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diff --git a/41417-0.txt b/41417-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d59ba --- /dev/null +++ b/41417-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6373 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41417 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + The spellings of General McClellan and Fort McHenry have been + normalized. + + The Table of Contents for this volume refers to chapters ultimately + published in a subsequent volume. Those chapter listings (IV to VII) + are retained for information. + + + + +AMERICA + + + + + [Illustration: _Cathedral Woods, Intervale, N. H._] + + + + + _EDITION ARTISTIQUE_ + + The World's Famous + Places and Peoples + + AMERICA + + BY + JOEL COOK + + In Six Volumes + + Volume I. + + + MERRILL AND BAKER + New York London + + + + +THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS +LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS +COPY IS NO. ____ + + + Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1900 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The American is naturally proud of his country, its substantial growth +and wonderful development, and of the rapid strides it is making among +the foremost nations of the world. No matter how far elsewhere the +American citizen may have travelled, he cannot know too much of the +United States, its grand attractions and charming environment. Though +this great and vigorous nation is young, yet it has a history that is +full of interest, and a literature giving a most absorbing story of +rapid growth and patriotic progress, replete with romance, poetry and +a unique folklore. + +The object of this work is to give the busy reader in acceptable form +such a comprehensive knowledge as he would like to have, of the +geography, history, picturesque attractions, peculiarities, +productions and most salient features of our great country. The +intention has been to make the book not only a work of reference, but +a work of art and of interest as well, and it is burdened neither with +too much statistics nor too intricate prolixity of description. It +covers the Continent of North America, from the Atlantic to the +Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Dominion and +Alaska. It has been prepared mainly from notes specially taken by the +author during many years of extended travel all over the United States +and Canada. A method of treatment of the comprehensive subject has +been followed which is similar to the plan that has proved acceptable +in "England, Picturesque and Descriptive." The work has been arranged +in twenty-one tours, each volume beginning at the older settlements +upon the Atlantic seaboard; and each tour describing a route following +very much the lines upon which a travelling sightseer generally +advances in the respective directions taken. The book is presented to +the public as a contribution to a general knowledge of our country, +and with the hope that the reader, recognizing the difficulties of +adequate treatment of so great a subject, may find in the interest it +inspires, an indulgent excuse for any shortcomings. + + J. C. + PHILADELPHIA, September, 1900. + + + + +CONTENTS + +VOLUME I + + + PAGE + + I. THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY, 3 + + II. THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR, 99 + + III. THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE, 143 + + IV. CROSSING THE ALLEGHENIES, 275 + + V. VISITING THE SUNNY SOUTH, 343 + + VI. TRAVERSING THE PRAIRIE LAND, 401 + + VII. GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST, 447 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME I + + + PAGE + + In the Congressional Library, Washington, D.C. 24 + + Natural Bridge, Virginia 54 + + Washington Monument, Richmond, Va. 112 + + Penn's Letitia Street House, Removed to + Fairmount Park 152 + + Loop of the Schuylkill from Neversink + Mountains 188 + + Mauch Chunk 234 + + + + +THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY. + + + + +AMERICA, + +PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. + + + + +I. + +THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY. + + The First Permanent Settlement in North America--Captain + John Smith--Jamestown--Chesapeake Bay--The City of + Washington--The Capitol--The White House--Elaborate + Public Buildings--The Treasury--The State, War and Navy + Departments--The Congressional Library--The Smithsonian + Institution--Prof. Joseph Henry--The Soldiers' Home-- + Agricultural Department--Washington Monument--City of + Magnificent Distances--Potomac River--Allegheny + Mountains--The Kittatinny Range--Harper's Ferry--John + Brown--The Great Falls--Alexandria--Mount Vernon-- + Washington's Home and Tomb--Washington Relics--Key of + the Bastille--Rappahannock River--Fredericksburg--Mary + Ball, the Mother of Washington--York River--The + Peninsula--Williamsburg--Yorktown--Cornwallis' + Surrender--James River--The Natural Bridge--Lynchburg + --Appomattox Court-House--Lee's Surrender--Powhatan-- + Dutch Gap--Varina--Pocahontas--Her Wedding to Rolfe-- + Her Descendants, the "First Families of Virginia"--Deep + Bottom--Malvern Hill--General McClellan's Seven Days' + Battles and Retreat--Bermuda Hundred--General Butler-- + Shirley--Appomattox River--Petersburg--General Grant's + Headquarters--City Point--Harrison's Landing--Berkeley + --Westover--William Byrd--Chickahominy River-- + Jamestown Island--Gold Hunting--The Northwest Passage-- + First Corn-Planting--Indian Habits--First House of + Burgesses--Tobacco-Growing--Virginia Planters-- + Importing Negro Slaves--Newport News--Merrimac and + Monitor Contest--Hampton Roads--Hampton--Old Point + Comfort--Fortress Monroe--Fort Algernon--Fort Wool-- + Elizabeth River--Norfolk--Portsmouth--Great Dismal + Swamp--The Eastern Shore--The Oyster Navy--William + Claiborne--Kent Island--Lord Baltimore--The Maryland + Palatinate--Leonard Calvert's Expedition--St. Mary's-- + Patuxent River--St. Inigoe's--Severn River--Annapolis + --United States Naval Academy--Patapsco River-- + Baltimore--Jones's Falls--Washington Monument--Battle + Monument--Johns Hopkins and his Benefactions--Baltimore + and Ohio Railroad--Druid Hill--Greenmount Cemetery-- + Fort McHenry--The Star-Spangled Banner. + + +CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. + +When Captain Christopher Newport's expedition of three little ships +and one hundred and five men, sent out by the "Virginia Company" to +colonize America, after four months' buffeting by the rough winter +storms of the North Atlantic, sought a harbor of refuge in May, 1607, +they sailed into Chesapeake Bay. These three little ships were the +"Susan Constant," the "Good Speed" and the "Discovery;" and upon them +came Captain John Smith, the renowned adventurer, who, with Newport, +founded the first permanent settlement in North America, the colony of +Jamestown. The king who chartered the "Virginia Company" was James I., +and hence the name. As the fleet sailed into the "fair bay," as Smith +called it, the headlands on either side of the entrance were named +Cape Charles and Cape Henry, for the king's two sons. Their first +anchorage was in a roadstead of such attractive character that they +named the adjacent land Point Comfort, which it retains to this day; +and farther inland, where Captain Newport afterwards came, in hopes of +getting news from home, is now the busy port and town of Newport News. +Sir Walter Raleigh, in the previous century, had sent out his +ill-starred expedition to Roanoke, which had first entered this great +bay; and at the Elizabeth River, which they had named in honor of +Raleigh's queen, they found the Indian village of Chesapik, meaning +"the mother of waters;" and from this came the name of Chesapeake Bay. +Raleigh had landed colonists here, as well as at Roanoke, and when the +"Virginia Company" sent out Newport's expedition it laid three +commands upon those in charge: First, they were to seek Raleigh's lost +colonists; second, they were to find gold; and third, they were to +search for the "northwest passage" through America to the Pacific +Ocean. So strong was the belief in finding gold in the New World that +the only consideration King James asked for his charter was the +stipulation that the "Virginia Company" should pay him one-fifth of +the gold and silver found in its possessions. + +As none of Raleigh's colonists could be found, the expedition sailed +up the James River after considerable delay, and, selecting a better +place for a settlement, landed at Jamestown May 13, 1607, where Smith +became their acknowledged leader, and preserved the permanency of the +colony. This famous navigator and colonist was a native of +Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, born in January, 1579. When +scarcely more than a boy he fought in the wars of Holland, and then he +wandered through Europe and as far as Egypt, afterwards returning to +engage in the conflict against the Turks in Hungary. Here he won great +renown, fighting many desperate combats, and in one engagement cutting +off three Turks' heads; but he was finally wounded and captured. The +sober, investigating historians of a later day have taken the liberty +to doubt some of Smith's wonderful tales of these remarkable +adventures, but he must have done something heroic to season him for +the hardy work of the pioneer who was the first to succeed in planting +a colony in North America. After the Turks made him a prisoner, he was +sold as a slave in Constantinople, being condemned to the hardest and +most revolting kinds of labor, until he became desperate under the +cruelties and escaped. Then he was for a long time a wanderer through +the wilderness, traversing the forests of Russia, and pushing his way +alone across Europe, until, almost worn out with fatigue and +hardships, he arrived in England just at the time Newport's expedition +was being fitted out; and still having an irrepressible love for +adventure, he joined it. + + +CHESAPEAKE BAY. + +There can be no better place for beginning a survey of our country +than upon this great bay, which Smith and his companions entered in +1607. Chesapeake Bay is the largest inland sea on the Atlantic Coast +of the United States. It stretches for two hundred miles up into the +land, between the low and fertile shores of Virginia and Maryland, +both of which States it divides, and thus gives them valuable +navigation facilities. In its many arms and estuaries are the +resting-places for the luscious oysters which its people send all over +the world. It is one of the greatest of food-producers, having a +larger variety of tempting luxuries for the palate than probably any +other region. Along its shores and upon its islands are numberless +popular resorts for fishing and shooting, for its tender and +amply-supplied water-foods attract the ducks and other wild fowl in +countless thousands, and bring in shoals of the sea-fishes, which are +the sportsmen's coveted game. Its terrapin are famous, while its +shores and borderlands, particularly on the eastern side, are a series +of orchards and market-gardens, providing limitless supplies of +fruits, berries and vegetables for the Northern markets. It receives +in its generally placid bosom some of the greatest rivers flowing down +from the Allegheny Mountains. The broad Susquehanna, coming through +New York and Pennsylvania, makes its headwaters, and it receives the +Potomac, dividing Maryland from Virginia, and the James, in Virginia, +both of them wide estuaries with an enormous outflow; and also +numerous smaller streams, such as the Rappahannock, York, Patuxent, +Patapsco, Choptank and Elizabeth Rivers. Extensive lines of profitable +commerce, all large carriers of food-supplies, have transport over +this great bay and its many arms and affluents. Canals connect it with +other interior waters, and leading railways with all parts of the +country, while there are several noted cities upon its shores and +tributaries. + + +THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. + +The most famous of all these cities of the Chesapeake region is +Washington, upon the Potomac, and we will therefore begin this story +at the American National Capital. The striking thing about Washington +is that, unlike other capitals of great nations, it was created for +the sole purpose of a seat of government, apart from any question of +commercial rank or population. It has neither manufactures nor +commerce to speak of. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution +there was a protracted conflict in Congress over the claims of rival +localities for the seat of government, and this developed so much +jealousy that it almost disrupted the Union at its inception. General +Washington, then the President, used his strong influence and wise +judgment to compromise the dispute, and it was finally decided that +Philadelphia should remain the capital for ten years, while after the +year 1800 it should be located on the Potomac River, on a site +selected by Washington, within a district of one hundred square +miles, ceded by Maryland and Virginia, and which, to avoid any +question of sovereignty or control, should be under the exclusive +jurisdiction of Congress. The location was at the time nearly in the +geographical centre of the then thirteen original States. As the city +was designed entirely on the Maryland side of the Potomac, the +Virginia portion of the "Federal District of Columbia," as it was +called, was retroceded in 1826, so that the District now contains +about sixty-five square miles. The capital was originally called the +"Federal City," but this was changed by law in 1791 to the "City of +Washington." The ground plan of the place was ambitious, and laid out +upon an extensive undulating plateau bordered by rolling hills to the +northward and westward, and sloping gently towards the Potomac River, +between the main stream and the eastern branch, or Anacostia River. +This plan has been well described as "a wheel laid upon a gridiron," +the rectangular arrangement of the ordinary streets having +superimposed upon it a system of broad radiating avenues, with the +Capitol on its hill, ninety feet high, for the centre. The Indians +called the place Conococheague, or the "roaring water," from a rapid +brook running through it, which washed the base of the Capitol Hill, +and was afterwards very properly named the Tiber, but has since +degenerated into a sewer. A distinguished French engineer of the time, +Major L'Enfant, prepared the topographical plan of the city, under +the direction of Washington and Jefferson, who was Secretary of State; +and Andrew Ellicott, a prominent local surveyor, laid it out upon the +ground. The basis of the design was the topography of Versailles, but +with large modifications; and thus was laid out the Capital of the +United States, which a writer in the _London Times_, some years ago, +called "the city of Philadelphia griddled across the city of +Versailles." + +The original designers planned a city five miles long and three miles +broad, and confidently expected that a vast metropolis would soon be +created, though in practice only a comparatively limited portion was +built upon, and this is not where they intended the chief part of the +new city to be. Of late years, however, the newer portions have been +rapidly extending. No man's name was used for any of the streets or +avenues, as this might cause jealousy, so the streets were numbered or +lettered and the avenues named after the States. The corner-stone of +the Capitol was laid in 1793, its front facing east upon the elevated +plateau of the hill, and the town was to have been mainly built upon +this plateau in front of it. Behind the Capitol, on its western side, +the brow of the hill descended rather sharply, and here they laid out +a wide and open Mall, westward over the lower ground to the bank of +the Potomac River, more than a mile away. Off towards the northwest, +at the end of one of the diagonal avenues, they placed the Executive +Mansion, with its extensive park and gardens stretching southward to +the river, and almost joining the Mall there at a right angle. The +design was to have the city in an elevated and salubrious location, +with the President secluded in a comfortable retreat amid ample +grounds, but nearly a mile and a half distant in the rural region. But +few plans eventuate as expected; and such is the perversity of human +nature that the people, when they came to the new settlement, would +not build the town on Capitol Hill as had been intended, but persisted +in settling upon the lower ground along and adjacent to the broad +avenue leading from the Capitol to the Executive Mansion; and there, +and for a long distance beyond the latter to the northward and +westward, is the city of Washington of to-day. Pennsylvania Avenue, +one hundred and sixty feet wide, joining these two widely-separated +Government establishments and extending far to the northwest, thus +became the chief street of the modern city. To Washington the Federal +Government was removed, as directed by law, in 1800, the actual +removal being conducted by Tobias Lear, who had been President +Washington's private secretary, and was then serving in similar +capacity for President John Adams. He packed the whole archives and +belongings of the then United States Government at Philadelphia in +twenty-eight wooden boxes, loaded them on a sloop, sailed down the +Delaware, around to the Chesapeake, and up the Potomac to the new +capital, and took possession. The original Capitol and Executive +Mansion were burnt by the British during their invasion in 1814, when +Washington had about ten thousand population; it now contains over +three hundred thousand, of whom fifty thousand are army and navy +officers and civil servants and their families, and about eighty +thousand are colored people. + + +THE CAPITOL. + +The crowning glory of Washington is the Capitol, its towering dome, +surmounted by the colossal statue of America, being the prominent +landmark, seen from afar, on every approach to the city. The total +height to the top of the statue is three hundred and seventy-five feet +above the Potomac River level. The grand position, vast architectural +mass and impressive effect of the Capitol from almost every point of +view have secured for it the praise of the best artistic judges of all +countries as the most imposing modern edifice in the world. From the +high elevation of the Capitol dome there is a splendid view to the +westward over the city spread upon the lower ground beyond the base of +Capitol Hill. Diagonally to the southwest and northwest extend two +grand avenues as far as eye can see--Maryland Avenue to the left +leading down to the Potomac, and carrying the line of the Pennsylvania +Railroad to the river, where it crosses over the Long Bridge into +Virginia; and Pennsylvania Avenue to the right, stretching to the +distant colonnade of the Treasury Building and the tree-covered park +south of the Executive Mansion. Between these diverging avenues and +extending to the Potomac, more than a mile away, is the Mall, a broad +enclosure of lawns and gardens. Upon it in the foreground is the +Government Botanical Garden, and behind this the spacious grounds +surrounding the Smithsonian Institution; while beyond, near the river +bank, rises the tall white shaft of the Washington Monument, with its +pointed apex. + +On either side spreads out the city, the houses bordering the +foliage-lined streets, and having at frequent intervals the tall +spires of churches, and the massive marble, granite and brick edifices +that are used for Government buildings. In front, to the west, is the +wide channel of the Potomac, and to the south and southeast the +Anacostia, their streams uniting at Greenleaf's Point, where the +Government Arsenal is located. On the heights beyond the point, and +across the Anacostia, is the spacious Government Insane Asylum. Far +away on the Virginia shore, across the Potomac, rises a long range of +wooded hills, amid which is Arlington Heights and its pillared +edifice, which was the home of George Washington Parke Custis, the +grandson of Mrs. Washington and General Washington's adopted son, and +was subsequently the residence of General Robert E. Lee, who married +Miss Custis. Spreading broadly over the forest-clad hills is the +Arlington National Cemetery, where fifteen thousand soldiers of the +Civil War are buried. At the distant horizon to the left rises the +spire of Fairfax Seminary, and beyond, down the Potomac, is seen the +city of Alexandria, the river between being dotted with vessels. To +the northwest, behind the Executive Mansion, is the spacious building +of the State, War and Navy Departments, having for a background the +picturesque Georgetown Heights, just over the District boundary, their +tops rising four hundred feet above the river. Farther to the +northward is Seventh Street Hill, crowned with the buildings of Howard +University, and beyond it the distant tower of the Soldiers' Home. All +around the view is magnificent; and years ago, before the city +expected to attain anything like its present grandeur, Baron von +Humboldt, as he stood upon the western verge of Capitol Hill and +surveyed this gorgeous picture, exclaimed: "I have not seen a more +charming panorama in all my travels." + +After the British burnt the original Capitol, it was rebuilt and +finished in 1827; but the unexampled growth of the country and of +Congress soon demanded an extension, which was begun in 1851. It is +this extension which supplied the wings and dome, designed and +constructed by the late Thomas U. Walter, that has made the building +so attractive. This grand Republican palace of government, stretching +over seven hundred and fifty feet along the top of the hill, has cost +about $16,000,000. The old central building is constructed of Virginia +freestone, painted white, the massive wings are of white marble from +Massachusetts, and the lofty dome is of iron. The dazzling white +marble gleams in the sunlight, and fitly closes the view along the +great avenues radiating from it as a common centre. The architecture +is classic, with Corinthian details, and, to add dignity to the +western front, which overlooks the city, a magnificent marble terrace, +eight hundred and eighty-four feet long, has been constructed at its +base on the crest of the hill, which is approached by two broad +flights of steps. + +The Capitol is surrounded by a park of about fifty acres, including +the western declivity of the hill and part of the plateau on top. Upon +this plateau, on the eastern front, the populace assemble every fourth +year to witness the inauguration of the President when he is sworn +into office by the Chief Justice, and delivers his inaugural address +from a broad platform at the head of the elaborate staircase leading +up to the entrance to the great central rotunda. In full view of the +President, as he stands under the grand Corinthian portico, is a +colossal statue of Washington, seated in his chair of state, and +facing the new President, as if in solemn warning. The rotunda is the +most striking feature of the Capitol interior; it is nearly one +hundred feet in diameter, and rises one hundred and eighty feet to +the ceiling of the dome, which is ornamented with fine frescoes by +Brumidi. Large panelled paintings on the walls just above the floor, +and _alti rilievi_ over them, represent events in the early history of +the country, while at a height of one hundred feet a band nine feet +wide runs around the interior of the dome, upon which a series of +frescoes tell the story of American history from the landing of +Columbus. But, most appropriately, the elaborate decorations, while +reproducing so much in Indian legend and Revolutionary story, are not +used in any way to recall the Civil War. Away up in the top of the +dome there is a Whispering Gallery, to which a stairway laboriously +leads. + +The old halls of the Senate and House in the original wings of the +Capitol are now devoted, the former to the Supreme Court and the +latter to a gallery of statuary, to which each State contributes two +subjects, mostly Revolutionary or Colonial heroes. Beyond, on either +hand, are the extensive new wings--the Senate Chamber to the north and +the Representatives' Hall to the south. Each is surrounded by +corridors, beyond which are committee rooms, and there are spacious +galleries for the public. Each member has his chair and desk, the +seats being arranged in semicircles around the rostrum. In practice, +while the House is in session, the members are usually reading or +writing, excepting the few who may watch what is going on, because +they are specially interested in the matter under consideration; and +the member who may have the floor and is speaking is actually heard by +very few, his speech being generally made for the galleries and the +official stenographers and newspaper reporters. Debate rarely reaches +a point of interest absorbing the actual attention of the whole House, +most of the speech-making seeming to be delivered for effect in the +member's home district, this method being usually described as +"talking for Buncombe." The other members read their newspapers, write +their letters, clap their hands sharply to summon the nimble pages who +run about the hall upon their errands, gossip in groups, and otherwise +pass their time, move in and out the cloak- and committee-rooms, and +in various ways manage not to listen to much that goes on. +Nevertheless, business progresses under an iron-clad code of +procedure, the Speaker being a despot who largely controls +legislation. The surroundings of the Senate Chamber are grander than +those of the House, there being a gorgeous "Marble Hall," in which +Senators give audience to their visitors, and magnificently ornamented +apartments for the President and Vice-President. The President's Room +is only occupied during a few hours in the closing scenes of a +session, this small but splendid apartment, which has had $50,000 +expended upon its decoration, being a show place for the remainder of +the year. + + +THE WHITE HOUSE. + +The most famous building in Washington, though one of the least +pretentious, is the Executive Mansion, popularly known as the "White +House," being constructed, like the older part of the Capitol, of +freestone, and painted white. It stands within a park at some distance +back from the street, a semicircular driveway leading up to the Ionic +colonnade supporting the front central portico. It is a plain +building, without pretensions in anything but its august occupancy, +and the ornamental grounds stretch down to the Potomac River, which +flows about two hundred yards below its southern front. It is two +stories high, about one hundred and seventy feet long, and eighty-six +feet deep. This building, like the Capitol, was burnt in the British +invasion of 1814 and afterwards restored. Unlike the nation, or the +enormous public buildings that surround and dwarf it, the White House +has in no sense grown, but remains as it was designed in the lifetime +of Washington. It is nevertheless a comfortable mansion, though rigid +in simplicity. The parlor of the house, the "East Room," is the finest +apartment, occupying the whole of that side, and is kept open for +visitors during most of the day. The public wander through it in +droves, walk upon the carpets and recline in the soft chairs, awaiting +the President's coming to his almost daily reception and handshaking; +for they greatly prize this joint occupancy, as it were, and close +communion with their highest ruler. This is an impressive room, and in +earlier times was the scene of various inauguration feasts, when +Presidents kept open house for their political friends and admirers. + +The "East Room" was a famous entertainment hall in President Jackson's +time. On the evening of his inauguration day it was open to all +comers, who were served with orange punch and lemonade. The crowds +were large, and the punch was mixed in barrels, being brought in by +the bucketful, the thirsty throngs rushing after the waiters, and in +the turmoil upsetting the punch and ruining dresses and carpets. The +punch receptacles were finally taken out into the gardens, and in this +way the boisterous crowds were drawn off, and it became possible to +serve cake and wine to the ladies. Various traditions are still told +of this experience, and also of the monster cheese, as big as a +hogshead, that was served to the multitude at Jackson's farewell +reception. It was cut up with long saw-blades, and each guest was +given about a pound of cheese, this feast being the talk of the time. +Jackson's successor was Martin Van Buren, who came from New York, the +land of big cheeses. Being bound to emulate his predecessor, an even +larger cheese was sent him, and cut up in the "East Room." The crowds +trampled the greasy crumbs into the carpets and hangings, and all the +furniture and fittings were ruined. Now no guest comes unbidden to +dine at the White House; but the change in the fashion aided in +defeating Van Buren, who was a candidate for a second election in +1840. He stopped keeping open house in order to save the furniture and +get some peace, and during several months preceding the election many +persons arrived at the White House for breakfast or dinner and +threatened to vote against Van Buren unless they were entertained. +This, with the fact noised abroad that he had become such an +aristocrat that his table service included gold spoons, then an +unheard of extravagance, proved too much for him. Van Buren was beaten +for re-election by "Old Tippecanoe"--General William Henry Harrison. + +A corridor leads westward from the "East Room," through the centre of +the White House, to the conservatories, which are prolonged nearly two +hundred feet farther westward. A series of fine apartments, called the +Green, Blue and Red Rooms, from the predominant colors in their +decorations, are south of this corridor, with their windows opening +upon the gardens. These apartments open into each other, and finally +into the State Dining Hall on the western side of the building, which +is adjoined by a conservatory. North of the corridor the first floor +contains the family rooms, and on the second floor are the +sleeping-rooms and also the public offices. The Cabinet Room, about in +the centre of the building, is a comparatively small apartment, where +the Cabinet meetings assemble around a long table. On one side of it, +at the head of a broad staircase, are the offices of the secretaries, +over the East Room; and on the other side, the President's private +apartment, which is called the Library. Here the President sits, with +the southern sun streaming through the windows, to give audience to +his visitors, who are passed in by the secretaries. One of the desks, +which is usually the President's personal work-table, has a history. +The British ship "Resolute," years ago, after many hardships in the +fruitless search for Sir John Franklin, had to be abandoned in the +Arctic seas. Portions of her oaken timbers were taken back to England, +and from these, by the Queen's command, the desk was made and +presented to President Grant, and it has since been part of the +furniture in the Library. An adjacent chamber, wherein the Prince of +Wales slept on his only visit to America, and the chamber adjoining, +are the two sleeping-rooms which have been usually occupied by the +greatest Presidents. The accommodations are so restricted, however, +that a movement is afoot for constructing another presidential +residence, on higher land in the suburbs, so that the White House may +be exclusively used for the executive offices. + + +ELABORATE PUBLIC BUILDINGS. + +The great public buildings used for Government purposes are among the +chief adornments of Washington. To the eastward of the White House is +the Treasury Building, extending over five hundred feet along +Fifteenth Street, enriched by a magnificent Ionic colonnade, three +hundred and fifty feet long, modelled from that of the Athenian Temple +of Minerva. Each end has an elaborate Ionic portico, while the western +front, facing the White House, has a grand central entrance. This was +the first great building constructed for a Government department, and +is the headquarters of the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon the western +side of the White House is the most splendid of all the department +buildings, accommodating three of them, the State, War and Navy +Departments. It is Roman Doric, built of granite, four stories high, +with Mansard and pavilion roofs and porticoes, covering a surface of +five hundred and sixty-seven by three hundred and forty-two feet. The +Salon of the Ambassadors, or the Diplomatic Reception Room, is its +finest apartment, and is the audience chamber of the Secretary of +State, who occupies the adjoining Secretary's Hall, also a splendid +room. This great building is constructed around two large interior +courts, the Army occupying the northern and western wings, and the +Navy the eastern side, where among the great attractions are the +models of the famous warships of the American Navy. To the northward +of the White House park and furnishing a fine front view is Lafayette +Square, containing a bronze equestrian statue of General Jackson by +Clark Mills; beyond, on the western side, is the attractive +Renaissance building of the Corcoran Art Gallery, amply endowed by the +late banker, William W. Corcoran, and containing his valuable art +collections, which were given to the public. The foundation of his +fortune was laid over a half-century ago, when he had the pluck to +take a Government loan which seemed slow of sale. His modest banking +house still exists as the Riggs Bank, facing the Treasury. + +The most admired of the newer public buildings in Washington is the +Congressional Library, on the plateau southeast of the Capitol, an +enormous structure in Italian Renaissance, a quadrangle four hundred +and seventy feet long and three hundred and forty feet wide, enclosing +four courts and a central rotunda. It was finished in 1897, and cost +about $6,200,000. Its elevated gilded dome and lantern are conspicuous +objects in the view. This great Library, the largest in the country, +is appropriately ornamented, and its book-stacks have accommodations +for about five millions of volumes, the present number approximating +one million, with nearly three hundred thousand pamphlets. The Pension +Building is another huge structure, northwest of Capitol Hill, built +around a covered quadrangle, which is used quadrennially for the +"Inauguration Ball," a prominent Washington official-social function, +which was adopted to relieve the White House from the former feasting +on the inauguration night. This house, accommodating the army of +pension clerks, has running around the walls, over the lower windows, +a broad band, exhibiting in relief a marching column of troops, with +representations of every branch of the service. Seventh Street, which +crosses Pennsylvania Avenue about midway between the Capitol and the +Treasury, has to the northward the imposing Corinthian Post-office +Building, formerly the headquarters of the postal service. Behind this +is the Department of the Interior, popularly known as the Patent +Office, as a large part of it is occupied by patent models. This is a +grand Doric structure, occupying two blocks and embracing about three +acres of buildings, the main entrance being a magnificent portico, +seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. The new General Post-office Department +Building is on Pennsylvania Avenue, covering a surface of three +hundred by two hundred feet, and having a tower rising three hundred +feet. It has just been completed. The Government Printing Office, +where the public printing is done, and the Treasury Bureau of +Engraving and Printing, where all the Government money issues and +revenue stamps are made, are large and important buildings, though not +specifically attractive in architecture. + + +THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. + +Upon the Mall stands the Smithsonian Institution, of world-wide +renown, one of the most interesting public structures in +Washington, its turrets and towers rising above the trees. The origin +of this famous scientific establishment was the bequest of an +Englishman, James Smithson, a natural son of Hugh Smithson, Duke of +Northumberland, born in 1765. He was known as Louis Macie at Oxford, +graduating under that name; early developed scientific tastes; was a +Fellow of the Royal Society, the friend and associate of many of the +most learned men of his time, and lived usually in Paris, where in the +latter part of the last century he took the family name of his father. +He died in Italy in 1829. In Washington's Farewell Address, issued in +1796, there occurs the phrase, "An institution for the increase and +diffusion of knowledge," and it was well known that the Father of his +Country cherished a project for a national institution of learning in +the new Federal City. This was evidently communicated to Smithson by +one of his intimates in Paris, Joel Barlow, a noted American, who was +familiar with Washington's plan, and in this way originated the +residuary bequest, which was contained in the following clause of +Smithson's will: "I bequeath the whole of my property to the United +States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the +Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and +diffusion of knowledge among men." Upon the death of Smithson's +nephew, without heirs, in 1835, this bequest became operative, and the +United States Legation in London was notified that the estate, then +amounting in value to about £100,000, was held in possession of the +Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery. This was something novel +in America, and when the facts became public opposition arose in +Congress to accepting the gift, eminent men, headed by John C. +Calhoun, arguing that it was beneath the dignity of the United States +to receive presents. Others, however, led by John Quincy Adams, +ardently advocated acceptance. The latter carried the day; Richard +Rush was sent to London, as agent, to prosecute the claim in the Court +of Chancery, in the name of the President of the United States; and +the legacy was obtained and delivered at the Mint in Philadelphia, +September 1, 1838, in the sum of 104,960 British sovereigns, and was +immediately recoined into United States money, producing $508,318.46, +the first installment of the legacy. There were subsequent additional +installments, and the total sum in 1867 reached $650,000. This +original sum was deposited in the Federal Treasury in perpetuity, at +six per cent, interest, and the income has been devoted to the +erection of the buildings, and, with other subsequently added sums, to +the support of the vast establishment which has grown from the +original gift. + + [Illustration: _In the Congressional Library, Washington, D. C._] + +The Smithsonian Institution was formally created by Act of Congress, +August 10, 1846, the corporation being composed of the President, +Vice-President, members of the Cabinet and Chief Justice, who are +constituted the "establishment," made responsible for the duty of "the +increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The Institution is +administered by a Board of Regents, including in addition three +Senators, three members of the House, and six citizens appointed by +Congress; the presiding officer, called the "Chancellor," being +usually the Chief Justice, and the secretary of the board is the +Executive Officer. The late eminent Professor Joseph Henry was elected +secretary in 1846, and he designed the plan and scope of the Institution, +continuing as its executive head until his death in 1878. His statue +stands in the grounds near the entrance. Two other secretaries +followed him, Spencer F. Baird (who was twenty-seven years assistant +secretary), and upon his death Samuel P. Langley, in 1888. The ornate +building of red Seneca brownstone, a fine castellated structure in the +Renaissance style, was designed in 1847 and finished in 1855. Its +grand front stretches about four hundred and fifty feet, and its nine +towers and turrets, rising from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty +feet, stand up prettily behind the groves of trees. This original +building contains a museum of natural history and anthropology. In +connection with it there is another elaborate structure over three +hundred feet square--the National Museum--containing numerous courts, +surrounding a central rotunda, beneath which a fountain plashes. This +is under the same management, and directly supported by the +Government, the design being to perfect a collection much like the +British Museum, but paying more attention to American antiquities and +products. This adjunct museum began with the gifts by foreign +Governments to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, most of +them being still preserved there. The Smithsonian Trust Fund now +approximates $1,000,000, and there are various other gifts and +bequests held in the Treasury for various scientific purposes +similarly administered. + +Briefly stated, the plan of Professor Henry was to "increase +knowledge" by original investigations and study, either in science or +literature, and to "diffuse knowledge" not only through the United +States, but everywhere, and especially by promoting an interchange of +thought among the learned in all nations, with no restriction in favor +of any one branch of knowledge. A leading feature of his plan was "to +assist men of science in making original researches, to publish them +in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of them to every +first-class library on the face of the earth." There is said to be +probably not a scientific observer of any standing in the United +States to whom the Institution has not at some time extended a helping +hand, and this aid also goes liberally across the Atlantic. As income +grew, the scope has been enlarged. In the various museums there is a +particularly good collection of American ethnology, and a most +elaborate display of American fossils, minerals, animals, birds and +antiquities. There are also shown by the Fish Commission specimens of +the fishing implements and fishery methods of all nations, an +exhibition which is unexcelled in these special departments. Many +specifically interesting things are in the National Museum. The +personal effects of Washington, Jackson and General Grant are there. +Benjamin Franklin's old printing-press is preserved in a somewhat +dilapidated condition, and there is also the first railway engine sent +from England to the United States, the original "John Bull," built by +Stephenson & Son at Newcastle-on-Tyne in June, 1831, and sent out as +"Engine No. 1" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad crossing New Jersey, +now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It weighs ten tons, and has +four driving-wheels of fifty-four inches diameter. This relic, after +being used on the railroad for forty years, until improved machinery +superseded it, has been given the Government as a national heirloom. +Among the anthropological collections is a chronologically arranged +series illustrating American history from the period of the discovery +to the present day. This includes George Catlin's famous collection of +six hundred paintings, illustrating the manners and customs of the +North American Indians. One of the most important features of the work +of this most interesting establishment is its active participation in +all the great International Expositions by the loan to them of +valuable exhibits under Government direction and control. + + +THE SOLDIERS' HOME AND WASHINGTON MONUMENT. + +The city of Washington, with progressing years, is becoming more and +more the popular residential city of the country. It is one of the +most beautiful and attractive, the admirable plan, with the wide +asphalted streets, lined with trees, opening up vista views of grand +public buildings, statues, monuments or leafy parks, making it +specially popular. The northern and northwestern sections, on the +higher grounds, have consequently spread far beyond the Executive +Mansion, being filled with rows of elaborate and costly residences, +the homes of leading public men. The streets are kept scrupulously +clean, while at the intersections are "circles," triangles and little +squares, which are availed of for pretty parks, and usually contain +statues of distinguished Americans. Among the noted residence streets +are Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues and K Street and +Sixteenth Street, all in the northwestern district. Among the many +statues adorning the small parks and "circles" are those of +Washington, Farragut, Scott, Thomas, McPherson, Dupont, Logan, +Franklin, Hancock, Grant, Rawlins and Martin Luther, the latter a +replica of the figure in the Reformation Monument at Worms. + +To the northward the suburbs rise to Columbia Heights, with an +elevated plateau beyond, where there is a Government park covering +nearly a square mile of rolling surface, and surrounding one of the +noted rural retreats on the borders of the Capital, the "Soldiers' +Home." This is an asylum and hospital for disabled and superannuated +soldiers of the American regular army, containing usually about six +hundred of them, and founded by General Winfield Scott, whose statue +adorns the grounds. Its cottages have been favorite retiring-places of +the Presidents in the warm weather. Amid lovely surroundings the +veterans are comfortably housed, and in the adjacent cemetery +thousands of them have been buried. Scott's statue stands upon the +southern brow of the plateau, where a ridge is thrust out in a +commanding situation; and from here the old commander of the army +forty and fifty years ago gazes intently over the lower ground to the +city three miles away, with the lofty Capitol dome and Washington +Monument rising to his level, while beyond them the broad and placid +Potomac winds between its wooded shores. This is the most elevated +spot near Washington, overlooking a wide landscape. In the cemetery at +the Soldiers' Home sleeps General Logan, among the thousands of other +veterans. To the westward the beautiful gorge of Rock Creek is cut +down, and beyond is Georgetown, with its noted University, founded by +the Jesuits in 1789, and having about seven hundred students. In the +Oak Hill Cemetery, at Georgetown, is the grave of John Howard Payne, +the author of "Home, Sweet Home," who died in 1852. Far away over the +Potomac, in the Arlington National Cemetery, are the graves of +Generals Sherman and Sheridan. + +Down near the Potomac, on the Mall, to the westward of the Smithsonian +turrets, is the extensive brick and brownstone building representing +the dominant industry of the United States, which gives the +politicians so much anxiety in catering for votes--the Agricultural +Department. Here are spacious gardens and greenhouses, an arboretum +and herbarium, the adjacent buildings also containing an agricultural +museum. As over three-fifths of the men in the United States are +farmers and farm-workers, and many others are in the adjunct +industries, it has become a popular saying in Washington that if you +wish to scare Congress you need only shake a cow's tail at it. This +department has grown into an enormous distributing office for seeds +and cuttings, crop reports and farming information. Among its +curiosities is the "Sequoia Tree Tower," formed of a section of a +Sequoia or Big Tree of California, which was three hundred feet high +and twenty-six feet in diameter at the base. + +Behind the Agricultural Department, and rising almost at the river +bank, and in front of the Executive Mansion, is the noted Washington +Monument, its pointed apex elevated five hundred and fifty-five feet. +This is a square and gradually tapering shaft, constructed of white +Maryland marble, the walls fifteen feet thick at the base and eighteen +inches at the top, the pyramidal apex being fifty-five feet high and +capped with a piece of aluminum. Its construction was begun in 1848, +abandoned in 1855, resumed in 1877 and finished in 1884, at a total +cost of $1,300,000. The lower walls contain stones contributed by +public corporations and organizations, many being sent by States and +foreign nations, and bearing suitable