ty broad; rows of pillars on each side were loaded to the most
outrageous extent with carving and gilding, and the ceiling was to
match; below that was another room, a little smaller, and rather less
gaudy; both were crowded with the most tag-rag and bob-tail mixture of
people.

The houses are built of brick, and generally have steps up to them, by
which arrangement the area receives much more light; and many people
with very fine large houses live almost exclusively in these basements,
only using the other apartments for some swell party: the better class
of houses, large hotels, and some of the shops, have their fronts faced
with stone of a reddish brown, which has a warm and pleasant appearance.
The famous "Astor House" is faced with granite, and the basement is of
solid granite. The most remarkable among the new buildings is the
magnificent store of Mr. Stewart--one of the largest, I believe, in the
world: it has upwards of one hundred and fifty feet frontage on
Broadway, and runs back nearly the same distance: is five stories high,
besides the basement; its front is faced with white marble, and it
contains nearly every marketable commodity except eatables. If you want
anything, in New York, except a dinner, go to Stewart's, and it is ten
to one you find it, and always of the newest kind and pattern; for this
huge establishment clears out every year, and refills with everything of
the newest and best. Goods are annually sold here to the amount of
upwards of a million sterling--a sum which I should imagine was hardly
exceeded by any establishment of a similar nature except Morison's in
London, which, I believe, averages one and a half million. Some idea of
the size of this store may be formed, from the fact that four hundred
gas burners are required to light it up. Mr. Stewart, I was informed,
was educated for a more intellectual career than the keeper of a store,
on however grand a scale; but circumstances induced him to change his
pursuits, and as he started with scarce any capital, the success which
has attended him in business cannot but make one regret that the world
has lost the benefit which might have been anticipated from the same
energy and ability, if it had been applied to subjects of a higher
class.

I will now offer a few observations on the state of the streets. The
assertion has been made by some writer--I really know not who--that New
York is one of the dirtiest places in the world. To this I must g