An impression of Jewish Vilna from the 1840s

This appeared in the Jewish Chronicle July 15, 1861. This is Max Lilienthal's account of his first impression of Vilna, which he first visited in 1842. This isn't a particularly obscure account; it is reproduced in Philipson's  Max Lilienthal, American rabbi: life and writings. However, it is interesting because here we see a  carefully chronicled support for the Lithuanian tradition of both velvet and leather yarmulkes.