vexing glass

— In the German quarter of the city of New York, that is, in that part of the great American metropolis where German life appears as if it were reflected in a vexing glass' ; where the houses are high , the rooms low , and the streets narrow ; where the sunbeams breed miasma from the grocer's cabbage , the saloon - keeper's empty barrels , and the landlord's garbage boxes on the sidewalks—there I found the habitation of the educated German mechanic.