New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-06-28
EARLY LONG ISLAND.
IT'S SYLVAN BEAUTY AND ITS TORY fE-
PtJTE IN THE REVOLUTION
EARLY LONG ISLAND. Colonial Study BY ny
Martha Bockee Flint. Pp. TX, ois. u r. ru'
MANS Sons.

IA Mar,ba Hockfe Flint Pr tx 5i9 G. =. Put
MANS Sons.
When that versatile scholar of the times oil Cuv'er
DR.. Samuel Latham Mitchell. argued that onondasa
Valley was the site of the Garden of Eden ne might
weI vc preferred his favorite Long Island or
the honor Possibly II he could have found the lonr
mythical rivers, he would have introduced Aoi''i
and Eve among the sylvan beauties OF res'o"
which It's carly visitors all praised without measure
As II is the history OF the island begins niue
doubtfully within barely more than thirty years
after the first voyage of Columbus with mint III
the Morse Sagas-whch the author OF ms Voiuihe
does not allow to escape-that Thorwald lo"fo ''e
island as early az 1908. The story OF the Hd''s"'o'
Verrazano Is as much doubted as that OF IhorwaIo
hut fancy will accompany him az he comes 10 an
Choir lust outside the Narrows and SENDS 10 the
..bcautifrl lake" within a boat with mariners, VINO
see little steep hills every side but the one "eie
a great river down to the sea- out ol 'he lo
age that lined the shores of the pay darteu !" l'e"
canoes an innumerabe company OF the people OF INC
country all eagerly curious to see the strangers
rbon for fifty leagues the bold captain sailed east
WA I'd along the pleasant before II was possible
to turn again TO the north. All TINS Is enous" ""'
what Hudson and his men saw a hundred years
later TO make one believe that NerraZano truly I'd"
New-York Harbor ard Long Island. IL remaiheu
for stu another ships company, Adrian BLOCK ana
bis men to learn that this paradise had some
serious drawbacks in winter The hower-coveied
me adows did not smile on the haplesS ere" Oh t'''
H. foted Tiger Nevertheless. the whole archipelago
from what is now the New-Jersey mainland east
ward retained It's attractions for the adventurous
Dutchmen. who may have loved flowers but VINO
csrtanIv knew the value OF the furs they were able
TO carry back to Amsterdam.
In plant and bird and beast-allowing a H''ie
poetic exaggeration for the .ast-no country seemeu
richer than Long Island 1t was reckoned Hiv
years ago that two-thrds OF the different species OF
land birds known to the United States were repre-
| nd nd me-
water birds Birds unknown to the same latitude on
the mainland are still TO be heard and seen on this
half-submerged fragment Of the continental mo-
raine Somehow the human inhabitants OF the ISL
and diverse as they in origin, have adapted
themselves to the kings of the feathcred races in at
least one particular. The wanton.y destructive
American woodman has never been encouraged on
Long Island. Early Long Island was thcN.y
wooded and It's town legislation showed a rare wis
dom In regard to the preservation OF its trees in
1853 South Old resolved that persons should cut
trees or sell woods from the common lands. without
the towns liberty In 1859 Huntington ordained
that no timber should be cut within three miles Of
the settlement under fine of five shIliings for every
tree. Ten years later II forbade that any wood be
cut for expectation that any stranger shall cut
any timber Oyster Bay and Newtown passed
similar regulations"
The author confesses. for the sake OF literary
verify doubt. that Long Island Is no fab,ed Ar
cadla But FOR pure love of the SOIL She makes II an
Arcadia without any fable at all She has word
OF pity those who merely skirt the "va-studded
shores" and know not how sylvan IL the landscape
how primitive are still many OF the conditions OF
life but a mile or two inland" There Is something
conservative in the very soil Of the island fact 10
be remembered when the deeper intent of the book in
hand is considered 1t Is picturesque proof OF this
prnitivism that zone may drive for hours through
embowered lanes, between thickets Of alder and SUI
| mach overhung with chestnut oak and pine or
|
| bloom OF the dogwood, glowing in fall with liquid
| ambar and pepperidge. with sassafras and the yell
low light of the smooth-shafted tulip tree" Within
| recent memory, the author says, there tulip
| tree near Success Pond the trunk of which was
| twenty-six feet in girth. But this was only enc of
the gories OF the island Plain, woodla nd. marsh
and glen each offered some rare or beautiful thing
to the lover Of plants. Even the sweet bay has
! wandered northward and hides in forest swamp
near Turtle Pond In early spring every untitled
| spot answers the first breezes with the
fragrance OF the arbutus. little the cistus
steals the sunshine for its neeting bloom; the sky
is mrrorcd in luxuriant lupine and fields OF b.ue-
| eyed grass and Hampstead Plains outvle the heath
cry English moors. with the rosy bloom OF the most
| beautiful OF the andromedas"
| 1t is not to be supposed that the ancient sailors
and settlers cared for these rehnements OF the mod
| ern loiterer IN shady lanes. What they saw were
| trees III to be the masts of good ships cedar for
endless supplies OF wax. and soil almost everywhere
| that welcomed the farmer. After two three gen.
citations of familiarity with the vast praries of the
Mississippi Valley. IL is not easy TO realize that the
savannas of Long Island reckoned
| among the marvels Of Nature. There was nothing
east of the Allegheny Mountains TO rival them They
lay unique at the foot of the deep tangled wildwood
which spread all up and down the Atlantic Coast
| When the British armies came to sub1ue the stub
born colonists they were advised to encamp perma-
rentiy these plains. where they could keep the
whole island as base of supplies From such
camp, II said. victorious expeditions would be
easy 10 every part Of the rebellous mainland.
! There was in this than the mere advantage
offered by the plains. The Long Islanders had not
| kept up with the march OF events which converted
the loyal coonsts of l75 into the unconquerabe lib
erty of 1915. From their ancient quiet homesteads
they looked with establishment at their neighbors
shouting long life to King George III at his corona
ton and death TO him In the days OF Parliamentary
taxing laws. Islanders never do things as peo-
pic on the mainland them. The case with them
is the same 1t is with mountaneers In contrast to
lowlan1 men. Long Island remained throughout the
Revolution the home OF a Tory population
The author OF this book rejects with .mnha,,c
words the View that Toryism the result of the
comparatively large Dutch element among the neo-
pie. That view belongs 10 Boston Geograph.callv
It has some plauslbity. for in New-York city as
well Long Island Loyalists were numerous
| But the racial aspect Of the matter q not the
only one that meets the eye. Those Dutchmen and
the other rather cosmopolitan inhab.tant OF New
York and Western Long Island had their own
ideas OF liberty and they were somewhat pretu-
diced against the definition OF the word prevalen,
in England. Long Island was dotted here and
there with the settlements OF people who had found
| New England TOO narrow for them Ii did not mako
much difference In Long Island whether a man
/ believed In infant baptism or not. but 1t mace al
the difference in the world to him II he lived over
on Long Island when they hunted out OF Mas
sachusetts. Mtthodisis found on the Island
time when people of other religious views
would gladly have crowded them OF the continent
/ all this Wha D....l...l--