sement to me to observe a few
of the knowing hands hanging about, as feeding-time drew near, their
ears on the prick and their eyes on the door, which is thrown open at
the first bellow of the gong.

As to the indecent pushing and driving, so amusingly described by some
travellers, I never saw a symptom of it in any hotel I visited
throughout the country: on the contrary, the absence of extraordinary
bustle and confusion, where such numbers have to be provided for, is not
the least striking part of the affair; and only to be accounted for by
supposing that the habit of living thus together, and being in some sort
accountable to one another, renders individuals more considerate and
courteous than they can afford to be when congregated to feed amongst
us.

I confess that, at first, a dinner of a hundred, or a hundred and fifty
persons, on a hot day, alarmed me; but, the strangeness got over, I
rather liked this mode of living, and, as a stranger in a new country,
would certainly prefer it to the solitary mum-chance dinner of a
coffee-room.

By eleven o'clock at night the hive is hushed, and the house as quiet as
any well-ordered citizen's proper dwelling. The servants in this
establishment were all Irish lads; and a civiller or better-conducted
set of boys, as far as the guests were concerned, I never saw, or would
desire to be waited on by. The bar was also well conducted, under the
care of an obliging and very active person; and the proprietor, Mr.
Boydon, or his father, constantly on the spot, both most active in all
matters conducive to the ease and comfort of the visitors.

This city abounds in charitable institutions, and nowhere have more
princely contributions been made for philanthropic purposes,--witness
the recent gift of Colonel Perkins of a mansion, valued at thirty
thousand dollars, as a permanent asylum for the blind; one of those
institutions most interesting in themselves, and which confer dignity
and honour upon the age and upon human nature.

The Bostonians are said to be proud of their literary character, and
boast a number of societies whose object it is to justify their claim to
this honourable distinction. The only one I can speak of from personal
observation is the Athenaeum, an excellently-supplied reading-room;
having attached to it a library of thirty thousand volumes, a valuable
collection of coins and medals, a gallery for the exhibition of
pictures, and lecture-rooms well furnished with