The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-08-07
FIFTH AVENUE.
NEW Works LINE OF MAGNIFICENT
BROWNsToNE PALACES.
The Great Defect of Its Architecture
The Profusion of Display a Tri1e
Barbaric-People Who Live
Side by Side.
[Joe Howard in Philadelohia Press

Joe Howard in Philadelphia Press.l
1t is the habit of New Workers to style
Fifth avenue the first street in America. So
far as wealth, and extent, and uniformity
of buildings go, it probably is Beginning
at Washington square, it extends above
Harlem; and as far as Fifty ninth street, it
is almost an unbroken line of brownstone
palaces while from that point up its mag
nificence is marvellous. The architecture is
not only impressive, it is oppressive. It's
great defect is in its monoSOny, which soon
grows tiresome. A variation, a contrast
something much less ornate or elaborate
would be relief. Its lack of enclosures, of
ground, of grass-plats, of gardens, is visual
vice. Block after block, mile upon mile, of
the same lofty brownstone, high stoop
broad-staired fronts wearies the eye. 1t is
like the perpetual red brick with white steps
and white door and window 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 and aspects of the
somber-seeming houses, whose occupants,
one fancies from the exterior, look, think,
dress and act alike
1t is a grievous pity that where there Is
so much money there is so little taste The
sum of Fifth avenue wealth is unquestion
ably far beyond that of any street in the
country The dwellings cost more; the fur
niture and works of art are more expensive;
the incomes of the inmates are larger and
more prodigally spent than they are any
where on the continent. The interior of the
houses is often gorgeous. Nothing within
moneys purchase, but much that perfect
taste would have suggested, seems omitted.
There are few Of the mansions that do not
reveal something like tawdriness in the ex-
cess of display. The outward eye is
too much addressed The profusion is a
trifle barbaric. The subtle suggestions of
complete elegance are not there. Still, to
those who have suffered from the absence
of material comfort, or to those whose tenn
peraments are voluptuous and indolent, as
most poetic ones are, a feeling akin to hap
pineSs must be born of the splendid sur
roundings that belong to the houses of the
! Fifth avenue rich. What soft velvet car.
pets are theirs; what handsome picturesj
what rich curtains; what charming fres-
Goes; what marbles Of grace; what bronzss
Of beauty; what charming prodigality OF
| p rettiness
The soft, warm, yet fresh odor of luxury
| comes from every angle; fills the corridors
| and the delightful chambers, whore sleep
seems to be hidden beneath the spotlesS pill
| lows of lace; steals out Of the haf-open IL
| brary, where hundreds Of morocco volumes
| stand silent with the treasures of time and
mind in their keeping; creeps up and down
blown by the gentle wind. Whatever the
senses could ask, or culture require, or
| fancy crave might be had in the walled
| paradise of those splendid homes.
The people who live side by side in the
| pretentious avenue, know each other not.
Knickerbocker and parvenu, the inheritor
| of wealth and the architect of his own fort
une, the genuine gentleman and the vulgar
snob, reside in the same block One house
| is visited by the best and most distinguished;
the house adjoining by men who talk lloyd
| in suicidal syntax, and women who
wear hoIly-hoolzs in their hair,
and yellow dresses with pink
| trimmings. Here dwells an author
whose works give him a large income; over
| the way, a fellow who has a genius for
money-getting, but who cannot solve the
| mysteries Of spelling. Some of the most
| spacious and expensive mansions on the
avenue always have deserted look. Only
! the occupants and servants appear on the
high, carved stoop; only the carriages the
master of the establishment owns stop be
fore the door That family purchased a
house in the avenue, but society has not &C.
copied its members. They have nothing
but new fortune to recommend them.
| They must bide their time.
The first generation of the unrecognized
fares hard. The second is educated, and
the third claims Hneage-prates of "gen-
tility," and frowns upon what its grand
| parents WERE To get into the avenue and
| into its society are different things. They
who struggle to enter certain circles are not
wanted. Those who are Indifferent to mere
fashion are in request; for not to seek,
socially, is usually to be sought. Destiny
appears willing always to grant what we do
not want, and determined to withhold what
we do
Keene Gets Ahead of q Confidence Man.
New York letter.
Alongside the roadway near the Jerome
park race track three-card monte swindler
set up his tripod. His chatter and his manip-
ulation of the cards were uncommonIy
| brisk, for there was momentary danger of q
| policeman coming to stop him. Passengers
were being emptied from a train, and they
surrounded the operator. But for a time
| his only betting was with his confederate,
| who of course won right along.
James w. Keene, the Wall-streeter, ar
| rived with several friends and looked on the
game. The gamblers pal resorted to the IA
| miliar trick of slyly bending corner of the
face-card, by that means making it appear
| that the winning one could be picked out to
a certainty. Keene surprised the spectators
| by saying: "pll bet you $50 that 1 can pick
| out the jack" The sum was above the
| gamblers capital, but he got $40 out of his
| pockets, and the stakes were put into the
| hands of an honest bystander.
"Now, my fine fellow" said Keene, "you
think you've got a sure thing on ME. But
| you haven't. The chances are exactly
even I shan't choose the bent card, for of
course that isn't the jack. You've smoothed
the jack in handling them and bent one of
the others So the jack must be one of the
! smooth cards, and in taking this one, land
here he placed his hand on the card-"my
chances are square against you. See? Ali
yes; I've won"
He pocketed the stakes and was cheered
by the instructed crowd.
Type-Writing from the sounder.