The Express creeps slowly along the steel way, under cross-streets,
through arched tunnels, and over the Harlem River till the Hudson is
reached, and then this world-famed river is followed 142 miles to
Albany, the capital of the Empire State. This tide-water ride on the
American Rhine is unsurpassed. The Express is whirled through tunnels,
over bridges, past the magnificent summer houses of the magnates of the
metropolis that adorn the high bluffs, past wooded hill and winding dale,
grand mountains, and sparkling rivulets. Every object teems with historic
memories. This ride, in June, is surpassed only when the forests are in a
blaze of autumnal splendor.
For twenty miles in sight are the battlemented cliffs of the Palisades.
Mr. Searles was familiar with the facile pen of Washington Irving, and
from the car caught sight of "Sunny Side" covered with nourishing vines,
grown from slips, which Irving secured from Sir Walter Scott at
Abbottsford.
Passing Tarrytown Colonel Harris said, "Here Major Andre was captured,
and the treachery of Benedict Arnold exposed, otherwise, we might to-day
have been paying tribute to the crown of Great Britain."
"Yes," replied Mr. Searles, "George Washington, patriot, hung Major
Andre, the spy.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119