Buffalo, New York

“ It is a port at the east end of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Buffalo River, and at the head of Niagara River, which is here crossed by a fine iron railroad bridge. The city runs for about five miles along the shore of the lake and Niagara River. In population Buffalo is the third city in New York, and the eleventh in the United States. ”

“ Buffalo is a flourishing city on the border of Lake Erie, and about twenty miles south of the Falls of Niagara. It is within the boundary of the state of New York, and has of late years greatly increased in extent, wealth, and population. The old town, quite an inconsiderable place, on the site of which the present city has risen, phoenix-like, was burnt to the ground during the late war, by some British officers, who made a sortie from the Canada shores ”

“ Yet the harvests of wheat, and even of hay, in western New York, are said to be by no means scanty.
Buffalo continues to extend on every side, but the late additions to the city do not much improve its beauty. Its nucleus of well-built streets does not seem to have grown much broader within the last five years, but the suburbs are rapidly spreading—small wooden houses, scattered or in clusters, built hastily for emigrants along unpaved and powdery streets. ”

“ Wheat with us is aristocratic, and travels always in its private carriage.
Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially worthy of remark at Buffalo. It is a fine city, like all other American cities of its class. The streets are broad, the "blocks" are high, and cars on tram-ways run all day, and nearly all night as well.
CHAPTER XII. BUFFALO TO NEW YORK.
We had now before us only two points of interest before we should reach New York,—the Falls of Trenton, and West Point on the Hudson River. ”

“ A belt-line railroad encircles the city, affording valuable facilities for intercommunication.
The commerce of Buffalo by these various means of transportation is very great. With a season of only about 240 days in the year, Buffalo ranks with the leading American and European ports in extent of traffic. The immense quantity of flour and grain moved from the Western States to the seaboard constitutes the most important feature of its commerce; but live stock, lumber, and coal, iron ore, and fish, also, are of importance. ”

“ In 1818, near where La Salle in 1679 built his little sailing vessel, the "Griffin," a group of N.Y. capitalists completed the "Walk-in-the-Water," the first steamboat on the Great Lakes. The completion of the Erie Canal, seven years later, with Buffalo as its western terminus, greatly increased the city's importance. At Buffalo in 1848 met the Free Soil convention that nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency and Charles Francis Adams for the vice-presidency. [92] Grover Cleveland lived in Buffalo from 1855 until 1884, when he was elected president. ”

“ I asked of my companion.
"If the conventional dime which we give the washroom boys in New York hotels," he replied, "is proper payment for the services they render, I should say we ought to give this boy about twenty-seven dollars."
There are many other things about Buffalo which should be mentioned. There is the Buffalo Club—the dignified, solid old club of the city; and there is the Saturn Club, "where women cease from troubling and the wicked are at rest." And there is Delaware Avenue, on which stand both these clubs, and many of the city's finest homes. ”

“ The park system of Buffalo includes over 1000 acres, and consists of a chain of parks and parkways nearly encircling the city. The principal plots are the Front, of 45 acres, where the waters of the lake form themselves into the Niagara, and north of which is Fort Porter, a small military post; the Delaware Park, of 365 acres, adjoining which are the State Insane Hospital grounds, of 200 acres, and Forest Lawn Cemetery, of 230 acres; Humboldt Park, including about 56 acres, and three large parks in the south: Stony Point, on the lake shore; South Park; and Cazenovia Park. ”

“ In addition to vast commercial activities, Buffalo's manufacturing interests are extensive and varied. In the production of foundry and machine-shop products, including stoves, nails, etc., and agricultural implements, the city ranks among the foremost. Other industries are slaughtering and meat-packing, refining petroleum, and ship-building ”

“ Buffalo (256) , a city of New York State, at the E. end of Lake Erie, 300 m. due NW. of New York; is a well-built, handsome, and healthy city; the railways and the Erie Canal are channels of extensive commerce in grain, cattle, and coal; while immense iron-works, tanneries, breweries, and flour-mills represent the industries; electric power for lighting, traction, &c., is supplied from Niagara.
Buffon, George Louis Leclerc, Comte de, a great French naturalist, born at Montbard, in Burgundy ”

