My Native Land - James Cox
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A sadder sight to the tourist on the Hudson, but one which is of
necessity full of interest, is the Sing Sing Prison, just below Croton
Point. In this great State jail an army of convicts are kept busy
manufacturing various articles of domestic use. The prison itself takes
its name from the Indian word "Ossining," which means "stone upon
stone." The village of Sing Sing, strange to say, contains many charming
residences, and the proximity of the State's prison does not seem to
have any particular effect on the spirits and the ideas of those living
in it.
Still further down the Hudson is Riverside Park, New York, the scene of
General Grant's tomb, which overlooks the lower section of the river,
concerning which we have endeavored to impart some little information of
an interesting character. Of the tomb, we present a very accurate
illustration.
While in New York State, the tourist, whether he be American or
European, is careful to pay a visit to the Niagara Falls, which have
been viewed by a greater number of people than any other scene or wonder
on the American continent. This fact is due, in part, to the admirable
railroad facilities which bring Niagara within easy riding distance of
the great cities of the East. It is also due, very largely, to the
extraordinary nature of the falls themselves, and to the grandeur of the
scene which greets the eye of the spectator.
The River Niagara is a little more than thirty-three miles long. In its
short course it takes care of the overflow of Lakes Superior, Michigan,
Huron and Erie, and as it discharges the waters of these lakes into Lake
Ontario, it falls 334 feet, or more than ten feet to the mile.
The rapids start some sixteen miles from Lake Erie. As the river channel
suddenly narrows, the velocity of the current increases with great
abruptness. The rapids are but a third of a mile in length, during which
distance there is a fall of fifty-two feet. The boat caught in these
rapids stands but a poor chance, as at the end of the torrent the water
dashes down a cataract over 150 feet deep. The Canadian Fall passes over
a rocky ledge of immense area, and in the descent leaves a space with a
watery roof, the space being known as the "Cave of the Winds," with an
entrance from the Canadian side. The Canadian Fall has a sweep of 1,100
feet and is considerably deeper than the other.
It is little more than a waste of words to endeavor to convey an
impression of the grandeur and magnificence of Niagara. People have
visited it from all parts of the world. Monarchs and princes have
acknowledged that it exceeded their wildest expectation, and every one
who has gazed upon it agrees that it is almost impossible to exaggerate
its grandeur, or to say too much concerning its magnitude. Even after
the water has dashed wildly 150 feet downwards, the descent continues.
The river bed contracts in width gradually, for seven miles below the
falls, where the whirlpool rapids are to be seen. After the second fall,
the river seems to have exhausted its vehemence, and runs more
deliberately, cutting its channel deeper into the rocky bed, and
dropping its sensational habits.
Some writers have hazarded an opinion that, as time changes all things,
so the day may come when Niagara Falls shall cease to exist. Improbable
as this idea naturally sounds, it has some foundation in fact, for there
have been marvelous changes in the falls during the last few
generations. About two hundred and fifty years ago a sketch was taken of
Niagara, and a hundred years later another artist made a careful and
apparently accurate picture. These two differ from one another
materially, and they also differ greatly from the appearance of the
falls at the present time. Both of the old pictures show a third fall on
the Canadian side. It is known that about a hundred years ago several
immense fragments of rock were broken off the rocky ledge on the
American side, and, more recently, an earthquake affected the appearance
of the Canadian Fall. Certain it is, that the immense corrosive action
of the water, and the gradual eating away of the rock on both the ledge
and basin, has had the effect of changing the location of the falls, and
forcing up the river in the direction of Lake Erie. Time alone can
decide the momentous question as to whether the falls will eventually be
so changed in appearance as to be beyond recognition. The lover of the
beautiful and grand, and more especially the antiquarian, sincerely
trusts that no such calamity will ever take place.
The history of the Indians in New York State is a very interesting one.
