Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-09-03
Correspondence of the Yorkville Enquirer.
LETTER FROM NEW ENGLAND.

LETTER FROM NEW ENGLAND.
SOUTH COVENTRY, CONN, Aug. %, 1889.
One of the most attractive places to visit, in
New York, is Central Park 80 called,
presume, because it occupies about the centre
of Manhattan Island. Itseems to constitute
the northern boundary of the city proper,
though the corporate limits include the
whole of the island, and all of the county of
New York that lies beyond Harlan River,
being coextensive with the county itself.
We walked about in the Park as long as it
was pleasant to do so, and then rode around
in Park-carriage, which, for the modest
sum of twenty-five cents, takes you to all
the principal points of interest, allowing
you to stop as long as you please at three OF
these, including the Obelisk, and the Metro
politan Museum of Art.
The Obelisk looks very ancient indeed
as would naturally besupposed. All four of
the corners at its base are worn off, and it is
only made firm upon its pedestal by the use
of iron props at these corners. Even now 1t
seems as if good puff of wind would make
it topple over.
At the Museum of Art you can see
sculpture, ancient and modern, represent
ing anything in the rational world from
a hero of our own times back to the gods of
mythology; and all manner of handiWork
in wood, the metals, and earthenWare, out
of all nations and kindreds and tongues.
Saint Patrick's Cathedral, on Fifth Ave-
nue., nearly opposite to VIM. H. Wander.
bilt's home, is we'll worth an hour or 80 of
any Protestant's time. 1t is open all the
day long, and visitors are allowed to walk
around in the aisles except when the priest
or some other of the clergy are holding
service. At all hours, good pious Catholics
step in, say their prayers, cross themselves
with the holy water, count their beads, bow
to the images about the altar, and 60 their
way rejoicing. A very fervent but very
ignorant (?) Irishman of whom l asked a
question tried very hard to show me the
way" He said if I should be saved at all
out of the Catholic faith, it would only be
through ignorance.
At Old Trinity (High Church Episcopa-
lian) 1 did not see the silent worshipper of
a week day do anything more un-Protestant
than the counting of beads Some of the
tombstones in the old burying ground around
this church date back nearly two hundred
years.
The elevated railways run up and down
about half the avenues in the city. That
along Sixth Avenue goes as high up as
155th Street to the extreme northern part of
Manhattan Island, some ten miles above
South Battery. After you pass Central
Park, you find very few buildings, but
the streets are all regularly laid out. BY
the time the upper part of the Island is all
occupied like the lower (Which doubtless
will be at no distant day. New York will
have numbered at least two millions OF
people.
There is nothing about the city that en-
joyed more intensely than | did the slght
and study of the great Brooklyn Suspension
Bridge. From the New York to the Brook
lyn side, it stretches across East River, q
mile and a shird in distance, and tits broad
enough and strong enough to have path
way in the centre for pedestrians, and on
each side railroad track and a wagon road.
These five passages, running side by side,
are entirely disconnected from one another.
I walked across once (fare one eentG rode
across on the train, (fare three cents) and
then crossed on ferry-boat just below the
bridge (fare two cents, and in this way l
got to see it in all it's aspects. 1t is wonder
full how such a structure, at a cost OF so
many millions (siXteen, l believe), can be
made to pay with so light toll but one OF
the conductors told me that at least 80, 600
persons cross once every day on the train,
which runs each way every three minutes
of the tWenty-four hours and about hall
that number walk over daily. So the secret
lies in the number of tolls. -,
No one should ever 90 to New York with
out going up the Hudson-the American
Rhine-on the boat by daylight. The west
ern shore is lined with steep rocky banks,
nearly all the way up to West Point, ana
also with the great West Shore Railroad for
part of the distance; whilst on the eastern
shore, the New York Central and Hudson
River Railroad may be seen all the way up,
and also many beautiful villages, and the
country seats, magnificent to behold, of fsuch
men as Jay Gould, Samuel j. Tilden, of the
present, and Washington Irving, of the past
generation.
West Point occupies grand old site. Be-
sides all that nature and history have done
for it, the National purse-strings have been
loosed many time its behalf. And ta-
king it all in all, it is just the place to train
soldier to think noble things, and to doing
great deeds. All the surroundings are cal
culated to elevate and ennoble. Whilst
standing there 1 could not help but think
how hard struggle it must have been Tor
such men as the great and noble Lee, and
sever the ties which began to grow right
here in their school-boy days, and which, as
they grew stronger with age, bound them
closer and closer to the National govern
ment. Persons down South, reared up un-
der the doctrine of States-rights, and who
from practical standpoint, hardly knew
there was such thing as a Nation OF States,
can never appreciate the great sacrifice
these and other men of their kind, made
in casting their fortunes with the Southern
COnfederacy. Surely their memory should
be honored all the more for it!
Brooklyn is very pretty city about two
thirds the size of New York, but with much
more room for expansion, OF course, anu IN
the evening all the hustle of Brooklyn seems
to be transferred to its principal avenne,
Fulton street. This, | suppose, is because
so many residents of Brooklyn do business
in New York, and return thither when the
days work is done. Greenwood Cemetery
is the most noted place in the city for
one to visit. The arrangement for getting
over the grounds is about the same as in
Central Park, and to me they were equally
attractive. 1t really seems as II the most
restless mind could wait here in patience
for the glorious light of the resurrection
morn. Our guide was decidedly of the Hi
bernian cast Of mind as we'll as of that eX-
traction. He amused us very much IN his
description of the old maids row, ana IN
his mention of one who had been "noted for
his charitable deeds during his tte," and OF
another who had been formerly an eT-
Mayor of New York" When asked Wheth-
er an image represented Faith or Hope, he
said he really could not tell, as he was not
much on religion.
Coney Island is about six miles south OF
Brooklyn on the southern shore OF Long
Island, and is easily reached by numerous
excursion railway coaches from that city,
as we'll as from Bay Ridge, ferry boat sta
tion on East Long Island, to which boats
90 from South Battery, New York, about
every twenty minutes. The Hotel Brigh-
ton and West Brighton Hotel, are about