on your feet at any time of the day for ten cents a pair. My friend generally managed to get seated in the luxurious chair first, and usually stalked away without paying, assuring the black that his father, pointing to me, would pay for both. One morning before our connection was known I heard an amusing conversation between the two shoe blacks and one or two gentlemen waiting their turn: "I say Dick, isn't the 'Judge' like the 18 A M 'ERIC 'A .V MEMORIES. MY OLD FRIEND AND COMPANION, FREDERICK CAHVKK, "Uosro, J.1V XEW YORK (Part I). 10 Princo of Wales ? " (The J.P. perpetually carries about his magisterial dignity). " I wonder if it is him," replied Dick, " I never see'd two peas so much alike," and this opinion the customers endorsed, much to my amusement and Bosco's gratification Avhen the tale was told, and this resemblance was commented on, not twice but thrice and more during our trip. My readers will form their OAVU opinion as I introduce to them, by a photo, my friend " Bosco, J.P.," at the same time that I repudiate him as being my son. XCAV York has always been proud of its hotels ; they are almost numberless, yearly increasing in magnitude, excellence of service, and splendour of apartments. We visited several ; enjoying an excellent lunch at the Savoy, equally good dinners at the Plaza and J)elmonico's, and smiled sweetly whilst raising our glasses at many others the Fifth Avenue, the Hoffman, and Holland House, amongst the number. But perhaps the finest of all is the Waldorf, one of the newest and most fashionable, a magnificent building in the Fifth Avenue on the site of a former house of John Jacob Astor ; it is eleven stories high, built in a very ornate style of brown stone, brick and terra cotta. I remember that there our '" smiles," consisting of a split soda and a little, very little, rye whiskey, cost half-a-dollar each ; but then it is only truthful to say it Avas not the "demi-tasse smiles" we went there to see, but the living smiles from liquid eyes, set in always pleasant and sometimes beautiful faces, that made us take that Sabbath evening journey. The corridors of the Waldorf compete successfully in their display of dress and beauty with any of its many rivals. These spacious halls and corridors, Availed with rich marbles, panelled with onyx and garnished Avith porphyry, are superbly decorated ; the floors are hidden 'neath rich carpets, the choicest products of Turkish and Persian looms, on Avhich footfall finds no echo ; Luxurious couches and dainty chairs AVOO the weary and pamper the indolent ; artistic chandeliers depend from the ceiling, and beautifully designed brackets Avith flower-formed clusters of softly shaded electric lights shed brightness around. These " marble halls," furnished in the most sumptuous style known to civilization at the close of the nineteenth century, are nightly thronged by the sons and daughters of Eve, mostly those Avearing the "goodly apparel," the "gay clothing," 20 AMERICAN MEMORIES. and the " gold rings," of which St. James wrote, and without an exception having a desire to "sit in a good place;" silken robes of purest white form a relief to the many dazzling costumes in colours, vivid beyond descrip- tion ; orient pearls, from the caves of the Indian seas, nestled on bare and stately necks; golden bracelets, set with emeralds, sap- phires and opals of un- told price, and with rubies dug from out the depths of Burmese mines, encircled shapely arms ; Golconda's rich- est treasures outvied in brilliancy the morning dews, and gems "rich and rare" blazed from countless tapering fingers, shone from many a shapely ear, and gleamed and trem- bled amidst the folds of dyed and undyed silken tregses THE NETHERLAND AND SAVOY HOTELS. Hotels in the United States are conducted on two distinct systems, and a few are composite, combining both ; the " European plan," with which most Britons are familiar, is to take rooms for which rent and service is charged so much per day, the visitor being at liberty to take his meals in the salon of the hotel, in the restaurant usually attached thereto, or at any other more convenient place ; the " American plan " includes lodging and attendance and meals throughout the day, and as there is scarcely a break between these meals from daylight to midnight, proprietors \E\V YORK (Part J). 21 frequently charge travellers for two meals more than they eat those on the table at the time of arrival and departure. The traveller should in all cases make a stipulation when registering his name at the clerk's desk that the account shall commence with the first meal. This plan besides tying you to be in at all meals (often inconvenient) struck me as being productive of great waste ; the menu is far too extensive to ensure good cooking, and the food is often semi-cold. it is no unusual thing to see Americans with half-a-dozen or more dishes round them ; they may order, and sometimes do, twenty different varieties and never touch half ; some of our cousins are great eaters ; I heard of a young man, a boarder, the owner of a voracious appetite, who, when his landlord told him he should be compelled to raise his terms, exclaimed " For God's sake don't ! I can scarcely work my money out as it is." Our experience was all in favour of the European plan. Xo city in the world is better supplied with restaurants than Xew York ; they are found in every quarter of the city, and in every degree of excellence and expensiveness. Our experience was satisfactory ; it is as well that strangers should know that at all first-class, or even moderate priced restaurants, what is enough for one is usually enough for two ; if the waiter on taking an order for two persons enquires if you wish one portion or two, it is certain one is sufficient ; if he does not, you should ask. Besides restaurants, there are luncheon bars largely frequented at mid-day by business men, who content themselves with a hurried snack ; the Eotunda, attached to the Astor House hotel, is amongst the most frequented. The Britisher visiting Xew York for the first time will probably bo taken by one of his cousins to StoAvart's for one or more " smiles," and to see a fine collection of pictures, one being a really marvellous work of art representing a bam door on which is hung game, fowling pieces, horns, and other implements of the sportsman ; the bronxe key hole and iron fretwork ornaments are most realistic. A most satisfactory feature connected with American bars is the entire absence of female labour. I did not see a single barmaid, in fact not a single' woman in any bar either behind or in front of the counter. In this they certainly teach us a lesson. 22 AMERICAN MEMORIES. liosco requires no introduction in Xew York | ho is a prince amongst commercial magnates ; little wonder then, that, within a few hours, long before the " Twin seasons of the day and night " had come and gone, we had enough invitations to lunch and to dine to last for a month, besides an untold number to immediately join in a " smile " (Anglice", a drink), and ere night fell our names were inscribed as honorary members of several leading clubs, the names of which I forget. The president of one, I remember, vras Mr. Strong, Mayor of Xew York. All these we found ample and complete, in the variety and extent of their accommodation, the elegance and comfort of the appointments, the irreproachable taste of the decorations, and in the excellence of the cuisine. The unbounded hospitality of those members, whom it was our good fortune to meet, we can never forget our warmest thanks to them all. The atmosphere of a club house smoke room is usually genial, conducive to mirth and merriment, and productive of an inevitable crop of stories, some fresh, others decidedly tainted, and a goodly number of veterans, musty with age. T hope those I venture to record here are fresh, at any rate the first is " breexy." During a recent windy day in Xew York a discussion arose between some gentlemen at one of the clubs about the velocity of wind. Each related a story of his own experience. One of the party said he was (nice riding in a train through Kansas. " There was what is called out there ' a light breeze ' blowing. I had occasion to look out of the window, and the moment I put my head out off went my Jiat." "What did you do?" asked one of his friends. " Well," said he, " several people told me not to worry, that the breeze was strong enough to take it there. I wondered what they meant, but that hat was handed to me by the station agent at our next stop, about forty miles from where it blew out of the -window. "VVe came along pretty fast I guess about fifty miles an hour. But then eighty miles an hour for wind is called ' a light breeze ' in that country, and the hat went by the eighty mile route." Bosco told about seeing the laziest man he ever met whilst on a recent visit to Brighton ; enquiring from a boatman, lolling over the rails and gazing idly into the sea, the way to Ivemptown, the man without moving his body from the rail or opening his mouth, lifted his left foot and NEW YORK (Part Jj. pointed with it leftward. My friend who has an insatiable thirst for knowledge, asked where Hove lay, whereupon, again without moving his body or speaking, the right leg was kicked in the opposite direction. " Well," said the J.T., " if you can find me a la/ier fellow than yon arc; I'll give you a shilling." This unloosed his tongue, " Then put it in my pocket " was the reply. This brought up one of our friends who said he had just heard of one who, he thought, must be the meanest man on earth. The agent for a new and handsomely illustrated book, who had lately called on him, was evidently suffering from considerable excitement. "What's tli<> matter;'" asked the gentleman. " I've just met the meanest man," he answered, " I've heard of him, and I've read about him in the papers, but I never expected to meet him face to face." "Where is he?" "Up in that office building." "How do you know he's the meanest man;"' " By the way he acted. I shoAved him this work of art, lectured on it for half an hour, showed the engravings, and when I hinted that it would be a good thing to order, what do you think he said ? lie said he never bought books. He didn't have to. He just waited for some fool agent to come along and tell him all that was in Ym and turn over the leaves while he looked at the pictures." 1 must not forget to mention the "Down Town Club" at which we lunched with one of Bosco's friends. Everything there is done in A 1 style. The members are chiefly bankers, financiers, lawyers, and other professional men. I did not know until we reached the genial atmosphere of the smoke room that our host was if everyone had their rights ])uke of Lennox, but if he had not the title and property, his distinguished bearing, no less than his courteous, almost courtly, manners, stamped him at once as one of Nature's Noblemen. We thank Your Grace for a pleasant hour. Time and inclination alike prevented our visiting many places of amusement. Barnum's " Greatest Show on Karth," Ivoster and Bial's Celebrated Music Hall, and the Lyceum Theatre, exhaust the list. Barnum's Show, at the Madison Square Gardens, is still conducted on the same first-class lines with which some of us became familiar during his visit to Olympia. Equestrian displays ; acrobatic, gymnastic 24 AMERICAN arid athletic exhibitions of first-rate excellence ; exciting Human chariot racing, with two and four horses abreast, driven by ladies and gentlemen at a furious speed ; a large and well kept variety exceptionally good specimens of wild beasts ; a large herd of elephants, '24 in number ; and endless other attractions combine to make good the claim, which 1 think is indisputable, that Barnuin's is the " Greatest Show on Karth." The Music Hall is really a Palace of Varieties. The prices are fairly high, keeping it select. The night of our visit Albert Chevalier, with his inimitable coster songs, was the chief attraction. Our visit was a little " previous ; " had we known that on the following evening Mr. Edison was to be there, exhibiting for the first time his wonderful " Yitascope," we should have deferred going. The Xeic York Herald of the next day contained the following: A THRILLING SHOW. " Tlu 1 Yitascope reproduces all the colors of a picture. The house was packed; the applause was tremendous. The first picture shewn was that of two dancers. It seemed as though they were actually on the stage, so natural was the dance, with its many and graceful motions. Next came a picture of a tumbling surf on the Jersey shore. The waves were high and boisterous as they dashed after one another in their rush for the sandy beach, over which they ebbed and flowed. The white crests of the waves and the huge volume of water were true to life. Only the roar of the surf was needed to make the illusion perfect. 'A boxing bout, between a long, thin mau, and a short, stout one, was the next picture. Every move, and step, and blow of the boxers was faithfully reproduced on the screen last night. A scene from ' The Milk White Flag ' was next shewn. " ' The Monroe Doctrine ' was the title of a picture. At first John Bull was shewn bombarding a South American shore, supposed to represent Venezuela. .John was getting the better of the argument when the tall lank figure of Uncle 8am emerged from the back of the picture. He grasped John Bull by the neck, forced him to his knees, and made him take off his hat to Venezuela. This delighted the audience, and applause and cheers rang through the house, while somebody cried ' Hurrah for Edison i ' "The 'skirt dance' was the last picture shewn, and its success equalled that of the others. When the dancer disappeared from view, there was a long burst of applause, and everybody agreed that the Vitascope was wonderful." I felt sorry my friend was not present at the conclusion of the skirt dance to strengthen and lengthen that long burst of applause, although the certainty of an angry Venezuelan demonstration from him, EW YORK (Part I). 