inscriptions in memory of +Washington. A fatiguing stairway of nine hundred steps leads to the +top, and there is also a slow-moving elevator. From the little square +windows, just below the apex, there is a grand view over the +surrounding country. Afar off to the northwest is seen the long hazy +wall of the Blue Ridge or Kittatinny Mountain range, its prominent +peak, the Sugar Loaf, being fifty miles distant. To the eastward is +the Capitol and its surmounting dome, over a mile away, while the city +spreads all around the view below, like a toy town, its streets +crossing as on a chess-board, and cut into gores and triangles by the +broad, diagonal avenues lined with trees, the houses being +interspersed with many foliage-covered spaces. Coming from the +northwest the Potomac passes nearly at the foot of the monument, with +Arlington Heights over on the distant Virginia shore, and the broad +river channel flowing away to the southwest until lost among the +winding forest-clad shores below Alexandria. From this elevated perch +can be got an excellent idea of the peculiarities of the town, its +vast plan and long intervals of space, so that there is quite plainly +shown why the practical Yankee race calls it the "City of Magnificent +Distances." Possibly one of the best descriptions of Washington and +its characteristics is that of the poet in the _Washington Post_: + + A city well named of magnificent distances; + Of boulevards, palaces, fountains and trees; + Of sunshine and moonlight whose subtle insistence is-- + "Bask in our radiance! Be lulled by our breeze!" + A city like Athens set down in Arcadia; + White temples and porticoes gleaming 'mid groves; + Where nymphs glide and smile as though quite unafraid o' you, + The home of the Muses, the Graces, the Loves; + The centre of Politics, Letters and Sciences; + Elysium of Arts, yet the Lobbyist's Dream; + Where gather the clans whose only reliance is + Gold and the dross that sweeps down with its stream; + An isle of the lotus, where every-day business + Sails on its course all unvexed by simoons; + No bustle or roar, no mad-whirling dizziness + O'er velvety streets like Venetian lagoons; + A town where from nothing whatever they bar women, + From riding a bicycle--tending a bar; + Ex-cooks queen society--ladies are charwomen-- + For such the plain facts as too often they are. + A city where applicants, moody, disconsolate, + Swoop eager for office and senseless to shame; + The "heeler" quite certain of getting his consulate, + Although, to be sure, he can't sign his name; + A town where all types of humanity congregate; + The millionaire lolling on cushions of ease; + The tramp loping by at a wolfish and hungry gait; + And mankind in general a' go as you please. + A city in short of most strange inconsistencies; + Condensing the history of man since the fall; + A city, however, whose piece de resistance is + This--'tis the best and the fairest of all. + + +THE POTOMAC AND THE ALLEGHENIES. + +The Potomac is one of the chief among the many rivers draining the +Allegheny Mountains. It originates in two branches, rising in West +Virginia and uniting northwest of Cumberland; is nearly four hundred +miles long; has remarkably picturesque scenery in the magnificent +gorges and reaches of its upper waters; breaks through range after +range of the Alleghenies, and after reaching the lowlands becomes a +tidal estuary for a hundred miles of its final course, broadening to +six and eight and ultimately sixteen miles wide at its mouth in the +Chesapeake. Washington is near the head of tidewater, one hundred and +twenty-five miles from the bay; and for almost its entire course the +Potomac is an interstate boundary, between Maryland and West Virginia +and Virginia. Its name is Indian, referring to its use in their +primitive navigation, the original word "Petomok" meaning "they are +coming by water"--"they draw near in canoes." The Alleghenies, where +this noted river originates, are a remarkable geological formation. +The Atlantic Coast of the United States has a general trend from the +northeast to the southwest, with bordering sand beaches, and back of +them a broad band of pines. Then, towards the northwest, the land +gradually rises, being formed in successive ridges, with intervening +valleys, until it reaches the Alleghenies. The great ranges of this +mountain chain, which is geologically known as the Appalachian System, +run almost parallel to the coast for over a thousand miles, from the +White Mountains of New Hampshire down to Alabama. They are noted +mountains, not very high, but of remarkable construction, and are said +to be much older in geological formation than the Alps or the Andes. +They are composed of series of parallel ridges, one beyond the other, +and all following the same general course, like the successive waves +of the ocean. For long distances these ridges run in perfectly +straight lines, and then, as one may curve around into a new +direction, all the others curve with it. The intervening valleys are +as remarkable in their parallelism as the ridges enclosing them. From +the seaboard to the mountains the ranges of hills are of the same +general character, but with less elevation, gentler slopes, and in +most cases narrower and much more fertile valleys. + +The South Mountain, an irregular and in some parts broken-down ridge, +is the outpost of the Alleghenies, while the great Blue Ridge is their +eastern buttress. The latter is about twenty miles northwest of the +South Mountain, and is the famous Kittatinny range, named by the +Indians, and in their figurative language meaning "the endless chain +of hills." It stretches from the Catskills in New York southwest to +Alabama, a distance of eight hundred miles, a veritable backbone for +the Atlantic seaboard, its rounded ridgy peaks rising sometimes +twenty-five hundred feet north of the Carolinas, and much higher in +those States. It stands up like a great blue wall against the +northwestern horizon, deeply notched where the rivers flow out, and is +the eastern border for the mountain chain of numerous parallel ridges +of varying heights and characteristics that stretch in rows behind it, +covering a width of a hundred miles or more. Within this chain is the +vast store of minerals that has done so much to create American +wealth--the coal and iron, the ores and metals, that are in +exhaustless supply, and upon the surface grew the forests of timber +that were used in building the seaboard cities, but are now nearly all +cut off. The great Atlantic Coast rivers rise among these mountain +ridges, break through the Kittatinny and flow down to the ocean, while +the streams on their western slopes drain into the Mississippi Valley. +The Hudson breaks through the Kittatinny outcrop at the West Point +Highlands, the Delaware forces a passage at the Water Gap, the Lehigh +at the Lehigh Gap, below Mauch Chunk; the Schuylkill at Port Clinton, +the Susquehanna at Dauphin, above Harrisburg, and the Potomac at +Harper's Ferry. All these rivers either rise among or force their +winding passages through the various ranges behind the great Blue +Ridge, and also through the South Mountain and the successive parallel +ranges of lower hills that are met on their way to the coast, so that +all in their courses display most picturesque valleys. + + +HARPER'S FERRY AND JOHN BROWN. + +The Potomac, having flowed more than two hundred miles through +beautiful gorges and the finest scenery of these mountains, finally +breaks out at Harper's Ferry, receiving here its chief tributary, the +Shenandoah, coming up from Virginia, the Potomac River passage of the +Blue Ridge being described by Thomas Jefferson as "one of the most +stupendous scenes in nature." The Shenandoah--its name meaning "the +stream passing among the spruce-pines"--flows through the fertile and +famous "Valley of Virginia," noted for its many battles and active +movements of troops during the Civil War, when the rival forces, as +fortunes changed, chased each other up and down the Valley; and +Harper's Ferry, at the confluence of the rivers, and the towering +Maryland Heights on the northern side and the Loudon Heights on the +Virginia side, the great buttresses of the river passage, being +generally held as a northern border fortress. These huge mountain +walls rise fifteen hundred feet above the town, which has a population +of about two thousand. + +Harper's Ferry was also the scene of "John Brown's raid," which was +practically the opening act of the Civil War, although actual +hostilities did not begin until more than a year afterwards. "Old John +Brown of Osawatomie" was a tanner, an unsettled and adventurous spirit +and foe of slavery, born in Connecticut in 1800, but who, at the same +time, was one of the most upright and zealous men that ever lived. In +his wanderings he migrated to Kansas in 1855, where he lived at +Osawatomie, and fought against the pro-slavery party. His house was +burnt and his son killed in the Kansas border wars, and he made bloody +reprisals. Smarting under his wrongs, he became the master-spirit of a +convention which met at Chatham, Canada, in May, 1859, and organized +an invasion of Virginia to liberate the slaves. Having formed his +plans, he rented a farmhouse in July about six miles from Harper's +Ferry, and gathered his forces together. On the night of October 16th, +with twenty-two associates, six being negroes, he crossed the bridge +into Harper's Ferry, and captured the arsenal and armory of the +Virginia militia, intending to liberate the slaves and occupy the +heights of the Blue Ridge as a base of operations against their +owners. A detachment of United States marines were next day sent to +the aid of the militia, and, after two days' desultory hostilities, +some of his party were killed, and Brown and the survivors were +captured and given up to the Virginia authorities for trial. His +final stand was made in a small engine-house, known as "John Brown's +Fort," which was exhibited at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. Brown +and six of his associates were hanged at the county-seat, Charlestown, +seven miles southwest of Harper's Ferry, on December 2d, Brown facing +death with the greatest serenity. His raid failed, but it was +potential in disclosing the bitter feeling between the North and the +South, and it furnished the theme for the most popular and inspiring +song of the Civil War: + + "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, + But his soul goes marching on." + + +THE GREAT FALLS AND ALEXANDRIA. + +The Potomac continues its picturesque course below Harper's Ferry, and +passes the Point of Rocks, a promontory of the Catoctin Mountain, a +prolongation of the Blue Ridge. There were battles fought all about, +the most noted being at South Mountain and Antietam, to the northward, +in September, 1862; while it was at Frederick, fifteen miles away, +during this campaign, that Barbara Frietchie was said to have waved +the flag as Stonewall Jackson marched through the town, immortalized +in Whittier's poem. Here is buried Francis Scott Key, author of the +"Star-Spangled Banner," who died in 1843, and a handsome monument was +erected to his memory in 1898. The Potomac reaches its Great Falls +about fifteen miles above Washington, where it descends eighty feet +in about two miles, including a fine cataract thirty-five feet high. +Below this is the "Cabin John Bridge," with one of the largest stone +arches in the world, of two hundred and twenty feet span, built for +the Washington Aqueduct, carrying the city water supply from the Great +Falls. On Wesley Heights, to the northward, the new American +University of the Methodist Church is being constructed. + +Below Washington, the river passes the ancient city of Alexandria, a +quaint old Virginian town, which was formerly of considerable +commercial importance, but is now quiet and restful, and cherishing +chiefly the memory of George Washington, who lived at Mount Vernon, a +few miles below, and was its almost daily visitor to transact his +business and go to church and entertainments. The tradition is that +Madison, who was chairman of the Committee of Congress, selected +Alexandria for the "Federal City," intending to erect the Capitol on +Shooters' Hill, a mile out of town, as grand an elevation as the hill +in Washington; but he was overruled by the President because the +latter hesitated to thus favor his native State. Had Madison had his +way, the town probably would not now be so sleepy. The modest little +steeple of Christ Church, where Washington was a vestryman, rises back +of the town, and his pew, No. 5, is still shown, for which, when the +church was built and consecrated in 1773, the records show that he +paid thirty-six pounds, ten shillings. To construct this church and +another at the Falls, the vestry of Fairfax parish, in 1766, levied an +assessment of 31,185 pounds of tobacco, and the rector's salary was +also paid in tobacco. After the Revolution, to help support the +church, Washington and seven others signed an agreement in the +vestry-book to each pay five pounds annual rental for the pews they +owned. Robert E. Lee was baptized and confirmed and attended +Sunday-school in this old church, and tablets in memory of Washington +and Lee were inserted in the church wall in 1870. At the Carey House, +near the river, Washington, in 1755, received from General Braddock, +who had come up there from Hampton Roads, his first commission as an +aide to that commander, with the rank of Major, just before starting +on the ill-starred expedition into Western Pennsylvania. Alexandria +has probably fifteen thousand people, and on the outskirts is another +mournful relic of the Civil War, a Soldiers' Cemetery, with four +thousand graves. Below Alexandria, the Hunting Creek flows into the +Potomac, this stream having given Washington's home its original name +of the "Hunting Creek Estate." + + +WASHINGTON'S HOME AND TOMB. + +Mount Vernon, the home and burial-place of George Washington, is +seventeen miles below the city of Washington, the mansion-house, being +in full view, standing among the trees on the top of a bluff, rising +about two hundred feet above the river. As the steamboat approaches, +its bell is tolled, this being the universal custom on nearing or +passing Washington's tomb. It originated in the reverence of a British +officer, Commodore Gordon, who, during the invasion of the Capital in +August, 1814, sailed past Mount Vernon, and as a mark of respect for +the dead had the bell of his ship, the "Sea Horse," tolled. The +"Hunting Creek Estate" was originally a domain of about eight thousand +acres; and Augustine Washington, dying in 1743, bequeathed it to +Lawrence Washington, who, having served in the Spanish wars under +Admiral Vernon, named it Mount Vernon in his honor. George Washington +was born in 1732, in Westmoreland County, farther down the Potomac, +and when a boy lived near Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock River. +In 1752 he inherited Mount Vernon from Lawrence, and after his death +the estate passed to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, subsequently +descending to other members of the family. Congress repeatedly +endeavored to have Washington's remains removed to the crypt under the +rotunda of the Capitol originally constructed for their reception, but +the family always refused, knowing it was his desire to rest at Mount +Vernon. The grounds and buildings being in danger of falling into +dilapidation, and the estate passing under control of strangers, a +patriotic movement began throughout the country for the purchase of +the portion containing the tomb and mansion. The Virginia +Legislature, in 1856, passed an act authorizing the sale, and under +the auspices of a number of energetic ladies who formed the "Mount +Vernon Association," assisted by the oratory of Edward Everett, who +traversed the country making a special plea for help, a tract of two +hundred acres was bought for $200,000, being enlarged by subsequent +gifts to two hundred and thirty-five acres. These ladies and their +successors have since taken charge, restoring and beautifying the +estate, which is faithfully preserved as a patriotic heritage and +place of pilgrimage for visitors from all parts of the world. + +The steamboat lands at Washington's wharf at the foot of the bluff, +where he formerly loaded his barges with flour ground at his own mill, +shipping most of it from Alexandria to the West Indies. The road from +the wharf leads up a ravine cut diagonally in the face of the bluff, +directly to Washington's tomb, and alongside the ravine are several +weeping willows that were brought from Napoleon's grave at St. Helena. +Washington's will directed that his tomb "shall be built of brick," +and it is a plain square brick structure, with a wide arched gateway +in front and double iron gates. Above is the inscription on a marble +slab, "Within this enclosure rests the remains of General George +Washington." The vault is about twelve feet square, the interior being +plainly seen through the gates. It has upon the floor two large stone +coffins, that on the right hand containing Washington, and that on +the left his widow Martha, who survived him over a year. In a closed +vault at the rear are the remains of numerous relatives, and in front +of the tomb monuments are erected to several of them. No monument +marks the hero, but carved upon the coffin is the American +coat-of-arms, with the single word "Washington." + +The road, farther ascending the bluff, passes the original tomb, with +the old tombstone antedating Washington and bearing the words +"Washington Family." This was the tomb, then containing the remains, +which Lafayette visited in 1824, escorted by a military guard from +Alexandria to Mount Vernon, paying homage to the dead amid salvos of +cannon reverberating across the broad Potomac. It is a round-topped +and slightly elevated oven-shaped vault. The road at the top of the +bluff reaches the mansion, standing in a commanding position, with a +fine view over the river to the Maryland shore. It is a long wooden +house, with an ample porch facing the river. It is built with +simplicity, two stories high, and contains eighteen rooms, there being +a small surmounting cupola for a lookout. The central portion is the +original house built by Lawrence Washington, who called it his +"villa," and afterwards George Washington extended it by a large +square wing at each end, and when these were added he gave it the more +dignified title of the "Mansion." The house is ninety-six feet long +and thirty feet wide, the porch, extending along the whole front, +fifteen feet wide, its top being even with the roof, thus covering the +windows of both stories. Eight large square wooden columns support the +roof of the porch. Behind the house, on either side, curved colonnades +lead to the kitchens, with other outbuildings beyond. There are +various farm buildings, and a brick barn and stable, the bricks of +which it is built having been brought out from England about the time +Washington was born, being readily carried in those days as ballast in +the vessels coming out for Virginia tobacco. The front of the mansion +faces east, and it has within a central hall with apartments on either +hand. At the back, beyond the outbuildings and the barn, stretches the +carriage road, which in Washington's time was the main entrance, off +to the porter's lodge, on the high road, at the boundary of the +present estate, about three-quarters of a mile away. Everything is +quiet, and in the thorough repose befitting such a great man's tomb; +and this is the modest mansion on the banks of the Potomac that was +the home of one of the noblest Americans. + + +THE WASHINGTON RELICS. + +As may be supposed, this interesting building is filled with relics. +The most valuable of all of them hangs on the wall of the central +hall, in a small glass case shaped like a lantern--the Key of the +Bastille--which was sent to Washington, as a gift from Lafayette, +shortly after the destruction of the noted prison in 1789. This is the +key of the main entrance, the Porte St. Antoine, an old iron key with +a large handle of peculiar form. This gift was always highly prized at +Mount Vernon, and in sending it Lafayette wrote: "It is a tribute +which I owe as a son to my adopted father; as an aide-de-camp to my +general; as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch." The key was +confided to Thomas Paine for transmission, and he sent it together +with a model and drawing of the Bastille. In sending it to Washington +Paine said: "That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not +to be doubted, and therefore the key comes to the right place." The +model, which was cut from the granite stones of the demolished prison, +and the drawing, giving a plan of the interior and its approaches, are +also carefully preserved in the house. + +The Washington relics are profuse--portraits, busts, old furniture, +swords, pistols and other weapons, camp equipage, uniforms, clothing, +books, autographs and musical instruments, including the old +harpsichord which President Washington bought for two hundred pounds +in London, as a bridal present for his wife's daughter, Eleanor Parke +Custis, whom he adopted. There is also an old armchair which the +Pilgrims brought over in the "Mayflower" in 1620. Each apartment in +the house is named for a State, and cared for by one of the +Lady-Regents of the Association. In the banquet-hall, which is one of +the wings Washington added, is an elaborately-carved Carrara marble +mantel, which was sent him at the time of building by an English +admirer, Samuel Vaughan. It was shipped from Italy, and the tale is +told that on the voyage it fell into the hands of pirates, who, +hearing it was to go to the great American Washington, sent it along +without ransom and uninjured. Rembrandt Peale's equestrian portrait of +Washington with his generals covers almost the entire end of this +hall. Here also is hung the original proof-sheet of Washington's +Farewell Address. Up stairs is the room where Washington died; the bed +on which he expired and every article of furniture are preserved, +including his secretary and writing-case, toilet-boxes and +dressing-stand. Just above this chamber, under the peaked roof, is the +room in which Mrs. Washington died. Not wishing to occupy the lower +room, after his death, she selected this one, because its dormer +window gave a view of his tomb. The ladies who have taken charge of +the place deserve great credit for their complete restoration; they +hold the annual meeting of the Association in the mansion every May. + +As the visitor walks through the old house and about the grounds, +solemn and impressive thoughts arise that are appropriate to this +great American shrine. From the little wooden cupola there is seen the +same view over the broad Potomac upon which Washington so often +gazed. The noble river, two miles wide, seems almost to surround the +estate with its majestic curve, flowing between the densely-wooded +shores. Above Mount Vernon is a projecting bluff, which Fort +Washington surmounts on the opposite shore--a stone work which he +planned--hardly seeming four miles off, it is so closely visible +across the water. In front are the Maryland hills, and the river then +flows to the southward, its broad and winding reaches being seen afar +off, as the southern shores slope upward into the forest-covered hills +of the sacred soil of the proud State of Virginia. And then the +constantly broadening estuary of the grand Potomac stretches for more +than a hundred miles, far beyond the distant horizon, until it becomes +a wide inland sea and unites its waters at Point Lookout with those of +Chesapeake Bay. + + +MARY, THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON. + +To the southward of the Potomac a short distance, and flowing almost +parallel, is another noted river of Virginia, the Rappahannock, rising +in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and broadening into a wide estuary +in its lower course. Its chief tributary is the stream which the +colonists named after the "good Queen Anne," the Rapid Ann, since +condensed into the Rapidan. The Indians recognized the tidal estuary +of the Rappahannock, for the name means "the current has returned and +flowed again," referring to the tidal ebb and flow. Upon this stream, +southward from Washington, is the quaint old city of Fredericksburg, +which has about five thousand inhabitants, and five times as many +graves in the great National Cemetery on Marye's Heights and in the +Confederate Cemetery, mournful relics of the sanguinary battles fought +there in 1862-63. The town dates from 1727, when it was founded at the +head of tidewater on the Rappahannock, where a considerable fall +furnishes good water-power, about one hundred and ten miles from the +Chesapeake. But its chief early memory is of Mary Ball, the mother of +Washington, here having been his boyhood home. A monument has been +erected to her, which it took the country more than a century to +complete. She was born in 1706 on the lower Rappahannock, at Epping +Forest, and Sparks and Irving speak of her as "the belle of the +Northern Neck" and "the rose of Epping Forest." In early life she +visited England, and the story is told that one day while at her +brother's house in Berkshire a gentleman's coach was overturned nearby +and its occupant seriously injured. He was brought into the house and +carefully nursed by Mary Ball until he fully recovered. This gentleman +was Colonel Augustine Washington, of Virginia, a widower with three +sons, and it is recorded in the family Bible that "Augustine +Washington and Mary Ball were married the 6th of March, 1730-31." He +brought her to his home in Westmoreland County, where George was born +the next year. His house there was accidentally burnt and they removed +to Fredericksburg, where Augustine died in 1740; but she lived to a +ripe old age, dying there in 1789. When her death was announced a +national movement began to erect a monument, but it was permitted to +lapse until the Washington Centenary in 1832, when it was revived, and +in May, 1833, President Jackson laid the corner-stone with impressive +ceremonies in the presence of a large assemblage of distinguished +people. The monument was started and partially completed, only again +to lapse into desuetude. In 1890 the project was revived, funds were +collected by an association of ladies, and in May, 1894, a handsome +white marble obelisk, fifty feet high, was created and dedicated. It +bears the simple inscription, "Mary, the Mother of Washington." + + +WILLIAMSBURG AND YORKTOWN. + +Again we cross over southward from the Rappahannock to another broad +tidal estuary, an arm of Chesapeake Bay, the York River. This is +formed by two comparatively small rivers, the Mattapony and the +Pamunkey, the latter being the Indian name of York River. It is quite +evident that the Indians who originally frequented and named these +streams did not have as comfortable lives in that region as they could +have wished, for the Mattapony means "no bread at all to be had," and +the Pamunkey means "where we were all sweating." To the southward of +York River, and between it and James River, is the famous "Peninsula," +the locality of the first settlements in Virginia, the theatre of the +closing scene of the War of the Revolution, and the route taken by +General McClellan in his Peninsular campaign of 1862 against Richmond. +Williamsburg, which stands on an elevated plateau about midway of the +Peninsula, three or four miles from each river, was the ancient +capital of Virginia, and it has as relics the old church and magazine +of the seventeenth century, and the venerable College of William and +Mary, chartered in 1693, though its present buildings are mainly +modern. This city was named for King William III., and was fixed as +the capital in 1699, the government removing from Jamestown the next +year. In 1780 the capital was again removed to Richmond. This old +city, which was besieged and captured by McClellan in his march up the +Peninsula in May, 1862, now has about eighteen hundred inhabitants. + +Down on the bank of York River, not far from Chesapeake Bay, with a +few remains of the British entrenchments still visible, is Yorktown, +the scene of Cornwallis's surrender, the last conflict of the American +Revolution. Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander-in-chief in 1781, +ordered Lord Cornwallis to occupy a strong defensible position in +Virginia, and he established himself at Yorktown on August 1st, with +his army of eight thousand men, supported by several warships in York +River, and strongly fortified not only Yorktown, but also Gloucester +Point, across the river. In September the American and French forces +effected a junction at Williamsburg, marching to the investment of +Yorktown on the 28th. Washington commanded the besieging forces, +numbering about sixteen thousand men, of whom seven thousand were +Frenchmen. Upon their approach the British abandoned the outworks, and +the investment of the town was completed on the 30th. The first +parallel of the siege was established October 9th, and heavy batteries +opened with great effect, dismounting numerous British guns, and +destroying on the night of the 10th a frigate and three large +transports. The second parallel was opened on the 11th, and on the +14th, by a brilliant movement, two British redoubts were captured. The +French fleet, under Count De Grasse, in Chesapeake Bay, prevented +escape by sea, and Cornwallis's position became very critical. On the +16th he made a sortie, which failed, and on the 17th he proposed +capitulation. The terms being arranged, he surrendered October 19th, +this deciding the struggle for American independence. When the British +troops marched out of the place, and passed between the French and +American armies, it is recorded that their bands dolefully played "The +World Turned Upside Down." Considering the momentous results +following the capitulation, this may be regarded as prophetic. +Yorktown was again besieged in 1862 by McClellan, and after several +weeks was taken in May, the army then starting on its march up the +Peninsula. + + + [Illustration: _The Natural Bridge, Virginia_] + +THE NATURAL BRIDGE. + +The chief river of Virginia is the James, a noble stream, rising in +the Alleghenies and flowing for four hundred and fifty miles from the +western border of the Old Dominion until it falls into Chesapeake Bay +at Hampton Roads. Its sources are in a region noted for mineral +springs, and the union of Jackson and Cowpasture Rivers makes the +James, which flows to the base of the Blue Ridge, and there receives a +smaller tributary, not inappropriately named the Calfpasture River. +The James breaks through the Blue Ridge by a magnificent gorge at +Balcony Falls. Seven miles away, spanning the little stream known as +Cedar Brook, is the famous Natural Bridge, the wonderful arch of blue +limestone two hundred and fifteen feet high, ninety feet wide, and +having a span of a hundred feet thrown across the chasm, which has +given to the county the name of Rockbridge. Overlooking the river and +the bridge and all the country roundabout are the two noble Peaks of +Otter, rising about four thousand feet, the highest mountains in that +part of the Alleghenies. This wonderful bridge is situated at the +extremity of a deep chasm, through which the brook flows, across the +top of which extends the rocky stratum in the form of a +graceful arch. It looks as if the limestone rock had originally +covered the entire stream bed, which then flowed through a +subterranean tunnel, the rest of the limestone roof having fallen in +and been gradually washed away. The bridge is finely situated in a +grand amphitheatre surrounded by mountains. The crown of the arch is +forty feet thick, the rocky walls are perpendicular, and over the top +passes a public road, which, being on the same level as the +immediately adjacent country, one may cross it in a coach without +noticing the bridged chasm beneath. Various large forest trees grow +beneath and under the arch, but are not tall enough to reach it. On +the rocky abutments of the bridge are carved the names of many persons +who had climbed as high as they dared on the steep face of the +precipice. Highest of all, for about seventy years, was the name of +Washington, who, in his youth, ascended about twenty-five feet to a +point never before reached; but this feat was surpassed in 1818 by +James Piper, a college student, who actually climbed from the foot to +the top of the rock. In 1774 Thomas Jefferson obtained a grant of land +from George III. which included the Natural Bridge, and he was long +the owner, building the first house there, a log cabin with two rooms, +one being for the reception of strangers. Jefferson called the bridge +"a famous place that will draw the attention of the world;" Chief +Justice Marshall described it as "God's greatest miracle in stone;" +and Henry Clay said it was "The bridge not made with hands, that spans +a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one." + + +THE JAMES RIVER AND POWHATAN. + +Following down James River, constantly receiving accessions from +mountain streams, we soon come to Lynchburg, most picturesquely built +on the sloping foothills of the Blue Ridge, and having fine +water-power for its factories, a centre of the great tobacco industry +of Virginia, supporting a population of about twenty thousand people. +Lynchburg was a chief source of supply for Lee's army in Eastern +Virginia until, in February, 1865, Sheridan, by a bold raid, destroyed +the canal and railroads giving it communication; and, after evacuating +Richmond, Lee was endeavoring to reach Lynchburg when he surrendered +at Appomattox, about twenty miles to the eastward, on April 9, 1865, +thus ending the Civil War. The little village of Appomattox Court +House is known in the neighborhood as Clover Hill. When Lee +surrendered, casualties, captures and desertions had left him barely +twenty-seven thousand men, with only ten thousand muskets, thirty +cannon and three hundred and fifty wagons. + +The James River, east of the Blue Ridge, drains a grand agricultural +district, and its coffee-colored waters tell of the rich red soils +through which it comes in the tobacco plantations all the way past +Lynchburg to Richmond. In its earlier history this noted river was +called the Powhatan, and it bears that name on the older maps. +Powhatan, the original word, meant, in the Indian dialect, the "falls +of the stream" or "the falling waters," thus named from the falls and +rapids at Richmond, where the James, in the distance of nine miles, +has a descent of one hundred and sixteen feet, furnishing the +magnificent water-power which is the source of much of the wealth of +Virginia's present capital. The old Indian sachem whose fame is so +intertwined with that of Virginia took his name of Powhatan from the +river. His original name was Wahunsonacock when the colonists first +found him, and he then lived on York River; but it is related that he +grew in power, raised himself to the command of no less than thirty +tribes, and ruled all the country from southward of the James to the +eastward of the Potomac as far as Chesapeake Bay. When he became +great, for he was unquestionably the greatest Virginian of the +seventeenth century, he changed his name and removed to the James +River, just below the edge of Richmond, where, near the river bank, is +now pointed out his home, still called Powhatan. It was here that the +Princess Pocahontas is said to have interfered to save the life of +Captain John Smith. Here still stands a precious relic in the shape of +an old chimney, believed to have been originally built for the Indian +king's cabin by his colonist friends. It is of solid masonry, and is +said to have outlasted several successive cabins which had been built +up against it in Southern style. A number of cedars growing alongside, +tradition describes as shadowing the very stone on which Smith's head +was laid. It may not be generally known that early in the history of +the colony Powhatan was crowned as a king, there having been brought +out from England, for the special purpose, a crown and "a scarlet +cloke and apparrell." The writer recording the ceremony says quaintly: +"Foule trouble there was to make him kneele to receive his crowne. At +last, by leaning hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and three +having the crowne in their hands, put it on his head. To congratulate +their kindnesse, he gave his old shoes and his mantell to Captaine +Newport, telling him take them as presents to King James in return for +his gifts." + + +THE INDIAN PRINCESS POCAHONTAS. + +The James River carries a heavy commerce below Richmond, and the +channel depths of the wayward and very crooked stream are maintained +by an elaborate system of jetties, constructed by the Government. Both +shores show the earthworks that are relics of the war, and Drewry's +Bluff, with Fort Darling, the citadel of the Confederate defence of +the river, is projected across the stream. Below is Dutch Gap, where +the winding river, flowing in a level plain, makes a double reverse +curve, going around a considerable surface without making much actual +progress. Here is the Dutch Gap Canal, which General Butler cut +through the narrowest part of the long neck of land, thus avoiding +Confederate batteries and saving a detour of five and a half miles; it +is now used for navigation. Just below is the large plantation of +Varina, where the Indian Princess Pocahontas lived after her marriage +with the Englishman, John Rolfe. Its fine brick colonial mansion was +the headquarters for the exchange of prisoners during the Civil War. + +The brief career of Pocahontas is the great romance of the first +settlement of Virginia. She was the daughter and favorite child of +Powhatan, her name being taken from a running brook, and meaning the +"bright streamlet between the hills." When the Indians captured +Captain John Smith she was about twelve years of age. He made friends +of the Indian children, and whittled playthings for them, so that +Pocahontas became greatly interested in him, and the tale of her +saving his life is so closely interwoven with the early history of the +colony that those who declare it apocryphal have not yet been able to +obliterate it from our school-books. Smith being afterwards liberated, +Pocahontas always had a longing for him, was the medium of getting the +colonists food, warned them of plots, and took an interest in them +even after Smith returned to England. The tale was then told her that +Smith was dead. In 1614 Pocahontas, about nineteen years old, was +kidnapped and taken to Jamestown, in order to carry out a plan of the +Governor by which Powhatan, to save his daughter, would make +friendship with the colony, and it resulted as intended. Pocahontas +remained several weeks in the colony, made the acquaintance of the +younger people, and fell in love with Master John Rolfe. Pocahontas +returned to her father, who consented to the marriage; she was +baptized at Jamestown as Lady Rebecca, and her uncle and two brothers +afterwards attended the wedding, the uncle giving the Indian bride +away in the little church at Jamestown, April 5, 1614. A peace of +several years' duration was the consequence of this union. Two years +afterwards Pocahontas and her husband proceeded to England, where she +was an object of the greatest interest to all classes of people, and +was presented at Court, the Queen warmly receiving her. Captain Smith +visited her in London, and after saluting him she turned away her face +and hid it in her hands, thus continuing for over two hours. This was +due to her surprise at seeing Smith, for there is no doubt her husband +was a party to the deception, he probably thinking she would never +marry him while Smith was living. The winter climate of England was +too severe for her, and when about embarking to return to Virginia +she suddenly died at Gravesend, in March, 1617, aged about twenty-two. +She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in London, and in +after life went to Virginia, where he became a man of note and +influence. From him are descended the famous children of +Pocahontas--the "First Families of Virginia"--the Randolph, Bolling, +Fleming and other families. + + +SHIRLEY, BERKELEY AND WESTOVER. + +The winding James flows by Deep Bottom and Turkey Bend, and one +elongated neck of land after another, passing the noted battlefield of +Malvern Hill, which ended General McClellan's disastrous "Seven Days" +of battles and retreat from the Chickahominy swamps in 1862. The great +ridge of Malvern Hill stretches away from the river towards the +northwest, and in that final battle which checked the Confederate +pursuit it was a vast amphitheatre terraced with tier upon tier of +artillery, the gunboats in the river joining in the Union defense. +Below, on the other shore, are the spacious lowlands of Bermuda +Hundred, where, in General Grant's significant phrase, General Butler +was "bottled up." Here, on the eastern bank, is the plantation of +Shirley, one of the famous Virginian settlements, still held by the +descendants of its colonial owners--the Carters. The wide and +attractive old brick colonial house, with its hipped and pointed +roof, stands behind a fringe of trees along the shore, with numerous +outbuildings constructed around a quadrangle behind. It is built of +bricks brought out from England, is two stories high, with a capacious +front porch, and around the roof are rows of dormer windows, above +which the roof runs from all sides up into a point between the tall +and ample chimneys. The southern view from Shirley is across the James +to the mouth of Appomattox River and City Point. + +The Appomattox originates in the Blue Ridge near Lynchburg, and flows +one hundred and twenty miles eastward to the James, of which it is the +chief tributary. It passes Petersburg twelve miles southwest of its +point of union with the James, this union being at a high bluff thrust +out between the rivers, with abrupt slopes and a plateau on the top, +which is well shaded. Here is the house--the home of Dr. Epps--used by +General Grant as his headquarters during the operations from the south +side of the James against Petersburg and Lee's army in 1864-65. Grant +occupied two little log cabins on top of the bluff, just east of the +house; one his dwelling and the other his office. One is still there +in dilapidation, and the other is preserved as a relic in Fairmount +Park, Philadelphia. A short distance away is the little town of City +Point, with its ruined wharves, where an enormous business was then +done in landing army supplies. To the eastward the James flows, a +steadily broadening stream, past the sloping shores on the northern +bank, where, at Harrison's Landing, McClellan rested his troops after +the "Seven Days," having retreated there from the battle at Malvern +Hill. His camps occupied the plantations of Berkeley and Westover, the +former having been the birthplace of General William Henry Harrison, +who was President of the United States for a few weeks in 1841, the +first President who died in office. The Berkeley House is a spacious +and comfortable mansion, but it lost its grand shade-trees during the +war. A short distance farther down is the quaint old Queen Anne +mansion of red brick, with one wing only, the other having been burnt +during the war; with pointed roof and tall chimneys, standing at the +top of a beautifully sloping bank--Westover House, the most famous of +the old mansions on the James. It was the home of the Byrds--grandfather, +father and son--noted in Virginian colonial history, whose arms are +emblazoned on the iron gates, and who sleep in the little graveyard +alongside. The most renowned of these was the second, the "Honourable +William Byrd of Westover, Esquire," who was the founder of both +Richmond and Petersburg. + +William Byrd was a man of imposing personal appearance and the highest +character, and his full-length portrait in flowing periwig and lace +ruffles, after Van Dyck, is preserved at Lower Brandon, farther down +the river. He inherited a large landed estate--over fifty thousand +acres--and ample fortune, and was educated in England, where he was +called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and made a Fellow of the Royal +Society. The inscription on his Westover tomb tells that he was a +friend of the learned Earl of Orrery. He held high offices in +Virginia, and possessed the largest private library then in America. +In connection with one Peter Jones, in 1733, he laid out both Richmond +and Petersburg on lands he owned, at the head of navigation +respectively on the James and the Appomattox. He left profuse +journals, published since as the _Westover Manuscripts_, and they +announce that Petersburg was gratefully named in honor of his +companion-founder, Peter Jones, and that Richmond's name came from +Byrd's vivid recollection of the outlook from Richmond Hill over the +Thames in England, which he found strikingly reproduced in the soft +hills and far-stretching meadows adjoining the rapids of the James, +with the curving sweep of the river as it flowed away from view behind +the glimmering woods. He died in 1744. Westover House was McClellan's +headquarters in 1862. The estates have gone from Byrd's descendants, +but the house has been completely restored, and is one of the +loveliest spots on the James. Major Augustus Drewry, its recent owner, +died in July, 1899, at an advanced age. Coggins Point projects +opposite Westover, and noted plantations and mansions line the river +banks, bearing, with the counties, well-known English names. Here is +the ruined stone Fort Powhatan, a relic of the War of 1812, with the +Unionist earthworks of 1864-65 on the bluff above it. Then we get +among the lowland swamps, where the cypress trees elevate their +conical knees and roots above the water. The James has become a wide +estuary, and the broad Chickahominy flows in between low shores, +draining the swamps east of Richmond and the James. This was the "lick +at which turkeys were plenty," the Indians thus recognizing in the +name of the river the favorite resort of the wild turkey. + + +THE COLONY OF JAMESTOWN. + +We have now come to the region of earliest English settlement in +America, where Newport and Smith, in 1607, planted their colony of +Jamestown upon a low yellow bluff on the northern river bank. It is +thirty-two miles from the mouth of the James River, and the bluff, by +the action of the water, has been made an island. The location was +probably selected because this furnished protection from attacks. The +later encroachments of the river have swept away part of the site of +the early settlement, and a portion of the old church tower and some +tombstones are now the only relics of the ancient town. The ruins of +the tower can be seen on top of the bluff, almost overgrown with moss +and vines. Behind is the wall of the graveyard where the first +settlers were buried. A couple of little cabins are the only present +signs of settlement, the mansion of the Jamestown plantation being +some distance down the river. + +When the English colony first came to Jamestown in 1607, they were +hunting for gold and for the "northwest passage" to the East Indies. +In fact, most of the American colonizing began with these objects. +They had an idea in Europe that America was profuse in gold and gems. +In 1605 a play of "Eastward, Ho" was performed in London, in which one +of the characters said: "I tell thee golde is more plentifull in +Virginia than copper is with us, and for as much redde copper as I can +bring, I will have thrice the weight in golde. All their pannes and +pottes are pure gould, and all the chaines with which they chaine up +their streetes are massie gould; all the prisoners they take are +fettered in golde; and for rubies and diamonds they goe forth in +holidays and gather them by the seashore to hang on their children's +coates and sticke in their children's caps as commonally as our +children wear saffron, gilt brooches, and groates with hoales in +them." The whole party, on landing at Jamestown, started to hunt for +gold. Smith wrote that among the English colonists there was "no talk, +no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, loade gold." +They found some shining pyrites that deceived them, and therefore the +first ship returning to England carried away a cargo of shining dirt, +found entirely worthless on arrival. The second ship, after a long +debate, they more wisely sent back with a cargo of cedar. They hunted +for the "northwest passage," first going up the James to the falls at +the site of Richmond, but returning disappointed. It was this same +hunt for a route to the Pacific which afterwards took Smith up the +Chickahominy, where he got among the swamps and was captured by the +Indians. + +The Jamestown colonists met with great discouragements. Most of them +were unfitted for pioneers, and the neighboring swamps gave them +malaria in the hot summer, so that nearly half perished. Smith, by his +courage and enterprise, however, kept the colony alive and took +charge, being their leader until captured by the Indians, and also +afterwards, until his return to England. Among the first constructions +at Jamestown were a storehouse and a church. These, however, were soon +burnt, and a second church and storehouse were erected in September, +1608. This church was like a barn in appearance, the base being +supported by crotched stakes, and the walls and roof were made of +rafts, sedge and earth, which soon decayed. When Smith left Jamestown +for England in 1609 the place contained about sixty houses, and was +surrounded by a stockade. Smith early saw the necessity of raising +food, and determined to begin the growing of maize, or Indian corn. +Consequently, early in 1608 he prevailed upon two Indians he had +captured to teach the method of planting the corn. Under their +direction a tract of about forty acres was planted in squares, with +intervals of four feet between the holes which received the Indian +corn for seed. This crop grew and was partly harvested, a good deal of +it, however, being eaten green. Thus the Indian invented the method of +corn-planting universally observed in the United States, and this crop +of forty acres of 1608 was the first crop of the great American cereal +grown by white men. Wheat brought out from England was first planted +at Jamestown in 1618 on a field of about thirty acres, this being the +first wheat crop grown in the United States. + +Captain John Smith, before he left Jamestown, estimated that there +were about fifty-five hundred Indians within a radius of sixty miles +around the colony, and in his works he enumerates the various tribes. +Describing their mode of life, he wrote that they grew fat or lean +according to the season. When food was abundant, he said, they stuffed +themselves night and day; and, unless unforeseen emergencies compelled +them to arouse, they dropped asleep as soon as their stomachs were +filled. So ravenous were their appetites that a colonist employing an +Indian was compelled to allow him a quantity of food double that given +an English laborer. In a period of want or hardship, when no food was +to be had, the warrior simply drew his belt more tightly about his +waist to try and appease the pangs of hunger. The Indians, when the +colonists arrived, were found to divide the year into five seasons, +according to its varying character. These were, first, Cattapeuk, the +season of blossoms; second, Cohattayough, the season when the sun rode +highest in the heavens; third, Nepenough, the season when the ears of +maize were large enough to be roasted; fourth, Taquetock, the season +of the falling leaves, when the maize was gathered; and fifth, Cohonk, +the season when long lines of wild geese appeared, flying from the +north, uttering the cry suggesting the name, thus heralding the +winter. + +The colony was very unfortunate, and in 1617 was reduced to only five +or six buildings. The church had then decayed and fallen to the +ground, and a third church, fifty by twenty feet, was afterwards +built. Additional settlers were sent out from England in the next two +years, and the Virginians were granted a government of their own, the +new Governor, Sir George Yeardley, arriving in the spring of 1619. The +Company in London also sent them a communication "that those cruell +laws, by which the ancient planters had soe long been governed, were +now abrogated in favor of those free laws which his majesties subjects +lived under in Englande." It continued by stating "That the planters +might have a hande in the governing of themselves yt was granted that +a generall assemblie should be held yearly once, whereat to be present +the governor and counsell with two burgesses from each plantation, +freely to be elected by the inhabitants thereof, this assemblie to +have power to make and ordaine whatsoever laws and orders should by +them be thought good and profitable for their subsistence." The +Governor consequently summoned the first "House of Burgesses" in +Virginia, which met at Jamestown, July 30, 1619, the first legislative +body in America. Twenty-two members took their seats in the new church +at Jamestown. They are described as wearing bright-colored silk and +velvet coats, with starched ruffs, and as having kept their hats on as +in the English House of Commons. The Governor sat in the choir, and +with him were several leading men who had been appointed by the +Company on the Governor's Council. They passed various laws, chiefly +about tobacco and taxes, and sent them to England, where the Company +confirmed them, and afterwards, in 1621, granted the "Great Charter," +which was the first Constitution of Virginia. + +The colonists got into trouble with the Indians in 1622, and having +killed an Indian who murdered a white man, Jamestown was attacked and +the inhabitants massacred, three hundred and forty-five being killed. +Governor Butler, who visited the place not long after the massacre, +wrote that the houses were the "worst in the world," and that the +most wretched cottages in England were equal, if not superior, in +appearance and comfort to the finest dwellings in the colony. The +first houses were mostly of bark, imitating those of the Indian; and, +there being neither sawmills to prepare planks nor nails to fasten +them, the later constructions were usually of logs plastered with mud, +with thatched roofs. The more pretentious of these were built +double--"two pens and a passage," as they have been described. As late +as 1675 Jamestown had only a few families, with not more than +seventy-five population. Labor was always in demand there, and at +first the laborers were brought out from England. There was no money, +and having early learnt to raise tobacco from the Indians, this became +the chief crop, and, being sure of sale in England, became the +standard of value. Tobacco was the great export, twenty thousand +pounds being exported in 1619, forty thousand in 1620 and sixty +thousand in 1622. Everything was valued in tobacco, and this continued +the practical currency for the first century. They imported a lot of +copper, however, with which to make small coins for circulation. As +the tobacco fluctuated in price in England, it made a very unstable +standard of value. Gradually, afterwards, large amounts of gold and +silver coin came into Virginia in payment for produce, thus +supplanting the tobacco as a standard. + + +THE VIRGINIAN PLANTERS. + +Land was cheap in Virginia in the early days. In 1662 the King of +Mattapony sold his village and five thousand acres to the colonists +for fifty match-coats. During the seventeenth century the value of +land reckoned in tobacco, as sold in England, averaged for cleared +ground about four shillings per acre, the shilling then having a +purchasing power equal to a dollar now. It was at this time that most +of the great Virginian estates along James River were formed, the +colonists securing in some cases large grants. Thus, John Carter of +Lancaster took up 18,570 acres, John Page 5000 acres, Richard Lee +12,000 acres, William Byrd 15,000 acres, afterwards largely increased; +Robert Beverley 37,000 acres and William Fitzhugh over 50,000 acres. +These were the founders of some of the most famous Virginian families. +The demand for labor naturally brought Virginia within the market of +the slave trader, but very few negroes were there in the earlier +period. The first negroes who arrived in Virginia were disembarked at +Jamestown from a Dutch privateer in 1619--twenty Africans. In 1622 +there were twenty-two there, two more having landed; but it is noted +that no negro was killed in the Jamestown massacre. In 1649 there were +only three hundred negroes in Virginia, and in 1671 there were about +two thousand. In the latter part of the seventeenth century the +arrivals of negro slaves became more frequent--labor being in demand. +The records show that the planters had great difficulty in supplying +them with names, everything being ransacked for the purpose--mythology, +history and geography--and hence the peculiar names they have +conferred in some cases on their descendants. In 1640 a robust African +man when sold commanded 2700 pounds of tobacco, and a female 2500 +pounds, averaging, at the then price of tobacco, about seventeen +pounds sterling for the men. Prices afterwards advanced to forty +pounds sterling for the men. In 1699 all newly arrived slaves were +taxed twenty shillings per head, paid by the master of the vessel. + +As the colony developed, the typical dwelling became a framed log +building of moderate size, with a big chimney at each end, there being +no cellar and the house resting on the ground. The upper and lower +floors were each divided into two rooms. Such a house, built in 1679, +measuring forty by twenty feet, cost twelve hundred pounds of tobacco. +Finally, when more prosperity came in the eighteenth century, the +houses were developed and enlarged into more pretentious edifices, +built of bricks brought out from England. These were the great +colonial houses of the wealthy planters, so many of which exist until +the present day. The most prosperous time in colonial Virginia was the +period from 1710 until 1770. The exports of tobacco to England and +flour and other produce to the West Indies made the fortunes of the +planters, so that their vast estates and large retinues of slaves made +them the lordly barons whose fame spread throughout Europe, while +their wealth enabled them to gather all the luxuries of furniture and +ornament for their houses then attainable. It was in these noble +colonial mansions, surrounded by regiments of negro servants, that the +courtly Virginians of the olden time dispensed a princely hospitality, +limited only by their ability to secure whatever the world produced. +The stranger was always welcome at the bountiful board, and the slave +children grew up amid plenty, hardly knowing what work was. This went +on with more or less variation until the Civil War made its tremendous +upheaval, which scattered both whites and blacks. But the typical +Virginian is unchanged, continuing as open-hearted and hospitable, +though his means now are much less. To all he has, the guest is +welcome; but it is usually with a tinge of regret that he recalls the +good old time when he might have done more. + + +HAMPTON ROADS AND FORTRESS MONROE. + +The constantly broadening estuary of the James assumes almost the +proportions of an inland sea, and in the bays encircled by the low +shores are planted the seed oysters, which are gathered by fleets of +small vessels for transplanting into salt-water beds. In front, near +the mouth of the river, is thrust out the long point of Newport News, +with its grain elevators and shipyards, dry-docks and iron-works, the +great port of the James River, which is the busy terminal of railways +coming from the West. Here is a town of thirty thousand people. It was +almost opposite, that in the spring of 1862 the Confederate ram +"Merrimac" (then called the "Virginia"), armored with railroad rails, +came suddenly out from Norfolk, and sank or disabled the American +wooden naval vessels in Hampton Roads; the next day, however, being +unexpectedly encountered by the novel little turret iron-clad +"Monitor," which had most opportunely arrived from the upper Hudson +River, where Ericsson had built her. The "Merrimac" was herself soon +disabled and compelled to retire. This timely and dramatic appearance +of "the little Yankee cheese-box on a raft" made a sudden and +unforeseen revolution in all the naval methods and architecture of the +world. Around the point of Newport News the James River debouches into +one of the finest harbors of the Atlantic Coast, Hampton Roads, named +from the town of Hampton on the northern shore. This is the location +of a Veteran Soldiers' Home, with two thousand inmates, an extensive +Soldiers' Cemetery, and of the spacious buildings of the Normal and +Agricultural Institute for Negroes and Indians, where there are eight +to nine hundred scholars, this being a foundation originally +established by the Freedmen's Bureau, the chief object being the +training of teachers for colored and Indian schools. + +The little peninsula of Old Point Comfort, which makes the northern +side of the mouth of the James and juts out into Chesapeake Bay, has +upon it the largest and most elaborate fortification in the United +States--Fortress Monroe. It is related that when Newport and Smith +first entered the bay in 1607, and were desirous of ascending the +James, they coasted along the southern shore and found only shallow +water. Starting out in a boat to hunt for a channel up which their +ships could pass, they rowed over to the northern shore and discovered +deeper water entering the James, close to this little peninsula, there +being twelve fathoms depth, which so encouraged Smith that it +confirmed him in naming the place Point Comfort. This channel, close +inshore, could be readily defended, as it was the only passage for +vessels of any draft, and consequently when the colony got established +at Jamestown they built Fort Algernon at Point Comfort to protect the +entrance to the James. In 1611 this fort was described as consisting +of stockades and posts, without stone or brick, and containing seven +small iron guns, with a garrison of forty men. + +After the British invasion of Chesapeake Bay, in 1814, when they burnt +the Capitol and White House at Washington, it was quickly decided that +no foreign foe should be again permitted to do such a thing, and that +an elaborate work should be built to defend the entrance to the bay. +General Simon Bernard, one of Napoleon's noted engineers, offered his +services to the United States after the downfall of the Emperor, and +he was placed in charge, with the duty of constructing, at the mouth +of James River, a fortification which would command the channel into +that river and to the Norfolk Navy Yard, and at the same time be a +base of operations against any fleet attempting to enter the bay and +menace the roadstead. Bernard built in 1819, and several following +years, an elaborate fortress, with a broad moat and outlying +water-battery, enclosing eighty acres, the ramparts being over two +miles in circumference. It was called Fortress Monroe, after the then +President James Monroe, of Virginia. Out upon an artificial island, +known as the Rip-raps, built upon a shoal some two miles off-shore, +and in the harbor entrance, the smaller works of Fort Wool were +subsequently constructed, and the two make a complete defense for the +Chesapeake Bay entrance. During all the years this fortress has +existed it has never had occasion to fire a gun at an enemy, but its +location and strength were invaluable to the North, who held it during +the Civil War. It is the seat of the Artillery School of the army. To +the southward, at the waterside, are the hotels of Old Point Comfort, +which is one of the favorite seaside watering-places of the South. In +front is the great Hampton roadstead, usually containing fleets of +wind-bound vessels and some men-of-war. + + +NORFOLK AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. + +Over on the southern side of Chesapeake Bay is the Elizabeth River, in +reality a tidal arm of the sea, curving around from the south to the +east, and having Norfolk on its northern bank and Portsmouth opposite. +The country round about is flat and low-lying, and far up the river +are Gosport and the Navy Yard, the largest possessed by the United +States. There are probably sixty thousand population in the three +towns. The immediate surroundings are good land and mostly market +gardens, but to the southward spreads the great Dismal Swamp, covering +about sixteen hundred square miles, intersected by various canals, and +yielding cypress, juniper and other timber. It is partly drained by +the Nansemond River, on which, at the edge of the swamp, is the little +town of Suffolk, whence the Jericho Run Canal leads into Lake +Drummond, a body of water covering eighteen square miles and +twenty-one feet above tidewater. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has woven +much of the romance of this weird fastness and swamp into her tale of +_Dred_. The Dismal Swamp Canal, twenty-two miles long, and recently +enlarged and deepened, passes through it from Elizabeth River to the +Pasquotank River of North Carolina, and the Albemarle Canal also +connects with Currituck Sound. This big swamp was first explored by +Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, in 1728, when he surveyed the +boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. + +All about the Norfolk wharves are cotton bales, much timber, tobacco +and naval stores, and immense quantities of food and garden products, +not forgetting a profusion of "goobers," all awaiting shipment, for +this, next to Savannah, is the greatest export port for food and other +supplies on the Southern Atlantic. The "goober," or peanut, is the +special crop of this part of Virginia and Carolina. The cotton +compresses do a lively business in the cotton season, the powerful +hydraulic pressure squeezing the bale to barely one-fourth its former +size, and binding it firmly with iron bands, thus giving the steamers +increased cargo. In the spring the shipment North of early fruits and +vegetables is enormous, vast surfaces being devoted to their growth, +the strawberry beds especially covering many acres. The oyster trade +is also large. The settlement of Norfolk began in 1680, and in 1736 it +was made a borough. Portsmouth was established later, but the starting +of the navy yard there, which has become so extensive, gave it great +impetus. Portsmouth claims that in the Civil War, in proportion to +size, it sent more soldiers to the Southern armies and had more dead +than any other city. The capacious naval hospital and its fine grove +of trees front Portsmouth towards the harbor. Norfolk has St. Paul's +Church, founded in 1730, as its chief Revolutionary relic--an ancient +building, with an old graveyard, and having in its steeple the +indentation made by a cannon-shot, when a British fleet in 1776 +bombarded and partly burnt the town. An old-fashioned round ball rests +in the orifice; not, however, the one originally sent there by the +cannoneers. Relic-hunters visiting the place have a habit of +clandestinely appropriating the cannon-ball, so the sexton, with an +eye to business, has some on hand ready to put into the cavity, and +thus maintain the old church's patriotic reputation. A novel sight in +Norfolk is its market, largely served by negroes--old "mammies" with +bright bandannas tied about their heads and guarding piles of luscious +fruits; funny little pickaninnies who execute all manner of athletic +gyrations for stray pennies, queer old market wagons, profusions of +flowers, and such a collection of the good things of life, all set in +a picture so attractive that the sight is long remembered. + + +THE EASTERN SHORE. + +Northward from Old Point Comfort and Hampton Roads the great +Chesapeake Bay stretches for two hundred miles. It bisects Virginia +and Maryland, and receives the rivers of both States, extending within +fourteen miles of Pennsylvania, where it has as its head the greatest +river of all, the Susquehanna, which the Indians appropriately called +their "great island river." Its shores enclose many islands, and are +indented with innumerable bays and inlets, the alluvial soils being +readily adapted to fruit and vegetable growing, and its multitudes of +shallows being almost throughout a vast oyster bed. It has, all about, +the haunts of wild fowl and the nestling-places of delicious fish. +These shores were the home--first on the eastern side and afterwards +on the western--of the Nanticokes, or "tidewater Indians," who +ultimately migrated to New York to join the Iroquois or Five Nations, +making that Confederacy the "Six Nations." From Cape Charles, guarding +the northern entrance to the Bay, extends northward the well-known +peninsula of the "Eastern Shore," a land of market gardens, +strawberries and peaches, which feeds the Northern cities, and having +its railroad, a part of the Pennsylvania system, running for miles +over the level surface in a flat country, which enabled the builders +to lay a mathematically straight pair of rails for nearly ninety +miles, said to be the longest railway tangent in existence. + +Chesapeake Bay is now patrolled by the oyster fleets of both Virginia +and Maryland, each State having an "oyster navy" to protect its beds +from predatory forays; and occasionally there arises an "oyster war" +which expands to the dignity of a newspaper sensation, and sometimes +results in bloodshed. The wasteful methods of oyster-dredging are said +to be destroying the beds, and they are much less valuable than +formerly, although measures are being projected for their protection +and restoration under Government auspices. We are told that a band of +famished colonists who went in the early days to beg corn from the +Indians first discovered the value of the oyster. The Indians were +roasting what looked like stones in their fire, and invited the hungry +colonists to partake. The opened shells disclosed the succulent +bivalve, and the white men found there was other good food besides +corn. All the sites of extinct Indian villages along the Chesapeake +were marked by piles of oyster shells, showing they had been eaten +from time immemorial. + +The English colonists at Jamestown were told by the Indians of the +wonders of the "Mother of Waters," as they called Chesapeake Bay, +about the many great rivers pouring into it, the various tribes on its +shores, and the large fur trade that could be opened with them; so +that the colonists gradually came to the opinion that the upper region +of the great bay was the choicest part of their province. Smith +explored it and made a map in 1609, and others followed him, setting +up trading-stations upon the rivers as far as the Potomac and the +Patuxent. Soon this new country and its fur trade attracted the +cupidity of William Claiborne, who had been appointed Treasurer of +Virginia, and was sent out when King James I. made it a royal +province, the king telling them they would find Claiborne "a person of +qualitie and trust." He was also agent for a London Company the king +had chartered to make discoveries and engage in the fur trade. +Claiborne, in 1631, established a settlement on Kent Island, the +largest in the bay, about opposite Annapolis, and one hundred and +thirty miles north of the James, which thrived as a trading station +and next year sent its burgesses to the Assembly at Jamestown. + + +CALVERT AND MARYLAND. + +Sir George Calvert, who had been private secretary to Lord Cecil in +Queen Elizabeth's reign, and also held office under King James, upon +retiring was created Baron of Baltimore in Ireland, and purchased part +of Newfoundland, which he called Avalon. He sent out a colony and +afterwards visited Avalon; but, being discouraged by the cold climate, +he abandoned the colony, and persuaded the next king, Charles I., to +give him land on both sides of Chesapeake Bay north of the Potomac. +Before the deed was signed, however, Baron Baltimore died, and his +son, Cecilius Calvert, succeeded him and received the grant. This was +one of the greatest gifts of land ever made, extending northward from +the Potomac River, including all Maryland, a broad strip of what is +now Pennsylvania, all of Delaware, and a good deal of West Virginia. +The charter made the grant a Palatinate, giving Lord Baltimore and his +heirs absolute control of the country, freedom to trade with the whole +world and make his own laws, or allow his colonists to do this. The +price was the delivery of two Indian arrows a year at the Castle of +Windsor, and one-fifth of all the gold and silver found. This grant +was dated on June 20, 1632, and the name first intended by Calvert for +his colony was Crescentia; but in the charter it was styled _Terra +Mariæ_, after Queen Henrietta Maria, or "Mary's Land." The expedition +came out the following winter, leaving the Isle of Wight in November +in two vessels, named the "Ark" and the "Dove," under command of +Leonard Calvert, Cecil's brother, there being two hundred emigrants, +nearly all Roman Catholics, like their chief, and mostly gentlemen of +fortune and respectability. While the colony was Catholic, Cecil +Calvert inculcated complete toleration. In his letter of instructions +he wrote: "Preserve unity and peace on shipboard amongst all +passengers; and suffer no offence to be given to any of the +Protestants; for this end cause all acts of the Roman Catholic +religion to be done as privately as may be;" and he also told his +brother, the Governor, "to treat all Protestants with as much mildness +and favor as justice would permit," this to be observed "at land as +well as at sea." In March, 1633, they entered the Chesapeake and +sailed up to the Potomac River, landing at an island and setting up a +cross, claiming the country for Christ and for England. + +The "Ark" anchored, and the smaller "Dove" was sent cruising along the +shore of the Potomac above Point Lookout, "to make choice of a place +probable to be healthfull and fruitfull," which might be easily +fortified, and "convenient for trade both with the English and +savages." The little "Dove" sailed some distance up the Potomac, +examining the shore, and encountered various Indians, who were +astonished when they saw the vessel, diminutive, yet so much larger +than their canoes, and said they would like to see the tree from which +that great canoe was hollowed out, for they knew nothing of the method +of construction. The colonists talked with the Indians, having an +interpreter, and Leonard Calvert asked a chief: "Shall we stay here, +or shall we go back?" To this a mysterious answer was made: "You may +do as you think best." Calvert did not like this, and decided to land +nearer the bay, so his vessel dropped down the river again, and they +finally landed on a stream where they found the Indian village of +Yoacamoco. The Indians were very friendly, sold part of their village +for some axes and bright cloth, gave up their best wigwams to Calvert +and his colonists, and in one of these the Jesuit fathers held a +solemn service, dedicating the settlement to St. Mary; and thus was +founded the capital of the new Palatinate of Maryland. Under Calvert's +wise rule the colony prospered, kept up friendliness with the Indians, +enjoyed a lucrative trade, and, after a long struggle, ultimately +managed to make Claiborne abandon the settlement on Kent Island, which +became part of Maryland. To the northward of them was the estuary of +the Patuxent River, meaning "the stream at the little falls." St. +Mary's County is the peninsula between the Patuxent and the Potomac, +terminating at Point Lookout, and a quiet and restful farming country +to-day. Leonardstown, on the Patuxent, named after Leonard Calvert, is +the county-seat; but the ancient village of St. Mary's, the original +colony and capital, afterwards superseded by Annapolis, still exists, +though only a few scattered bricks remain to mark the site of the old +fort and town. At St. Inigoe's is the quaint colonial home of the +Jesuit fathers who accompanied Calvert, and its especial pride is a +sweet-toned bell, brought out from England in 1685, which still rings +the Angelus. At Kent Island scarcely a vestige remains of Claiborne's +trading-post and settlement. + + +THE MARYLAND CAPITAL. + +The settlers of Maryland were not all Roman Catholics, however, for +Puritan refugees came in there. Above the Patuxent is the estuary of +the Severn River, and here, in a beautiful situation, is Annapolis, +the capital of Maryland, which has about eight thousand inhabitants, +and was originally colonized in 1649 by Puritans driven from the James +River in Virginia by the Episcopalians in control there. The +settlement was at first called Providence, and Richard Preston, the +eminent Quaker, was long its commander. Afterwards it was named Anne +Arundel Town, after Lady Baltimore, which still is the name of its +county, although the town came to be finally known as Annapolis, from +Queen Anne, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, who gave it +valuable presents. It is now best known as the seat of the United +States Naval Academy, which has a fine establishment there, founded by +George Bancroft, the historian, when he was Secretary of the Navy, in +1845. Its ancient defensive work, Fort Severn, has been roofed over, +and is the Academy gymnasium. The city was made the capital of +Maryland in 1794, the government being then removed from St. Mary's, +and the State Capitol is a massive brick structure, standing on an +eminence, with a lofty dome and cupola, from which there is a fine +view of the surrounding country and over Chesapeake Bay. In the Senate +Chamber General Washington surrendered his Commission to the American +Colonial Congress which met there in December, 1783, and in it also +assembled the first Constitutional Convention of the United States, in +1786. In front of the building is a colossal statue of Chief Justice +Taney, of the Supreme Court of the United States, a native of +Maryland, who died in 1864. Annapolis formerly had an extensive +commerce and amassed much wealth, until eclipsed by the growth of +Baltimore, and now its chief trade, like so many of the towns of the +Chesapeake, is in oysters. + + +THE MONUMENTAL CITY. + +The head of Chesapeake Bay, on either side of the Susquehanna River, +is composed of various broad estuaries, with small streams entering +them. To the eastward the chief is Elk River, and to the westward are +the Gunpowder and Bush Rivers, with others. Not far above the Severn +is the wide tidal estuary of the Patapsco, so named by the Indians to +describe its peculiarity, the word meaning "a stream caused by back or +tidewater containing froth." A few miles up this estuary is the great +city and port of the Chesapeake, Baltimore, so named in honor of Lord +Baltimore, and containing, with its suburbs, over six hundred thousand +people. The spreading arms of the Patapsco, around which the city is +built, provide an ample harbor, their irregular shores making plenty +of dock room, and the two great railways from the north and west to +Washington, which go under the town through an elaborate system of +tunnels, give it a lucrative foreign trade in produce brought for +shipment abroad. From the harbor there are long and narrow docks, and +an inner "Basin" extending into the city, and across the heads of +these is Pratt Street. This highway is famous as the scene of the +first bloodshed of the Civil War. The Northern troops, hastily +summoned to Washington, were marching along it from one railway +station to the other on April 19, 1861, when a Baltimore mob, +sympathizing with the South, attacked them. In the riot and conflict +that followed eleven were killed and twenty-six were wounded. A creek, +called Jones's Falls, coming down a deep valley from the northward +into the harbor, divides the city into two almost equal sections, and +in the lower part is walled in, with a street on either side. Colonel +David Jones, who was the original white inhabitant of the north side +of Baltimore harbor, gave this stream his name about 1680, before +anyone expected even a village to be located there. A settlement +afterwards began eastward of the creek, known as Jonestown, while +Baltimore was not started until 1730, being laid out westward of the +creek and around the head of the "Basin," the plan covering sixty +acres. This was called New Town, as the other was popularly termed Old +Town, but they subsequently were united as Baltimore, having in 1752 +about two hundred people. + +Baltimore is rectangular in plan and picturesque, covering an +undulating surface, the hills, which are many, inclining either to +Jones's Falls or the harbor. Its popular title is the "Monumental +City," given because it was the first American city that built fine +monuments. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the State of +Maryland erected on Charles Street a monument to General Washington, +rising one hundred and ninety-five feet, a Doric shaft of white marble +surmounted by his statue and upon a base fifty feet square. This +splendid monument stands in a broadened avenue and at the summit of a +hill, surrounded by tasteful lawns and flower gardens, with a fountain +in front. It makes an attractive centre for Mount Vernon Place, which +contains one of the finest collections of buildings in the city, and +presents a scene essentially Parisian. Here are the Peabody Institute +and the Garrett Mansion, both impressive buildings. Baltimore has a +"Battle Monument," located on Calvert Street, in Monument Square, a +marble shaft fifty-three feet high, marking the British invasion of +1814, and erected in memory of the men of Baltimore who fell in battle +just outside the city, when the British forces marched from Elk River +to Washington and burnt the Capitol, and the British fleet came up the +Patapsco and shelled the town. The city also has other fine monuments, +so that its popular name is well deserved. + +The City Hall is the chief building of Baltimore, a marble structure +in Renaissance, costing $2,000,000, its elaborate dome rising two +hundred and sixty feet, and giving a magnificent view over the city +and harbor. There are two noted churches, the Mount Vernon Methodist +Church, of greenstone, with buff and red facings and polished granite +columns, being the finest, although the First Presbyterian Church, +nearby, is regarded as the most elaborate specimen of Lancet-Gothic +architecture in the country, its spire rising two hundred and +sixty-eight feet. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is an attractive +granite church, containing paintings presented by Louis XVI. and +Charles X. of France. Cardinal Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore, is +the Roman Catholic Primate of the United States. The greatest +charities of the city are the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns +Hopkins University, endowed by a Baltimore merchant who died in 1873, +the joint endowments being $6,500,000. Hopkins was shrewd and +penurious, and John W. Garrett persuaded him to make these princely +endowments, much of his fortune being invested in the Baltimore and +Ohio Railroad, of which Garrett was President in its days of greatest +prosperity. This railroad is the chief Baltimore institution, giving +it a direct route to the Mississippi Valley, and was the first started +of the great American trunk railways, its origin dating from 1826, +when the movement began for its charter, which was granted by the +Maryland Legislature the next year. This charter conferred most +comprehensive powers, and the story is told that when it was being +read in that body one of the members interrupted, saying: "Stop, man, +you are asking more than the Lord's Prayer." The reply was that it was +all necessary, and the more asked, the more would be secured. The +interrupter, convinced, responded: "Right, man; go on." The +corner-stone of the railway was laid July 4, 1828, beginning the route +from Baltimore, up the Potomac and through the Alleghenies to the Ohio +River. + + +DRUID HILL AND FORT McHENRY. + +Baltimore is proud of the great art collection of Henry Walters in +Mount Vernon Place, exhibited for a fee for the benefit of the poor; +and it also has had as a noted resident Jerome Bonaparte, brother of +Napoleon, who married, and then discarded by Napoleon's order, Miss +Patterson, a Baltimore lady. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has remarked +that three short American poems, each the best of its kind, were +written in Baltimore: Poe's _Raven_, Randall's _Maryland, My +Maryland_, and Key's _Star-Spangled Banner_. It is also proud of its +park--"Druid Hill"--a splendid pleasure-ground of seven hundred acres, +owing much of its beauty to the fact that it had been preserved and +developed as a private park for a century before passing under control +of the city. The route to it is by the magnificent Eutaw Place, and +the stately entrance gateway opens upon an avenue lined on either hand +by long rows of flower vases on high pedestals, laid out alongside +Druid Lake, the chief water-reservoir. The Park has an undulating +surface of woodland and meadow, with grand old trees and splendid +lawns, making a scene decidedly English, not overwrought by art, but +mainly left in its natural condition. The mansion-house of the former +owner, now a restaurant, occupies a commanding position, and on the +northern side the land rises to Prospect Hill, with an expansive view +all around the horizon and eastward to Chesapeake Bay. + +In this beautiful park the higher grounds are used for +water-reservoirs. Baltimore has the advantage of receiving its supply +by gravity from the Gunpowder River to the northward, where a lake has +been formed, the pure water being brought through a tunnel for seven +miles to the reservoirs, of which there are eight, with a capacity of +2,275,000,000 gallons, and capable of supplying 300,000,000 gallons +daily. These reservoirs appear as pleasant lakes, Montebello and +Roland, with Druid Lake, being the chief. Across the ravine of Jones's +Falls is Baltimore's chief cemetery, Greenmount, a pretty ground, with +gentle hills and vales. Here, in a spot selected by herself, is buried +Jerome's discarded wife, Madame Patterson-Bonaparte, whose checkered +history is Baltimore's chief romance. Here also lie Junius Brutus +Booth, the tragedian, and his family, among them John Wilkes Booth, +who murdered President Lincoln. + +The most significant sight of Baltimore, however, is its old Fort +McHenry--down in the harbor, on the extreme end of Locust Point, +originally called Whetstone Point, where the Patapsco River +divides--built on a low-lying esplanade, with green banks sloping +almost to the water. It was the strategic position of this small but +strong work, thoroughly controlling the city as well as the harbor +entrance, that held Baltimore during the early movements of the Civil +War, and maintained the road from the North to Washington. Its +greatest memory, however, and, by the association, probably the +greatest celebrity Baltimore enjoys, comes from the flag on the staff +now quietly waving over its parapets. Whetstone Point had been +fortified during the Revolution, but in 1794 Maryland ceded it to the +United States, and the people of Baltimore raised the money to build +the present fort, which was named after James McHenry, who had been +one of the framers of the Federal Constitution and was Secretary of +War under President Washington. When Admiral Cockburn's British fleet +came up the Chesapeake in September, 1814, the Maryland poet, Francis +Scott Key, was an aid to General Smith at Bladensburg. An intimate +friend had been taken prisoner on board one of the ships, and Key was +sent in a boat to effect his release by exchange. The Admiral told Key +he would have to detain him aboard for a day or two, as they were +proceeding to attack Baltimore. Thus Key remained among the enemy, an +unwilling witness of the bombardment on September 12th, which +continued throughout the night. In the early morning the attack was +abandoned, the flag was unharmed, and the British ships dropped down +the Patapsco. + +Key wrote his poem on the backs of letters, with a barrel-head for a +desk, and being landed next day he showed it to friends, and then made +a fresh copy. It was taken to the office of the _Baltimore American_ +and published anonymously in a handbill, afterwards appearing in the +issue of that newspaper on September 21, 1814. The tune was "Anacreon +in Heaven," and there was a brief introduction describing the +circumstances under which it was written. It was first sung in the +Baltimore Theatre, October 12th of that year, and afterwards became +popular. The flag which floated over Fort McHenry on that memorable +night is still preserved. Fired by patriotic impulses, various ladies +of Baltimore had made this flag, among them being Mrs. Mary +Pickersgill, who is described as a daughter of Betsy Ross, of +Philadelphia, who made the original sample-flag during the Revolution. +The Fort McHenry flag contains about four hundred yards of bunting and +is nearly square, measuring twenty-nine by thirty-two feet. It has +fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, which was then the official +regulation, there being fifteen States in the American Union. The poem +of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, thus inspired and written, has become +the great American patriotic anthem, and has carried everywhere the +fame of the fort, the city, and the flowery flag of the United States. +The following is the song, with title and introduction, as first +published: + + +DEFENCE OF FORT McHENRY. + +TUNE--"_Anacreon in Heaven._" + + O! say can you see by the dawn's early light, + What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, + Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, + O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? + And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air, + Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there; + O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave + O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? + + On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, + Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes; + What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, + As it fitfully glows, half conceals, half discloses? + Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, + In full glory reflected now shines in the stream. + 'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave + O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! + + And where is that band who so vauntingly swore + That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, + A home and a country should leave us no more? + Their blood has washed out their foul steps pollution. + No refuge could save the hireling and slave + From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, + And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave + O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! + + O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand + Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation, + Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land, + Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation! + Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, + And this is our motto: "In God is our Trust." + And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave + O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! + + + + +THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR. + + + + +II. + +THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR. + + On to Richmond--Horace Greeley's Editorial Standard--The + Conflict's Ebb and Flow--The Two Battles of Bull Run-- + Arlington--Manassas--McDowell against Beauregard--Lee + and Jackson against Pope--Antietam--The Emancipation + Proclamation--Fredericksburg--Burnside against Lee-- + Chancellorsville--Lee and Jackson against Hooker--Death of + Stonewall Jackson--Guinney Station--The Wilderness--Mine + Run--Grant's Southern March--Battles of the Wilderness-- + Spottsylvania--Hanover Court-House--Ashland--Richmond-- + The Capitol--Washington's Statues--Stonewall Jackson's + Statue--Confederate White House--General Lee's House-- + The First House--St. John's Church--Patrick Henry--Libby + Hill and Prison--Belle Isle--Rocketts--Hollywood + Cemetery--Noted Graves--McClellan's Siege of Richmond-- + Drewry's Bluff--Chickahominy Swamps--Fair Oaks--Seven + Days' Battles--Gaines' Mill--Cold Harbor--Malvern Hill + --Harrison's Landing--Grant's Siege of Richmond--Second + Battle of Cold Harbor--Bermuda Hundred--Petersburg-- + Capture of Richmond--Kilpatrick's Raid--Piedmont-- + Charlottesville--University of Virginia--Monticello-- + Thomas Jefferson--Shenandoah Valley--Cross Keys-- + Jackson's Exploits--Cedar Mountain--General Sheridan-- + Cedar Creek--Sheridan against Early--Luray Cavern-- + Battlefield of Gettysburg--Lee Marches into Pennsylvania-- + Hooker Resigns--Meade against Lee--Gettysburg Topography + --Seminary Ridge--Cemetery Ridge--The Round Tops-- + Confederate Advance to Carlisle and the Susquehanna--Three + Days' Battle--Reynolds Killed--The Round Tops Attacked-- + General Sickles Wounded in Peach Orchard--Ewell Repulsed at + Cemetery--Pickett's Charge and Repulse--Cushing and + Armistead Killed--High-Water Mark Monument--Lee Retreats + --Gettysburg Monuments--Jenny Wade--National Cemetery-- + Lincoln's Immortal Dedication--Valley of Death-- + Massachusetts Color-Bearer--The Reunited Union. + + +ON TO RICHMOND. + + Lay down the Axe; fling by the spade: + Leave in its track the toiling plough; + The rifle and the bayonet blade + For arms like yours were fitter now; + And let the hands that ply the pen + Quit the light task, and learn to wield + The horseman's crooked brand, and rein + The charger on the battlefield. + +Thus trumpeted William Cullen Bryant in "Our Country's Call," while +the most powerful American editor of the time of the Civil War, Horace +Greeley, raised his standard at the head of the _New York Tribune's_ +editorial page early in 1861 with the words "On to Richmond." The +region between Washington and Richmond, and much of the adjacent +country stretching southward beyond James River and northward into +Pennsylvania, will always be historic because of the momentous +movements, sanguinary conflicts and wonderful strategy of the great +American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. We have described the +environment of Chesapeake Bay, and now proceed to a consideration of +this noted region west of the bay, where the tide of battle repeatedly +ebbed and flowed. The first northern invasion of the Virginia +Peninsula and the abortive siege of Richmond in the summer of 1862 +were followed by McClellan's retreat, Pope's defeat and the southern +invasion of Maryland, which was checked at Antietam in the autumn. The +northern attacks at Fredericksburg in December and at Chancellorsville +in the spring of 1863 were followed by the invasion of Pennsylvania, +checked at Gettysburg, the "high-water mark" of the rebellion; and +Grant's march down through "the Wilderness" in 1864, followed by his +gradual advances south of the James, forced the evacuation of +Richmond, and Lee's final surrender at Appomattox in 1865. + + +THE TWO BATTLES OF BULL RUN. + +The main route from Washington to the South crossed the Potomac, then +as now, by the "Long Bridge," passing in full view of the yellow +Arlington House, fronted by its columned porch. This historic building +was the home of General Robert E. Lee in his early life, the chief +Confederate Commander during the Civil War. The estate is now a vast +cemetery, and upon it and all about to the westward are the remains of +the forts and earthworks erected for the defence of Washington. After +the war began, in April, 1861, the Northern troops were gradually +assembled in and around Washington; but there came an imperative +demand from the country that they should go forth and give the +Confederates battle and capture Richmond before their Congress could +meet, the opening of the session being fixed for July 20th. The +Southern armies were entrenched at Manassas Junction, west of +Washington, and at Winchester to the northwest, and they were making +forays almost in sight of Washington. General McDowell, with nearly +forty thousand men, marched out of the Washington fortifications on +July 17th to attack General Beauregard at Manassas. The Confederates +brought their Winchester army hastily down, and took position along +the banks of Bull Run, a tributary of the Occoquan, their lines +stretching for about eight miles. McDowell attacked on the morning of +the 21st, each side having about twenty-eight thousand available men. +The conflict lasted with varying success most of the day, McDowell +being finally beaten and retreating to Washington. + +Thirteen months later, after McClellan's retreat from Richmond, was +fought in almost the same place, on August 29 and 30, 1862, the second +battle of Bull Run. General Pope had a considerable force in Northern +Virginia, and when McClellan, whom Pope superseded, retreated from +before Richmond, and started on his return from James River, Lee moved +nearly his whole army up from Richmond, hoping to fall upon Pope +before McClellan could join him. On August 22d the opposing forces +confronted each other along the Rappahannock, when General Stuart, +with the Confederate cavalry, made a raid around Pope's lines to the +rear, reaching that general's headquarters and capturing his personal +baggage, in which was his despatch book describing the position of +the whole Northern army. This gave Lee such valuable information that +on the 25th he sent Stonewall Jackson with thirty thousand men, who, +by a forced march, went around the western side of the Bull Run +Mountains, came east again by the Thoroughfare Gap, and on the night +of the 27th was in Pope's rear, and had cut his railroad connections +and captured his supplies at Manassas. Pope, discovering the flanking +movement, began falling back towards Manassas, and Jackson then +withdrew towards the Gap, waiting for Lee to come up. There were +various strategic movements afterwards, with fighting on the 29th; and +on the 30th the Confederate wings had enclosed as in a vise Pope's +forces to the west of Bull Run, when, after some terrific combats, +Pope retreated across Bull Run towards Washington. Pope had about +thirty-five thousand men and Lee forty-six thousand engaged in this +battle. During the night of September 2d Jackson made a reconnoissance +towards Washington, in which the Union Generals Stevens and Kearney +were killed at Chantilly, and the authorities became so apprehensive +of an attack upon the Capital that they ordered the whole army to fall +back behind the Washington defenses. Pope was then relieved, at his +own request, and the command restored to McClellan. The Confederates +marched northward across the Potomac and McClellan followed, ending +with the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, later in September, +when Lee retreated and recrossed the Potomac into Virginia on the +18th. The significant result of this conflict and withdrawal was the +issue of the famous Emancipation Proclamation. President Lincoln had +made a vow that if Lee was driven back from Maryland he would issue a +proclamation abolishing slavery, which was done September 22, 1862. + + +FREDERICKSBURG AND THE WILDERNESS. + +The route from Washington to Richmond skirts the Potomac for a long +distance south of Alexandria, winding among hills and forests, +crossing various broad creeks and bayous, among them the Occoquan, the +outlet of Bull Run, and then diverges towards the Rappahannock. This +is more historic ground, for the terrible battle of Fredericksburg was +fought here in December, 1862, and the battle of Chancellorsville, to +the westward, in May, 1863, where Stonewall Jackson lost his life. The +"Wilderness" is to the southward of the Rappahannock, occupying about +two hundred square miles, a plateau sloping to cultivated lowlands on +every side. The original forests were long ago cut off, and a dense +growth of scrub timber and brambles covered nearly the whole surface, +with an occasional patch of woodland or a clearing. After the battle +of Antietam the anxiety for another forward movement to Richmond led +the Administration to remove McClellan, and then General Burnside +took command. His troops crossed the Rappahannock in December to +attack General Lee's Confederate position on the Heights of Marye, +where they were strongly entrenched; but the attack failed, the +shattered army after great carnage withdrawing to the north bank of +the river, and it lay there for months in winter quarters. Burnside +was superseded by General Hooker, and in May, 1863, the Northern army +again crossed the Rappahannock at several fords above Fredericksburg +and started for Richmond. Lee quickly marched westward from +Fredericksburg, and Lee and Hooker faced each other at Chancellorsville. +Then came another of Stonewall Jackson's brilliant flank movements. +Chancellorsville is on the eastern border of the Wilderness, and +Jackson, making a long detour to the south and west through that +desolate region, got around and behind Hooker's right flank, surprised +him, and sent General Howard's entire corps in panic down upon the +rest of the Union forces, making the greatest surprise of the war. +During that same night Jackson, after his victory, was accidentally +shot by his own men, a blow from which the Confederacy never +recovered. Twelve miles south of Fredericksburg, at Guinney Station, +is the little house where Jackson died. He and his aides, after +reconnoitering, had returned within the Confederate lines, and the +pickets, mistaking them for the enemy, fired into the party. Several +of his escort were killed and Jackson was shot in three places, an +arm being shattered. Being put upon a litter one of the bearers +stumbled, and Jackson was additionally injured by being thrown to the +ground. The arm was amputated, but afterwards pneumonia set in, which +was the immediate cause of his death. He lingered a week, dying May +10th, in his fortieth year, his last words, dreamily spoken, being: +"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." +It is said this loss of his ablest lieutenant had such an effect upon +Lee that he afterwards aged rapidly, and his hair quickly whitened. +The spot where Jackson was shot is alongside the Orange Plank Road, +and is marked by a granite monument. Jackson is buried at Lexington, +Virginia, where he had previously been a professor in the Military +Academy. