Trenton

“ The broken window-panes, through which twittering swallows darted, the gray weather-beaten sides end unpatched moss-covered roof proclaimed that Trenton falls had had its day. Nature was making the old place a part of the landscape, and the birds were now the sole proprietors—gay summer tourists who never grow tired of lovely natural haunts like their human cogeners, because they are far removed from the dust and din of travel. ”

“ It was now the Americans who attacked. Trenton had taught them the lesson that, man for man, they had nothing to fear from their vaunted adversaries; and that lesson, learned at the point of the bayonet, is the only one that can ever make men soldiers. The enemy could well afford to lose a town, but this rise of a new spirit was quite a different thing. Therefore, though a little battle, Trenton was a great fact, nowhere more fully confessed than in the British camp, where it was now gloomily spoken of as the tragedy of Trenton. ”

“ Trenton stood at the gate for a moment, hoping Mason would come. Suddenly he remembered with confusion that he was directly in range of those disdainful eyes in the parlour, and he beat a hasty retreat toward the old mill that stood by the falls. The roar of the turbulent water over the granite rocks had a soothing effect on the soul of the man who knew he was a criminal, yet could not for the life of him tell what his crime had been. Then he wandered up the river-bank toward where he saw the two half-breeds placing the canoe in the still water at the further end of the village. ”

“ Considering the amount of surprise and pleasure which one feels in a walk up the ravine at Trenton, it is remarkable how little one finds to say about it, the day after. Is it that mere scenery, without history, is enjoyable without being suggestive, or, amid the tumult of the rushing torrent at one's feet, is the milk of thought too much agitated for the cream to rise? I fancied yesterday, as I rested on the softest rock I could find at the upper end of the ravine, that I should tumble you out a letter to-day, with ideas pitching forth like saw-logs over a waterfall ”

“ Although but fourteen miles distant from a town containing twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants, Trenton Falls were unknown till within a very few years. They were discovered by an artist in search of the picturesque, and are now visited, like Niagara and Terni. A quiet but excellent inn, which contrasts strongly, by its respectful service, and its neat and secluded air, with the noisy and carelessly kept hotels of the country, stands on the edge of the pine forest, a little back from the brink of the chasm ”

“ The Delaware and Raritan canal passes through the city, forming a water communication with Philadelphia and New York, and, by its navigable feeder, with Lambertville and New Hope, about 18 m. N. Trenton is connected with Philadelphia and New York by the Pennsylvania railroad, and is the point of junction with the Belvidere Delaware railroad, which runs to the Water Gap and connects with the coal regions of Pennsylvania. The manufacture of crockery is the most important industry, Trenton surpassing all other places in the country in this respect. ”

“ Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, and contains about two hundred houses, together with four churches. The streets are commodious, and the houses neatly built. The state house, in which congress met for some time during the war, is a heavy clumsy edifice.
PRINCETON. Twelve miles from Trenton, stands Princeton, a neat town, containing about eighty dwellings in one long street. Here is a large college, held in much repute by the neighbouring states. The number of students amounts to upwards of seventy ”

“ I was very sorry for this great hurry, because I should have liked to have examined Trenton; it is a very handsome place, and was to me particularly interesting, on account of General Washington’s crossing the Delaware above Trenton, in the winter of 1776-77, and attacking a troop of Hessians, of whom he took one thousand four hundred prisoners. The Hessian Colonel Rall fell in this engagement. This was one of the best fought battles of the American war. ”

“ The broad river swept in a great semicircle to their right, and its dark waters were flecked with the foam of the small falls near the village, and the great cataract miles up the river. It promised to be a perfect autumn day. The sky, which had seemed to Trenton overcast when they started, was now one deep dome of blue without even the suggestion of a cloud.
The buckboard drew up at the gate of the house in which Mr. Mason lived when he was in the lumber village, although his home was at Three Rivers. ”

