Poughkeepsie, New York

“ This week we give the first stage of the run from Poughkeepsie on the Hudson to Hartford, Connecticut, by way of Waterbury. We have already given in Nos. 810 and 817 of Harper's Round Table the route from New York to Poughkeepsie, and by reversing other maps already published in the Round Table it will be a simple matter to make out the road from Albany to Poughkeepsie.
Leaving Poughkeepsie from the Nelson House, make for the big turnpike-road that runs to Hackensack, which is seven miles away. In the middle of the town keep to the left and run a mile out, where a fork will be reached. ”

“ Upon the traveller of thy mountain road,
While sunset gilds thee, vision never fairer glowed!
Alfred B. Street.
Prominent among many pleasant residences above Poughkeepsie are: Mrs. F. J. Allen's of New York, Mrs. [page 130] John F. Winslow's, Mrs. Thomas Newbold's, J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'. The large red buildings above the Poughkeepsie water works are the Hudson River State Hospital. Passing Crum Elbow Point on the left and the Sisters of the White Cross Orphan Asylum, we see
Hyde Park, 80 miles from New York, on the east bank, named some say, in honor of Lady Ann Hyde ”

“ He seems to have come to America with money enough to lose a good deal in his removals from Boston to Poughkeepsie, from Poughkeepsie to New York City, from New York to Virginia, and from Virginia to eastern Ohio, where he ended in such adversity on his farm that he was glad to accept the charge of a woolen-mill in Steubenville. ”

“ He commenced the practice of law in New York in January, 1791, removed his office for a time to Poughkeepsie, and in 1796 resumed his station at the New York bar, where he received the appointment of district attorney, and soon became eminent in the profession, which he practised for several years, intermitted only by a voyage to France for the benefit of his health. ”

“ This reminds me of a clever trick played by a Yankee pedlar upon one of the captains of the steamboats running from New York to Albany on the Hudson river. The Yankee was fully aware of this custom of putting people on shore who attempted to gain a passage for nothing, and his destination was to a place called Poughkeepsie, about halfway between New York and Albany. ”

“ Travelers will find a fine place to stop while here in the Hotel Theresa.
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY—New York City via Tarrytown to Poughkeepsie.
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY—Poughkeepsie to Greenfield, Mass., through the Berkshire hills on the Mohawk trail.
TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY—Greenfield to Providence, Rhode Island, down the Connecticut river valley, which affords scenery as fine as any which New England has to offer. The fertile farm lands of the valley give beauty by way of contrast. The traveler will be interested in the fields of tobacco which are grown under canvas. ”

“ On her trial trip she ran from New York to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in three hours and seven minutes. Steam steering gear is used on the "Albany," thus insuring ease and precision in handling her. The wood-work on the main deck and in the upper saloons is all hard wood ”

“ Pochuck, given as the name of "A wild, rugged and romantic region" in Sussex County, N. J., to a creek near Goshen, and, modernly, to a place in Newburgh lying under the shadow of Muchhattoes Hill, is no doubt from Putscheck (Len.) , "A corner or repress," a retired or "out-of-the-way place." Eliot wrote Poochag, in the Natick dialect, and Zeisberger, in the Minsi-Lenape, Puts-cheek, which is certainly heard in Pochuck.
Chouckhass, one of the Indian grantors of the Wawayanda tract, left his name to what is now called Chouck's Hill, in the town of Warwick. ”

“ Edgar and Virginia Poe had known hard times in New York—the bitterness of hard times in a city large enough for each man to mind his own business and leave his neighbors to mind theirs. Yet as the boat slowed down and neared the wharf, and—past the shipping—they descried the houses and spires of town looming, ghostlike, through the enveloping mist of the soft, grey April day, it was with a thrill that these two standing hand in hand—like children—upon the deck, clasped each other's fingers with closer pressure and whispered,
"New York once more!" ”