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock, Lee started +northward, Hooker was succeeded by Meade, and the battle of Gettysburg +was fought at the beginning of July. + +Then came another movement towards Richmond, late in the year 1863. +Meade marched down to the Wilderness in November, had heavy +skirmishing and fought the battle of Mine Run on its western border, +and then went back and into winter quarters. General Grant came from +the West, took command, and early in May, 1864, started on his great +march to Richmond through the Wilderness, with Lee constantly fighting +on his right flank and front. There followed during that month a +series of sanguinary battles, in this inhospitable region, in which +the losses of the two armies exceeded sixty thousand men. While moving +southward, Grant faced and fought generally westward. It took him ten +days to progress a dozen miles, and he could only move during the +lulls in the fighting, the advance being usually made by changing one +corps after another from the right to the left by marching in the rear +of the main body, thus gradually prolonging the left wing southward +through the forbidding country. Lee pressed forward into the vacated +space, fortifying and fighting, his object being to force Grant +eastward and away from Richmond, which was towards the south. "More +desperate fighting has not been witnessed upon this Continent," said +Grant of this struggle in the Wilderness; and later he wrote to +Washington the famous declaration of his intention "to fight it out on +this line if it takes all summer." The whole of this desolate region +south and west of Fredericksburg and down to Spottsylvania is filled +with the remains of the fortifications constructed in these memorable +battles. Grant said that "In every change of position or halt for the +night, whether confronting the enemy or not, the moment arms were +stacked the men entrenched themselves," adding, "It was wonderful how +quickly they could construct defenses of considerable strength." Thus +the way was worked, by shovel and shell and musket and axe, through +the Wilderness. There is a plan afoot for acquiring these +battlefields and the connecting roads, so as to preserve this historic +ground as a public reservation. + +The railway route to Richmond goes through the Wilderness, thinly +peopled, sparsely cultivated, and exhibiting a few negro settlements, +where they sun themselves alongside their cabins and watch the trains +go by. There is an occasional horse or cow, but almost the only +animals visible are the nimble-footed and hungry-looking +"razor-backed" hogs that range the scrub timber in search of a +precarious living. Once in awhile is seen an old homestead that has +survived the ruin of the war, but the few buildings are generally most +primitive, the favorite style being a small wooden cabin set alongside +a huge brick chimney. It is said the chimney is first built, and if +the draught is all right they then build the little cabin over against +it and move in the family. The agriculture does not appear much better +until Richmond is approached, where the surface of the country +improves. At Hanover Court House are more signs of battlefields, for +here McClellan had his early conflicts in besieging Richmond in 1862, +while Grant came down from the Wilderness and had the battles of the +North Anna near the end of May, 1864, and of Cold Harbor in June, +after which he moved his army to the south side of James River. +Ashland, sixteen miles north of Richmond, is in an attractive region, +and is a favorite place of suburban residence. This was the +birthplace of Henry Clay, in 1777, and is the seat of Randolph Macon +College. + + +THE CITY OF RICHMOND. + +Richmond, the capital of Virginia, has about one hundred and thirty +thousand population, and occupies a delightful situation. The James +River flows around a grand curve from the northwest to the south, and +pours over falls and rapids, which display many little cascades among +a maze of diminutive islands. There are on the northern bank two or +three large hills and several smaller ones, and Richmond is built upon +these, it is said like Rome upon her seven hills. The State Capitol +and a broad white penitentiary crown two of the highest. The town was +founded at the falls of the James in 1737, and the capital of Virginia +was moved here from Williamsburg in 1779, when there was only a small +population. The place did not have much history, however, until it +became the Capital of the Confederacy, and then the strong efforts +made to capture it and the vigorous defence gave it world-wide fame. +Beginning in 1862 it was made an impregnable fortress, and its fall, +when the Confederate flank was turned in 1865 through the capture of +Petersburg, resulted from General Lee's retreat westward and his final +surrender at Appomattox. When Lee abandoned Petersburg there was a +panic in Richmond, with riot and pillage; the bridges, storehouses and +mills were fired, and nearly one-third of the city burnt. It has +since, however, been rebuilt in better style, and has extensive +manufactures and a profitable trade. + +The centre of Richmond is a park of twelve acres, surrounding the +Capitol, a venerable building upon the summit of Shockoe Hill, and the +most conspicuous structure in the city. It was built just after the +American Revolution, the plan having been brought from France by +Thomas Jefferson, and modelled from the ancient Roman temple of the +_Maison Carrée_ at Nismes, the front being a fine Ionic portico. From +the roof, elevated high above every surrounding building, there is an +excellent view, disclosing the grand sweep of the river among the +islands and rapids, going off to the south, where it disappears among +the hills behind Drewry's Bluff, below the town. The square-block plan +with streets crossing at right angles is well displayed, and the +abrupt sides of some of the hills, where they have been cut away, +disclose the high-colored, reddish-yellow soils which have been so +prolific in tobacco culture, and give the scene such brilliant hues, +as well as dye the river a chocolate color in times of freshet. The +city spreads over a wide surface, and has populous suburbs on the +lower lands south of the James. This Capitol was the meeting-place of +the Confederate Congress, and the locality of all the statecraft of +the "Lost Cause." It contains the battle-flags of the Virginia troops +and other relics, and in a gallery built around the rotunda are hung +the portraits of the Virginia Governors and of the three great +military chiefs, Lee, Johnston and Jackson. Upon the floor beneath is +Houdon's famous statue of Washington, made while he was yet alive. In +1785, the talented French sculptor accompanied Franklin to this +country to prepare the model for the statue, which had been ordered by +the Virginia Government. He spent two weeks at Mount Vernon with +Washington, taking casts of his face, head and upper portion of the +body, with minute measurements, and then returned to Paris. The statue +was finished in 1788, and is regarded as the most accurate +reproduction of Washington existing. A statue of Henry Clay and a bust +of Lafayette are also in the rotunda. + + [Illustration: _Washington Monument, Richmond, Va._] + +On the esplanade north of the Capitol is Crawford's bronze equestrian +statue of Washington upon a massive granite pedestal, one of the most +attractive and elaborate bronzes ever made. The horse is half thrown +upon his haunches, giving the statue exceeding spirit, while upon +smaller pedestals around stand six heroic statues in bronze of +Virginia statesmen of various periods--Patrick Henry, Thomas +Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, George Mason, Andrew Lewis and Chief Justice +John Marshall--the whole adorned with appropriate emblems. This +artistic masterpiece was constructed at a cost of $260,000. In the +centre of the esplanade is Foley's bronze statue of Stonewall Jackson, +sent from London in 1875 by a number of his English admirers as a +gift to the State of Virginia. It is of heroic size, standing upon a +pedestal of Virginia granite, and is a striking reproduction. The +inscription is: "Presented by English gentlemen as a tribute of +admiration for the soldier and patriot, Thomas J. Jackson, and +gratefully accepted by Virginia in the name of the Southern people." +Beneath is inscribed in the granite the remark giving his sobriquet, +which was made at the first battle of Bull Run in 1862, where Jackson +commanded a brigade. At a time when the day was apparently lost, his +troops made so firm a stand that some one, in admiration, called out +the words that became immortal: "Look, there is Jackson standing like +a stone wall!" A short distance from the Capitol is the "Confederate +White House," a square-built dwelling, with a high porch in the rear +and a small portico in front. Here lived Jefferson Davis during his +career as President of the Confederacy; it is now a museum of war +relics. Nearby is St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Davis was +attending service on the eventful Sunday morning in April, 1865, when +he was brought the fateful telegram from General Lee which said that +Richmond must be immediately evacuated. In the central part of the +residential quarter, on Franklin Street, is the plain brick house +which during the Civil War was the home of General Lee. It is related +that after the Appomattox surrender, when he returned to this +house, the people of Richmond got an idea that he was suffering +privations and his family needed the necessaries of life. His son, +Fitz Hugh Lee, afterwards said that the people then vied with each +other in sending him everything imaginable. So generous were the gifts +that the upper parts of the house were filled with barrels of flour, +meats and many other things, and the supplies became so bountiful that +Lee directed their distribution among the poor. This house is now +occupied by the Virginia Historical Society. A magnificent equestrian +statue of General Lee was erected on Park Avenue in 1890. + +Some Richmond memorials, however, antedate the Civil War. Its "first +house"--a low, steep-roofed stone cabin on the Main street, said to +have been there when the town site was first laid out--is an object of +homage. The popular idea is that the Indian King Powhatan originally +lived in this house, but it was probably constructed after his time. +Not far away, upon Richmond or Church Hill, stands St. John's Church +among the old gravestones in a spacious churchyard. It was built in +1740--a little wooden church with a small steeple. Here the first +Virginian Convention was held which paved the way for the Revolution +in 1775, and listened to Patrick Henry's impassioned speech--"Give me +liberty or give me death." The pew in which he stood while speaking is +still preserved. An adjoining eminence is called Libby Hill, where +lived Luther Libby, who owned most of the land thereabout. Under its +shadow was the Libby Prison of the Civil War, since removed to Chicago +for exhibition. It had been a tobacco warehouse, occupied by Libby & +Co., but during the war it held at various times over fifty thousand +Northern prisoners. All the captured soldiers were first taken to +Libby, the commissioned officers remaining there, while the privates +were sent to points in the interior. The most noted event in the +history of this prison was the boring of a tunnel through the eastern +wall, in February, 1864, by which one hundred and nine prisoners, led +by Colonel Streight, managed to escape into an adjoining stable and +storehouse, and though more than half of them were recaptured, the +others got safely out of Richmond and into the Union lines. + +The water power of the James River supplies huge flour mills and other +factories, and alongside the stream are the extensive Tredegar Iron +Works at the base of Gamble Hill, one of the largest iron and steel +works in the Southern States. Here were made the Confederate cannon, +shot and shell, and the primitive armor plates for their few warships. +This hill also overlooks the James River and Kanawha Canal, an +interior water way going westward beyond the Alleghenies. In mid-river +above is Belle Isle, a broad, flat island, which during the war was a +place of imprisonment for private soldiers, but upon it is now an iron +mill. Along the lower river are the wharves and shipping, in the +section called Rocketts, and here are also the tobacco storehouses and +factories, the chief Richmond industry, for it is the world's leading +tobacco mart, receiving and distributing most of the product of the +rich soils of Virginia, Kentucky and Carolina. The pungent odor +generally pervades the town, for whichever way the wind may blow it +wafts the perfume of a tobacco or cigarette factory. The Tobacco +Exchange is the business centre, and this industry is of the first +importance. The modern-built City Hall, adjacent to the Capitol Park, +is one of Richmond's finest buildings. + +In the western suburbs, upon the river bank, and in a lovely position, +is the famous Hollywood Cemetery, the terraced sides of its ravines +being occupied by mausoleums and graves, while in front the rushing +rapids roar a requiem for the dead. The foliage is luxuriant; and, +while occupying only about eighty acres, it is a most beautiful +burial-place. Here are interred two Virginia Presidents--James Monroe +and John Tyler. An elaborate monument marks the former, and a +magnificent tree is planted at Tyler's grave--his daughter, buried +nearby, having for a monument a tasteful figure of the Virgin. The +Hollywood Cemetery Association is to place a monument on Tyler's +grave. Here are also buried Confederate Generals A. P. Hill, J. E. B. +Stuart, the dashing cavalryman, and George E. Pickett, who led the +desperate Confederate charge of the Virginia Division at Gettysburg. +It also contains the graves of the eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke; +Commodore Maury, the navigator; Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia +when the State seceded, and Thomas Ritchie, long editor of the +_Richmond Enquirer_, a most powerful writer and political leader in +the early part of the nineteenth century, who is regarded in Virginia +as the "Father of the Democratic Party." There are crowded into this +cemetery in one place twelve thousand graves of Confederate soldiers, +and in the centre of the ghastly plot there rises a huge stone +pyramid, ninety feet high, erected as a memorial by the Southern +women. Vines overrunning it almost conceal the rough joints of the +stones. No name is upon it, for it was built as a monument for the +unnamed dead. On three sides are inscriptions; on one "To the +Confederate Dead;" on another "Memoria in Æterna," and on a third +"Numini et Patriæ Asto." As they fell on the adjacent battlefields or +died in the hospitals, unclaimed, they were brought here and buried in +rows. In one urgent, terrible season, time not being given to prepare +separate graves, the bodies were interred on the hillside in long +trenches. This sombre pyramid and its immediate surroundings are +impressive memorials of the great war. From any of the Richmond hills +can be seen other grim mementos. Almost all the present city parks +were then army hospitals or cemeteries; all the chief highways lead +out to battlefields, and most of them in the suburbs are bordered with +the graves of the dead of both armies. All around the compass the +outlook is upon battlefields, and on all sides but the north upon +cemeteries. + + +McCLELLAN'S SIEGE OF RICHMOND. + +The great memory of Richmond for all time will be of the Civil War, +when for three years battles raged around it. The first movement +against the city was McClellan's siege in 1862, and the environs show +abundant remains of the forts, redoubts and long lines of earthworks +by which the Confederate Capital was so gallantly defended. The +earliest attack was by Union gunboats in May, 1862, against the +batteries defending Drewry's Bluff on James River, seven miles below +the town, the defensive works being so strong that little impression +was made, but enough was learned to prevent any subsequent naval +attack there. McClellan came up the Peninsula between James and York +Rivers, approached Richmond from the east, and extended his army +around to the north, enveloping it upon a line which was the arc of a +circle, from seven miles east to five miles north of the city. The +Chickahominy flows through a broad and swampy depression in the +table-land north and east of Richmond, bordered by meadows, fens and +thickets of underbrush. It thus divided McClellan's investing army, +and the first great battle near Richmond was begun by the +Confederates, who took advantage of a heavy rain late in May which had +swollen the river and swamps. They fell upon the Union left wing on +May 31st, and the indecisive battle of Fair Oaks, in which the losses +were ten thousand men, was fought southwest of the Chickahominy. +General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate Commander, was badly +wounded, and General Lee succeeded him, continuing in command until +the war closed. Extensive cemeteries now mark this battlefield among +the swamps. During June the heat and malaria filled McClellan's +hospitals with fever cases, and he had to move the greater portion of +his army to higher ground north of the Chickahominy, where he erected +protective earthworks. These still exist, with the formidable ranges +of opposing Confederate works on the south side of the river. + +One of the most brilliant Confederate movements of the war followed. +McClellan's right wing stretched around to the village of +Mechanicsville, five miles north of Richmond, and Lee determined to +overwhelm this wing. Stonewall Jackson had been driving the Union +troops out of the Shenandoah Valley northwest of Richmond, and late in +June began a combined movement with Lee's army at Richmond. Longstreet +and Hill crossed the Chickahominy above Mechanicsville and attacked +the Union right, beginning the "Seven Days' Battles," lasting from +June 25 to July 1, 1862. Jackson was to have got down the same day +from the Shenandoah Valley, but his march was delayed, and this gave +time for McClellan to withdraw his wing and extensive baggage trains +across the swamps below, the stubborn defense by his rear guards +making the fierce conflict of Gaines' Mill, on the second day, during +which Jackson, coming from the northward and joining the others, +compelled the Union lines to change front, the contest thus turning +into the first battle of Cold Harbor, in which the rear held their +ground until the retreat was completed across the Chickahominy, and +withdrew, destroying roads and bridges behind them. McClellan then +made a further retreat, for which these obstructive tactics gave time, +across the White Oak Swamp down the river, moving on a single road, +leading to higher ground, which was held by hasty defenses. The +Confederate attacks upon this new line made the battles of Savage +Station, Charles City Cross Roads, and Frazier's Farm, the pursuit +being checked long enough to permit another retreat and the formation +of lines of defense on Malvern Hill, fifteen miles southeast of +Richmond, adjoining James River. The Confederates again attacked, but +met a disastrous check; and, wearied by a week of battles and marches, +they then desisted, closing the seven days' fighting, in which both +sides were worn out, and the losses were forty thousand men. +McClellan's army, having retreated from around Richmond, afterwards +withdrew farther down James River to Harrison's Landing, and here they +rested. Subsequently they were removed by vessels to Washington for +the later campaign which resulted in the second battle of Bull Run, +McClellan being superseded for a brief period by Pope. This brilliant +Confederate movement against McClellan raised the siege and relieved +Richmond, emboldening them to make their subsequent aggressive +campaigns across the Potomac, which were checked at Antietam and at +Gettysburg. + + +GRANT'S SIEGE OF RICHMOND. + +There were no Union attacks directly against Richmond in 1863. The +second great movement upon the Confederate Capital began in June, +1864, when Grant came down through the Wilderness, as already +described, and attacked the Confederates at Cold Harbor. Lee was +entrenched there in almost the same defensive position occupied by +McClellan's rear when protecting his retreat across the Chickahominy +two years before. Grant made little impression, but in a brief and +bloody battle lost fifteen thousand men. He then turned aside from +this almost impregnable position to the northeast of Richmond, went +south to the James River, and, crossing over, started a new attack +from a different quarter. This removed the seat of war to the south of +Richmond, and in September, 1864, General Butler's Unionist troops +from Bermuda Hundred captured Fort Harrison, a strong work on the +northeast side of the James, opposite Drewry's Bluff, and not far from +Malvern Hill. The campaign then became one of stubborn persistence. +Throughout the autumn and winter Grant gradually spread his lines +westward around Petersburg, so that the later movements were more a +siege of that city than of Richmond. City Point, at the mouth of the +Appomattox, flowing out from Petersburg to the James, became his base +of supplies. As the Union lines were extended steadily westward, one +railway after another, leading from the far South up to Petersburg and +Richmond, was cut off, and Lee was ultimately starved out, forcing the +abandonment of Petersburg in the early spring of 1865, and the +evacuation of Richmond on April 3d, with the retreat of Lee westward, +and the final surrender at Appomattox six days later, causing the +downfall of the Confederacy, and ending the war. + +From the top of Libby Hill in Richmond the route is still pointed out +by which the swiftly moving Union troops, after that fateful Sunday of +the evacuation, advanced over the level lands from Petersburg towards +the burning city. The bridges across the James were burnt, and acres +of buildings in the business section were in flames when they came to +the river bank and found that the greater portion of the affrighted +people had fled. The Yankees quickly laid a pontoon bridge, crossed +to Shockoe Hill, rushed up to the Capitol, and raised the Union "Stars +and Stripes" on the roof, replacing the Confederate "Stars and Bars." +Then they went vigorously to work putting out the fires, and the new +infusion of life given the city by its baptism of blood imparted an +energy which has not only restored it, but has given it an era of +great prosperity. It is a curious fact that the nearest approach any +Northern troops made to Richmond during the progress of the war was in +March, 1864. A precursor to Grant's march through the Wilderness was a +dashing cavalry raid from the northward, the troopers crossing the +Chickahominy, then unguarded, and advancing to a point about one mile +from the city limits. Here they met some resistance, and, learning of +defensive works farther ahead, General Kilpatrick, who commanded the +raiders, retreated. General Lee's troops were then fifty miles away +from Richmond, guarding the lines along the Rappahannock. + + +PIEDMONT AND THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. + +In the great strategic movements of the opposing armies of the Civil +War they repeatedly traversed a large part of Virginia and Maryland to +the northwest of the route between Washington and Richmond. Like the +general coastal formation east of the Alleghenies, Virginia rises into +successive ridges parallel with the mountains. The first range of low +broken hills stretching southwest from the Potomac are called in +different parts the Kittoctin, Bull Run and other mountains extending +down to the Carolina boundary. From these, what is known as the +Piedmont district stretches all across the State, and has a width of +about twenty-five miles to the base of the Blue Ridge, being a +succession of picturesque valleys and rolling lands, the general +elevation gradually increasing towards the northwest, where it is +bordered by the towering Blue Ridge and its many spurs and plateaus, +with passages through at various gaps. The Blue Ridge is elevated +about fifteen hundred feet at the Potomac, but Mount Marshall, at +Front Royal, rises nearly thirty-four hundred feet, and the Peaks of +Otter, farther southwest, are much higher. Beyond this is the great +Appalachian Valley, which stretches from New England to Alabama, the +section here being known as the "Valley of Virginia," and its northern +portion as the Shenandoah Valley. This is a belt of rolling country, +with many hills and vales, diversified by streams that wind among the +hillsides, and having a varying breadth of ten to fifty miles in +different parts. Beyond it, to the northwest, are the main Allegheny +Mountain ranges. The opposing troops marched and fought over all this +country in connection with the greater military movements, and here +was the special theatre of Stonewall Jackson's exploits and his +wonderful marches and quick manoeuvres which made his troops +proudly style themselves his "foot cavalry." The memory of Jackson is +cherished by the Southern people more than that of any other of their +leaders in the Civil War, and his brilliant exploits and inopportune +death have made him their special hero. + +In the Piedmont region, to the southeast and in front of the Blue +Ridge, are the towns of Leesburg, Manassas, Warrenton, Culpepper, +Orange and Charlottesville, all well known in connection with the +opposing military movements. Charlottesville, about sixty-five miles +northwest of Richmond, in a beautiful situation, was an important +Confederate base of supplies. Here are now about six thousand people, +and the town has its chief fame as the seat of the University of +Virginia and the home of Thomas Jefferson. The University was founded +mainly through the exertions of Jefferson, and has some five hundred +students. Its buildings are a mile out of town, and the original ones +were constructed from Jefferson's designs and under his supervision, +the chief being the Rotunda, recently rebuilt, and the modern +structures for a Museum of Natural History and an Observatory. +Jefferson was proud of this institution, and in the inscription which +he prepared for his tomb described himself as the "author of the +Declaration of Independence, and of the statute of Virginia for +religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia." Among +its most famous students was Edgar Allan Poe, and a fine bronze bust +of him was unveiled at the University in 1899, on the fiftieth +anniversary of his death. Thomas Jefferson lived at Monticello, the +old house being an interesting specimen of early Virginia +architecture, and standing on a hill southeast of the town. Here he +died just fifty years after the Declaration was promulgated, July 4, +1826, and he is buried in the family graveyard near the house. +Monticello is now celebrated for its native wines. + +The Shenandoah Valley during the war was noted for the way in which +the opposing forces chased each other up and down, with repeated +severe battles. Here was fought, in June, 1862, the battle of Cross +Keys, near the forks of the Shenandoah. Jackson had previously +retreated up the Valley, but by a series of brilliant movements, begun +after the battle of Fair Oaks before Richmond, he was able to meet and +defeat in detail the various armies under Banks, Fremont, McDowell and +Shields, thus managing to foil or hold in check seventy thousand men, +while his own troops were never more than twenty thousand. Then coming +southward out of the Valley, he joined in turning McClellan's right +wing before Richmond at the end of June, afterwards following up Banks +in August, and defeating him at Cedar Mountain, near Culpepper; then +joining in the defeat of Pope at the second battle of Bull Run; then +capturing Harper's Ferry and eleven thousand men September 15th, and +finally taking part in the battle of Antietam two days later. When +Grant began his siege of Richmond after the second battle of Cold +Harbor, in 1864, he made General Sheridan commander of the troops in +the Shenandoah Valley, and fortune turned. Sheridan opposed Early, and +in September and October had a series of brilliant victories, the last +one at Cedar Creek, where he turned a rout into a victory by his +prompt movements. Sheridan had been in Washington, and came to +Winchester, "twenty miles away," where he heard "the terrible grumble +and rumble and roar" of the battle, and made his noted ride, the +exploit being so conspicuous that he received the thanks of Congress. +Early in 1865 he made a cavalry raid from Winchester, in the Valley, +down to the westward of Richmond, around Lee's lines, and rejoined the +army at Petersburg, having destroyed the James River and Kanawha Canal +and cut various important railway connections in the Confederate rear. +The Shenandoah Valley to-day is very much in its primitive condition +of agriculture, but has been opened up by railway connections which +develop its resources, and its great present attraction is the Cave of +Luray. This cavern is about five miles from the Blue Ridge, and some +distance southwest of Front Royal. It is a compact cavern, well +lighted by electricity, and is more completely and profusely decorated +with stalactites and stalagmites than any other in the world. Some of +the chambers are very imposing, and all the more important formations +have been appropriately named. The scenery of the neighborhood is +picturesque, and the cavern has many visitors. + + +THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG. + +In considering the great theatre of the Civil War, attention is +naturally directed to the chief contest of all, and the turning-point +of the rebellion, the battle of Gettysburg, fought at the beginning of +July, 1863. After the victory at Chancellorsville in May the +Confederates determined to carry the war northward into the enemy's +country. Gettysburg is seven miles north of the southern boundary of +Pennsylvania, and over forty miles from the Potomac River. To the +westward is the long curving range of the South Mountain, and beyond +this the great Appalachian Valley, a continuation of the Shenandoah +Valley, crossing Central Pennsylvania in a curve, and here called the +Cumberland Valley. In the latter are two prominent towns, Chambersburg +in Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown in Maryland, on the Potomac. General +Lee, in preparation for the march northward, gathered nearly ninety +thousand men at Culpepper in Virginia, including Stuart's cavalry +force of ten thousand. General Hooker's Union army, which had +withdrawn across the Rappahannock after Chancellorsville, was then +encamped opposite Fredericksburg, and one hundred and fifty miles +south of Gettysburg. Lee started northward across the Potomac, but +Hooker did not discover it for some days, and then rapidly followed. +The Confederates crossed between June 22d and 25th, and concentrated +at Hagerstown, in the Cumberland Valley, up which they made a rapid +march, overrunning the entire valley to the Susquehanna River, and +appearing opposite Harrisburg and Columbia. Hooker, being late in +movement, crossed the Potomac lower down than Lee, on June 28th, thus +making a northern race, up the curving valleys, with Lee in advance, +but on the longer route of the outer circle. There was a garrison of +ten thousand men at Harper's Ferry on the Potomac, and Hooker asked +that they be added to his army; but the War Department declined, and +Hooker immediately resigned, being succeeded by General George G. +Meade, who thus on the eve of the battle became the Union commander. + +There are two parallel ridges bordering the plain on which Gettysburg +stands. The long Seminary Ridge, stretching from north to south about +a mile west of the town, gets its name from the Lutheran Theological +Seminary standing upon it; and the Cemetery Ridge to the south of the +town, which partly stretches up its slopes, has on its northern +flat-topped hill the village cemetery, wherein the principal grave +then was that of James Gettys, after whom the place was named. There +is an outlying eminence called Culp's Hill farther to the east, +making, with the Cemetery Ridge, a formation bent around much like a +fish-hook, with the graveyard at the bend and Culp's Hill at the barb, +while far down at the southern end of the long straight shank, as the +ridge extends for two miles away, with an intervening rocky gorge +called the Devil's Den, there are two peaks, formed of tree-covered +crags, known as the Little Round Top and the Big Round Top. These long +parallel ridges, with the intervale and the country immediately around +them, are the battlefield, which the topographical configuration well +displays. It covers about twenty-five square miles, and lies mainly +southwest of the town. + +It was on June 28th that General Meade unexpectedly assumed command of +the Union army, and he was then near the Potomac. General Ewell with +the Confederate advance guard had gone up the Cumberland Valley as far +as Carlisle, and his troopers were threatening Harrisburg. Nobody had +opposed them, and the Confederate main body, which had got much ahead +of Hooker, was at Chambersburg. Lee being far from his base, and +hearing of the Union pursuit, then determined to face about and +cripple his pursuers, fixing upon Gettysburg as the point of +concentration. He ordered Ewell to march south from Carlisle, and the +other commanders east from Chambersburg through the mountain passes. +The Union cavalry advance under General Buford reached Gettysburg on +June 30th, ahead of the Confederates, and Meade's army was then +stretched over the ground for more than forty miles back to the +Potomac, all coming forward by forced marches. As soon as Meade became +aware of Lee's changed tactics he concluded that this extended +formation was too risky, and decided to concentrate in a strong +position upon the Pipe Creek hills in Maryland, about fifteen miles +south of Gettysburg, and issued the necessary orders. Thus the battle +opened, with each army executing a movement for concentration. + + +THE GREAT BATTLE. + +The battle began on July 1st, the Union Cavalry, which had gone out to +the west and north of Gettysburg, becoming engaged with the +Confederate advance approaching the town from the passes through the +South Mountain. The cavalry, at first victorious, was soon overwhelmed +by superior numbers, and infantry supports arrived, under General +Reynolds; but he was killed, and they were all driven back and through +Gettysburg to the cemetery and Culp's Hill, which were manned by fresh +troops that had come up. Meade was then at Pipe Creek, laying out a +defensive line, but when he heard of Reynolds' death and the defeat, +he sent General Hancock forward to take command, who decided that the +Cemetery Ridge was the place to give battle. Ewell had in the meantime +extended the Confederate left wing around to the east of Culp's Hill +and held Gettysburg, but active operations were suspended, and the +night was availed of by both sides to get their forces up and into +position, which was mainly accomplished by morning. + +When the second day, July 2d, opened, the armies confronted each other +in line of battle. The Union troops were along the Cemetery Ridge and +the Confederates upon the Seminary Ridge, across the intervale to the +west, their lines also stretching around through Gettysburg to the +north of the cemetery, and two miles east along the base of Culp's +Hill. In the long intervening valley, and in the ravines and upon the +slopes of the Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill, the main battle was +fought. The attack began by General Longstreet advancing against the +two Round Tops, but after a bloody contest he was repulsed. General +Sickles, who held the line to the south of the Little Round Top, then +thought he could improve his position by advancing a half-mile into +the valley towards the Seminary Ridge, thus making a broken Union +line, with a portion dangerously thrust forward. The enemy soon took +advantage of this, and fell upon Sickles, front and flank, almost +overwhelming his line in the "Peach Orchard," and driving it back to +the adjacent "Wheat Field." Reinforcements were quickly poured in, and +there was a hot conflict, Sickles being seriously wounded and his +troops almost cut to pieces. About the same time Ewell made a terrific +charge out of Gettysburg upon the Cemetery and Culp's Hill, with the +"Louisiana Tigers" and other troops, effecting a lodgement, although +the defending soldiers wrought great havoc by a heavy cannonade. The +Union gunners on Little Round Top ultimately cleared the "Wheat +Field," and then the combatants rested. Lee was much inspirited by his +successes, and determined to renew the attack next morning. + +Upon the third and last day, July 3d, General Meade opened the combat +early in the morning by driving out Ewell's forces, who had effected a +lodgement on Culp's Hill. General Lee did not learn of this, but he +was full of the idea that both the Union centre and right wing had +been weakened the previous day, and during the night he planned an +attack in front, to be accompanied by a cavalry movement around the +Union right to assail the rear, thus following up Ewell's supposed +advantage. To give Stuart with the cavalry time to get around to the +rear, the front attack was not made until afternoon. During the +morning each side got cannon into position, Lee having one hundred and +twenty guns along Seminary Ridge, and Meade eighty in the Cemetery and +southward, along a low, irregular stone pile, forming a sort of rude +wall bordering the road leading from Gettysburg south to Taneytown, in +Maryland. The action began about one o'clock in the afternoon, when +the Confederates opened fire, and the most terrific artillery duel of +the war took place across the intervening valley, six guns being +discharged every second. The troops suffered little, as they kept down +in the ground, but several Union guns were dismounted. After two hours +deafening cannonade Lee ordered his grand attack, the celebrated +charge by General Pickett, a force of fourteen thousand men with +brigade front advancing across the valley. They marched swiftly, and +had a mile to go, but before they were half-way across all the +available Union guns had been trained upon them. Their attack was +directed at an umbrella-shaped clump of trees on the Cemetery Ridge at +a low place where the rude stone wall made an angle, with its point +outside. General Hancock commanded this portion of the Union line. The +grape and canister of the Union cannonade ploughed furrows through +Pickett's ranks, and when his column got within three hundred yards, +Hancock opened musketry fire with terrible effect. Thousands fell, and +the brigades broke in disorder; but the advance, headed by General +Armistead on foot, continued, and about one hundred and fifty men +leaped over the stone piles at the angle to capture the Union guns. +Lieutenant Cushing, mortally wounded in both thighs, ran his last +serviceable gun towards the wall, and shouting to his commander, +"Webb, I will give them one more shot!" he fired the gun and died. +Armistead put his hand on the cannon, waved his sword, and called out, +"Give them the cold steel, boys!" then, pierced by bullets, he fell +dead alongside of Cushing. Both lay near the clump of trees, about +thirty yards inside the wall, their corpses marking the farthest point +to which Pickett's advance penetrated. There was a hand to hand +conflict; Webb was wounded, and also Hancock, and the slaughter was +dreadful. The Confederates were overwhelmed, and not one-fourth of the +gallant charging column, composed of the flower of the Virginia +troops, escaped, the remnant retreating in disorder. Stuart's cavalry +failed to coöperate as intended, having met the Union cavalry about +four miles to the east of Gettysburg, and the conflict ensuing +prevented their attacking the Union rear. After Pickett's retreat +there was a general Union advance, closing the combat. + +The point within the angle of the stone wall where Cushing and +Armistead fell has been commemorated by what is known as the +"High-Water Mark Monument," for it was placed at the point reached by +the top of the flood-tide of the rebellion, as afterwards there was a +steady ebb. During the night of July 3d Lee began a retreat, and aided +by heavy rains, usually following great battles, the Confederates next +day withdrew through the mountain passes towards Hagerstown, and +afterwards escaped across the Potomac. Upon the day of Lee's retreat, +Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant, and these two events began the +Confederacy's downfall. There were engaged in the battle of Gettysburg +about eighty thousand men on each side, the Union army having three +hundred and thirty-nine cannon and the Confederates two hundred and +ninety-three. It was the largest battle of the Civil War in the actual +numbers engaged, and one of the most hotly contested. The Union loss +was twenty-three thousand and three killed, wounded and prisoners, and +the Confederate loss twenty-three thousand seven hundred and +sixty-eight. + + +THE GETTYSBURG MONUMENTS. + +The battlefield of Gettysburg is better marked, both topographically +and by monuments, than probably any other battlefield in the world. +Over a million dollars have been expended on the grounds and +monuments. The "Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association," +representing the soldiers engaged, has marked all the important +points, and the tracts along the lines, over four hundred and fifty +acres, have been acquired, so as to thoroughly preserve all the +landmarks where the most important movements were executed. There are +some five hundred monuments upon the field, placed with the utmost +care in the exact localities, and standing in woods or on open ground, +by the roadsides, on stony heights and ridges in gardens, and of all +designs, executed in bronze, marble, granite, on boulders and +otherwise. Marking-posts also designate the positions of the various +organizations in the opposing armies. To the north and west of +Gettysburg is the