“ Upon my expressing some surprise that people did not come, and remain for some weeks at least, in so beautiful a place, he told me that the generality of visiters were quite satisfied with an hour's stroll by the water; and that some had arrived at his door, alighted from their carriage, dined, sauntered round the house, and, without even going down to the river, returned to Utica quite satisfied with having been at Trenton. I was amazed. But the utter insensibility of the generality of Americans to the beauty and sublimity of nature is nothing short of amazing ”

“ Why did men marry the wrong women? she asked herself with proneness of youth to propound and answer unanswerable questions. There was Trenton, who had so frankly admitted the failure of his own marriage and with equal frankness took the burden of his failure upon himself. No two men could be more utterly unlike than Ward Trenton and Bob Cummings, and she busied herself contrasting them. Trenton was practical-minded; Bob a dreamer, and save for his college experiences the range of his life had been narrow. ”

“ And now, I am told, this “so-called nineteenth century” (as I read the other day in the fervid discourse of some pessimist orator) intends before it closes to utilise the lake as a milldam and the fall as so much “power.”
I remember that I enjoyed Trenton most. It appealed much less, of course, to the imagination and the sense of wonder, but far more to one’s, appreciation of the beautiful.
Our Niagara visit was in great measure spoiled by my father’s illness. He was suffering from one of his worst sick headaches. ”

“ Like human life to endless sleep!"
TRENTON FALLS.
In the hills north of Utica, the West Canada Creek cuts its remarkable gorge at Trenton Falls. It is a vigorous stream, rising in the western slopes of the Adirondacks and flowing to the Mohawk. In getting down through the limestone rocks from the highlands to the plain adjacent to the river, it passes into the ravine, giving a magnificent display of 346 chasms, cascades and rapids, in a gorge of such amazing construction that it is regarded as a wonder second only to Niagara. ”

“ To the British and the Hessians, the American army was a dispirited and broken crew of ragamuffins. They knew how to run and dodge, that was all. At Trenton, all across the Jerseys and at New York, careless confidence was supreme. Howe was quartered at Manhattan for the winter; his troops were negligently stretched from Brunswick to the Delaware. Three regiments of Hessians under Colonel Rahl occupied Trenton and the towns near by; and the general conduct of these filled the two spies with satisfaction. ”

“ He was also one of the commissioners on the behalf of Connecticut, who met at Trenton to settle the unpleasant controversy between that state and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, relative to the lands in Wyoming valley. In all the multiform public duties that devolved upon him, he acquitted himself nobly, and retained, to his last moments, the entire confidence of his country. He possessed a strong and analyzing mind, a clear head, a good heart, and deep penetration of thought. ”

“ But even if there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without difficulty. It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is moreover a direct railway from Utica, with a station at the Trenton Falls. Utica is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo to New York viâ Albany, and is like all the other towns we had visited. There are broad streets, and avenues of trees, and large shops, and excellent houses. A general air of fat prosperity pervades them all, and is strong at Utica as elsewhere. ”

“ Trenton, our American ladies are quite in the habit of looking after themselves. I found that out long ago.”
“I suppose there is nothing for it but get out my buckboard and get back to Three Rivers.”
“Oh, I dismissed your driver long ago,” said the lumberman. “I’ll take you there in my buggy. I am going out to Three Rivers to-day anyhow.”
“No chance of overtaking the ladies?” asked Trenton.
“I don’t think so. We may overtake Mrs. Mason but I imagine Miss Sommerton will be either at Quebec or Montreal before we reach Three Rivers. I don’t know in which direction she is going. ”

“ Three British battalions lay at Princeton the night before. [7] Two of them were on the march to Trenton when Washington's troops were discovered approaching on a back road. Astonished at seeing troops coming up from that direction, the leading battalion instantly turned back to meet them. At the same time Washington detached Mercer to seize the main road, while he himself pushed on with the rest of the troops. ”

