Scribner's magazine . oflocal sages meets now as it has for sev-eral decades, amid the shavings amispars, the oars and tackle, to lookout over the harbor and speculate onthe political state of the nation and thesocial state of the town, is tlie chiefvariation I note, and that is not revolu-tionary. On the hottest day there isalways a breeze here, and much to belearned besides. Nor is there anything, I fancy, quitelike Thames Street from end to end—the business street of the to^^n—thoughits banks and butcher-sh()2)s, and book-stores and flsh-markets, and hardwareand dry-goods and haberdashery a
Scribner's magazine . oflocal sages meets now as it has for sev-eral decades, amid the shavings amispars, the oars and tackle, to lookout over the harbor and speculate onthe political state of the nation and thesocial state of the town, is tlie chiefvariation I note, and that is not revolu-tionary. On the hottest day there isalways a breeze here, and much to belearned besides. Nor is there anything, I fancy, quitelike Thames Street from end to end—the business street of the to^^n—thoughits banks and butcher-sh()2)s, and book-stores and flsh-markets, and hardwareand dry-goods and haberdashery arepunctuated and faintly diversified withdwellings now and then. They havebeen dwellings a long while, and countmany generations of probably the samefamilies. The subdued note of age, of silence and slow time, is distinctlyaudible, and vibrates gently througli-out the old town, with its gray andwhite and green blinds ; but I must ad-mit that of recent years there has beento some extent an intrusive discord of 147. NFWPORT \VJ commercial modernity even licre. Tlu;one-pri(;e clotliiii^ store, the ])ee-liivesof liuiiiiiiiiij4 retail industry, and theuniversal emporium are forei<^n l)odie8in the f^eneral environment and contrib-ute a lorei<^ii color to the quaint oldstreet—like an overflow of Fall liiveror Providence. But as yet tliey havenot greatly detracted from the generalcharacter of the thoroughfare, whichis still sufficient to ailord one of tliemost piquant contrasts in the world, Ithink, when the drags and dog-carts,the broughams and phaetons of fash-ion weave their way along its narrowlength at what it pleases everyoneshumorous fancy to call the shoppinghour. Thames Street, whatever itstransformations, will indefinitely, Ithink, continue to perform its distin-guished function of binding togethersummer and winter, transitory andpermanent Newport with a notablewelding force. The Point, too, is a joart of the oldtown, and is rather neglected, which itshould not be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1887
