Morning journal and courier., 1885-12-25
Home Life In New York.

New York Letter to the Chicago Tribune.1
 There is less domesticity among the wo- men of New York than of any other Ameri- can city There is hardly house from one end of the city to the other that looks like a home. The streets are unhomelike-the ele- vated railroads-all the hard, dangling mass of stone and iron are only suggestive of & makeshift, temporary style of existence. It is like 1ivirg in hotel close to railroad de- pot where one's ears constantly belabored with the ringing of bells and the sizzing of steam. Take 8 look up and down one Of our streets, whether up or down town. The
 houses are iammed together as if they were packed for shipment, the streets are made of granite powders and the endless stream of horses and vehicles is shod with steel. Fifth
 avenue looks like a barren waste. Not a
 tree or bit of grassy yard softens it's hard and unsympethetic aspect. The sun shines,
 but in summer that but makes the stones dryer and hotter; the wind blows but Tn
 winter that but makes the prospect bleaker and more cheerlesss. Nature is almost de- nied admission Artificiality reigns over all and dominates all with remorseiess Will. A
 private residence in New York is @ private hotel: hence there is net much difference be- tween living at home and living at a public house. People come to New York from eve N-~~--- the birth-rate People are born before tIiey come here, but they stay here to die. The only memories of home most of us have are founded back in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, France, England, Ireland, Germa- nv or somewhere else. People come here to make money, just as they focked out to Cal ifornia in 1849 and 1850, and many of them grow very rich and build fine houses and have troops of servants and go to Europe every summer and have yachts and buliG cottages at watering places and amaze the world witk their extrayagance. But all this 1 involves the neglect, the destruction of home and home-life From a mans standpoint
 this is not distressing, at least it is not so as I long as he looks at the present only ano I takes a selfish view of life. man IS very | we'll adapted to living in hotel or in a stsan yacht or on 6 railroad car. He can ever camp out, go soldering, live around the ber l der of the North Pole or put up with accom- l modations in Central Africa. But how abou l the women and the children2 What life is il 1 for them in New York. The children tha l grow up in this great whirling metropolis l are much like the chickens made by patent l incubator, favorless and cnaracterless | Mothers farm ont their children to'the nur sery maid and go out to enjoy themselves il l the theaters or at receptions. The glare O ceaseless artifciality comes in to dry up eve ry tender and ennobling impulse: Home Ii l womans kingdom. If it is not she has non
 at all. All her efforts to get outside ane
 make something else her kingdom have bee'
 disastrous to society in general and fatal t herself in particular She is the natura l conservator of all the simple virtues, tn | first teacher of the primary lesson of life, tn l appointed guardian of the infant race, an' l it is around the fireside that her sweet ant l gentle influences fall upon the heart like th summer rain falls upon the grateful earth She is the first leader. The first footstep follow after hers. To her the lands are frs
 held out, and if she goes astray and is los | in the gay world what becomes of the flu turea The whole tendency of New York Tiff is to destroy all the associations and endeas l ments of home and turn womankind adrif
 on a restless sea of dissipation, extravaganza and waste The result of this is that Ne' 1 York will become nothing but a center o l exhaustion-a sort of remorseless Moloch
 where people are thrown in to be eaten u
 and destroyed with no aftergrowth It is happy circumstance that New York does no | inoI1de the whole country.