Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/36

2 a sea fringed with luxuriant trees and gleaming villas, called us on deck to enjoy the sights of the nearby shore. Indeed, the first view of the bay of New York was a great surprise. The water was alive with innumerable boats and ships of all kinds, crossing hither and thither in gay confusion; on the shore we saw the luxuriance of nature and the splendor of wealth; before our eyes was the mighty city bedecked with flags, and above us the brilliant American sky.

New York is as bustling as the most animated parts of London, yet it is very different. Life is much more cheerful, is free from the English monotony of physiognomy and morose taciturnity in the business transactions. Here the faces of all nationalities mingle, marked by their distinctive types, from the African negro to the native Indian. Here there is laughter and talk in a hundred different languages and manners. New York somewhat resembles Paris. Broadway, the principal street, has not the proud magnificence of Regent Street in London, but it approaches the rich elegance of the Parisian boulevards. In it gorgeous shops, restaurants and hotels stand in closely-built rows and an endless rumble of business traffic is concentrated. It is also the arena for the competition of feminine beauty and elegance. The side-streets are all the more quiet, with rows of trees planted on either side, and to a great extent built up with comfortable dwelling-houses. One day we drove out of the city streets to see the immediate neighborhood and we found the fields full of life, where streets were being laid out and already stately stone buildings stood near the original block-houses—strange juxtaposition of the old and the new. In a short time all these will be united within the continuously extending city limits.

From New York we went to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is more quiet than New York, but not at all quiet