25 mingling with the ringing cheers, might not have delighted the audience. Bosco is u patriot. On our way home we called to inspect the smoke room of the 14 Imperial," and to have our last evening " smile " suffused in " Scotch and Lithia." Leaving the hotel we were soon abreast of a "gintleman" practising elocution in the open ; he was unburdening his mind freely. Addressing an imaginary audience with great vehemence he said: "You are a blackguard lot ! You've plenty of money, plenty to eat and drink, but no giutility. Oh, why did 1 ever come to this country. Me father was an Oirish gintleman, and 1 am a gintleman. Oh, for the wings of a dove to fly away ! " As we were steering a straight course, and the orator a decidedly zig-zagging one, we soon got too far ahead to see if the appeal for the "wings of a dove" was as well satisfied as his thirst for " encore " whisky evidently had been. It Avas an amusing incident as shewing an " Oirishman's " opinion of America. Our visit to the Lyceum to see the " Prisoner of Zeuda " was disappointing. Any comparison of the performance 1 with the original production at the St. James' by Mr. (jeorge Alexander would not be a happy one, and therefore need not be made. Forgetting the actors is easier than forgetting the audience, or at any rate the hats that some of them wore. Is it not most inconsiderate for tall ladies, and most ladies try and sit tall, which conies to the same thing, to Avear those high head-dresses in a theatre, compelling a perpetual dodging this Avay and that, to the right and to the left, producing so painful a straining of the neck, and general discomfort, that the \ T ictim in sheer despair, and with a groan of anguish, gives up the unequal contest Avith the fair, or unfair, obstructionists ? I remember these erections well ; the roses that bloomed on these toAvers of fashion were not ordinary modest roses, but prize roses, with an assertive, nodding, generally familiar style as became the " greatest on earth " sorts. SAveet sisters, do be more thoughtful. This reminds me of a conversation in the theatre : " There's a lot of twaddle talked about elevating the stage, isn't there, Avhat on earth do they mean by it ? " said a gentleman. " Mean by it," said his friend, " I don't knoAV, but I should think it is to get it above the level of the ladies' hats." A ME RICA N MEMORIES. I first saw revolving and folding chairs in use at this theatre ; they are a great convenience. The Washington Arch, with its noble curve 1 , of which an illustration is given, stands in Washington Square. It is admirably proportioned, and exquisitely modelled in mar- ble ; completed in 1893 at a cost of over $250,01)1). T h e 1 o c a 1 i t y of Washington Square is inter- esting from its historical associa- tions ; and from the quaint style of the residences, many still in- habited by old families, too con- servative to fol- low the behest of fashion, and move up town. ^ ell known literary men and artists are amongst the dwellers in this neighbourhood. Xea.r here we WASHIXGTOX ARCH. pass e (1 t ll e "Brevoort House," much frequented by the upper circle of foreign tourists. I think my friend Bosco remarked that his friend, H.R.1L the Prince of Wales, stayed here during his visit to the States. NEW 1'OKK (Part I). 27 Wall Street, with Trinity Church, on the other side; of Broadway, full iu view : " Where Jews and Grentiles most are wont To throng' for trade and last quotations Where, hour liy hour, the rates of gold Outrival, in the ears of people. The quarter-chimes serenely told From Trinity's undaunted steeple." has always been a choice thoroughfare; before the Revolution,, aristocratic families, leaders of society and fashion, dwelt there ; little business in- truded, although the slave market stood at the foot. Gradually the financial institutions of the city became concen- trated around, and now the name stands for an assemblage of great institutions, which not only line its quarter mile, but stretch blocks away from that short avenue, whose paving stones might be replaced by bricks of gold and not exhaust the vaults of untold wealth the street represents. Clustered round AVall Street are found : The Assay Office, a handsome style- of marble building almost a century old ; sometimes as much as a hundred millions worth of crude bullion is assayed here in one year, and close at hand is WALL STREET. the Sub-Treasury, a large Doric building of granite ; its broad flight o'f 28 AMERICAN MEMORIES. steps broken by a pedestal bearing a colossal statue of Washington taking the oath. More money is stored in this building than anywhere else in the country, except the Treasury vaults at Washington ; a well-armed guard protects the treasure, and upon the granite roof are facilities for mounting a battery of Gatliug guns, and otherwise protecting the building from assault. Trust companies occupy conspicuous and costly palaces ; bankers and financiers are found in beautiful brown stone buildings, or still grander rose granite piles. Atlantic Cables and Marine Insurance Companies are located in massive structures of grey granite. Stock brokers share with the learned profession luxurious offices in magnificent marble halls, whilst Fire and Life Insurance Associations fill stately structures ten to twenty stories high, rivalling Babel's tower. Probably in no other city in the world is to be found, in so limited an area, so many splendid temples of commerce of great artistic value, grand in the dignity and richness of their architecture, and so complete, and often magnifient, in the wealth of their interior appointments. In my simplicity, I observed that many of these companies must be of considerable age to attain such wealth and importance, to which Bosco replied he had no doubt I Avas right, as he had been told they traced their origin back to the time of Xoah's Ark, when he understood the original limited joint stock company was floated. Let us note a few of the signboards ; we were much struck with the large proportion of occupants with foreign names, of which no inconsiderable quantity bore unmistakeable traces of Hebraic origin ; this is the case, not only in the " El Dorado " of Wall Street and its vicinity, but throughout Xew York, which might with equal appropriateness be styled " Xew Jerusalem." Here many rich money lenders, " Shylocks " who exact the pound of flesh, the utmost penalty in the bond, mingle in daily commercial strife with Israelites, in whom, like Nathaniel, is found no guile. It was my good fortune to meet some of these, to Avhom honour is as dear as to the ancient Roman. The palatial home of the Equitable Life Assurance Society is a typical building ; the broad ground floor corridor runs from Broadway to Nassau Street, and forms a brilliant arcade, paved, walled, and adorned NEW FORK (Part I). 29 with vari-coloured marbles, and illuminated by electricity, along which shops and restaurants are arrayed. An extensive view of the city is obtained from the top storey ascent is easy, the building contains several speedy elevators. The City Hall Park is just across Broadway ; it is a little spot of green an oasis amid a desert of granite ; the trees mantle the space with their grateful shade in summer, and in the winter the shadows of the twigs tesselate the asphalt walks as the rays of the electric lamps strike through the leafless branches. A statue to Nathan Hale considered one of the most spirited and satis- factory in the city- stands at the south-west corner of the Park, facing Broadway, calmly surveying the unceasing turmoil of traffic as it rolls by. Near the City Hall Park is Printing House Square, an open space in the centre of which stands a statue of Benjamin Franklin, unmoved by presidential combats or municipal strife, heedless of the operations of .-,**#"'' : " [if If' BROADWAY. " bears " and ' " bulls," and deaf to the appeals of the professional interviewer. Around this limited space, within easy hail of each other, are published the Times, Tribune, Sun, Journal, and World, whilst^ within a quarter of a mile several daily and weekly papers in foreign 30 AMERICAN MEtfORIES. languages are issued. The cupola of the World, a fine lofty building, is open to visitors. Newspapers are almost as numerous as in Paris, and frequently possess as little value; I heard of one which, on the first day of publication, contained a let- ter signed " An old subscriber." I must con- fess to a great disappointment with the daily newspaper press of the United States. I found in much of it little to interest, less to instruct and edify, and much to thor- < Highly disgust ; til ere seems to be an insatiable craving for the terrible ; many issues are little better than lit- erary chambers of horrors ; ac- counts of mur- ders, robberies, and criminal incidents fill columns ; the more desperate and revolting, the greater the display of sensational head lines ; private domestic affairs, which ought to be deemed sacred, are ruthlessly dragged into light, in parallel columns, and with the same detailed description, as the minute accounts WORLD AM) TK1HUXE OFFICES. XE\V YORK (P.irl I). 31 of the most abominable crimes, the most revolting being snre of the largest type available. I brought a number of specimens home, but reflection decided me to consign thorn to tho mimes. It is, however, only fair to say that almost every educated American, to whom I named the newspapers, is heartily ashamed of a large portion of the daily press, the shameless and offensive character of which ought to ensure its exclusion from the the homes of all self-respecting citixens. TMK POST Ol'TK'K. Some, of course, are much worse than others, but, with few excep- tions, they all 'more or less food a morbid appetite with unwholesome food. And the si/o of the newspapers is remarkable ; how can so much literature be brought forth at such low prices':' I suppose only by the. groat extent of tho advertising' columns. The profit on the Sundav 32 AMERICAN M EMORIES. editions, which in many oases are at least double the size of the week-day publications, can only come from the advertisements. I was told that some of the largest issues, such as the Easter Herald, sell for less than the cost of the imprinted paper. What the advertiser wants is circulation, " the greatest circulation in the world ; " the only thing he cares about is the number of readers ; it is the publicity he buys, and so long as " the people love to have it so," will there be found journals of the baser sort, full not only of what is trivial and doxibtful, but pandering to dangerous and evil passions, in order to expand the circulation, by which means alone can many of them hope to live. Xot far off, at the parting of the ways, the motley pile of the Tost Office rears its huge bulk; Broadway stretches northward, on its west side, and to the right, Park Row leads at an angle to Chatham Square 1 . The hurrying and rushing of pedestrians and the turmoil of traffic hen 1 is almost indescribable. About 2,500 men are employed in the Xew York Post Office, in the collection of the 1)00,000,000 letters, newspapers, &c., handled at this office annually. The average receipts per year are about $6,000,000, and the expenditure $2,000,000, leaving a nett profit of $4,000,000. Close by is the Times building, grandly beautiful in architecture, and notable in construction, since the old building, which it replaced, was not taken down nor the work of its occupants interrupted, while the new walls rose around and far above them. The Tombs is the nickname of the city prison ; its Egyptian architecture suggested the significant name. A police court is held daily in the front part of the building ; sometimes as many as a hundred cases come before the magistrates in one day. One magistrate, Recorder Goff, I noticed from the reports, seemed to have the faculty of almost always giving unsatisfactory decisions. Some cases are of course serious, others uninteresting, a few humorous, as for example the following reported in one of the papers : IRISH WIT. An Irish witness was being examined as to his knowledge of a shooting affair. "Did you see the shot fired?" the magistrate asked. "No, sorr. I only heard it," was the evasive reply. "That evidence is not satisfactory," replied the magistrate sternly " stand down ! " The witness turned round to leave the box, and directly his back was turned he laughed derisively. The XEW FORK (Part I). magistrate, indignant at this contempt of court, called him back, and asked him how he dared to laugh in court. "Did ye see me laugh, your honour?" queried the offender. " Xo, sir, but I heard you," was the irate reply. ' That evidence is not satisfactory," said Pat quietly, but with a twinkle in his eye. And this time everybody laughed except the magistrate. Bosco's unremitting response to the tnunpet call of duty left me leisure to peregrinate some of the more notable and interesting parts of the city. Madison Square, at one angle of which our hostel, the Brunswick, is situated, is in the centre of the hotel district. Here Broadway slants across Fifth Avenue, making an open paved plaza; one of the most animated points of New York, especially is it- crowded in the afternoon, when the shopping and pleasure seeking people from up town meet the busi- ness population from down town at these cross roads. In the centre of the square is a small park about six acres in extent. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. 34 AMERICAN MEMORIES. Its trees have grown until their thick foliage makes a welcome shade in summer for nnrses and children and idlers of every class who seek its shelter from the burning rays of the scorching sun. A noble fountain occupies the middle of the square ; at one corner is^. a sitting statue of William II. Seward, a once famous Secretary of State, calmly watching the ebb and flow of the river of life ; at another corner of the park is Gauden's statue of Farragut, a popular naval hero, considered the most artistic piece of sculpture in the city. Continuing, the pedestrian crosses in front of the famous Fifth Avenue Hotel. Half a century ago it was the site of a diminutive yellow tavern, and once a farmer's cottage ; 60 years since it was the objective point for what was then a long walk into the fields ; now there stands a dignified edifice of white marble, capable of housing 1000 guests. Its spacious corridors are filled in the evening with politicians, chiefly of the Republican party, and it is a favourite stopping place for officials and public men. Proceeding, we enter that portion of Fifth Avenue given up to trade. Picture and book stores arrest our attention, and especially Scribner's, a name well known in England to all readers of American literature. In the treasury of this literary store are to be found original editions of priceless value ; the price of the wisdom thereof is above rubies. Then the windows of several shops devoted to potteries, bric-a-brac and Japanese goods attract our eyes ; here is the stately and well appointed store of Messrs. Arnold Constable & Co. with its vast wealth of textile and other treasures, which, on the invitation of one of the principal partners, we had the pleasure of inspecting ; many pianoforte dealers and organ builders find a home in this locality. Entering Union Square we find a broad paved space, called the Plaza, bordering the northern, the quietest, side ; at times illuminated at night by picturesque rows of lamps along the curbing. Here military parades and outdoor meetings, especially those called by labour agitators, often occur, and in summer a flower market is held every morning from 5 to 8 o'clock. Overlooking this plaza are the windows of the Century and St. Nicholas editorial rooms. South of Union Square runs the busy line of 14th Street, where several fine shops are conspicuous, in front of which stands a grand NEW YORK (Part I). 