WANDERINGS THROUGH NEW YORK--LECTURE AT THE HARMONIE CLUB--VISIT TO
THE CENTURY CLUB.
_New York, March 1._
The more I see New York, the more I like it.
After lunch I had a drive through Central Park and Riverside Park, along
the Hudson, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I returned to the Everett House
through Fifth Avenue. I have never seen Central Park in summer, but I
can realize how beautiful it must be when the trees are clothed. To have
such a park in the heart of the city is perfectly marvelous. It is true
that, with the exception of the superb Catholic Cathedral, Fifth Avenue
has no monument worth mentioning, but the succession of stately mansions
is a pleasant picture to the eye. What a pity this cathedral cannot
stand in a square in front of some long thoroughfare, it would have a
splendid effect. I know this was out of the question. Built as New York
is, the cathedral could only take the place of a block. It simply
represents so many numbers between Fiftieth and Fifty-first streets on
Fifth Avenue.
In the Park I saw statues of Shakespeare, Walter Scott, and Robert
Burns. I should have liked to see those of Longfellow, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, and many other celebrities of the land. Washington, Franklin,
and Lincoln are practically the only Americans whose statues you see all
over the country. They play here the part that Wellington and Nelson
play in England. After all, the "bosses" and the local politicians who
run the towns probably never heard of Longfellow, Bryant, Poe, etc.
* * * * *
At four o'clock, Mr. Thomas Nast, the celebrated caricaturist, called. I
was delighted to make his acquaintance, and found him a most charming
man.
I dined with General Horace Porter and a few other friends at the Union
League Club. The witty general was in his best vein.
At eight o'clock I lectured at the Harmonie Club, and had a large and
most appreciative audience, composed of the pick of the Israelite
community in New York.
After the lecture I attended one of the "Saturdays" at the Century Club,
and met Mr. Kendal, who, with his talented wife, is having a triumphant
progress through the United States.
There is no gathering in the world where you can see so many beautiful,
intelligent faces as at the Century Club. There you see gathered
together the cleverest men of a nation whose chief characteristic is
cleverness.