No one, that has sojourned in Washington, can be ten minutes in
Baltimore without being aware of a great and refreshing change. You
leave the hurry and bustle of traffic behind at the railway station, and
are never subjected to such nuisances till you return thither. Even in
the exclusively commercial squares of the city there reigns comparative
leisure, for, except in the establishments of government contractors, or
others directly connected with the supply of the army, business is by no
means brisk just now. You may pass through Baltimore street, the main
artery bisecting the town from east to west, at any hour, without
encountering a denser or busier throng than you would meet in Regent
street, any afternoon _out_ of the season, and, about the usual
promenade time, the proportion of fair _flancuses_, to the meaner
masculine herd, would be nearly the same.
I betook myself to Guy's hotel, which had been recommended to me as
quiet and comfortable: for many people it would have been _too_ quiet.
The black waiters carried the science of "taking things easy" to a rare
perfection; they were thoroughly polite, and even kindly in manner, and
never dreamed of objecting to any practicable order, but--as for
carrying it out within any specified time--_altra cosa_.
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