Impressions of New York

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 121, 30 May 1885, Page 5

Impressions of New York

Tin. most forcible impression on my mind was to tho effect that that most frugal and ingonious poople, tho Dutch, hud boen forced by the machinations of Prince Bismark tocvaculntoHolland, and hadsuddenly colonised tho purlieus of Paradisc-streot, Liverpool, which by somo preternatural means or othor had boon transported across tho Atlantic. Tho little red-brick houses, the high " stoops " or flights of woodon steps iv front, tho green "jealousio" shutters, tho handicrafts und shop business carried on in collars, tho amount of mopping und scrubbing nnd scouring going on, theendloss procession of open drays full of corpulent littlo kegs presumably full of Schiedam, all at first bespoke tho neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, or Tho llaguo. Hut no ; I was not in Holland. Locomotives and passenger cars arc not uccu-tomod, so fur as my romembranco sorvos me, to whiz through the ambient air on a level with tho sccond-lloor windows in the towns of tho Low Countrios ; and it is only when crossing ono of the avenues that I bogan|torealisothofactthatlhad reached tho only country which as yot possesses that not artistic looking but still distinctly beneficial institution, an "Elevated Railway"— America, . . . I had scarcely, however, made up my mind that I was in tho United States whon a change came ovor tho spirit of my dream, and I found myself murmuring that surely I must bo in Germany, Thoso unmistakably Toulonie names over the shop fronts, those bakeries, barbers, billiard rooms,shops for tho salo of "underwear," oating and drinking houses, lagor-beer saloons, bowling alleys, and corner grocers —tho whole redolont with a mild ■ perfumo of suuoikraut, sausages, and Bremen tobacco, bolongod obviously lo tho Fatherland—not perhaps so much to austere Berlin, or vivacious Vienna, or a-sthotic Munich, or docorous Dresdon, as to ono of

tho Hanso towns,

Vos, lam in

Germany : and I waited in fonr and trembling to hoar tho strains of tho " Wacht am Rhoin," to soo tho warriors of Gormania with thoir invincible •' picklohaubo " helmets and their irresistible necdlo-guns march by "in squadrons and platoons, with their music playin' chunes," and to fcol that I was a " Philister." Not a bit of it. We jolted round a corner. We passed by a Mount Testaccio of potatoes, of evidently Irish extraction, I saw Mike from Connemara smoking his dhudoon. Biddy M'Flinn was brushing up some blooming Newton pippins with tho corner of her woollen shawl, to make the fruit look spruco and tidy for market; and Father O'Quigly, the priest, passed by slock and smiling, with a broadbrimmed hat and a black broadcloth coat reaching down to his heels.—"America Revisited."