Vidal Gore — Eighteen Seventy [637]

In a good mood, I took Emma shopping. Both Altman’s and Lord & Taylor already know the Princess, and she has unlimited credit. I must say I find bemusing these huge palaces dedicated to the selling of things by departments. They line Broadway from Stewart’s white iron building at Ninth Street (replacing the old Washington Hall Hotel of my youth where Irving and Halleck used regularly to dine) all the way up to Twenty-third Street. Ladies’ Mile they call it; and even on a damp winter morning, elegant ladies descend on the stores like a conquering army. — Vidal Gore, Eighteen Seventy, 637

Note

The vivid imagery employed here captures the bustling commerce of the city, evoking a sense of place and atmosphere that is both lively and nostalgic. The metaphor of ‘elegant ladies descend on the stores like a conquering army’ conjures a powerful visual of assertiveness and fashion in a consumerist context.