3o equestrian statue of George, Washington. Against this end of the square breaks the whole traffic current of Broadway, to swerve to the west of it, and sweep in an augmented well-nigh resistless tide along its further side, where 14th Street adds largely to the living stream. Here, where the crowd is densest, is placed Browne's bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, seated in the chair of state, with the emancipation proclamation in his hand erected by popular subscription soon after his assassination. In Union Square is Tiffany's, the world- famed storehouse for jewels, silver-work, and articles of vertu ; I was sorely tempted, and have seldom felt more the inconvenience of being poor. At this point we enter upon what is known as the " ladies' half mile," within Avhose limits are found the great Oriental bazaar of Yantine & Co., and Sloane's carpet warehouse which interested me greatly. I formed the opinion that American made carpets are superior in design and beauty of colouring to ours, whatever they may be in quality. In the Gotham Silver Company's windows were exhibited many beautiful works of art, notably a number of exquisitely designed cups, the victors' trophies in many a yachting and other contest. Art furniture and upholstery are displayed in the immense establishments of Hertz Brothers and Lord & Taylor; and groceries, made up in their most attractive form, make a brave show in the big store of Park & Tilford ; and last, but far from least, show rooms for fashionable costumes and marvellous millinery abound. At night the " ladies' half mile " is fairly ablaze with gas and electricity massed in parterres of light at the square, and stretching away into a sparkling perspective, making 14th Street as light as the day. The shop windows are brilliant with jewels, fruit, flowers, cut glass, paintings, potteries, and gay merchandise of every sort, into which knots of people gaze, and then give place to others as they on to the next, whilst hundreds, nay, thousands of gleaming lamps throw their bright rays on a dense throng of lively people. The up town portion of Fifth Avenue is the Belgravia of the American metropolis, the centre of its fashion and splendour, the home of its merchant princes. I saw New York's grandest Avenue from the modest elevation of the roof of one of the " stages." This magnificent thoroughfare is lined with costly domiciles, the homes of unknown wealth -36 AMERICAN MEMORIES. and splendour, possessing marked beauty of architectural design, gorgeous club houses, churches noted for their beauty, comfort, and the rich variety of their rare architecture. The peculiar shape and conditions of Manhattan Island ; the desire of the people in or near " society " to dwell close together ; the fact that the majority of XCAV Yorkers are men of business and must live near it ; and the extreme costliness of desirable land, have combined to make New York a compact city, several stories high, rather than a wide spreading accumulation of single houses as are Cleveland and Philadelphia. In those parts of the city where the poor congregate, because they can go nowhere else, blocks of " tenement " hoiises, as high as the law will permit, cover many square miles of the siirface. At the other extreme, men, whose large incomes enable them to choose which way they will live, elect to do the same thing, only they make their tenement houses convenient and luxurious, and call them " apartments." It is not so much a matter of taste as it is one of room, and, to some degree, the saving of expense, though this is not considerable, since in the most expensive apartment houses as high as $600 a month may be paid for a single suite, while from $200 to $300 a month is common. The terms " apartment house " and " flat " must, however, be distinguished. The former means a suite of rooms without a kitchen or any means of regular cooking, the occupants taking their meals in restaurants, hotels, or elsewhere. In a flat a kitchen and every convenience for housekeeping are included. In a flat your whole home is on one level which is a decided advantage and the noises made by your neighbours reach you from above and below, instead of through the partition walls, which may or may not be an advantage, according as you look at it. Some of these apartments are vast and magnificent ; grand stone portals, massive oaken doors, stately vestibules, panelled with rare marbles, foretell of the luxury within. These buildings are usually fireproof, and generally include a reception room, or at any rate a little office at the entrance, and a manservant to announce visitors, and attend to the door ; elevators are provided, and each suite of rooms has a hallway of its own, opening upon the stairway and elevator, so that quite as much NEW YORK (Part I). 37 privacy is maintained as in a separate house. Our letters of introduction gave us the entree to homes located in these "apartments" or "flats," and we found the system universally praised. An invitation to dinner in Brooklyn gave us our only opportunity of viewing and crossing the East Eiver Bridge. This marvellous highway connects New York and Brooklyn, and is one of the very finest engineering achievements in the world. The walk across is delightful, seats are scattered along the broad promenade, on which one may rest BROOKLYN BRIDGE. whilst enjoying the view ; a double track cable railroad carries the largest number of persons who cross the bridge, computed at not less than 100,0(10 daily ; there is also a drive for vehicles going to Brooklyn on the south ' side, and a corresponding one on the north for those coming into Xew York. The lower part of the towers is solid, then they are hollow up to the base of the great arches, 11!) feet high; the arches rise 117 feet higher, and the capstones are 271 feet above the w r ater. 38 AMERICAN MEMORIES. The massive masonry anchorages, 127 feet high, and 119 feet wide, containing the arrangement of iron bars to which the ends of the cables are fastened, are 930 feet behind each tower. It is the weight and holding power of these anchorages that sustain the bridge, the towers really doing little more service than to elevate it at a sufficient height. The cables are not twisted like ropes, but consist of 5,434 separate galvanized steel wires, (12 feet to the pound) which were drawn over, two at a time, and laid side by side as true to the proper curve of the intended cable as possible. Then, by a careful and ingenious method, these wires were forced into a close and even round bundle, and closely ti wound with other \vire like the thread on a spool. Each finished cable is 3,578 feet long, 15f inches in diameter, and able to bear 12,200 tons in the middle of the sag. The approaches to the bridge are massive arches of masonry, with here and there steel truss-bridges spanning the streets. The total length is lj miles ; the length between the towers 1,595 feet ; the width 85 feet ; the height above the water, in the centre, 135 feet. It took thirteen years to complete, and 1 have seen statements of the cost varying from $16,000,000 to $20,000,000. We may forget the sight of Brooklyn Bridge by night, with its noble span set with a flashing line of electric brilliants, studded here and there \vith emeralds of safety or bright rubies of warning. AVe may forget the harbour with its moving and many coloured lanterns of the ferry boats and shipping ; the thousands of street lamps glistening, and the tall buildings illuminated from basement to attic, but we cannot forget our charming hostess, nor will the recollection of one of our pleasantest evenings in the State's fade away while memory lasts. NEW YORK (Part II). 39 CHAPTER III. NEW YORK (PART II). HE long narrow shape of Manhattan Island, on which New York stands, with its crowded and vapidly increasing population, and the constant enlargement of the purely commercial area, compels the great mass of travel to be back and forth over the same thoroughfares ; all day long the public conveyances are crowded, and in the morning and at night they are frightfully overcrowded. The two principal methods of transit are the elevated railways and the surface cars. The system of elevated railways, which carry trains of cars drawn by steam locomotives, consists of four main double-track lines, and a few short branches ; these trains run at intervals of one or two minutes, or even less during the busiest hours of morning and evening. Care should be taken to note the sign at the foot of the station stairs which informs passengers whether the station is for up or down trains ; but if they forget, and find themselves on the wrong side, they will be passed in free, at the opposite station if they explain the case to the gate man where the mistake is made. The fare on all these elevated railroads, and for all distances, is five cents. A ticket must be bought at the booking office, and thrown into the gate man's glass " chopper " box at the entrance to the platform, this saves all examination and collection of tickets. My experience was exclusively confined to a part of the track running along the Sixth Avenue, chiefly from Franklin to about 116th Street. This is indeed a lively thoroughfare ; up above, the trains pass and re-pass at short intervals ; engines snort and scream, and bells clang incessantly ; immediately below is a double tram line for the cable cars, which follow each other with amazing rapidity, whilst between the outer pillars of the elevated road and the densely crowded side walks, there is a roadway for carriages and other vehicles drawn by horses. The roar of London is as the murmur of a shell compared with the thunder of 40 A M ERIC A A r MEMORIES. New York, and Cheapside and the Strand are quiet lanes in contrast to Broadway and other main thoroughfares. New York surely must be the noisiest city in the world. The line, as it turns through Murray Street, makes, it is said, the sharpest railway curve in the world. At 14th Street you alight for Macy's famous bazaar, where you are sure to get good value, if not bargains, for your money. Ladies crowd the platform here, and also at the 18th Street station, a little further on, which is near the busiest shopping districts of Sixth Avenue and Broadway ; Union ELEVATED RAILWAY. Square is close at hand. Proceeding, we pass the new, beautiful, and unique building of the Herald newspaper, said to be the best appointed of its kind in the country. Its press room is visible to the public, and every evening the great Hoe machines may be seen at work by anyone, who chooses to look through the windows. As the Harlem trains turn westward, several magnificent hotels and apartment houses are passed at a short distance, and on the right NEW YORK (Part II). 41 glimpses are got of the Central Park. From 93rd to 104th Street the stations arc surrounded by costly and elegant houses built within the past few years. The track at this point is considerably above the pavement, and at 110th Street it turns eastward up Eighth Avenue upon an iron trestle bridge, said to have amazed Count de Lesseps as an example of audacious engineering. The ground is low here and the track is earned across it on a level with the fifth .story windows of the houses. The surface cars, which consist of horse cars and cable cars, are an old institution in New York, doing quite as large a business as they did before the overhead rails were built ; the fare everywhere is o cents. In a report recently issued by the Xew York Metropolitan Company it is stated that the Company possesses 104 miles of track. When the system was worked by horses the cost was seventy per cent, of the gross receipts. The substitution of the electric cable has reduced it to fifty - four per cent., while under the favourable levels of Broadway the cost has been rediiced to thirty-eight per cent. These street ears, passing in close and endless procession, furnish a tine field for the study of human nature'. The conductor is a man of many sorrows ; from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, and not infrequently for hours later, he knows trouble, and some- times a good deal of it. He is sworn at by men, nagged at by women, and watched by unknown " spotters " of the Company. The fares must all be collected. When travel is light, or the car is comfortably full, to pass from one end to the other and collect from each passenger the customary nickel is a comparatively pleasant undertaking, and the conductor then performs his duty with an easy off-hand grace that excites the envy of men less fortunately situated in life. But when 110 human beings squeeze and are squeezed into a receptacle originally intended for eighty, the conductor's job is no sinecure, for, besides collecting diligently iu order that no one may defraud the Company of its hard earned cash, he must shove through the crowd with cautious vigilance lest he step on some man's pet corn or spoil some woman's best hat ; he must watch to see who gets on and who wants to get off ; he must keep an accurate tab on his register ; he must look out for the streets - at which he has been told to stop, and he must, on suspicion of being 42 AMERICAN MEMORIES. considered and sometimes called a robber, give every one the correct change. It is a peculiarity of people who travel on street cars that they are always wanting to get off, and the unlucky conductor, while gathering the Company's harvest at the front end, is not infrequently dismayed by the spectacle of three or four passengers tumbling off the rear platform, having gone as far as they desired and then jumped off without the formality of reporting their presence or cash to the conductor. Of all his passengers, he has most trouble with women and children. Men seem to appreciate something of the value of time and hop on and off with as much expedition as possible. But the ladies rarely appear to have the slightest idea of the fact that the car must arrive at its destination some time in the course of the day, and after it has stopped for their benefit will exchange kisses and good-byes with half-a-dozen of their acquaintances, while the miserable conductor with his hand on the bell rope, and mindful of the overhauling he will have at the office if behind time, waits for them to get through. If he ventures modestly to insinuate that time is fleeting he is scowled upon by the angry feminiues, who indignantly, and with wrath depicted on their countenances, tell each other what brutes the conductors all are on this line, and how this particular conductor ought to be reported for his insolence. There is one class of men who give the conductor almost as much trouble as his women passengers, and those are the men who cherish the idea that they own the road. They are known afar off, to both conductor and mo^orman, by their haughty manner of signalling the car to stop. They enter with an air of authority and look about to see how best they can demonstrate their ownership of the entire property. If the windows are all closed, one of these terrors makes the remark that the conductor never knows how to A'entilate a car properly ; if they are all open, he closes the one by which he is seated, meantime observing that if the conductor had any sense he would know that window* ought not to be left open on such a day as this. Generally, however, he does not enter the car at all, but stands on the back platform, and tells the conductor and other interested persons how the road ought to be run, and how he would run it, if he had it. The fact that he knows nothing about the subject NEW YORK (Part II). 