r abounding in trees, fountains, statuary
and rustic retreats. Gilmore's large band of seventy-five to a hundred
pieces, occupying an elevated platform in the centre, render excellent
music. Fifteen hundred to two thousand gas jets, eveloped by globes of
different colors (red, white, blue, yellow and green) and blazing from the
curves of immense arches, spanning the Hippodrome in different directions,
illuminate the entire building with the brilliancy of the noon-day sun. To
the right of the entrance is an artificial water-fall about thirty feet
in height. Two stationary engines supply the water, elevating 1,800
gallons per minute, which issues from beneath the arched roof of a
subterranean cavern, and dashing down in broken sheets over a series of
cascades and rapids, plunges into a basin below. From this basin it flows
away into tanks in an other building, where four to five tons of ice are
consumed daily to keep it at a low temperature, so that the vapor and
breeze produced by this ice-water, at the foot of the cataract, refreshes
the air and keeps it cool and pleasant during the warm summer evenings.
The admittance is fifty cents, and 5,000 to 10,000 persons enter every
night, during the height of the season. Here meets "youth and beauty," and
the wealth, gayety and fashion of New York is well represented,

Tuesday, June 22d. I spent the morning in writing farewell letters, and
making the final preparations for leaving. At one o'clock I went on board
the "Manhattan," which was still quite empty. In order to have something
to do by which to while away the slow dull hours yet remaining, I
commenced writing a letter. None of my friends or acquaintances being with
me, I bid all my farewells by note. But such writing! Though the vessel
was locked to the pier by immense cables, still she was anything but
steady. As passengers began to multiply, acquaintances were formed. By and
by the stewart came around, and assigned to us our berths. Ship government
is monarchic in form. The officers have almost absolute authority, and
the passengers, like bashful pupils, do their best to learn the new rules
and regulations and adapt their conduct to them, as soon as possible, so
that nobody may find occasion for making observations or passing remarks.
All these things remind one very much of a first day at school. As

The Parting Hour

approaches, large numbers of the friends and relatives of some of our
passengers, came upon de