Here and there, one of these clapboards "cities" emerge into one of
brick and stone. Then three, four and five story structures rise like an
exhalation. Enormous turrets, bay windows, lofty ceilings, gold and
vermillion, marble, iron and gewgaws, without end, without order,
without taste, and without regard to adaptability, business or
convenience meet the eye on every side. Plate glass windows disclose a
profusion of costly and variegated wares and merchandise, and enormous
mirrors entice unsophisticated rustics down endless avenues. Turning
your eye upwards along these aspiring structures, you behold broken
windows and other evidences of dilapidation, denoting the utter
uselessness of these lofty creations; and your amazement is no way
lessened when you learn, that from twelve to twenty per cent. interest
is paid for the money to erect them, secured by trust deeds upon the
building itself, upon "out lots," and upon broad acres of "wild lands."
Then what palatial residences are reared in the suburbs! Palaces,
cottages, temples, pavilions, pagodas and mosques adorn valley and hill
top. Domes, steeples, spires, turrets and minarets, gleam in the sun
light, peer out of clumps of foliage, and struggle upwards at every
unexpected point. Porticos, verandas, observatories, pillars, are here,
there, everywhere, in endless profusion.--Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian, Composite, Gothic and Yankee architecture are every where
attempted, sometimes several of them on the same building, and sometimes
all jumbled together.--Around them are close shaven lawns, graveled
walks, arbors, climbing vines, summer houses, green houses, and flower
plats, all under the care of one, two, three or more Patricks. Within,
frescos and gilding, paint and upholstery, marble and porcelain, rose
wood and mahogany vie, in their power to please, with magnificent
toilets and languid ladies. Carriages, drawn by thousand dollar bays,
groomed by blue coated Hibernians, flash upon the vision like the gleam
of a meteor. But alas, for the inevitable revulsion! Down on the
"business street," in front of premises where deposits are received and
ten or fifteen per cent. interest allowed thereon, and exchange is sold
on all eastern and European cities, a motley crowd of anxious and
excited people--merchants, farmers, mechanics, seamstresses,
laundresses, draymen, and laborers--are assembled. What brings them
there? Why, Messrs. Dash & Splurge have "suspended"--that's all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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