Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-01-11
EDITORS CORRESPONDENCE.
NEW BOOKS, SOCIETY, AND THE FINE ARTS
IN NEW YORK.
New YoRK. JANUARY 2. 1851.

| NEW YORK. JANUARY =, 1851.
New Years Day in New York half century
ago, when the entire population of the city did not
exceed ttlIe of what it is now when the re-
gions {" above Bleecker" were desolate waste, and
Chelsea the ultima hale of civilization when the
norhernmost limit of "good society " reached a
point which nowadays would be regarded as
hopeessly down town." when dinners in man
sions which are warehouses to-day, and balls un-
der roofs which have covered nothing bat merchan-
disc for this many long year were the prevalent
hospalities Of the tine-in that remote period, the
memory whereofs growing fainter and fainter with
every returning cycle-New Years Day may have
been very happy, comfortable, and altogether sa-
tsfactory anniversary. Phen the interchange of
cives and cordial greetings, and friendly visits,
which the day demanded were matters easy Of ac-
complishment, and calling for little exertion beyond
that OF being agreeable and giving your negbsr the
benefit of il. New Years calls were substantial
affairs hospitality opened the front door for the
visiter good cheer awaited him in the parlor, and
he went away, if not wiser and better man then
when he came, at least much fuller and warmer
one. Such was New Years I" once npon time. I"
But what destiny is that which awaits the New
Yorker on the first day Of the year in T. ese latter
days. ALI the unpaid social debts, all the unac-
knowedged courtesies and unrequited hospitali,ies
OF the past twevemonth sit heavy on his soul. The
reckoning must be wiped out before night now is
his only chance, and wo to the man who negects
it, if he wishes to keep his place in the realms of
gentlity. There is of families in Brooklyn,
| a good four miles off-there neglected relative
at Williamsburgh, another quaternion of miles
there an interesting colony Of acquanaDces at
Jersey city, several blocks beyond the Philadelphia
depot-to say nothing Of his New York friends
dotted along at convenient distances from the Bate
ry to Forteth street, and sprinkled over the four
quarters of the city on the most impartial system OF
social distribution. Poor man !! the New Year ap-
pears to him in the shape of horrid monster, of
whose caprice he is to be the football, and who is
going to begin his tyranny by sending him of an
hundred errands all at once.
The truth is, the city has outgrown this New
Years custom of visiting so very agreeable in theo-
ry, but apt'to be very much the reverse in prac-
tice. With census of over half million Of in
habants and proportionably large, it is next
to impossible to keep up as universal fashion, one
which depends much on locality and convent
ence. One Of these days our postery will laugh at
this strange notion of their ancestors.
Eighteen hundred and fifty-one opened with a
keen cold westerly wind, which braced up our
nerves pretty well for the duties of the day. A
slight fall of snow on New Years eve had covered
the ground with about three quarters of an inch of
snow, on the strength of which the seighs and
sleigh bells out in great force, and by high the
streets began to look gay Carnival. Then that
quiet observer, with eye the udcrous and genial
sympathy with the current humor Of the day, might have
found ample amen for his digestion. Old gentlemen frsk
ing up and down high steps, and in and of from. DOORS
evidently determined get the better oTme the day
of the year, and only take him by the foreock" but
shake him into the bargain young gentlemen with des
peratey fast horses and dasbing seighs fred with great
bon dazzle whole neigbborhoods bewder their pedesr
friends, and 90 do up of calls many minutes;
quiet citizens Of sociabe disposition with pockets full of
bonbons for the children, bent upon making themselves
home away from home conscientious worthless trudgrg along
for miles together with carefully prepared s" condensed
from their wives catalogue Of gossps and their
ca " connexions " very premature beaux making vigorous
pushes for social recognition and Introducing themselves into
fashionable paors the great disgust of of the
world three years their senior and bellies of their
age and and then gentleman Of convval
mind with confused notions of etiquette, who after great
difficulty in finding the doorbe and being conveyed into the
drawing room discovers that be in the wrong house, and
covers his embarrassment by ''taking little something
and reeating very flushed and with peplexei sagger
All this outside-but within, under the enchantment of
becoming light elaborate toilets and the nonpare of good
humor and sweet smiles, how much to admire. The
stately old lady who receives you with historic dignity Just
she did somebody else thirty ago, and who has
fused idea that you your father uncle the blooming
young lady, the very young LADY, who is perfect aspen Of
bewi,cheries, and dses abily from the tips of her n
gers and the ends Of her cus the maiden lady who knows
every body and grows confidential the compliments the
and the charming who introduces the young
daughter all the world, and thinks that really, after ALL
is delightful CUSTOM and what should do without '
Happy the who has diplomatic auache or Senator
in Congress, Representative, officer in the British
army French Count, English author whom he
pioneer the paors of his friends and bask the sunshine
of his celebrity What stir it made yesterday when Mr.
JAMES, the novelist, known to be abroad duty as
caller under the wing Of friend, positively for pug
poses Of collecting materials for work, but simply
locker in Vienna lion is twice lion New Years
day. and his bushing honors thicker than he
would win immortal le, him enter the Ests--of visit
New Years. ...... 49,.
Some people, very silly ones, to be sure have fashion,
which is fast being put down absurdy, of excluding
the daylight from their drawing and lighting up the
gas with all the bliancy of evening this partly
for the sake Of their compexions and partly for the sake of
the little eca which any thing out Of the way supposed to
confer But gasght wretched substitute for daylight
The sunshine ceeps through the cevcss Of the shutters and
and then, the gas happening dm go out the
expelled daylight be admitted like unwecome guest
New Years is drsadfu day for very bashfal gentlemen
and very nearsghed ladies' especially when tbs two in
conjunction. The very bashfu gentleman has sooner
crossed the threshold than he overwhelmed Ivy
Portable conviction that he somewhere where he not want
IL hs