'
While the possessor of this wealth is undergoing his morning toilet, let
us attend the steps of his butler in chief, whose duty it was to prepare
the eleven-o'clocker with which Roseton was accustomed to fortify
himself against the fatigues of the middle part of the day. Passing down
a succession of flights of stairs, each one consisting of two hundred
and twenty-five steps of the finest ebony, we at last find ourselves in
an immense cavern, dimly lighted by the internal fires of the earth,
which are here approached and verified. It was, however, left for
Roseton to discover that these flames consisted of negative qualities as
to caloric; and a project for cooling the streets of Newport by night,
in summer, by means of floods of brilliant radiance, every point of
which shall surpass the calcium light of the Museum, will soon evince to
society that Roseton has not lived in vain. It was indeed a place of
rarest temperature, and a sublime sense of personal exaltation thrilled
you as you entered. The butler approached an arch, and unlocking a
wicker door which was ingeniously contrived to admit air, but to exclude
the furtive or the inquisitive hand, threw open to your inspection the
immense wine-cellar within.
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