43 on which he dilates cuts no figure at all (it seldom does with men who can tell how to manage other business than their own), but the flow of his eloquence is not in the least dammed by his ignorance, but continues uninterrupted from the time he gets on until the time when he gets off. The entire system of trams carries over six hundred thousand passengers a day. Intolerable overcrowding is the rule rather than the exception. Passengers are compelled to squeeze into cars and hang by straps and be jammed together on front and rear platforms, or else make their journey afoot. Men and women are jostled and thrown by sudden stops and starts of the car, at the imminent risk of accident or injury to health, while life itself is endangered by such rapid curve swinging through a crowded thoroughfare as is seen at Union Square. I was much struck by the contrast of treatment and frequent want of courtesy shewn to ladies in these cars and in an elevator. For example : all men, unless ill-mannered, remove their hats in the presence of the dear creatures in an elevator ; in a crowded tram car, it is quite a common thing to see numbers of women, young, middle-aged and old (some very unable to stand), grasping a strap and swaying backwards and forwards with every motion of the car, for the greater part of the journey ; and it is the exception for a male passenger to offer his seat. I thought this an anomaly. " Circe," said the lecturer, as you no doubt remember, " turned men into hogs." " I wonder if she did it by starting a street car line ? " mused the woman who had hung to a strap all the way to the hall. c^ The number of deaths resulting from accidents in connection with surface cars is woful ; I was told at a low computation two per day. I have before me a copy of the Herald of April 23rd, from which I make the following abbreviated extracts : 44 AMERICAN MEMORIES. COLLISION ON THE " S " CURVE. C'able Car Crashes Into a Horse Car on the Deadly Union Square Tracks. PASSENGERS SHAKEN UP, Gripmaii Says the Lookout Signalled to Go Ahead Which the Latter Denies DRIVER IX A HOSPITAL. A smashup occurred on the " >S " curve of the Broadway cable line at Uiiioii square last evening. The cable car knocked 11 cross town line car over. Passengers on the (table car were badly mixed up. The driver was hurt about the spine. Cable car No. 851 was going' up town at ten minutes to seven o'clock. It was tilled with passengers, some of whom were hang- ing on to the straps. The rear platform was also crowded. The gripman of the car was Thomas A. ( 'ook. Cook let his car shoot ahead when he re- ceived the signal from the " lookout." It went spinning around the first curve of the " S." As it rounded going west he noticed a crosstowii car going east across the tracks. It was too late to avoid a collision. Before the gripmau could release the grip and throw on the brake the cable car crashed into the forward end of the horse car. The driver of the car, James Kennedy, was hurled several feet to the west side of tin- track and struck on his back. The horse car was turned over on its side. The released horses dashed up Broadway. George Lam- phier, tin- conductor of the horse car, jumped before the collision came. The dashboard of the cable car bent up like so much paper, pinning Cook against the front of the car. The men and women passengers were hurled against one another with great force. The windows of both cars were shattered. The women on the cable car screamed and a couple of them became hysterical. The cable line was blocked for half an hour. TROLLEY CARS KILL TWO MORE. Names of Peter Fallon and Joseph Dorsey Added to Brooklyn's Long List. DRAGGED FOR HALF A BLOCK, Young Dorsey, Playing in the Street, Jumped Before a Fast Moying Cur. FALLOX WAS A SWITCHMAN. Two more names were added yesterday to the list of victims killed by the Brooklyn trolley. Joseph Dorsey, twelve years old, was horribly mangled in Hamilton avenue by a car of the Prospect Park and Coney Island road, and Peter Fallon, a switchman employed by the Queen's County and Sub- urban road, was crushed to deatli at his post by a Fulton street car. Young Dorsey is the 143d victim of the trolley. The car was moving at a rapid rate, and the motorman did not have time to even check its speed before it crushed the boy. The little victim rolled under the car and was dragged for nearly half a block before the car was stopped. The boy's body was crushed by a forward wheel. Peter Fallou, a switchman in the employ of the Brooklyn, Queens County and Subur- ban liailroad Company, while at work at Fulton street and Shepherd avenue, at one o'clock yesterday morning, was struck by a car of the Fulton street line and received injuries that resulted in his death a few hours later in St. John's Hospital. Agnes Ray, six years old, of No. 537 Baltic street, was run into by car No. 3,223 of the Third avenue line, at Third avenue and Baltic street, at about six o'clock last evening. She fell under the car fender. She suffered no more injury than severe bruises, however, and was takeii home. NEW FORK (Pail II). These are simply specimens, and remembering that these accidents are of almost daily occurcnce, one can understand the uncertainty underlying the query : " You have friends in Brooklyn, have'nt you ? " and the doubt involved in the answer : " I don't knoAV, the trolley is still in working order, you know." These surface cars and trolleys are indeed sadly too often veritable " Cars of Juggernaut." Our only Sunday in Xew York found us twice attending the " means of grace." St. Thomas', probably the most fashionable up-town Episcopal Church, in the Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, attracted us to Matins. The building is stately, well proportioned, and well built, and, architecturally, contains, to me, novel features ; a broad nave separated from the side aisles by the usual arcades is continued by an irregular sided octagon, terminating in a deep apse forming the sanctuary ; the altar, considerably elevated, and adorned with the largest bouquets of flowers I ever saw fully three feet diameter can be seen from any point ; the reredos is a special feature ; a bold Latin cross, in strong relief, 10 to 12 feet high, carved out of solid stone, occupies the centre ; angels cluster round the shaft and hover around the cross bar ; paintings by La Fargo fill the surrounding panels these appeared to be, and I believe are, very beautiful. Many, if not all, of the windows are enriched with excellent modern stained glass. A broad, lofty, and imposing flight of steps leads up to the sacrarium ; a twin organ of large size, admirable alike in the quality and variety of its tones, is placed at the north-east and south-east sides of the octagon ; in the angles in front are the singers, but surrounding curtains prevent anything more than their heads being seen ; the music we thought beautiful, solemn and impressive ; the hymn, a kind of paraphrase on the 23rd Psalm, written by Addison, if I remember rightly, beginning " The Lord my pasture shall prepare," a great favourite in my boyhood, but strangely omitted from most modern collections, was appropriately sung, it being the 2nd Sunday after Easter, or " Good Shepherd Sunday. " Other musical features of the service were the repetition on the organ alone of the final " Alleluia " in " Sitfg Alleluia," after the vocal chords had ceased, and also a short organ 46 AMERICAN MEMORIES. interlude before the singing of the last verso in each of the hymns a very general practice in my youth. The sermon, from the Rector, Dr. Morgan, was an excellent one, being based upon the introductory words of the Epistle for the day : " Jesus said, 1 am the Good Shepherd." The preacher made an eloquent and persuasive appeal for $2,500, to be used for sending poor children from the unwholesome atmosphere of the slums to the fresh breezes blowing on the Xew Jersey coast, there to gather rainbow coloured shells that gleam in the sunshine, whilst they cool their tired young feet amid the gentle ripple of mimic waves, listening awhile to the faint murmur of the water that comes 'twixt ebb and flow, whilst all is tranquil, as on Elysian shores, or repeating the still unanswered question of dear little Paul "What are the wild waves saying?" as they hearken to the wild, profound, eternal bass of Nature's Anthem as it is borne shoreward by the fierce, foaming, bursting tide. 1 was much impressed with the advantage of paper money during the offertory a dollar is the least that can be given or you are at once spotted ; few people think of giving silver. I should say from my, of course limited, observation, that American congregations do not offer to the Lord of that which has cost them nothing, but they give willingly and of their best ; they plank down their notes fairly and squarely, and never seek to hide by sleight of hand the poverty of the gift. A considerable and interesting newspaper correspondence in connection with this church was going on whilst we wore in the States, from which I gathered that Dr. Morgan, pressed by the extra duties of Lent, had not time to prepare a sermon for Easter-day, and preached one composed by a Rev. Mr. Lee. This irate divine, instead of feeling honoured that Dr. Morgan used his earthen vessel wherein to carry eternal treasure to his flock, proceeded to publicly expose the plagiarism of his " dear brother." But he had not long to wait for punishment, which in this case seemed exactly to fit the crime. He was soon accused of precisely the same sin, a Rev. Mr. Phelps in turn charging Mr. Lee with having stolen the first stanza of the Class Ode of Yale Class of '75 from a poem of his father's, and comparison justified the charge. It seems amazing that a man whose hands were not clean should make an accusation of this kind NEW YORK (Part IT). -47 against a brother clergyman. [f I remember right Scripture recommends that when one Christian brother detects another in a fault, he shall go to him privately ; no suggestion of writing to newspapers. Amongst the many contending letters I saw, I quote from one, because with this extract I entirely concur : IN DEFENCE OF DE. MORGAN. CRITICISM or THE COURSE TAKEN BY THE REV. MR. LEE. To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD : The controversy over the propriety of the Rev. Dr. Morgan preaching a sermon composed by another prompts the following suggestion : The sermon was written by a servant of the Lord as a message containing God's Word to sinners for their eternal welfare. The ideas are not the property of any man. Dr. Morgan, in the discharge of his sacred duties, preached to his flock, clothing his ideas in words formerly used by another for similar purposes. Why should a In-other, or any well disposed person, object to the use of that sermon without acknowledging the author ? It was written and sold for just such use as Dr. Morgan made of it, and in preaching and publishing it at Easter time he spoke the Word of God to the Christian world. A good act. Why blame him for that ? A brother minister should exercise Christian charity. His office requires him to preach to all men. The complaint against Dr. Morgan manifests the eiivy and weakness of human nature, even in men ordained to admonish by precept and example. What good can result from the Rev. Mr. Loe's course ? None. What harm ''. Great scandal, by holding a minister of the gospel up to public ridicule. Such complaints injure the faith of many. Can any man undo the wrong and injury occasioned by such scandal in a long lifetime of laborious effort? These opinions, I should judge, are the expressions of a layman, but whether lay or cleric, they appear to me the opinions of a thoughtful and sensible man. Several other fashionable places of worship are in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Thomas', so that a grand church parade after service constitutes an inevitable, and, to some portion of the congregations, the more attractive function. There is no doubt that here is to be seen the best that the wealth and beauty of Xew York can shew the costumes and dress of the ladies (some divinely tall, almost all good figures, with that piquant charm of manner and varied fascination inseparable from the educated American woman) which, whilst they baffle any description 48 AMERICAN MEMORIES. I c-an give, still leave me conscious that " Sheba's Queen" and ''Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The Dutch Reformed Church possesses the oldest Protestant religious organization not only in Xew York but in the Western Hemisphere. Its finest building, architecturally, is the Marble Collegiate Church, which, during our stay in Xew York, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the granting of its charter ; it exhibits a wealth of study in its constructive and interior decorations. This church is rich iu rare old relics, the most important being the charter, which is carefully guarded. It is the first charter granted to any church in this city. On the sheets of yellow parchment are signatures of prominent men of olden times, and the seal of King William III. On one side of the seal is the coat of arms of the English King, and the other shows two Indians kneeling at the feet of William and Mary. The church is possessed of very wealthy endowments. Being conveniently near our hotel, and the service not beginning until eight o'clock, Bosco suggested an early dinner, and having considerately sacrificed his usual cigar and glass of " fine old crusted," we found ourselves at the Marble Collegiate in good time. We were met at the entrance by one of the junior ministers, who, after enquiring our names and addresses, made us at once feel we were not strangers, if pilgrims, but welcome and at home, by courteously conducting us to seats. Without encouraging anything like conversation inside our churches, could not something more be done to let strangers feel that they are welcome to our services ? I know there are dangers ; nothing can be more reprehensible than the conversion of God's House into a place for mother's meetings. The preacher was the principal minister, Dr. Burrell ; the address, more a lecture than a sermon, was interesting, subject: "A Singing Pilgrim, Charles Wesley, the Singer of Epworth." Ho placed "Wrestling Jacob," " The hammer of His word," and " Jesu lover of my soul," as the highest levels of his hymnody, placing the crown immortal on the last with this I think most people will agree. The arrangements for conducting service were unlike in every particular those to which an Anglican Churchman is accustomed. Com- NEW FORK (Part II J. 49 fortablo seats too luxurious, perhaps are ranged on a floor sloping downwards until it ends at a raised platform, on which, each behind a desk, three ministers stand or sit ; behind them is the organist, who from a console plays by electric action the magnificent organ standing in the opposite or end gallery. lie is supported by a single quartette of vocalists, two ladies and two gentlemen, all thoroughly efficient ; the contralto charmed me no less with her splendid voice than with her dignified beauty but it must not be supposed that the singing was professional, it was congregational and hearty. During the offertory the following hymn was sung by the choir as an anthem ; I know of no collection in which it can be found ; its inherent beauty, I think, justifies its printing here : "THE MET,I,OW EVE." The mellow eve is gliding Serenely down the West ; So, every care subsiding, My soul would sink to rest. Tho woodland hum is ringing: The daylight's gentle close ; May angels 'round me singing Thus hymn my last repose. The evening star has lighted Her crystal lamp on high : So, when in death benighted. May hope illume the sky. In golden splendour dawning The morrow's light shall break, O, on that last bright morning May I in glory wnke ! Holden. After service the junior minister brought Dr. Burrell to speak to us. We retain pleasant memories of a profitable evening. The Church of the Holy Trinity, on the Broadway, rebuilt about 60 years ago, is regarded as the Mother Church of New York ; it stands at the head of Wall Street, which, Avith its immediate surroundings, is the home of the great commercial wealth of the city. Within its walls millionaires have been taught that " A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches," and thousands have heard that "Righteousness exalteth a nation." The church is large and imposing ; the present rector, Dr. Morgan Dix, is able and popular, and the services, I heard,. are bright and reverent. 