“The first characteristic of New York, which impresses the stranger from abroad, and in a less degree from other American cities, is its atmosphere of breathless hast, its pervading sense of life keyed to an abnormal tension.”
…
“One direct consequence of this unending hurry, which the visitor is quick to feel, is a certain brusqueness and lack of civility as compared with other cities. Not that the great, motley, democratic middle class is deliberately rude to strangers; it simply lacks the time for the little courtesies of life, and grudges two words where one can be made to answer.”
Excerpts from a New York City guidebook from 1916.
(via Kottke)
Sounds like an outsider who wrote it…
Apr 24th, 2012 / 4:01 am
So nothing’s changed in a hundred years :-)
Actually – these are the things I love most about New York. The hast, and the short answers.
Apr 24th, 2012 / 5:39 am
This is why I love living in New York–I love the quickness of everything, the no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase-ness of everything. Why waste someone else’s time with your unformed thought? Think it out, then get it out–quick!
Apr 24th, 2012 / 9:21 am
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/gallery/home.shtml:
“Welcome to the New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery. […] The Online Gallery provides free and open research access to over 800,000 items digitized from the Municipal Archives’ collections, including photographs, maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings.”
(via http://www.tageswoche.ch/de/2012_16/international/418350/Zeitreise-in-New-York.htm)
Apr 24th, 2012 / 2:38 pm
“Sounds like an outsider who wrote it…”
I’m a native New Yorker born in Brooklyn and that description is correct to this day. More importantly, a description that I can see a native New Yorker expressing far more than a visitor would.
I mention native because there are plenty of people that move to New York and live there a relatively short time and then all of a sudden they think they know the city and its culture.
May 7th, 2012 / 5:34 am