The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1855-06-12
The Pioneer Correspondence.
From our Regular New York Correspondent.
Matters and Things i'm New York.
New YORK, June /, 1875:

A stranger to our city life noting the splen-
did private residences upon 9Th Avenue, 18th
and neighboring eetS,whicb vie, as English
men assure me, with the most aristocratic
quarters of London, is quite likely to wonder
who own and inhabit them He sees no men
on the street or at the resorts of business whose
appearance COMFORTS with such palatial mag
nifcence, and imagines there is class Of citi-
zens of nobler person and bearing and distin-
gushing outward adornment-in short, semi
divine breed, the sight of which never blessed
his eyes. Not bit of it If it is worth his
while our curious friend may disenchant his
conceptions by dropping into some dingy, ILL.,
smelling Office in Front street, where he will
find one Of his suggestions celestials in crum-
pied dickey, and boots innocent of backing,
using and often numbering the language of
mortality upon such earthly topics, as ,allow,
turpentine, whale oil, borax and putty. If the
thing still seem homogeneous, let US see how it
is that John Smith,who waking speculations
down town, are Of putty and cognate themes,
has his sleeping visions uptown, amid such
princely magnificence. Thirty years ago some
lubberly coasting craft, on some drizzly morn
ing, deposited on some dock of Gotham gaw-
ky country boy, tender in memories of home,
and rich in nothing but natural shrewdness
and that indescribable yet all-important some
thing which is tersely summed up in the phrase
go-a-headativeness. Confused by the many
sights and sounds which assail him, he STUN
bles into the ry establishment, from over the
door of which his full name now stares in big
letters, and stammeringly asks for work. For
tunately there is vacancy, nd John begins
his city life half errand boy, half porter. He
is faithful, active and intelligent, and is advan-
ced ; one promotion succeeds another, until af-
ter ten years of laborious working up he is
senior partner OF great commercial house.
Everything he touches prospers, and wealth
rolls in upon him as if fortune had ceased to
be ickle, and formed permanent attachment.
Specializing mammas,with marriagable daugh-
tiers, softly hint to John It's time he were wed
The suggestion revives the memory of an early
love, and some day in the dull season, girlish
face, glancing cut Of the port causes him to look
from his ledger till he shuts it with q sigh,and
a week after the clerks all know that John
Smith is married in his native town, and will
take the unwonted dissipation Of full week
at Saratoga and Newport Then come Wis
ions of family and home suitable for one
of the " solid men," and up went the 9Th Av-
enue palace, which you, my stranger friend, SO
maryelled at IT'S grand without, and costly
within, with Injuries from all the world; and
John Smith has proud and beautiful daughters
who have changed the photography of his
name to /" Smythe," and can trace it back to
the Norman Conquest; who anguish through
the morning, and shine respondent in satin and
pearls at evening-assemblies; who have "little
loves" of feet, and turn up their classic noses
at mechanics, and dote on operas and the &" di
vine Mario" and snub John Smith because he
will intuition his vest in the parlor, and snub
mamma because, in the presence of the elegant
Mr.. Small Waist, she couples nouns singular
with verbs plural, and attributes the "Prover-
bal Philosophy to Watts. John Smith has
son, too, who wears unimpeachable neck.
cloths, and is au fat to the latest imported
dances, and who ignores the shop, and stays
out out late at night, and has heavy eyes in
the morning who shocks his sisters by profes
sing an undying attachment to the danseuse
Soto; who goes to the best schools, and who
has enough of the ability of his father to make
himself distinguished if he were pressed b!
the necessities of poverty, but who, as it is
stands fair chance to ruin himself To m.
unsophisticated friend when you admire tn
lofty brown stone fronts and the Venetian bal
ustrades on 9Th Avenue, and, through tn