The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-16
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.

LETTER FROM NEW 4Ohh.
To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST;
Heavy rains kept the people buying /
Christmas goodies indoors until Satur-
Jay, when Broadway, Fourteenth street /
and Sixth Avenue, the main retail |
walks, were crowded. Sixth Avenue, 1
although taken up by the elevated rail-
road, has rather gained in business. ItI
was made a promenade street by such
establishments as Macys, Altman's,
and Kennels, all great advertisers of
Iow-priced notions, trimmings, and dry
goods. They advertise in display type
by the column aud half page at euor-
nous prices, but seem TO be able to af-
ford it by their business increase. At
such places you buy a broom
clothes whisk for eight cents, a gross Of
shOe-buttOns for ten cents, a monthly
magazine for sixteen cents, aud hose of
half silk for two dollars. This is city
where man passes at the par value Of
his money, and woman at what she can
get.
We have not been stirred to the depths
during the past week, and you would be
surprised to know how very little inter
est has been excited by Blaine's speech,
which some one terms, feiiciously
enough, 1.-THE bloody shirt dyed black"
The usual tour has been made to-day Of
the bankers in Wall street; some OF
them had not even read it, and did not
know whether they should or not; some
dismissed it in few curt phrases, others
facetiously termed it "too thin" Only
one man raised the ghost OF Morton, and
declared that he, dead, and Grant liv-
ing, were the only men who could COM
mand the sufirages Of the Republicans
in the South. People here are, in fact,
much more interested in the Union
League Club election, which presents
two tickets, one led by that eminent
figure-head, f. D. Morgan, the other by
''solid' Levi p. Morton. There is some
dissatisfaction in the club on account Of
The preference given to social matters
over politics. Certainly the "Iadies' re-
thrown more weighty questions quite
in the shade; but then they do these
things well. Butler is still with Us, you
know, but be is soured, and regards the
casual interviewer with wildered eye
that sheds suspicion" Benjamin's
coat Of many colors would not it, O,
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, how ]
would have gathered ye under my GU
berDatorial fiippers, and We would not.
Music hath charms to sooth Jay
Gould's savage breast. He sat in a box
the other night at the opera, listening
10 Nine. Gerster in II Tdismanio, ae-
companied by his son, who looks enough
like him to be his father. He is a dark
haired, sensitive boy, aud evidently the
apple Of his saturnine parents eye Jay
Gould is not an imposing person, and
he has a furtive way that suggests the
nature of the willy limb he iudubitably
is. There was a rest Of well-known
people in the same vicinity the other
night. just IN front Of Gould sat Judge
Blatchford, near him was DR.. Ham,
moud, who looks like philanthropist,
and most interesting Of all, Mrs. Hicks
lord and the sprightly septegenarian
she has taken to husband, occupied one
Of the second tier Of boxes. Mrs. Hicks
was in black velvet, made so as to dis
play her dazzling shoulders, and Golf
fure Of white lace was fastened here aud
there to her dark locks by brilliants.
Thomas Lord is evidently not such an
aged party as they tried IA make appear;
he looks wonderfully hale and vigorous.
like some hearty English squire, with
his clean shaven face, white side-whisk-
ers aud still abundant head Of hair. The
Hicks Lord mansion, which was so long
besieged by the indefatigable represen-
tatives Of the metropolitan press, is
scarcely recognized as the same place.
1t has been repainted, its windows are
arranged in spotless muslin, and now it
looks like a prosperous mansion, instead
Of a rather neglected one, left to the care
Of fservants while its fair owner was so
Journing abroad. AUGUST.
New York, December l6, 1878.