One of those sudden and sweeping
conflagrations, which so frequently make a breach in the long line of
edifices, destroyed within a few months the tall white walls of the
American Museum, with its flaring effigies of giants, dwarfs, and
monsters, and its band of musicians in the balcony, so alluring to the
rustic visitor. The picturesque church of St. Thomas and the heavy
granite facade of the Stuyvesant Institute, the "Tabernacle," the
Art-Academy, and the Society Library buildings have given way to palaces
of trade, and been transferred to the indefinitely extensive region of
"up town." Stewart's lofty marble stores redeemed the character of the
east side, long neglected in favor of the more crowded and showy
opposite walk; and his example has been followed by so many other
enterprising capitalists, that the original difference, both of aspect
and prestige, has all but vanished.
Among the most noticeable of the later features are the prevalence of
flower-venders, and the increase of beggars; as well as the luxurious
attractiveness of the leading confectioners' establishments, which, in
true American eclectic style, combine the Parisian cafe with the London
pastry-cooks and the Continental restaurant,--delectable rendezvous of
women who lunch extravagantly.
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