“ Sanders was a big man with a great shock of iron-gray hair. He was regarding Mrs. Trenton with the bland smile that witnesses always found disconcerting.
“Well, that may be true,” he said, “but the poor old human race has survived their ignorance a mighty long time.”
The laughter at this retort was scattering and tempered by the obvious fact that Mrs. Trenton was not wholly pleased by it.
Jimmie Atwood was hoping that there would be a row. A row among high-brows would be something to talk about when he went to the University Club the next day for lunch and an afternoon of sniff. ”

“ Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton were successively evacuated by the Americans and occupied by the enemy. Often the music of the pursued and the pursuers would be heard by each other, yet no action occurred. Arrived at Trenton on the 8th of December, Washington and his army crossed the Delaware in boats. The last one had reached the Pennsylvania shore just as one division of Cornwallis's army, with all the pomp of victors, marched into Trenton. This was about twelve o'clock at night. The British commander, with the main body of the troops, halted within six miles of Trenton. ”

“ One thing was clear and Grace derived a deep satisfaction from the reflection,—Mrs. Trenton not only didn’t love her husband, but she was incapable of loving any one but herself. Grace, having accepted the invitation to meet Mrs. Trenton with a sense that there was something a little brazen in her going when Miss Reynolds believed her to be a clean-hearted, high-minded girl, in bitterness of spirit yielded to a mood of defiance. This woman had no right to be a burden and a hindrance to the man she had married. ”

“ Grace and Trenton were holding strictly to their [393] agreement not to see each other. Once, as she waited for the traffic to break at Washington and Meridian Streets, Trenton passed in a car. Craig was driving and Trenton, absorbed in a sheaf of papers, didn’t lift his head. ”

“ Trenton sighed deeply. The disturbance had been an unwelcome reminder of the energies of the world of men hidden by the night. Grace was the first to speak.
“It’s been so dear to have this hour! But, we mustn’t meet again. Please don’t ask me to see you—ever—not in any way. We’ll both be happier if what we say tonight is final. We can’t just begin over again and be friends. That would mean forgetfulness—and we can’t forget. Please don’t write me. I’m going to be all right. I’ll be happy just thinking of you. We’re both brave and strong and knowing that will help—won’t it, dear?” ”

“ Grace, increasingly uncomfortable, started when Mrs. Trenton addressed her directly.
“Miss Durland, if you see too much of Mr. Trenton you will find him a singularly unreasonable person. But,” with a shrug, “all men have the ancient conceit of their sex superiority.” ”

“ The name of the river is Canada Creek West; but as that is hardly euphonious, the course of the water which forms the falls has been called after the town or parish. This course is nearly two miles in length, and along the space of these two miles it is impossible to say where the greatest beauty exists. To see Trenton aright one must be careful not to have too much water. A sufficiency is no doubt desirable, and it may be that at the close of summer, before any of the autumnal rains have fallen, there may occasionally be an insufficiency. ”

“ Ward Trenton, who wrote books and lectured and otherwise advertised herself as a vital being.
“Dear little girl!” said Trenton tenderly. “You are all the world to me. Do you understand?”
“I must believe that,” she said.
“There’s nothing I can offer you now—neither a [168] home nor the protection of my name. It’s got to be just love that’s our tie. I’m not going to deceive you about that.”
“Yes, I understand what it means,” she answered.
“You must believe that I’ll do the best I can to make you happy. Love that doesn’t bring happiness is an empty and worthless thing. ”

“ Trenton replied. “You’ve got enough on your hands now.”
“You think I’m a sick man,” said Kemp. “But I’m going to see you all under the sod. I like this world and I’m going to live a hundred years. Jerry, fill ’em up!”
There was more food than any one needed or wanted and when Jerry began serving dessert Trenton suggested to Grace that they leave the table. Their leaving evoked loud protests. Irene was now furiously angry at Kemp, who had been unable to resist the lure of the champagne, a vintage without duplicate in all America, he declared. ”