Give
me to hear about the career of him who is in the thick of business;
to whom one change of market means empty belly, and another a copious
and savoury meal. This is not the philosophical, but the human side
of economics; it interests like a story; and the life all who are
thus situated partakes in a small way the charm of ROBINSON CRUSOE;
for every step is critical and human life is presented to you naked
and verging to its lowest terms.
NEW YORK
As we drew near to New York I was at first amused, and then somewhat
staggered, by the cautious and the grisly tales that went the round.
You would have thought we were to land upon a cannibal island. You
must speak to no one in the streets, as they would not leave you till
you were rooked and beaten. You must enter a hotel with military
precautions; for the least you had to apprehend was to awake next
morning without money or baggage, or necessary raiment, a lone forked
radish in a bed; and if the worst befell, you would instantly and
mysteriously disappear from the ranks of mankind.
I have usually found such stories correspond to the least modicum of
fact.
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