The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1851-10-11


SUNDAY IN NEw Yoax.-Civlisssion furnishes
few more interesting or fruitful phsnom sna than
the Sabbath in . large city, especially one COM
posed Of . mixed population like ours-es'h nation
and class preserving its own pecuarities of manner
and amusement. which on Sunday alone have an
opportunity of development and indulgence. In
the country, Sunday is a season of q most absolute
repose, especially to the muscle straning and sweat
producing classes; while the city it the schemss
and thinkers alone that rest and refresh their con-
sciences by religious exercises; while the great
body of the hard working p,pulation-she bone and
sinew Of the community-rush out Like children let
loose from school, to enjoy brief interval of excite
ment, and to inhale few breaths of uutanted air.
Those whose days and hours are all their own, and
who never by any possibility penetrate into the
filthy and noxous quarters of the city, where helot
ism swelters in its rags and dirt, hafsuocated amid
poisonous vapors, can form but poor idea of the
preciousness of few hours Of relax alton, change of
scene and pu air, to the lab bring classes. To
hem the city is vast prison, in whose trenches
and passages they work ami dig, with the privilege
of escape and respite one day in seven. To them,
Sunday is not only morally, but physically, Sab
BATH and civilization is beginning to discover that
all real melioratisn of the condition of m anknd
ton. There is, doubtless earnest and true devotion
in the unconscious gladness of the laboring man
who, with his wife and family, on Sunday, escapes
from the cty's walls and feels himself walking and
breathing in the free air of the heavens perfumsd
with the breath of grove and field. The cheerful
talk and happy laughter Of these people are hymns
and thanksgivings to the Creator, doubtless as &C
ceptabe as the richly-paid quartettes and nicely
prayers and sermons, which ascend from innumer-
able costly and magnifcently- ointed churches.
New York is admirably situated for the accom-
mediation of its working classes with the facilities
for getting out of town and into the country. Per-
haps there is not another instance in the world
where the inhabitants in the middle of city Of six
hundred thousand population, can in fifteen minutes,
and at an expense Of sxpence down to two cents,
transport themselves literally into the country, sur
rounded by all the agreeable influences Of woods
and green fields and soothed by that sense of silence
and repose for which the heart of the citizen pines
and his frame aches. Ifyou would get proper ap.
probation of the value set upon fresh air by those
who get it but once week, 60 to Hoboken on
Sunday morning, and wander about its romantic
retreats. At length, you will find yourself at the
Elysian Fields-a beautiful spot, turfed with I'M
broken green and shaded by majestic old trees, with
out suspicion of under brush. After drinking in
the strength and rest lavishly impaired by the calm
solitude of this lovely spot and feeling as much
rene we'd as Anteus when he had kissed his mother
earth, you can walk leisurely down the splendid
graveIled water terrace, along the banks of the
river, listening to the sleepy murmur
"Of the small ripple split upon the beach,
and following with your eye the countless sails that
like flock of gigantic white winged creatures,
glide through the far distance, with just sense of
motion and life to give assurance that you are still
in the actual world, but not sufficient to disturb the
current of your dreamy reveries. Away to the
left, and northwardly as far as the eye can PIERCE
stretches the dark outline Of the monster city,
coiled along the edge Of the water in gig antic
fods-now, at this safe distance, silent and asleep
for you. AS you gaze upon the gloomy labyrinth
from which you have for q moment escaped, sense
of triumph and freedom comes over you that al
most com pensates for week Of toll.
Such is but one of numerous places Of resort for
peace and rest, within easy distance of the heart Of
our immense city-and every one, on each return
ing Sunday, is more and more crowded with its
spectacle and neatly dressed families. The row.
dyism and ruf6anism which once made these
resorts disagreeable and dangerous, have, in
a great measure, disappeared, although there
is still room for improvement in this re-
spect. 1t would be greatly to the interest of the
citizens Of Hoboken, Staten Island, Williamsburg
and all surrounding places, TO have q regular and
reliable police stationed at the ferries leading from
New York, and around the principal places Of re-
sort. What noise and disturb snoe there may COCA
sionally be found, generally proceed from afew ig
norant persons who would scanper, or remain quiet
and respectful, If they knew there were policemen
within call. The same hint would do our own au-
thorities no harm. Sometimes the most disgracefal
scenes enacted in and about our ferry houses,
especially late at night and Is not in the memory
of man woman that policeman was ever to DO
seen there when he was wanted. In the provisions
for the peace and protection Of quiet people, under
the ordinary circumstances Of daily life, We have
much yet to learn.
In the city ITSELF the Sabbath is not without Il,
peculiarites and excitements II is true that Wall
street is as still and silent If it had been seized
with ossif cation Of its granite heart, and the
football Of the solitary edestrian echoes sartlingy,
like Layaras, as he penetrated into the unburied
si,e of Nineveh. Not q token, not a reminis-
cence, of all the painting and perspiring thou
sands who all the week have run fercely up
and down this great stone cage, remains on
wall or walk. The dens Of the brokers-those
spiders who weave their meshes Of thin bank paper
rags even msier and uns abe. initial than the
arsobnean welfare all Theoretically closed, as if
they we're the tombs Of the victims who have there
been slain and skinned The "ponderous and mar
BILE jaws" Of the innumerable banks are also shut
tight--snd indeed the whole street, on Sunday looks
not unlike a thickly populated avenue in some old
cemetery, with the Custom House AID the Exchanye
towering up like two gigantic mausolea, and the
tall spr, Of Trinity spriDging like an exhalation
into The Ky If point the way the souls Of the
departed ought to have taken.
! But the churches, thickly planted like trees Of
promise in every quarter Of the city, and the sire is
leading to them, present totally different appear
| anco IT. during the week, the stranger should be