The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-01-31
[ Correspondence OF the Ashland Union.
FROM NEW YORK.
NEw YoRK, Jan. &c, 1855

Travelling home, after a fire in New
York at one or two o'clock, you have a
chance to see who wrests the small hours
from sleep, and for what purposes.
White kidded tops are helping languid
ladies into carriages before the steps of
some brilliantly lighted mansion, where
the music and the dance still go on with
flying feet. You may step into a house
of quiet and respectable appearance, by
the baek-door, if you choose. You will
find a long filed with jovial com
panions gathered around social tables,
smoking and imbibing to their hearts
content. Theirs where the quiet family
meet who love the social glass, but don't
want to be seen in a bar-room or com-
mon drinking saloon. They chat costly
about the war, hard times, and sporting
matters, without getting violent or ex-
cited Go down into the common " sa-
%loons,". below the level of the street,
and you will find a different set. They
are swallowing "brandy smashes," and
:" gin cocktails and wear their reckless
swagger=ana4oua speech proclaims them
to be of the " Nose and 1Sykesy,n order,
and proud of the name at that. They
have been running with the machine,
have stopped several times before to
take "something," and are now red hot
for q quarrel on the slightest occasion.
A word of d~isparagement to the favorite
machine, would be provocation enough
for a melee. Then rushes in the Star,
and calming down the furious combat
ants with a few blows of his short oak
club, he 4seizes the one who bears the
blacklist eye and bloodiest nose and
hacls off his prize to the station-house,
followed by the whole brawling crowd.
This is a specimen of the lowest class of
the midnight resorts. IF you want to
find where the promising young men of
New York, the heirs at law of our mers
chant prinses, keep themselves at this
time of night, we will introduce you to
"4St. Olairs,;' or sumo other of the mag
nifcently furnished drinking establish
ments that line Broadway. Or step
into " Fields billiard saloon where you
will see in what pursuits the students
of our city colleges and medical schools,
waste their midnight oil. Or again,
turn off Broadway, stop at a house
where inmates appear to have shut up
and gone to bed /" give a double knock
and you are admitted cautiously. If
your appearance is not suspicious, you
will be admitted further, into a brill
iantly lighted apartment where THE re-
yolving fortune of the faro table fasci-
mates a crowd of foplings and dashing
roues. These establishments are liable
to visits from the police, and are there
fore obliged to be careful in the admis-
sion of company. But we must not at
tempt to initiate your %virtuous readers
any further into the midnight amuse-
ments of our citizens. The rest were
better imagined than described. So We
will walk home in peace, if the gas hap
pens to be lighted. If the Al
manac has promised a moon, there will
be no gas, for one nights burning is a
considerable item in the city expenses.
There are 10000 street lamps, which
burn 10000 feet per hour, or 10000
feet per night. This would make the
cost of one nights lighting, at three
and a third mills per foot, $l,4o0.
i The great Ball for the relief of the
Poor, came off on Thursday night. The
Academy of Music was cram'naed will
delicate gauzes and magnificent silk
enclosing the fair forms of New Yorl
bellies. So great was the crowd tina
/ dancing was a very difficult operation
and was performed in very sedate anc
/, gingerly manner. As to the profits, they
are estimated differently, from $4,000
/ to $4,000 The socialist Germans hat
: threatened to mob the Academy, buf
!, did not dare to put the threat into ex,
ecution. There will be plenty of money
. now for the relief of the poor, if it be
only bestowed in the right way. Instead
, of being given out in bread and cloth
, ing it should be used in sending away
these pauper foreigners from a city