keep in the
rear, and put forward an advance-guard of show and humbug. The posterior aspect
of any old farm-house, behind which a railroad has unexpectedly been opened, is
so different from that looking upon the immemorial highway, that the spectator
gets new ideas of rural life and individuality, in the puff or two of
steam-breath which shoots him past the premises. In a city, the distinction
between what is offered to the public, and what is kept for the family, is
certainly not less striking.
    But, to return to my window, at the back of the hotel. Together with a due
contemplation of the fruit-trees, the grape-vines, the buttonwood-tree, the cat,
the birds, and many other particulars, I failed not to study the row of
fashionable dwellings to which all these appertained. Here, it must be
confessed, there was a general sameness. From the upper-story to the first
floor, they were so much alike that I could only conceive of the inhabitants as
cut out on one identical pattern, like little wooden toy-people of German
manufacture. One long, united roof, with its thousands of slates glittering in
the rain, extended over the whole. After the distinctness of separate
characters, to which I had recently been accustomed, it perplexed and annoyed me
not to be able to resolve this combination of human interests into well-defined
elements. It seemed hardly worth while for more than one of those families to be
in existence; since they all had the same glimpse of the sky, all looked into
the same area, all received just their equal share of sunshine through the front
windows, and all listened to precisely the same noises of the street on which
they bordered. Men are so much alike, in their nature, that they grow
intolerable unless varied by their circumstances.
    Just about this time, a waiter entered my room. The truth was, I had rung
the bell and ordered a sherry-cobbler.
    »Can you tell me,« I inquired, »what families reside in any of those houses
opposite?«
    »The one right opposite is a rather stylish boarding-house,« said the
waiter. »Two of the gentlemen-boarders keep horses at the stable of our
establishment. They do things in very good style, sir, the people that live
there.«
    I might have found out nearly as much for myself, on examining the house a
little more closely. In one of the upper chambers, I saw a young man in a
dressing-gown,