Then I went to New York and what happened to me and my plans may be
indicated by my first experience in the city. Knowing that an old friend
was located at a certain address on lower Broadway I decided to call on
him before doing anything else. I found a real sky-scraper at the
address sought. Looking up his address in the office directory I found
that his room number was 3224. Being accustomed to office buildings and
hotels where the rooms are numbered with the first figure indicating the
floor on which the room is located, I expected to find my friend on the
third floor. Stepping in the elevator I asked for room 3224, and was
promptly whirled to the thirty-second floor. My guess at the location
had been multiplied by ten. And I soon found that this kind of
multiplication touched everything. If Boston made me move three times as
fast as Toronto, New York would make me move ten times as fast and far
as Boston. Right there my plans went glimmering. Like Huck Finn, "I lost
all holts." I was willing to forego a holiday, but I did not propose to
invite apoplexy. Since then I have been doing business in a
catch-as-catch-can way--and getting information and impressions in the
same way. And what I am getting I shall pass on just as I get
it--without plan or too much order. The impossibility of keeping step
with New York without a long previous training has compelled me to give
up the attempt and has restored me to the holiday humor I was in when
leaving the farm. So now we can step lightly again.
One day many years ago I happened to be with the late "Billy" Garrison,
whose memory still lingers in New York newspaper life. A bewildered
individual approached and asked Garrison:
"Are you a Scotchman?"
"No," said the wit, "but if you wait a minute I think I can find you
one."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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