From 1876, by Gore Vidal, 1976. (Novel 3 in the 7-novel "Narratives of Empire" series.)
1876, as with Burr, is set mostly in New York City with Charlie Schuyler as narrator. Having just returned from years in Europe, Charlie chronicles the city's elites and the centennial year's controversial presidential election between New York's Democratic Governor, Samuel J. Tilden, and Ohio's Republican Governor, Rutherford B. Hayes.
The fact that I can no longer tell a prostitute from a fine lady is the first sign that I have been away [from New York City] for a very long time.
-----
Admittedly, the Electoral College--that ridiculous invention of the founders--can be manipulated to some degree but not sufficiently at this late hour to cheat the people of what they have so overwhelmingly voted for.
-----
"But this can't be done after the popular vote is already known!" Bigelow is innocent in ways that surprise me.
-----
John assured us that above Madison Square, as far north as Fifty-second Street, European-style mansions are going up. "While way up at Fifty-seventh Street, Mrs. Mary Mason Janehas built herself a French villa. Most extraordinary sight! Just sitting there all by itself in the wilderness with nothing around it except a few saloons and squatters' huts, and the goats."
Despite stern laws the goats are everywhere; they even invade the elegant premises of Madison Square. Emma was enthralled by the sight of a policeman attacking a half dozen dingy goats at the north end of the square, where they had taken up residence in front of a building in the process of renovation: the newest restaurant of the Delmonico family, soon to open.
-----
The United States is now on the verge of civil war.
-----
The sad farmer clung a moment to the younger man's hand; then he squeezed my elbw and lugubriously departed.
Jamie turned to me. "Come see out offices." But I had had my fill of newspaper offices for the day.
"Another time. My chipped beef grows cold."
Jamie made a face at the plate. "Then I'll have a drink with you." He...divined why I had placed myself so close to the newspapers [in the Astor House's bar]. "You wanted to read all about your splendid arrival for free. A razzle-dazzle!" He shouted this last phrase which referred not to my arrival, as I feared, but to a perfectly terrifying cocktail that contains, in equal parts, brandy, absinthe and ginger ale. Hard drinkers, these New York gentlemen.
-----
He looked like a cat who had managed to bring into the house and to deposit upon the best sofa the very largest rat.
-----
The lady on my left at lunch felt obligated to tell me that I was one of her favourite authors.... I thanked her politely; politely did not tell her that I am not Bayard Taylor. With age one does grow, if not wise, forgiving; also, forgetting--also, forgotten.
-----
"Then our reading ladies must be as easily shocked as they are boring." Alas, I had said exactly what I meant instead of what I had only meant to say.
"As rough and--well, shocking--as Mark Twain can be, I think him a very moral man and a good influence."
"I think him the most contemptible music-hall performer that ever pandered to an audience of ignorant yahoos." My dislike for Twain is inevitable. The professional vulgarian wandering amongst the ruins and splendours of Europe, displaying his contempt for civilization, in order to reassure the people back home that in their ignorance, bigotry and meanness they are like gods.
-----
[President] Grant has called out the troops.... Recently an overwrought local journalist wrote that if Hayes were to go in safety from White House to Capitol for his inauguration, then the people of this country are indeed fit for slavery. This morning the journalist was arrested. The government has indicted him for sedition.
-----
The Mystic Rose [Mrs. Astor] gave Emma a long look; then the eyes went straight to the replicas of the D'Agrigente diamonds. I feared for a moment that Mrs. Astor would suddenly produce not a lorgnette but a jeweller's magnifying glass, detect Emma's paste and order us to the door.
-----
There have been a good number of attacks in the press on the Chinese, whose supposed addiction to opium is always mentioned as proof of their undesirability as citizens. I have always found it strange that a nation whose prosperity is based entirely upon cheap immigrant labour should be so unrelentingly xenophobic.
-----
Blaine was already full of drink but not drunk. I don't suppose he is fifty yet. The face is ruddy; the small eyes are like polished onyxes. The ears are elephantine, and often paler or rosier than the rest of the face--do they respond to his moods first or last?
-----
"Tilden or Blood!" I now favour the second if we are to be, by conspiracy, denied the first.
-----
Of the three Delmonico restaurants, the one at Fourteenth Street and Union Square is certainly the most fashionable. The carpeting is thick. The lamps are richly shaded. How important it is to see the food plainly, yet not to see or to be seen too closely by those one dines with!
The lobster salad is a specialty of the house and it is as good as any dish I've ever had at Paris (paprika somehow makes the difference). Canvasback duck followed, enclosed in a savory aspic. One gets this notable bird so often at important dinner parties that for the gentry it has taken the place of the American eagle.
-----
Image: New York City - The Presidential Election. Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library. Repository: Susan H. Douglas Political Americana Collection, #2214 Rare & Manuscript Collections. From here you may view or download a 1536 x 1119 pixel JPEG of the newsprint.
Comments