ou have now to seek
Tenth, which leads out of Lawrence Street. Walking down Lawrence
Street, you come to Ninth Street, running off at right angles, so
Tenth Street is the next turning, and down that, between Market
Street and Cheese Street, as told, you find the street you want, viz.
Montgomery Street.

The above, to read, sounds puzzling, but, believe me, it is no
exaggeration. You soon get accustomed to the word "street" being
omitted, but as you don't know the town at all, to be told the street
you ask for leads out of another, with the names of the streets on
either side, does not help you much. Why such a roundabout mode of
direction is adopted, and it holds all over the States, I never could
understand. It may answer for those who know the town more or less,
but an outsider it helps but little.

Having attained the street you seek, your troubles are not at an end.
Houses are supposed to be numbered; but, unfortunately, only in some
instances are the numbers marked on them, and if you ask for a
number, no one knows it. You have to explain to any one you inquire
of what kind of shop it is, and the name of the shopkeeper; or, if a
private house, the name of the dweller. If he knows it, you are then
told, either, "Six blocks down," or "Between Eleven and Twelve"
which, of course, you now understand; and after some trouble you find
it in the block between Eleventh Street and Twelfth Street.

Enough on this. Now as to a point in which the Americans excel us. As
I have said, all their cities and towns are laid out in square
blocks, the streets running between, and thus always at right angles
to one another. The streets running, say from north to south (I'm not
sure if I am right as to the points of the compass), are all
_numbered_ in succession, thus, first, second, third, and so on for
the whole number. The streets running the other way (say from east to
west) are all _named_. Numbering the first is convenient, for if it
is one of the numbered streets you seek there is no more difficulty
in finding it than a house where all are numbered. But strange that,
perceiving the advantage of this, as they of course do, the Americans
have not gone a step further, which, if done, would have enabled a
stranger to find _any_ street he sought without inquiry. If the
_named_ streets were given names, with the first letter of each in
alphabetical succession, as Alpha Street, Bishop Street, Canary
Street, right through, beginning fr