Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-06-12
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Birds Eye Vies0 of New York--Some
Characteristics of City Lye-Early Has
tory of the Ci'y, dc.
New YORK, June 2.
Reader, imagine that you are standing
where l stood this morning-in the steeple of
Trinity Church, 800 feet above terra f,maa,
taking birds eye view of this modern Babel.
A variegated scene stretches out in every d.
rection north and south lies Broadway,
with its teeming multitudes and its number
less vehicles; west and east are crowded
streets of house-tops, terminating only with
the waters of the enclosing rivers. Looking
eastward, we see Wall street Immediately be.
low US, with the Treasury building on the
left, and little further ON the right the Gus
tom House, the Wall Street Ferry and East
River, which separates New York from Brook
Ign; with the New York Bay stretching to
the southeast, Sandy Hook, the Highlands of
Neversink, and the coast Of Staten Island
To the northeast, the eastern district of Brook
Ign, formerly known as Williamsburg, the
Navy Yard, &C., and still further to the
North the rocky channel called Hurlgate !;
near by Randall and Blackwell Islands,
with their City Asylums Transferring our
gaze to Broadway, and passing over several
fine marble buildings, We notice Barnums
Museum on the east side Of Broadway, and
opposite to it St. Pauls Church, then the
Astor House, the Park, and the City Hall !;
the brown stone building on the east side be-
ing that of the Times Office. Beyond the City
Hall enclosure is Stewards marble palace,
then the City Hospital, surrounded with
trees, and opposite it Bowen and McNamee's
fine marble building; further north are nu-
merous elegant stores, and still further in
the distance, as if at the end of the street.
Though only at a turn, islands Grace Church,
with its beautiful white spire. Turning to
the opposite point Of view, the Hudson river,
with Jersey City and Hoboken, with its beau
tiful walks, its distant hills and valleys; and
on this side of the river, the steamers, ships
and docks. Veering to the south, we see
the fortified islets of the lower bay, with
Staten Island, Richmond, &C., with their nu-
merous picturesque cottages, villas, and cas-
tellated mansions, and to the southwest, the
Raritan bay, the Passaic river, leading to
Newark in the distance, sc.
Society in New York has many phases
it is cosmopolitan-composed Of all magma
BILE varieties and shades of character. 1t is a
confluence of many streams, whose waters
are ever turbid and confused in their rush.
ings to this great vortex. What incongruous
elements are here comlningled the rude and
the refined the sordid and the self-sacrifcing,
the religious and the profane, the learned and
the illlterate, the aff]uent and the destitute,
the thinker and the doer, the virtuous and
the ignoble, the young and the aged-all ma
tons, dialects and sympathies habits,
manners and customs of the civilized world.
There are yet localities that exhibit distinc-
tive characteristics. Life in Wall street pre-
sents an epitomised view of the city's mercan-
tile phase. Here are its banks, its money ex-
changers, and their great place ofrendezvous,
the Exchange, beneath the dome of which
many mighty projects have had their birth.
Up Nassau street,to its junction with Chat
ham, of mock auction notoriety, we catch a
glimpse os another phase of city life.
To denizens of New York society is usually
known under the generic divisions of Broad
way and Bowery-the former being regarded
as patrician and the latter as plebeian. Fifth
Avenue, at the upper end of Broadway, is
noted for Its splendid mansions-some Of
them costing from $4,000 to 5000, 0O0.-
When the "Fifth Avenudity" Gas some witty
writer styles the aristocracy Of New York;
turn out for drive IN the Central Park, on
Saturday afternoon, the display is more gor-
geous than grand.
This city was first founded by the Dutch,
in 1914, who called it New Amsterdam. 1t
obtained its present name in 1874, when the
English took it from the Dutch. 1t contains
at present, with its suburbs, upwards of mil
lion inhabitants. There are, it is estimated,
some 300 churches, many of them of costly
and magnificent proportions while its superb
hotels are in some instances capable of ac-
commodating thousand guests. There are
about 200 miles ofpaved streets in this metro
polls, extending to 44th street. The city has
been laid out to the extent of IL miles from
the Battery, its extreme southern point.
The great characteristic of New York is
din and misunderstanding is done in
hurry-men walk rapidly and with convul-
sive swing of their arms, apparently regard
less Of the multitude through which they JOS
tie their way. 1t is especially noticeable in
the leading thoroughfare of Broadway, where
the noise and confusion, caused by the inces-
SAINT passing and repassing of some $4,000
vehicles day, render it Babel scene Of con-
fusion.
am now about to embark on the magnif-
cent steamer Isaac Newton, for trip up the
Hudson, glad to get away again from the
dust, confusion and turmoil of this great city.
j. NJ. :,
A Voyage on the Hudsom-T Trip from H.
6ony to Boston-A View from Bunker
Hill Monument.
81. BosToN, JUNE 4, 1868.
, arrived here last evening, having left New
York on the evening of the I'd, and stopped
several hours at Albany. The trip up the
noble Hudson was Of special attraction and in
terest to me. This magnificent river has been
appropriately STYLED the Rhine of America.