scene of the first day's contest, but the more +interesting part is to the southward. Ascending the Cemetery Hill, +there is passed, by the roadside, the house of Jenny Wade, the only +woman killed in the battle, accidentally shot while baking bread. The +rounded Cemetery Hill is an elevated and strong position having many +monuments, and here, alongside the little village graveyard, the +Government established a National Cemetery of seventeen acres, where +thirty-five hundred and seventy-two soldiers are buried, over a +thousand being the unknown dead. A magnificent battle monument is here +erected, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and at the base of the +shaft having figures of War, History, Peace and Plenty. This charming +spot was the centre of the Union line, then a rough, rocky hill. The +cemetery was dedicated in November, 1863, Edward Everett delivering +the oration, and the monument on July 1, 1869. At the cemetery +dedication President Lincoln made the famous "twenty-line address" +which is regarded as the most immortal utterance of the martyr +President, and has become an American classic. The British +_Westminster Review_ described it as an oration having but one equal, +in that pronounced upon those who fell during the first year of the +Peloponnesian War, and as being its superior, because "natural, fuller +of feeling, more touching and pathetic, and we know with an absolute +certainty that it was really delivered." The President was requested +to say a few words by way of dedication, and drawing from his pocket +a crumpled piece of paper on which he had written some notes, he spoke +as follows: + +"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this +continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a +great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation, so +conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great +battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the +final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that +nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should +do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot +consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and +dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to +add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we +say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, +the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that +they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here +dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these +honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they +here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly +resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain--that the nation +shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of +the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the +earth." + +A mile across the valley the Lutheran Seminary is seen, the most +conspicuous landmark of the Confederate line. To the southeast from +the cemetery is Culp's Hill, strewn with rocks and boulders and +covered with trees. The Emmettsburg road goes southward down the +valley, gradually diverging from the Union line, and crossing the +fields that were the battleground on the second and third days. It is +bordered by numerous monuments, some of great merit, and leads to the +"Peach Orchard," where the line bends sharply back. Peach trees are +replanted here as the old ones fall. The "Wheat Field" is alongside, +now grass-grown. Beyond it the surface goes down among the crags and +broken stones of the "Devil's Den," a ravine through which flows a +stream, coming from the orchard and wheat field, and separating them +from the rocky "Round Tops," the sandstone cliffs of the "Little Round +Top" rising high above the ravine. The fields sloping to the stream +above the Den are known as the "Valley of Death." Among these rocks +there are many monuments, made of the boulders that are so numerous. A +toilsome path mounts the "Big Round Top" beyond, and an Observatory on +the summit gives a good view over almost the entire battlefield. This +summit, more than three miles south of Gettysburg, has tall timber, +preserved as it was in the battle. There are cannon surmounting the +"Round Tops," representing the batteries in action. Across the valley +to the west is the long fringe of timber that masked the Confederate +position on Seminary Ridge. A picnic-ground, with access by railway, +is located alongside the "Round Tops." The lines of breastworks are +maintained, and upon the lower ground, not far away, are preserved the +rough stone walls, and to the northward is the little umbrella-shaped +grove of trees at which Pickett's charge was directed. The Twentieth +Massachusetts regiment brought here a huge conglomerate boulder from +New England and set it up as their monument, their Colonel, Paul +Revere, being killed in the battle. + +There was no fighting along the Confederate line on Seminary Ridge +until the scene of the first day's conflict is reached, to the +northwest of Gettysburg. Here is marked where General Reynolds fell, +just within a grove of trees, and a fine equestrian statue of him has +been erected on the field. From his untimely death, Reynolds is +regarded as the special Union hero of the battle, as Armistead was the +Southern. Nearby a spirited statue, the "Massachusetts Color-Bearer," +holds aloft the flag of the Thirteenth Massachusetts regiment, +standing upon a slope, thus marking the spot where he fell at the +opening of the conflict. Such is the broad and impressive scene of one +of the leading battles of the world, and the greatest ever fought in +America. But happily the passions which caused it have been stilled, +and the combatants are now again united in their patriotic devotion to +a common country. As Longfellow solemnly sounds his invocation in the +_Building of the Ship_, so now do all the people in the reunited +Union: + + "Thus too, sail on, O Ship of State! + Sail on, O Union, strong and great! + Humanity with all its fears, + With all the hopes of future years, + Is hanging breathless on thy fate!" + + + + +THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE. + + + + +III. + +THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE. + + Delaware Bay--Cape May--Cape Henlopen--Delaware + Breakwater--Maurice River Cove--The Pea Patch--Newcastle + --Mason and Dixon's Line--Fort Christina--Wilmington-- + The Duponts--Brandywine--William Penn--West Jersey-- + Pennsylvania--Upland--The Ship "Welcome"--Philadelphia + --Shackamaxon--The Lenni Lenapes--The City Hall-- + Independence Hall--Benjamin Franklin--Betsy Ross and the + American Flag--Stephen Girard--Girard College--Notable + Charities and Buildings--Christ Church--Old Swedes' Church + --Longfellow's Evangeline--Cathedral of St. Peter and St. + Paul--University of Pennsylvania--City of Homes--John + Bartram and his Garden--Fairmount Park--Laurel Hill-- + Wissahickon Creek--Germantown--Johannes Kelpius--The + Schuylkill River--Tom Moore--Pennsylvania Dutch--Valley + Forge--Reading--Port Clinton--Pottsville--Anthracite + Coal-fields--New Jersey Coast Resorts--Atlantic City-- + Ocean Grove--Asbury Park--Long Branch--St. Tammany-- + Poquessing--Rancocas--The Neshaminy--The Log College-- + Bristol--Burlington--Pennsbury Manor--Bordentown-- + Admiral Stewart--Joseph Bonaparte--Camden and Amboy + Railroad--Delaware and Raritan Canal--Trenton Gravel-- + Trenton, its Potteries, Crackers and Battle--The Swamp Angel + --Morrisville--General Moreau--Princeton and its Battle + --General Mercer--Princeton University--Jonathan Edwards + --Marshall's Walk--Pennsylvania Palisades--Forks of the + Delaware--Easton--Lafayette College--Ario Pardee-- + Phillipsburg--Morris Canal--Lake Hopatcong--Lehigh River + --Bethlehem--Lehigh University--The Moravians--Count + Zinzendorf--Teedyuscung--Allentown--Lehigh Gap--Mauch + Chunk--Asa Packer--Coal Mining--Summit Hill--The + Switchback--Nescopec Mountain--Wyoming Valley-- + Wilkesbarre--Harvey's Lake--Scranton--Wyoming Massacre + --The Foul Rift--The Terminal Moraine--The Great Glacier + --Belvidere--Delaware Water Gap--The Wind Gap--Minsi + and Tammany--The Minisink--The Buried Valleys--Nicholas + Depui--George La Bar--Stroudsburg--Pocono Knob-- + Bushkill--Walpack Bend--Pike County--Dingman's Choice-- + Waterfalls--Milford--Tom Quick, the Indian Killer-- + Tri-States Corner--Neversink River--Port Jervis-- + Delaware and Hudson Canal--High Point--The Catskill Flags + --Hawk's Nest--Shohola--The Lackawaxen and its Battle-- + The Sylvania Society--Horace Greeley--Blooming Grove-- + Pocono High Knob--Hawley--The Wallenpaupack--The Indian + Orchard--Honesdale--Washington Irving--The Gravity + Railroad--Carbondale--Mast Hope--Narrowsburg-- + Cochecton--Hancock--Delaware Headwaters--Popacton River + --Mohock River--Deposit--Oquaga Creek and Lake--Lake + Utsyanthia--Ote-se-on-teo, Source of the Delaware. + + +DELAWARE BAY. + +The famous navigator of the Dutch East India Company, Hendrick Hudson, +was the first white man who entered Delaware Bay. He discovered it on +August 28, 1609, two weeks before he entered Sandy Hook Bay and found +the Hudson River. When Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, Governor of +Virginia, was driven by stress of weather into the bay in 1611, his +name was given the river. In 1614 another redoubtable old skipper of +the Dutch East India Company, Captain Carolis Jacobsen Mey, searching, +like all the rest of the navigators of those days, for the northwest +passage to Asia and the Indies, came along there with a small fleet of +sixty-ton frigates, and tried to give the river and its capes his +names; but only one of these has survived, Cape May. The southern +portal at the entrance, which he wished to make Cape Carolis, was +named a few years afterwards, by the Swedes, Cape Henlopen. The +Indians called the river "Lenape-wihituck," or the "river of the +Lenapes," meaning "the original people," or, as sometimes translated, +the "manly men," the name of the aboriginal confederation that dwelt +upon its banks. It had various other names, for when the Swedes came, +the Indians about the bay called it "Pantoxet." In an early deed to +William Penn it is called "Mackeriskickon," and in another document +the "Zunikoway." Some of the tribes up the river named it "Kithanue," +meaning the "main stem," as distinguished from its tributaries, and +those on the upper waters called it the "Lemasepose," or the "Fish +River," for the Upper Delaware was then a famous salmon stream, and +its early Dutch explorers thus came to calling it the "Fish River" +also. The Delaware, from its source in the Catskills to the sea, is +about three hundred and sixty miles in length. + +The estuary of Delaware Bay is about sixty miles long and thirty miles +broad in the widest part, contracting towards the north to less than +five miles. The capes at the entrance are about fifteen miles apart. +As a protection to shipping, the Government began, on the Cape +Henlopen side, in 1829, the construction of the famous Delaware +Breakwater. It consists of a stone breakwater about twenty-six hundred +feet long facing the northeast, and an icebreaker about fourteen +hundred feet long, at right angles, facing the upper bay. These were +completed in 1870, there being an opening between them of about +sixteen hundred feet width, which was afterwards filled up. The +surface protected covers three hundred and sixty acres, and the whole +work cost about $3,500,000. It was estimated in 1871 that fully twenty +thousand vessels every year availed of the protection of this +breakwater, the depth of water being twenty-four feet behind +it--sufficient for most of the shipping of that day. But as vessels +have become larger and of deeper draft, they have not been able to use +it, and the Government has recently begun the construction of another +and larger breakwater for a harbor of refuge in deeper water adjoining +the regular ship channel, some distance to the northward. Delaware Bay +divides the States of Delaware and New Jersey. The first settlement in +Delaware was made by the Dutch near Lewes in 1630, but the Indians +destroyed the colony; and in 1638 a colony of Swedes and Finns came +out under the auspices of the Swedish West India Company, landed and +named Cape Henlopen, and purchased from the Indians all the land from +there up to the falls at Trenton, finally locating their fort near the +mouth of Christiana Creek, and naming the country Nya Sveriga, or New +Sweden. The Swedes and Dutch quarrelled about their respective rights +until New York was taken by the English in 1664, after which England +controlled. The first settlement in New Jersey was made by Captains +Mey and Jorisz in 1623, who built the Dutch Fort Nassau a short +distance below Philadelphia; but it did not last. + +Delaware Bay is an expansive inland sea, subject to fierce storms, and +broadening on its eastern side into Maurice River Cove, noted for its +oysters. A deep ship channel conducts commerce through the centre of +the bay, marked by lighthouses built out on mid-bay shoals, and, as +the shores approach, by range lights on the banks, the Delaware Bay +and River being regarded as the best marked and lighted stream in the +country. Up at the head of the bay, years ago, a ship loaded with peas +and beans sank, and this in time made at first a shoal, and afterwards +an island, since known as the "Pea Patch." Here and on the adjacent +shores the Government has lately erected formidable forts, which make, +with their torpedo stations in the channel, a complete system of +defensive works in the Delaware, first put into active occupation +during the Spanish War of 1898, as a protection against a hostile +fleet entering the river. Over in the "Diamond State" of Delaware, +near here, on the river shore, is the aged town of Newcastle, quiet +and yet attractive, having in operation, and evidently to the popular +satisfaction, the whipping-post and stocks, a method of punishment +which is a terror to all evil-doers, and is said to be most successful +in preventing crime, as thieves and marauders give Newcastle a wide +berth. This was originally a Swedish settlement, the standard of the +great Gustavus Adolphus being unfurled there in 1640, when it was +called Sandhuken, or Sandy Hook, it being a point of land jutting out +between two little creeks. The Dutch soon captured it, changing the +name to New Amstel; and about 1670 the settlement, then containing +nearly a hundred houses, became New Castle, under English auspices. +The northern boundary of the State of Delaware, dividing it from +Pennsylvania, is an arc of a circle, made by a radius of twelve miles +described around the old Court House at Newcastle, which still has in +its tower the bell presented by Queen Anne. + + +MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. + +In coming over by railroad from the Chesapeake to the Delaware, the +train, after crossing the broad Susquehanna and the head of Elk, and +rounding in Maryland the Northeast Arm of Chesapeake Bay, soon enters +the State of Delaware near the northeastern corner of the former +State. This corner is at the termination of the crescent-shaped +northern boundary of Delaware. The northern boundary of Maryland here +beginning and laid down due west, to separate it from Pennsylvania, is +the famous "Mason and Dixon's Line," surveyed by Charles Mason and +Jeremiah Dixon, two noted English mathematicians and astronomers in +the eighteenth century. This boundary gained great notoriety because +it so long marked the northern limit of slavery in the United States. +For almost a century there were conflicts about their respective +limits between the rival proprietaries of the two States, producing +sometimes riot and bloodshed, until, in 1763, these men were brought +over from England, and in December began laying out the line on the +parallel of latitude 39° 43' 26.3" North. They were at the work +several years, surveying the line two hundred and forty-four miles +west from the Delaware River, and within thirty-six miles of the +entire distance to be run, when the French and Indian troubles began, +and they were attacked and driven off, returning to Philadelphia in +December, 1767. At the end of every fifth mile a stone was planted, +graven with the arms of the Penn family on one side and of Lord +Baltimore on the other. The intermediate miles were marked by smaller +stones, having a P on one side and an M on the other, all the stones +thus used for monuments being sent out from England. After the +Revolution, in 1782, the remainder of the line was laid down, and in +1849 the original surveys were revised and found substantially +correct. + +When the little colony of Swedes and Finns under Peter Minuet came +into Christiana Creek in April, 1638, and established their fort, +they began the first permanent settlement in the valley of the +Delaware. It was built upon a small rocky promontory, and they named +it Christina, in honor of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. The Dutch +afterwards captured it and called it Fort Altena; but the town +retained part of the original name in Christinaham, and the creek also +retained the name, the English taking possession in 1664. The Swedes, +however, regardless of the flag that might wave over them, still +remained; and their old stone church, built in 1698, still stands, +down near the promontory by the waterside, in a yard filled with +time-worn gravestones. This old Swedes' Church of the Holy Trinity, +the oldest now on the Delaware, was dedicated on Trinity Sunday, 1699, +and Rev. Ericus Tobias Biorck came out from Sweden to take charge as +rector. It was sixty by thirty feet and twenty feet high, and a little +bell tower was afterwards added. The ancient church was recently +thoroughly restored to its original condition, with brick floor, oaken +benches, and stout rafters supporting the roof. This interesting +church building is in a factory district which is now part of +Wilmington, the chief city of Delaware, a busy manufacturing community +of sixty-five thousand people, built on the Christiana and Brandywine +Creeks, which unite about a mile from the Delaware. This active city +was laid out above the old settlement, in 1731, by William Shipley, +who came from Leicestershire, England. Ships, railway cars and +gunpowder are the chief manufactures of Wilmington. The Brandywine +Creek, in a distance of four miles, terminating in the city, falls one +hundred and twenty feet, providing a great water power. Up this stream +are the extensive Dupont powder-mills, among the largest in the world, +founded by the French statesman and economist, Pierre Samuel Du Pont +De Nemours, who, after the vicissitudes of the French Revolution, +migrated with his family to the United States in 1799, and was +received with distinguished consideration. He afterwards was +instrumental in securing the treaty of 1803 by which France ceded +Louisiana, and was in the service of Napoleon, but finally returned to +America, where his sons were conducting the powder-works, and he died +near Wilmington in 1817. Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont, of the +American Navy, was his grandson. Farther up the Brandywine Creek, at +Chadd's Ford and vicinity, was fought, in September, 1777, the battle +of the Brandywine, where the English victory enabled them to +subsequently take possession of Philadelphia. + + +WILLIAM PENN. + +Above Wilmington, the Delaware River is a noble tidal stream of about +a mile wide, flowing between gently sloping shores, and carrying an +extensive commerce. The great river soon brings us to the famous +Quaker settlements of Pennsylvania. William Penn, who had become a +member of the Society of Friends, was bequeathed by his father, +Admiral Sir William Penn, an estate of £1500 a year and large claims +against the British Government. Fenwick and Byllinge, both Quakers, +who had proprietary rights in New Jersey, disputed in 1674, and +submitted their difference to Penn's arbitration. He decided in favor +of Byllinge, who subsequently became embarrassed, and made over his +property to Penn and two creditors as trustees. This seems to have +turned Penn's attention to America as a place of settlement for the +persecuted Quakers, and he engaged with zeal in the work of +colonization, and in 1681 obtained from the king, for himself and +heirs, in payment of a debt of £16,000 due his father, a patent for +the territory now forming Pennsylvania, on the fealty of the annual +payment of two beaver skins. He wanted to call his territory New +Wales, as many of the colonists came from there, and afterwards +suggested Sylvania as specially applicable to a land covered with +forests; but the king ordered the name Pennsylvania inserted in the +grant, in honor, as he said, of his late friend the Admiral. In +February, 1682, Penn, with eleven others, purchased West Jersey, +already colonized to some extent. Tradition says that some of these +West Jersey colonists sent Penn a sod in which was planted a green +twig, to show that he owned the land and all that grew upon it. Next +they presented him with a dish full of water, because he was +master of the seas and rivers; and then they gave him the keys, to +show he was in command and had all the power. + + [Illustration: _Penn's Letitia Street House, Removed to Fairmount +Park_] + +When William Penn was granted his province, he wrote that "after many +waitings, watchings, solicitings and disputes in council, this day my +country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England." He had +great hopes for its future, for he subsequently wrote: "God will bless +and make it the seed of a nation; I shall have a tender care of the +government that it will be well laid at first." Some of the Swedes +from Christina had come up the river in 1643 and settled at the mouth +of Chester Creek, at a place called Upland. The site was an eligible +one, and the first parties of Quakers, coming out in three ships, +settled there, living in caves which they dug in the river bank, these +caves remaining for many years after they had built houses. Penn drew +up a liberal scheme of government and laws for his colony, in which he +is said to have had the aid of Henry, the brother of Algernon Sidney, +and of Sir William Jones. He was not satisfied with Upland, however, +as his permanent place of settlement, but directed that another site +be chosen higher up the Delaware, at some point where "it is most +navigable, high, dry and healthy; that is, where most ships can best +ride, of deepest draught of water, if possible, to load or unload, at +the bank or key-side, without boating or lightening of it." This site +being selected between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and the +city laid out, Penn, with about a hundred companions, mostly Welsh +Quakers, in September, 1682, embarked for the Delaware on the ship +"Welcome," arriving at Upland after a six weeks' voyage, and then +going up to his city site, which he named Philadelphia, the "City of +Brotherly Love." + +The first explorers of the Delaware River found located upon the site +of Philadelphia the Indian settlement of Coquanock, or "the grove of +long pine trees," a sort of capital city for the Lenni Lenapes. Their +great chief was Tamanend, and the primeval forest, largely composed of +noble pine trees, then covered all the shores of the river. The ship +"Shield," from England, with Quaker colonists for Burlington, in West +Jersey, higher up the river, sailed past Coquanock in 1679, and a note +was made that "part of the tackling struck the trees, whereupon some +on board remarked that 'it was a fine spot for a town.'" When Penn +sent out his advance agent and Deputy Governor, Captain William +Markham, of the British army, in his scarlet uniform, to lay out the +plan of his projected city, he wrote him to "be tender of offending +the Indians," and gave instructions that the houses should have open +grounds around them, as he wished the new settlement to be "a green +country town," and at the same time to be healthy, and free from the +danger of extensive conflagrations. Penn bought the land farther down +the Delaware from the Swedes, who had originally bought it from the +Indians, and the site for his city he bought from the Indians direct. +They called him Mignon, and the Iroquois, who subsequently made +treaties with him, called him Onas, both words signifying a quill pen, +as they recognized the meaning of his name. Out on the Delaware, in +what is now the Kensington shipbuilding district, is the "neutral land +of Shackamaxon." This word means, in the Indian dialect, the "place of +eels." Here, for centuries before Penn's arrival, the Indian tribes +from all the region east of the Alleghenies, between the Great Lakes, +the Hudson River and the Potomac, had been accustomed to kindle their +council fires, smoke the pipe of deliberation, exchange the wampum +belts of explanation and treaty, and make bargains. Some came by long +trails hundreds of miles overland through the woods, and some in their +birch canoes by water and portage. It was on this "neutral ground" by +the riverside that Penn, soon after his arrival, held his solemn +council with the Indians, sealing mutual faith and securing their +lifelong friendship for his infant colony. This treaty, embalmed in +history and on canvas, was probably made in November, 1682, under the +"Treaty Elm" at Shackamaxon, which was blown down in 1810, the place +where it stood by the river being now preserved as a park. Its +location is marked by a monument bearing the significant inscription: +"Treaty Ground of William Penn and the Indian Nation, 1682--Unbroken +Faith." Thus began Penn's City of Brotherly Love, based on a compact +which, in the words of Voltaire, was "never sworn to and never +broken." It is no wonder that Penn, after he had seen his city site, +and had made his treaty, was so abundantly pleased that he wrote: + +"As to outward things, we are satisfied, the land good, the air clear +and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come +at, an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, here is +what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well contented with, and +service enough for God, for the fields here are white for harvest. O, +how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and +troublesome solicitations, harries and perplexities of woeful Europe." + +The Lenni Lenapes, it is stated, told Penn and his people that they +often spoke of themselves as the Wapanachki, or the "men of the +morning," in allusion to their supposed origin in the lands to the +eastward, towards the rising sun. Their tradition was that at the time +America was discovered, their nation lived on the island of New York. +They called it Manahatouh, "the place where timber is got for bows and +arrows." At the lower end of the island was a grove of hickory trees +of peculiar strength and toughness. This timber was highly esteemed +for constructing bows, arrows, war-clubs, etc. When they migrated +westward they divided into two bands. One, going to the upper +Delaware, among the mountains, was termed Minsi, or "the great stone;" +and the other band, seeking the bay and lower river, was called +Wenawmien, or "down the river." These Indians originated the name of +the Allegheny Mountains, which they called the Allickewany, the word +meaning "He leaves us and may never return"--it is supposed in +reference to departing hunters or warriors who went into the mountain +passes. + + +THE QUAKER CITY. + +The great city thus founded by William Penn is built chiefly upon a +broad plain between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, about one +hundred miles from the sea, and upon the undulating surface to the +north and west. The shape of the city is much like an hour-glass, +between the rivers, although it spreads far west of the Schuylkill. +The Delaware River, in front of the built-up portion, sweeps around a +grand curve from northeast to south, and then, reversing the movement, +flows around the Horseshoe Bend below the city, from south to west, to +meet the Schuylkill. The railway and commercial facilities, the +proximity to the coal-fields, and the ample room to spread in all +directions, added to the cheapness of living, have made Philadelphia +the greatest manufacturing city in the world, and attracted to it +1,300,000 inhabitants. The alluvial character of the shores of the +two rivers surrounds the city with a region of the richest market +gardens, and the adjoining counties are a wealthy agricultural and +dairy section. Clay, underlying a large part of the surface, has +furnished the bricks to build much of the town. Most of the people own +their homes; there are over two hundred and fifty thousand dwellings +and a thousand miles of paved streets, and new houses are put up by +the thousands every year as additional territory is absorbed. When +Penn laid out his town-plan, he made two broad highways pointing +towards the cardinal points of the compass and crossing at right +angles in the centre, where he located a public square of ten acres. +The east and west street, one hundred feet wide, he placed at the +narrowest part of the hour-glass, where the rivers approached within +two miles of each other. This he called the High Street, but the +public persisted in calling it Market Street. The north and south +street, laid out in the centre of the plat, at its southern end +reached the Delaware near the confluence with the Schuylkill. This +street is one hundred and thirteen feet wide, Broad Street, a +magnificent thoroughfare stretching for miles and bordered with +handsome buildings. Upon the Centre Square was built a Quaker +meeting-house, the Friends, while yet occupying the caves on the bluff +banks of the Delaware that were their earliest dwellings, showing +anxiety to maintain their forms of religious worship. This +meeting-house has since multiplied into scores in the city and +adjacent districts; for the sect, while not increasing in numbers, +holds its own in wealth and importance, and has great influence in +modern Philadelphia. Afterwards the Centre Square was used for the +city water-works, and finally it was made the site of the City Hall. + +The bronze statue of the founder, surmounting the City Hall tower at +five hundred and fifty feet elevation, clad in broad-brimmed hat and +Quaker garb, carrying the city charter, and gazing intently +northeastward towards the "neutral land of Shackamaxon," is the +prominent landmark for many miles around Philadelphia. A blaze of +electric light illuminates it at night. This City Hall, the largest +edifice in America, and almost as large as St. Peter's Church in Rome, +has fourteen acres of floor space and seven hundred and fifty rooms, +and cost $27,000,000. It is a quadrangle, built around a central court +about two hundred feet square, and measures four hundred and +eighty-six by four hundred and seventy feet. The lower portion is of +granite, and the upper white marble surmounted by Louvre domes and +Mansard roofs. This great building is the official centre of +Philadelphia, but the centre of population is now far to the +northwest, the city having spread in that direction. The City Hall, +excepting its tower, is also being dwarfed by the many enormous and +tall store and office buildings which have recently been constructed +on Broad and other streets near it. Closely adjacent are the two vast +stations of the railways leading into Philadelphia, the Broad Street +Station of the Pennsylvania system, and the Reading Terminal Station, +which serves the Reading, Baltimore and Ohio and Lehigh Valley +systems. Also adjoining, to the northward, is the Masonic Temple, the +finest Masonic edifice in existence, a pure Norman structure of +granite two hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, with a +tower two hundred and thirty feet high, and a magnificent carved and +decorated granite Norman porch, which is much admired. + +The great founder not only started his City of Brotherly Love upon +principles of the strictest rectitude, but he was thoroughly +rectangular in his ideas. He laid out all the streets on his plan +parallel to the two prominent ones, so that they crossed at right +angles, and his map was like a chess-board. In the newer sections this +plan has been generally followed, although a few country roads in the +outer districts, laid upon diagonal lines, have been converted into +streets in the city's growth. Penn's original city also included four +other squares near the outer corners of his plan, each of about seven +acres, and three of them were long used as cemeteries. These are now +attractive breathing-places for the crowded city, being named after +Washington and Franklin, Logan and Rittenhouse. The east and west +streets Penn named after trees and plants, while the north and south +streets were numbered. The chief street of the city is Chestnut +Street, a narrow highway of fifty feet width, parallel to and south of +Market Street. Its western end, like Walnut Street, the next one +south, is a fashionable residential section, both being prolonged far +west of the Schuylkill River. In the neighborhood of Broad Street, and +for several blocks eastward, Chestnut Street has the chief stores. Its +eastern blocks are filled largely with financial institutions and +great business edifices, some of them elaborate structures. + + +INDEPENDENCE HALL. + +Upon the south side of Chestnut Street, occupying the block between +Fifth and Sixth Streets, is Independence Square, an open space of +about four acres, tastefully laid out in flowers and lawns, with +spacious and well-shaded walks. Upon the northern side of the square, +and fronting Chestnut Street, is the most hallowed building of +American patriotic memories, Independence Hall, a modest brick +structure, yet the most interesting object Philadelphia contains. It +was in this Hall, known familiarly as the "State-house," that the +Continental Congress governing the thirteen revolted colonies met +during the American Revolution, excepting when driven out upon the +British capture, after the battle of the Brandywine. The Declaration +of Independence was adopted here July 4, 1776. The old brick building, +two stories high, plainly built, and lighted by large windows, was +begun in 1732, taking three years to construct, having cost what was +a large sum in those days, £5600, the population then being about ten +thousand. It was the Government House of Penn's Province of +Pennsylvania. There has recently been a complete restoration, by which +it has been put back into the actual condition at the time +Independence was declared. In the central corridor stands the +"Independence bell," the most sacred relic in the city. This Liberty +bell, originally cast in England, hung in the steeple, and rang out in +joyous peals the news of the signing of the Declaration. Running +around its top is the significant inscription: "Proclaim Liberty +throughout the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof." This bell was +cracked while being rung on one of the anniversaries about sixty years +ago. In the upper story of the Hall, Washington delivered his +"Farewell Address" in closing his term of office as President. The +eastern room of the lower story is where the Revolutionary Congress +met, and it is preserved as then, the old tables, chairs and other +furniture having been gathered together, and portraits of the Signers +of the Declaration hang on the walls. The old floor, being worn out, +was replaced with tiles, but otherwise the room, which is about forty +feet square, is as nearly as possible in its original condition. Here +are kept the famous "Rattlesnake flags," with the motto "Don't Tread +on Me," that were the earliest flags of America, preceding the Stars +and Stripes. Of the deliberations of the Congress which met in this +building, William Pitt wrote: "I must declare that in all my reading +and observation, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and +wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult +circumstances, no body of men could stand before the National Congress +of Philadelphia." In this building is Penn's Charter of Philadelphia, +granted in 1701, and West's noted painting of "Penn's Treaty with the +Indians." There are also portraits of all the British kings and queens +from Penn's time, including a full-length portrait of King George +III., representing him, when a young man, in his coronation robes, and +painted by Allan Ramsay. + +Other historic places are nearby. To the westward is Congress Hall, +where the Congress of the United States held its sessions prior to +removal to Washington City. To the eastward is the old City Hall, +where the United States Supreme Court sat in the eighteenth century. +Adjoining is the Hall of the American Philosophical Society, founded +by Benjamin Franklin, and an outgrowth of his Junto Club of 1743. It +has a fine library and many interesting relics. Franklin, who was the +leading Philadelphian of the Revolutionary period, came to the city +from Boston when eighteen years old, and died in 1790. His grave is +not far away, in the old Quaker burying-ground on North Fifth Street. +A fine bronze statue of Franklin adorns the plaza in front of the +Post-office building on Chestnut Street. Farther down Chestnut Street +is the Hall of the Carpenters' Company, standing back from the street, +where the first Colonial Congress met in 1774, paving the way for the +Revolution. An inscription appropriately reads that "Within these +walls, Henry, Hancock and Adams inspired the delegates of the colonies +with nerve and sinew for the toils of war." On Arch Street, east from +Franklin's grave, is the house where Betsy Ross made the first +American flag, with thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, from a design +prepared by a Committee of Congress and General Washington in 1777. In +this committee were Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross, the latter +being the young woman's uncle. It appears that she was expert at +needlework and an adept in making the handsome ruffled bosoms and +cuffs worn in the shirts of those days, and had made these for General +Washington himself. She had also made flags, and there is a record of +an order on the Treasury in May, 1777, "to pay Betsy Ross fourteen +pounds, twelve shillings twopence for flags for the fleet in the +Delaware River." She made the sample-flag, her uncle providing the +means to procure the materials, and her design was adopted by the +Congress on June 14, 1777, the anniversary being annually commemorated +as "Flag Day." Originally there was a six-pointed star suggested by +the committee, but she proposed the five-pointed star as more +artistic, and they accepted it. The form of flag then adopted +continues to be the American standard. She afterwards married John +Claypole, whom she survived many years, and she died in January, 1836, +aged 84, being buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, on the southwestern +border of the city. + + +GIRARD COLLEGE. + +The name of Girard is familiar in Philadelphia, being repeated in +streets, buildings, and financial and charitable institutions. On +Third Street, south from Chestnut Street, is the fine marble building +of the Girard Bank, which was copied after the Dublin Exchange. This, +originally built for the first Bank of the United States, was Stephen +Girard's bank until his death. One of the greatest streets in the +northern part of the city is Girard Avenue, over one hundred feet +wide, stretching almost from the Delaware River westward far beyond +the Schuylkill River, which it crosses upon a splendid iron bridge. In +its course through the northwestern section, this fine street diverges +around the enclosure of Girard College, occupying grounds covering +about forty-two acres. Stephen Girard, before the advent of Astor in +New York, amassed the greatest American fortune. He was born in +Bordeaux in 1750, and, being a sailor's son, began life as a cabin +boy. He first appeared in Philadelphia during the Revolution as a +small trader, and after some years was reported, in 1790, to have an +estate valued at $30,000. Subsequently, through trading with the West +Indies, and availing of the advantages a neutral had in the warlike +period that followed, he rapidly amassed wealth, so that by 1812, when +he opened his bank, he had a capital of $1,200,000; and so great was +the public confidence in his integrity that depositors flocked to his +institution. He increased its capital to $4,000,000; and when the war +with England began in that year he was able to take, without help, a +United States loan of $5,000,000. He was a remarkable man, frugal and +even parsimonious, but profuse in his public charities, though strict +in exacting every penny due himself. He contributed liberally to the +adornment of the city and created many fine buildings. He despised the +few relatives he had, and when he died in 1831 his estate, then the +largest known in the country, and estimated at $9,000,000, was almost +entirely bequeathed for charity. + +Stephen Girard left donations to schools, hospitals, Masonic poor +funds, for fuel for the poor, and other charitable purposes; but the +major part of his fortune went in trust to the city of Philadelphia, +partly to improve its streets and the Delaware River front, but the +greater portion to endow Girard College. This was in the form of a +bequest of $2,000,000 in money and a large amount of lands and +buildings, together with the ground whereon the College has been +built. He gave the most minute directions about its construction, the +institution to be for the support and instruction of poor white male +orphans, who are admitted between the ages of six and ten years, and +between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years are to be bound out as +apprentices to various occupations. A clause in the will provides that +no ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect whatever is to +hold any connection with the College, or even be admitted to the +premises as a visitor; but the officers are required to instruct the +pupils in the purest principles of morality, leaving them to adopt +their own religious beliefs. The College building is of white marble, +and the finest specimen of pure Grecian architecture in the United +States. It is a Corinthian temple, surrounded by a portico of +thirty-four columns, each fifty-five feet high and six feet in +diameter. The building is one hundred and sixty-nine by one hundred +and eleven feet, and ninety-seven feet high, the roof being of heavy +slabs of marble, from which, as the College stands on high ground, +there is a grand view over the city. Within the vestibule are a statue +of Girard and his sarcophagus. The architect, Thomas U. Walter, +achieved such fame from this building that he was afterwards employed +to extend the Capitol at Washington. There are many other buildings in +the College enclosure, some being little less pretentious than the +College itself. This comprehensive charity has been in successful +operation over a half-century, and it supports and educates some +sixteen hundred boys, the endowment, by careful management, now +exceeding $16,000,000. + +Philadelphia is great in other charities, and notably in hospitals. +Opposite Girard College are the magnificent buildings of the German +Hospital and the Mary J. Drexel Home for the education of nurses, +established by the munificence of John D. Lankenau, the widowed +husband of the lady whose name it bears. The Drexel Institute, founded +by Anthony J. Drexel, is a fine building in West Philadelphia, with +$2,000,000 endowment, established for "the extension and improvement +of industrial education as a means of opening better and wider avenues +of employment to young men and women," and it provides for about two +thousand students. The Presbyterian, Episcopal, Jewish, Methodist and +Roman Catholic hospitals, all under religious care, are noted. +Philadelphia is also the great medical school of the country, and the +University, Jefferson, Hahnemann and Women's Colleges, each with a +hospital attached, have world-wide fame. The oldest hospital, the +Pennsylvania Hospital, occupying an entire block between Spruce and +Pine and Eighth and Ninth Streets, was founded in 1752, and is +supported almost entirely by voluntary contributions. In 1841 it +established in West Philadelphia a separate Department for the Insane. +The Medico-Chirurgical Hospital is a modern foundation which has grown +to large proportions. There are many libraries--not only free +libraries, with branches in various parts of the city, for popular +use, supported by the public funds, but also the Philadelphia Library, +founded by Franklin and his friends of the Junto Literary Club in +1731, and its Ridgway Branch, established, with $1,500,000 endowment, +by Dr. James Rush--a spacious granite building on Broad Street, which +cost $350,000. One of the restrictions of his gift, however, excludes +newspapers, he describing them as "vehicles of disjointed thinking." +The Pennsylvania Historical Society also has a fine library pertaining +to early Colonial history, and many valuable relics and manuscripts, +including the first Bible printed in America, and the original +manuscripts of _Home, Sweet Home_, and the _Star-Spangled Banner_. + + +NOTABLE PHILADELPHIA BUILDINGS. + +There are many notable structures in Philadelphia. The United States +Mint, opposite the City Hall, and fronting on Chestnut Street, has +executed nearly all the coinage of the country since its establishment +in 1792, the present building having been completed in 1833. It +contains a most interesting collection of coins, including the +"widow's mite." A fine new mint is now being erected on a much larger +scale in the northwestern section of the city. The Bourse, on Fifth +Street near Chestnut, erected in 1895 at a cost of $1,500,000, is the +business centre, its lower hall being the most spacious apartment in +the city, and the edifice is constructed in the style of Francis I. +The white marble Custom House, with fine Doric portico, was originally +erected in 1819, at a cost of $500,000, for the second United States +Bank, this noted bank, which ultimately suspended, having been for +many years a political bone of contention. On the opposite side of the +street, covering a block, is a row of a half-dozen wealthy financial +institutions, making one of the finest series in existence, granite +and marble being varied in several orders of architecture. The +Post-office building, also on Chestnut Street, a grand granite +structure in Renaissance, with a façade extending four hundred feet, +cost over $5,000,000. The plain and solid Franklin Institute, designed +to promote the mechanical and useful arts, is not far away. + +Down nearer the river is the venerable Christ Church, with its tall +spire, built in 1727, the most revered Episcopal church in the city, +and the one at which General Washington and all the Government +officials in the Revolutionary days worshipped. William White, a +native of the city, was the rector of this church and chaplain of the +Continental Congress, and in 1786 was elected the Episcopal Bishop of +Pennsylvania, being ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury at +Lambeth in February, 1787. He presided over the Convention, held in +this church in 1789, which organized the Protestant Episcopal Church +in the United States. Christ Church still possesses the earliest chime +of bells sent from England to America, and the spire, rising nearly +two hundred feet, is a prominent object seen from the river. Bishop +White died in 1836, aged 88. He was also, in his early life, the +rector of St. Peter's Church, another revered Episcopal church at +Third and Pine Streets. In its yard is the grave of Commodore Stephen +Decatur, the famous American naval officer, who, after all his +achievements and victories, was killed in a duel with Commodore Barron +in 1820, his antagonist also dying. The most ancient church in +Philadelphia is Gloria Dei, the "Old Swedes'" Church, a quaint little +structure near the Delaware River bank in the southern part of the +city, built in 1700. The early Swedish settlers, coming up from Fort +Christina, erected a log chapel on this site in 1677, at which Jacob +Fabritius delivered the first sermon. After he died, the King of +Sweden in 1697 sent over Rev. Andrew Rudman, under whose guidance the +present structure was built to replace