50 AMERICAN MEMORIES. The land on which Trinity Church stands, was the old West India Company's Farm, before the conquest of Manhattan Island by the English ; it then became the " King's Farm," and in 1705 was granted to this, the Colonial Church. Much of it was subsequently given away to institutions of various sorts, but enough remains to produce an income of $500,000 annually ; this income is spent in maintaining " Trinity " and six " Chapels of Ease," besides aiding many subsidiary missions and charities in various squalid parts of the city. Trinity churchyard is not only beautiful, but it is fiill of historic interest ; many of the graves go back to the 17th century. Of the monuments the most conspicuous is the Martyrs', erected by the Trinity Corporation in memory of the American patriots who died during the Eevolutionary war. Another prominent monument is to the memory of Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake, whose dying cry, " Don't give up the ship," is carved upon its pictured sides. Grace Church is one of the most beautiful in the city ; it stands on Broadway, just where the great thoroughfare bends slightly westward ; it can be seen for a considerable distance in both directions. Built of white limestone, it has all the effect of marble : the spire is of pure marble. The style is decorated Gothic, very elaborately carried out ; the rectory and adjoining buildings are harmoniously adapted to it, whilst a pretty space of lawn and gardens, beautifully kept, makes a pleasing foreground to one of the most gratifying architectural pictures in New York. The spire is particiilarly graceful, and contains a melodious chime of bells. The internal decorations and the windows are very rich. A chantry on the south side is used for daily service. Grace Church shares with St. Thomas' the most fashionable weddings in the city. But there is no church in New York at all comparable to the Eoman Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick, a glorious modern example of the decorated and geometric style of Gothic architecture which prevailed in Europe in -.the 13th and 14th centuries, and of which the cathedral of Cologne and the nave of Westminster are advanced exponents. Europe can boast of larger ones, but for purity of style, originality of design, harmony of proportions, beauty of material, and finish of workmanship, New York Cathedral stands unsurpassed. The plan is a Latin cross ; NEW YORK (Part II). 51 above the granite basecourse the whole exterior is of white marble. The principal front consists of a central gable, 156 feet in height, flanked by twin towers and spires. The towers rise square to 136 feet, where they change into oc- tagonal lanterns 54 feet high, over which are the spires, 140 feet in height, making the total height of each tower and spire 330 feet, termi- nating in a mag- nificent foliage finial carrying crosses made of copper. The grand portal in the lower division of the central gable has its jambs richly de- corated with col- umns with foliage capitals, and has clustered mould- ings with rich ornaments in the arch. The door is flanked on either side by buttresses terminating in panelled pinnacles. Above, a richly moulded Gothic jamb incloses a magnificent rose window, 26 feet in diameter, equalling those of the greatest cathedrals abroad. The main gable is carried ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL. 52 AMERICAN MEMORIES. up to the roof lines, and is veiled by a pierced screen of rich tracery, terminated by a cornice which is crocketed. The interior is cruciform. The columns dividing the central aisle from the side aisles are of white marble, clustered to the height of 35 feet, where they are ornamented with foliated capitals. The arches between these columns rise to 54 feet. The ceiling, 77 feet from the floor, is groined with richly moulded ribs. The floor is largely occupied by pews which will seat about 2,500 people, but broad aisles and spaces remain clear in which visitors may walk about freely. The high altar was made in Italy and is of Carrara marble, inlaid with alabasters and precious marbles. The front of the bottom part is divided into niches and panels ; the niches containing statues of the four Evangelists, the panels representing in bas-reliefs the Last Supper, the Carrying of the Cross, and the Agony in the Garden. The tabernacle is of marble, decorated with Roman mosaics and has a door of gilt bronze set with emeralds and garnets. The centre tower of the reredos has a niche containing a statue of our Lord, and the two flanking towers bear statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. Besides the high altar there is the altar of the Blessed Virgin, of French stone, standing at the eastern end of the north side-aisle of the sanctuary. The altar of the Sacred Heart, of bronze, presented by the late Cardinal Mc'Closkey, who is buried in the Cathedral, is in the south transept, and the altar of the Holy Family, of richly carved Caen stone, is in the north transept. There are also some smaller altars ; the four named are the principal ones, and cost over $100,000. The Archbishop's throne is notable for its elaborately carved Gothic canopy. The pulpit is of the same style of Gothic architecture (Norman) as the building itself. It is octagonal in form, and carried by eight columns of beautiful Sienna marble, with their bases and caps moulded and enriched with carvings, and resting on a finely moulded pedestal of Carrara marble, each side representing the perfect Gothic arch, sustained by columns of Mexican onyx, and moulded, panelled, and highly ornamented. The marble in which this work is executed is from the quarry, from which were extracted the marble columns of the portico of the Pantheon at Eome. NEW FORK (Part II j. 53 The windows of St. Patrick's Cathedral are claimed to be the finest collection of examples of painted glass in the world. All are the product of French art workers, and most of them were made under the very shadow of the Cathedral of Chart-res, where the most beautiful specimens of the 13th century stained glass are preserved. Of the many parks in New York, the famous Central Park is the only one we had time to visit. Sunday's lunch at the " Savoy," close to the principal gates, furnished a convenient time and suitable place from which to commence a drive ; this was accomplished in one of the public carriages. These phaetons are roomy and easy going, but on tine Sunday afternoons are laden to their fullest capacity, and you have to be quick witted to secure a seat. There were four of us ; Bosco, in his eagerness, thrust me headlong into the front seat, but before he, or our companions, could follow, a torrent of girlhood had swept them aside, and on the seven remaining seats were fixed seven American girls whose faces bore no trace of that repose that stamps the caste of " Yere de Vere." Six were of one party, the seventh, the one next me, was an " odd one," so Bosco said when he reproved me for not speaking to her ; poor child, I remember she never opened her mouth all through the drive I fear I am icy and froze her. But the incessant chatter of the half dozen was appalling, it was not talking, it was positively barking, and though they had secured seats, they would not sit, at any rate, still, but kept on a perpetual wriggle, beating time with feet and hands, if they were not restlessly engaged in arranging some portion of the dress, or frantically feeling if the back hair was still on. It has been suggested that this nervousness and lack of repose in some, not all, American girls, is owing to their having been so incessantly rocked in a cradle during infancy, and their having used a rocking chair ever since. New York glories in her parks, and has reason to congratulate herself that the city fathers were wise enough to reserve so many small breathing places, even in the most crowded parts, as her u squares " represent. There arc fully 40 such spaces devoted to sunlight and recreation, some of wide acreage, like the " Central," others mere breadths of paving surrounding tiny patches of green. All the parks of the city 54 AMERICAN MEMORIES. are under the control of a Commission, appointed by the mayor, which also has charge of the laying out and improvements of the streets and drives in the district. The policemen, clothed in grey, who are on duty in all the parks and public squares, are subordinates of this Commission, and quite separate from the blue-coated city force, which affects to despise them intensely, and calls them " sparrow chasers." But I am forgetting we are in the Central Park and just passing on the East Drive, not a lady's hair-pin, but a huge needle, Cleopatra's ^' CENTRAL PARK TERRACE, FOUNTAIN AND LAKE. Needle. This, as did most of the other monster monoliths that are now scattered abroad, came originally from the quarries of Assouan, and from thence was floated hundreds of miles down the Nile, finding a resting place in Heliopolis, the city of the sun, not far from Cairo. This obelisk is of rose-red granite, 70 feet high ; has heiroglyphic inscriptions to the honour and glory of various Egyptian monarchs Thotmes III, Eameses II, the " Pharaoh " of Mosaic stoiy, and Siti II ; and thus the stone NEW YORK (Part II). 55 commemorates three of Egypt's greatest rulers. It was set up in the Central Park about 30 years ago, the entire expense of removal and erection being borne by the late "W. H. Vanderbilt. Passing the end of the Mall with its green parterres, which we see more leisurely on our return, the chive is flanked by many fine bron/es, amongst others, Simond's " Falconer," Caine's " Tigress and young," and an heroic bronze statue by Ball of " Daniel "Webster." The lake remains in view for some time, with the woods of the Ramble and the tower of the Belvidere in the background. A soft ethereal radiance was playing upon the silvery bosom of the lake, striking as it were sparks of fire, as we left its shores and struck into an almost continuous line of trees ; the drive is along an undulating, curving, but perfectly kept road ; the varied features of the landscape came out in the clear light, and the air was fragrant as with " the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed ; " glens and glades, slopes and steeps, carpeted with many a wild flower hidden beneath the shadow of the undershrubs, with ever and anon some crystal rill running 'neath the leafy shades, spoke of Eden's bowers and the clear waters of Paradise. Amongst thickening and beautiful woods, opening here and there to glimpses of sylvan slopes or rocky exposures, our carriage rolled smoothly along through the upper and wilder part of the park, until we reached a hill-top called Mount St. Vincent. We were much struck, at least I was, with the large number of trotting horses we met ; they are not attractive looking animals, the action is very different from English horses, being from the shoulder, and with little, if any, curve of the knee. The American carriages in which these trotting horses are driven arc very light, the wheels being usually enlarged examples of the bicycle, with indiarubber tyres ; while the large use of the bearing rein appeared to us unnecessary and cruel. We found the upper end of the Park much wilder and more solitary than the lower ; pointed rocks, narrow gorges thick with foliage, down which tiny streams babble and splash and fall, tell of native beauty untouched by the hand of man. The Mall is the great promenade of the Park. The countless drives and walks were well filled at the time of our visit ; here is to be seen 56 AMERICAN MEMORIES. a statue of Shakespeare by Ward, erected in 1872 on the 300th anniversary of the poet's birth ; there statues of Bums and Scott facing each other, both in sitting postures, are borne upon pedestals of Aberdeen granite ; at the upper end is the Kiosk, and near this musical spot is placed a bust of the immortal Beethoven. We descend from our phaeton to cast a last long lingering loving look at the terrace and lake. Here is a natural valley of which accomplished landscape gardeners have taken advantage to make a lake, winding about amid rocky ridges in an almost bewildering way. The highest bank, the one nearest us, is bordered by a curving balustrade of elaborately carved masonry, a broad stairway with richly carved panellings at the side leads down to the lower terrace, which surrounds the noble Bethesda fountain. This fountain, made in Munich, from the design of Miss Emma Stebbins, represents an angel poised gracefully over, and blessing, the waters as they gush from the rocks beneath her feet. As we passed from out the park, the first evening sunbeams were streaming upon, and burnishing with glittering gold, thousands of glowing window panes ; but although the glow of that sweet spring eve has vanished, yet the memory of New York's Central Park not long ago a desert, but now "rejoicing and blossoming as the rose;" once a parched ground, noAV fed by springs of water, the once crooked places made straight, and the rough places plain. The " excellency of Carmcl and Sharon is there " in its abundant blossoms and flowers. The fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together tell of the " glory of Lebanon," painting a picture on memory's tablets, that can only 'fade when the drama of life is ended, the curtain rung down, and the actors have finally left the stage. PHILADELPHIA (Part I.) 57 CHAPTER IV. PHILADELPHIA (PART I). IIREE great railways have direct entrance into Philadelphia ; the Penn- sylvania, the Philadelphia and Heading, and the Baltimore and Ohio, all of which have terminals un- surpassed in the country. The P c u n s y 1 v a n i a depot is a splen- did example of modern Gothic and adds mater- ially to the wealth of Philadelphia's public buildings. The Philadelphia and Reading ter- minus is compos- ite Renaissance ; its chaste and impressive style excites universal admiration. The waiting rooms are fitted up sumptuous in a style, I'lIlL.UiKI.l'IHA KKAMMi TKKMlXfS. 58 AMERICAN MEMORIES. and a fine restaurant provides every convenience and comfort ; the great span of the roof covers sixteen tracks, besides wide and ample platforms. Philadelphia has the reputation, and is frequently sneered at in the States, as being old fashioned, quiet, slow, but I don't think this reputation warranted. We had to wait at one of the rail- way stations for some little time, and the hurrying in and out, the crowded state of the waiting rooms, the con- stant bustle and movement on the vast platforms, point to a live- liness and activ- ity that tends to dispel any notion that the city is not up to date, at any rate in matters railway. Our experience of Philadelphia hotels was limited but entirely satisfactory. We chose one of the newest, the Walton, a large and beautiful structure, and found everything of the best. If Arline went that way she would have an unfading THE WALTOX HOTEL. PHILADELPHIA (Part I). 