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.
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