Bayrd Still ments in literature and the arts. A visitor of the 18 80s called New York "pre-eminently a city of good food, good theatres, fine horses, and pretty women. I believe there is some very good literary and artistic society," she wrote, "... but you must dig deeper for it here than in Boston, and I think the superficial social life of ball and opera, bright flowers and charming toilettes, well groomed horses, and jingling sleigh bells is the more characteristic view."28 Commentators were cognizant of the city's good universities and even more distinguished libraries and museums, by contrast with the resources of other cities; but it was their impression that "the general devotion of the citizens of New York to the Almighty Dollar" made them indifferent to "the literary and art treasures in their midst."80 The distinction of activities at the Metropolitan Opera House after 1883, which were not without their "Diamond Horseshoe" implications, gave the city a reputation for its musical fare which did not extend to activities in the literary field, despite the increasing concentration of publishing in the city. To be sure, significant literary figures like Irving, Halleck, Paulding, Bryant, Cooper, Poe, Twain, Howells, Sinclair Lewis, and Eugene O'Neill were at one time or another identified with the city; but New York has never excelled, among American cities, as a center of literary talent; and perhaps only Walt Whitman and Thomas Wolfe can be said to have been spiritually attuned to the metropolis. According to Henry L. Mencken, few authors remained in New York who had "anything worth hearing to say."81 As Allan Nevins put it, "New York has long been the literary headquarters of America—seldom and but briefly its literary capital."8" A different story in recent years, however, is the repute of the city for its influence, taste, and resources in the field of the ME. Catherine Bates, A Year in the Great Republic (2 vols.; London: 1887), I, 251-52. 80 James F. Hogan, The Australian in London and America (London: 1889), 76-77. 81H. L. Mencken, "There Are Parts for All in the 'Totentanz'" (1927), quoted in The Empire City, ed. by Alexander Klein (New York: 1955), 416. 82 Nevins, "The Golden Thread . ..," 11. 4r3