59 day-dream of "marble halls;" the portal, vestibule, grand hall, corridors, passages, \valled with white and black, and decorated with large multi-coloured panels of exquisite Mexican onyx, most lovely combinations, are equal to any we saw; large suspended "torcheres" and elaborately designed fixtures for electric lights, whose soft tints when lighted suggest moonlight and poetry ; luxurious settees fill cosy recesses ; rich carpets are spread on mosaic floors and marble stairways, and the buffet, large and well appointed, we found on several occasions an extremely interesting and pleasant apartment. In the "Walton I saw for the first time one of the latest and most ingenious inventions the Herzog Teleseme, by which 1.40 different wants may be communicated from the bedroom or any other room direct to the office, thus saving time, labour, and rendering service rapid and reliable. These most useful appliances are becoming general in the best hotels. The banqueting hall on the tenth story has seating accommodation for TOO guests, and a grand arrangement of kitchens in convenient proximity. A large whist party of nearly -500 had occupied the room a few days previously, and amongst the " fragments that remained " were eight barrels full of playing cards, gathered from the splendidly laid and highly polished floor, on which the Terpsichorean goddess is often the "court card" dividing "honours" with the "Queen of hearts." This magnificent building, claimed to be the most palatial and modern fireproof hotel in the world, with all the latest appliances in plumbing, lighting and heating, was entirely erected, and finished at the commencement of this year, in eleven mouths from the time the last performance was given in the Empire Theatre formerly on this spot. It was Saturday, and, like Pat, we had been " off to Philadelphia in the morning," having manfully put aside the temptation to a " little more sleep and a little more slumber." We had our reward in the enjoyment, in brilliant weather, of a grand exposition of base-ball, America's national athletic game, between the rival clubs of Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Nine players championed each side, the pitcher, striker, and catcher being the principal performers ; the latter is usually protected by a helmet and breast- plate of stout wire. The excitement was intense and continuous; no blocking for an hour for 10 runs like some of our 60 A M ERIC A N MEMORIES. modem cricket, but u brisk, smart, lively, soul-stirring game. We liked it well. Philadelphia is known all over the world as the " Quaker City," and within a more limited circle as the " City of Homes." This is due in a great measure to the fact that a large proportion of the families, constituting the population, instead of living in flats or hotels, each occupy dwellings owned or rented solely by them. Philadelphia is twenty-two Till) BASK-HALI, OROl'Xl). miles long, and nearly six miles wide, but owing to the simple plan in which the streets are laid out and the houses numbered, it is a comparatively easy matter for strangers to get about from point to point, without any danger of being lost. The street car lines are vast in extent, yet simple in plan ; by a system of passes a passenger can ride to almost any part of the city for five cents. PHILADELPHIA (Part 1). fil There are many splendid social clubs in Philadelphia, some of which have a national fame, not only because of the features of the organizations themselves, but for the elegance of the buildings they occupy. The club having the widest fame is probably the Union League, which owns a fine building at the corner of Broad and Locust Streets ; the peculiar style of the architecture of this brick and brown stone structure makes it a very striking building. It is a semi-political THE VXIOX LEAGUE CLf]!. institution; since the beginning of its existence, in 1862, its members have entertained most of the Presidents, and many notable and distinguished men. The rooms are handsomely frescoed and furnished ; numerous costly paintings adorn the walls, and fine 1 examples of statuary give an additional charm. Strangers may gain entrance to the Union League House on presenting an introduction from a member. 62 AMERICAN MEMORIES. The Arts Club occupies a beaiitiful building in South Broad Street, constructed of Pompeian brick, ornamented with carved Indiana limestone. Its beauty and striking appearance cannot fail to at once attract visitors. It contains a fine picture gallery, and the reception rooms are commodious and handsomely furnished. Philadelphia can boast of many stately buildings, although, on account of its vast area and the more conservative character of its THE A UTS CLUIi. citizens, they are much more widely scattered than in New York; whilst there is a marked, although not entire, absence of the " sky scraping " type, yet the streets exhibit some really splendid specimens of architectural skill. Undoubtedly the most magnificient building in Philadelphia is City Hall, a structure begun in 1871 and not yet completed. It has already cost, including the furnishing, some $18,000,000, and several PHILADELPHIA (Part I}. more million dollars will be expended before it leaves the hands of the building commissioners. The tower is 550 feet high, and excepting the Washington Monument, is the highest building in the world, overtopping the tallest spire of Cologne Cathedral by 37 feet. The City Hall occupies Perm Square, and covers 4^ acres, a larger space than any other building in the States. This great pile of marble and granite, THE CITY HALL. with its lofty tower, and statue of William Perm for a finish, is a central and most striking object. There are nearly 800 rooms in the building, many of them of more than ordinary loftiness. The staircases are of polished granite, popularly known as " hanging staircases," that is, projecting from the side walls, and having no outside support. Notwithstanding that there are so many rooms, and the building is so r.j AMERICAN ir EM DRIES. immense, it is comparatively an easy matter to find a designated number, from the fact that to each floor an even one hundred numbers have been assigned. Elevators are running constantly during the week from the ground to the top floor, and un- til nightfall vis- itors haA'e the free run of the roof, from which is a magnificent view of the city. Probably no city in the Union possesses so many buildings of historic interest as Philadelphia. One of the oldest municipalities in America, it was for years the seat of the National Government, and many of the old edifices in use by it, and by famous patriots of Colonial times, are still carefully preserved. No INDEPENDENCE HALL EXTERIOR. biiilding in the United States is better known, or more venerated, than Independence Hall with its sacred memories. It stands in the centre of the Chestnut Street front of Independence Square. The hallowed structure is surmounted by a PHILADELPHIA (Part I). 65 wooden cupola containing a clock, and from the balcony beneath the dials a splendid view of the city is obtainable. The east room on the first floor was occupied by the Second Continental Congress, by whose act the Declaration of Independence became a reality, and here many other stirring events leading to the freedom of the nation had their being. In this room, which is kept as nearly as possible in its original appearance, are the tables and chairs used at the time of the signing of INDEPENDENCE HALL INTERIOR. the Declaration of Independence. Original, or faithful copies of, pictures of the signers hang upon the walls, and in the same room, in front of the spot where Congress sat, that sacred emblem of liberty, the Liberty Bell, is displayed in a case of glass and panelled oak. The bell was cast in London, and re-cast in Philadelphia in April, 1753. The work was unsatisfactory, and it again went into the melting 66 AMERICAN MEMORIES. pot, from which it emerged a satisfactory bell, and was placed in the steeple in Juno, 175-!. It bore the same inscriptions which were cast in the original, and on the 8th July, 1776, it did indeed "proclaim liberty throughout the laud." After sounding its joyous notes in proclaiming liberty, the old bell was only used on very particular occasions. While being tolled on the morning of July 8, 1835, in memory of Chief Justice Marshall, who had died two days before, the old relic suddenly cracked, and its tongue became for ever silent on "Washington's birthday, 1843, after a few notes had been struck. Philadelphia is quite " up to date " in the number and in the magnitude of some of the Stores devoted to goods attractive to our fair sisters ; in the centre of the city, in Chestnut Market, and Eighth Street, they are particularly so ; some of them are unsurpassed in the States in size and in the variety and quality of the goods displayed. Wanamakcr's is a store of almost national reputation ; it is a huge establishment ; millions of people visit it annually, and scarcely at any time of the day, despite its many acres of area, can visitors pass along its miles of counters without constantly elbowing other shoppers or sightseers. Here are gathered some of the finest fabrics and textile manufactures of the world. The display of lace fascinated me ; there was an exhibit of this dainty creature of fashion, enough to envelop in light billows of beauty half the maidens and dames of the city ; and crinkled chiffon, which had been transplanted from Paris, without destroying ' a vestige of the charm of the various flowers, that bloomed in undiminished loveliness on equally lovely tinted grounds, driving away all suggestion of heaviness by the delightful airiness of the exquisite fabrics. Titania would have been wild to possess such gauzy aerial clothing for a royal robe. The convenience and comfort of the clientele are equally studied : waiting, reading, and toilet rooms are provided and a large restaurant is attached. This was the only store our limited time permitted us to visit. At the time of our visit it was overflowing with fashion's fairest fancies, and crowded with the most dainty damsels and dignified duchess-like dames. By the courtesy of one of Bosco's friends, one of the chiefs, we saw it thoroughly ; this gentleman told me that the departments for which he alone was responsible made a " turn over " of f 2,000,000 PHILADELPHIA (Part I). 67 annually ; the total annual trade must be prodigious. John Wanamakcr, the head of the business, was Postmaster General of the United States during the Harrison administration. The Mint, on Chestnut Street, is a marble building, with a Grecian portico, standing a little back from the pavement. This is the United States Mint, one of the city's great attractions to visitors. The first Government Mint in this country was established in Philadelphia in EASTER CHOIR, WAXAMAKER'S STORE. I7'.' For many years it was the only mint in the country. Visitors are admitted daily, except Sundays, and are escorted from the door throughout the building free, by conductors who show : the deposit room, where the gold and bullion are received ; the copper melting room, in which ingots for minor coinage arc cast ; the gold and silver melting room ; the rolling and cutting room ; the coining room, where the coins 68 AMERICAN MEMORIES. are stamped ; and the cabinet, in which is the finest collection of coins in the United States. I bought some 10 dollar gold pieces, very artistic coins, and saw the press in which they had been stamped with a pressure equal to 185 tons. We found the manufacture of silver and silver-plated goods a considerable industry in Philadelphia, and, remembering our friends and relatives, " keepers at home," we made a few purchases at one of the principal stores. Both here and at "Tiffany's" we found forks in every conceivable size and shape. Forks in America are put to uses quite unknown on the eastern shore of the Atlantic ; this excessive use of forks is occasionally the cause of . embarrassment the following is an example: "Hannah," said the mistress to the new girl, "everything is eaten now with forks. Here are the strawberry forks, the ice cream forks, the orange forks and the bread forks." " Yes'm," said the girl attentively. A few days later, when a company dinner was in progress, the first course came near being a failure. Hannah explained : "I hunted everywhere, ma'am, but I couldn't find the soup forks." In a city of such, as it struck me, exceptional artistic taste, mental culture, and obvious refinement, it is not surprising to learn that the love, and therefore the cultivation, of flowers is great, and the number of florists is considerable. There is a small belt of fertile land in the old State of Pennsylvania, Avhich shows a happy combination of beauty and utility, called the " Carnation Belt." Here is invested over half a million dollars in the culture of carnations for sale in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. It is, estimated that nearly one million carnations are shipped each year from the " Belt." The farmers who make this " flowery land " are nearly all young men many university graduates. And their work is in one sense at least " a labour of love." These men and their wives meet once each month at what is called a " Carnation Social Club," where methods of floriculture are talked over, and papers on various subjects read and discussed. Philadelphia has always been regarded as one of the great seats of education in the States ; the number and general high character of her educational institutions, public, private and semi-public, almost surpass belief. Besides the great colleges and other places of learning, there is PHILADELPHIA (Part I.) 69 a large number of public schools, controlled by a Board of Education appointed by Judges of the Courts, and by Ward School Boards popularly elected. These schools are graded; in the Central High School for boys the course of education embraces those branches best calculated to fit the scholars for the practical duties of life, and in the High School for girls the education is largely directed to fitting the pupils to become teachers, or to enter upon some useful business career. It was only natural whilst in the " Quaker City," and hearing about its schools, for my fancy to " revert to the scenes of my childhood," and to the first school of my youth a " Friend's School " in the county town where in my early 'teens I imbibed an undying love of poetry. The master, Richard Batt, lovingly known as " old Dicky," had a taste for verses, and published in 1830 " Gleanings in Poetry;" amongst its leaves I remember well "The Old Oaken Bucket." The following little anecdote told me the " bucket " was still at work, drawing the emblem of truth dripping with coolness from the well of knowledge. A teacher in a primary school recently read to her pupils " The Old Oaken Bucket. After explaining it carefully, she asked them to copy the first stanza from the blackboard and try to illustrate it by drawings, as the artist illustrates a story. Pretty soon one little girl handed in her book with several little dots between two lines, a circle, half a dozen dots and three buckets. " I do not understand this, Bessie," said the teacher. "What is that circle?" "Oh, that's the well," was the reply. "And why do you have three buckets?" "Oh, one is the old oaken bucket, one is the iron-bound bucket, and the other is the moss- covered bucket that hung in the well." "But what arc the little dots?" " Why, those arc the loved spots which my infancy knew." Whilst I was in the city The Philadelphia Record told of a school teacher who was instructing a class of boys in geography. In order to make the matter plainer, she took an ordinary globe, and, pointing to the portion containing the United States, asked where she would come out if she should start from Philadelphia and go straight through the earth. She knew they would all say China, but she wanted to see which of her scholars would answer first. She waited fully a minute, and no answer came. Away back in the room a grimy hand was finally held 70 AMERICAN MEMORIES. up. " Well, David," she asked, " where would I come out, if I should go straight through the earth from here ? " The silence was growing thicker every second. " Please, Miss Maude, you would come out of the hole," was the reply, and the class in geography was dismissed for the day. Another school story is from the ^Philadelphia Post : Teacher with reading class. Boy, reading " And she sailed down the river- Teacher "Why are ships called 'she?'' Boy, precociously alive to the responsibilities of his sex " Because they need men to manage them." Sometimes the subjects get a little mixed ; music and natural history for example : A little boy having his music lesson was asked by his teacher "What are pauses;"' "Things that grow on pussy cats," was the quick response. I don't know whether it Avas the same boy who, thinking it would be nice to write home, commenced his letter : " My dear papa, whenever I am tempted to do wrong, I think of you and say, get thee behind me Satan." PHILADELPHIA (Part II). 