A Stroll in Broadway, Part II [pp. 302-304]

,3 Stroll in Broadway.
into the full enjoyment of the luxury of sorrow;
and literally to put on "the oil of joy for mourn ing, and a garment of praise for a spirit of heavi ness."
What a display of gorgeous volumes-" Books
that are no books"-" things in book's clothing,"
Lamb would have called them-are here arranged
to attract the passing gaze. And here is a phrenological cast, ready mapped off for the study of
that pleasing science. Apropos! The god Brama,
according to the Bramins, never fails, at the instant of each man's birth, to write on his head, in
characters indelible, every thing he is to do, and
whatever, during life, shall befall him. Was the
theory of phrenology, think you, really an emanation from the brain of Dr. Gall, or do we owe to
him merely the reducing to a system the belief of
those ancient phrenologists, the Brahminst
How truly rich and beautiful are the goods displayed in the windows we are passing! Velvets
and gold embroideries-fit appointments for regal
grandeur-shawls for a Sultana, and gossamer for
land of faery. If in your shopping excursions you
would be served without rudeness, always make
your purchases, however small, in a respectable
establishment. Listen to a case in point, though I
may be long in bringing the conclusion before you.
Some few mornings since I set out on a visit to a
friend, residing in a remote quarter of the city.
My course, for some distance, lay through Broadway. The street was thronged, as now, and as I
proceeded onward, my spirits exhilirated by the
soft morning air, and the happy faces passing before me, I already felt my apparel changed, like
the homely garments of Cinderellla, by the wand
of enchantment. My cloak of plain drab was magnified into a sumptuous mantle of "three-piled
Genoa," and the plume in my bonnet might have
graced the head-dress of an Empress. I was
alone, but felt an attache at either elbow. I shared
in the bows, the smiles, the compliments, bestowed
on each fair pedestrian. Now, bending responsive to some amiable salutation from the promenade, I rolled onward, liveried and lacqueyed, in
my magnificent equipage, with its blazoned pannels
and crested hammer-cloth-my vision of grandeur,
in short, was as high wrought as the day-dream of
Alnaschar,-too soon, alas! to be as suddenly
overthrown.
I had now turned off from Broadway, and was
proceeding through one of those unpleasant streets
leading to the eastern section of our city, when,
on removing my hand from my muff, I discovered
that the straw-colored gloves I wore retained too
evident marks of contact with the dark colored fur
to be presentable. The door of a low shop, strung
round with calicoes, and flaunting in ribbands and
laces-their price, in starring blue numerals, pinned
to each article, at this juncture, presented itself;
and although one rarely meets with aught purchas
able in such shops, yet, in the hope of finiding an
article that might serve for the nonce, I entered.
Such as the shop afforded were readily produced;
but on demanding the price, the attempt at extor tion was so obvious, that, replacing the gloves on
the counter, I turned to leave the place. "Won't
you buy." said the man, roughly. " Not at that
price," I replied! "I have never paid more than five
shillings for such as these, and you demand seven."
"Then missis," returned he, swelling with impor tance, "you never bought in a re-spect-able store!"
This sudden assertion of consequence, and rude
apparent doubting of my own gentility, was too
much even for my usually quiet risibles, and I
laughed aloud. It is well for us, thought I, as I
again proceeded on my way, that there are those
about us who, when we are lifted above ourselves,
are ready to bring us back again to our proper
level.
Farther on a woman, in soiled gown and long
gold ear-rings, standing in the doorway of a shop
for the vending of groceries, crockery-ware and
provisions-ornamented on one side by a pile of
cabbages, and on the other with some dried her rings, fancifully arranged on the top of a pork bar rel-a slaughtered hog dangling by the heels from
the awning rail in front-attracted my attention.
Just then a man, guiding by the long reins an at tenuated horse, attached to a diminutive cart laden
with vegetables, addressed the lady in an agreeable
voice with-" do you want any onions, Madam?"
Here was a Preux Chevalier of servant maids and
market women! I could have called him friend at
the moment, for his apparent reverence for the
form of womanhood.
Apropos to the system of morning calls-that
necessary evil in a large community, where distance, for the most part, precludes more social
visiting. How vexatious, after a long journeying
through by-streets, to be turned from a friend's
door with-" not at home," or the worse plea of"engaged." The first, being definite, is preferable; but the latter mortifies my ear like an impertinence. With the fashionable lady on her morning round, the mere repetition of a conventional
term of denial weighs not against her dignity an
iota. Strong in her own position in society, her
liveried equipage draws up before some stately
dwelling; and giving her cards into the whitegloved hand in waiting. to be re-delivered to the
other gentleman footman standing erect in the
wide open portal, she sinks back again in her luxurious seat; while the coachman on the box, swelling with all the conscious importance of place,
gives rein to the impatient steeds, and onward
rolls the lordly equipage with its blazonry and
crest toward some other mansion, marked out on
her morning visiting route. But to those who,
like myself, haply removed from a life of necessity, dwell midway between the habitations of toil
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