The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-17 00:00:00

AN INCIDENT IN NEW YORK.

" The lower part of Broadway—below Barnum, that
is to say--is, pretty much given over to, business and the
masculine gender. Ladies seen south of St. Paul's, except in,l
omnibus, excite that certain indefinable curiosity, which, like,
the active attention to a glimpse of a pettidoatin a monastery, .
arises from our sinner's interest in things, apparently astray:
The impression, consequently, from seeing alady come out of
Delmonico's, contains a certain indefinable difference from,the
impression of seeing the same lady come out-of the New Yak
Hotel—define it at your leisure. This,or.perhaps the mag-
netism of a pair of boots such as usually: contain a voter, but
were then occupied by one of the unconetituent sex, drew a
crowd of two or three hundred persons, the other day, to, the
front of the masculine hotel above mentioned—patient spec-
tators, all, of the very ordinary phenomenon of a lady. about
mounting a horse. The horse had his- objections. A man's
hat, a riding habit of cloth of our wear,_ boots of indefinable
extent, and whip held with an air of unmistakeable. efficacy,
seemed to fail of their ordinary control.. The stable-man drew
the spirited animal again and again, to- the edge of the side
walk, and, as often, the lady tried in vain to get her foot in
the stirrup. After repeated failures- she re-ascended the steps
of the hotel, and stood observing the groom's. eftbrts to quiet
the horse, not at all disconcerted by the very large audience (?)
that was assembled, and, in fact, the whole affair, with the
circular bowling green, below, looking like a scene in a circus.
Presently came along a plainly dressed man who bad an idea,
and no objection to lend it. He knew how to produce sub-
mission (probably in quadrupeds only) to• female domination.
The horse was coaxed up to the side walk once more, and,
stepping to the other side, the man took up the off fore legi
and held it while the lady mounted, the animal having
evidently no confidence in resistance on three legs. Once-in
the saddle, she put on the whip, caracoled up and down in
front of the hotel till the pace was disciplined to her mind,
and then, quietly dropping the reins, walked her steed tran-
quilly toward the South Ferry. The crowd looked after her
till she was out of sight, it being yery busily whispered about,
that the load, thus unwillingly borne away, was no less than
the indomitable will:of the celeliyated Mrs.. Fanny Kemble."
• •
The above is a fair illustration of Mr. Willis's skill
and taste as.. a. pen-and-ink picture maker, and few
will venture to say that the thing is not knowingly,
indeed cleverly, treated. Yet, all must agree in pity-
ing at least, if they do not condemn, that wretched
taste which induces a man to see only in his fellow
man the subject for a picturesque sketch—to perceive
in his intercourse with nature and society only the
materials out of which to fabricate a racy scene—that
either or both may be coined into a few miserable
dollars. This is a sort of literary and social treason
which has been long bitterly complained of and no
offender has been more flagrant in that species of
delinquency than Mr. Willis. It is, therefore, some
consolation for outraged humanity to know that his
" Sketches from Nature" do not now include " interior
representations taken surreptitiously on the spot" in
respectable mansions, but are necessarily confined to
" street views," and " passing portraits," taken without
the owners' consent. it is to be regretted that talent
such as that indicated in the above sketch, and such
as Mr. Willis has been long admitted to possess,
should not have been accompanied by that delicacy of
feeling—that sense of social propriety, which impresses
on every gentleman the knowledge that the door
which has been unfolded in hospitality, should not be
left open by the guest to the gaze of vulgar and idle
curiosity.

A Series of Christian Biography. No. 1, Life of
James Bonnell. No. 2, Life of Nicholas Ferrar.
London : Masters. Price 2s. 6d. each.
The enterprising publisher, in his prospectus of
the above series, states that—.
In no branch of devotional literature is the Church of Eng-
land so deficient, as in biography. Indeed, she can be said to
possess but one single standard volume of the kind—and that
but ill adapted to the unlearned reader : we allude, of course,
to Walton's Lived. Whether we look to the Fathers of the
Primitive and undivided Church ; or to those great and good
men by whom the Gospel was brought into this land : to
those who have toiled and suffered in its defence in every age ;
or to those who in the privacy of their Own homes have lived
the most saintly among us, there is no accessible record con-
cerning them which we can place in the hands of our people.
Particular schools and parties, within or without the
church, have not indeed been insensible to the benefits to be
derived from this kind of literature. put the Church of