of soothing repose.
Washington Heights is a crowning wilderness looking down upon the city
from Fort George, while the Sound and a glimpse of the village beyond
seen through the faint blue haze of distance lend a touch of fairylike
enchantment. The Jersey shore and the Palisades are one long drawn out
joy, so that, turn where you will, you find New York beautiful."

"Then, too," said Mrs. Jimmie, speaking for the first time, "New York
is old, and say what you will you feel the charm of the established,
and it gives you a sense of satisfaction to realize that you can't
detect the odour of varnish and new paint. New York has got beyond it,
and has begun to take on the gray of age."

"The churches show this," I cut in. "They are beautiful
stepping-places in the rush of city life. They cool and steady, and
their history and traditions form a restful contrast to the bustle of
the marketplace."

"But as to those who worship in these beautiful spots," said Considine,
"it is safe to say that church parade in Fifth Avenue is an even
smarter spectacle than church parade in Hyde Park, for American women
have an air, a carriage, and a taste in dress which English women as a
race can never acquire. In Hyde Park on Sunday morning, during the
season, one will see half a dozen beauties whose clothes are Parisian
and the loveliness of whose whole effect almost takes the breath away,
but the general run of the other women makes one want to close one's
eyes. In America the average woman is lovely enough to make each one
worth looking at, while the word 'frump,' which is continually useful
in England, might almost be dropped from the American language.

"As to manners in New York," he went on, "well, patriotic as I am,
American manners in public in any city almost make me long for the
outward politeness and inward insincerity of the Gallic nations.
Russians and Poles are the only ones I have observed to be alike both
in public and in private. In New York street-car etiquette or the
etiquette of any public conveyance is something highly interesting from
its variety of selfishness and rudeness."

"That is true," I said, "New York manners are seldom aggressively rude,
except on the elevated trains. In other cities you are pushed about,
walked over, elbowed aside, and often bodily hurt in crowds of their
own selfish making. Not so in New York. Civilization has gone a step
further here. In surface cars men never step on you, but