71 CHAPTER V. PHILADELPHIA (PART II). was desirable on the Sabbath morn to try and unburden oiirselves of the week's accumulated sin, so we betook ourselves to St. Mark's Church, to lay down the "burden and the care." "We were however not very successful ; the musical portion of the service was admirable ; the ritual was high but on that account by no means objectionable ; the accessories were elaborate and as a spectacle extremely effective ; the choristers' small white surplices gave the opportunity for a ST. MARK'S CHURCH. 72 AMERICAN MEMORIES. large display of bright scarlet cassocks, and these contrasts of purity and sin (I remember the "scarlet lady" represents sin) Avere still more emphasised, I hope not appropriately, in the clergy whose large and richly embroidered stoles and not very minute scarlet tippets hid a still larger proportion of the " pure white" supposed to typify the righteousness of saints. All this to me was pleasant and appealed to the imagination, but the penalty had to be paid ; the ser- mon had to be endured ; no appeal there to the imag- ination ; it was very high, in stock much too long, and so dry that it subsequently took more than one bottle of good Ehine wine to wash it down. Never was such a string of puerile platitudes, plaintively, per- functorily, persist- ently paraded WETHERILL MEMORIAL MOSAIC ALTAK, ST. MARY'S CHURCH. vain repetitions that profit nothing. Our very entrance into the church precincts savoured of an intrusion. r he verger, with the supercilious air of a nabob, with infinite pains PHILADELPHIA (Part II). 73 bade us sit down in the lowest room, where hearing was difficult and seeing well nigh impossible ; notwithstanding that the church was only half filled, such was the priggish exclusiveness. Whether the latest millinery fashions make their debut at church or theatre I can't say, but I well remember the Babel built towers of broad ribbons, whose umbra shadings range from sunrise to shadow ; the jaunty quills, from the wings of some bright mountain bird ruthlessly slain, in size like unto the sails of a windmill ; the vari-coloured aigrettes, those sheaves of heaven streaming rockets that never fall earthward ; fans of spangled lace glittering in the sunshine ; flower shows innumerable, flowers in bouquets and flowers that trail and hang, beds of scentless roses, independent of sunshine, that bloom on regardless of summer, pragmatical roses, standard roses giant high, that swayed and shook with each movement of the fair impenitent. This much I remember, but little more. I don't think that Sunday was productive of much "growth in grace;" let us forget it. I am told there are more than 700 places of Avorship in Philadelphia, comprising over forty independent or semi-independent denominations ; scarcely any denomination being unrepresented in the city. Religion ought to flourish here. Philadelphia possesses a vast area devoted to public parks ; one alone, Fail-mount Park, said to be the largest city park in the world, encloses nearly 3,000 acres. This grand pleasure ground extends in varying width, on both sides the Schuylkill river, to the Wissahickou Creek, and is a veritable Mecca on Sundays to many thousands of work- a-day toilers, eager to enjoy the fresh invigorating air. It is difficult to imagine a more animated scene, surrounded by verdant shrubbery rich in spring's brightest dress. In the portion known as the old park a vast amount of skill in landscape gardening is displayed, and in this part are the handsome quarters of many of the best known boat clubs. There are also large grass plats set aside for croquet, lawn tennis, and base- ball. We continued our drive along the famous Lansdowne Eaviue, obtaining a magnificent view up the river ; a good road runs for miles by the side of a pure and pleasant stream on which canoes skim, skiffs race, and launches glide, upon whose smooth unruffled surface here and 74 AMERICAN MEMORIES. there the afternoon sun reflected a " ramage " of delicate leafy tracery, or east in heavier shadow the thick foliage of some overhanging laurel wood. Continuing, the park becomes more contracted, but what it loses in breadth it gains in beauty ; the road undulates and winds, banks rise on each side with gentle slope, moss covered rocks, whence crystal rills trickle, lie around ; a network of undergrowth covers the ground out of l-'AIRMOUXT PARK BIRD S EYE VIEW FROM LEilOX HILL. which wild flowers peep and perfume rises ; lifeless trunks, moss-wrapt and ivy covered, recall long past years, whilst tall and erect trees Avhose bright young leaves tell of growth and vigour, tower overhead ; sycamores flourish and chestnuts bloom ; the dark tints of the pines and conifers give variety in form and colour, whilst acacias and tulip trees lend beauty and add fragrance to the scene. Picturesque nooks warmed by PHILADELPHIA (Part II). 75 sunshine, in -which fairies hold nightly revels, and sequestered gullies more loved of shade than sunglare " Where, flecked with foam, Past tranquil holes, The brooklet brawls, in babbling falls, And babbles in the shoals." give a charming and romantic aspect to one of the most lovely parks in the States. FAIRMOUXT PARK BRIDGE. By this time we had reached the Wissahickon Creek, the scenery still preserving the same character, but, gaining in strength, it is ever more charming. The creek winds in short curves for miles between high and thickly wooded hills, from out which the sweet note of some feathered songster rings; romantic gorges, down which little streams -dash and mimic cascades fall, abound. We were very much struck with the 70 AMERICAN MEMORIES. hundreds, almost thousands, it being Sunday, of vehicles passing and repassing ; the American buggy, simple and fantastic, the smart Victoria, and the well appointed landau, and many a lineal descendant of The wonderful one hoss shay, That was built in such a logical way, It ran a hundred years to a day." Carriages, bicycles galore with myriads of people afoot, make up a moving panorama seldom seen. As the road winds about, many streams are crossed and picturesque bridges traversed, from which glimpses of ravines are caught ; over head the sky is without a shadow ; boulders gleam boldly with their ceaseless water polish, or, hoary Avith the moss covering of generations, slumber peacefully in the shade ; below, the glittering rays of the bright sun find ambush amid the leaf-clad boughs of trees that climb skyward, whilst overhead branch and twig, leaf and flower, Aveave into one harmonious coverlet the fresh products of Nature's verdant loom. GermantoAvn is the most famous and principal residential suburb of Philadelphia ; from the centre of GermantoAvn to the centre of the city is fully six miles. In the older part of the town are numerous historic houses, Avcll knoAvn to the inhabitants, and at Chestnut Hill we saAV very many handsome and even palatial residences. There miles upon miles of homes attract us by the novelty and beauty of their design ; almost all are surrounded by verandahs of light and elegant construction, under which the household spend much time in the hot Aveather, reclining in deck chairs or SAvaying to and fro on seats built on rockers ; I think I never saAV such a collection of rocking chairs. Soft balmy scent-laden breezes gently fan flushed cheeks, and gaily striped shades protect them from scorching sun-rays ; over the delicate tracery of the verandahs creepers trail and Avesteria hangs, whilst the floAvering jasmine embroiders and perfumes. LaAvns of fresh young grass still unshorn, green as the purest emerald, spread out level as boAvling greens, or fall away in gentle slopes and undulating curves ; tasteful vases and shapely floAver beds, radiant with masses of richly blended colours, beautify the earth ; the floAvering maple and sweet scented lilacs unfold their blossom, and all around beech and birch guard the border lines Nature's stalwart sentinels clad in panoply of A'erdant armour. PHILADELPHIA (Part II}. 77 During our drive we passed the famous Mannheim Cricket Ground on Avhich is erected several club houses of pleasing architecture. The groxinds are very extensive and portions are shaded with rare old trees. Philadelphia is the home of American cricket ; its clubs are the strongest in the land. Several famous English teams, notably Lord Hawke's, have met with crushing defeat at the hands of Philadelphia amateur elevens. A TYPICAL RESIDENCE, GERMAXTOWX. Nothing can be more beautiful thau a day when the sky is " tassel'd with clouds light woven by the sun," when Spring is being warmed into blushing loveliness by the approach of Summer; such a day it was when we drove through the city of William Penn. Bicycles by the thousand flitted past us during our 20 mile drive, and we could not help blessing the man who invented this easy and cheap means of bringing the refreshing breeze, the charming freshness of 78 AMERICAN MEMORIES. the verdure, and the sweet and pure surroundings of country life within reach of the tens of thousands of toilers in town and city. To-day in reckoning the achievements of the nineteenth century, we must, I think, add the marvellous development of the wheel. The growth of wheeling has been so rapid as to be almost sensational, in England and in the States alike. Old and young, rich and poor, men and boys, dames and girls, one with another have all " caught on " the bicycle fever. The popularity, which shows no sign of diminution, has made the manufacture of machines a colossal industry. The cycle manufactories in the States are wide spread in Chicago alone I believe there are over 200 makers ; and it is common knowledge that at home, Nottingham, and especially Coventry, a once commercially decaying city, now teem with thousands of artisans whose toil and skill bring wealth and comfort to their homes. An immense amount of capital is employed in the manufacture of these slender steel machines ; the flotation of the J)unlop Pneumatic Tyre Company with a capital of cy,000,000 sterling is a recent example. The devotees of the wheel are found in royal palaces and the thatched cottage of the labourer, and to-day the bicycle is not only a triumph of mechanical skill, but an important factor in nineteenth century civilisation. I am not a wheelman, and shall probably never mount one, unless some day, in the "dim and distant," I induce a lady friend to join me in riding _ " on a bicycle built for two," still I cannot fail to see that the coming amongst us apparently with a fixed determination to remain of whirling wheels, and wheels that -at times won't whirl, with their lamps and bells and whistles, is a solid fact to be reckoned with, has caused a considerable amount of dislocation in our social habits, and is said to have been injurious and even disastrous to certain trades. How much of the wail that comes up from booksellers is attributable to the cycle mania '? In the United States I found the great depression from which the book trade is suffering, and the same is true at home also, is thought to be largely due to the fact that men and women cannot find time to indulge in this favourite pastime, and also in literary pursuits ; piano manufacturers complain that the popiilarity of the wheel seriously affects their sales ; and a certain slackness in other branches of business PHILADELPHIA (Part II). 79 is also attributed diverted from old rushes the cycling I have no for the average to the channels boom, interest in man cyclist. fact that large sums of money have been into the broad and sweeping river on which " record I cannot breaking," nor special admiration detect beauty in the open month and round shoulders of the " scorcher," and have more than once been greatly by the sight a dozen ccle alarmed of half jockeys colliding at the "Tatten- ham Corner " of some racing track ; at the same time, within prop- er limits, cycling is a healthy recreation. Women almost univers- ally sit the wheel gracefully and erect, whilst men too fre- quently pervert or distort the " human form divine." The ladies decline to become mere machine propellers, but continue, what they will ever remain, " things of beauty, joys for ever." An American wit, " a fellow .who makes a I fear my readers may A BICYCLE UUILT FOR TWO. asked to define the word " pedestrian," replied row when he is run over by a cyclist ; " and row, and charge be inclined to make a mental my brain (if any) with having gone off on wheels, but I should just like to add my conviction that, within proper time and limits, I think 80 AMERICAN MEMORIES. Sunday cycling perfectly permissible and justifiable. Attempts have been made to find reasons for an " asserted decline in church going ; " the first is the poorness of the sermons, and the second the ladies' big hats, bigger plumes and trimmings, and the big sleeves one has to face. The first objection is one of which, happily, I have little experience ; the threadbare garb that clothes poverty of speech and thought rarely finds entrance into that part of Brookland's Church which is elevated six feet above contradiction ; and the second is simply a matter of taste I would not be without them, or rather their wearers, no matter how vast the hats, the plumes, or the sleeves. Country churches must provide cycle stables ; sermons may fail, but hats and plumes and sleeves will remain, aud never cease to attract, and then how appropriate and forceful will become the injunction, especially at evensong, beloved of the impecunious churchwarden, as its music comes floating down the long drawn aisle, " Let your light so shine before men." And it does not require any great stretch of imagination to picture some enthusiastic cycling parson, in a post nuptial exhortation, addressing the newly married couple. " May you young couple spin along the road of life in happy unison, your tyres are now perfection, may you never tire one of another, but in joy or sorrow pedal along life's road in perfect and sweet concord, remembering you have taken one another for wheel or whoa ! " A stranger to the " Quaker City " cannot fail to be impressed with the refined manners, the charming expression, the beautiful features of many of the ladies, and the " Mazawattee " or old world flavour that lingers and may it long remain about many of its inhabitants ; no wonder then that Philadelphia is exceptionally rich in "good works;" its Benevolent, Charitable, and Humane Institutions are exceptional, numerous, and flourishing. I can only refer to one out of a large number, of which an illustration is given. The Mary J. Drexel Home is the handsomest institution of the kind in Philadelphia. Architecturally it is without a superior, and its interior is fully as beautiful as its exterior. The Home is the charitable act of Mr. John D. Lankenan as as a memorial to his wife, Mary J. Drexel, his son and his daughter. It comprises four distinct departments, namely : PHILADELPHIA (Part II). 