LIVERPOOL. 41 



flare. There are no " oyster cellars," but oysters " in the shell," 

 are exposed in stands about the street, like those of our " hot 

 corn," and apple women. Liquor shops, always with the ominous 

 sign of " Vaults" are very frequent, and often splendid. The 

 tea and coffee shops are among the richest in the streets. The 

 bakers' fronts are also generally showy, and there are a great 

 many of them. It seems to be the general custom, for poor fam- 

 ilies at least, to make their own bread, and send it in to them to 

 be baked. The first night we were ashore, we got some bread 

 and butter, and American cheese, at a baker's, and saw in ten 

 minutes a dozen loaves called for. They had sheet-iron checks, 

 with numbers on them, which were given up on the presentation 

 of a corresponding check, and, for a loaf of ten or twelve pounds, 

 a penny for baking in the same way that passengers' baggage 

 is checked on our railroads. 



Wood is used in the interior of houses more than I had imag- 

 ined it would be. Its cost is high. I inquired the price of what 

 looked like a common " Albany board," such as I buy in New 

 York for sixteen cents ; it was of the value of about thirty-five 

 cents. The kitchens, as far as we have observed, are on the 

 street floor, level with the living apartments. Coarse pottery and 

 wicker-work utensils are more common than with us. Few of 

 the houses in the town have trees about them. Occasionally an 

 old mansion is set a little back, and has a little scrubby foliage 

 in front of it most commonly of elms dwarfed [by smoke] to 

 the size and natural shape of a green-gage plum tree. There 

 are, though, in the better part of the town, some charming pub- 

 lic grounds. I have seen nothing in America so fine. 



The surface of the ground on which the town is built is irreg- 

 ular, and the streets crooked and running at every angle with 

 each other. Generally they are short, and, if long, at every few 

 blocks the names are changed. The names are often singular ; 



