The record-union., 1898-04-12

STOCK EXchange, does not know one
half of one per cent of what New York
holds in the way of interest and of
beauty, and such a visitor gees away
quite uninst.ated in the finer and more
secret charms esCter:caIy reserved for
the intimate lovers who are too adven-
turesome to confine their steps to the
beaten tracks where multitude jostlss
multitude, and to keep from being run
down is full occuration.
NOT A GUIDE BOOK.
1t is not my purpose to make guide
book TO the interesting and beautiful
places of New Yorh-at least it is not
my present purpose-thCugh the idea OF
such work suggests moss congenial
employment. L shall try to do no more
now than to suggest TO those VINO
would learn what an interesting place
New York Is that they should wander
away from the central thCroughfares
going east and west, and then see what
they will see. IT does MT make any dill
ference at what point such an excur-
sion be started Or in wI:eh direction
it be, for the reward is sure to comes
On these little excursions we may go
with small effort. and always with in
ends cf the earth. We may visit all
the countries Of Europe-even Poland
and Russia; and we can go to Pales
tine, TO Armenia, to China Ard we will
need no passports in crossing from one
boundary to the other. The same sta,-
wart and blue-coated guardian CT the
peace who helps US make the pe:ilous
passage of Broadway is in these far
countries, toe, and there too, he is
civil and kindly, and, as rule, also
Irish. He will help an inquirer from
pace to place, and his presence assures
the safety of the adventurers who
abandon now and then the glittering
showwindows of the more central
shopping sections for the remOter re-
gions where eXpatriated foreigners are
being moulded with much difficulty and
distress of soul into modern and patri-
otic American citizens.
In such excursions visitor tor,
for that matter, resident Of New York
can go further afield than by taking a
Cooks excursion ticket and doing what,
in our fathers day, was called the
grand tour of Europe. There IS surely
no more interesting city in all the
world
| hear some one say, But these are
are common people, these are mere
peasants" That is true But are not
the common people the most interesting
in the world? To me they are the most
interesting and also the most import
ant. AS Mr.. Lincoln said: There are
so many of them"
And then again. what kind of peo-
A ,a,.;<, oil
ing in the old world meet? The men
meet the tailcrs in somewat intimate
fashion: the women meet the dress
makers in the same way. And both men
men and women meet various kinds of
tradesmen. hotel walters and railway
guides. But these, to, are common peo-
ple-common people very like those OF
the same class we come in contact with
at home, not a whit more interesting
as persons and not a particle more
Skillful as artisans.
Now, as to the beauties of our town
A better, bluer, a more inspiring and
encouraging sky spans the heavens
over no part of the earth A man in
normal health of body and mind who
cna 80 into the streets of New York
after n storm and look upon the serene
blue sky above him without being
grateful to be alive in SO beautiful a
world deserves not to be happy. For
him there must be in his soul treason,
stratagems and spoils.
Walk on any of the avenues and look
either to east or west, where the ele-
waited railways run. Note a passing
train and the smoke that rises skyward.
'Tis a moving picturet that could not
be put on canvas, but 'tis full of beau
ty, beauty that makes one forget
the ugly and purely utilitarian struc-
ture ard makes one almost forgive the
pounding and destroying noise of
the moving trains.
A WALK WITH CHASE.
One time l was walking on the Shin
necock Hills. with Mr. Chase. our dis
tinguished artist who has his sum-
mer home down there For more than
an hour we had been pointing out to
each other the beautiful things that
We're before us. We had seen in our
stroll thousand pictures, each worthy
of a great masters hand. Presently
we met a native of the neighbo1h hood
a man of intelligence. q banker d
State Senator. He was glad that
man of Mr.. Chase's distinction found
subjects for pictures on the Shinnecock
Hills, but how he could find them evil
IDENTIFY baffied him. To him the hills
We're ugly, improbable and barren sand
dunes, hard to walk or drive over, not
worthy of cultivation And so. with
much modesty, he asked Mr.. Chase
how he could find anything to paint.
The artist nearly tainted with surprise.
and stammered a reply which. consid-
ering his usual directness and facility
of speech, was painfully unsatisfactory
and inconclusive
And so, when / think of the beauti-
full things | have seen and see every
time ] go into the streets, | am per-
suaded that unless l merely catalogued
them Il would be better for me not to
mention them, as catalogues are only
printed, | believe. in the advertising
columns of the Herald But having
mentioned one smoke effect. l may
venture on one other-an effect that is
before me as / write-an effect pro-
duced by house tops. clctheslines filed
with laundered linen. three score Of
chimneys emitting gray smoke lazily,
the bay. with it's shipping further on,
the 1lls of Staten Island away in the
distance, ard over all feckless sky of
brightest blue.
Pshaw. He who does not see beau
ties IN this town will not find them any
where
] grant that we have ugly houses and
ugly monuments here. But we have
beautiful palaces and magnificent mon
uments, too. So why look al that
which is ugly? If it obtrude itself,
look over it, look at the sky and wait
till something worthy of the earth is
encountered further along. Suppose a