The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1869-02-11
FIFTH AVENUE.
BY JuN1Us HENRY BROWN.

New York city, Fifth Is known rs the
Avenue by way of distinction. It is,
by all odds, the most handsome and ex-
elusive street Of the metropolis-the on
ly one that has thus fur resisted the en-
croachments of trade and railways, and
defied the peculiar regulations Of our
municipal government. Every few
months an innovation is attempted up-
on the fashionable thoroughfare, which
has too much strength. through its
wealth, to submit to any vulgar altera-
tion in its settled courses.
Whenever house Is for saleac,, ant In
the Avenue, its residents seela proIcdRd
interest in the character of the inmates
that are to be. They dread lest the
mansion may be converted to unworthy
uses; lest they may be hourly shocked
by q plebeian neiglibor who is what they
themselves were twenty, or five years,
or perhaps few months before. Their
vigilance is sleepless in this regard, sill
they have often been compelled to buy
out common tradesmen, and ambitious
courtesans, and enterprising black legs.
who had purchased All abiding place in
the socially sacred vicinage. There
have been those who bank accounts and
bank checks could not pursuade. Mad
| anne Restell, the notorious abortionist
and gamblers by the score, and cyprians
by the dozen, have penetrated into the
street, and cannot be gotten rid of for
largcss or logic. .-... .. .
1t is the habit Of New Workers to style
Fifth avenue the first street in America.
So far as wealth, and extent, and uni
formity, and buildings go, it probably
Is. But in situation, it is far inferior to
many thoroughfares ] might name. Be-
ginning at Wahsington Square, it ex-
tends above Harlem; and, as far as Fifty
ninth street it is almost an unbroken
line Of brown stone palaces. The archi-
lecture is not only impressive, it is op-
pressive. Its great defect is in its mon-
otony, which soon grows tiresome. A
variation, a contrast-something much
les sornate or elaborate, would be q relief
Its lack Of in closures, of ground Of grass
plats, of gardens is visual vice.
Block after block, mile upon mile, Of
the same lofty brown stone, high stoop,
broad starred front, wearics the eye. 1t
is like the perpetual red brick, with
white steps and white door and WIN
dow facings, for which Philadelphia has
become proverbial.
One longs in the avenue for more
marble, more brick, more iron, more
wood, even-some change in the style
hnd aspect of the sombre seeming
houses, whose occupants, one fancies
from the exterior, look, think, dress and
act alike. One might go into any draw
ing room between the park and the old
parade ground, and he would be greeted
with the same forms; see the same ges-
lures; hear the same speeches.
The slavish spirit of imitation, with
poverty Of invention, has spoiled the
broad thoroughfare where we should
have had the Moorish and Gothic, Ionic
and Doric order, Egyptian weight with
Italian lightness, Sudor strength with
Eiizabethan picturesqueness.
1t is grievous pity that where there
is so much mony there is so little taste.
The sum of Fifth Avenue wealth is un
ques tionably far beyond that of any
street in the country. The dwellings
cost more; the furniture and works of
art are more expensive; the incomes of
the inmates are larger and more prodi-
gally spent than they are anywhere else
on the continent.
The interier of the houses is often
gorgeous. Nothing within moneys
purchase, but much that perfect taste
would have suggested, were omitted
Few are the mansions that do not re-
veal something like tawdriness in the
excess Of display. The subtle sugges-
tons Of complete elegance are not
there.
Still, to those who have suffered from
the absence of material comfort, or to
those whose temper aments are voluptu-
GUS and indolent, as most poetic ones
are, feeling akin to happiness must be
born OF splendid surroundings that be-
long to the homes of the Fifth avenue
rich.
What soft velvet carpets are theirs;
what rich curtains; what charming fres-
Goes; what marbles of grace; what bronze
OF beauty; what prodigality of pretti.
ness! The soft, warm, yet fresh odor of
luxury comes from every angle; fills the
corridors, and the delightful chambers,
where sleep seems to be hidden beneath
the spotless pillows of lace; steals out Of
the half open library, where hundreds
OF volumes stand silent with the treas
ures Of tiD'e and mind in their keeping;
creeps up and down the stairways, like
the breath Of flowers blown by the gen.
tie wind.
Whatever the senses could ask. or
culture require, or fancy crave, might be
had in the walled paradise OF those
splendid homes. Dishes 80 delicate as
to tempt the most surfeited appetite;
wines rich enough to WOO an anchorite
to their tasting; music of Mozart, and
NAnAo1ccnI,r