the log chapel; and it was +dedicated, the first Sunday after Trinity, 1700, by Rev. Eric Biorck, +who had come over with Rudman. Many are the tales told of the +escapades of the early Swedes in the days of the log chapel. The +Indians on one occasion undermined it to get at the congregation, as +they were afraid of the muskets which the men shot out of the +loopholes. The women, however, scenting danger, brought into church a +large supply of soft-soap, which they heated piping hot in a cauldron. +When the redskins made their foray and popped their heads up through +the floor, they were treated to a copious bath of hot soap, and fled +in dismay. This is the "Old Swedes'" Church at Wicaco of which +Longfellow sings in _Evangeline_. The poet, in unfolding his story, +brings both _Evangeline_ and Gabriel from Acadia to Philadelphia in +the enforced exodus of 1755, and thus graphically describes the Quaker +City: + + "In that delightful land which is washed by the Delaware's waters, + Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn, the Apostle, + Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the city he founded. + There all the air is balm, and the peach is the emblem of beauty, + And the streets still re-echo the names of the trees of the forest, + As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose haunts they molested. + There, from the troubled sea, had Evangeline landed an exile, + Finding among the children of Penn a home and a country. + Something, at least, there was, in the friendly streets of the city, + Something that spake to her heart and made her no longer a stranger; + And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of the Quakers, + For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country, + Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and sisters." + +In Philadelphia it is said Evangeline lived many years as a Sister of +Mercy, and it was thus that she visited the ancient almshouse to +minister to the sick and dying on a Sabbath morning: + + "As she mounted the stairs to the corridors, cooled by the east + wind, + Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the belfry of + Christ Church, + While intermingled with these, across the meadows were wafted + Sounds of psalms that were sung by the Swedes in their church + at Wicaco." + +There she found the dying Gabriel, and both, according to the +tradition, are buried in the yard of the Roman Catholic Church of the +Holy Trinity, at Sixth and Spruce Streets: + + "Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow, + Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping. + Under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard, + In the heart of the city, they lie unknown and unnoticed. + Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them, + Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and + forever; + Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy; + Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their + labors; + Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their + journey." + +In the ancient graveyard of "Old Swedes" is buried Alexander Wilson, +the American ornithologist, who was a native of Scotland, but lived +most of his life in Philadelphia, dying in 1813. The largest church +in the city is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, +fronting on Logan Square, an imposing Roman Corinthian structure of +red sandstone, two hundred and sixteen by one hundred and thirty-six +feet, and crowned by a dome rising two hundred and ten feet. The chief +institution of learning is the University of Pennsylvania, the most +extensive and comprehensive College in the Middle States, dating from +1740, and munificently endowed, which occupies, with its many +buildings, a large surface in West Philadelphia, and has three +thousand students. This great institution originated from a building +planned in 1740 for a place in which George Whitefield could preach, +which was also used for a charity school. This building was conveyed +to trustees in 1749 to maintain the school, and they were in turn +chartered as a college in 1753 "to maintain an academy, as well for +the instruction of poor children on charity as others whose +circumstances have enabled them to pay for their learning." This +charitable feature is still maintained in the University by free +scholarships. + +Philadelphia is eminently a manufacturing city, and its two greatest +establishments are the Cramp Shipbuilding yards in the Kensington +district and the Baldwin Locomotive Works on North Broad Street, each +the largest establishment of its kind in America. The city has spread +over a greater territory than any other in the United States, and +sixteen bridges span the Schuylkill, with others in contemplation, its +expansion beyond that river has been so extensive. The enormous growth +of the town has mainly come from the adoption of the general principle +that every family should live in its own house, supplemented by +liberal extensions of electrical street railways in all directions. +Hence, Philadelphia is popularly known as the "City of Homes." As the +city expanded over the level land, four-, six-, eight-and ten-room +dwellings have been built by the mile, and set up in row after row. +Two-story and three-story houses of red brick, with marble steps and +facings, make up the greater part of the town, and each house is +generally its owner's castle, the owner in most cases being a +successful toiler, who has saved his house gradually out of his hard +earnings, almost literally brick by brick. There is almost unlimited +space in the suburbs yet capable of similar absorption, and the +process which has given Philadelphia this extensive surface goes on +indefinitely. The population is also regarded as more representative +of the Anglo-Saxon races than in most American cities, though the +Teuton numerously abounds and speedily assimilates. The greatest +extent of Philadelphia is upon a line from southwest to northeast, +which will stretch nearly twenty miles in a continuous succession of +paved and lighted streets and buildings. + + +FAIRMOUNT PARK AND SUBURBS. + +Philadelphia, excepting to the southward, is surrounded by a broad +belt of attractive suburban residences, the semi-rural region for +miles being filled with ornamental villas and the tree-embowered and +comfortable homes of the well-to-do and middle classes. Down the +Schuylkill is "Bartram's Garden," now a public park, where John +Bartram established the first botanic garden in America, and where his +descendants in 1899 celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of his +birth on June 2, 1699. His grandfather was one of the companions of +William Penn, and John Bartram, who was a farmer, mastered the +rudiments of the learned languages, became passionately devoted to +botany, and was pronounced by Linnæus the greatest natural botanist in +the world. Bartram bought his little place of about seven acres in +1728, and built himself a stone house, which still exists, bearing the +inscription, cut deep in a stone, "John and Ann Bartram, 1731." He +wrote to a friend describing how he became a botanist: "One day I was +very busy in holding my plough (for thou seest I am but a ploughman), +and being weary, I ran under a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes +on a daisy; I plucked it mechanically and viewed it with more +curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do, and I observed +therein many distinct parts. 'What a shame,' said my mind, or +something that inspired my mind, 'that thou shouldst have employed so +many years in tilling the earth and destroying so many flowers and +plants without being acquainted with their structure and their uses.'" +He put up his horses at once, and went to the city and bought a botany +and Latin grammar, which began his wonderful career. He devoted his +life to botany, travelled over America collecting specimens, and died +in 1777. At the mouth of the Schuylkill River is League Island, where +the United States has an extensive navy yard, and a reserve fresh +water basin for the storage of naval vessels when out of commission. +The attractive Philadelphia suburban features spread westward across +the Schuylkill, and are largely developed in the northwestern sections +of Germantown and Chestnut Hill, Jenkintown and the Chelten-hills. In +this extensive section the wealth of the people has of late years been +lavishly expended in making attractive homes, and the suburban belt +for miles around the city displays most charming scenery, adorned by +elaborate villas, pleasant lanes, shady lawns and well-kept grounds. + +The chief rural attraction of Philadelphia is Fairmount Park, one of +the world's largest pleasure-grounds. It includes the lands bordering +both sides of the Schuylkill above the city, having been primarily +established to protect the water-supply. There are nearly three +thousand acres in the Park, and its sloping hillsides and charming +water views give it unrivalled advantages in delicious natural +scenery. At the southern end is the oldest water reservoir of six +acres, on top of a curious and isolated conical hill about ninety feet +high, which is the "Fair Mount," giving the Park its name. The +Schuylkill is dammed here to retain the water, and the Park borders +the river for several miles above, and its tributary, the Wissahickon, +for six miles farther. The Park road entering alongside the Fairmount +hill passes a colossal equestrian statue of George Washington, and +beyond a fine bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, and also an equestrian +statue of General Grant. The roadways are laid on both sides of the +river at the water's edge, and also over the higher grounds at the +summits of the sloping bordering hills, thus affording an almost +endless change of routes and views. The frequent bridges thrown across +the river, several of them carrying railroads, add to the charm. An +electric railway is constructed through the more remote portions, and +displays their rustic beauty to great advantage. All around this +spacious Park the growing city has extended, and prosperous +manufacturing suburbs spread up from the river, the chief being the +carpet district of the Falls and the cotton-mills of Manayunk, the +latter on the location of an old-time Indian village, whose name +translated means "the place of rum." In this Park, west of the +Schuylkill, was held the Centennial Exposition of 1876, and several +of the buildings remain, notably the Memorial Art Gallery, now a +museum, and the Horticultural Hall, where the city maintains a fine +floral display. William Penn's "Letitia House," his original +residence, removed from the older part of the city, now stands near +the entrance to the West Park. + +A large part of the northeastern bank of the Schuylkill adjoining the +Park is the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Its winding walks and terraced +slopes and ravines give constantly varying landscapes, making it one +of the most beautiful burial-places in existence. In front, the river +far beneath curves around like a bow. Some of its mausoleums are of +enormous cost and elaborate ornamentation, but generally the grandeur +of the location eclipses the work of the decorator. Standing on a +jutting eminence is the Disston Mausoleum, which entombs an English +sawmaker who came to Philadelphia without friends and almost +penniless, and died at the head of the greatest sawmaking +establishment on the Continent. At one place, as the river bends, the +broad and rising terraces of tombs curve around like the banks of +seats in a grand Roman amphitheatre. Here is the grave of General +Meade who commanded at Gettysburg. In a plain, unmarked sepulchre +fronting the river, hewn out of the solid rock, is entombed the Arctic +explorer who conducted the Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John +Franklin, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane. A single shaft on a little eminence +nearby marks the grave of Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the +Continental Congress that made the Declaration of Independence. Some +of the graves are in exquisite situations, many having been chosen by +those who lie there. Here are buried Thomas Godfrey, the inventor of +the mariner's quadrant; General Hugh Mercer, who fell at the head of +the Pennsylvania troops in the Revolutionary battle of Princeton, the +Scots' Society of St. Andrew having erected a monument to his memory; +Commodore Isaac Hull, who commanded the American frigate +"Constitution" in the War of 1812 when she captured the British +frigate "Guerrière;" Harry Wright, the "father of base-ball," who died +in 1895; and Thomas Buchanan Read, the poet-artist. At the cemetery +entrance is the famous "Old Mortality" group, carved in Scotland and +sent to Philadelphia. The quaint old Scotsman reclines on a +gravestone, and pauses in his task of chipping-out the half-effaced +letters of the inscription, while the little pony patiently waits +alongside of him for his master and Sir Walter Scott to finish their +discourse. + +The peculiar charm of Philadelphia suburban scenery, however, is the +Wissahickon--the "catfish stream" of the Indians. This is a creek +rising in the hills north of the city, and breaking through the rocky +ridges, flowing by tortuous course to the Schuylkill a short distance +above Laurel Hill. It is an Alpine gorge in miniature, with +precipitous sides rising two to three hundred feet, and the winding +road along the stream gives a charming ride. Populous suburbs are on +the higher ridges, but the ravine has been reserved and carefully +protected, so that all the natural beauties remain. A high railway +bridge is thrown across the entrance of the gorge at the Schuylkill, +and rounding, just beyond, a sharp rocky corner, the visitor is +quickly within the ravine, the stream nestling deep down in the +winding fissure. For several miles this attractive gorge can be +followed; and high up on its side, in a commanding position near the +summit of the enclosing ridge, one of the residents has placed a +statue of William Penn, most appropriately bearing the single word at +its base--"Toleration." This splendid gorge skirts the northwestern +border of the popular suburb of Germantown, and the creek emerges from +its rocky confines at the foot of Chestnut Hill, where it rends the +ridge in twain, and the hillsides are dotted with attractive villas. +This is a fashionable residential section whose people have a +magnificent outlook over the rich agricultural region of the upper +Wissahickon Valley and the hills beyond. + +In Germantown is the historic Chew House, bearing the marks of cannon +balls, which was the scene of the battle of Germantown in October, +1777, when the British under Lord Howe, then holding Philadelphia, +defeated General Washington, and the darkest period of the Revolution +followed, the Americans afterwards retiring to their sad winter camp +at Valley Forge. This suburb of Germantown is almost as old as +Philadelphia. It was originally settled in 1683 by Germans who came +from Cresheim, a name that is preserved in the chief tributary of the +Wissahickon. Their leader was Daniel Pastorius, who bought a tract of +fifty-seven hundred acres of land from William Penn for a shilling an +acre, and took possession on October 6th. Their settlement prospered +and attracted attention in the Fatherland. In 1694 a band of religious +refugees, having peculiar tenets and believing that the end of the +world was approaching, determined to migrate to Germantown. They were +both Hollanders and Germans, and came from Rotterdam to London, +whence, under the guidance of Johannes Kelpius, they sailed for +America upon the ship "Sara Maria." They were earnest and scholarly +men, and Kelpius, who was a college graduate, was a profound +theologian. They called themselves the "Pietists." Upon their voyage +they had many narrow escapes, but every danger was averted by fervent +prayers. Their vessel ran aground, but was miraculously floated; they +were nearly captured by the French, but, mustering in such large +numbers on the deck of the "Sara Maria," they scared the enemy away; +they were badly frightened by an unexpected eclipse of the sun; but in +every case prayers saved them, and on June 14th they safely landed in +Chesapeake Bay, marching overland to the Delaware and sailing up to +Philadelphia, where they disembarked. + +In solemn procession, on June 23, 1694, led by Kelpius, they walked, +two and two, through the little town, which then had some five hundred +houses. They called on the Governor, William Markham, representing +Penn, and took the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. In the +evening they held a solemn religious service on "the Fair Mount," at +the verge of the Schuylkill. In it they celebrated the old German +custom of "Sanct Johannes" on St. John's eve. They lighted a fire of +dry leaves and brushwood on the hill, casting into it flowers, pine +boughs and bones, and then rolled the dying embers down the hillside +as a sign that the longest day of the year was past, and the sun, like +the embers, would gradually lose its power. The next morning was the +Sabbath, and they went out to Germantown, where they were warmly +welcomed. They built their first house, since called the Monastery, +near the Wissahickon Creek, where they worked and worshipped. Their +house they called "The Woman of the Wilderness," and upon its roof, +day and night, some of them stood, closely observing the changing +heavens. With prayers and patience they watched for the end of the +world and the coming of the Lord, and they obeyed the ministry of +Kelpius. He lived in a cave, and as his colony of enthusiasts +gradually dwindled, through death and desertion, he came to be known +as the "Hermit of the Wissahickon." Here he dug his well two centuries +ago, and the "Hermit's Pool" still exists. He constantly preached the +near approach of the millennium, and exhibited his magical "wisdom +stone." Finally, wearying yet still believing, he gave up, cast his +weird stone into the stream, and in 1704 he died, much to the relief +of the neighboring Quaker brethren, who did not fancy such mysterious +alchemy so near the city of Penn. These "Pietists," or "Kelpians," as +they were afterwards called, dispersed over the country, and had much +to do with guiding the religious life and mode of worship among the +early German settlers in Pennsylvania. Everywhere in German +Pennsylvania there are traces of their influence, and especially at +Ephrata and Waynesboro they have had pious and earnest followers. +After the death of Kelpius, their last survivor in Germantown was Dr. +Christopher DeWitt, famed as a naturalist, an astronomer, a +clock-maker and a magician. He was a close friend of John Bartram, +lived an ascetic life, became blind and feeble, and finally died an +octogenarian in 1765, thus closing with his life the active career of +the Kelpian mystics. + + +THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER. + +One of the romances of Fairmount Park is attached to the little stone +cottage, with overhanging roof, down by the Schuylkill River bank, +where tradition says that the Irish poet, Tom Moore, briefly dwelt +when he visited Philadelphia in the summer of 1804. This cottage +tradition may be a myth, but the poet when here composed an ode to the +cottage and to the Schuylkill, which is as attractive as the +bewitching river scene itself. The famous ballad begins: + + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled + Above the green elms that a cottage was near, + And I said, 'If there's peace to be found in the world, + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" + +Tom Moore's letters written at that time generally showed dislike for +much that he saw on his American journey, but he seems to have found +better things at Philadelphia, and was delighted with the Quaker +hospitality. His ode to the Schuylkill shows that its beauties +impressed him, and gives evidence of his regard for the people: + + "Alone by the Schuylkill, a wanderer roved, + And bright were its flowery banks to his eye; + But far, very far, were the friends that he loved, + And he gazed on its flowery banks with a sigh. + + "The stranger is gone--but he will not forget, + When at home he shall talk of the toil he has known, + To tell with a sigh what endearments he met, + As he stray'd by the wave of the Schuylkill alone!" + +The Schuylkill River is the chief tributary of the Delaware, an +Allegheny Mountain stream about one hundred and twenty miles long, +coming out of the Pennsylvania anthracite coal-fields, and falling +into the Delaware at League Island in such a lowland region that its +mouth is scarcely discernible. In fact, the early Dutch explorers of +the Delaware passed the place repeatedly and never discovered it; and +when the stream above was afterwards found by going overland, and +traced down to its mouth, they appropriately called it the Schuylkill, +meaning the "hidden river." The Indian name was the "Gans-howe-hanne," +or the "roaring stream," on account of its many rapids. The lowest of +these, which gave the name of the "Falls" to a Philadelphia suburb, +was obliterated by the backwater from the Fairmount water-works dam. +The river valley is populous, rich in manufactures and agriculture, +and, as it winds through ridge after ridge of the Allegheny foothills, +displays magnificent scenery. Both banks are lined with railways, +which bring the anthracite coal from the mines down to tidewater. + +Journeying up the Schuylkill, we pass the flourishing manufacturing +towns of Conshohocken and Norristown and come into the region of the +"Pennsylvania Dutch," where the inhabitants, who are mostly of +Teutonic origin, speak a curious dialect, compounded of German, Dutch, +English and some Indian words, yet not fully understood by any of +those races. These industrious people are chiefly farmers and +handicraftsmen, and they make up much of the population of eastern +Pennsylvania, while their "sauerkraut" and "scrapple" have become +staple foods in the State. Twenty-four miles above Philadelphia, +alongside a little creek and almost under the great Black Rock, a +towering sandstone ridge, was the noted Valley Forge, the place of +encampment of Washington's tattered and disheartened army when the +defeats at Brandywine and Germantown and the loss of Philadelphia made +his prospects so dismal in the winter of 1777-78, one of the severest +seasons ever experienced in America. The encampment is preserved as a +national relic, the entrenchments being restored by a patriotic +association, with the little farmhouse beside the deep and rugged +hollow, near the mouth of the creek, which was Washington's +headquarters. Phoenixville and Pottstown are passed, and Birdsboro', +all places of busy and prosperous iron manufacture, and then the river +valley leads us into the gorge of the South Mountain. + + +READING AND POTTSVILLE. + +The diminutive Schuylkill breaks its passage through this elevated +range, with Penn's Mount on one side and the Neversink Mountain on the +other, and here is located the most populous city of the Schuylkill +Valley--Reading, with seventy thousand population, a seat of +iron-making and extensive railway shops, having a fertile agricultural +region in the adjacent valleys. This expanding and attractive city +gives its name to, and obtains much of its celebrity from the +"Philadelphia and Reading Railway," the colossal financial institution +whose woes of bankruptcy and throes of reconstruction have for so many +years occupied the attention of the world of finance. This great +railway branches at Reading, and its western line runs off through red +sandstone rocks and among iron mills and out upon a high bridge, +thrown in a beautiful situation across the Schuylkill, and proceeds +over the Lebanon Valley to the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg. This +rich limestone valley, between the South Mountain and the Blue Ridge, +is a good farming district, and also a wealthy region of iron +manufacture. The Reading system also sends its East Pennsylvania route +eastward to Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, and thence to New York. +Factory smokes overhang Reading, through which the Schuylkill flows in +crooked course, spanned by frequent bridges, and puffing steam jets on +all sides show the busy industries. A good district surrounds Reading +in the mountain valleys, and the thrifty Dutch farmers in large +numbers come into the town to trade. The high forest-clad mountains +rise precipitously on both sides, with electric railways running up +and around them, disclosing magnificent views. The "old red sandstone" +of these enclosing hills has been liberally hewn out to make the +ornamental columns for the Court House portico and build the +castellated jail, and also the red gothic chapel and elaborate +red gateway of the "Charles Evans' Cemetery," where the chief +townsfolk expect, like their ancestry, to be buried. The visitor who +wishes to see one of the most attractive views over city, river, +mountain and distant landscape can climb by railway up to the "White +Spot," elevated a thousand feet above the river, on Penn's Mount. This +point of outlook is an isolated remnant of Potsdam sandstone, lying, +the geologists say, unconformably on the Laurentian rock. + + [Illustration: _Loop of the Schuylkill from Neversink Mountains_] + +Beyond Reading, the Schuylkill breaks through the Blue Ridge at Port +Clinton Gap, eighteen miles to the northwest. The winding and romantic +pass is about three miles long, and just beyond there is, at Port +Clinton, a maze of railway lines where the Reading Company unites its +branches converging from various parts of the anthracite coal-fields. +The Little Schuylkill River here falls into the larger stream, and a +branch follows it northward to Tamaqua, while the main line goes +westward to Pottsville. The summit of the Blue Ridge is the eastern +boundary of the coal-fields, and the country beyond is wild and +broken. The next great Allegheny ridge extending across the country is +the Broad Mountain beyond Pottsville, though between it and the Blue +Ridge there are several smaller ridges, one being Sharp Mountain. The +country is generally black from the coal, and the narrow and crooked +Schuylkill has its waters begrimed by the masses of culm and refuse +from the mines. Schuylkill Haven, ninety miles from Philadelphia, is +where the coal trains are made up, and branches diverge to the mines +in various directions. Three miles beyond is Pottsville, confined +within a deep valley among the mountains, its buildings spreading up +their steep sides, for here the malodorous and blackened little river +breaks through Sharp Mountain. This is a city of fifteen thousand +people, and the chief town of the Schuylkill or Southern coal-field, +which produces ten millions of tons of anthracite annually. The whole +country roundabout is a network of railways leading to the various +mines and breakers, and there are nearly four hundred miles of +railways in the various levels and galleries underground. We are told +that in the eighteenth century John Pott built the Greenwood Furnace +and Forge, and laid out this town; and afterwards, when coal-mining +was developed, there came a rush of adventurers hither; but of late +years Pottsville has had a very calm career. + +To the northward of the Schuylkill or Southern coal-field, and beyond +the Broad Mountain, is the "Middle coal-field," which extends westward +almost to the Susquehanna River, and includes the Mahanoy and Shamokin +Valleys. Both these fields also extend eastward into the Lehigh +region; and it is noteworthy that as all these coal measures extend +eastward they harden, while to the westward they soften. The hardest +coals come from the Lehigh district, and they gradually soften as +they are dug out to the westward, until, on the other side of the main +Allegheny range, they change into soft bituminous, and farther +westward their constituents appear in the form of petroleum and as +natural gases. The region beyond Pottsville is unattractive. Various +railways connect the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions, and cross over or +through the Broad Mountain. The district is full of little mining +villages, but has not much else. It is a rough country, with bleak and +forbidding hills, denuded of timber by forest fires, with vast heaps +of refuse cast out from the mines, some of them the accumulations of +sixty or seventy years. Breakers are at work grinding up the fuel, +which pours with thundering noise into the cars beneath. The surface +is strewn with rocks and _débris_, and the dirty waters of the streams +are repulsive. These blackened brooks of the Broad Mountain are the +headwaters of the Schuylkill River. + + +THE NEW JERSEY COAST RESORTS. + +The Delaware River divides Pennsylvania from New Jersey, and at +Camden, opposite Philadelphia, there has grown another large city from +the overflow of its population. Ferries, and at the northern end of +Philadelphia harbor an elevated railway bridge, cross over to Camden, +while for miles the almost level surface of New Jersey has suburban +towns and villas, the homes of thousands whose business is in +Philadelphia. The New Jersey seacoast also is a succession of +watering-places where the population goes to cool off in the summer. +The whole New Jersey coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a series of sand +beaches, interspersed with bays, sounds and inlets, a broad belt of +pine lands behind them separating the sea and its bordering sounds and +meadows from the farming region. This coast has become an almost +unbroken chain of summer resorts from Cape May, at the southern +extremity of New Jersey, northeastward through Sea Isle City, Avalon, +Ocean City, Atlantic City, Brigantine, Beach Haven, Sea Girt, Asbury +Park, Ocean Grove, Long Branch, Seabright, etc., to Sandy Hook, where +the long sand-strip terminates at the entrance to New York harbor. To +these many attractive places the summer exodus takes the people by the +hundreds of thousands. The chief resort of all is Atlantic City, which +has come to be the most popular sea-bathing place of the country, the +railroads running excursion trains to it even from the Mississippi +Valley. Three railroads lead over from Philadelphia across the level +Jersey surface, and their fast trains compass the distance, fifty-six +miles, in an hour. The town is built on a narrow sand-strip known as +Absecon Island, which is separated from the mainland by a broad +stretch of water and salt meadows. Absecon is an Indian word meaning +"the place of the swans." The beach is one of the finest on the coast, +and along its inner edge is the famous "Board Walk" of Atlantic City, +an elevated promenade mostly forty feet wide, and four miles long. On +the land side this walk is bordered by shops, bathing establishments +and all kinds of amusement resorts, while the town of hotels, +lodging-houses and cottages, almost all built of wood, stretches +inland. The population come out on the "Board Walk" and the great +piers, which stretch for a long distance over the sea. It is the +greatest bathing-place in existence, and in the height of the season, +July and August, fifty thousand bathers are often seen in the surf on +a fine day, with three times as many people watching them. Enormous +crowds of daily excursionists are carried down there by the railways. +The permanent population is about twenty thousand, swollen in summer +often fifteen- or twenty-fold. Atlantic City is also a popular resort +in winter and spring, and is usually well filled at Eastertide. + +The other New Jersey resorts are somewhat similar, though smaller. +Cape May, on the southern extremity of the Cape, is popular, and has a +fine beach five miles long. The coast for many miles northeastward has +cottage settlements, the beaches having similar characteristics. Many +of these settlements also cluster around Great Egg Harbor and Barnegat +Bay, both favorite resorts of sportsmen for fishing and shooting. +Asbury Park and Ocean Grove are twin watering-places on the northern +Jersey coast which have large crowds of visitors. The former is +usually filled by the overflow from the latter, who object to the +Ocean Grove restrictions. Ocean Grove is unique, and was established +in 1870 by a Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal +Church. Here many thousands, both young and old, voluntarily spend +their summer vacations under a religious autocracy and obey the strict +rules. It is bounded by the sea, by lakes on the north and south, and +by a high fence on the land side, and the gates are closed at ten +o'clock at night, and all day Sunday. The drinking of alcoholic +beverages and sale of tobacco are strictly prohibited, and no +theatrical performances of any kind are allowed. No bathing, riding or +driving are permitted on Sunday, and at other times the character of +the bathing-dresses is carefully regulated. There is a large +Auditorium, accommodating ten thousand people, and here are held +innumerable religious meetings of all kinds. The annual Camp Meeting +is the great event of the season, and among the attractions is an +extensive and most complete model of the City of Jerusalem. + +To the northward is Long Branch, the most fashionable and exclusive of +the New Jersey coast resorts, being mainly a succession of grand +villas and elaborate hotels, stretching for about four miles along a +bluff which here makes the coast, and has grass growing down to its +outer edge almost over the water. In the three sections of the West +End, Elberon and Long Branch proper, the latter getting its name from +the "Long branch" of the Shrewsbury River, there are about eight +thousand regular inhabitants, and there come here about fifty thousand +summer visitors, largely from New York. The great highway is Ocean +Avenue, running for five miles just inside the edge of the bluff, +which, in the season, is a most animated and attractive roadway. The +hotels and cottages generally face this avenue. The most noted +cottages are the one which General Grant occupied for many years, and +where, during his Presidency in 1869-77, he held "the summer capital +of the United States," and the Franklyn Cottage, where President +Garfield, after being shot in Washington, was brought to die in 1881. +The most famous show place at Long Branch is Hollywood, the estate of +the late John Hoey, of Adams Express Company, who died there in 1892, +its elaborate floral decorations being much admired. + + +SHACKAMAXON TO BRISTOL. + +Journeying up the Delaware from Philadelphia, we pass Petty Island, +where the great Indian chief of the Lenni Lenapes, Tamanend, had his +lodge--the chieftain since immortalized as St. Tammany, who has given +his name to the Tammany Society of politicians who rule New York City. +Petty on the old maps is called Shackamaxon Island, a derivation of +the original Indian name of Cackamensi. St. Tammany is described as a +chief who was so virtuous that "his countrymen could only account for +the perfections they ascribe to him by supposing him to be favored +with the special communications of the Great Spirit." In the +eighteenth century many societies were formed in his honor, and his +festival was kept on the 1st of May, but the New York Society is the +only one that has survived. Farther up, the Tacony Creek flows into +the Delaware, the United States having a spacious arsenal upon its +banks. The name of this creek was condensed before Penn's time, by the +Swedes, from its Indian title of Taokanink. Beyond, the great +manufacturing establishments of the city gradually change to charming +villas as we move along the pleasant sloping banks and through the +level country, and soon we pass the northeastern boundary of +Philadelphia, at Torresdale. This boundary is made by the Poquessing +Creek, being the aboriginal Poetquessink, or "the stream of the +dragons." + +Across the river, on the Jersey shore, formerly roamed the Rankokas +Indians, an Algonquin tribe, whose name is preserved in the Rancocas +Creek, which is one of the chief tributaries flowing in from New +Jersey. At Beverly, not far above, is one of the most popular suburban +resorts, the villas clustering around a broad cove, known as +Edgewater, which appears much like a miniature Bay of Naples. Over +opposite is the wide Neshaminy Creek, flowing down from the Buckingham +Mountain in Pennsylvania, its Indian title of Nischam-hanne, meaning +"the two streams flowing together," referring to its branches. The +earliest settlers along this creek were Scotch-Irish, and their pastor +in 1726 was Rev. William Tennent, the famous Presbyterian preacher, +who founded the celebrated "Log College" on the Neshaminy, "built of +logs, chinked and daubed between, and one story high," as it was well +described. From this simple college, which was about twenty feet +square, were sent out many of the famous Presbyterian preachers of the +eighteenth century; and from it grew, in 1746, the great College of +New Jersey at Princeton, and in 1783 Dickinson College, at Carlisle, +Pennsylvania, besides many other schools which were started by its +alumni. William Tennent's son, Gilbert, was his assistant and +successor. The great Whitefield preached to an audience of three +thousand at this College in 1739. He was attracted there by Gilbert +Tennent's fame as a preacher, and of him on one occasion wrote, "I +went to the meeting house to hear Mr. Gilbert Tennent preach, and +never before heard I such a searching sermon; he is a son of thunder, +and does not regard the face of man." + +The Delaware River broadens into two channels around Burlington +Island, having on either hand the towns of Bristol and Burlington, +both coeval with the first settlement of Philadelphia, and Bristol at +that early day having had an ambition to become the location of +Penn's great city. The ferry connecting them was established two years +before Penn came to Philadelphia, and in the eighteenth century they +had a larger carrying trade. Bristol began in 1680 under a grant from +Edmund Andros, then the Provincial Governor of New York, for a town +site and the ferry, which is curiously described in the Colonial +records as "the ferry against Burlington," then the chief town in West +Jersey. The settlement was called New Bristol, from Bristol in +England, where lived Penn's wife, Hannah Callowhill. It was the first +county seat of Bucks when Penn divided his Province into the three +counties--Chester, Philadelphia and Buckingham. It was for many years +a great exporter of flour to the West Indies. Its ancient Quaker +Meeting House dates from 1710, and St. James' Episcopal Church from +1712; but the latter, which received its silver communion service from +the good Queen Anne, fell into decay and has been replaced by a modern +structure. Its Bath Mineral Springs made it the most fashionable +watering-place in America in the eighteenth century, but Saratoga +afterwards eclipsed them, and their glory has departed. Prior to the +Revolution, Bristol built more shipping than Philadelphia; and, while +quiet and restful, its comfortable homes and the picturesque villas +along the Delaware River bank above the town tell of its prosperity +now. + + +OLD BURLINGTON. + +The ancient town of Burlington, clustered behind its "Green Bank" or +river-front street on the New Jersey shore, antedates Philadelphia +five years. The Quaker pioneers are believed to have been the first +Europeans who saw its site. The noted preacher George Fox, in 1672, +journeyed from New England to the South, and rode on horseback over +the site of Burlington at Assiscunk Creek, reporting the soil as good +"and withal a most brave country." When Penn became Trustee for the +insolvent Billynge, a Proprietor of West Jersey, much of his land was +sold to Quakers, who migrated to the American wilderness to escape +persecution at home. Thus Burlington was the first settlement founded +by Quaker seekers after toleration in the New World: + + "About them seemed but ruin and decay, + Cheerless, forlorn, a rank autumnal fen, + Where no good plant might prosper, or again + Put forth fresh leaves for those that fell away; + Nor could they find a place wherein to pray + For better things. In righteous anger then + They turned; they fled the wilderness of men + And sought the wilderness of God. And day + Rose upon day, while ever manfully + Westward they battled with the ocean's might, + Strong to endure whatever fate should be, + And watching in the tempest and the night + That one sure Pharos of the soul's dark sea-- + The constant beacon of the Inner Light." + +In the spring of 1677 the "goode shippe Kent," Gregory Marlowe, +master, sailed from London, bound for West Jersey, with two hundred +and thirty Quakers, about half coming from London and the others from +Yorkshire; two dying on the voyage. They ascended the Delaware to the +meadow lands below the mouth of Assiscunk Creek, landing there in +June, and in October made a treaty with the Indians, buying their +lands from the Rancocas as far up as Assunpink Creek at Trenton. Their +settlement was first called New Beverly, and then Bridlington, from +the Yorkshire town whence many of them came, but it finally was named +Burlington. They made a street along the river, bordered with +greensward, and called the "Green Bank," and drew a straight line back +inland, calling it their Main Street, and the Londoners settled on one +side and the Yorkshiremen on the other. The old buttonwood tree, to +which was moored the early ships bringing settlers, still stands on +the Green Bank, a subject of weird romance. Elizabeth Powell, the +first white child, was born in July, 1677. The next May, 1678, they +established a "Monthly Meeting of Friends" at Burlington, of which the +records have been faithfully kept. In June the graveyard was fenced +in, and the old Indian chief, Ockanickon, a Quaker convert to +Christianity, was among the first buried there. In August the first +Quaker marriage was solemnized in meeting, this first certificate +being signed by ten men and three women Friends as witnesses. In +1682, just as Penn was coming over, they decided to build their first +meeting house--a hexagonal building, forty feet in diameter, with +pyramidal roof, which was occupied the next year. In 1685 they decided +that a hearse should be built, the entry on the record being an order +for a "carriage to be built for ye use of such as are to be laid in ye +ground." + +Burlington grew, and was long the seat of government of the Province +of West Jersey, being the official residence of the Provincial +Governors, the last of whom was William Franklin, natural son of +Benjamin Franklin. It had wealthy merchants and much shipping, and, +despite its peacefulness, equipped privateers to fight the French. Its +famous old Episcopal Church of St. Mary had the corner-stone laid in +1703 under the favor of Queen Anne, who made a liberal endowment of +lands, much being yet held, and gave it a massive and greatly prized +communion service. This old church is cruciform, with a little belfry, +and a stone let into the front wall bears the inscription "One Lord, +one faith, one baptism." In the extensive churchyard alongside is the +modern St. Mary's Church, of brownstone, with a tall spire, also +cruciform. This is the finest church in Burlington. When "Old St. +Mary's" was built with its belfry, the Friends did not like the +innovation, and long gazed askance at the "steeple house," as they +called it; so that Talbot, the first rector, sturdily retaliated, +calling the Quakers "anti-Christians, who are worse than the Turks." +Many of St. Mary's parishioners of to-day are descended from these +maligned Quakers. The early records of the Meeting are filled with +entries showing that charges were brought against members for various +shortcomings. One was admonished for "taking off his hat" at a funeral +solemnized in the "steeple house;" others gave testimony of +"uneasiness" on account of the placing of "gravestones in the +burial-ground;" a query was propounded, "Are Friends in meeting +preserved from sleeping or any other indecent behavior, particularly +from chewing tobacco and taking snuff?" A record was also made of +testimony against "a pervading custom of working on First days in the +time of hay and harvest" when rain threatened. The descendants of +these good people have established St. Mary's Hall and Burlington +College, noted educational institutions. Probably the most famous son +of Burlington was the distinguished novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, +born in 1789, but taken in his infancy by his parents to his future +home at Cooperstown, in Central New York. The town was bombarded by +the British gunboats that sailed up the Delaware in 1778, but since +then the career of Burlington has been eminently peaceful. + + +BORDENTOWN AND ITS MEMORIES. + +Above Burlington Island the Delaware winds around a jutting tongue of +flat land, "Penn's Neck," which is one of the noted regions of the +river, the ancient "Manor of Pennsbury." This was Penn's country home, +originally a tract of over eight thousand acres, the Indian domain of +"Sepessing." His house, which he occupied in 1700-01, was then the +finest on the river, but it long ago fell into decay, and the manor +was all sold away from his descendants during the eighteenth century. +At the eastern extremity of "Penn's Neck," on the New Jersey shore, is +White Hill, with the village of Bordentown beyond, up Crosswick's +Creek. Here is a region redolent with historical associations. The old +buildings along the river bank were the railway shops of the famous +"Camden and Amboy," whose line, coming along the Delaware shore, goes +off up Crosswick's Creek to cross New Jersey on the route to New York. +Above is the dense foliage of Bonaparte Park, now largely occupied by +the Convent and Academy of St. Joseph. Bordentown was a growth of the +railway, having been previously little more than a ferry, originally +started by Joseph Borden. Its most distinguished townsman was Admiral +Charles Stewart, "Old Ironsides" of the American navy, a relic of the +early wars of the country, his crowning achievement being the command +of the frigate "Constitution" when she captured the two British +vessels, "Cyane" and "Levant." He was the "Senior Flag Officer" of the +navy when he died in 1860 on his Bordentown farm, to which he had +returned. The old house where he lived is on a bluff facing the +river. He was the grandfather of the noted Irish leader, Charles +Stewart Parnell. + +To Bordentown, in 1816, Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-King of Naples and of +Spain, and eldest brother of Napoleon, came to live, as the Count de +Survilliers, and bought the estate known since as Bonaparte Park. It +was through Stewart's persuasion, mainly, that he located there, the +estate covering ten farms of about one thousand acres. Lafayette +visited him in 1824, and Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III., in +1837. Joseph returned to Europe in 1839, dying in Florence in 1844. +Another famous resident of Bordentown was Prince Murat, the nephew of +Napoleon and of Joseph, and the son of the dashing Prince Joachim +Murat, who was King of the Sicilies, and was shot by sentence of +court-martial after Waterloo. Prince Murat came in 1822, bought a +farm, got married, lived a rather wild life, but was generally liked, +and, going through various fortunes, returned to France after the +Revolution of 1848 and was restored to his honors. He was with Marshal +Bazaine in the capitulation of Metz in 1870 and became a prisoner of +war, and died in 1878. + + +THE STORY OF CAMDEN AND AMBOY. + +The great memory of Bordentown, however, is of the famous railroad, +originally begun there, whose managers for nearly a half-century so +successfully ruled New Jersey that it came to be generally known +throughout the country as "the State of Camden and Amboy." In the +little old Bordentown station, which still exists, set in the bottom +of a ravine, with the house built over the railroad, were for many +years held the annual meetings of the corporation; and its magnates +also met in almost perpetual session, to generally run things, social, +political and financial, for the State of New Jersey, and +semi-annually declare magnificent dividends. Not far from this station +a monument marks the place of construction of the first piece of +railway