Part 18 (2/2)

”In 1844, the New York State Fair was held here somewhere east of what is now Hooker Avenue. It was an occasion thought important enough then to be pictured and reported in the London _Ill.u.s.trated News_. Two years after the telegraph wires were put up in this city, before they had yet reached the city of New York. Considering the fact that Prof.

S. F. B. Morse, the telegraph inventor, had his residence here, this incident was not wholly inappropriate.

”The advent in 1849 of the _Hudson River Railroad_, which was an enterprise in its day of startling courage and magnitude, const.i.tuted a special epoch in the history of Poughkeepsie and the Hudson River towns. Men of middle age here well remember the hostility and ridicule the project occasioned when it was first broached. Some said no railroad ever _could_ be built on the river's edge; and, if you should build one, the enormous expense incurred would make it forever unprofitable. It seemed then the height of Quixotism to lay an expensive track where the river offered a free way to all. Property holders, whose property was to be greatly benefited, fought the railroad company with unusual spirit and persistence. But the railroad came, nevertheless, and needs no advocate or apologist to-day. There is no one now living here who would ask its removal, any more than he would ask the removal of the Hudson River itself.”

And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky, And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven, So softly blending, that the cheated eye Forgets or which is earth or which is heaven.

_Theodore S. Fay_.

Mountains on mountains in the distance rise, Like clouds along the far horizon's verge; Their misty summits mingling with the skies, Till earth and heaven seem blended into one.

_Bayard Taylor._

Poughkeepsie has been known for more than half a century as the City of Schools. The Parthenon-like structure which crowns College Hill was prophetic of a still grander and more widely known inst.i.tution, the first in the world devoted to higher culture for women,--

=Va.s.sar College.=--This inst.i.tution, founded by Matthew Va.s.sar, and situated two miles east of the city, maintains its prestige not only as the first woman's college in point of time, but also first in excellence and influence. The grounds are beautiful and graced by n.o.ble buildings which have been erected year by year to meet the continued demands of its patrons. The college is not seen from the river but is of easy access by trolley from the steamboat landing.

=Eastman College= is also one of the fixed and solid inst.i.tutions of Poughkeepsie, located in the very heart of the city. It has accomplished good work in preparing young men for business, and has made Poughkeepsie a familiar word in every household throughout the land. It was fortunate for the city that the energetic founder of this college selected the central point of the Hudson as the place of all others most suited for his enterprise, and equally fortunate for the thousands of young men who yearly graduate from this inst.i.tution, as the city is charmingly located and set like a picture amid picturesque scenery.

Among many successful public inst.i.tutions of Poughkeepsie are the Va.s.sar Hospital, the Va.s.sar Old Men's Home, the Old Ladies' Home, the State Hospital and the Va.s.sar Inst.i.tute of Arts and Sciences.

I went three times up the Hudson; and if I lived in New York should be tempted to ascend it three times a week during the summer.

_Harriet Martineau._

The opera house is one of the pleasantest in the country and received a high comment, still remembered, from Joseph Jefferson, for its perfect acoustic quality. The armory, the Adriance Memorial Library to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Adriance, and the historic Clinton House on Main Street purchased in 1898 by the Daughters of the Revolution, also claim the attention of the visitor. Several factories are here located, the best known being that of Adriance, Platt & Co., whose Buckeye mowers and reapers have been awarded the highest honors in Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States, and are sold in every part of the civilized globe. The Phoenix Horseshoe Co., the Knitting-Goods Establishment, and various shoe, s.h.i.+rt and silk thread factories contribute to the material prosperity of the town. The drives about Poughkeepsie are delightful. Perhaps the best known in the United States is the Hyde Park road, six miles in extent, with many palatial homes and charming pictures of park and river scenery. This is a part of the Old Post Road and reminds one by its perfect finish of the roadways of England. Returning one can take a road to the left leading by and up to

=College Hill=, 365 feet in height, commanding a wide and extensive prospect. The city lies below us, fully embowered as in a wooded park.

To the east the vision extends to the mountain boundaries of Dutchess County, and to the north we have a view of the Catskills marshalled as we have seen them a thousand times in sunset beauty along the horizon.

This property, once owned by Senator Morgan and his heirs, was happily purchased by William Smith of Poughkeepsie, and given to the city as a public park. There is great opportunity here to make this a thing of beauty and a joy forever, for there are few views on the Hudson, and none from any hill of its height, that surpa.s.s it in extent and variety. The city reservoir lies to the north, about one hundred feet down the slope of College Hill.

My heart is on the hills. The shades Of night are on my brow; Ye pleasant haunts and quiet glades, My soul is with you now!

_Robert C. Sands._

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