81 The Motherhouse, or institute for the maintenance, religious instruction, and education of deaconesses who are members of the Lutheran Church. The Old People's Home, for the reception and support of well recommended, well behaved, perfectly sober and respectable aged couples, and aged single men and women of German birth or descent, of sixty MARY J. DREXEL HOME. . years of age and upwards, able to speak the German language, and members of the Lutheran Church. The Children's Hospital, open for the admission of children up to the age of thirteen years, irrespective of colour, creed, or nationality. The Girls' Boarding School, where pupils, boarders and day scholars, are admitted at the age of ten years, and a thorough education given A ME RICA N MEMORIES. in German, English, and French languages, together with music and drawing. Scholars are charged for tuition. Half the pages at my disposal might be filled by recounting the charitable institutions that adorn this fair city, and jewel her streets ; hospitals and asylums for the sick and poor and weak in mind ; penitentiaries for the fallen give scope for the " charity that suffereth long and is kind;" and numerous homes for the "fatherless and widows in their affliction " give practical evidence of " religion pure and undefiled." When the Eecording Angel writes the chronicles of this "City of Friends," perchance he may repeat at least some of the praise allotted to the old world Philadelphia of whom the Angel of the Churches wrote : " I know thy works " " Thou hast kept my words " " I have loved thee." BALTIMORE. 83 CHAPTER VI. BALTIMORE. 1^ l p ft Philadelphia with regret, feeling our stay had been all .^^J^ 1 too short, and soon passed into an open country; fertile pasture lands spread far and wide. On each side of the railroad lay broad acres of farming land, fairly level, but here and there disturbed by some ragged knob, like some hiccough of nature. The broad silvery ribbon of the Delaware embroiders with its glistening sheen the rich emerald of the meadows, through which it floAvs tranquilly to the sea, bearing on its bosom much of Philadelphia!! commerce with the world. The river winds along between low and pleasant banks until we come in sight of the great Delaware Bridge, over which our train swiftly passes amongst its light interlacing bands and trusses. Pastoral scenery continues to charm. Cattle horses and cows chiefly feed leisurely on the tender young grass, or lazily make it a bed. Old fashioned homesteads, timber framed and timber sheathed, are dotted freely over the landscape. Curling wreaths of almost transparent pale blue-grey smoke ascended lightly from the cottar's fires, and lingered pendant, like phantom plumes, in the still air ; but ere we reached our journey's end, the sun had retired ; the splendour of that bright day had departed ; evening shadows were falling, and the stars : " The self same stars, that o'er man's troubled years So long have shone from their eternal spheres." Those bright eyed angel stars, sleepless sentinels of the night, were again in radiant rank, keeping guard above when we reached the city of Baltimore. Our stay in Baltimore was very short, but we made the best of oiir time and opportunities. Unfortunately our rapid movements have left correspondingly vague recollections, but my notes help me a little. The metropolis of Maryland is the seventh city, in point of population, in the United States ; its inhabitants number rather less than half a 84 AMERICAN MEMORIES. million. A small stream, Jones' Falls, runs through the centre of the city. At the northern limit of the harbour are located the massive warehouses, in and around which is concentrated the wholesale section of the mercantile life. A little to the west are situated the great retail establishments, and the various shopping thoroughfares, and away northwards the principal promenades and fashionable dwellings of the city are found. Baltimore has a fine harbour, and its splendid geographical position and railroad connections give it special advantages as an outlet for southern and western products. We were told that here living is cheap, rents low, skilled labour abundant, and the exemption of manufacturing- plants from taxation invites and induces the establishment of nuhistries of varied kinds, whilst the adjacent coal fields, iron beds, and marble quarries of the State open up an illimitable vista of wealth and prosperity. The city is as healthy as it is picturesque ; the peculiar topographical arrangement of the surrounding country greatly facilitates natural drainage. Its climate is temperate, yet invigorating. " In those blessed bounds of Baltimore, Here, where the climates meet, ****** Where Florida's soft Favonian airs beguile The nipping- north where nature's powers smile." Baltimore was the first city in the United States to be illuminated by gas ; the first to aid the construction of a railroad ; and the first to be connected with the outside world by electric telegraph. The warmth of social life in Baltimore is proverbial, which time alone prevented our enjoying and appreciating, but we can add the tribute of our respectful admiration to the undeniable beauty of the Baltimore ladies. We had only time to visit a few of the principal buildings, the first being the City Hall, wherein are gathered the various departments and offices of the municipal government. It is a beautiful and imposing structure of white marble, a striking example of Renaissance architecture. The different fronts are well broken and relieved, the general character strong and well defined. The centre of the structure is surmounted by a lofty iron dome, resting upon a graceful marble base ; I remember that the interior aspect of this dome is very fine ; the height from the floor BALTIMORE. 85 is 227 feet. Above a projecting balcony, from which an extensive view is obtained, hangs the city bell, " Big Sam," weighing 5000 pounds, striking the hour, and sounding fire alarms by electricity. Baltimore is justly proud of two famous citizens, great benefactors who take foremost rank amongst the noble army of philanthropists of this grand nineteenth century Johns Hopkins and George Peabody. TIIK CITY IIAl.l.. Johns Hopkins, a merchant of the city, died at the close of 1873, full of years and honour, leaving a princely fortune 1 , seven million dollars, which he gave in equal amounts for the endowment of a University and a Hospital. The organization and methods of the University have been described by President Gillman, the first President, who is still in .office, as follows : " The University is organised upon the principle that it is 86 AMERICAN MEMORIES. n body of teachers and scholars, a corporation maintained for the conservation and advancement of knowledge, in which those who have been thoroughly prepared for higher studies are encouraged to continue, under competent professors, their intellectual advancement in many branches of science and literature." The University Buildings are in the heart of the city, within sight of the Washington Monument. In the central building are the offices of administration and class rooms for ancient languages ; another contains the general library, containing 00,000 volumes, and a large lecture room for chemistry beyond ; each in its separate building are the chemical laboratory and the biological laboratory ; near the main group of buildings is the gymnasium, with all necessary adjuncts, and a separate hall erected specially for the Young Men's Christian Association of the University. In the physical laboratory are housed the departments of physics, electrical engineering, mathematics, and astronomy ; besides these, several houses in the neighbourhood are used for class rooms, and new and extensive buildings are now in course of erection. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was opened in 188'J, and it is claimed for this institution that, although not the largest, it is the most perfect in construction and equipment in the world, the trustees having spent twelve years in gaining the widest information and procuring plans from the best experts in hospital construction. The beautiful grounds that surround it extend to some 14 acres. This institution not only provides for the treatment and comfort of patients, but has a special relation to medical education. A remarkable feature of the buildings is the method of heating and ventilation ; the system is said to have solved a difficult problem, producing an equable and agreeable temperature in all the rooms and wards to which it is distributed, under all conditions of cold weather, coupled with the fullest and most perfect ventilation. The name of George Peabody will be had in everlasting remembrance, not only in Baltimore, but in our own metropolis, for in both cities he has left an imperishable monument of his benevolence and goodness, in the erection of institutions having for their object the amelioration of the social condition of the toiling artizau, and the advancement of the intellectual and moral culture of the community in BALTIMORE. 87 which lie lived. Generations yet unborn will bless his name, and the fragrance of his memory will remain and linger evermore in and about his noble life work that still follows him. With a sum of $1, 250,000 placed iii the hands of trustees, he, in consultation with friends, matured a plan for erecting and maintaining an educational establishment of the highest order, including a library, a school of lectures, an academy of music, and a gallery of art Mr. Peabody placing the library first in his r .-,"*', - : '<*<" '* J> .?. :V ft^? >"****-;.;'- THE JOHNS HOPKIXS HOSPITAL. scheme of organization. During the first few years the collection of books was slow, about 15,000 volumes being gathered together in the first five years, all however of scholarly value. The number steadily and rapidly increased until, at the time of his death in 18QO, the library contained 100,000, since increased to 120,000 volumes. 90 AMERICAN MEMORIES. of perfect arrangements. This was the only place of worship our short stay permitted our seeing. Several fine pieces of bronze statuary are to be seen in this locality. Baltimore has made adequate provision for the health and recreation of its large and increasing population by a judiciously arranged system of public parks and squares, scattered on opposite sides of the city. Time only permitted our seeing one, but that one the most important of all. We shall not soon forget our drive to and around Druid Hill Park ; the day was glorious ; the sky overhead was like the deep blue of a Delft plate. This park is unique amongst the many parks it was our good fortune to see ; in acreage it is excelled by several, nor is the hand of the landscape gardener so easily traced as in the Central Park, New York, or in Fairmount Park. Philadelphia ; but its natural beauties give it a special charm and attractiveness ; it covers some 700 acres of wood and water. There are reservoirs and a fine lake in whose clear mirror was reflected the unclouded image of the imperial lord of light. Several natural springs from out which crystal streams bubble are scattered about the park. Miles of carriage roads, some of great width, are carefully kept. Shady pathways, leafy groves Xature's first temples accessible only on foot are used as pic-uic grounds, and broad elevated plateaus skirted by a belt of woods and stretch of forest, in which live oaks that reckon their age by centuries. We learned that this park, the most naturally beautiful we saw, is under the control of a small board of Commissioners, and is entirely supported by a tax of nine per cent, upon the gross receipts of the ".Street Car Companies. Baltimore ranks as one of the foremost educational centres of the country, and this exercises a wide influence on its intellectual life. I think there can be no doubt the American system of education is superior to ours ; this opinion I gathered from personal observation and enquiry as well as reading. Americans regard their public schools in the first place as citizen -making machines, and in the second as democratic instruments, affording to rich and poor alike the best of this world's treasures. In schools on this side of the Atlantic, except those for infants, boys and girls are generally separated ; in the States they are present in the same class, and not infrequently sit side by side on the BALTIirORE. 91 same benches ; they do the same lessons, now a girl, now a boy is called upon to answer, just as it happens. This mixed system appears to have grown up quite naturally ; its advocates plead that the separation of the sexes is artificial and contrary to the spirit of the home ; that two schools, two sets of teachers, is not only needlessly extravagant, but lessens efficiency ; and then there is no such feeling as existed amongst us I think it is quickly disappearing that " second best " in buildings, teaching, and salaries, is good enough for girls. The best that can be obtained is the rightful due of girls as well as boys, of poor as well as rich, this is the keynote of the doctrine of American democracy. Next to arithmetic the favourite study is probably history United States history especially, from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers onward. The spirit of patriotism is fostered and encouraged by the public holidays, which are always preceded or followed by some instruction about the meaning of the day. Decoration Day, April oOtli, for example, commemorates the soldiers who fell in the war of 1860-01, and on that day it is the custom to deck the graves of the fallen with flowers and small nags. One of the songs suitable for these occasions begins : "Wp deck thpir graves alike to-day With blossoms fresli and fair, And on the grassy mounds of clay We lay the flowers with care. As o'er each sleeping hero's head Our offerings we placed, The bravery of our honoured dead Shall never be effaced." There was no place that gave us more genuine pleasure than our all too short visit to the Woman's College. We were uncertain as to admission, but as we stood hesitating beneath the portal a student, whose bright eyes had still to watch the rise of more than one new harvest moon ere she reached womanhood, came blithely tripping up the broad flight of steps, and in answer to our enquiries, in the kindest and most winsome manner led us to the office of one of the officials, who very courteously conducted us over the building. We are in no danger of forgetting (personally I should not like to forget) the charm of that fair daughter of Columbia. The training she received in that Hi* *^> dw *hr |M* l -> i*T |nMai(l *r <*f*saar. . -, foe s* wt- x. ;r - ; it *ccwtcf :T - . 3>fd I - i jjif^Kr s. u,> orsf;cv- ; - - - - \ - - - -.' Vr ajnr>-^ IV - Vin, 1 :ia.: ti> :oji_ w siw. i- im&tr tie >& Hifc^iii ai> a* *n* --if a* Mvmt . t< tike