"Ah, signer!" said one of my doorstep acquaintance, who
came next morning and played me Captain Jenks,--the new air he has had
added to his instrument,--"never in my life, neither at Torino, nor at
Milano, nor even at Genoa, never did I see such a crowd or hear such a
noise, as at that Colosseo yesterday. The carriages, the horses, the feet!
And the dust, O Dio mio! All those millions of people were as white as so
many millers!"
On the afternoon of the fourth day the city looked quite like the mill in
which these millers had been grinding; and even those unpromisingly
elegant streets of the Back Bay showed mansions powdered with dust enough
for sentiment to strike root in, and so soften them with its tender green
against the time when they shall be ruinous and sentiment shall swallow
them up. The crowd had perceptibly diminished, but it was still great, and
on the Common it was allured by a greater variety of recreations and
bargains than I had yet seen there. There were, of course, all sorts of
useful and instructive amusements,--at least a half-dozen telescopes, and
as many galvanic batteries, with numerous patented inventions; and I
fancied that most of the peddlers and charlatans addressed themselves to a
utilitarian spirit supposed to exist in us.
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