The record-union., 1895-06-05
TIE TRAVELLING CONDUCTORS.
How They Enjoyed the Sights at
Niagara Falls.
What Tho Wonderful Electric Power
Has Done for the Tourist
and Others.

I1aS Zone 1Or the IOufIsC
and Others.
Especial Correspondence of RECoRD-UNIoN. ]
CHICAGO, May 27.-It was a weary
party of sight-seers that boarded the
special for the West homeward- bound
trip on the early morning of the 18th.
New York was too much for US, and
every one except Trilby was glad when
the train glided from Jersey City and
headed north over the West Shore road
up the shore of the picturesque Hudson.
The original plan was for the party to go
from New York to Albany by steamer,
but the time Of scheduled departure was
three days too early in the season for the
floating palaces Of the Hudson, and wild
horses could not compel the steamers to
start their season three days before the
assigned time. The Hudson River Day
light Steamship Company officials were
as courteous as could be about the mat
ter, and offered to pass along any of the
party who might linger until the sum-
mer season schedule began, but no one
thought this feasible idea.
The run up the West Shore was delight
full, past the great Palisades and through
spurs of the Catskill Mountains, where,
according to the legend, Rip Van Wrinkle
once slept so soundly and SO long. Near
here, too, we caught a glimpse of the old
church of red brick and white steeple
where brave Major Andre was tried and
convicted and near which he met his
tragic death. Old colonial houses of
stone, with queer little windows and
artistic doorways, are thickly sprinkled
through all this region, and nearly every
house has some legend connecting 1t with
the stirring times of the war tor the Ma
TONS Independence.
At West Point there was brief stop
and the party saw where the nations
soldier heroes get their bringing up.
Signs of war-captured guns from the
Mexican battles, monuments to fallen
Generals-here stand out strangely on
the picturesque bluff around which are
naught but signs of peace. Among the
statues that OF General John Sedgwick,
the "Uncle John" of the army, whose
death at Spottsylvanla made the Nation
mourn, is most conspicuous. Everything
here was in the spick and span order of a
military post, but there was extra bur-
nish about things that told of prepare
tions for the approaching graduation ex-
ercises, when all New York's society
girls come up to select their heroes from
the gray-coated, brass buttoned youth.
The next stop, at Albany, gave US all
chance to see New York's famous Capitol
building-famous for the twenty-eight
years that it has been building and the
$40. 000, 600 that it has already cost, and it
isn't as near completion YET IS San Fran
cisco's City Hall. As building it has
not the architectural beauty of CALI
fornia's Capitol. Ii is built Of solid gran
lite, but SO many quips and quirls and or
namentation of the ginger bread" order
have been tackled on everywhere as to
spoil the graceful lines it might have had.
It's been a great mint for contractors,
and they have enjoyed it, if artists have
not. There was that celebrated ''fake'
ceiling OF the Assembly Chamber, sup
posed to have been of deliberately carved
wood, but really of paper that soon
dropped off in great chunks. A Scotch
granite staircase, with wonderfully
carved balustrade is one of the sights of
the structure, but 1t is not finished yet
and the observers cannot but wonder at
the good sense in putting over a half
million dollars into g grand staircase that
no one wants to climb unless the eleva-
tors should get out Of order.
Leaving Albany in the evening our
train went spinning over the New York
Central-the pride of the Wander bilts-
= K
Schenectady, Rochester. Syracuse, Utica
and other thrifty cities to Niagara Falls.
The light train was pulled over at fifty
miles-an-hour speed, and at places it
went on mile minute schedule. The
dust and cinders, resulting chiefly from
the soft coal that all the Eastern roads
use, formed the only unpleasant part of
the run, and the Californians for the
seven hundredth time since they crossed
the Mississippi commented on the favor
able feature of California railroading that
compels the use of coal that don't make
brunettes of all the passengers.
That peaceful Sunday at Niagara and
the glories of that grand scene formed
picture in our lour that surpasses all
others. Early risers were lured by the
roar of the cataract and Niagara's hack
men, and they came back with tales of
the sight that soon brought everyone to
the park that overlooks the whole SUI
perb scene. Then came trips in the tiny
steamer Maid OF the Mist up in clouds of
spray almost under the great Horseshoe
Fail and then the falls themselves
gave the party ride. The Niagara
Falls Park and River Railway,
whose electric motive power comes
from the harnessed cataract, is a
comparatively recent enterprise. 1t is
thirteen and a half miles long. skirting
the Canadian bank of the st. Lawrence
from Chippewa to the quaint old town of
Queenstown. In its comfortable cars the
sightseeing tourists can now get the
best views, not only of the falls but of the
rapids above, the whirlpool and the
swift-flowing river far below. No longer
need the traveller be robbed by birds of
prey with carriages for hire. The entire
round trip by electric road costs only so
cents, and one can see all that is worth
seeing. Crossing the suspension bridge
will cost 20 cents and the steamer. trip 80
cents, but tourist nowadays can easily
see all the sights inside of g 90. Elec-
tricity-modern science-has made this
possible. Rows of big factories line the
American side of the river. No smoky
chlmneys can be seen; the motive power
is all from the falls. 1t will not be long
before Buffalo will be supplied with cleo
trical power from Niagara-the result of
the enterprise of a company of New York
capitalists now at work developing the
tremendous power SO long latent.
G. S. A.
TOPICS OF THE TURF.