Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-11-14
of the Yorkville Enquirer
LETTER FROM ssDOWN EAST"
BosToN. MASS, November 9, 1872

Correspondence of the Yorkville Enquirer.
LETTER FROM "DOwN EAST"
Boston, MASS, November 9, 1872.
The hoary frosts and bracing winds that
ushered in the last month of autumn are
tokens and signs that grim Winter is on his
annual march, and will soon be here in all the
grandeur Of the Ice king, forcibly reminding
negligent housekeepers that few tons of coal
will soon be quite an acquisition to small tea
parties, and to the impecunious Bohemian that
linen coats and straw hats are not exactly the
style of dress that will be adopted by their
more fortunate fellow beings during the "cold
snaps" that usually follow the departing days
of November.
THE BUSINESS WARDS.
Having "gone through" quite number OF
public buildings in former jottings from the
"Hub," I will take look at those portions OF
the city where millions change hands daily.
In the neighborhood of Fanueil Hall are the
large establishments for the sale of household
stores and furnishing goods of every descrip-
ton. In State, Devonshire and Congress streets,
are the licensed thieves and legalized gam
blers-bankers and brokers-who are daily
causing such untold misery to the working
classes of the country by their reckless specu-
lations in gold, stocks and greenbacks. These
thoroughfares are confined mostly to specula-
ton, with an occasional newspaper office
sandwiched between. Pearl street is the cen
tre of the greatest boot and shoe trade in the
world, and with the exception Of a restaurant
for the boot and shoe dealers, newspaper,
(The Shoe and Leather Reporter) devoted to
the leather interest, and other establishments
intimately connected with this branch of bus
iness, there are no buildings on the street not
occupied by merchants in that line. There is
no part of the city in which few hours can
be more proftably and pleasantly passed by
the sight-seer, than down among the shoe men
in Pearl street. The manufacture Of boots
and shoes for the wholesale trade is done en-
tirely by machinery, run by steam, and the
"old fogy" process of making boots and shoes
by hand has been almost entirely abandoned.
Notwithstanding this fact, strange as it may
appear, boots and shoes sell for more money
now than they did three years ago. This is
accounted for by the fact that material, rents
and wages are higher than when the work was
accomplished by hand. On Summer, Chaun-
cey, Franklin, and other streets in the imme-
diate neighborhood are the great establish
ments that make Boston the leading empori-
um in the United States for dry goods. Clus-
tered within this district are the great houses
that give to Boston prominence as the excel
sior wool market of America. Washington,
Winter, Court, fremont and Hanover streets
are the principal headquarters Of the retail
trade, where can be procured all the necessa-
ries and luxuries of life, from paper of pins
to the complete furnishing of a residence, and
in quantities and qualities to suit customers.
By day and by night the latter named streets
are thronged with compact mass Of moving
humanity, and s'old fogies" and country
cousins" with more curiosity than discretion,
have "hard row to hoe" to keep from being
run over and trampled under foot.
THE SUBURBS.
There is probably no other city in the world
that boasts finer suburbs than Boston has.
They are unrivaled in extent and beauty.
Picturesque hills, separated by beautiful wind
ing rivers, make varied picture Of charming
landscape, while art has added much to the
beauties which nature has so lavishly bestowed.
Large cities and score of fourishing towns
are commingled pleasantly with city and
country, all bearing internal and external ev-
licences of thrift and prosperity. Excellent
roads, neat fences and hedges, beautiful gar
dens and orchards, tastefully constructed and
clean painted houses meet the view on every
side.
Get into one of the numerous horse-cars rum
ming through Scollay's Square, and if the
epizootic is on the decrease, and She poor horses
so terribly afflicted with the distemper are
able to work, we will ride over to the
CITY OF CHARLEsTowN,
Which is separated from Boston by the Charles
River. The first most noticeable object that
greets the vision is Bunker Hill monument,
erected in that city to commemorate the great
battle, which is said to have taken place upon
the ground where the monument now stands.
In this city, there also, is the United States
navy-yard, established by the government in
the year 1900, and completed in 1906. The
dry dock is magnificent and most substantial
work of granite masonry, 341 feet long, 80
feet wide and 80 feet deep. The granite rope
walk is also very fine structure, and about
quarter of mile in length. Several of the
largest vessels of the old navy were built at
this yard, but the work is now chiefly confn-
ed to repairing and reftting old vessels, and
there is little Of the activity of former years.
Leaving Charlestown we pass into
CAMBRIDGE,
The site of the most famous as we'll as the
oldest university (Harvard College, in the
country, its only rival being Yale, at New
Haven, Connecticut Connected with Harvard
are schools oflaw, dentistry, medicine, science,
theology, and mining and agriculture; each
endowed with its own funds and each indie
pendent of the others, except in their general
management. The college yard contains
about twenty-five acres, and nearly the entire
space is occupied by buildings required for an
institution of such magnitude. Cambridge is
noted as being the first place in America
where printing press was set up, and the
first thing printed on it, So tradition informs
US, was the "Freemans Oath," followed soon
after by an almanac and the Psalms "newly
turned into metre" Cambridge has also at
the present time, some of the most completely
furnished and largest printing establishments
in the United States, prominent among which
is the university Press" concern. This is
the most celebrated printing Office in the coun-
try, especially in reference to the artistic finish
of its book work. The greater part of the
works printed for Boston publishers, and a
large portion of those purporting to be issued