In Fact, They Make No Other Stoppage To The
Commerce Than That Occasioned By The Payment Of A Few Cents.
Such
payment, no doubt, is a stoppage; and therefore it is that Jersey
City, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg are, at any rate in appearance,
very dull and uninviting.
They are, however, very populous. Many
of the quieter citizens prefer to live there; and I am told that
the Brooklyn tea parties consider themselves to be, in esthetic
feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more
opulent centers of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten Island is
very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New York. The view from
the hillside in Staten Island down upon New York harbor is very
lovely. It is the only really good view of that magnificent harbor
which I have been able to find. As for appreciating such beauty
when one is entering a port from sea or leaving it for sea, I do
not believe in any such power. The ship creeps up or creeps out
while the mind is engaged on other matters. The passenger is
uneasy either with hopes or fears, and then the grease of the
engines offends one's nostrils. But it is worth the tourist's
while to look down upon New York harbor from the hillside in Staten
Island. When I was there Fort Lafayette looked black in the center
of the channel, and we knew that it was crowded with the victims of
secession. Fort Tompkins was being built to guard the pass - worthy
of a name of richer sound; and Fort something else was bristling
with new cannon. Fort Hamilton, on Long Island, opposite, was
frowning at us; and immediately around us a regiment of volunteers
was receiving regimental stocks and boots from the hands of its
officers. Everything was bristling with war; and one could not but
think that not in this way had New York raised herself so quickly
to her present greatness.
But the glory of New York is the Central Park - its glory in the
minds of all new Yorkers of the present day. The first question
asked of you is whether you have seen the Central Park, and the
second is as to what you think of it. It does not do to say simply
that it is fine, grand, beautiful, and miraculous. You must swear
by cock and pie that it is more fine, more grand, more beautiful,
more miraculous than anything else of the kind anywhere. Here you
encounter in its most annoying form that necessity for eulogium
which presses you everywhere. For in truth, taken as it is at
present, the Central Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful.
As to the miracle, let that pass. It is perhaps as miraculous as
some other great latter-day miracles.
But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a strong
additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. It is very
large, being over three miles long and about three-quarters of a
mile in breadth.
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