Hoboken

“ Then up from the bottom of Okra Sound sprang a mighty column of chocolate-colored water, directly in front of the Hoboken's bows and nine times as tall as the top of her funnel. Up it rose and down it came—souse—all over the holystoned, sanded deck, all over the shiny brass cutlas-hilts, the well-polished pivot-gun, the natty new uniforms and the astonished faces of the crew. The gun-captain instinctively pulled the lock-string, but the hammer fell on a soaked and dispirited paper cap. ”

“ The day has dawned; the air is pure; the hammer rests—come and repent, and be renewed, and be young again. The old, weary, restless, debauched, defeated world—it shall sing and dance. You shall be lambs. I see the dawn of the millennium on the heights of Hoboken—yea, even out of the Jerseys shall a good thing come! It is I who tell you—it is I who order you—I, Everardus Bogardus, Dominie of New Amsterdam—ding, dong, bell, amen! ”

“ There is a very pleasant yacht club at New York, the festive assembly whereof is held at Hoboken. Having received a hospitable invite, I gladly availed myself of it, and, crossing the Hudson, a short walk brought me and my chaperon to the club-house—no palatial edifice, but a rustic cottage, with one large room and a kitchen attached, and beautifully situated a few yards from the water's edge, on the woody bank of Hoboken, and on one of the most graceful bends of the river. It commands a splendid view, while perfectly cozy in itself, and is, "par excellence," the place for a pic-nic. ”

“ Much as a man may be street-ridden, after long city experience—even as the old and rheumatic become bed-ridden—yet the far-off shores of Hoboken, and the tree-whispers of St. John's and Grammercy Parks, do keep alive somewhat of the Eden longings, which are born into the world with us, and which can only die when our hearts are dead. ”

“ The day was bright and beautiful, and my father proposed crossing the river to Hoboken, the scene of the turtle-eating expedition. We did so accordingly: himself, D——, Mr. ——, and I. Steamers go across every five minutes, conveying passengers on foot and horseback, gigs, carriages, carts, any thing and every thing. The day was lovely—the broad bright river was gemmed with a thousand sails. Away to the right it stretched between richly-wooded banks, placid and blue as a lake; to the left, in the rocky doorway of the narrows, two or three ships stood revealed against the cloudless sky. ”

“ The map this week includes Hoboken, Jersey City, the marshes back of these cities, and the roads as far north as Englewood. There are several ways of starting from New York into this country. You can cross the Hoboken Ferry at either Barclay, Christopher, or Fourteenth Street to Hoboken, and go out of the city direct to the Hudson County Boulevard, which is the best road running north. By an examination of the map the rider will easily pick out the different ways to reach the boulevard. It is perhaps wiser to cross from Fourteenth Street, as the ferry lands in Hoboken further uptown ”

“ Jonathan Gifford slipped his cable and started up the channel as fast as he could steam, hoping to intercept and cut off the fugitive before she reached the shelter of the fort's guns. But the Hoboken was no racer; sunrise found the Southern Belle safe above the mine-field and the fat ferry-boat waddling discontentedly back to her old cruising-ground. ”

“ The picture I have drawn above might seem to some to be the product of an over zealous mind, but I can safely say that there is no one in our town to-day who can prove that any assertion I made in the above lines are anything else but the Gospel truth, and it is my honest opinion that no finer place for a residence could be found by anybody so near New York than West Hoboken. ”

“ The town is an important centre for the manufacture of silk and silk goods; in 1905 the value of these products was $4,211,018. West Hoboken was created a separate township in 1861, from a part of the township of North Bergen, and in 1884 was incorporated as a town. ”

“ Behind you rise the heights of Brooklyn, undulating along your left to the passage of the Narrows, through which you catch a glimmer of the sea beyond; close on your right lies the picturesque-looking old city of Jersey; and immediately beyond, the village of Hoboken, famous for turtle and pistol-matches: its neighbourhood to the Elysian fields renders it a singularly lucky site for the fire-eaters, since, if shot, they have no Charon to pay; the turtle-eaters here find, no doubt, equal facilities. ”

“ The first inhabitants of our town were undoubtedly descendants of the early Dutch settlers of the aforesaid County of Bergen; it is not known exactly at what time the first house was erected within the present limits of West Hoboken. but it is very likely that it was in the last quarter of the 18th century; and when the town began to take on the aspect of a village, quite a number of French people settled here, and to-day some of our oldest inhabitants are numbered among our French population. ”

“ In 1784 the property was purchased by John Stevens, the inventor, who in 1804 laid it out as a town. For the next thirty-five years its “Elysian Fields” were a famous pleasure resort of New York City. Hoboken was incorporated as a town in 1849 and as a city in 1855. On the 30th of June 1900 the wharves of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company and three of its ocean liners were almost completely destroyed by a fire, which caused a loss of more than 200 lives and over $5,000,000. ”

“ Tikulski and Veronika, spending not only every Wednesday evening at their house but also each Sunday afternoon, and accompanying her to Hoboken as regularly as she had to go. Never was there a prouder man than I at those junctures when, with her hand pressed tightly under my arm, I felt that she was trusting herself entirely to my charge and that I was answerable for her safety and well-being. The Hoboken ferry-boats became to my thinking vastly more interesting than the most romantic of Venetian gondolas ”

“ A lady may travel with perfect comfort alone, and walk in the streets without fear of any annoyance.
A fresh wind dappled the blue sky, and raised the muddy waters of the grand old Hudson. Across from New Jersey and Hoboken, those thriving suburbs of New York, came the busy hum of life. The well-wooded hills were clothed with villas, whose domes or towers peep out from amongst the dense foliage. Here and there, standing in a little park, were châlets, or a cottage with gilt minarets, or, even in still more incongruous taste, a Chinese pagoda. ”

