APPLETONS'.
APPLETONS' is the very conspicuous gilt-lettered name of a large brown-stone building just opened on Broadway, New York, for the business purposes of this well-known firm. It was built originally for a public library, but was bought last spring by the present owners, and the lower story has since been fitted up for them. Henceforth, "Appletons'" will be one of the lions of Broadway.
It may not be a very flattering comparison, but one at least easily understood—what "Stewart's" is to the woman of fashion, or "Taylor's" to the gourmand, "Appletons'" is now to the student or the book fancier. The design and decorations are in perfect keeping with the business, the very windows, deep set as they are, suggesting the alcoves, with which it is lined, as in a public library. The ceiling walls are ornamented in fresco, of quiet, yet cheerful tints; fourteen Corinthian columns are the central support, and these have the effect of Sienna marble. The book-cases and shelving are of plain oak. The proportions and whole interior effect are admirable; and here are to be found everything that is bindable or readable, from superb London editions of the classics to the last new school-book, in its plain cloth cover.
A good hour's lounge would scarcely give a just idea of the united elegance and utility of the new establishment; for the curious visitor should not neglect to glance at the wholesale ware-room, occupying the warm, well-lighted basement, which has its own "exits and entrances," its own salesmen, attendants, and purchasers, and gives perhaps a more just estimate of the immense business of the firm. There is certainly nothing approaching to it in this country or in England.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
WE must enforce upon our correspondents the necessity of being explicit in forwarding their addresses; for we agree with them in thinking it rather awkward for a young lady to be addressed as M. S. Jones, Esq., or a married lady to find herself suddenly divorced, and written to as Miss. But how are we to help it? How is the editor, especially in the haste and confusion of a correspondence the uninitiated cannot imagine or comprehend, to discover from internal evidence whether the said M. S. Jones is a noun masculine or feminine, or, being feminine, to decide upon her state and condition regarding the holy bonds of matrimony? Let the letter read thus, and all doubt and misdirection are at an end:—
"DEAR SIR: Inclosed is $10 for the following subscription to the Lady's Book. MISS M. S. JONES, Dalton, Ohio"—
or Mrs., as the prefix may be. That agreeable young lady will not, in this case, have her feelings hurt by being addressed as Esq., and so supposed to belong to the Woman's Right party, at least; nor we be obliged to waste, to us, very valuable time, in reading letters of explanation or writing notes of apology. Not to mention the two postage stamps saved—a consideration; since, by Poor Richard's rule of compound interest—
"A penny saved is two pence got."