Middletown transcript., 1891-03-12
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Ryifen Jo,. The Transcript.
a Trip 10 the Empire State.

:
Trip 10 the Empire State.
A very cold and bracing day in
early February, found us boarding
north-bound train at the Middletown
station, for a trip to the land of cold
weather. A ride Of one hour and a
balf landed us at Broad street station,
Philadelphia. Another two and one.
half hours journey brought US to that
popular hotel Of Smith & McNell's
corner Greenwich and Fulton streets,
New York city. There.w we spent the
night, which was interrupted only by
the noise of the elevated railroad
trains as they sped on their way
through to the metropolis.
At 7.30 o'clock on the morning fol-
lowing we again resumed our journey,
and one-half hour later found Us at
Weehawken, that old Jersey town
which was the scene Of the historical
duel between Aaron Burr and Alex.
ander Hamilton. it was at this point
that we boarded train on the pictur-
esque route Of the New York, Ontario
& Western railroad. The route for
the first fifty miles lies along the
very romantic Hudson and the High
lands j; and as we look at those high
rocky cliffs rising SO abruptly from
the track it calls to mind those old
romances that we have SO often read
ofin childhood. And we also remem-
ber that this locality was the home Of
Washington Irving who tells the
stories Of that old loafer Rip Van
Winkle and his industrious wife, and
Of Ichabod Crane. All these heroes
had their haunts in this locality.
And as we speed along we view those
Revolutionary towns of Stony Point
and Tarrytown, on the other side of
the river, and at West Point We catch
glimpses of few Of the buildings Of
the United States Military Academy
which is located there.
But as yet we have not described
the scenes on the river. Well to be
short, the river at this period Of the
year does not appear as it does
in midsummer. In place of those
palace-like steamboats, that run be-
tween New York and other towns, we
see nothing but white covering
generally known as ice, while here
and there we see the boats that run
lin these waters snug in their, winter
quarters. Well to resume our train
that is passing West Point. we soon
reached Cornwall where we changed
our direction from a northerly to
nortb-westerly course across the
Empire State.
The first town that we stop at of
any Importance is MiddIetown, and
the brakeman calls out ten minutes
for refreshments" SO we take the op-
portunity to refresh the inner man.
While we are eating let us consider
for moment this place. We find it
a wide-awake enterprising town Of
four or five thousand inhabitants. 1T
contains the railroad repair shops. an
immense round house. It Is also q
large manufacturing place for cotton
goods, etc., etc., and We think what
fine model for our own dear Middle
town amongst the peach trees. While
we are talking the sound of sail
aboard " is heard and we are hustled
in the car and our journey continues.
Soon we see signs of snow. 1t ap.
pears along the fences and as we pro-
ceed farther toward the interior of
the state we see good sleighing along
the country roads. At Walton
another station on this line We make
another stop Of ten minutes to refresh
ourselves. About S o'clock, P. NJ. we
at last find ourselves at the end Of
our trip by rail at a town known as
New Berlin. And as we emerge from
the car and find ourselves in the
snowy thoroughfare we can only ex-
claim "what change from what we
saw only 36 hours before. One
thing that is especially noticeable on
this last days ride is the tunnels. We
have passed through seven and there
would have been more if they had
been completed. We now finish our
journey by sleigh and a ride Of FIVE
miles finds US at our country destina-
ton, and as darkness gathers around
we think how pleased many Of our
| friands would he Tn viay the acanarv 0f
the Empire State on a pleasant day like
this. P'Ks.