Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-07-17
Harpers "Easy Chair" al the
Battery.

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from the spot upon which the Easy
Chair is planted are sometimes inclined
to reproach it with too fond regard for
its own neighborhood, and for DISPOSE
tion to treat the great city in which it
stands as if it were the only city, or as
if its affairs were universally interest
ing. 1t is, of course easy to deceive
ones self, and to suppose that everybo-
dy is interested in our interests, and in
this way the Easy Chair may have erred
sometimes. But yesterday, rolling slow
ly along the Battery, and looking out
upon the summer bay, it could not but
remember that the ground upon which
it moved and the water upon which it
gazed were really historic, and full of
interest to every American, whether
upon the banks of the .Tombigbee, or in
the shadow of Katahdin. For just here
was the site of old Fort George; at that
corner Washington as COMMANDMENTS
chief lived; over these very waters he
came in his barge to be inaugurated; /;
and there below, from the shore of
Staten Island across the Narrows to
Long Island, the British army passed to
the battle of Long Island. If you will
walk few steps you will see the course
that the retreating Americans took from
"BroOkland," as the latest published
history calls it, enveloped in the fog
that saved them; and the old Fraunces
Tavern, in which Washington took final
farewell of the officers of the army.
These are all incidents and associa-
tions that occur at once to the loiterer
on the Battery, and they are not narrow
ly located and limited. They are not for
New Workers alone. They are equally
for the traveller from the Upper Missis-
sippi and from Santa Barbara The Ea-
sy Chair, indeed, has heard that the citi-
zen of Chicago has very distinct i'm
preston of the particular American city
which is meant to be designated by the
metropolis" and that there are many
many deniZens of many cities who smile
to think that the adjective "metropoli-
tan" is sometimes supposed to be espe-
cially descriptive of the thriving and
promising community of New Amster-
dam. 1t is cockney weakness which
the bOundless prairie and the banks of
the Father of Waters good-naturedly
forgive. The charm, perhaps, of its seat
at the gates of the ocean-a position
which naturally brings to it the foreign
observer intent upon describing the New
World-have given it a Fictitious prom
inence. And that observer may well
speak it fair, so green and gracious is its
welcome at this season. The shores
that he sees as he approaches are those
of New Jersey sinking from the high
lands of Navesink to the long stretch of
Sandy Hook. Nearing the city, Long
Island lies level, with sandy margin, at
his right, the gay hotels and paYilions
of Coney Island, and the beaches clus-
tering along the edge of the surf; and on
his left are the richly tufted and round
ed heights of Staten Island, undulating,
luxuriant, most refreshing to sea-wearied
eyes.
Whether VerraZzano saw them or not,
Hudson saw them, and found them "a
pleasant land to see.' For two hundred
and seventy years how much of Europe
has followed them; and it is because so
much of what is now America has ar
rived at the very spot on which the Easy
Chair was rolling, that the city which
has arisen beyond it may seem to give
itself undue metropolitan airs. The Bat
terry itself that rounds out into the water,
although the fort has long since disap-
peared, is now delightful spot. 1t is
Iraversed, indeed, by the elevated rail
way, but the light iron tressel-work has
s)mewhat the effect of an arcade; and
Castle Garden opens upon it, the depot
of immigrants; but that merely contin-
ues and perpetually renews the tradition
of Henry Hudson and the 'Half-Moon.'
So we all came at some time and at some
point upon the coast. Even Washing
ton was the descendant of lordly carpet
baggers; and although in a time of in
dustrial prostratiOn we may look askance
at the alien crowd that swarms with Gu
rious eyes from the great gate of Castle
Garden, the amusing lOiterer will reflect
that yonder buxOm Scandinavian maid in
stout shoes and heavy woolens may yet
be, like Virginia, the mother of Presi-
dents-Harper's Magazine for August.