The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-06-12

Sno"eiS VI peuHicS. len years nence quite
possibly you will be admring works from his
pencil, and say that an American master has
risen. '
IMPROVEMENTS
IN the city thoroughfares are the orler Of the
day, not only in tearing down old buildings
and replacing them by new, but in widening
and extending streets. Have you any idea of
the immense exepnse attending these
changes? For instance, the Church street
extension, running parallel to Broadway, and
intended to relieve the over-crowding of its
lower portion; the new street is perhaps half
mile in length, and is cut ruthlessly through
blocks of brick and marble warehouses at a
cost of some S3,0O0,OOO. Then widening of
the upper part of Broadway is proposed at an
estimated expense of s15,OO0,0OO. So much
for not seeing into the future a quarter of
century. Picture to YOURSELF too, the mag
nifcent openings which these grand schemes
offer to the Ring and its satellites. ,aa
SIGNS OF SUMMER.
l find the best calendar of the seasons is
Broadway, where the thousands of airily
dressed women assure me that the summer Is
near as hand. They put forth their green
and tender LEAKAGE as suddenly and consenta-
| neously as the trees in inland woods of Maine
when the warm days have come at last. /
gaze at all this brave array in silent wonder
what our grandmothers would have thought
of it, though that is hardly more to the pur-
pose than to wonder what we shall think of
the ways of our grandchildren.
EXIT vELoCIPEDEs.
That mania has had its brief day, ana few
there are to do it reverence. l watched its
decadence from my window which looks up
on street with Nicholson pavement. In
| the early spring it was favorite sport with
! our young 6andies, but soon battered bycicles
| with less stylish riders made their appear
ance. and little later the irrepressible Afric-
an. The thing was getting quite too COM
mon for our exquisite friends, and SO the
fashion is ebbing away. If they want the
excitement of racing the spring meetings Of
| the various Jockey Clubs are now upon us,
and what is dearer to the American, particu-
Iariy' tho Gotham, heart, than that, unless it
De yachting? and the season for that has al
ready begun. 'sEasy come, easy CO.. and II ;s
not surprising that money gainedI by specula-
tion In Wall street, should be spent with Law
ish hands upon fast horses and fancy yachts.
And speaking of horses reminds me that
ought to say word for the new M
HANSON CABS ,s..t.
which promise to interfere with If not wholly
break up, the infamous exto.tions and swim
dies of our present cab system, A company
with large capital is being rapidly organized
to run one horse cabs and we hope soon to be
| able to get from one part of the town to an
other without running risk of bankruptcy, or
| enduring the discomforts of horse cars and
stages. Then, too, the Central Park commits
sioners, always thoughtful, have instituted a
carriage service by means of which one
can ride all through the Park for the
triding sum of 25 cents. 1t begins to look as
it in time we might have some of the COM
forts Of European cities at reasonable cost
| THE GREAT EXODUS.
1t is well known that all good Americans
expect to go to Paris when they die, and
| good many are naturally anxious to know be-
forehand something of their future abode.
| At any rate the stream of European tourists
| promises this season to be of larger volume
than ever,-while large numbers Of families
are going abroad to live and educate their
ehildren because they can live so much more
1oheaply there. a ssf hoa rss
4F.s ANOTHER STRIKE. W sf
At the first glance one would say that cap
| ital is supreme in New York; and certainly
| it would be hard to find in any part Of the
world where it is able to command more than
here. And yet hardly anywhere is labor
more oppressive, and il may be added, more
| tyrannical. 1t gained control of the kitchen
long since, and now with the numerous
trades unions and associations of workmen
it carries its points, too, or good many Of
them. can hardly recall q time within the
| last two years when some class ex pther wa:
OF on a strike. Just now it is the hotel wait
ers who are asserting their claims, though
| with somewhat dubious prospects. noticed
in a late Press some amusing extracts from
the Sun, purporting to describe some of the
comical incidents of the movement Your
readers will do well to take its lively saIlies
with'a grain of allowance, for that bright lu-
minary "which shines for al-price two
cents,' doesn't shed what Bacon was won't to
call "dry light"
There are quite number of things l
would like to say about this labor question,
and about the new political issues which are
being raised. Between them they promise
food enough for thought and for many an ex-
citing canvass in the coming years, but after
so much gossip as have been indulging in
to-day, cannot venture upon them.
a'o PoNcHo.