The Portland daily press., 1866-01-29

Gown with sort OF serene satisfaction upon
the vulgar horde who don't know how to gov
ern themselvesl
Letter from the Empire City.
New YORK, Jan. 1865.
70 the Editor of the Press:
Weather is dull, and business sympathizes
with the weather in the "great metropolis."-
The only very lively places have visited dur.
ing the past few days have been the skating
ponds and the Stock Exchange. At least ten
thousand skaters were ENJOYING themselves up
on the Central Park ponds yesterday, and at
the Exchange, the usual maniac howls and
grimaces were to be heard and seen. Bulls
and Bears will fight about the Stock Auction
stand, regardless of clouds or sunshine, heat
or cold. ...s
The people of Portland are noted through
out the country for their appreciation Of music
and their patronage of the art; they will be
pleased to know that Maretzek, the Impressa-
rio, has completely conquered in the great
fight between the New York Herald and him.
SELF The Herald undertook to dictate terms
to the manager; the manager repudiated the
Herdlds authority and Withdrew his adver-
isements from that paper. The Academy
opened with the Herald in opposition, and Ma
retzek reaped the fruits of the most profitable
operate season ever known in this city. On
Thursday next new season win commence
with L,Ah1caine if this is the programme the
seats will be all sold before Tuesday night
The opera, agreeable in itself and decidedly
fashionable, is in the ascendancy in this city
and at this time, but its popularity does not
materially interfere with the prosperity of the
theatres. John Owens as Solon Shingle in
the re-vamped play, fills the Broadway night
ly, and Booth does the "High Art' in Hamlet
at Winter Garden every night to crowded
houses the Herald's inexcusable attack upon
Booth proved good card for the theatre at
which he is engaged.
In order to appreciate fully the pleasures of
metropolitan life one must take up his abode
at a first-class hotel and keep his eyes OPEN
Let me give you an inside view of hotel life,
If I were bent upon keeping diary of impor-
tant passing events, should make my domi-
ell the Astor House. Here, all the politicians,
all the spectators meet daily; the merits of
each succeeding candidate for the collector
ship Of this port, and the chances for striking
ell on the last purchased farm, or the prospects
for silver and gold in the last Nevada mine
are freely discussed Men talk dollars and
cents, appointments in the Custom House and
the results ofassays with equal warmth, while
at intervals, the long lank body of Thurlow
Weed or the ponderous proportions of Ben.
| Field may be seen moving through the expec-
tant and speculating crowd. Social life is but
| little cultivated at the Astor. The society OF
| ladies is there almost wholly unknown. 1t
| is essentially Bachelors House and most
| admirable one. There have been more ap-
| pointments made at the Astor, than at the
White House, and more oil wells have been
| opened there than the great State of Pennsyl
vania can show. Gentlemen, when unaccom-
panied by ladies, will find the old hotel very
| agreeable place of sojourn, and we firmly be-
| lieve that so long as Messrs. Stetson and Co.
| "run the machine" it viii maintain its high
and well deserved reputation.
The Metropolitan, where had the pleasure
|
| laud friends, is OF differentc haracter If any
body knows how to keep hotel the Lelands
| have that knowledge. For solid comfort, bar
ring the going up and down stairs. the MetIo-
politan excels all the hotels in this city. 1t is
| especially interesting now, ffom the fact that
it numbers among its guests large number Of
| persons, men and women, from the South who
| do not like to be called refugees. The men are
nearly all sensible fellows who have held COM
missions in the Confederate service, who ac-
knowledge they are whipped and who are will
ling to submit with the best grace possible;
| but the women are still most violent rebels,
hating and despising the North and in their
Southern dialect boasting OF their southern
blood aud Of their southern sentiments
| About this dialect; from the lips of pretty
woman it undoubtedly sounds charmingly, but,
| our Southern sisters, if they are truly repre-
sented by those whom it has been my fortune
to meet must have had their early education
most shamefally neglected, or they must have
obtained 1t from their negro nurses. l have
| met and conversed with score OF Southern
i aladies, half of whom are from Richmond and
profess to belong to the F. F. VS.. Many of
them can sing diviney, but not one of them
could speak English. There must be vast
feld for schoolmasters in the reconstructed
| States. -.s ~,
One regularity of Southerners, only discov-
erable BY weeks and months of Hotel life, is
this: neither men nor women desire to be
considered as Americans; they are smpl
soatherners, and will Give and die southern
ers." They uniformly repudiate the idea of
nationality; they do not appreciate it; they
cannot comprehend it; and this statement is
true concerning those who have lived many
months in this city. They will not accept the
issue of the war, and still insist upon keeping
up the distinction between the Yankees, who
speak English, and the chivalry who speak an
anelo-african dialect unknown to civilized So
ciety. must admit that the female refugee
as represented at the Metropolitan is rather a
startling, not to say stunning institution
With the and of the hair dresser and the