track in New Jersey, laid by the Camden and Amboy Company in +1831. Upon this track the first movement of a passenger train by steam +was made by the locomotive "John Bull," on November 12th of that year. +This granite monument, erected in 1891 to commemorate the sixtieth +anniversary, stands upon a foundation composed of the stone blocks on +which the first rails were laid, and two of these original rails +encircle it. A bronze tablet upon the monument represents the old +"John Bull," with his primitive whisky-cask tender, and the two little +old-time passenger coaches which made up the first train he drew. Thus +began the great railroad highway between the two chief cities of the +United States. + +The original method of transport between Philadelphia and New York was +by steamboat on the Delaware to South Trenton, stages from Trenton to +New Brunswick on the Raritan River, and then by steamboat to New +York. This was the "Union Line," which for many years carried the +passengers, and of which John Stevens was the active spirit. He +conceived the first idea of a railway, and in 1817 procured the first +railway charter in America for a railroad upon his stage route between +Trenton and New Brunswick. In subsequent years there were advocates +both of a railway and a canal across New Jersey, his son, Robert L. +Stevens, being the railway chieftain, while Commodore Robert F. +Stockton championed the canal, the rival projects appearing before the +New Jersey Legislature in 1829-30, and causing a most bitter +controversy. It is related that the conflict was ended in a most +surprising manner. Between the acts of a play at the old Park Theatre +in New York, Stevens and Stockton accidentally met in the vestibule, +and after a few minutes' talk agreed to end their dispute by joining +forces. The result was that on February 4, 1830, both companies were +chartered--the "Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company" +and the "Delaware and Raritan Canal Company." In furtherance of this +compromise, what is known as the celebrated "Marriage Act" was passed +a year later, creating the "Joint Companies," their stock being +combined at the same valuation, though each had a separate +organization. They were given a monopoly of the business, paying +transit dues to the State of ten cents per passenger and fifteen cents +per ton of freight carried, and this afterwards practically paid all +the expenses of the New Jersey State Government. The railroad was +completed between Bordentown and Amboy in 1832, and on December 17th +the first passengers went through, fifty or sixty of them. It was a +rainy day, and the cars were drawn by horses, for they could not in +those days trust their locomotive out in the rain. The next year +regular travel began, galloping horses taking the cars from Bordentown +over to Amboy in about three hours, there being three relays. Later in +the year the locomotive "John Bull" took one train daily, each way. In +1871 all the railway and canal properties of the two companies, which +had become very extensive, were absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, +which pays as rental 10 per cent. annual dividends on the stocks. + +The line of the Delaware and Raritan Canal begins at Crosswick's Creek +in Bordentown, and is constructed alongside the Delaware River up to +Trenton, and thence across New Jersey to the Raritan River at New +Brunswick. This is a much-used "inside water route," and it had one of +the old lines of the railroad constructed on the canal bank all the +way. It was in former times a very profitable route, and is said to +have made most of the dividends of the old monopoly, as it carried the +greater part of the freight between the cities. It was originally +projected in 1804, but the scheme slumbered for years. When the route +was surveyed through Princeton, where Commodore Stockton lived, he +became interested, and he induced his father-in-law, John Potter, of +South Carolina, who had over $500,000 in the United States Bank, to +withdraw the money and invest it in the canal, he being the chief +shareholder. Thus his fortune was not only saved from the bank's +subsequent collapse, but was increased by the profitable investment. +The canal is forty-three miles long, with fourteen locks in its +course, having an aggregate rise and fall of one hundred and fifty +feet. Its enlargement to the dimensions of a ship canal is suggested. + + +THE TRENTON GRAVEL. + +In journeying up the Delaware and approaching Trenton, we have passed +through a region of most interesting geological development. All along +are evidences of the deposit of the drift from above, which is +popularly known as the "Trenton gravel." The Delaware flows southeast +from the Kittatinny Water Gap to Bordentown, and then, impinging +against the cretaceous stratified rocks of New Jersey, abruptly turns +around a right-angled bend and goes off southwestward towards +Philadelphia. The river has thus deposited the Trenton gravels, +composed of the drift of most of the geological formations in its +upper waters, throughout its course, on the Pennsylvania side from +Trenton down below Philadelphia. This deposit is fifty feet deep on +the river bank in Philadelphia, and underlies the river bed for nearly +a hundred feet in depth. At Bristol the deposit stretches two miles +back from the river, and at Trenton it is almost universal. The +material, which in the lower reaches is generally fine, grows coarser +as the river is ascended, until at Trenton immense boulders are often +found imbedded. We are told by geologists that at the time of the +great flood in the river which deposited the gravel, the lower part of +Philadelphia, the whole of Bristol and Penn's Neck and almost all +Trenton were under water. The gravel has disclosed bones of Arctic +animals--walrus, reindeer and mastodon--and also traces of ancient +mankind. The latter have been found at Trenton and on Neshaminy Creek, +indicating the presence of a race of men said to have lived about +seven thousand years ago. The river has also made immense clay +deposits all along, which was done at a time when the water flowed at +a level more than a hundred feet higher than now. + +In the early geological history of the Delaware it is found that all +southern New Jersey lay deep beneath the Atlantic, whose waves broke +against the ranges of hills northwest and north of Philadelphia, and +an inlet from the sea extended into the great Chester limestone valley +behind them. This whole region, then probably five hundred feet lower +than now, was afterwards slowly upheaved, and the waters retreated. +Subsequently the climate grew colder, and the great glacial ice-cap +crept down from Greenland and Labrador, forming a huge sea of ice, +thousands of feet thick, which advanced on the Delaware to Belvidere, +sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Then there came another gradual +change; the land descended to nearly two hundred feet below the +present level, and again the waters overflowed almost the whole +region. This was ice-cold, fresh water, bearing huge icebergs and +floes, which stranded on the hills, forming a shore on the higher +lands northwest of Philadelphia. The river channel was then ten miles +wide and two hundred feet deep all the way down from Trenton, and a +roaring flood depositing the red gravel along its bed. As the torrent, +expending its force, though still filled with mud and sand from the +base of the glacial ice-cap, became more quiet, it laid down the +clays, the stranded icebergs dropping their far-carried boulders all +along the route. This era of cold water and enormous floods is +computed to have occupied a period of about two hundred and seventy +thousand years, and then the "Ice Age" finally terminated. The land +rose about to its present level, the waters retreated, and elevated +temperatures thawed more and more of the glaciers remaining in the +headwaters, so that there came down the last great floods which +deposited the "Trenton gravel." The river was still wide and deep, and +Arctic animals roamed the banks. Mankind then first appeared, living +in primitive ways in caves and holes, and hunting and fishing along +the swollen Delaware ten thousand years ago. Occasionally they dropped +in the waters their rude stone implements and weapons, which were +buried in the gravel, and, being recently found, are studied to tell +the story of their ancient owners. The river deposited its gravel and +the channel shrunk with dwindling current, moving gradually eastward +as it eat its way into the cretaceous measures. The primitive man +retired, making way for the red Indian, and the present era dawned, +with the more moderate climate, and with again a slow sinking of the +land, which the geologists say is now in progress. + + +TRENTON AND ITS BATTLE MONUMENT. + +Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, is thirty miles from Philadelphia, +a prosperous city with seventy thousand people. The first and most +lasting impression many visitors get of it is of the deep rift cut +into the clays and gravels of the southern part of the town, to let +the Pennsylvania Railroad go through. Here, as everywhere, are +displayed the lavish deposits of the "Trenton gravel" as the railway +passes under the streets, and even under the Delaware and Raritan +Canal, to its depressed station alongside Assunpink Creek of +Revolutionary memory, the chief part of the city spreading far to the +northward. Trenton is as old as Philadelphia, its reputed founder +being Mahlon Stacy, who came up from Burlington Friends' Meeting, +while the settlement was named for William Trent, an early Jersey +law-maker. The Trenton potteries are its chief industry, established +by a colony of Staffordshire potters from England, attracted by its +prolific clay deposits; and the conical kilns, which turn out a +product worth five or six millions of dollars annually, are scattered +at random over the place. Their china ware has been advanced to a high +stage of perfection, and displays exquisite decoration. The Trenton +cracker factories are also famous. The finest building is the State +House, as the Capitol is called, the Delaware River's swift current +bubbling over rocks and among grassy islands out in front of the +grounds. At Broad and Clinton Streets, the intersection of two of the +chief highways, mounted as an ornament upon a drinking-fountain, is +the famous "Swamp Angel" cannon, brought from Charleston harbor after +the Civil War. This was one of the earliest heavy guns made, plain and +rather uncouth-looking, about ten feet long, and rudely constructed in +contrast with the elongated and tapering rifled cannon of to-day, and +it rests upon a conical pile of brownstone. It was the most noted gun +of the Civil War, an eight-inch Parrott rifle, or two-hundred-pounder, +and, when fired, carried a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound projectile +seven thousand yards from a battery on Morris Island into the city of +Charleston, which was then regarded as a prodigious achievement. It is +a muzzle-loader, weighing about eight tons, and burst after firing +thirty-six rounds at Charleston, in August, 1863, the fracture being +plainly seen around the breech. + +Trenton's great historical feature is the Revolutionary battlefield, +now completely built upon. Washington, having crossed the Delaware on +Christmas night, in the early morning of December 26, 1776, marched +down to Trenton, and surprised and defeated the Hessians under Rahl, +who were encamped north of Assunpink Creek. A fine battle-monument +stands in a small park adjoining Warren Street, at the point where +Washington's army, coming into town from the north, first engaged the +enemy. Here Alexander Hamilton, then Captain of the New York State +Company of Artillery, opened fire from his battery on the Hessians, +who fled through the town, along Warren, then called King Street. The +monument is a fluted Roman-Doric column, rising one hundred and +thirty-five feet, surmounted by a statue of Washington, representing +him standing, field-glass in hand, surveying the flying Hessians, his +right arm pointing down Warren Street. The elevated top of this +monument gives a grand view over the surrounding country, the course +of the Delaware being traced for miles. The subsequent fortnight's +campaign ending in the battle of Princeton revived the drooping +spirits of the Americans, and was said by as accomplished a soldier as +Frederick the Great to be among "the most brilliant in the annals of +military achievements." Trenton is at the head of tidewater on the +Delaware, the stream coming down rapids, known as the "Falls." On the +Pennsylvania side is Morrisville, called after Robert Morris, who +lived there during the Revolution. His estate subsequently became the +home of the famous French General Jean Victor Moreau, the victor at +Hohenlinden, who was exiled by Napoleon in 1804. He returned to Europe +afterwards at the invitation of the Czar Alexander, and devised for +him a plan for invading France. They were both at the battle of +Dresden in 1813, and were consulting about a certain manoeuvre when +a cannon ball from Napoleon's Guard broke both Moreau's legs, and he +died five days afterwards. + + +PRINCETON BATTLE AND COLLEGE. + +A few days after Washington's victory at Trenton, Cornwallis, in +January, 1777, advanced across Jersey to crush the Americans, but he +was repulsed at the ford of Assunpink Creek in Trenton. Then +Washington resorted to a ruse. Leaving his camp-fires brightly burning +near the creek at night to deceive the enemy, he quietly withdrew, and +made a forced march ten miles northeast to Princeton, and fell upon +three British regiments there, who were hastening to join Cornwallis, +defeating them, and storming Nassau Hall, in which some of the +fugitives had taken refuge. Trenton is in Mercer County, named in +honor of General Hugh Mercer, who fell in this battle, at the head of +the Philadelphia troops. Princeton is a town of about thirty-five +hundred inhabitants, a quiet place of elegant residences, in a level +and luxuriant country. It is the seat of the College of New Jersey, +originally founded at Elizabeth, near New York, in 1746, and +transferred here in 1757. It is best known as Nassau Hall, or +Princeton University, being liberally endowed, and having notable +buildings surrounding its spacious campus, and is a Presbyterian +foundation, which has about eleven hundred students. The original +Nassau Hall erected in 1757, but burnt many years ago, was so named by +the Synod "to express the honor we retain in this remote part of the +globe to the immortal memory of the glorious King William the Third, +who was a branch of the illustrious House of Nassau." Dr. John +Witherspoon, the celebrated Scotch Presbyterian divine, who was one of +the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was for thirty years +its President, and among the early graduates were two other signers, +Richard Stockton and Benjamin Rush. The final conflict of the battle +of Princeton raged around this venerated building, and Washington +presented fifty guineas to the College to repair the damage done by +his bombardment. In the adjacent Presbyterian Theological Seminary +have been educated many able clergymen. In Princeton Cemetery are the +remains of the wonderful preacher and metaphysician, Jonathan Edwards, +who became President of the College in 1758, dying shortly afterwards. +A panegyrist, describing his merits as a great Church leader, +compressed all in this remarkable sentence: "These three--Augustine, +Calvin and Jonathan Edwards." His son-in-law and predecessor as +President was Rev. Aaron Burr; and near his humble monument is +another, marking the grave of his grandson, who was an infant when the +great preacher died, and whose career was in such startling +contrast--the notorious Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United +States. + + +MARSHALL'S WALK. + +The Delaware River above Trenton is for miles a stream of alternating +pools and rapids, with canals on either side, passing frequent +villages and displaying pleasant scenery as it breaks through the +successive ridges in its approach to the mountains. Alongside the +river, in Solebury, Bucks County, in the early part of the eighteenth +century, was the humble home of the pioneer and hunter, Edward +Marshall, who made the fateful "walk" of 1737, the injustice of which +so greatly provoked the Indians, and was a chief cause of the most +savage Indian War of Colonial times. All the country west of the +Delaware, as far up as the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, was obtained +from the Indians by the deception of this "walk." The Indians in those +early times measured their distances by "days' journeys," and in +various treaties with the white men transferred tracts of land by the +measurement of "days' walks." William Penn had bought the land as far +up as Makefield and Wrightstown in Bucks County, and after his death +his descendants, Thomas and Richard Penn, became anxious to enlarge +the purchase, and this "walk" was the result. After a good deal of +preliminary negotiation, several sachems of the Lenni Lenapes were +brought to Philadelphia, and on August 25, 1737, made a treaty ceding +additional lands beginning "on a line drawn from a certain spruce tree +on the river Delaware by a west-northwest course to Neshaminy Creek; +from thence back into the woods as far as a man can go in a day and a +half, and bounded in the west by Neshaminy or the most westerly branch +thereof, so far as the said branch doth extend, and from thence by a +line to the utmost extent of the day and a half's walk, and from +thence to the aforesaid river Delaware; and so down the courses of the +river to the first-mentioned spruce tree." The Indians thought this +"walk" might cover the land as far north as the Lehigh, but there was +deliberate deception practiced. An erroneous map was exhibited +indicating a line extending about as far north as Bethlehem on the +Lehigh, and this deceived the Indians. The white officials had +previously been quietly going over the ground far north of the Lehigh, +blazing routes by marking trees, all of which was carefully concealed, +and Marshall and others had been employed on these "trial walks." A +reward of five hundred acres of land was promised the walkers. + +Marshall and two others, Jennings and Yeates, were selected to do the +walking, all young and athletic hunters, experienced in woodcraft and +inured to hardships. The walk was fixed for September 19th, under +charge of the Sheriff, and before sunrise of that day a large number +of people gathered at the starting-point at Wrightstown, a few miles +west of the Delaware. An obelisk on a pile of boulders now marks the +spot at the corner of the Quaker Burying Ground, bearing an +inscription, "To the Memory of the Lenni Lenape Indians, ancient +owners of this region, these stones are placed at this spot, the +starting-point of the 'Indian walk,' September 19, 1737." The start +was made from a chestnut tree, three Indians afoot accompanying the +three walkers, while the Sheriff, surveyors and others, carrying +provisions, bedding and liquors, were on horseback. Just as the sun +rose above the horizon at six o'clock they started. When they had gone +about two miles, Jennings gave out. They halted fifteen minutes for +dinner at noon, soon afterwards crossed the Lehigh near the site of +Bethlehem, turned up that river, and at fifteen minutes past six in +the evening, completing the day's journey of twelve hours actual +travel, the Sheriff, watch in hand, called to them, as they were +mounting a little hill, to "pull up." Marshall, thus notified, clasped +his arms about a sapling for support, saying "he was almost gone, and +if he had proceeded a few poles farther he must have fallen." Yeates +seemed less distressed. The Indians were dissatisfied from the +outset, claiming the walk should have been made up the river, and not +inland. When the Lehigh was crossed, early in the afternoon, they +became sullen, complaining of the rapid gait of the walkers, and +several times protesting against their running. Before sunset two +Indians left, saying they would go no farther, that the walkers would +pass all the good land, and after that it made no difference how far +or where they went. The third Indian continued some distance, when he +lay down to rest and could go no farther. + +The halt for the night was made about a half-mile from the Indian +village of Hokendauqua, a name which means "searching for land." This +was the village of Lappawinzoe, one of the sachems who had made the +treaty. The next morning was rainy, and messengers were sent him to +request a detail of Indians to accompany the walkers. He was in ugly +humor and declined, but some Indians strolled into camp and took +liquor, and Yeates also drank rather freely. The horses were hunted +up, and the second day's start made along the Lehigh Valley at eight +o'clock, some of the Indians accompanying for a short distance through +the rain, but soon leaving, dissatisfied. The route was +north-northwest through the woods, Marshall carrying a compass, by +which he held his course. In crossing a creek at the base of the +mountains, Yeates, who had become very lame and tired, staggered and +fell, but Marshall pushed on, followed by two of the party on +horseback. At two o'clock the "walk" ended on the north side of the +Pocono or Broad Mountain, not far from the present site of Mauch +Chunk. The distance "walked" in eighteen hours was about sixty-eight +miles, a remarkable performance, considering the condition of the +country. The terminus of the "walk" was marked by placing stones in +the forks of five trees, and the surveyors then proceeded to complete +the work by marking the line of northern limit of the tract across to +the Delaware River. This was done, not by taking the shortest route to +the river, but by running a line at right angles with the general +direction of the "walk;" and after four days' progress, practically +parallel to the Delaware, through what was then described as a "barren +mountainous region," the surveyors reached the river, in the upper +part of Pike County, near the mouth of Shohola Creek, just below the +Lackawaxen. + +The Indians were loud in their complaints of the greediness shown in +this walk, and particularly of the carrying of the surveyors' line so +far to the northward, which none of them had anticipated. Marshall was +told by one old Indian, subsequently, "No sit down to smoke--no shoot +squirrel; but lun, lun, lun, all day long." Lappawinzoe, thoroughly +disgusted, said, "Next May we will go to Philadelphia, each one with a +buckskin, repay the presents, and take the lands back again." The +lands, however, were sold to speculators, so this was not practicable, +and when the new owners sought to occupy them, the Indians refused to +vacate. This provoked disputes over a half-million acres, a vast +domain. The Penns, to defend their position, afterwards repudiated the +surveyors, and they never fulfilled their promise to give Marshall +five hundred acres. This did not mend matters, however, and the Lenni +Lenape Indians' attitude became constantly more threatening, until the +scared Proprietary invited the intervention of their hereditary +enemies, the Iroquois Confederation, or Six Nations. In 1742 two +hundred and thirty leading Iroquois were brought to Philadelphia, and +the dispute submitted to their arbitration. They sided with the +Proprietary, and the Lenni Lenapes reluctantly withdrew to the Wyoming +Valley, part going as far west as Ohio. But they thirsted for revenge, +and when the French began attacking the frontier settlements, these +Indians became willing allies, making many raids and wreaking terrible +vengeance upon the innocent frontiersmen throughout Pennsylvania. +Marshall, who never got his reward, removed his cabin farther up the +Delaware, above the mouth of the Lehigh. The Indians always pursued +him, as an arch-conspirator, for a special vengeance. They attacked +his cabin, killing his wife and wounding a daughter, he escaping by +being absent. They made a second attack, and killed a son. His whole +life was embittered by these murders, and he lost no opportunity for +retaliation, removing, for greater safety, to an island in the river. +They pursued him for forty years, a party of Indians, during the +Revolution in 1777, coming all the way from Ohio to kill him, but he +eluded them and escaped. His closing years, however, were passed +peacefully, and he died at the age of ninety at his island home in the +Delaware. + + +THE NARROWS AND THE FORKS. + +The Tohickon Creek, the chief stream of Bucks County, flows into the +Delaware at Point Pleasant, its Indian name of Tohick-hanne meaning +"the stream crossed by a drift-wood bridge." Here in the river are +many rapids or "rifts," some having been given curious names by the +early raftsmen who used to "shoot" them--such as the "Buck Tail rift," +the "Cut Bite rift," the "Man-of-War rift," the "Ground Hog rift," and +the "Old Sow rift." The river makes many sweeping curves in passing +through the gorges, and it displays the Nockamixon Rocks or +"Pennsylvania Palisades," a series of about three miles of beetling +crags, of rich red and brown sandstone, rising four hundred feet, +almost perpendicularly, and making a grand gorge known as the Narrows. +The ridge which the river thus bisects is known as Rock Hill in +Pennsylvania, and across in New Jersey stretches away to the northeast +as the Musconetcong Mountain. Above, the Musconetcong River, the +Indian "rapid runner," flows in at Reigelsville, a town on both sides +of the Delaware. This was the Indian village of Pechequeolin in the +early eighteenth century, where iron works, the first on the Delaware, +were started in 1727, famous for making the "Franklin" and "Adam and +Eve" stoves that were so popular among our ancestors, the latter +bearing in bold relief a striking representation of our first parents +in close consultation with the serpent. Just above, the Delaware comes +out through the massive gorge of the Durham Hills or South Mountain, +north of which the Lehigh River flows in from the southwest amid iron +mills and slag heaps, with numerous bridges bringing the various +Lehigh coal railways across from Easton to Phillipsburg. This is the +confluence with the Lehigh, known in early times as the "Forks of the +Delaware." To this place the Lenni Lenapes often came to treat and +trade with the Penns, and a town was founded there when John Penn was +the Proprietor. He was then a newly-married man, and had courted his +bride, a daughter of Lord Pomfret, at her father's English +country-house of Easton in Northamptonshire. So the new town was +called Easton and the county Northampton, at the junction of the +Delaware with the Indian Lechwiechink, signifying "where there are +forks." This name was shortened to Lecha, and afterwards became the +Lehigh. The two towns literally hang upon the hillsides, Mount +Parnassus looking down upon Phillipsburg, named after the old chief +Phillip, who had the original village there, while Easton is +compressed between the South Mountain and the long ridge of Chestnut +Hill, rising seven hundred feet, where the Paxinosa Inn recalls the +sturdy Paxanose, the last of the Shawnee kings who lived east of the +Alleghenies. Through these towns and across the bridges spanning the +Delaware roll constant processions of coal trains bringing the +anthracite out from the Lehigh and Wyoming coal-fields to market. + +Easton dates from 1737 and has about fifteen thousand people, but its +growth did not come until the coal trade was developed. The Lehigh +Canal started this, and upon it Asa Packer was a boatman before the +railway era, and carried goods for the industrious Frenchman, Ario +Pardee, who then had a mill and store at Hazleton, back in the +interior. These were the two leaders in developing the Lehigh coal +trade. The chief institution of Easton is Lafayette College, a +Presbyterian foundation, its main building being Pardee Hall, a gift +of Ario Pardee. It is largely a school of the mine, and is devoted to +that branch of scientific research. Here often came the famous +Teedyuscung, the eloquent sachem of the Lenni Lenapes, who, in the +councils at the "Forks," pleaded for his people's rights. The last +remnant of his tribe, having been pressed farther and farther towards +the setting sun, now live as the "Delaware Indians" out in Oklahoma, +there being barely ninety of them, where Hon. Charles Journeycake, at +last advices, was the "King of the Delawares," the successor of +Teedyuscung and of St. Tammany. Phillipsburg was originally settled by +Dutch, and its prosperity was based chiefly on the Morris Canal, which +crossed New Jersey through Newark to New York harbor, a work since +abandoned for transportation purposes. It was a wonderful canal in its +day, crossing mountain ranges of nine hundred feet. This was made +possible by the high elevation of Lake Hopatcong, which furnished most +of the water for the levels. While some of the elevations were +overcome by locks, the greater ones were mounted by inclined planes up +which the boats were drawn, the machinery of the planes being worked +by water-power taken from the higher canal levels. Its chief +usefulness now is the supply of water to Newark, the descent from Lake +Hopatcong on that side being nine hundred and fourteen feet. This +beautiful lake, supplied with the purest spring water, is nine miles +long and about four miles wide, dotted with islands, its rock-bound +shores encompassed by surrounding mountains giving charming scenery. +Small steamboats navigate it, and the name Hopatcong means "Stone over +the Water," referring to an artificial causeway of stone the Indians +had, connecting with one of the islands, but which is now submerged. + + +BETHLEHEM AND THE MORAVIANS. + +The Lehigh River flows out of the Alleghenies through a deep and +tortuous valley which rends the mountain ridges until it strikes +against the South Mountain range, here called the Durham Hills, and +then turns northeast along its base to the Delaware. At this bend the +Saucon Creek comes in from the south and the Monocacy Creek from the +north, and here, twelve miles from Easton, is Bethlehem. This +manufacturing town of twenty thousand population is one of the noted +places of the Lehigh Valley. A large part of the lowlands along the +river are occupied by the extensive works of the Bethlehem Steel +Company, where the big guns, armor and crank-shafts are made for the +navy, while on the slopes of the South Mountain are the noble +buildings of the Lehigh University, the munificent benefaction of Asa +Packer, supporting four hundred students of the technical studies +developing mining and railways. On the hill slopes of the northern +river bank is the original Moravian town, oddly built of bricks and +stone, with a steep slate roof on nearly every house. It was one of +the earliest and the most important of the settlements in America of +the refugee followers of John Huss, the "Congregation of the United +Brethren," and for a century was under its absolute government. In the +winter of 1740 the first trees were cut down that formed the log hut +which was the first house on this part of the Lehigh. Count +Zinzendorf, their leader, arrived from Moravia, with his young +daughter Benigna, before the second house was built, and celebrated +with the settlers the Christmas Eve of 1741. They had called the place +Beth-Lechem, "the house upon the Lehigh," but it is related that +towards midnight on this occasion Zinzendorf, becoming deeply moved, +seized a blazing torch and earnestly sang a German hymn: + + "Not Jerusalem--lowly Bethlehem + 'Twas that gave us Christ to save us." + +Thus the young settlement got its name. Receiving large accessions by +immigration, it soon grew into activity, and outstripping Easton, +became the commercial depot of the Upper Delaware and the Lehigh, +sending missionaries among the Indians, and during the Revolution was +a busy manufacturing town. For the first thirty years it was a pure +"commune," the church elders regulating the labor of all the people, +and afterwards, until 1844, the church council of the "Congregation" +ruled everything, this exclusive system being then abandoned. +Proceeding up a winding highway from the river, the old "Moravian Sun +Inn" is passed, the building, dating from 1758, being modernized; and +mounting the higher hill above the Main Street, the visitor soon gets +into the heart of the original Moravian Colony, among the ancient and +spacious hip-roofed, slate-covered stone houses, with their ponderous +gables. Though dwelling in communism, the Moravians strictly separated +the sexes in house, street, church and graveyard, taking good care of +the lone females, whether maidens or widows. Here are the "Widows' +House" and the "Single Sisters' House," quaintly attractive with their +broad oaken stairways, diminutive windows, stout furniture and +sun-dials, tiled and flagged pavements, low ceilings, steep roofs and +odd gables. The "Sisters' House" was built in 1742. The "Congregation +House" and "Theological Seminary" are also here; and, best known of +all, the Moravian "Young Ladies' Seminary," an extensive and widely +celebrated institution, dating from 1749, whose educational methods +are those founded by the noted John Amos Commenius, who flourished in +the seventeenth century, and whose life-size portrait bust is sacredly +preserved in the school, as is also the old sun-dial of 1748 on the +southern front of one of the buildings. + +The Moravian Church, a large square building, fronts the Main Street, +and here are held the great festivals at Christmas and Easter which +bring many visitors to Bethlehem. Its most interesting adjunct is the +"Dead House" alongside, a small pointed gothic steep-roofed building, +which is used whenever a member dies. The public announcement of the +death is made at sunrise from the church cupola by the "trombone +choir," who go up there and vigorously blow their horns, one standing +facing each of the four points of the compass. The funeral services +are held in the church, but the corpse is not taken there, it being +deposited in the "Dead House," and guarded by the pall-bearers during +the ceremony. This ended, a procession solemnly marches farther up the +hill, led by the trombones, playing a dirge, escorting the corpse and +mourners to the ancient graveyard. Here are the graves of the +faithful, resting beneath grand old trees, all the men on one side of +the central path and the women on the other. There are no monuments or +family lots, but the graves stretch across the cemetery in long rows, +each row being completed before another is begun, the latest corpse, +without reference to relationship, being laid alongside the last +interred, so that the row of graves shows the chronological succession +of the deaths. All are treated alike, the dead bishop resting +alongside the humblest of the flock, a small square stone being laid +upon each flattened grave, marked with name and date of birth and +death, and usually a number. Only one person--a woman--has any sign of +distinction above the others in this unique cemetery. She was +Deaconess Juliana Nitschman, wife of Bishop John Nitschman, who died +in 1751, greatly beloved by the Congregation, and was honored by being +given a special grave in the path in the centre of the yard, between +the men and the women. There are some fifty graves of Indian converts +in the early days, among them "Tschoop of the Mohicans," whom Cooper, +the novelist, has immortalized, the brave and eloquent father of his +hero Uncas. The record of the conversion of the famous King +Teedyuscung is kept in the Moravian Congregation, and his exploits are +frequently described in their annals. He lived on the meadow land down +by the river, having gone there in 1730 from near Trenton, where he +was born about 1700, and in 1742 he released the lands at Bethlehem to +the Moravians. He was impressed by the persuasions of the preachers, +and after a long probation, in 1750 was baptized under the name of +Gideon. Bishop Cammerhoff, on March 12th, made an entry which, +translated, reads, "To-day I baptized Tatius Kundt, the chief among +sinners." He was made Grand Sachem of the Lenni Lenapes in 1754, but +he backslid from the Church, and joined in the pillage and massacre of +the Colonial wars. He became dissipated, but was afterwards reconciled +to the whites and removed to Wyoming, where the Iroquois in 1763 made +a raid, and finding him in a drunken stupor in his wigwam, they set +fire to it and he was burnt to death. + +During the Revolution the Moravians were of great use to the army, +conducting hospitals at Bethlehem and providing supplies. In 1778 the +"Single Sisters" made and presented to Count Pulaski a finely +embroidered silk banner, afterwards carried by his regiment, and +preserved by the Maryland Historical Society. Longfellow has +beautifully enshrined this memory in his "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns" +at its consecration: + + "When the dying flame of day + Through the chancel shot its ray, + Far the glimmering tapers shed + Faint light on the cowled head, + And the censer burning swung + Where before the altar hung + That proud banner, which, with prayer, + Had been consecrated there; + And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while + Sung low in the dim mysterious aisle-- + + "'Take thy banner. May it wave + Proudly o'er the good and brave, + When the battle's distant wail + Breaks the Sabbath of our vale; + When the clarion's music thrills + To the heart of these lone hills; + When the spear in conflict shakes, + And the strong lance, quivering, breaks.'" + + +MAUCH CHUNK AND COAL MINING. + +The Lehigh above Bethlehem comes through the clear-cut "Lehigh Gap" in +the Blue Ridge, which stretches off to the northeast, where are two +other notches, one cut partly down and the other deeply cut--the first +being the "Wind Gap" and the other the "Delaware Water Gap." The +Indians used to tell the early pioneers that the wind came through the +one and the water through the other. The Jordan Creek flows out from +the South Mountain, and in the valley is Allentown, the chief city of +the Lehigh, having thirty thousand people, and numerous factories and +breweries. Here is the township of Macungie, which is Indian for "the +feeding-place of bears." It was to Allentown, when the British +captured Philadelphia, that in 1777 were hastily taken the Liberty +Bell and the chimes of Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, being +concealed beneath the floor of old Zion Church to prevent their +capture and confiscation. Above Allentown the Lehigh traverses the +valley between the South Mountain and the Blue Ridge, passing +Catasauqua, "the thirsty land," and Hokendauqua, seats of extensive +iron manufacture, the first of these establishments on the Lehigh, +founded in 1839 by David Thomas, who came out from Wales for the +purpose. Then we get among the slate factories in crossing the vast +slate measures that adjoin the Blue Ridge, and go quickly through the +deep notch in the tall and here very narrow ridge, the waters foaming +over the slaty bed, its thin layers standing up in long straight lines +across the stream. Beyond is another valley, and then comes the +wide-topped range known as the Broad Mountain. In this valley was +Gaudenhutten, where the Indian trail, known as the "Warrior's Path," +crossed the Lehigh, and where the first Moravian missionaries from +Bethlehem came and built a church and converted the Indians. It was +the scene of one of the terrible massacres of the Colonial wars. +Within the gorge of the Broad Mountain is the oddest town on the +Lehigh, Mauch Chunk. + +This noted coal town has two principal streets--one laid along the +front of a mountain wall above the river bank, and the other at right +angles, stretching back through a cleft in the mountain. Most things +are set on edge in Mauch Chunk, and the man who may have the front +door of his house on the street often goes out of an upper story into +the back yard, which slopes steeply upward. Mount Pisgah rises high +above, crowned with the chimneys of the machine-house of an +inclined-plane railway. A view from it discloses a novel landscape +beneath, the railroads, canal, river and front street all being +compressed together into the narrow curving gorge which bends around +Bear Mountain, the "Mauch Chunk" over opposite. The red sandstone is +universal, and the chocolate-colored roads leading out of town are +carved into the mountain walls. Through the centre of the place the +river pours over a canal dam, its roaring mingled with the noise of +constantly moving coal trains. The curious conical Bear Mountain, +around which everything curves, rises seven hundred feet high, and the +town, which has about four thousand people, rests at various +elevations, wherever houses can get room to stand--in gullies or +gorges, or hanging on the hillsides. From every point of view rises +the tall and quaintly turreted tower of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, +looking like an ancient feudal castle of the Rhine, which was built as +a memorial of Asa Packer by his widow; for here was his home, and his +grave is in the cemetery almost over the roof of his house. + +At Summit Hill, nine miles northwest of Mauch Chunk, the anthracite +coal of this region was first discovered. Philip Ginter, a hunter, +found it while roaming over Sharp Mountain in 1791. This "stone coal" +was carried down to Philadelphia and exhibited, and a company was +formed, taking up ten thousand acres on the mountain and opening a +mine. For thirty years they had disappointments, as nobody would use +the coal, which cost about $14 per ton to transport to Philadelphia. +To cheapen this, efforts were made to improve the navigation of the +Lehigh, out of which grew the canal which was the early route of the +coal to that city. Asa Packer once said that in 1820 three hundred and +eighty-five tons went to Philadelphia, and this choked the market. In +1827, when the mining at Summit Hill had got a good start, the +"Switchback" gravity railroad was built to bring the coal out from the +mines to the river at Mauch Chunk. The loaded coal cars ran by their +own momentum nine miles down a grade of about ninety feet to the mile. +To get the cars back, they were hauled up the inclined plane on Mount +Pisgah, then run by gravity six miles inland to Mount Jefferson, where +they were hauled up a second plane, and then they ran three miles +farther by gravity to the mines. This route was used for many years, +but was afterwards superseded by another railway, and now the +famous "Switchback" is a summer excursion route for tourists who +delight in the exhilarating rides down the gravity slopes. At Summit +Hill and in the Panther Creek Valley, a large output of coal is mined +and sent through a railway tunnel to the Lehigh, and there is at +Summit Hill a burning mine which has been smouldering more than a +half-century. Asa Packer developed this region, while, farther up the +river, branch lines come in from the Mahanoy and Hazleton regions, +which were the field of operations of Ario Pardee; and the two went +hand in hand in fostering the prosperity of the Lehigh Valley. + + [Illustration: _Mauch Chunk_] + +The upper waters of the Lehigh flow through a wild canyon, the river +at times almost doubling upon itself as it makes sharp bends around +the bold promontories. Enormous hills encompass it about, the stream +often flowing through the bottom with the rush and foam of a miniature +Niagara rapids. The canal, abandoned above Mauch Chunk, was destroyed +by a freshet many years ago, but the amber-colored waters still pour +over the dilapidated dams and through the moss-grown sluices. There +are log houses for the lumbermen, also an almost obsolete industry, +and finally the railways abandon the diminutive Lehigh and climb over +the desolate Nescopec Mountain, to go through the Sugar Notch and down +the other side into the Vale of Wyoming and to the banks of the +Susquehanna. Upon the eastern slopes of the Nescopec the Lehigh has +its sources, gathering the tribute of many small streams between this +ridge and Broad Mountain. + + +THE VALE OF WYOMING. + +The railroads cross the height of land between the sources of the +Lehigh and the affluents of the Susquehanna, through the Sugar Notch, +at about eighteen hundred feet elevation. When the train moves out to +the western verge of Nescopec Mountain there suddenly bursts upon the +gladdened sight the finest scenic view in Pennsylvania--over the fair +Vale of Wyoming, with all its gorgeous beauties of towns and villages, +forests and farms, under the bright sunlight, and having laid across +it the distant silver streak of the glinting Susquehanna River, all +spread out in a magnificent picture seen from an elevation of twelve +hundred feet above the river level. For nearly twenty miles the +Susquehanna can be traced through the long, trough-like valley, from +where it breaks in through the Lackawannock Gap in the North Mountain, +under Campbell's Ledge, far to the northward, away down south to where +it passes out the narrow gorge at Nanticoke Gap. The long ridges of +the Nescopec and Moosic Mountains enclose the valley on one side, and +over on the other are the great North Mountain or Shawnee range, and +the higher ridge of the main Allegheny range behind. In the distant +northeast the view is prolonged up the Lackawanna Valley. In this +splendid Wyoming Vale, spread out like a map, is a landscape of rich +agriculture, dotted over with towns and villages, coal-breakers and +huge culm-piles, the long snake-like streaks of railways crossing the +scene bearing their little puffing engines. It looks much like what +one sees out of a balloon. Here is the village of Nanticoke, then +Plymouth, then the spreading city of Wilkesbarre, and, far beyond, the +foliage-hidden houses of Pittston, near the gorge where the river +flows in. Between them all are clusters of villages and black coal +heaps, with myriads of the little green and brown fields, making +distant farms. The river reaches sparkle in the light as the long +shadows are cast from the mountains, and the train runs rapidly down +the mountain side and across the valley to its chief city, +Wilkesbarre. + +When the broad and shallow and rock-strewn river Susquehanna, on its +way down from Otsego Lake in New York to the Chesapeake, breaks +through the North Mountain, its valley expands to three or four miles +in width, making a fertile region between the high enclosing ridges +which the Indians called Maughwauwama, or the "extensive flat plains." +This sonorous name underwent many changes, finally becoming known as +Wyoming. Luzerne County is the lower and Lackawanna County the upper +portion of this noted valley, which is the greatest anthracite +coal-field in the world. These Wyoming coal measures underlie +seventy-seven square miles, having veins averaging eighty feet in +thickness, and about eighty thousand tons to the acre, the aggregate +deposit of coal being estimated to exceed two thousand millions of +tons. The large population and enormous production have caused all the +railways to send in branches to tap its lucrative traffic, so that it +is the best-served region in Pennsylvania. It has two large +cities--Wilkesbarre, in Luzerne, and Scranton, in Lackawanna. +Wilkesbarre is on the eastern Susquehanna river bank, a town of forty +thousand people, named after the two English champions of American +Colonial rights. It covers much surface in the centre of the valley, +with suburbs spreading far up the mountain sides. But from almost +every point of view in the city the outlook is over black culm-heaps +or coal-breakers or at rows of coal cars, so that there is a monotony +in the steady reminder of the source of their riches, the omnipresent +anthracite. About twelve miles northwest of Wilkesbarre, up in the +North Mountain range, is the largest lake in Pennsylvania--Harvey's +Lake--elevated nearly thirteen hundred feet and covering about two +square miles. It is named after one of the early pioneers from +Connecticut, and its outflow comes down to the Susquehanna near +Nanticoke Gap. Its pleasant shores are a favorite resort of the +Wilkesbarre people. The flourishing city of Scranton is about nineteen +miles north of Wilkesbarre, in the Lackawanna Valley. It has grown to +a population