Many persons owning houses for rent, furnish them at their own expense,
and let them, the heavy rent soon paying a handsome profit on the
furniture.

Persons living in a rented house are constantly apprehensive. Except in
cases of long leases, no one knows how much his rent may be increased
the next year. This causes a constant shifting of quarters, and is
expensive and vexatious in the highest degree. It is partly due to the
unsettled condition of the currency, but mainly to the scarcity of
houses.

Many--indeed; the majority of the better class of inhabitants--prefer
to board. Hotels and boarding houses pay well in New York. They are
always full, and their prosperity has given rise to the remark that,
"New York is a vast boarding house." We shall discuss this portion of
our subject more fully in another chapter.

To persons of means, New York offers more advantages as a place of
residence than any city in the land. Its delightful climate, its
cosmopolitan and metropolitan character, and the endless variety of its
attractions, render it the most delightful home in America. That this
is true is shown by the fact that few persons who have lived in New
York for twelve months ever care to leave it. Even those who could do
better else where are powerless to resist its fascinations.

[Illustration: Broadway, as seen from The St. Nicholas Hotel.]