and the scene where Washington refused to accept
a crown.
William M. Evarts.
And now, while waiting to "throw out the plank," which puts a period to our Hudson River division, we feel like congratulating ourselves that the various goblins which once infested the river have become civilized, that the winds and tides have been conquered, and that the nine-day voyage of Hendrick Hudson and the "Half Moon" has been reduced to the nine-hour system of the Hudson River Day Line.
Those who have traveled over Europe will certainly appreciate the quiet luxury of an American steamer; and this first introduction to American scenery will always charm the tourist from other lands. No single day's journey in any land or on any stream can present such variety, interest, and beauty, as the trip of one hundred and forty-four miles from New York to Albany. The Hudson is indeed a goodly volume, with its broad covers of green lying open on either side; and it might in truth be called a condensed history, for there is no other place in our country where poetry and romance are so strangely blended with the heroic and the historic,—no river where the waves of different civilizations have left so many waifs upon the banks. It is classic ground, from the "wilderness to the sea," and will always be the poets' corner of our country: the home of Irving, Willis, and Morris,—of Fulton, Morse, and Field,—of Cole, Audubon, and Church,—and of scores besides, whose names are household words.
The Hudson's cable-tow of yore
Bound gallant sire and sturdy son
With hearty grasp from shore to shore