The Central Public Library and the great Metropolitan Art Museum are located on Fifth Avenue. The library building is of white marble and contains more than two million volumes. It has also a library for the blind and maintains an excellent library school. It has branch libraries all of the city.
Push carts line the sidewalks; and as the streets are narrow, during the height of business in the day it is difficult for one to thread his way through the maze of carts, dogs and children, to say nothing of gesticulating grownups who are hunting bargains. In these street stands one can buy anything from a tin plate to parlor furniture, and from a shoe string to a formal evening gown. It is a mystery sometimes where everything goes at night, for after dark the streets are for the most part clear. "Eat as you go" is the popular procedure on Rivington Street, the menu provided being somewhat dependent on the season; for instance, during the summer months one finds corn on the cob, all kinds of fresh fruit, sandwiches, ice cream, and an endless variety of sausages, pickles and cakes. In the winter one may regale himself on baked sweet potato, roasted chestnuts, sauerkraut, and an endless variety of cheeses and sausages.
At 23rd Street we come to Madison Square where Broadway crosses Fifth Avenue. Facing this square we have the famous Madison Square Garden Building, the Metropolitan Building, and the Flat Iron Building. Madison Square Garden occupies an entire block, with a beautiful tower topped with a statue of Diana by St. Gaudens, costing $3,000,000. It contains one of the largest amphitheatres in America, seating 12,000. It has been the scene of great political meetings, horse shows, Barnum and Baily and Ringling Brothers circuses, prize fights, dances, etc.
The Metropolitan Building, of beautifully carved marble, stands at the foot of Madison Avenue. The staircase is particularly beautiful. The building occupies the entire block. It has 52 stories and is 700 feet high. One can look for 20 miles over New York City from the tower.
Two short blocks to the east of Wanamaker's store is one of the celebrated institutions of the city--Cooper Union Institute--founded by Peter Cooper in 1859. It is a free school of sciences and art with $4,000,000 endowment. It has 72 instructors and some four thousand students. Cooper Union has witnessed many famous gatherings in its day. In the days before the Civil War its walls echoed to the appeals of abolitionists like Beecher, Garrison and Wendell Phillips. Abraham Lincoln made his first appearance before an eastern audience in this place, and it has been said that this speech had much to do with making him president. Many fine public concerts are given here, especially on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. On Broadway at 10th Street is Grace Church, which was built in 1845 and is still one of the celebrated churches. It has a very fine boys' choir, which is well worth hearing. On Easter Sunday they give each child a flowering plant.
Some of the best known churches of New York are Grace Church, St. Mark's in the Bowerie, Little Church Around the Corner, First Presbyterian, St. Thomas, St. Patrick, St. Bartholomew, St. John the Divine, Russian Greek Catholic, Jewish Temples, and St. Paul the Apostle, seat of the Paulist Fathers--the last being noted for its works of art by such artists as Saint Gaudens, Tanford White, John La Farge, and MacMonnies.