They are there, and know what you want as soon as you do yourself. In Gadsby's, at Washington, their mute observant attention-one black man ministering to the wants of two whites-was really too affecting. One could not eat one wanted to get up and set them down and wait on them. They were not paid for their services. They were not volunteers in your cause. They could not go away if you ill-used them. They were slaves! They looked sleek and tranquil, however, and are in general under mild treatment in the district of Columbia. In a country where everybody travels, the comforts and reasonable charges of hotels are important. Some of the arrangements are new to the English. There is, generally, with the transient visitors, a mixture of those who make a permanent residence in the house. These are not only bachelors and young clerks, but young married people. Those who prefer to see what is going on linger in the saloons of an evening after leaving the eating-room, when it often happens that a musical guest, or a professional person, will play and sing for the entertainment of the company. You find as many newspapers as can be rescued from the reading and smoking rooms, and a few books, and sometimes ladies have their work. It is hardly deemed courteous to write letters in the saloon, and no provision is made for that in the way of material. At best, it is an idle life. People seem waiting for something that rarely comes, in the way of disembarrassed con versation, something better than talk got up for the occasion; and one yawns and drops off, and then another, till the whole house retires to early repose. The BOARDING-HOUSE is not for the accommodation of travellers, but of those who are for some time from home, or who have no other home. In busy cities, and at watering-places, there are thousands so accommodated. It is computed that 25,000 strangers are in New York at one season of the year, some of whom may, by their affairs, be obliged to remain a considerable time. For them, at least for single gentlemen, the boarding-house may be more convenient than the English method of lodging. But for families, and for a permanency, they are not calculated to promote settled habits, or cultivate home enjoyments. It often happens that newly-married people choose that homeless, uncomfortable method of beginning life, induced by the idea that it is more economical and less troublesome than having the responsibilities of a house. The difficulty of procuring "helps," or rather of knowing how to get any good use of them when procured, is another reason for preferring to board. The effect of this plan on the mental and moral habits appears very unsalutary, and is silently working on the whole of society. It promotes improvident marriages, as people marry to board who could not afford to keep house. It promotes selfishness, as persons who are all paying for everything alike, It is and who-the female part, at least-have not much to occupy them, get jealous and watchful lest others get any advantage which they do not enjoy. It promotes epicurism, as there must be a table kept beyond the style of the real circumstances of each individual; and as they pay for it, they feel that they have a right to be fastidious and critical. distressing to see the children's greedy eyes roam over all the dishes, liking this and hating that, and having their plates heaped with all manner of incongruous things, to prevent their disturbing the company by crying or exclaiming. Besides, the little creatures get the manners of grown persons, and talk away, polite and agreeable by the way, but forward, and in an unhealthy attitude withal. I remember seeing a little fellow about five years old, who had found a shining button with a broken eye, go the round of a large saloon, in the most gentlemanly way, inquiring of each if "you had lost that, as he had found it, and it would give him pleasure to restore it to you if you could claim it." To dwell with persons in whom you have no special interest, or whom you only, or hardly, put up with, is the reverse of improving to the heart. For a young pair to begin by living in the presence of others, when their first year is required to learn each other's peculiarities, and how to assimilate and how to forbear, seems not merely disagreeable, but dangerous. A word, a look, an unintentional neglect, may, in the early stages of matrimonial union, wound deeply. To leave the wound unrevealed, or the neglect unexplained, cannot fail to make the matter worse. In such a case, there is drooping of spirits and repining, or, what is still more dangerous, there is sympathy offered by some officious on-looker, and accepted, to the further alienation of the sufferer. How long in this way may those who are really attached and fitted to cherish each other be kept apart! and how unlike the cheerful, confiding sociality of one's own fireside, where, according to the old song "I can laugh when I'm merry, For the male sex the evils are not so great, as they set out early to business, and are engaged the chief hours of the day. But the females! unless they have a taste for study, what can they do in their chamber but attend a little to their garments, or gossip a little with the lady in the next room? Happy are they, if, after their toilet is made, they have a call to make, or an errand to a store, and an apology for causing the storekeepers to tumble over their goods, little to their advantage. How thus should they acquire domestic habits, or be at all more prepared to "go to housekeeping" when the time comes, than they were at the outset? They cannot know what to expect from servants, nor how to manage their tempers, nor how to shew them what they do not know. One has actually heard of people returning to the boarding-house system, be cause they could not find any comfort in a house of their own! Anything like the domestic altar, and family order, with all the consequent and useful responsibilities, are prevented by this plan. Young persons are thrown in each other's way, that had better never have met; and the children cannot be well kept apart, however averse the parents of one family may be to the manners and training of another. The young men are driven to frequent places of public amusement, because they have no private apartment in the house, or do not like the people they meet in those which are public. For their sakes the sermons to young men are very well devised. It was pleasant to see many hundreds of them occupying quiet comfortable seats, and listening.to saving truths, eloquently delivered. It was the custom in earlier days, when the States were in the colonial stage of their existence, for the families, when the cares of the day were over, to dress and sit upon the piazza conversing, cooling themselves, and frolicking, as the humour took them; and rare tales are told of that olden time, when wary parents could not preserve the hearts of lovely daughters from being wounded by the archer who has slain his thousands. One that particularly took my fancy may be related. A youth saw some fair sisters in a milliner's shop, got desperate in his admiration of one of them, and there and then made up his mind that he would have her to wife, though |