The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-23
OF TRAVEL
IN THE EASTERN STATES
What an Australian Lady, Known in Honolulu,
Found Worthy Of Note in the
Long Journey.

New York. Yet not content, and find
ing existent modes insufficient the un-
derground system is at present tunnel
ing and unheaving the main thorough
fares of the city. 1t Is a marvellous
piece of engineering, which progresses
and yet leaves undisturbed the present
surface systems and the sewerage of
the city. Trans follow each other with
only a half-minute Roadway, and, If
you are not on the spot clutching your
skirts preparatory to making a jump
the car speeds on; but it really does
not matter, and to lose your temper is
unnecessary, because the next car is
touching your elbow. Soon Auckland
ers will see this demonstrated tprob-
ably in a more modified colonial de-
gree) in the streets of their own fair
city.
After but few days residence In
New York with its interesting and va
rious activities a stranger can well
understand a New Workers. invincible
conceit. For, like the good Londoner,
he Is insular; and the popular phrase
that, that when you leave New YORK
you are camping Quit" can be more
readily understood. The New Yorker
seems to carry the map of the world
under his nervous bald head, and he
takes off his hat to it; and a stranger
viewing impartially the metropolitan
advantages can but in Justice attach
little blame to this conceit. That Is
why one does not wonder that he
sneers at Chicago. for to him it Is Of
mushroom growth, yet coming on so
rapidly that the magnitude and impor-
lance of his own city is in danger.
Difficult as 1t is to sum up in a few
terSe sentences the various conflicting
impressions Of a great metropolis l
make bold enough to say that New
York strikes me as an aggregate Of
apartment houses, and department
stores" Innumerable and 'fearfully
and wonderfully made" are the many
storied department and apartment
structures. In the former every want
of both sexes, from a reel of cotton to
"house and lot" can beNpurchased.
Articles and stuffs of beauty and
cheapness tumble from shelf and coun-
ter and coax the nimble American dol
lar from the fair ones pocket, at whose
door the mild vice of shopping fever
can be laid. The New York woman
may be fiend of a shopper, yet she is
the best dressed of all the women of
America. That she makes a dollar 60
farther than most is not a mere empty
phrase. Gathered from all
the artistic continental centers, orna-
mentS and materials reproduced from
old-world models in endless profusion
cultivate the artistic taste of the Yam
kee; SO that it is no credit to the dis
elimination of New Workers that they
purchase and surround themselves with
pretty, graceful things. They can't
help themselves; the artistic shop win
dows daily educate them unconscious
ly.
From list which I am at present
tabulating that will embrace charac-
teristic Americanisms, illustrating the
hustling spirit of the Yankee, can but
touch upon one that struck me as hui
morous as well as typical. The five
lunch counter is not in it in
speed and concentration. I refer to
little sign I saw outside church portal
on which was printed, Fifteen min
utes' church service daily" Surely
this is the acme of religion in concen-
trated tablet formi The heavenly ele-
vator / previously referred to looks
like its speedy sequel. Then again the
escalator (the moving stairway to the
elevated station), illustrates how quick
ly the Yankee wants to get there. For
instead of mounting score of steep
stairs an inventor has furnished a
moving stairway worked by an endless
chain which permits you to step from
street to stationi 1t satisfies the Yam
kee in that he is saving precious time
and enegy.
MUNICIPAL POLITICS.
We were fortunate in being in New
York at time when a most important
upheaval in its municipal political his
tory was taking place. Public feeling
had run high, and the civic spirit of
citizens. forced into ex-
lstence by the undisguised corruptions
Of Tammany. had wrought deep-seat-
ed desire for decent government and
the election Of moral-minded men to
office. Though Tammany, dominated
by the cunning of Croker. had nonii-
mated an able, high-spirited citizen for