Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
He has a sharp tongue, too, this Brown, when he chooses to use it, and a
good story is told of this quality of his. He was once calling the
carriages at a brilliant party. Among the guests was Harry X---, a young
gentleman of fortune, concerning whose morals some hard things were said.
It was hinted that Mr. X--- was rather too fond of faro. The young
gentleman and the great sexton were not on good terms, and when Brown,
having summoned Mr. X---'s carriage, asked, as usual, "Where to, sir?" he
received the short and sharp reply, "To where he brought me from." "All
right, sir," said Brown, calmly, and turning to the driver he exclaimed
in a loud tone, "Drive Mr. X--- to John Chamberlain's faro-bank." A roar
of laughter greeted this sally, and Brown smiled serenely as his
discomfited enemy was driven away.
Fashionable weddings are very costly affairs. The outfits of the bride
and groom cost thousands of dollars, the extravagance of the man being
fully equal to that of his bride. A wedding is attended with numerous
entertainments, all of which are costly, and the expenses attendant upon
the affair itself are enormous. The outlay is not confined to the
parties immediately concerned, the friends of the happy pair must go to
great expense to give to the bride elegant and appropriate presents.
One, two, or three rooms, as may be required, are set apart at every
fashionable wedding, for the display of the presents. These are visited
and commented upon by the friends of the bride and groom, such being the
prescribed custom. The presents are frequently worth a handsome fortune.
At the marriage of the daughter of a notorious politician not long since,
the wedding presents were valued at more than $250,000. Efforts have
been repeatedly made to put a stop to the giving of such costly presents,
but the custom still continues.
As it is the ambition of every one of the class we are discussing to live
fashionably, so it is their chief wish to be laid in the grave in the
same style. The undertaker at a fashionable funeral is generally the
sexton of some fashionable church, perhaps of the church the deceased was
in the habit of attending. This individual prescribes the manner in
which the funeral ceremonies shall be conducted, and advises certain
styles of mourning for the family. Sometimes the blinds of the house are
closed, and the gas lighted in the hall and parlors. The lights in such
cases are arranged in the most artistic manner, and everything is made to
look as "interesting" as possible.
A certain fashionable sexton always refuses to allow the female members
of the family to follow their dead to the grave. He will not let them be
seen at the funeral, at all, as he says, "It's horribly vulgar to see a
lot of women crying about a corpse; and, besides, they're always in the
way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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