charged with a duty of 13 per cent.; and foreign rags are exempted from all impost. These advantages have facilitated the manufacture of paper and the printing of books in the United States, both which are now carried on to a very large extent. The new works that appear in America, or rather original productions, are very few; but every English work of celebrity is immediately reprinted in the States, and vended for a fourth of the original price. The booksellers and printers of New York are numerous, and in general men of property. Some of them have published very splendid editions of the Bible; and it was not a little gratifying to the American patriot to be told, that the paper, printing, engraving, and binding, were all of American manufacture. For several years past a literary fair has been held alternately at New York and Philadelphia. This annual meeting of booksellers has tended greatly to facilitate intercourse with each other, to circulate books throughout the United States, and to encourage and support the arts of printing and paper. making.

A public library is established at New York, which consists of about ten thousand volumes, many of them rare and valuable books. The building which contains them is situated in Nassaustreet, and the trustees are incorporated by an act

80

PUBLIC LIBRARY.-MUSEUM.

of the legislature. There are also three or four public reading-rooms, and circulating libraries, which are supported by some of the principal booksellers, from the annual subscriptions of the inhabitants. There is a museum of natural curiosities in New York, but it contains nothing worthy of particular notice.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Number of Deaths at New York-Mode of living in America-The Yellow Fever-Population of New York-Deaths-Church-yards-Funerals -Society of New York-Elegant WomenFrench and English Dresses-Fine FiguresDelicate Complexions-Bad Teeth, a groundless Charge-Education―Thirst after Knowledge-Arts and Sciences-Literature-Taste for Reading-Salmagundi-The Echo-Barlow's Columbiad-Smoking-Style of living at New York-Splendid Marriages-Great Fortunes-Anecdote of a Sailor-Quakers' Meeting

·Quakers-Anecdote of a Jew-Singing Schools -Christmas Day-Political Parties-Duels.

Ir does not appear that the malignant or yellow fever made very great ravages among the inhabitants in 1805, the last time of its appearance in New York; for the deaths very little exceeded

the preceding and subsequent years.

In 1804 the deaths were 2,064

Of the above number fifty-one were suicides;

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MODE OF LIVING IN AMERICA.

and according to the statement of Dr. Mitchill, upwards of one-third of the deaths are occasioned by consumption and debility. To the influence of moisture and the sudden changes of the weather has been attributed the prevalence of nervous disorders and debility among a great number of the inhabitants of the United States. Much may, no doubt, be ascribed to those causes; but I think the mode of living has a more immediate effect upon the human frame than even the climate of a country. The higher and middling classes of the Americans, who reside chiefly in the great towns or their neighbourhood, live, generally speaking, in a more luxurious manner than the same description of people in England. Not that their tables are more sumptuously furnished on particular occasions than ours; but that their ordinary meals consist of a greater variety of articles, many of which from too frequent use may, perhaps, become pernicious to the constitution. The constant use of segars by the young men, even from an early age, may also tend to impair the constitution, and create a stimulus beyond that which nature requires, or is capable of supporting. Their dread of the yellow fever has induced a more frequent use of tobacco of late years; but it is now grown into a habit that will not be easily abandoned. The other classes of the community, who reside in the interior and

back parts of the country, are often obliged to live upon salt provisions the greatest part of the year, and sometimes on very scanty fare; besides which, they generally dwell in miserable log huts, incapable of defending them effectually from the severity of the weather. Those who have the means of living better are great eaters of animal food, which is introduced at every meal; together with a variety of hot cakes, and a profusion of butter: all which may more or less tend to the introduction of bilious disorders, and perhaps lay the foundation of those diseases which prove fatal in hot climates. The effects of a luxurious or meagre diet are equally injurious to the constitution, and, together with the sudden and violent changes of the climate, may create a series of nervous complaints, consumption, and debility, which in the states bordering on the Atlantic carry off at least one third of the inhabitants in the prime of life.

The malignant or yellow fever generally commences in the confined parts of the town, near the water-side, in the month of August or September. It is commonly supposed to have been introduced by the French refugees from St. Domingo during the French revolution; though some are of opinion that it originated in the States; and many physicians were puzzling their brains about its origin at a time when they ought to have been devising means to stop its ravages. As soon as