“ Should the tourist choose to first visit Buffalo, he may proceed to the Falls by later trains, which run at frequent intervals during the day between the two points.
THE CITY OF BUFFALO Is of interest to the excursionist as one of the most important commercial centers west of New York City, and the focus of a large number of railroads. It has a magnificent harbor, one of the best on the whole chain of lakes, its water front extending about five miles, half on Lake Erie and half on Niagara River. ”

“ This city is continually growing in importance, from the vast number of small capitalists who flock there and settle; and it will eventually, no doubt, vie with New York itself in wealth and importance. As I determined to make no stay here, but to proceed up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, I did not see much of this place, and must therefore omit any lengthened description of it. ”

“ In this thriving city, larger than Buffalo to-day, there was not a single open-air recreation ground worthy of the name. Dickens had remarked in 1842 that New York’s summer climate was such that it would throw a man into193 a fever merely to think what the streets would be but for the daily breezes from the bay. It was a smoky city—Bryant had written in the Evening Post of 1832 a striking description of its unwonted brightness when the cholera stopped nearly all industry—and it was ill-cleaned. ”

“ Grandmother said her sister in Albany used to get letters from the same lady, and hers were marked: “Paid 183⁄4.” At that time it cost less to write from Buffalo to Albany than it did from Buffalo to New York; and I must say that seems reasonable. Why should letters be two cents now, whether they travel ten miles or a thousand? But I am glad they are not twenty-five cents.
Carrie Foster.
Buffalo is a great city. You can start from it and go anywhere you want to, at most any hour of the day or night. ”

“ When in Canada West with my regiment, I got lost in the Hudson's Bay territory, and subsisted for six months on buffalo-meat. As far as I know, the buffalo is only found east of the Missouri river, and is rapidly dying out. Buffaloes are, to my certain knowledge, sir, used in New York for drawing street cars. It is naturally a beast of burden and very tame. When in Montreal, I used to drive a buffalo to a sleigh; he went well and was docile. The buffalo's favorite food is peanuts; he will also thrive on pop-corn. ”

“ Buffalo spends annually, in maintenance and operation, about $6,000,000, the main items of expense being about $1,140,000 for schools, $650,000 for interest on debt, $780,000 for the police department, $700,000 for the fire department, $190,000 for parks and gardens, $120,000 for street cleaning and sprinkling, $350,000 for the water-works, nearly as much for municipal lighting, $155,000 for charitable institutions, $110,000 for garbage removal, $100,000 for libraries. ”

“ To the west of the park are the grounds of the Buffalo State Hospital for the Insane. Overlooking the lake on a cliff 60 ft. high, is the park known as "The Front," the site of Ft. Porter, which has a garrison of U.S. Soldiers.
The University of Buffalo, organized in 1845, has about 1,000 students and comprises schools of medicine, law, dentistry and pharmacy. Other educational institutions of Buffalo are the Canisius College, a Roman Catholic (Jesuit) institution for men, and the Martin Luther Seminary, a [94] Theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. ”

“ The two old guns in front were cast in the N.Y. State Arsenal, which manufactured arms for use in the War of 1812.
Among the manufactures are harvesters, ploughs, threshers and other agricultural implements, firearms, rubber tires, shoes, shell goods, paper-boxes, and inside woodwork.
We now approach Buffalo, beyond which our route closely parallels Lake Erie. We thus get our first view of one of America's great inland seas in this part of the route, although at certain points between Syracuse and Buffalo (notably at Rochester) our train has passed only a few miles south of Lake Ontario. ”

“ On this occasion I became so embarrassed that it was more difficult for me to face the throng of beautiful ladies, than it would have been to confront a hundred hostile Indians. This was my first trip to the East, and I had not yet become accustomed to being stared at. And besides this, the hundreds of questions which I was called upon to answer further embarrassed and perplexed me.
According to the route laid out for me by General Stager, I was to stop at Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester on my way to New York, and he provided me with all the necessary railroad passes. ”

