New York State History

Nature, Art, Romance and History com­bine in a splendid and harmonious quar­tet in making the Hudson one of the most attractive rivers of the world.

Its natural beauties are of such wide renown as to scarcely need repeating.

Art is exemplified in the splendid ex­amples of architecture in private villas and castles which adorn its banks, begin­ning at New York and extending to Al­bany, and also in the towering and ma­jestic buildings of the War College at West Point. Marine architecture also in its latest and most attractive form is in abundant evidence in the steamers of the Day Line and many other river steamers.

Romance exists for those familiar with American literature in prodigal abund­ance. Washington Irving, Rodman Drake, Fenimore Cooper, E. P. Roe, N. P. Willis, and a score of modern writers, including our great naturalist, John Burroughs, have so covered the river that there is scarcely a bay or a hill that has not been the location of some charming story.

History centers here, and the story of American Independence with the Hudson Valley omitted would be the play with Hamlet out. Ft. Washington, Ft. Lee, Stoney Point, Ft. Independence, Ft. Clin­ton, Ft. Montgomery, West Point, Newburgh, Kingston, Albany, and Saratoga are all written large in the story, and the strategic value of the river was fully ap­preciated by both sides, and was fought for with stubborn persistence. And so we see in the Hudson a river which one can hardly afford not to know.

The present day Hudson possesses all of these attractions and many more. Its banks for miles upon miles still are clothed in full forest and its highlands and mountains of the Catskill range are possessed of the original glory of their creation, and are as charming in color and graceful in contour as ever.

Abundant commerce and gay throngs on pleasure bent enliven the scene continu­ally, and with appropriate music and the comfort afforded by the great swift Day Line steamers, one can scarcely fancy a more idyllic environment for summer days.

In addition to the steamer trips, the whole valley from Newburgh up, especially in the Catskill mountain district (a part of the Valley), is dotted at hundreds of cool, beautiful and commanding sites with comfortable and reasonable hotels and boarding houses. The whole countryside is intersected with hundreds of miles of charming drives, and the salubrious and invigorating climate is a guarantee of last­ing benefit from a sojourn in this valley either on its mountain sides or in its forested valleys.

The convenient distance from New York, the opportunity of charming steam­boat trips, the reasonableness of the fare, the entire change from salt to fresh air, the magnificence of such a valley bound­ed on one side by the Berkshires and on the other by the Catskills, and the wholesomeness of and sanitary value of the whole district-proved by the great num­ber of schools, colleges and institutions, included in its territory-all point to the homely adage that one might easily "go further and fare worse."

THE  LIGHT AHEAD.
 

But yesterday, when joy seemed dead,

I thought not of to-day;

Could I have seen the light ahead,

How bright had been the way!

Had I but lifted up my eyes,

Though storms raged wild about,

I might have seen a beacon rise

Above my pain and doubt.

The rainbow promise sheds its rays

On skies with clouds o'erspread,

If we but look to future days

And see the light ahead.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. 

GOLDEN SILENCE.

Mamma-You're very fond of your dolly, aren't you, dear?

Little Ethel-Yes. She's nicer than any­body else I know.

Mamma-Oh, no. She's not nicer than your mamma.

Little Ethel-Yes, she is; 'cause she don't never 'sturb me when I'm talking.