The Personality of American CitiesHungerford, Edward
History
The Personality of American Cities
Hungerford, Edward
Cities and towns -- United States; United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
Lunch in your Day of Days within the City of the Towers is over. Three
o'clock. Before the last echoes of Trinity's bell go ringing down
through Wall street to halt the busy Exchange--the multitude has been
fed. Miss Stenographer has had her salad and éclair, two waltzes and
perhaps a "turkey trot" into the bargain, and is back at the keys of her
typewriter. Mr. President has entertained that Certain Party at the club
and has made him promise to sign that mighty important contract. And the
certain Party and Mr. President rode for half an hour on the mechanical
horses in the gymnasium. What fun, too, for those old boys?
Three o'clock! The cashiers are totaling their receipts, the waiters and
the 'buses are upturning chairs and tables to make way for the
scrub-women, some are already beginning to don their overcoats to go
uptown; but the three-quarters of a million of hungry mouths have been
fed. New York has caught its breath in mid-day relaxation and once more
is hard at work--putting in the last of its hours of the business day
with renewed and feverish energy.
IV
You had planned at first to walk up Broadway. You wanted to see once
again the church-yards around Trinity and St. Paul's, perhaps make a
side excursion down toward Fraunces' Tavern--just now come back into its
own again. Some of the old landmarks that are still hidden around
downtown New York seemed to appeal to you. But your host at luncheon
laughed at you.
"If you want to spend your time that way, all right," he said, "but the
only really old things you will find in New York are the faces of the
young men. You can find those anywhere in the town."
And there was another reckoning to be figured. Three o'clock means the
day well advanced and there is a _vis-à-vis_ awaiting you uptown. Of
course, there is a Her to enjoy your Day of Days with you. And just for
convenience alone we will call her Katherine. It is a pretty name for a
woman, and it will do here and now quite as well as any other.
Katherine is waiting for you in the Fourteenth street station of the
subway. She is prompt--after the fashion of most New York girls. And it
is a relief to come out of the overcrowded tube and find her there at
the entrance that leads up to sunshine and fresh air. She knows her New
York thoroughly and as a prelude to the trip uptown she leads you over
to Fifth avenue--to the upper deck of one of those big green
peregrinating omnibuses.
"It's a shame that we could not have started at Washington square," she
apologizes. "When you sweep around and north through the great arch it
almost seems as if you were passing through the portals of New York. It
is one of the few parts of the town that are not changing rapidly."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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