of a hundred thousand people, and is picturesquely +situated among the coal mines, with a higher elevation than +Wilkesbarre, being nearly eleven hundred feet above tide, at the +confluence of the Roaring Brook with the Lackawanna River; and it has +extensive iron industries, being the chief city of northeastern +Pennsylvania. The Wyoming and Lackawanna coal pits, while the greatest +anthracite producers, are not generally so deep as those of the Lehigh +or Schuylkill regions. The deepest Pennsylvania shaft goes down +seventeen hundred feet near Pottsville. Some of the Wyoming galleries +run a mile and a half underground from the shaft, following the coal +veins underneath and far beyond the Susquehanna. + +This noted Wyoming Vale, in the early history of the Pennsylvania +frontier, was bought from the Iroquois Indians, the "Six Nations," by +an association of pioneer settlers from Connecticut. Good management, +due largely to the judicious methods of the early missionaries, kept +them at peace with the Indians. Count Zinzendorf, with a companion, +came up from Bethlehem in 1742, before the Connecticut purchase, and +founded a Moravian mission among the Shawnees in the valley. It is +said that they were suspicious of European rapacity and plotted his +assassination, and the historian relates that the Count was alone in +his tent, reclining upon a bundle of dry weeds, destined for his bed, +and engaged in writing or in devout meditation, when the assassins +crept stealthily up. A blanket-curtain formed the door, and, gently +raising the corner, the Indians had a full view of the patriarch, with +the calmness of a saint upon his benignant features. They were struck +with awe. But this was not all. The night was cool, and he had kindled +a small fire. The historian continues: "Warmed by the flame, a large +rattlesnake had crept from its covert, and, approaching the fire for +its greater enjoyment, glided harmlessly over one of the legs of the +holy man, whose thoughts at the moment were not occupied upon the +grovelling things of earth. He perceived not the serpent, but the +Indians, with breathless attention, had observed the whole movement of +the poisonous reptile; and as they gazed upon the aspect and attitude +of the Count, their enmity was immediately changed to reverence; and +in the belief that their intended victim enjoyed the special +protection of the Great Spirit, they desisted from their bloody +purpose and retired. Thenceforward the Count was regarded by the +Indians with the most profound veneration." + +When the Revolution came, the settlement was a thriving agricultural +colony of about two thousand people, scattered over the valley, with a +village on the river shore just above the present site of Wilkesbarre. +In June, 1778, a force of British troops, Tories and Indians entered +the valley and attacked them, and on July 3d the terrible Wyoming +massacre followed, in which the British officers were unable to set +any bounds to the atrocious butchery by their savage allies, who +killed about three hundred men, women and children. The poet Campbell +has painted the previous pastoral scene of happiness and content in +"Gertrude of Wyoming," and told the tale of atrocity perpetrated by +the savages, which is one of the most horrible tragedies of that great +war. This poem tells of + + "A stoic of the woods--a man without a tear." + +Beside the river below Pittston and near the village of Wyoming, +having the great North Mountain for a background, was Fort Forty, the +scene of the chief atrocities of the massacre, the site being now +marked by a granite obelisk. Here is the burial-place of the remains +of the slaughtered. "Queen Esther's Rock" is pointed out, where the +half-breed Queen of the Senecas, to avenge the death of her son, is +said to have herself tomahawked fourteen defenceless prisoners. Most +of the survivors fled after this horror, and they did not return to +the valley until long after peace was restored, when the infant +settlement was renewed in the founding of Wilkesbarre. Far up on the +side of the grand peak guarding the northern portal of the +Lackawannock Gap is the broad shelf of rock which embalms in +"Campbell's Ledge" the memory of the great English poet who has so +graphically told the harrowing tale. + + +THE TERMINAL MORAINE. + +The Delaware River above the "Forks," at the mouth of the Lehigh, +breaks through a narrow notch in the Chestnut Hill ridge known as the +"Little Water Gap," while farther to the northeast the ridge continues +through New Jersey as the Jenny Jump Mountain. Above this is the noted +"Foul Rift," where the river channel is filled with boulders and rocks +of all sizes and shapes, the dread of the raftsmen who gave it the +name, for many a raft has been wrecked there. But while this place is +shunned by the navigator, it has an absorbing attraction for the +geologist. This was where the great "Terminal Moraine" of the glacial +epoch crossed the Delaware, recalling the "Ice Age," to which +reference has already been made. When the vast Greenland ice-cap crept +down so as to overspread northeastern America and northwestern Europe +and filled the intervening Atlantic bed, it broke off many rocky +fragments in its southward advance, scratching the surfaces of the +ledges, and the fragments held in its grip, with striated lines and +grooves in the direction of its movement. The ice steadily flowed +southward, coming over mountain and valley alike in a continuous +sheet, enveloping the ocean and adjacent continents, and finally +halted on the Delaware about sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Its +southern verge spread across America from Alaska to St. Louis, and +thence to the Atlantic on the northern coast of New Jersey. Its +southern boundary entered Western Pennsylvania near Beaver, passing +northeast to the New York line; then turning southeast, it crossed the +Lehigh about ten miles northwest of Mauch Chunk and the Delaware just +below Belvidere. It crossed New Jersey to Staten Island, traversed the +length of Long Island, and passed out to sea, appearing on Block +Island, Cape Cod, St. George's Bank and Sable Island Shoal, south of +Nova Scotia. The boundary of the glacier west of the "Foul Rift" on +the Delaware appears as a range of low gravel hills, which are piled +upon the slate hills of Northampton farther west, and reach the base +of the Blue Ridge three miles east of the "Wind Gap." The boundary +here mounted and crossed the Kittatinny ridge sixteen hundred feet +high, being well shown upon its summit, and then passed over the +intervening valley to the Broad Mountain or Pocono range. The Delaware +at the "Foul Rift" is elevated two hundred and fifty feet above tide; +and where the glacier boundary crossed the mountains in the interior +it was at about twenty-six hundred feet elevation on the highest land +in Potter County, the Continental watershed. + +This vast glacier was so thick as to overtop even Mount Washington, +for it dropped transported boulders on the summit of that highest peak +in New England. Its southern edge in Pennsylvania was at least eight +hundred feet thick in solid ice. A hundred miles back among the +Catskills it was thirty-one hundred feet thick, and two hundred miles +back in northern New England it was five thousand to six thousand feet +thick, being still thicker farther northward. The Pocono Knob, near +Stroudsburg, in Pike County, Pennsylvania, out-topped the glacier, and +jutted out almost like an island surrounded by ice. The late Professor +H. Carvill Lewis, who closely studied this glacier, has described how, +all over the country which it covered, it dropped what is known as the +"northern drift," or "till," or "hardpan," in scattered deposits of +stones, clay, gravel and _débris_ of all kinds, brought down from the +northward as the ice moved along, and irregularly dumped upon the +surface, thickly in some places and thinly in others, with many +boulders, some of enormous size. It abraded all the rock surfaces +crossed, and transported and rounded and striated the fragments torn +off in its resistless passage. The line of farthest southern advance +of the ice is shown by the "Terminal Moraine," stretching across +country, which put the obstructions into the "Foul Rift." A glacier +always pushes up at its foot a mound of material composed of fragments +of rocks of all shapes and sizes, which the ice has taken up at +various points along its flow and carried to its terminus, thus +forming the moraine. This "Terminal Moraine" has been traced and +carefully studied for four hundred miles across Pennsylvania, showing +throughout a remarkable accumulation of drift materials and boulders, +heaped into irregular hills and hollows over a strip of land nearly a +mile wide. The action of the Delaware River currents at the "Foul +Rift" has washed out the finer materials and cobblestones, leaving +only the larger boulders and rocks to perplex the navigator. + +Some of the performances of this great glacier in the region adjacent +to the Delaware are remarkable. It has carried huge granite boulders +from the far north and planted them all along the summit of the +Kittatinny where it crossed. It has torn out big pieces of limestone, +some of them thirty feet long, from their beds in Monroe County, north +of this range, carried them in the ice more than a thousand feet up +its steep northern face and over the summit, finally dropping them on +the south side in the moraine in the slate valley of Northampton. +These immense limestone rocks made comparatively short journeys, but +one ponderous boulder of syenite from the Adirondacks was found in +Northampton, well rounded and dressed, having travelled in the ice at +least two hundred miles. There has also been found a "glacial groove" +upon the rocks of the Kittatinny near the Water Gap, where some +ponderous fragment, imbedded in the ice, as it moved along has gouged +out a great scratch six feet wide and seventy feet in length. Although +this ice had evidently resistless power in its slow motion, yet it +seems to have had small influence upon the topography of the country. +It appears to have merely "sand-papered" the surfaces of the rocks. It +passed bodily across the sharp edges of the upright sandstone strata +of the Kittatinny, yet has not had appreciable effect in cutting the +ridge down, the glaciated portion east of the "Wind Gap" appearing as +high and as sharply defined as the unglaciated part to the westward of +the moraine. The glacier made many lakes north of the moraine, due to +the "kettle holes" and obstruction of streams by unequal deposits of +drift. It is inferred in the estimates of the duration of the glacier, +from astronomical data, that the cold period began two hundred and +eighty thousand years ago, the greatest cold being many thousand years +later. The intense cold began moderating eighty thousand years ago, +but the sea of ice remained long afterwards, and steadily diminished +under the increasing heat. So many thousand years being required for +melting, there are data inducing the belief that the ice-cap did not +retreat from this part of the country back to Greenland until within +ten thousand or fifteen thousand years ago. Then came the floods of +water from the melting glacier, and it is significant that the Indians +in the spacious valley northwest of the Kittatinny called that fertile +region the "Minisink," meaning "the waters have gone," indicating +their legendary memory of the floods following the melting and retreat +of the glacier and the final outflow of its waters. + + +THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. + +Belvidere, the "town of the beautiful view," nestles upon the broad +terraces under the Jersey ridges at the mouth of Pequest Creek, and +looks prettily out upon the high hills and distant mountains across +the Delaware. Above the town, the river makes a great bend to the +westward in rounding the huge and almost perpendicular mass of Manunka +Chunk Mountain, a name which has been got by a process of gradual +evolution from its Indian title of "Penungauchung." Here, through a +gorge just above, is got the first view of the distant Water Gap, +cleft down in the dark blue Kittatinny ten miles away. Approaching it +as the river winds, all the views have this great Gap for the gem of +the landscape, the ponderous wall of the Kittatinny stretching broadly +across the horizon and steadily rising into greater prominence as it +comes nearer. + + "I lift my eyes and ye are ever there, + Wrapped in the folds of the imperial air, + And crowned with the gold of morn or evening rare, + O, far blue hills." + +As it is gradually approached, the Gap and its enclosing ridge attain +enormous proportions, dwarfing the smaller hills, among which the +narrow, placid river flows below; and it is realized how tame are all +the other ridges through which the Delaware has passed compared with +this towering Blue Ridge, having the low-lying Blockade Mountain just +behind, and partly closing the Gap. Soon we reach the foot of the +range, and, bending with the river suddenly to the left, enter the +Gap. Scarcely have we entered when the river, which has been swinging +to the left, bends around again gradually to the right, and in a +moment we are through the gorge, the river then circling around the +Blockade Mountain, which has been so named because it seems always +stupidly in the way. + +The Indians called the Water Gap "Pohoqualin," meaning "the river +between the mountains." The Delaware flows through it with a width of +eight hundred feet and at an elevation of about three hundred feet +above tide. It is twenty-nine miles northeast of the Lehigh Gap where +the Lehigh River passes the Blue Ridge, and there are five other gaps +between them, of which the "Wind Gap," heretofore referred to, is the +chief. For many years this Wind Gap provided the only route to reach +the country north of the Kittatinny. About two and a half miles +southwest of the Delaware is "Tat's Gap," named in memory of Moses +Fonda Tatamy, an old time Indian interpreter in this region, and +familiarly called "Tat's" for short. The greatest of all these passes, +however, is the Water Gap, where the Blue Ridge, rent asunder, has two +noble peaks guarding the portals, towering sixteen hundred feet high, +and named in honor of the Indians--Mount Minsi in Pennsylvania, after +the tribes of the Minisink, and Mount Tammany in New Jersey, for the +great chief of the Lenni Lenapes. + + "Crags, knolls and mounds, in dire confusion hurled, + The fragmentary elements of an earlier world." + +The Water Gap is a popular summer resort, there being numerous hotels +and boarding-houses in eligible locations all about it, and the +romantic scenery has been opened up by roads and paths leading to all +the points of view. It is on such a stupendous scale, and exhibits the +geological changes wrought during countless ages so well, that it +always attracts the greatest interest. To the northward spread the +fertile valleys of the Minisink; and the Delaware, which below the Gap +flows to the southeast, passing through all the ridges, comes from the +northeast above the Gap, and flows along the base of the Kittatinny +for miles, as if seeking the outlet which it at length finds in this +remarkable pass. + + +THE MINISINK. + +From the elevated points of outlook at the Water Gap the observer can +gaze northward over the fertile and attractive hunting-grounds of the +Minsis, the land of the Minisink stretching far up the Delaware, and +from the Kittatinny over to the base of the Pocono Mountain. This is +the region of the "buried valleys," remarkable trough-like valleys, +made during an ancient geological period, and partially filled up by +the _débris_ from the great glacier. From the Hudson River in New +York, southwest to the Lehigh, and just beyond the Kittatinny range, +two long valleys, with an intervening ridge, stretch across the +country. The Delaware River, from Port Jervis to Bushkill, flows down +the northwestern of these valleys, then doubles back on itself, and +breaks through the intervening ridge at the remarkable Walpack Bend +into the other valley, and follows it down to the Water Gap. The +northwestern valley begins at Rondout on the Hudson, crosses New York +State to Port Jervis, where the Delaware, coming from the northwest, +turns to the southeast into it, occupying it for thirty miles to +Bushkill, and then the valley continues past Stroudsburg, just above +the Water Gap, to the Lehigh River at Weissport, below Mauch Chunk. +The other valley is parallel to it at the base of the Kittatinny. +These valleys, underlaid by the shales as bed-rocks, have been filled +up with drift by the glacier from one hundred to seven hundred feet in +depth, and they constitute the famous region of the Minisink. + +In this fertile district was the earliest settlement made by white men +in Pennsylvania, the Dutch from the Hudson River wandering over to the +Delaware at Port Jervis through these valleys, and settling on the +prolific bottom lands along the river, many years before Penn came to +Philadelphia. They opened copper-mines in the Kittatinny, just above +the Water Gap, and made the old "Mine Road" to reach them, coming from +Esopus on the Hudson. The records at Albany of 1650 refer to specimens +brought from "a copper-mine at the Minisink." The Provincial +authorities at Philadelphia do not appear to have had any clear +knowledge of settlers above the Water Gap until 1729, when they sent a +surveyor up to examine and report, and he found Nicholas Depui in a +snug home, where he had bought two islands and level land on the shore +from the Indians some time before. Like the Dutch settlers above, +Depui had no idea where the river went to. He was a French Huguenot +exile from Holland, and, without disputing with the surveyor, he again +bought his land, nearly six hundred and fifty acres, in 1733, from the +grantees of the Penns. His stockaded stone house was known as Depui's +Fort, and after him the Water Gap was long called "Depui's Gap." Old +George La Bar was the most famous resident of the Water Gap. Three +brothers La Bar, Peter, Charles and Abraham, also French Huguenots, +lived near the Gap, and each married a Dutch wife. In 1808, however, +this region became too crowded for them, and Peter, at the age of +eighty-five, migrated to Ohio to get more room. When ninety-eight +years old his wife died, and in his one hundredth year he married +another out on the Ohio frontier, and lived to the ripe age of one +hundred and five. Peter, when he migrated, left his son George La Bar +at the Gap, where he had been born in 1763. George was the famous +centenarian of Pennsylvania, who died at the age of one hundred and +seven, being a vigorous axeman almost until the day of his death. He +was too young for a Revolutionary soldier, but when the War of 1812 +came he was too old. In 1869, at the age of one hundred and six, a +visitor describes him as felling trees and peeling with his own hands +three wagon-loads of bark, which went to the tannery. He never wore +spectacles, always used tobacco, voted the straight Democratic ticket, +and at every Presidential election from Washington to Grant, and could +not be persuaded to ride on a railway train, regarding the cars as an +innovation. + +In this region of the Minisink is the pleasant town of Stroudsburg, +the county-seat of Monroe, its beautiful valley being well described +by a local authority as "full of dimpling hills and fine orchards, +among which stalwart men live to a ripe old age upon the purest apple +whisky." Its finest building, the State Normal College, handsomely +located on an elevated ridge, has three hundred students. The town was +named for Jacob Stroud, a pioneer and Indian fighter, who was with +General Wolfe when he scaled the Heights of Abraham, and, capturing +Quebec, changed the map of Colonial America. Marshall's Creek comes +down to join its waters with Brodhead's Creek below Stroudsburg, and a +few miles above displays the pretty little cataract of Marshall's +Falls. Six miles northwest of Stroudsburg is the Pocono Knob, rising +in stately grandeur as it abruptly terminates the Pocono Mountain wall +on its eastern face. It was this Knob which stood out as an island in +the edge of the great glacier, a deep notch separating its summit from +the plateau behind, and the Terminal Moraine encircles its sides at +about two-thirds its height. In the river bottom lands are fertile +farms, and a great deal of tobacco is raised. Thus the river leads us +to Bushkill and the great Walpack Bend. The Delaware, coming from the +northeast, impinges upon the solid sandstone wall of the "Hog's Back," +the prolongation of the ridge dividing the two "Buried Valleys." This +ridge bristles with attenuated firs, and hence its appropriate name. +The Big Bushkill and the Little Bushkill Creeks, uniting, flow in from +the west, and the Delaware turns sharply eastward and then back upon +itself around the ridge into the other valley, and resumes its course +southwest again down to the Water Gap. This double Walpack curve, +making a perfect letter "S," is so narrow and compressed that a +rifleman, standing on either side, can readily send his bullet in a +straight line across the river three times. The Indian word Walpack +means "a turn hole." The Delaware here is a succession of rifts and +pools, making a constant variation of rapids and still waters, with +many spots sacred to the angler, and displaying magnificent scenery +as the lights and shadows pass across the beautiful forest-covered +hills enclosing its banks. + + +BUSHKILL TO PORT JERVIS. + +Bushkill village is in a picturesque location, opening pleasantly +towards the Delaware. It is also just over the Monroe border, in Pike +County, long ago described by Horace Greeley as "famous for +rattlesnakes and Democrats," but now more noted for its fine +waterfalls and attractive scenery, its many streams draining numerous +beautiful lakes, and dancing down frequent roaring rapids in the +journey to the Delaware. The falls of the Little Bushkill near the +village is the finest cataract in Pennsylvania. From Bushkill, +bordering the eastern bank of the Delaware, for thirty miles up to +Port Jervis, is one of the best roads in the world. The Marcellus +shales of the Buried Valley, which form the towering cliffs bordering +the river along the base of which the road is laid, make a road-bed as +smooth and hard as a floor, the chief highway of this district, for +the railway has not yet penetrated it. Over on the other side of the +river the great Kittatinny ridge presents an almost unbroken wall for +more than forty miles from the Water Gap up to Port Jervis. Frequent +creeks come in, all angling streams, the chief of them being +Dingman's, which for several miles displays a series of cataracts, and +at its mouth has the noted Pike County village of "Dingman's Choice," +at which is located the time-honored Dingman's Ferry, across the +Delaware. The source of Dingman's Creek is in the Silver Lake, about +seven miles west of the Delaware, and in its flow it descends about +nine hundred feet, breaking its way over the various strata of +Catskill, Chemung and Hamilton sandstones. The upper cataracts, called +the Fulmer and Factory Falls and the Deer Leap, are located in a +beautiful ravine known as the Childs Park, while, below, the creek +pours over the High Falls, one hundred and thirty feet high, a short +distance from the river. Near this is the curious Soap Trough, an +inclined plane descending one hundred feet, always filled with foam, +down which comes the Silver Thread, a small tributary stream. The +gorge by which Dingman's Creek comes out is deep and massive, the +entrance being a narrow canyon cut down into the Marcellus shales +which make the towering cliffs along the river. There are also fine +cataracts on the Raymondskill and the Sawkill, flowing into the +Delaware above. The cliffs here rise into Utter's Peak, elevated eight +hundred feet, giving a magnificent view along the valley. + +The little town of Milford, the county-seat of Pike, is one of the +gems of this district, spread over a broad terrace on the bluff high +above the Delaware, with a grand outlook at the ponderous Kittatinny +in front, rising to its greatest elevation at High Point, six miles +away, where a hotel is perched on the summit. Surrounded by mountains, +the late N. P. Willis, when he visited Milford, was so impressed by +its peculiar situation that he described it as "looking like a town +that all the mountains around have disowned and kicked into the +middle." Thomas Quick, Sr., a Hollander, who came over from the Hudson +in 1733, was the first settler in Milford. His noted son, Thomas +Quick, the "Indian Killer," was born in 1734. "Tom Quick," as he was +called, was brought up among the Indians, and had the closest +friendship for them; but when the terrible Colonial war began, the +savages, in a foray, killed and scalped his father almost by his side, +Tom being shot in the foot, but escaping. Tom vowed vengeance, and +ever afterwards was a perfect demon in his hatred of the Indians, +sparing neither age nor sex. After the French and Indian war had +closed and peace was proclaimed, he carried on his own warfare +independently. The most harrowing tales are told of his Indian +murders, some being horribly brutal. He never married, but hunted +Indians and wild beasts all his life, and was outlawed by the +Government, it being announced that no Indian who killed him would be +punished; but he finally died in bed in 1796. He was entirely +unrepentant during his last illness, regretting he had not killed more +Indians; and after saying he had killed ninety-nine during his life, +he begged them to bring in an old Indian who lived in the settlement, +so that he might appropriately close his career by killing the +hundredth redskin. The most noted Milford building is "Pinchot's +Castle," on the hillside above the Sawkill, a Norman-Breton baronial +hall, the summer house of the Pinchot family of New York, whose +ancestor, a French refugee after Waterloo, was an early settler here. + +Seven miles above Milford the Delaware River makes the great +right-angled bend in its course, from the southeast to the southwest, +which is known as the "Tri-States Corner," and here, on the broad +flats at the mouth of the Neversink River, is the town of Port Jervis. +From the village of Deposit, ninety miles above, the Delaware descends +in level five hundred and seventy feet; and from Port Jervis down to +the Water Gap, forty-three miles, the descent is one hundred and +twenty-seven feet. In the first it falls six feet per mile and in the +latter only three feet, the difference being caused by the entirely +changed conditions above and below the great bend. Above, the Delaware +flows through the ridges by a winding ravine cut transversely across +the hard rocks almost all the way, while below, it meanders parallel +to the ridges along the outcrop of the softer rocks of the Marcellus +shales and Clinton formations in the long, trough-like buried valleys. +The Neversink comes from the northeast through one of these valleys +which is prolonged over to the Hudson, the source of the Neversink +being on a divide of such gentle slope that the large spring making +the head sends part of its waters the other way, through Rondout +Creek into the Hudson. A long, narrow peninsula, just at the +completion of the great bend, juts out between the Neversink and the +Delaware, ending in a sharp, low, wedge-like rocky point, the +extremity being the "Tri-States Corner," where the boundary line +between New Jersey and New York reaches the Delaware, and ends in +mid-river at the boundary of Pennsylvania. This spot was located after +a long boundary war, and the fact is duly recorded on the "Tri-States +Rock," down at the end of the point. The Delaware and Hudson Canal, +constructed in 1828, and coming over from Rondout Creek through the +Neversink Valley, made Port Jervis, which was named after one of its +engineers. The canal goes up the Delaware to the Lackawaxen, and then +follows that stream to Honesdale. The Erie Railway also comes through +a gap in the Kittatinny (here called the Shawangunk Mountain, meaning +the "white rocks"), descends to Port Jervis, and then follows up the +Delaware. These two great public works have made the prosperity of the +town, which has a population of over ten thousand. The long and +towering ridge of Point Peter, forming the northwestern boundary of +the Neversink Valley, and thrust out to the Delaware, bounding the +gorge through which the river comes, overlooks the town. On the other +side is the highest elevation of the Kittatinny and the most elevated +land in New Jersey, High Point, rising nineteen hundred and sixty +feet. + + +THE CATSKILL FLAGS. + +The broadened valley of the Delaware extends a short distance above +Port Jervis, the canal and railway rounding the ponderous battlements +of Point Peter and then proceeding up the river, one on either bank. +About three miles above the "Port," as it is familiarly called, the +valley contracts to a rock-enclosed gorge, for here the Delaware +emerges from its great canyon in the Catskill series of rocks, in the +bottom of which it flows from Deposit, at the northern boundary of +Pennsylvania, eighty-seven miles above. The remarkable change seen in +the surrounding topography indicates the presence of a different rock +formation from that passed below, and the river runs out of the +Catskill rocks over the "Saw-mill rift." For thirty miles above, to +the northern line of Pike County, at Narrowsburg, the river banks +mostly are only mere shelves a few rods wide, and frequently present +nothing but the faces of rocky walls, rising perpendicularly from the +water to a height of six hundred feet or more. From the expanding +limestones below, the valley here suddenly contracts in the flags and +ledges of the Catskill series. All the small streams coming from the +bluffs back of the cliffs descend with rapid fall, and frequently over +high cascades. These Catskill flags, built up in vast construction, +rear their gaunt and weather-beaten jagged walls and wood-crowned +turrets on high. Perched far up on the New York side, at the +narrowest part of this remarkable gorge, is an eyrie called the +"Hawk's Nest," which gives a wonderful view, reached by a road carved +out of the rocky side of the abyss. This road, hung on the +perpendicular wall five hundred feet over the river, is the only +available route to the part of New York north of Port Jervis. The +canal and railway, far below, are each set on a shelf cut out of the +rocky banks. The enclosing cliffs rise higher as the river is +ascended, sometimes reaching an elevation of twelve hundred feet; and +here for miles are seen the famous Delaware and Starucca flags, rising +hundreds of feet in a continuous wall of bluish-gray and greenish-gray +flaggy sandstones. They are extensively quarried and shipped to New +York. Both railway and canal construction through this deep cleft were +enormously costly. + + +THE BATTLE OF LACKAWAXEN. + +Here is Shohola Township, on the Pennsylvania shore, a wild and rocky +region fronting on the river for about ten miles, and Shohola Creek +rushes down a rocky bed through a deep gorge to seek the Delaware. It +was at this place the surveyors' line was drawn from the Lehigh over +to the Delaware, after Marshall's fateful walk. The "Shohola Glen," a +favorite excursion ground, has the channel of the creek, only forty +feet wide, cut down for two hundred feet deep into the flagstones, and +it plunges over four attractive cascades at the Shohola Falls above. +A short distance northward the Lackawaxen flows in through a fine +gorge, broadening out as the Delaware is approached; and the canal, +after crossing the latter on an aqueduct, goes up the Lackawaxen bank. +A grand amphitheatre of towering hills surrounds the broad flats where +the Lackawaxen brings its ample flow of dark amber-colored waters out +of the hemlock forests and swamps of Wayne County to this picturesque +spot. Here was fought, on July 22, 1779, the battle of Lackawaxen or +the Minisink, the chief Revolutionary conflict on the upper Delaware. +The battlefield was a rocky ledge on the New York side, elevated about +five hundred feet above the river, amid the lofty hills of Highland +Township, in Sullivan County. The noted Mohawk chief, Joseph Brandt, +with a force of fifteen hundred Indians and Tories, came down from +Northern New York to plunder the frontier settlements. Most of the +inhabitants fled down to the forts on the Lehigh or across the Blue +Ridge, upon his approach; but a small militia force was hastily +gathered under Colonels Hathorn and Tusten to meet the enemy, whom +they found crossing the Delaware at a ford near the Lackawaxen. +Hathorn, who commanded, moved to attack, but Brandt rushed his Indians +up a ravine, intercepting Hathorn just as he got out on the rocky +ledge, and cutting off about fifty of his rear guard. Hathorn had +ninety men with him, who quickly threw up a rude breastwork, +protecting about a half-acre of the ledge. Their ammunition was scant, +it was a terribly hot day, they had no water, and were soon +surrounded; but for six hours they bravely defended themselves, when, +the ammunition being all gone, the Indians broke through their line. +Tusten was attending the wounded, and with seventeen wounded men, whom +he was alleviating, was tomahawked, all being massacred. The others +fled, many being slain in the pursuit. Forty-four of the little band +were killed, and the fifty in the rear guard who had been cut off were +never afterwards heard of. Years afterwards, the bones of the slain in +this terrible defeat were gathered on the field and taken across the +Blue Ridge to Goshen for interment, and in 1822 a monument was erected +at Goshen in their memory, Colonel Hathorn, who was then living, +making an address. On the centenary anniversary in 1879 a monument was +dedicated on the field, where faint relics of the old breastwork were +still traceable on the rocky ledge perched high above the river, +almost opposite the mouth of the Lackawaxen. + + +THE SYLVANIA SOCIETY. + +The county of Wayne is separated from the county of Lackawanna by the +great Moosic Mountain range, the divide between two noted rivers, the +Lackawaxen and the Lackawanna. The former, draining its southeastern +slopes to the Delaware, was the "Lechau-weksink" of the Indians, +meaning "where the roads part," evidently referring to the parting of +the Indian trails at its confluence with the Delaware; the latter, +flowing out to the Susquehanna on its northwestern side, was the +"Lechau-hanne," or "where the streams part," signifying the forks of +two rivers. We ascend the Lackawaxen, finding the route up the gorge +along the canal towpath, once the great water way of the Delaware and +Hudson Company for bringing out coal, but now abandoned, as the +railway route is cheaper. This canal, opened in 1828, was one hundred +and seventeen miles long, and ascended from tidewater on the Hudson at +Rondout to four hundred and fifty feet elevation at Port Jervis, and +nine hundred and sixty-five feet at Honesdale. Its route throughout is +through grand river gorges and the most magnificent scenery. + +It was in this beautiful region, just south of the river, that Horace +Greeley, in 1842, started what he called the "Sylvania Society," +founded to demonstrate the wisdom of "the common ownership of property +and the equal division of labor," which Greeley was then advocating by +lectures and in his newspaper. Many eminent persons took stock in the +society at $25 per share, and the experiment of co-operative farming +was begun in a region of rough and rocky Pike County soil, where the +amateur farmers also found amusement, for it is recorded that "the +stream was alive with trout, and the surrounding hills were equally +well provided with the largest and liveliest of rattlesnakes." They +had weekly lectures and dancing parties, the colony at one time +numbering three hundred persons, Mr. Greeley, who took the deepest +interest, frequently visiting them. The society was a success socially +and intellectually, but the labor problem soon caused trouble. A Board +of Directors governed the farm and assigned the laborers their work, +the principle of equality being observed by changing them from one +branch of labor to another day by day. But trouble soon came, for +there were too many wayward sons sent out from New York to the colony +who never had worked and never intended to, but preferred going +fishing. Various of the females also decidedly objected to taking +their turns at the washtub. The abundance of rattlesnakes had +influence, and one day a venturesome colonist brought in seventeen +large rattlers, causing dire consternation. They tanned the skin of +one big fellow, and made it into a pair of slippers, which were +presented to Mr. Greeley on his next visit. As is usually the case, +the colonists had ravenous appetites, and it was impossible to raise +enough food crops to feed them, so that food had to be bought, and the +capital was thus seriously drawn upon. In 1845 they had a prospect of +a generous yield at the harvest, when suddenly, on July 4th, a deadly +frost killed all their crops; and this ended the experimental colony. +In two days everybody had left the place, and Greeley was almost +heartbroken at the failure of his cherished plans. A mortgage on the +farm was foreclosed and the land sold to strangers. A Monroe County +farmer, who had invested $1800 in the enterprise and lost it, became +so angry at the collapse that he went to New York, as he said, "to +give Horace Greeley a Monroe County Democrat's opinion of him." He +found the great editor at work in the _Tribune_ office, and began +berating him. Greeley, as soon as a chance was given, asked his +visitor how much he had lost by the failure. He replied, "Eighteen +hundred dollars;" when, without further parley, Greeley drew a check +for the amount and handed it to him. The farmer was so astonished and +impressed by this most unexpected action that he immediately became, +as he afterwards stated, "a Greeley Whig," and remained one all his +life. + + +ASCENDING THE LACKAWAXEN. + +At Glen Eyre, the Blooming Grove Creek flows merrily into the +Lackawaxen, coming out from Blooming Grove Township to the southward, +an elevated wooded plateau in the interior of Pike, which is the +common heading ground for numerous streams radiating in every +direction, and containing a score of attractive lakes. This region is +a wilderness where deer, bears and other wild animals roam, while the +streams are noted angling resorts. In it are the two famous "Knobs," +the highest elevations of the whole Pocono range, the southern or +"High Knob" rising two thousand and ten feet, out-topping the +Kittatinny "High Point." This "Knob" stands like a pyramid, at least +five hundred feet above all the surrounding country, excepting its +neighbor, the "North Knob," which is only one hundred feet lower. +These are the northeastern outposts of the Pocono range. Upon the top +of the "High Knob" is a large boulder of white conglomerate, dropped +by the ice in the glacial period, and this summit gives the most +extensive view in Pennsylvania, over dark, fir-covered ridges in every +direction, interspersed with lakelets glistening in the sunlight. +There is not a house to be seen, and scarcely a clearing, but all +around is one vast wilderness. The greater part of this region is the +estate of the "Blooming Grove Park Association," covering thirteen +thousand acres, surrounded by a high fence, and stocked with game and +fish, there being over $300,000 invested in the enterprise. Here elk +and deer are bred, there are abundant hares and rabbits, and also +woodcock, grouse and snipe shooting. The spacious club-house is +elevated high above the rocky shores of Lake Giles, a most beautiful +circular sheet of clear spring water, fourteen hundred feet above +tide, and to it the anglers and hunters take their families and enjoy +the pleasures of the virgin woods. + +The Wallenpaupack Creek, coming out of the Pocono plateau and the +Moosic Mountain, makes the boundary between Pike and Wayne Counties, +and flows into the Lackawaxen at Hawley. For most of the distance its +course is deep and sluggish, but approaching the edge of the terrace, +within a couple of miles of the Lackawaxen, it tumbles over cataracts +and down rapids through a magnificent gorge, so that, from its +alternating characteristics, the Indians rightly called it the +Walink-papeek, or "the slow and swift water." It descends a cascade of +seventy feet, and then goes down the Sliding Fall, a series of rapids +interspersed with several small cataracts. Farther down are two +cascades of thirty feet each, and then the main plunge, the Paupack +falls of sixty-one feet, almost at its mouth, the whole descent being +about two hundred and fifty feet. Hawley has thriving mills, whose +wheels are turned by this admirable water-power, and it is also a +railway centre for coal shipping. Its people are noted makers of +silks, and of cut and decorated glassware. Judge James Wilson, one of +the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was an early settler +on the Wallenpaupack. + +Above Hawley, in a broadened intervale of the Lackawaxen, was the +famous "Indian Orchard," where the first settlement, made in 1760, +grew afterwards into Honesdale, now the county-seat of Wayne. This was +a tract of land in the valley upon which the lofty Irving Cliff looks +down; and it was named from a row of one hundred apple trees which the +Indians had planted at regular intervals along the river bank. The +tradition was that ninety-nine trees bore sweet fruit, while one every +alternate year had a crop of sour apples. Upon a large clearing at the +water's edge, paved with flat stones, the Indians held their feasts +and performed their religious rites. The orchard and stones have +disappeared, but the plow still turns up Indian relics. This place was +selected by the Delaware and Hudson Company for the head of their now +abandoned canal, at the base of the Moosic Mountain, and it was named +Honesdale, in honor of the first president of the canal company, +Philip Hone, described as "the courtliest Mayor New York ever saw." +Within the town the two pretty streams unite which form the +Lackawaxen, making lakelets on the plain, and from the shore of one of +these the rocks rise almost perpendicularly nearly four hundred feet. +In 1841 Washington Irving came here with some friends, making the +journey on the canal, and climbed these rocks to overlook the lovely +intervale, and thus the Irving Cliff was named. Writing of his visit, +he spoke in wonder of the beautiful scenery and romantic route of the +Delaware and Hudson Canal, saying: "For many miles it is built up +along the face of perpendicular precipices, rising into stupendous +cliffs, with overhanging forests, or jutting out into vast +promontories, while upon the other side you look down upon the +Delaware, foaming and roaring below you, at the foot of an immense +wall or embankment which supports the canal. Altogether, it is one of +the most daring undertakings I have ever witnessed, to carry an +artificial river over rocky mountains, and up the most savage and +almost impracticable defiles. For upward of ninety miles I went +through a constant succession of scenery that would have been famous +had it existed in any part of Europe." + +From Honesdale a gravity railroad crosses the Moosic Mountain into the +Lackawanna Valley at Carbondale. This was originally used to bring the +coal out for the canal, but has been abandoned for this purpose, being +now confined to passenger service. It has twenty-eight inclined +planes, and crosses the summit at Far View, at an elevation of nearly +two thousand feet. The first locomotive brought to America, built at +Stourbridge, England, in 1828, the "Stourbridge Lion," was used on the +levels of this railroad, the face of a lion adorning the front of the +boiler giving it the name. When brought out in 1829 the triumphant +claim was made that it "would run four miles an hour." The road passes +over extended mountain tops, giving far-seeing views; and among these +sombre rounded ridges in the wilderness of Wayne are the sources of +the Lackawaxen. Carbondale, built on the coal measures of the upper +Lackawanna Valley, has about eighteen thousand population; but all its +coal now goes to market by other railway routes, the gravity road and +the canal being found too expensive carriers in the fierce competition +of the anthracite industry. + + +THE HEADWATERS OF THE DELAWARE. + +The Delaware, above the Lackawaxen, flows between massive cliffs in a +deeply-cut gorge through the flagstones. At Mast Hope, years ago, was +got the biggest pine tree ever cut on the Delaware for a vessel's +mast. The "Forest Lake Association," another hunting- and fishing-club +near here, has an extensive estate covering the high ridge between the +Delaware and the Lackawaxen. At Big Eddy the river makes a sort of +lake two miles long, of pure spring water, the widest and deepest part +of the Delaware beyond tidewater. Stupendous cliffs contract the river +above at the Narrows, where the village of Narrowsburg is built, and +this region and the neighboring lake-strewn highlands of Sullivan +County, New York, were the chief scenes of Cooper's novel, _The Last +of the Mohicans_. As we advance through its upper canyon, the Delaware +grows gradually smaller, but the enclosing ridges recede and leave a +broad and fertile valley. Here are the villages of Damascus and +Cochecton, connected by a bridge, and having together probably a +thousand inhabitants. The original Indian village was Cushatunk, +meaning the "lowlands," and from this Cochecton is derived. It was the +sad scene of various Indian forays and massacres before and during the +Revolution. For many years lumbering and tanning were great industries +in this region, but they have almost entirely passed away. + +We are coming to the headwaters of the Delaware. At Hancock, elevated +about nine hundred feet above tide, the Delaware divides. The +Popacton, or east branch, comes in, the Mohock, or western branch, +however, being the larger stream, and making the boundary between +Pennsylvania and New York above their junction. These two branches, +after flowing nearly parallel for a long distance across Delaware +County, New York, separated by a broad mountain ridge about eleven +miles wide, unite around the base of a great dome-like hill at +Hancock, the spot having been appropriately named by the Indians +Sho-ka-kin, or "where the waters meet." Thirteen miles above is +Deposit, at the New York boundary, where Oquaga Creek comes down from +the mountains to the westward. This was formerly an important "place +of deposit" for lumber, awaiting the spring freshets to be sent down +the Delaware, and hence its name. High hills surround Deposit, the +river makes a grand sweeping bend, and nearby is the beautiful +mountain lake of Oquaga, of which Taylor writes: "If there is a more +restful place than this, outside 'God's acres,' I have failed to find +it;" adding, "The mountain road to the lake is picturesque enough to +lead to Paradise." The headwaters of the Delaware rise upon the +western slopes of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware and Schoharie +Counties, New York. The source is about two hundred and seventy miles +almost directly north of Philadelphia. In a depression on the western +slope of the Catskill range, at an elevation of eighteen hundred and +eighty-eight feet above tidewater, is the head of the Delaware, Lake +Utsyanthia, a secluded little sheet of the purest and most transparent +spring water. It is also called Ote-se-on-teo, meaning the "beautiful +spring, cold and pure." It is a mirror of beauty in a wooded +wilderness, its surroundings being most wild and picturesque. From +this little lakelet flows out the Mohock, winding down its romantic +valley, and receiving many brooks and rills, passing a village or two, +and bubbling along for forty miles to Deposit, and thence onward as +the great river Delaware to the ocean. Thus Tennyson sings of the +Brook: + + "I chatter, chatter, as I flow + To join the brimming river, + For man may come, and man may go, + But I go on forever." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of America, Volume I (of 6), by Joel Cook + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41417 *** |