Page:Doom of the Great City - Hay - 1880.djvu/57

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home for business in the morning as regularly as they put on their great-coats when the thermometer failed to register a certain temperature.

“On a changé tout cela—the police of to-day are both energetic and efficient, and the ‘firing free’ of years ago is now happily confined to low drinking saloons and gambling hells. No one acquainted with the New York of to-day will, however, deny the justice of Mr. Day’s strictures so far as they relate to the scandalous and open facilities for immorality afforded by the ‘demoralising haunts’ infesting the city in the shape of the ‘cellars,’ where dancing and drinking go on until early in the morning, the ministering Hebes being ‘gaudily attired females of notoriously loose character.’ Immorality in this city is certainly unblushingly open, and does not seem to trouble itself about that decent screen which legislative action as well as public opinion has compelled it to shelter itself with in this country. In this sphere of activity there is certainly a wide field open to the philanthropic labours of a ‘social purity alliance.’ New York, like all other great commercial centres, possesses a certain “shoddy aristocracy”—to use a popular term—the mushroom outcome of successful speculation, and this aristocracy, knowing nothing better than fine houses, well-appointed carriages, and blazing jewels—the goal of its efforts—naturally delights in magnificent display. Hence in this city of the great Republic may be observed the strange spectacle of crested carriages and gorgeous footmen. As might be expected, the fairer portion of the inhabitants of the Fifth Avenue are not less addicted to gay dressing and sumptuous jewellery than their lords are to four-in-hands and yachts that might excite the envy of a king. According to Mr. Day, ‘a middle-class family in this country could live well upon the sum necessary to rig an American belle efficiently.’ This, be it understood, does not include jewellery, of which our Manhattanese cousins seem to be inordinately fond. Indeed, our author assures us that ‘no New York woman, be she dame or spinster, considers herself properly ‘adjusted,’ save when she has got half-a-dozen diamond rings sparkling on her tiny tapering fingers.’ He adds, ‘I am acquainted with a literary childless lady, whose husband every year invariably presents her with a pledge of love in the form of a diamond ring.’

“The excessive freedom from old-world social restraints characteristic of New York life seems to have jarred upon the nerves of Mr. Day. Not the least shocking to our way of thinking among the social anomalies that owe their existence to this freedom of manners is the custom so prevalent in some of the large and more go-ahead cities of the Union of courtship by advertisement. A gentleman travelling by steamboat or tramcar in New York sees a lady to whom he is an entire stranger, but with whose appearance he is prepossessed. The total want of acquaintance with the object of his adoration is no obstacle to his courtship, and with the most perfectly honourable intentions he hurries to his office or to his home, and pens such an advertisement as the following, selected by Mr. Day from the New York Herald:—

“.—Young lady, short, flowing hair, please grant an interview to young gentleman who crossed at Duane Street. Address, M. B., Box 4,678, Post-Office.

“Here is another gem from the ‘personal’ column:—

“ who unfortunately dropped the young lady while assisting her in crossing Grand Street on Sunday night desires her acquaintance. Address, F., 32, Grand Street.

“Our Transatlantic cousins are notoriously fond of being lectured to. Of course a reputation for brilliancy on the platform is not gained in a day any more than it is in any other walk of life, and it seems, according to the highest possible authority on Transatlantic lecturing—the Literary Bureau—that ‘next to merit nothing so assists a lecturer’s success as printer’s ink.’ Acting on this principle, the bureau devotes pages of its publication to advertisements, in the shape of articles from the pens of popular authors spreading abroad the special merits of its clients. Judging from the specimens given by Mr. Day, there is a vigour in these puffs peculiar to Yankee journalists, and never approached by their brethren of the pen on this side of the Atlantic. Take the following specimen culled by our author from an article in the Literary Magazine descriptive of the brilliant wit and striking delivery peculiar to a certain George Francis Train. Why, as an advertisement it would be well worth five dollars a line did ink flow