Our young folks [serial] . to ! we find ourselves in a twinkling in State Street. It is filledwith modern buildings, one only excepted, and that is, the Old State-House ;and now I want you to go back with me a hundred years or so, in imagina-tion, and, having done so, let us look about us. We see the sea flowing up on both sides of Long Wharf as far as Mer-chants Row and Kilby Streets, and the bowsprits of the queer-lookingvessels projecting over those streets. We see men and boys with uglycocked hats — such as Ben Franklins statue has tucked under its arm —stuck on their heads ; waistcoats re
Our young folks [serial] . to ! we find ourselves in a twinkling in State Street. It is filledwith modern buildings, one only excepted, and that is, the Old State-House ;and now I want you to go back with me a hundred years or so, in imagina-tion, and, having done so, let us look about us. We see the sea flowing up on both sides of Long Wharf as far as Mer-chants Row and Kilby Streets, and the bowsprits of the queer-lookingvessels projecting over those streets. We see men and boys with uglycocked hats — such as Ben Franklins statue has tucked under its arm —stuck on their heads ; waistcoats reaching to the hips, knee-breeches, tight-fitting stockings, and high shoes with buckles of silver or plated metal,while from underneath their hats projects either a stiff queue, curled uplike a pigs tail, or a knot of hair gathered loosely by a ribbon. But the streets, how narrow and crooked! Change Avenue has turnedinto Pierces Alley, and Congress Street into Leveretts Lane ; wharves run 400 Glimpses of Boston. [July,. State Street, and Old State-House. into the harbor from Kilby Street, and a tavern with three bunches of grapesfor a sign is on the corner where the New England Bank ought to Street has become Royal Exchange Lane, and Devonshire, bysome hocus pocus, is transformed into Pudding Lane ; while Wilsons Laneis now Crooked by name as well as nature. What queer names the tavernshave ! We have passed the Admiral Vernon and the Crown Coffee-House, then the Bunch of Grapes, the Royal Exchange, corner OfExchange Street, British Coffee-House, and the Lighthouse, oppositethe Town Hall. Looking up, we see over where Joys Building ought to be,a wooden meeting-house with an apology for a steeple, and now we stopto take breath. We are more and more bewildered, for on the numerous taverns we seethe arms of Great Britain, and on the corner of Exchange Street is pacinga sentinel before his Majestys Custom-House. Over opposite, in frontof where Braziers Building now i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1865
