The descent is too slippery and difficult for
bipeds laden with petticoats. We found a small hotel open at
Trenton, at which we got a comfortable dinner, and then in the
evening were driven back to Utica.
Albany is the capital of the State of New York, and our road from
Trenton to West Point lay through that town; but these political
State capitals have no interest in themselves. The State
legislature was not sitting; and we went on, merely remarking that
the manner in which the railway cars are made to run backward and
forward through the crowded streets of the town must cause a
frequent loss of human life. One is led to suppose that children
in Albany can hardly have a chance of coming to maturity. Such
accidents do not become the subject of long-continued and strong
comment in the States as they do with us; but nevertheless I should
have thought that such a state of things as we saw there would have
given rise to some remark on the part of the philanthropists. I
cannot myself say that I saw anybody killed, and therefore should
not be justified in making more than this passing remark on the
subject.
When first the Americans of the Northern States began to talk much
of their country, their claims as to fine scenery were confined to
Niagara and the Hudson River. Of Niagara I have spoken; and all
the world has acknowledged that no claim made on that head can be
regarded as exaggerated. As to the Hudson I am not prepared to say
so much generally, though there is one spot upon it which cannot be
beaten for sweetness. I have been up and down the Hudson by water,
and confess that the entire river is pretty. But there is much of
it that is not pre-eminently pretty among rivers. As a whole, it
cannot be named with the Upper Mississippi, with the Rhine, with
the Moselle, or with the Upper Rhone. The palisades just out of
New York are pretty, and the whole passage through the mountains
from West Point up to Catskill and Hudson is interesting. But the
glory of the Hudson is at West Point itself; and thither on this
occasion we went direct by railway, and there we remained for two
days. The Catskill Mountains should be seen by a detour from off
the river. We did not visit them, because here again the hotel was
closed. I will leave them, therefore, for the new hand book which
Mr. Murray will soon bring out.
Of West Point there is something to be said independently of its
scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their
military school, from which officers are drafted to their
regiments, and the tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of
a high order.
