The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-06-08
NOTED ALONG THE HUDSON.
Pccuiiarities OF tho West hank Between
Kingston and Albany.

1
tho river and the mountains. there is n popu-
lous. well cultivated. fertile region. stretching
from Albany to Kingston. that has almost no
young men. 1t has been stripped OF the men
between twenty-one and thirty-ave years Of
age as II rigid conscription had been en-
forced. and they had all been tax en- away.
Differing from New England. whore French
Canadians and the grown-up sons OF Irish
Immigrants have taken the places Of the
young men OF the old Yankee stock.
the counties OF Albany. Greene. and
| Ulster have been denudcd OF the young
men who were born there and none has come
in to take their places The cities have so
absorbed the young men that 1t is a question
who Will be left to inhabt these farms when
the heads OF the families now living there have
died. There are many girls and boys. plenty
OF children playing around the farmhouses set
back from the main roads. It is odd for any
one who has been accustomed to ses the
crowds of young men around the corners. In
the pool rooms or saloons of Albany and Troy.
Newburgh and New York. to note the differ
cnce In the ages in the groups that one finds
in old Dutch villages like Coeymans tpro-
nounced Qucemunsl. Coxsackie. and SAUCER
ties. majority OF the men have gray In
their hair. and there is IN untitled gap be-
tween them and the boys OF eighteen.
These boys. too. are looking for an oppor-
tunity to get away. They will ask the stran-
gers who pass through whether there is not
some lob they could get in New York city. A
few years ago tho tendency WAS for them to
leave their farms to 60 to the small towns and
work in the shops there or to be clerks in
country store. Their ambition has grown.
They are not satisfied with tho Villages Of
few hundred or n few thousand Inhabitants.
nor even with cities OF the size o. Kingston
and \pwburvh ll,np prT r,y Ia oil
place as they care to 60 to. and their goal is
New York Many OF them have an ambition to
be n New York policeman. and most OF all to
become q detective under Superinten dent
Byrnes. whose name is familiar to them.
Many more want to be reporters because they
have heard that reporters 40 everywhere with
out paying for it. and an unlimited number OF
theatre tickets and railroad passes is their
crude Idea Of happiness.
With most OF them though. it Is n longing
to get away and to go to the great city where
Jay Gould and the Astors and the Nanderbilts
live. and to return some day In a private car
! on n special train. Usually the start is made
through some relative. and an uncle or n
cousin or brother-in-luw who lives in New
York Is used as a stepping stone. When one
goes and succeeds fifty 60 and fail but the
one who succeeds is almost sure to return and
build fine country house or make some other
display Of the station to which he has arrived.
and every boy now growing UP thinks he will
DO one to succeed and not one of the fifty.
1t is hard to say why this country should be
deserted 80 steadily. Outside Of the towns
population has decreased through the failure
OF the sons to stay on the farm and bring UP
families Of their own. 1t can hardly lie attrb-
uted to the causes which have taken the young
men from the New England farms. for the
land In these counties is fertile easily titled.
accessible to the cities. and the average OF
| wealth is high. Existence is great deal easier
for the owner OF one of the river farms or a
few hundred acres in one OF the valleys
watered by the creeks that flow down to the
river than for the average business or profess
sional man In New York who is regarded as
successful 1t is all the more difficult to IN
the people is corsi dcred. The west side OF the
Hudson back to tho Catskills was settled by
the Dntf 6s few roG3r There re
sast bank; on the east bank II was only natural
| stons. Johnsons. De ruvsters and their CON
nections., which owned tracts many miles
incs, aud live in the cities; making room for
the dense nop%nattoI1 which now lives on the
graz sraan Of the yo"ns men is MT So marked
On the west bank. the Pcol.!e are descended
tc "p Im sma sna n s n WGs b wHS
held them in the family for 100 years In
Pennsylvania. the German settlers. promptly
farming land in the state: and they have lived
on it ever since without change, except the oc-
anaRsr S e"ai % d Dew an sdn
house and big barns which were handed, down
the German settlers have kept out Of he ,a pro-
fessions business. and politics. Farming was
good enough for the graGmGtather. and tits
care to learn English.
considering how closely allied they are in race
1t is somewhat surprislng t. note the differ
have produced good LAWYERS and many excel.
lent business men. Their spelling and pro-
nunciation have altered from generation gen to
nowhere else. Back Of snugertics in the Cat
foundation stones that the oriGlna! church had.
On every one Of those stones in layer above
trioltors to the building oitho original church
The DESCENDANTS OF these men attend services
at that church still. but hardly one OF the
1t is a country, with many schoohouscs and
fow new churches. more drug stores than
making their own broad TO pay bakers to send
their wagons on eight or twelve-mi!s circuits.
changed for no Dutch housewife ever thought
The druggist and the dentist are tho most
one village to another has been marked of hy
the drmsgsilts ana tn" irntlnts; III" dentists
distance 10 thcit places. whore teeth Will 10
price II vtaiized air IS used or II done pain
lesely. md that n set Of teeth cun he got per-
feet fitting and in complete order for as low as
81 u SGT. The druggist In the same manner
announces his patent medicines ono mile
apart on white planks stuck in he road much
ike tombstones. Every one is supposed to
know the road and the distances. as thcy have
all been there together so long. and. except to
direct strangers to the Catskill hotels there
are no road signs.
Amy one rambling through this country for
pleasure should stop at the old Dutch inns in
will see gray haired. smooth shayen hotel
clerks. the register on the bar. the moor clean
from its m orning's scrubbing. n dinner at II
o'clock with two kinds Of meat. three kinds Of
vegetables and four kinds OF dessert ri after
standing out on the rorch, talk about things
that happened during the Revolutionary war.
with occasional anecdotes about the French
and Indian wars The regular ohargr IS %
dinner for n horse. In the village -! tocymRns