| |
| NO rushing cars, nor tramping feet | |
| Disturbed the peaceful summer days | |
| That shone as now upon the street | |
| That knows our busy noisy ways. | |
| And blushing girls and awkward jays | 5 |
| Strolled slowly home, and cattle lowed | |
| As fell the purple twilight haze, | |
| When Broadway was a country road. | |
| |
| No tailored dandies, trim and neat; | |
| No damsels of the latest craze | 10 |
| Of form and fashion; no conceit | |
| To catch the fancy or amaze, | |
| No buildings met the skyward gaze; | |
| Nor myriad lights that nightly glowed | |
| To set the midnight hour ablaze— | 15 |
| When Broadway was a country road. | |
| |
| Then shady lanes with blossoms sweet | |
| Led gently down to quiet bays | |
| Or to the sheltered, hedged retreat | |
| Some falling mansion now betrays. | 20 |
| The stage-coach here no longer pays | |
| Its daily call, nor farmer’s goad | |
| Their oxen, as in olden days | |
| When Broadway was a country road. | |
| |
| Little indeed to meet the praise | 25 |
| Of modern times the picture showed. | |
| And yet the fancy fondly strays | |
| To Broadway as a country road. | |
| |