Prior to the discovery of America by Columbus, the section of country
including a majority of New York State and the northern portion of
Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Iroquois, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas and Senecas. These formed the historical Five Nations, of whom
writers of the last century tell us so much that is of lasting
importance. These tribes were self-governed, their rulers being selected
on the hereditary plan. There was a federal union between them for
purposes of offense and defense, and they called themselves,
collectively, the "People of the Long House." This imaginary house had
an eastern door at the mouth of the Mohawk River, and a western door at
the Falls of Niagara.
Bashfulness was not a characteristic of these old-time red men, who had
a special name of many letters for themselves, which, being interpreted,
meant "Men surpassing all others." They trace their origin from the
serpent-haired God, Atotarhon, and other traditions attribute their
powers of confederation and alliance to the legendary Hiawatha. They
built frame cabins and defended their homes with much skill. Their dress
was chiefly made out of deer and elk hide, and relics still in existence
show that they had good ideas of agriculture, tanning, pottery, and even
carving. They were about 12,000 strong, and they appear to have been the
most powerful Indian combination prior to the arrival of the white man.
They were powerful in war as well as comparatively sensible in peace.
Their religion was, at least, consistent, and included a firm belief in
immortality. They maintained what may be termed civilized family
relations, and treated their women with proper respect. Their conduct
towards the white men was much more friendly than might have been
expected, and almost from the first they displayed a conciliatory
attitude, and entered into alliances with the newcomers. They fought
side by side with the New Englanders against the French, and the hostile
Indians who allied with them, and in the year 1710, five of their
sachems or legislators crossed the Atlantic, and were received with
honors by the Queen of England. In diplomacy they did not prove
themselves in the long run as skillful as the newcomers, who by degrees
secured from them the land over which they had previously exercised
sovereign rights.
The survivors of these Indians have not sunk to as low a level as many
other tribes have done. It is not generally known in the West that there
are on the New York reservations, at the present time, more than 5,000
Indians, including about 2,700 survivors of the once great Seneca tribe.
The State of New York is about the same size as the Kingdom of England.
It is the nineteenth State in the Union in point of size, possessing
area of more than 49,000 square miles, of which 1,500 square miles is
covered by water, forming portions of the lakes. Its lake coast line
extends 200 miles on Lake Ontario and 75 miles on Lake Erie. Lake
Champlain flows along the eastern frontier for more than 100 miles,
receiving the waters of Lake George, which has been described as the
Como of America. The lake has a singular history. It was originally
called by the French Canadians who discovered it, the "Lake of the Holy
Sacrament," and it was the scene of battles and conflicts for over a
hundred years.
The capital of the Empire State, with its population of such magnitude
that it exceeds that of more than twenty important foreign nations, is
Albany, which was founded by the Dutch in 1623, and which has since
earned for itself the title of the "Edinburgh of America." Compared with
New York City it is dwarfed in point of population and commercial
importance.
Of the actual metropolis of the great Empire State it is impossible to
speak at any length in the limited space at one's command. Of New York
itself, Mr. Chauncey Depew said recently, in his forcible manner,
"To-day, in the sisterhood of States, she is an empire in all that
constitutes a great commonwealth. An industrious, intelligent, and
prosperous population of 5,000,000 of people live within her borders. In
the value of her farms and farm products, and in her manufacturing
industries, she is the first State in the Union. She sustains over 1,000
newspapers and periodicals, has $80,000,000 invested in church property,
and spends $12,000,000 a year on popular education. Upward of 300
academies and colleges fit her youth for special professions, and
furnish opportunities for liberal learning and the highest culture, and
stately edifices all over the State, dedicated to humane and benevolent
objects, exhibit the permanence and extent of her organized charities.
There are $600,000,000 in her savings banks, $300,000,000 in her
insurance companies, and $700,000,000 in the capital and loans of her
State and National banks. Six thousand miles of railroads, costing
$600,000,000, have penetrated and developed every accessible corner of
the State, and maintain, against all rivalry and competition, her
commercial prestige."
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY.
The Geographical Center of the United States and its Location West of
the Mississippi River--The Center of Population--History of Fort
Riley--The Gallant "Seventh"--Early Troubles of Kansas--Extermination of
the Buffalo--But a Few Survivors out of Many Millions.
