ld their tents like the Arabs, and as silently steal
away." The absence of the law of primogeniture necessitates the breaking
up of estates, and thus facilitates the methods whereby the elegant
homestead becomes, in the second or third generation, a dry-goods store,
a boarding or club house, a milliner's show-room or a dentist's office.
Here and there some venerable gossip will rehearse the triumphs of
refined hospitality, or describe the success of a belle or the
brilliancy of a genial leader in politics or social pastime, which,
years ago, consecrated a mansion or endeared a neighborhood,--whereof
not a visible relic is now discoverable, save in a portrait or
reminiscent paper conserved in the archives of the Historical Society.
And in this speedy oblivion of domestic and social landmarks, how easily
we find a reason for the national irreverence, and the exclusive
interest in the future, which make the life of America, like the streets
of her cities, a scene of transition unhallowed by memorials.

Yet, despite its dead horses and vehicular entanglements, its vile
concert saloons, the alternate meanness and magnificence of its
architecture, the fragile character of its theatrical structures, and
their limited and hazardous means of exit,--despite falling walls and
the necessity of police guardianship at the crossings, the reckless
driving of butcher-boys and the dexterity of pickpockets,--despite the
slippery pavement, and the chronic cry for "relief,"--Broadway is a
spectacle and an experience worth patient study, and wonderfully
prolific of life-pictures. With a fountain at one end, like a French
town, and a chime of bells at the other, like a German city, the
intermediate space is as representative a rendezvous as can be found in
the world.

The first thing that strikes an experienced eye in New York's great
thoroughfare is the paucity of loiterers: he sees, at a glance, that the
_flaneur_ is an exotic here. There is that in the gait and look of every
one that shows a settled and an eager purpose,--a goal sought under
pressure. A counting-room, office, court, mart, or mansion is to be
reached punctually, and therefore the eye and step are straightforward,
intent, preoccupied. But this peculiarity is chiefly obvious early and
late in the day, when business and professional men are on their way to
and from the place of their daily vocations. Later, and especially about
two hours after noon, it is the dress and number