There Were Lace Collars 40 Guineas Each, And
Flounces Of Valenciennes Lace, Half A Yard Deep, At 120 Guineas A Flounce.
The Damasks And Brocades For Curtains And Chairs Were At Almost Fabulous
Prices.
Few gentlemen, the clerk observed, give less than 3l. per yard
for these articles.
The most costly are purchased by the hotels. I saw
some brocade embroidered in gold to the thickness of half an inch, some of
which had been supplied to the St. Nicholas Hotel at 9l. per yard! There
were stockings from a penny to a guinea a pair, and carpetings from 1s.
8d. to 22s. a yard. Besides six stories above ground, there were large
light rooms under the building, and under Broadway itself, echoing with
the roll of its 10,000 vehicles.
The hotels are among the sights of New York. The principal are the Astor
House (which has a world-wide reputation), the Metropolitan, and the St.
Nicholas, all in Broadway. Prescott House and Irving House also afford
accommodation on a very large scale. The entrances to these hotels
invariably attract the eye of the stranger. Groups of extraordinary-
looking human beings are always lounging on the door-steps, smoking,
whittling, and reading newspapers. There are southerners sighing for their
sunny homes, smoking Havana cigars; western men, with that dashing free-
and-easy air which renders them unmistakeable; Englishmen, shrouded in
exclusiveness, who look on all their neighbours as so many barbarian
intruders on their privacy; and people of all nations, whom business has
drawn to the American metropolis.
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