“ A rocket curved up out of the dark to starboard and burst with a glare that lit the Sound like day. There lay the Hoboken, about five hundred yards from the Southern Belle, boarding-nets rigged fore and aft and her guns already run in and being recharged for a second salvo. Captain Jonathan Gifford always shifted his moorings a couple of cable-lengths as soon as it was good and dark, leaving the buoyed lantern as a decoy for cutting-out parties and holding himself ready to blaze away at anything that came between him and the light. ”

“ Buckel (Germ.) , Bochel (Dutch) , means 'hump,' 'hump-back.' Hump (Low German) is 'heap,' 'hill.' Ho-bok-an locates a place that is distinguished by a hill, or by a hill in some way associated with it." Presumably from the ancient village of Hoboken came to Manhattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hobocoon, a schoolmaster, who evidently was given his family name from the village from whence he came. He certainly did not give his family name to Hoboken twenty years prior to his landing at Manhattan.
Hacking and Haken are unquestionably Dutch from the radical Haak, "hook." ”

“ In the midst of this slumber of the soul my attention was attracted to a black speck, peering above the western horizon, just in the rear of Bergen steeple; gradually it augments and overhangs the would-be cities of Jersey, Harsimus, and Hoboken, which, like three jockeys, are starting on the course of existence, and jostling each other at the commencement of the race. Now it skirts the long shore of ancient Pavonia, spreading its wide shadows from the high settlements of Weehawk quite to the lazaretto and quarantine, erected by the sagacity of our police for the embarrassment of commerce ”

“ Hoboken is connected with the city of New York by the Hudson River tunnels and by ferries and with other cities of the state by many trolley lines. Its manufacturing industries include shipbuilding and repairing and the making of lead -xxiii- pencils, surveying and nautical instruments, marine engines and boilers, silk goods, furniture, and wall paper. Here is located the well-known Stevens Institute of Technology.
North of Hoboken and Jersey City are several cities and towns which are very important industrially and are rapidly growing in population. ”

“ Now, saloons and cigar stores open half a shutter each, and apple-stalls multiply at street corners. Then the bells ring for church, and, with head and heart distracted, you obey the summons. On your way you pass troops of people bound to Hoboken, Jersey, Williamsburg—anywhere, but to the house of God. Groups of idle young men, with their best beavers cocked over one eye, stand smoking and swearing at the street corners; and now Yankee Doodle strikes on your ear, for the dead is left to his dreamless sleep, and the world jogs on to a merrier measure. ”

“ While spreading over much surface, yet it presents little attraction beyond the enormous railway terminals and factories. The traveller rarely stops there, but rushes through to get into or out of New York. To the northward is Hoboken, with sixty thousand people, including many Germans, and it has large silk factories. Here, in strange contrast with the commercial aspect of everything around, the river front rises in a bluff shore, crowned by a grove of trees and running up into a low mound, whereon is the "Stevens Castle." ”

“ We have a beautiful public park, which was given to us by the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company. The stores in our town can and do supply our citizens with their smallest and largest wants, at prices which compare favorably with those of the metropolis. ”

“ They were Maynard and Roseveldt.
It was upon the former all eyes were fixed, towards whom all hearts were inclining. It was his approach had called forth that cry: “He is coming?”
And now that he had come, a shout was sent from the Jersey shore, that echoed along the hills of Hoboken, and was heard in the streets of the great Empire City.
Why this wonderful enthusiasm for one who belonged neither to their race nor their country? On the contrary, he was sprung from a people to them banefully hostile! ”

“ On April 8, 1902, the church, as at present established, was organized. After due application of the classis of Bergen, the chapel, on the above date, was organized as an independent church with a membership of two hundred and three, to be known as the First Reformed Church of West Hoboken. ”

“ From Humboldt to Hoboken he leaves his sign and token in buildings high and grand; in factories that flourish, in industries that nourish a tired, anaemic land. He brings the work to toilers and fills with bread and broilers their trusty dinner pails; he keeps the ripsaw ripping, the big triphammer tripping, the workman driving nails. ”

“ The heat of the weather in the city is so oppressive to English constitutions, that we have established ourselves across the river, on the Jersey shore, at a very pleasant place called Hoboken;—here we pay 7$ per week each, for board and lodging, and have a quick and pleasant communication with New York by steam ferry-boats every hour during the day to and from it. ”

“ Let it also be remembered that the Ecclesiastical Society of West Hoboken, which was the beginning of the Presbyterian Church, was organized in 1844, and the Episcopal Church organized in 1846, two years later. A fact that is not disputed by anybody, is that the first church building in our town was the old St. John's building on Clinton avenue and Warren street, but that old building is now torn down and the oldest church building to-day is that of the Presbyterian Church. ”

“ It may be just as Pop says, that living in Hoboken and going to business in New York is a great thing for a man, because it makes going to business a pleasure, but for a boy I don't see what good it is. Even if it's true that Hoboken people don't need yachts, because they've always got the ferry-boats handy for sailing, I can't get excited over the idea of going there. There ain't any fishing, and as for hunting, Pop says there's nothing wild there except Trolly Cars, and I never could see what fun there was in hunting trolly cars. ”

“ A million must have walked through the tubes. They were always flooded with people; the East and West Side bridges were black with fighting mobs. A million climbed on foot up the Hoboken terrace area and wandered in the city sections there. And other millions fought their way to the north roof and embarked on the departing air-liners. ”

“ I think the European traveller, in order to form a just estimate both of the evils and advantages deriving from the institutions of this country, should spend one day in the streets of New York, and the next in the walks of Hoboken. If in the one, the toil, the care, the labour of mind and body, the outward and visible signs of the debasing pursuit of wealth, are marked in melancholy characters upon every man he meets, and bear witness to the great curse of the country ”