CHAP. XXXIX.] OMNIBUSES. 333 



Extravagantly expensive fans, with ruby or emerald 

 pins, are also common. I had heard it said in France 

 that no orders sent to Lyons for the furnishing of 

 private mansions, are on so grand a scale as some of 

 those received from New York ; and I can well be 

 lieve it, for we saw many houses gorgeously fitted 

 up with satin and velvet draperies, rich Axminster 

 carpets, marble and inlaid tables, and large looking- 

 glasses, the style in general being Parisian rather 

 than English. It was much more rare here than at 

 Boston to see a library forming part of a suite of 

 reception-rooms, or even a single book-case in a 

 drawing-room, nor are pictures so common here. 



In the five months since we were last in this me 

 tropolis, whole streets had been built, and several 

 squares finished in the northern or fashionable end of 

 the town, to which the merchants are now resorting, 

 leaving the business end, near the Battery, where 

 they formerly lived. Hence there is a constant in 

 crease of omnibuses passing through Broadway, and 

 other streets running north and south. Groups of 

 twelve of these vehicles may be seen at once, each 

 with a single driver, for wages are too high to sup 

 port a cad. Each omnibus has an opening in the 

 roof, through which the money is paid to the coach 

 man. We observed, as one woman after another got 

 out, any man sitting near the door, though a stran 

 ger, would jump down to hand her out, and, if it was 

 raining, would hold an umbrella over her, frequently 

 offering, in that case, to escort her to a shop, atten 

 tions which are commonly accepted and received by 

 the women as matters of course. 