“ New York’s theater district was like a ghost town in the early-morning hours. Except for a few familiar faces—the blind newspaper dealer at the corner of Forty-fourth and Broadway, the white-jacketed soda fountain clerk reading a magazine in the window, and the inevitable knot of musicians clustered at the corner of Forty-fifth street—no one was abroad. People in show business worked late and slept late. But by noon, Peggy knew, the streets would be crowded. ”

“ He says the jug of wine and loaf of bread and Thou in the wilderness business is about as much rest and pleasure to him as sliding down the bumps at Coney would be to President Taft. “Give me,” says Pogue, “a big city for my vacation. Especially New York. I’m not much fond of New Yorkers, and Manhattan is about the only place on the globe where I don’t find any.”
While in the metropolis Pogue can always be found at one of two places. One is a little second-hand book-shop on Fourth Avenue, where he reads books about his hobbies, Mahometanism and taxidermy. ”

“ That no American has lived or is fit to judge how or where they will spend their lives until they have seen and known New York," and Poppea arose to her knees in front of her admonisher, an expression of incredulity on her upturned face, and her hands clasped in a half-beseeching, half-defensive attitude. ”

“ Fulkerson admitted.
March did not quite like his candor, and he went on with dignity. "It's very natural she shouldn't. She has always lived in Boston; she's attached to the place. Now, if you were going to start 'The Fifth Wheel' in Boston--"
Fulkerson slowly and sadly shook his head, but decidedly. "Wouldn't do. You might as well say St. Louis or Cincinnati. There's only one city that belongs to the whole country, and that's New York."
"Yes, I know," sighed March; "and Boston belongs to the Bostonians, but they like you to make yourself at home while you're visiting." ”

“ There is no city in the Union in which impostors of all kinds flourish so well as in New York. The immense size of the city, the heterogeneous character of its population, and the great variety of the interests and pursuits of the people, are all so many advantages to the cheat and swindler. ”

“ The stores are closed, the streets have a deserted aspect, for the crowds of vehicles, animals and human beings that fill them on other days are absent. There are no signs of trade anywhere except in the Bowery and Chatham street. The city has an appearance of cleanliness and quietness pleasant to behold. The wharves are hushed and still, and the river and bay lie calm and bright in the light of the Sabbath sun. One misses the stages from Broadway, and a stranger at once credits the coachmen with a greater regard for the day than their brothers of the street cars. ”

“ Now a profusion of signs announce that hospitality is to be had at a stated price, and the old mansions are put to the viler uses of third-rate boarding houses and restaurants.
In many respects Bleecker street is more characteristic of Paris than of New York. It reminds one strongly of the Latin Quarter, and one instinctively turns to look for the Closerie des Lilas. It is the headquarters of Bohemianism, and Mrs. Grundy now shivers with holy horror when she thinks it was once her home. The street has not entirely lost its reputation. No one is prepared to say it is a vile neighborhood ”

“ On the southern shore of Long Island, who has not seen the sumptuous ultramarine, with a surf as snowy as apple-blossom? After shrill and meager New York, the color of that Atlantic is drenching.
The dancing harbor of New York is a beauty that never fades, but I hate the New York skyline except at night. In the day-time those punctured walls seem imbecile to me. They look out on the river with such a lidless, such an inhuman, stare. Nothing of man clings to them. They are barren as the rocks, empty as the deserted vaults of cliff-dwellers. ”

“ Every class, every shade of nationality and character, is represented here. America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and even Oceanica, each has its representatives. High and low, rich and poor, pass along at a rate of speed peculiar to New York, and positively bewildering to a stranger. No one seems to think of any one but himself, and each one jostles his neighbor or brushes by him with an indifference amusing to behold. ”

“ We are now fairly in the harbor of New York, with the great city directly in front of us, Brooklyn on our right, and Jersey City on our left. To the northward, the line of the Hudson melts away in the distant blue sky, and to the right the East River is lost in the shipping and houses of the two cities it separates. The scene is gay and brilliant. The breeze is fresh and delightful; the sky as clear and blue as that of Italy, and the bay as bright and beautiful as that of Naples, and even more majestic. ”

