The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-12-12
Letter From Boston.
Correspondence of the journal.

the calendar and Old Probability For several
days frozen water pipes and red noses have
been the fashion, and every body scuttles along
the streets trying to look as though they relish
ed the cold snap. Not that any body really en-
Joys the necessity OF swathing pipes in hot band
ages, or becoming 4 beacon OF light if not beau
ty to those one meets-ouly like other disagree
able things it has to be borne, and its all the
better for Us if little philosophy can cover our
real sentiments. You could not wish your
worst enemy harder luck than five minutes
chat at the corner of BrOmtield and fremont
streets that last day of November or in fact any
morning when the wind blows gale from the
nor west. The big blocks of granite that once
separated US from the water side proved regu-
lar warming pan, as the coming season is about
to show. And it is all very pretty to senti-
mentalize regrets under the lee, and looking
down the narrow street over the emerald wa
ter where the masts and rigging stand stiff and
White in the cold sunlight, to say it makes Il
lovely picture, but unless you are As tough As
polar bear and are deSrous of having your
name and age sent in to Mr.. ApolIonio, beware,
OF more than passing glance. Bostonians had
depth of the pitiless grasp of New England
winter; how it squeezed their vitality out at
Park street corner, and blew their lungs away
as they faced those brown stone palaces on the
Back Bay lands; how it nipred beautv's nose
and not her cheeks; how it saturated rich and
poor IN dust, and how it wrenched and pulled
at poverty's thin garments or those of fur clad
pedestrians trying to breast the ''invigorating
weather.! We thought to have suffered rgors
| undreamed of in Greenland's lev mountains
and earned the right, hy long process civilly
termed hardening, to a warmer cline, or at
least regeneration of Boston that was to he
brought about by its growth-for As cities grow
larger they We're said to grow warmer. This
| hne theory has been crushed in the bud As far
as we are concerned, and Boston feels now as
| though huge window had been lett open on
| her back. If you have creditors--and you are
not in the fashion if YOU have nol--just meet
| them at the tryst above mentioned, and your
debts will he forgiven you No man dares but
ton hole another on that high and breezy spot,
| because influenza acts the policeman'S part and
nobody can afford to pay doctors bills nova
| days. To make us feel this weight of cold ali
the harder, Thanksgiving day was the perec-
| ton of 'seasonab!e weather" and consequently
rs outwardly festive as it always is inwardly
| dull. wonder some enerpriSing citizen does
not petition the legislature to change that pres
| ent m>nomer to Dinner Dav. 1t would have
then the greater merit OF truth as well As illitcra-
| ton, and for all we can see he Just As much Of
| "A holiday for the working classes. just a.
many fathers and mothers can take their brood,
| home, inst many matrimonial plunges could
| be made, Just As many balls could be given, and
the public conyeyah"e- from town to town be
! Just as tiisagreeably crowded but We should
lose the indigestive association always coupled
with that beautiful compound noun-thanlls-
| giving. While now there is nothing about the
day, but turkey and children lovers Of mince
pies-and even the mad reyery OF the Fourth
of july never considered wholly conSerratcd
without three distinct Juvenile stomacll-tches,
is entirely wanting on this proud occasion. 1t
| is IA dead level Of indigestion that nobody |
| know ever feels thankful about; on the contra
| ry after gorging to replelion we are fam to re-
| gard life as Il burden, love Il dclusion, matri-
mony snare. and the lampaging children pests
and nlisiutes. But only call this rcsc hy
another name and we Will be AS sweet upon
public holidays in the future rs we are now
! sour aui uncomTomiSing.
| am afraid to say how iull Boston is, because
il will be so much duller before winter j. over.
| This ire has hurt us more than we like 10 own,
or more than the newspapers, the truthful
medium of public opinion, will as yet admit.
| Two evils have been somewhat mitigated by
| the purifying 1ames-marriages and murders /;
but otherwise the daily lessening interest in the
calamity and the constantly occurring failures
| OF business men burnt out or indirectly suffer
| ing from burnt out creditors, presents nothing
| pleasant on entertaining to outsiders. All
| places of amusement, and they are the first to
| show the financial status, are scarcely paving
| expenses, and with the exception of Thanks
giving day ana evening, the houses have been
| so thin you could see through them. Not even
| the favorite Thomas Concerts, nor the glitter
ing announcements OF the spectacular ''Cata-
ract of the Ganges" can lure the dollars ont of
economical pockets We wont be amused tins
way, nowl But lectures that are cheap and
| filing at the price still meet with ready patron
age. A Professor Pepper, with a whole alpha
bet of RS and F"s dangling like bobs at the end
Of his spicy name, has drawn good audiences
| for a week to hear his popular lectures on
| Sight. Having no particular fancy for science
thus popnlarized, have abstained from seeing
ghosts and things as the London professor
shows them to crowds of wide eyed vnnn. stars
at fremont Temple. l am told they are weil
| behaved spirits he coniures, hut nggcrs. " he
ther scientific or natural, is peasanter AS a mys
terry than as facts exposed to rredulous morta
Several weeks ago Il new store was opened 10
| the public that at the time | intended to give
some particulars about, rs with the exception
of one in New York, it is the only thing of the
kind in this country. and a place well worth
visiting. More important matters have crowd
| ed 1t out OF my letters, and the fire sent it up
another flight of stairs. Mcssrs. Crump 4 Son,
| the jewellers, taking the ground floor on IRE
mont street. But though the Household Art
Co. have gone up higher, their place is most
attractive spot to vile away an idle hour or
| spend il small fortune in. 1t is a sort oi Art
Museum that sells its costliest specimens and
throws temptation in the way of every lover OF
the rare and ugly. the unattainahlc or heauti-
fl. The fashion is now to furnish houses by
| piece meal, or for each room to represent AN
age or country quite foreign to the present day.
antique furniture, tapestries, tiled floors and SO
forth, carrying one back two or three hundred
| years by very modern route; for mingled
with it is a sense of luxury unknown, fancy,
| in the fifteenth century. To make the comfort
| able modern house also a place of art is now
the aim of all cultivated people, ami the means
for so doing has been warmly welcomed by
every one of taste and wealth. Travellers in
Europe do not know how or where to lind the
treasures now imported by this company, or
| if they do manage to pick up raretics there is
the danger of getting them safely acros, the
ocean without shipwreck or breakage. Among
| the beautiful articles exhibited the first week
of their opening was walnut side board cary
ed by hand, massive and superb, and said to be
at least two hundred years old. Cabinets of
| black oak richly carved ana lovely inlaid secrc-
! taries with mysterious drawers. An antique
| carved wood box made for logs and generous