New-York daily tribune., 1856-08-02
FROM PHILADELPHIA.
From our Special Correspondent.


PHILADELPHIA, Friday, August l, 1856.
What strikes me in Philadelphia Is the mutipli-
cation of noble dwelliDg.bOuses recently built
There is 20 Fifth Avenue nor is there in Europe
any single street Of such fine houses. But in this
city, the ample room for building to all points of
the compass. has prevented the supremacy OF a SIN
eleayen for the splendors of private residences,
or a single overchsrged artery for business as it
exists in New-York. There are houses IN Phil
adelphia as finely furnished as any palace in
Europe, excepting the single article of certain pic
lures and antique statues-things that money Will
not purchase. Some of these houses are above
fifty feet front-a few up TO seventy feet
Every possible luxury which eminent wealth
and travelled taste can evoke, stocks such
establishments in this Quaker town. GObelin
tapestries through whole suites OF rooms, SeVres
wares of commanding value statues, brOnzes, paint
ings, plate, lbraries-the facility to extemporize
dinner or supper Of regal magnifcence all exist
here in private houses which have never yet been
mentioned in a newspaper paragraph, much less
wresthed into the iris-like localities of imaginative
literature. There are residences here and In the
suburbs, which are finer altogether than some OF
the royal palaces of Europe that have visited as
regards furniture and the dolce Jar nienfe unutera
bles of Jolly cum tumble comforts.
The house of the late Colonel Powell here is for
sale. 1t is singular looking edifce, but ponder
GUS and recherche. 1t smacks more OF the Nor
man fortress, without any such original intent In
the architecture than any city house l know OF.
1t offers q chance to purchaser who desires 70
nestle among thick walls, in company with the
noble trees Of park, Wis a vis-the latter open to
the public.
The settlement of Philadelphia affords con-
crete little chapter on the mode of settling lands
az ordained by nature. (See n. Z. Careys
Past Present and Fmure) The land north OF the
city for many miles had been thickly settled from
the start upon the elevated ridge lying between
the two rivers the Delaware and the Schuylkiil'
This took the name of Frankford, Ro4borougn,
Germantown. Bepgarstown, ButcherstOwn, and a
whole list of outat the. elbows and sangulnary ap-
relations. Queer Quaker, Dutch and other
settlements were these, with all the uttermos'
prmitiveness Of gable.ends wrong end foremost,
leather breeches "bequeathed from dying iathet 70
sOp" brOadbrims apd shadbelhes ana tne
di,heyelled underdoneisms Of antediluviAn cot
tages wriggling in a continuous line lot some
twenty miles. Well, in process OF time agrlcutu-
raj implements improved, wealth grew, and the ne
cessty for perchng on the poor, thin soil OF this
long drawn range passed away and the oid iasu-
ioned villages began TO decline. why because
the inhabitants worked into the richer LANDS OF lne
river bottoms. But the high-ridged neignoornood
was saved from decay by coal aho nan"''
and the suburban grandeurs Of the citizens slaha-
yuDk, on the Schuylkill, some elk or seven
miles from the center of the city, then
started into life with manufacturing
impulse. Richmond (wby cannot Americans
let OIL an azimuth Of originality in naming their
towns, instead of terating and reiterat'ng, up
to plethora, cid, stale names y Richmond on the
north of the city il one great black hole, being
the grimy headquarters Of characterization
the genius Anthrax spreading himself thereupon TO
sn extent astonishing the eldest Inhabitants the
| coal trade Of Philadelphia c2T erploy' u}FI>d