It Took Us But A Few Minutes, Though It Cost Us A Good Deal Of
Money, To Be Rattled Along West Street To Our Destination:
'Reunion House, No.
10 West Street, one minutes walk from Castle
Garden; convenient to Castle Garden, the Steamboat Landings,
California Steamers and
Liverpool Ships; Board and Lodging per day
1 dollar, single meals 25 cents, lodging per night 25 cents;
private rooms for families; no charge for storage or baggage;
satisfaction guaranteed to all persons; Michael Mitchell,
Proprietor.' Reunion House was, I may go the length of saying, a
humble hostelry. You entered through a long bar-room, thence
passed into a little dining-room, and thence into a still smaller
kitchen. The furniture was of the plainest; but the bar was hung
in the American taste, with encouraging and hospitable mottoes.
Jones was well known; we were received warmly; and two minutes
afterwards I had refused a drink from the proprietor, and was going
on, in my plain European fashion, to refuse a cigar, when Mr.
Mitchell sternly interposed, and explained the situation. He was
offering to treat me, it appeared, whenever an American bar-keeper
proposes anything, it must be borne in mind that he is offering to
treat; and if I did not want a drink, I must at least take the
cigar. I took it bashfully, feeling I had begun my American career
on the wrong foot. I did not enjoy that cigar; but this may have
been from a variety of reasons, even the best cigar often failing
to please if you smoke three-quarters of it in a drenching rain.
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