has also the real gold. The best society of the city is not to be found
in what are known as "fashionable circles." It consists of persons of
education and refinement, who are amongst the most polished and
cultivated of the American people. To this class belonged Fennimore
Cooper and Washington Irving. It is small, very exclusive, and careful
as to whom it admits to its honors. Shoddy and its votaries cannot
enter it, and therefore it is decidedly unfashionable.




CHAPTER VI.


THE TOMBS.

Leaving Broadway at Leonard or Franklin streets, one finds himself,
after a walk of two blocks in an easterly direction, in a wide
thoroughfare, called Centre street. His attention is at once attracted
by a large, heavy granite building, constructed in the style of an
Egyptian temple. This is the Tombs. The proper name of the building is
"The Halls of Justice," but it is now by common consent spoken of
simply as the Tombs. It occupies an entire square, and is bounded by
Centre, Elm, Franklin, and Leonard streets. The main entrance is on
Centre street, through a vast and gloomy corridor, the sternness of
which is enough to strike terror to the soul of a criminal. Within the
walls which face the street, is a large quadrangle. In this there are
three prisons, several stories high. One of these is for men, the other
for boys, and the third for women. The gallows stands in the prison
yard, when there is need for it, all executions of criminals in this