“ She had great confidence in these weapons, which more than once had saved my life. She wanted to know what in the world I would do without them if I met any bad men in New York. I told her that I supposed there were policemen in New York whose business it was to take care of such people. Anyway, I was going to chance it.
On my arrival at Omaha I was met by a number of friends who had heard of my expected descent on New York. They drove me at once to the United States Court, where my old friend, Judge Dundee, was on the bench. ”

“ Buffalo is one of the wonders of America. It is hardly to be credited that such a beautiful city could have risen up in the wilderness in so short a period. In the year 1814 it was burnt down, being then only a village; only one house was left standing, and now it is a city with twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The Americans are very judicious in planning their new towns; the streets are laid out so wide that there will never be any occasion to pull down to widen and improve, as we do in England. ”

“ Of all the thousand and one towns I saw in America, I think Buffalo is the queerest looking; it is not quite so wild as Lockport, but all the buildings have the appearance of having been run up in a hurry, though every thing has an air of great pretension; there are porticos, columns, domes, and colonnades, but all in wood. Every body tells you there, as in all their other new-born towns, and every body believes, that their improvement, and their progression, are more rapid, more wonderful, than the earth ever before witnessed ”

“ Hunting Indians across a stage differed from following them across the Plains. I knew the wild western Indian and his ways. I was totally unacquainted with the tame stage Indian, and the thought of a great gaping audience looking at me across the footlights made me shudder.
But when my old "pards," Wild Bill and Texas Jack, consented to try their luck with me in the new enterprise I felt better. Together we made the trip to New York, and played for a time in the hodgepodge drama written for us by Ned Buntline himself. ”

“ In Phinney’s establishment Erastus learned to be a type-setter, stereotyper, printer, and binder, and with these abilities as his only capital he moved to the village of Buffalo in 1847. By 1852 he had a printing shop of his own, and in that year he issued his first publication, entitled “The Youth’s Casket.” In 1856 he began to issue the excellent magazine called “The Home Monthly” (shown in the exhibition) , and two years later he removed to New York City to test his great idea. ”

“ The very first issue of this series is shown. It is Edward Wheeler’s story of “Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road.” Among the more important items in this division of the collection are Omohundro’s story of the Scout New Wylde, Captain J. F. C. Adams’ “Oregon Sol,” the same famous pioneer’s tale of “Nick Whiffle’s Pet,” Mayne Reid’s “The Yellow Chief,” Prentiss Ingraham’s “Buffalo Bill’s Bet,” and Ingraham’s “Pony Express Rider.” The dominant motif of this series is far western adventure, but there are also numerous stories portraying life in New York City. ”

“ According to a report on vital statistics for 1872, Buffalo was the healthiest city in the United States, the death rate being only 13.9 per 1,000. The streets are generally broad, lined with shade trees, and cross each other at right angles. The plan of the city introduces many squares and public places. The private residences are generally neat and tasteful. The business portion lies near the lake and river. ”

“ When we come to visit the neighboring port of Cleveland we shall give heed to the wonderful traffic of the inland seas, but for this moment consider Buffalo as something more than a railroad yard, a busy harbor, or even a melting-pot for the fusing of as large and as difficult a foreign element as is given to any American town to fuse. Consider Buffalo dreaming metropolitan dreams. The dull roar of Niagara, almost infinite in its possibilities of power, is within hearing. ”

“ However true this is to-day, it was very far from the case a century ago, for though the site of Buffalo was historic and important, the city, as such, is of comparative recent origin, coming to its own with giant strides in those last decades of the nineteenth century. Writes Mr. Rowland B. Mahany in his excellent chapter on "Buffalo" in The Historic Towns of the Middle States:
Few cities of the United States have a history more picturesque than Buffalo, or more typical of the forces that have made the Republic great. ”