pinion, is protected and finds full expression. Men
concern themselves with their own affairs only. Indeed this feeding has
been carried to such an extreme that it has engendered a decided
indifference between man and man. People live for years as next door
neighbors without ever knowing each other by sight. A gentleman once
happened to notice the name of his next door neighbor on the door-plate.
To his surprise he found it the same as his own. Accosting the owner of
the door-plate one day, for the first time, he remarked that it was
singular that two people bearing the same name should live side by side
for years without knowing each other. This remark led to mutual
inquiries and statements, and to their surprise the two men found they
were brothers--sons of the same parents. They had not met for many
years, and for fully twelve years had lived side by side as neighbors,
without knowing each other. This incident may be overdrawn, but it will
illustrate a peculiar feature of New York life.

Strangers coming to New York are struck with the fact that there are but
two classes in the city--the poor and the rich. The middle class, which
is so numerous in other cities, hardly exists at all here. The reason of
this is plain to the initiated. Living in New York is so expensive that
persons of moderate means reside in the suburbs, some of them as far as
forty miles in the country. They come into the city, to their business,
in crowds, between the hours of seven and nine in the morning, and
literally pour out of it between four and seven in the evening. In fair
weather the inconvenience of such a life is trifling, but in the winter
it is absolutely fearful. A deep snow will sometimes obstruct the
railroad tracks, and persons living outside of the city are either unable
to leave New York or are forced to spend the night on the cars. Again,
the rivers will be so full of floating ice as to render it very
dangerous, if not impossible, for the ferry boats to cross. At such
times the railroad depots and ferry houses are crowded with persons
anxiously awaiting transportation to their homes. The detention in New
York, however, is not the greatest inconvenience caused by such mishaps.

To persons of means, New York offers more advantages as a place of
residence than any city in the land. Its delightful climate, its
cosmopolitan and metropolitan character, and the endless variety of its
attractions and comforts, render i