Kansas is included by most people in the list of Western States; by many
it is regarded as in the extreme West. If the Pilgrim Fathers had been
told that the haven of refuge they had selected would, within two or
three hundred years, be part of a great English-speaking nation with
some 70,000,000 of inhabitants, and with its center some 1,500 miles
westward, they would have listened to the story with pardonable
incredulity, and would have felt like invoking condemnation upon the
head of the reckless prophet who was addressing them.
Yet Kansas is to-day in the very center of the United States. This is
not a printer's error, nor a play upon words, much as the New Englander
may suspect the one or the other. There was a time when the word "West"
was used to apply to any section of the country a day's journey on
horseback from the Atlantic Coast. For years, and even generations,
everything west of the Allegheny Mountains or of the Ohio River was "Out
West." Even to-day it is probable that a majority of the residents in
the strictly Eastern States regard anything west of the Mississippi
River as strictly Western.
There is no doubt that when Horace Greeley told the young men of the
country to "Go West and grow up with the country," he used the term in
its common and not its strictly geographical sense, and many thousand
youths, who took the advice of the philosopher and statesman, stopped
close to the banks of the Mississippi River, and have grown rich in
their new homes. It cannot be too generally realized, however, that the
Mississippi River slowly wends its way down to the Gulf of Mexico well
within the eastern half of the greatest nation in the world. At several
points in the circuitous course of the Father of Waters, the distance
between the river and the Atlantic Ocean is about 1,000 miles. In an
equal number of points the distance to the Pacific Ocean is 2,000 miles,
showing that whatever may be said of the tributaries of the Mississippi
River, and especially of its gigantic tributary the Missouri, the
Mississippi is an Eastern and not a Western river.
We give an illustration of the point which competent surveyors and
engineers tell us is the exact geographical center of the United States
proper. The monument standing in the center of this great country is
surrounded by an iron railing, and is visited again and again by
tourists, who find it difficult to believe the fact that a point
apparently so far western is really central. The center of the United
States has gone west with the absorption of territory, and the Louisiana
purchase, the centenary of which we shall shortly celebrate, had a great
effect on the location.
The center of population has moved less spasmodically, but with great
regularity. A hundred years ago the City of Baltimore was the center of
population, and it was not until the middle of the century that Ohio
boasted of owning the population center. For some twenty years it
remained near Cincinnati, but during the '80s it went as far as
Columbus, Indiana, where it was at the last Government census. At the
present time it is probably twenty or thirty miles west of Columbus, and
in the near future Fort Riley will be the population, as well as the
geographical, center.
Fort Riley is an interesting spot for civilian and soldier alike. Having
been selected by the Government as the permanent training school for the
two mounted branches of the service--the cavalry and light
artillery--its 21,000 acres have been improved at lavish expense. It
seems really remarkable that so metropolitan a bit of ground could be
found out on the plains, where, though civilization is making rapid
strides, and the luxuries of wealth are being acquired by the advancing
population, it is unusual to find macadamized streets and buildings that
can harbor a regiment and still not be crowded. Yet such are some of the
characteristics of Fort Riley Reservation, and the newness of it all is
the best evidence of the interest the War Department has taken in its
development. Many of the recently erected buildings would grace the
capital itself. Nearly $1,000,000 have been expended in the past four
years in new structures, all of magnesia limestone, and built along the
lines of the most approved modern architecture, and of a character which
insures scores of years of usefulness.
The fort is situated on the left bank of the Kansas River, near the
junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Forks. It was first laid out
in 1852, and has ever since been one of the leading Western posts.
Located, though it is, far out on the Kansas prairies, it has,
particularly in late years, been fully in touch with the social life of
the East, through the addition of new officers and the interchange of
post courtesies.
