Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1854-01-04

HE ClTY OF NEW ORk ASLEEP- Iie ioi-
lowing from the New York Tribune is in the
best vein of Dickens:
cit is curious to see the circulation of great
city commence in the morning-the great city
that had roared itself to sleep. True there was
feeble pulse all night; the cars beat two and
fro; a carriage now and then gave a flutter, but
after all there had been quiet hour. About
half million of the people had been lying on
pillows of down and some on curb stones; some
beneath silken counterpanes and some beneath
the great blue quilt of heaven. Queer figures
they make in the minds eye, to be sure-4OO,-
900 folks, more or less, lying on their backs
lying in tiers or rows, five or six miles long
lying three or four deep. In the cellar-that is
the primitive formaton'-then first floor Sec
ond, third, and so on up to the garret. Three
hundred thousand people snoring-what con-
cert Two hundred thousand people dreaming.
Two hundred thousand people in red night caps
one hundred thousand in white, and here and
there one trimmed with lace. Fifty thousand
curls twisted up in papers, giving their owners
an appearance of having made pillow of cigar.
lighters. Twenty thousand curs hanging over
the backs of chairs or tossed upon tables. How
gently Time touches such people; they never
grow gray at all Ten thousand people weep
ing, and now and then one dying dying in his
sleep; dying in a dream. And then the getting
up is ridiculous enough: though going to bed
should we say retire in these refined times
lis solemn piece of business, whether people
think of it or not. But the getting up, the wa
king up, is funny enough for farce--its process
species of gradualisn. Here's one who has
slept like top for nine solid hours, and now
he begins to wake; first it is half.lurch and a
yawn; then an arm is thrust out, then foot !;
the muscles are waking up Next, the battle of
the early wagons strikes his ear; hearing is
'coming to-. Then his tongue moves uneasily
taste is returning. Last, his eyes open, one af-
ter the other--then half close, then open again,
and the mans awake--awake all over--awake
for all day. There's another, sound asleep this
minute, and this he shakes himself like n huge
Newfoundland, springs up percussion,' and the
thing is done; the fellow hasn't sleepy hair
about him. Snowy quilts that have just risen
and fallen with the soft bosom beneath begin to
grow uneasy. The sweet sleepers are waking,
so we'll draw the curtains and leave them to their
toilette. Bundles of rags in dark, damp cor
ncrs toss and tumble; there's something alive
underneath. Out it comes--more rags Mise
ry makes no toilette, and there are no curtains
TO draw
EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT.-A letter re.
ceived by an intelligent gentleman of this neigh.
borhocd. says the Reistertown Wing, from q
friend in New York, makes the following ex.
traordnary statement:
"The Millerities say Long Island is going to
sink, and believe it has already begun. There
is point of land near Northport, six hundred
feet one way, and two hundred the other, called
Point Bluff, that commenced settling between two
two and three months ago, at the rate of four in
ches day. 1t has sunk twenty feet already
and still continues sinking.
The population of California has increased
but slowly this year. From the 1st of January
to the 1st of November, the arrivals by sea ex