121.
folks have friends and well wishers.   What
does Mrs L hope the new year will bring to her?
Well, nothing in particular, I suppose.  She is
not of the hoping or believing sort.        Levison would
aspire to running up the Picayune to ten times its
circulation.        I think the man deserves it, too.   For
Ellen � her wishes would be all for New Year�s presents,
�that every caller should shell out something to her.
                Down stairs, one story
lower.      Artiaga and his little wife, he a good tem-
pered Cuban, desirous that his native island should
pass from the paw of the Spanish lion to the beak
of the insatiable Yankee eagle.    She a little, little
woman, rather sickly, and sometimes dresses her-
self very prettily.       They leave for Cuba at the
end of January.        I do not pretend to opine their
new years hopes.            In the back room sits Miss
Sturgis, the thick, squat, owl-like old maid whose
whole existence appears to be spent in that apart-
ment.         Her meals are sent up to her, and she
dislikes ventilation.      She has a lasting, raven like
predilection for peeping at passers-by, opening the door
for the space of two inches to effect this, and closing
it with a bang when you have passed, as though she
objected to your existence.     Its particularly unplea-
sant.       Sometimes she glides to the banisters, and
calls sepulchrally to the Bridget below.           Mrs Pot-