The post, as it stands to-day, consists of officers' quarters, artillery
and cavalry barracks, administration buildings, sheds, hospital,
dispensary, etc., scattered over 150 acres of ground. The Kansas River
is formed just southwest of it by the union of the Smoky Hill and
Republican Forks, and the topography for practice and sightseeing could
not be surpassed in the State. Five miles of macadamized streets,
150,000 feet of stone and gravel walks, six miles of sewers, four miles
of water and steam heating pipes, leading to every room of each of the
sixty buildings, make up the equipment, which is, of course, of the
highest quality throughout. All the stone is quarried on the
reservation, and is of lasting variety, and makes buildings which bear a
truly substantial appearance. The Government has an idea toward
permanency in its improvements.
The history of Fort Riley has been one of vicissitudes. When it was laid
out in 1852, it was at first called Camp Center, but was changed to its
present name by order of the War Department in honor of General B. C.
Riley. In 1855, the fort suffered from Asiatic cholera, and Major E. A.
Ogden, one of the original commissioners who laid out the reservation,
who was staying there, nursed the soldiers with a heroic attachment to
duty, and himself fell a victim to the disease. A handsome monument
marks his resting place. He was a true soldier hero, and his name is
still spoken in reverence by the attaches of the post.
Another notable feature of the reservation is the dismantled rock wall
to the east of the fort, which is all that now remains of the once
ambitious capitol building of the State of Kansas. It has a strange
history, being the "Pawnee House," in which the Territorial Legislature
met in the early ante-bellum days, confident of protection by the
soldiers from the roaming Indian bands infesting the prairies.
A famous dweller at the fort for two decades was old Comanche, the only
living creature to escape from the Custer massacre on the side of the
Government. He was the horse ridden by an officer in that memorable
fight, and by miracle escaped, after having seven balls fired into him.
He was found roaming over the prairie, after the massacre, and was
ordered put on the retired list, and stationed at Fort Riley, where for
twenty years he was petted and cared for, but never ridden. His only
service was to be led in processions of ceremony, draped in mourning.
Now that he is dead, his body has been preserved with the taxidermist's
best skill, and is one of the State's most noted relics.
The fort has been of unusual interest of late. In addition to the
maneuvers of the school for mounted service, in which the soldiers have
been regularly drilled, engaging in sham battles, throwing up mimic
fortifications, fording the rivers, etc., the War Signal Service has
been conducting some interesting experiments. The Signal Service has had
its huge balloon, which was exhibited at the World's Fair, at the post,
and its ascensions and the operations put in practice have proved very
attractive and instructive.
The new riding hall, or cavalry practice building, makes it possible for
the training school to go on the year round, regardless of the weather.
It has an open floor space 300 feet long and 100 feet wide, making it an
admirable room for the purpose.
The Fort Riley troops are always called on when there is trouble in the
West. They have put down a dozen Indian uprisings on the plains, and
only a few months ago were sent for to keep order in Chicago during the
railway strikes. From this trip, four old members of the post were
brought back dead, having met their fate in the bursting of a caisson,
while marching along a paved street.
The fort is the great pleasure resort of Kansas. The late commanding
officer, Colonel Forsyth, now General Forsyth, is much given to
hospitality, and the people of the State take great pride in the post's
advancement and its victories. During the summer, on several occasions,
the national holidays especially, the soldiers "receive," and excursion
trains bring hundreds of visitors from every direction, who are
delighted to feast their eyes on real cannon, uniforms and shoulder
straps. They are entertained royally. Drills, salutes, sham battles and
parades, occupy every hour of the day, and in the evening the drill
floor becomes a dancing place for all who enjoy the delights of a
military ball.
The history of the fort has been, in a measure, that of the Seventh
Cavalry, which for nearly two decades has had its residence there, and
become identified with the spot. The Seventh Cavalry dates its glory
from before the days of the intrepid Custer, whose memory it cherishes.
It has taken part in scores of Indian battles--indeed, there has not,
for years, been an uprising in the West in which it has not done duty.
Its last considerable encounter was at Wounded Knee and Drexel Mission,
where the Custer massacre was in a degree avenged. Here it lost
twenty-four of its members, and a magnificent granite monument has been
erected at the fort to their memory. It bears the names of those who
fell, and tells briefly the story of their bravery.
