River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-11-09
An Editor and his Home.
The sumptuous style In Which Char
les a HDaua Lives

Have you ever been to Dosoris
Island Probably not. Have you ever
seen Dosoris Island? Possibly you may
have got a distant glimpse of it while
steaming up Long Island Sound on q
Fail River boat. 1t is a lovely island,
some two miles in circumference, near
Glen Cove, on the starboard bow as you
sail eastward. 1t is the summer home
of Charles A. Dana, editor and chief
proprietor of The Sun, and every day
during the warm months he journeys
to the city, twenty miles off, and back
on steamboat in private apartments
elegantly fitted up for exclusive use.
His residence is an antique mansion,
rambling and roomy, on an eminence
browning the the island and over
looking grounds laid out with a
consumate mastery of the arts OF
forestry. orchardry, vineyard and
Horticulture. There are acres of vine
festoonery, yielding harvests of the
richest grapes that can be grown along
this isothermal line. Fruit is cultivat-
ed in abundance. There are mushroom
caves, where the pale fungi grow deep
in the earth, approached only by lad
ders and seeing no other light than
torches. / doubt if anybody else in the
country has anything like it; and, in
deed, it is said there are few mushroom
caves even in France that equal these
for the variety and excellence of the
product.
There are on Mr.. Dana's place more
than 1o0species of pines. The needle
bearing trees seem to be his favorites.
He has Japanese pines, pines from the
Caucasus, the Andes and the Hima-
layas, India and Africa pines. Besides
these there are singular exotics from
all PAL is of the world. He is an expert
in landscape gardening, and pronounc-
ed by Prof G. S. Sargent, of Harvard,
one of the most accomplished horti-
culturist in America.
On this romantic isle of Monte
Christie, the commingling of the old
trees that shaded the Indians and Dutch
with the foliage resulting from modern
selection and cultivation makes beau
tiful display. Mr.. Dona Is also chicken
fancier and pigeon cultivator. Among
fowls the Brahma is his favorite. and
newspaper have not forgotten what q
stolen from his coops one night last
year. / forgot whether it was 900 or
5000 or 6,000, 900, but remember that
it was enough to stock half the farms
in the State. His, choice breeds of
swine and sheep, neat cattle and horses
amply repay a days inspection. His
BILLIARD. house, standing little detatch-
ed from his main residence, In mu-
scum of ITSELF The tables are of the
best quality, surrounded by antique
furniture, and the walls are hung with
medieval armor and tiger skins brought
from Africa by DR.. Chaillu. Mr.. D0na
is an expert in billiards and has some
times beaten the best professional,
The residence is old Dutch, built
more than century ago. It has been
enlarged and modernized in some parts
for comforts sake and enriched with
the spoils of many a transatlantic jour-
ney. The taste and wealth lavished on
the parlor, diniug-room and halls in the
way of paintings, statuary and other ar
tistic decoration, have produced a I'M
ique effect. tits pretty generally known
that Mr.. Dana is an epicure-a gentle
man who makes dining fiue arf-and
there are few more delicate or richer
tables Ia the vicinity CT this city than
the spread before the master of Dosoris.
He pays his cook q, 900 a year, / am
told, sum exceeding that paid to the
great French cook. Trompette, who
drives through the streets of Paris in a
coach as splendid as that OF Louis XIV.