"Come," writes Ben Jonson

Utly worshipped
of New York's idols. The human mind cannot imagine anything less like
"residences" than these vast blocks of vulgarity. The styles of all
ages and all countries have been recklessly imitated. The homes of
the
millionaires are disguised as churches, as
mosques, as medieval castles. Here you may find a stronghold of
feudalism cheek by jowl with the quiet mansion of a colonial
gentleman. There
Touraine jostles Constantinople;

and the climax is reached by Mr Schwab,
who has decreed for himself a lofty pleasure-dome, which is said to
resemble Chambord, and which takes its place in a long line
of villas, without so much as a turnip-field to give it an air of
seclusion or security. In this vainglorious craving for discomfort
there is a kind of naivete which is not without its pathos. One proud
lady, whose husband, in the words of a dithyrambic guide-book, "made
a fortune from a patent glove-hook," boasts that her mansion has a
glass-room on the second floor. Another vain householder
deems it sufficient to proclaim that he spent two million dollars
upon the villa which shelters him from the storm.

In brief, there
is scarcely a single palace on the Riverside which may not be
described as an antic of wealth, and one wonders what sort of a life
is lived within these gloomy walls. Do the inhabitants dress their
parts with conscientious gravity, and sit down
to dine with the trappings of costume and furniture which belong
to their houses? Suppose they did, and, suppose
in obedience to a signal they precipitated
themselves upon the highway, there would be such a masquerade of
fancy dress as the world has never seen. The Riverside Drive, then,
is a sermon in stones, whose text is the uselessness of uncultured
dollars. If we judged New York by this orgie of tasteless
extravagance, we might condemn it for a parvenu among cities,
careless of millions and sparing
of discretion. We may not thus judge it New York, if it be a parvenu,
is often a parvenu of taste, and
has given many a proof of intelligence and refinement. The home of
great luxury, it does

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