In the Wounded Knee battle, on the plains of Dakota, during the closing
days of 1891, the four troops of the regiment were treacherously
surprised by the Sioux, and because, after the attack, Colonel Forsyth
ordered a charge, resulting in the killing of many of the savages, he
was suspended by his superior officer, General Miles, for disobedience
of orders, which were not to fire on the enemy. An investigation,
however, amply justified his action, and he was reinstated in charge of
his post as before. Early in November, 1894, on the promotion of General
McCook to be Major General, Colonel Forsyth stepped up to the Brigadier
Generalship, and his place at Fort Riley will be taken by Colonel
Sumner. There is a rumor, however, in army circles, that the old Seventh
will be stationed in the far Northwest, and the Fifth Cavalry will
succeed it as resident regiment here. The post has become so closely
identified with the fortunes of the former regiment that it will seem
strange to have any other troops call it home.
There are usually at the fort three squadrons of cavalry, of four troops
each, and five batteries of light artillery, engaged in the maneuvers of
the school for mounted service, which has its headquarters for the
entire army here. The principal object of this school is instruction in
the combined operations of the cavalry and light artillery, and this
object is kept steadily in view. The troops of each arm form a
sub-school, and are instructed nine months in the year in their own arm,
preparatory to the three months of combined operations. Thus the
batteries are frequently practiced in road marching in rapid gaits; the
Kansas River is often forded; rough hills are climbed at "double quick,"
and guns are brought to action on all sorts of difficult ground, with
the result that, when the combined operations begin, the batteries may
be maneuvered over all kinds of obstacles.
Among the plans of the future is one, which was a favorite with General
Sheridan, of making Fort Riley the horse-furnishing headquarters for the
entire army. The location being so central, it insures the nearest
approach to perfect acclimation of animals sent to any part of the
Union. Two plans are being contemplated for the accomplishment of this
object. One is to make it a breeding station; the other is to simply
make it a purchasing station, which shall buy of the farmers of the West
the horses needed by the army, and train the animals for regular use
before sending them to the various posts.
Present plans also include an increase in the number of soldiers
stationed at Fort Riley to 3,000. If the proposed increase in the
standing army is carried out, there may be more than that. The
Government evidently has faith in the location of the fort. While it has
abandoned and consolidated other stations, it has all the time been
increasing its expenditures here, and the estimates for the next year
aggregate expenditures of over $500,000, provided the Appropriation
Committee does its duty. There are plans of still further beautifying
the grounds, and the addition of more turnpikes and macadamized roads.
The State of Kansas, and especially Geary and Riley Counties, in which
the fort is situated, reap a considerable benefit from its location. The
perishable produce of the commissary department comes from the country
around. Hundreds of horses are bought at round prices, while the soldier
trade has sent Junction City, four miles west, ahead of all competitors
in Central Kansas for volume of business and population. Naturally,
Kansas is glad to see Fort Riley a permanency, and hopes that it may be
made the Government's chief Western post.
Kansas has been spoken of as the most wonderful State in the Union, and
in many respects it is fully entitled to its reputation in this respect.
It has had enough discouragements and drawbacks to ruin half a dozen
States, and nothing but the phenomenal fertility of the soil, and the
push and go of the pioneers who claim the State as their own, has
enabled Kansas to withstand difficulties and to sail buoyantly through
waves of danger into harbors of refuge. In its early days, border
warfare hindered development and drove many most desirable settlers to
more peaceful spots. Since then the prefix "Bleeding" has again been
used repeatedly in connection with the State, because of the succession
of droughts and plagues of grasshoppers and chinch bugs, which have
imperiled its credit and fair name. But Kansas remains to-day a great
State, with a magnificent future before it. The fertility of the soil is
more than phenomenal. Kansas corn is known throughout the world for its
excellency, and at the World's Fair in 1893 it took highest awards for
both the white and yellow varieties. In addition to this, it secured the
gold medal for the best corn in the world, as well as the highest awards
for red winter wheat flour, sorghum sugar and apples. Indeed, Kansas
soil produces almost anything to perfection, and the State, thanks
largely to works of irrigation in the extreme western section, is
producing larger quantities of indispensable agricultural products every
year.