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August 1848-February 1849 ous, it involuntarily reminded me of Macbeths exclamation, "I dare do all that does become a Man"," I hope my experience will prove that they go no further. Nothing can exceed the civility & at- tention I have every where met but at present it is premature to form an opinion certainly the city has a very prosperous & bustling appearance Every one rides, 500 stages or our omnibuses, ply up & down Broadwy alone, to say nothing of those in other parts of New York.12 All the boys or rather Juvenile Men, smoke & little girls called here Misses, scarcely escaped from the nursery, wear rings & dress & act like women. The anecdote of the Man in France who when he wished his hair cropped, was studiously scru- tinized by an Artiste who pronounced that his wig must be cut a la Virgil & upon delivering the verdict another stepped in & per- formed the operation, is here literally realized I have noticed upon Hair dressers signs. "Physiognomical Hair dresser"! Monday. called upon Dr Sherman3 & arranged to reside with him, taking my dinner in the city I pay him $3 p week a sum very low for New York the usual charge at a Boarding House being $5, I immediately & thankfully accepted his offer & although he & his family are peculiarly situated I feel that the society of his two sons Wm & James will compensate for much that is not agree- able. John the one we remember, does not reside with his Father, his Brother Wm is a truly pious & estimable lad & I already feel attached to him. More about the Shermans in another letter. The first night spent at the Doctors was a somewhat memorable one, after having annihilated 2 Musquitoes I fondly imagined that I should enjoy a good nights rest, but instead of this I itched so in- i1 The quotation is found in Macbeth, act 1, scene 7, line 46. l2 For the transportation of a population of almost 400,000 in 1848, 21 operating lines furnished 327 omnibuses for the convenience of the people of New York. If you could afford to, hackney coaches and carriages could be hired for twenty-five cents up to one mile and fifty cents for between one and two miles. Ezekiel Porter Belden, New York: Past, Present, and Future, A Description of its Present Condition and an Estimate of its Future Increase (New York: G. I? Putnam, 1849), pp. 44, 50,54. l3 As his letter of January 26, 1849, later demonstrates, Dr. Shearman was a well- educated physician, formerly of Birmingham, England, whose capacity for outward piety could lead him to a verbose display of self-righteousness. He was evidently a good friend of the Benjamin Hudson family. The City Directory listed him as "Shearman, John H., physician, 189 Bleecker." Daggett's New York City Directory, 1848-1849 (New York: John Daggett, Jr., Publisher and Proprietor, 1848), p. 367 and p. 3 of Appendix. |
