A railway in the air with steam-engines
and coaches crowded with people interested Mr. Searles greatly.
"In London," he said, "we are hurried about under ground, in foul air,
and darkness often."
"Here at Battery Park, Mr. Searles, November 25, 1783, Sir Guy Carleton's
British army embarked. Our New Yorkers still celebrate the date as
Evacuation Day. Near by at an earlier date Hendrick Christianson, agent
of a Dutch fur trading company, built four small houses and a redoubt,
the foundation of America's metropolis. In 1626 Peter Minuit, first
governor of the New Netherlands, bought for twenty-six dollars all
Manhattan Island."
Mr. Searles visited the tall Washington Building which occupies the
ground where formerly stood the headquarters of Lords Cornwallis and
Howe. He told Gertrude that he had read that, in July, 1776, the people
came in vast crowds to Battery Park to celebrate the Declaration of
Independence, and that they knocked over the equestrian statue of George
III., which was melted into bullets to be used against the British.
"Yes," replied Colonel Harris, "in early days, Americans doubtless lacked
appreciation of art, but we always gave our cousins across-sea a warm
reception.
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