Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island

The Walled In Regiment.
Walled In
A True Story of Randall’s Island
BY William O. Stoddard AUTHOR OF “Dab Kinzer,” “Crowded out of Crowfield,” “Saltillo Boys,” etc., etc.
Illustrated
New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company M DCCC XCIX
Copyright, 1897, BY Fleming H. Revell Company

Walled In
When the world was made, a number of islands were loosely scattered around at the mouth of the Hudson River. To this day, the old river works steadily on, trying to change the saltness of the Atlantic by pouring in fresh water, and trying to widen its own mouth by washing away these islands, but the ocean is as salt as it was a thousand years ago and the islands are of about the same size that they ever were, so far as anybody can see. When they were put there, however, and for nobody knows how long afterward, there was not a boy or girl to have been found upon either of them, while nowadays there are swarms and swarms, from every nation this side of Asia, and they are of all sorts and sizes.
Some of the ways and doings of those boys and girls cannot be rightly told without first asking those who are to hear the story to take a look at a map of New York City and of the land and water around it. The map shows everything pretty clearly excepting the people and the houses they live in.