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PLAN FOR LODGINGS.

requires, that they should have the front door to themselvesalso the door-plate and bell-handle-also freedom from other people's ash-barrel on the sidewalk edge-also the right of entry and staircase, privacy of basement and exclusive control of gas, Croton, and night-key. These, (with fashionable neighbourhood,) constitute the actual and tangible advantages of a "house up town." And we propose to continue these, one and all, to the present enjoyers of them-proposing only a better use of their superfluous upper-stories, thus :

Of every five houses in a block, let the central one be taken by a landlady of lodgings. The main floor and basement might be occupied as a restaurant and cook-shop. The other rooms she would let to those who should agree with her for an annual rent, paying also for regular service, and for the meals she should furnish. Of her neighbours on either side, she should hire the upper stories, opening an access to them from the central house, and sealing up the staircases, so as to cut off all communication with the families below. In this way, an entry, run through the entire block, would be like the long wing of a hotel; and this appropriation of it, known only to the occupants, would be no manner of inconvenience to the private residences whose doors and staircases were left undisturbed. For "settling" the uninhabited third and fourth stories of New York City-for colonizing and turning to account the waste prairies over our heads we respectfully and gratuitously submit this plan to the Public.

ARE OPERAS MORAL, AND ARE PRIMA-DONNAS LADIES?

"THE OX is liable to death from swallowing the hairs licked from his own body," says Natural History, but there was probably a time, during ox-worship in Egypt (supposing human nature to have been always the same), when, to have removed such superfluous hairs with a curry-comb, would have been called profane. In this similitude is fairly presented, we believe, the spirit in which any attempts to liberalize moral restrictions are usually received in our country. Yet a superfluous and irritating excess of restriction, is, we think, the evil from which the whole system of morals is most in danger.

We have once or twice, lately, been led to ask why the Opera is not a suitable amusement for the religious and moral, and what would be the consequences of putting Opera-music and its professors upon the same footing as Art and artists.

The wife of an eminent clergyman expressed to us, not long since, her regret at being precluded from the enjoyment of the Opera, and we ventured to inquire whether her husband had any scruples as to the intrinsic propriety of her visiting this place of amusement. "No!" she said, "but there are so many excellent

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OBJECTIONS TO OPERA.

people who would take offence!" We chance to have, in our own acquaintance, a considerable number of these same "excellent people ;" and among them, we know of no one, who has an ear for music and any remainder of youth, who would not frequent the Opera if "Sister So-and-so" would not be likely to "feel hurt about it"-Sister So-and-so (on inquiry) having either a rheumatism which prevents her "going out of evenings," or not taste enough for music to turn a doxology. The stories, or subjects of Operas, being properly liable to no interdiction which would not apply equally to the reading of history and to the admission of general literature into a family, the classing of so attractive and refined an amusement among immoralities, looks, to the young, like an unsupported and bigoted prejudice. A needless deprivation like this, too, stands, as a drawback, at the door of a profession of religion; and it is not unlikely, besides, to awaken a mischievous incredulity as to the soundness of forbiddings, wiser and better, which are enforced, with no more emphasis, in its company.

We were a looker-on at a morning concert, a week or two ago, given at the house of Mr. Bajioli, the well-known music-teacher of this city. It was intended partly as an exhibition of his present pupils; but, among the performers, were several ladies distinguished for their musical accomplishment, who had formerly benefitted by his instructions, and one or two professional singers -Signorina Truffi among the number. The ladies present, the relatives and friends of the scholars, were as select a company, for propriety and fashion, as could well have been assembled; but the unusual presence of the prima-donna, in drawing-room dress, amid this exclusive crowd of private society, naturally suggested comparison and speculation. A woman of a more

CIVILITIES TO SINGERS.

353

aristocratic air than this young and beautiful creature could hardly be found. She is handsomer off the stage than on it, for the fresh and maidenly character of her countenance is confused by distance and by the tinsel of stage costume. Her face, seen near and by daylight, has the unprofaned and unconscious purity of private life, while her refined carriage of person and selfpossessed grace of manners strikingly fit her to be the ornament of society the most discriminate. She sat listening while one of Mr. Bajioli's pupils sang an air from an Opera in which she frequently appears upon the stage, and the simple and unconscious interest with which she watched the less perfect performance of what she could do so well-the eager movements of her lips as she followed the words, and the sympathetic heave of her chest and stir of her arms, as if for a gesture, at the points which required force and exertion-betrayed a childlike and tender sympathy, which we could not but look upon, in this queenly woman, with respect and admiration.

Why, we asked, would not any society be improved, by taking up, as persons to cherish and make much of, the gifted and accomplished creatures whose natural superiority marks them out. for this profession? They are not all of good character, it is said-but, because all painters are not of good character, are painters, therefore, as a class, excluded from society? To invite an Opera-singer to a party in New York, except as a person hired to perform for the amusement of those present, would be considered by most people as rather a venturesome risking of the censure of "mixed company." Complimentary civilities to a primadonna, in the presence of other ladies, would so lessen the value of a gentleman's attentions, that his female acquaintances would be shy of him, till there was time for it to be forgotten. A

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APPRECIATION OF ARTISTS.

woman like Signorina Truffi, known, to be a most exemplary daughter and perfectly irreproachable in character, comes to New York-as gifted and distinguished in her way as Frederika Bremer would be, in hers—yet receives no attentions from her own sex and no hospitalities, except as condescensions, while Miss Bremer, should she come to sell her books as Truffi comes to sell her music, would be thronged after like a queen.

They are more liberal in England and France toward musical artists, but we want something far better than the English or French feeling on the subject-we want a republican appreciation of musical genius—an equitable and just moral appreciation—a liberal and educated distribution of the honour and favour of society, to the gifted of all professions alike. It is something, in Europe, that every admirable artist gathers a party of appreciators about her, who combine to support and defend her against adverse circumstances or professional intrigue and rivalry; and it makes America a cold and unsympathetic latitude to artists, because we have no such generous impulse of combination here; but there is, with it, in Europe, an undisguised condescension of patronage, to which genius, of any kind, should scorn to be subjected. This is, properly, the country for something better-for getting rid of the artificial and oppressive usages based on what the Pilgrims came over here to be rid of-and, instead of being outdone, as it is, by monarchical liberality to gifted persons, it should have been, long ago, an example of what reform a republic works in the place-giving appreciation of genius.

We leave untouched the obvious changes that would be worked in Opera-Music and its professors, if Music were fairly adopted, in all its beautiful varieties, as a moral art. We think the time will very soon come, when the Opera will be separated from other