CHAPTER IV
 

Sinking in the Soft Asphalt - "Loose Chewin's" -
"The Ball's up at the Park" - "Medicated" Red
Flannel a Panacea for Everything - Wristlets -
Cardigan Jackets - Ear Muffs.
 

CONCERNING the physical construction of the
streets of our city at this time, I chant a psean of
glory to the "Belgian block" the "Telford" and the cobble¬
stone. A fig for your rock bound coasts of Maine be¬
loved of the spread eagle orator. "Bah!" to your
"rocky road to Dublin," and several other superb gestures
of contempt for classic metaphors. The New York road¬
way of our period presented as rough, as toilsome, and as
rugged a surface as any of these. The "400" bounced and
tossed about in their carriages on the way to the Twin
Palaces, Chateaux, etc. of the Vanderbilts, as if those
show places were built in a rocky fastness, instead of on
the chief residential highway of the Western Hemisphere.
The only smooth highways in the city were the macadam-
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