An Englishman's Travels In America: His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States - 1857 - By J. Benwell.
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His Appearance
As He Passed Along Attracted Little Notice, Such Vagaries Being Common
In America.
My attention was also arrested by a person who was arrayed
in a hunting suit of buck-skin, curiously wrought with strips of dyed
porcupine-quill, and who wore an otter-skin cap and Indian moccasins.
There, is, however, little novelty in this costume, which I frequently
saw afterwards.
Caps of the description I have mentioned are commonly
worn in the interior. I subsequently donned one myself, and found it an
admirable adjunct to easy travelling.
During my stay at New York, I found the heat almost overpowering, the
Indian summer (as the period between autumn and winter is there termed)
having set in. An umbrella was quite a necessary appendage at times, to
avoid its effects, which are often fatal to Europeans at the time of the
summer solstice.
In perambulating the city of New York, its appearance is prepossessing
to a visitor; the streets are well laid out, and are wide and regular,
the houses being for the most part of the better class. The white or red
paint (the latter predominates), and the green and white jalousie,
venetian, and siesta blinds, giving a picturesqueness to the scene.
Handsome mats lie outside the doors of many of the better description of
houses.
Broadway is the principal place of attraction in New York, but it has so
often been described by visitors, that it is a work of supererogation to
comment much upon it here; as, however, every tourist can see and
describe differently the same objects, I must not pass it in silence,
especially as it ranks in the view of the New Yorkers, something as
Bond-street and Regent-street do in the metropolis of England. It is,
however, far inferior to these; it is not one, but a continuous line of
streets, and, including Canal-street, extends about three miles in
length. The Haarlem Railway comes down a considerable portion of the
upper part, the rails being laid in the centre of the street The lower
end of Broadway merges into the Battery Park, which is situated at the
water's edge. In Broadway are to be seen magnificent hotels, theatres,
magazines-de-mode, and all the etceteras of a fashionable mart, not
omitting to mention crowds of elegantly dressed ladies and exquisitely
attired gentlemen, including many of colour; the latter appearing in the
extreme of the fashion, with a redundancy of jewellery which,
contrasting with their sable colour, produces to the eye of a stranger
an unseemly effect. The shops and stores are fitted up in the Parisian
style, appear well attended by customers, and are crowded with the
choicest description of goods.
Astor's Hotel, built by the so-called millionaire of that name, is a
large but rather heavy-looking pile of building, and forms a conspicuous
object in the park. Here many of the elite from the provinces sojourn on
visiting the city. The accommodations are stated to be of the first
order, and, from a cursory inspection, I should imagine this to be true,
the only drawback being the enormous prices charged, exceeding, I was
told, the ordinary run of first-class houses of that description.
Noticing from the opposite side of the street that the entrance was much
crowded, curiosity led me to cross over and ascend the steps and listen
to what was going on, supposing it some political demonstration; in
this, however, I was mistaken, for I found that the cause of the
commotion was the recent arrival and presence of the celebrated
statesman and lawyer, Daniel Webster, _en route_ to Washington, whither
he was called by Congressional duties.
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