“ You are pale, and thinner than when I saw you last. Mercy! how long ago it seems, yet ’twas but the first week in last month. I have had such a good time in New York, Peggy,” she ran on without waiting for answers to her questions. “The routs and the assemblies were vastly entertaining. And the plays! Oh, Peggy, you should have been there. I thought of you often, and wished you with me, you little gray mouse of a cousin! Why do you wear that frock? I like it not.”
“Did thee in truth think of me?” asked Peggy wistfully. “With all that pleasuring I wonder that thee had time.” ”

“ It will purchase anything. Much is spent by those who do not dwell here, but come here to hide their secrets. Women come here to meet other men besides their husbands, and men bring women here who are not their wives. Bleecker street asks no questions, but it has come to suspect the men and women who are seen in it. ”

“ How people doing business here are ever found by those having dealings with them is a mystery. Many, indeed, come here to avoid being found, for Nassau street is the headquarters of those who carry on their business by circulars, and under assumed names. It is a good hiding place, and one in which a culprit might safely defy the far-reaching arm of Justice.
Along the street, and mostly in the cellars, cluster the “Old Book Stores” of New York, of which I shall have more to say hereafter, and they add not a little to the singular character of the street. ”

“ March observed with a degree of mortification that the talk was very little of it in the New York press; there the references to the novel enterprise were slight and cold. But Fulkerson said: "Don't mind that, old man. It's the whole country that makes or breaks a thing like this; New York has very little to do with it. Now if it were a play, it would be different. New York does make or break a play; but it doesn't make or break a book; it doesn't make or break a magazine. The great mass of the readers are outside of New York, and the rural districts are what we have got to go for. ”

“ Every boy and girl living on a farm in New York State twenty-five years or more ago, has in memory a picture like this: a stubbly hill-side field beset with russet shocks of corn and constellations of orange pumpkins, whence might be seen wide valleys filled with purple haze, and far hills bedecked with autumn tapestries woven about emerald patches of new wheat. ”

“ The residents of Philadelphia include every nationality and class of people. The Quakers are in a small minority, though they have done much to mould the character of the city. Irish and Germans predominate among foreigners. Italians, French, Spanish, and Chinese are not so numerous as in New York. The society of the Quaker City bears the reputation of great exclusiveness. While culture will admit to the charmed circle in Boston, and money buys a ready passport to social recognition in New York, in Philadelphia the door is closed to all pretensions except those of family. ”

“ She said in an accusing voice: “You out-of-towners don’t know what it’s like to try to run a city the size of New York. There are fifteen thousand people here, do you know that? It isn’t one of your hick towns. And it’s worry, worry, worry all the time, trying to keep things going.” ”

“ Many Philadelphians will long remember his daily freaks of extravagance. I will relate one as a sample of the others. One day, as a regiment stopped in the city on its way to the West, he presented it with one thousand baskets of champagne—one basket to each man—a piece of liberality that cost him twenty-five thousand dollars. After spending half a million dollars in the Quaker City, he came to New York in search of new excitements. ”

“ Almond lived much farther up town, in an embryonic street with a high number—a region where the extension of the city began to assume a theoretic air, where poplars grew beside the pavement (when there was one) , and mingled their shade with the steep roofs of desultory Dutch houses, and where pigs and chickens disported themselves in the gutter. These elements of rural picturesqueness have now wholly departed from New York street scenery; but they were to be found within the memory of middle-aged persons, in quarters which now would blush to be reminded of them. ”

“ He has a sublime confidence in his ability to get through life easily and lazily, and his greatest horror is the probability of falling into the hands of the police, and being sent to Blackwell’s Island as a vagrant. All that he desires is money enough to gratify a few actual wants, food enough to eat, clothing to cover his nakedness, and a place where he can enjoy the warmth of a fire in the winter. He has great faith in the charitableness of New York, and thinks that any of the necessities of life may be had here for the asking, and he does not hesitate to ask for them. ”