centers in the east; at the head of breathing spots, provided for the navigation; governed wisely and people's recreation. He finds an uneconomically, the city is bound to usual number of splendid public grow and expand, and become edifices. On every hand he sees greater with advancing years. It evidences of wealth, thrift and progis endowed with all that tends to ress. Its business streets are make a city what it should be. Its scenes of bustling activity. Its fire department is one of the best great bazaars are thronged with in the land. In the matter of dis- buyers; handsome equipages roll cipline it has no superior. It has through the streets; its public marshown its capability repeatedly and kets in the city and West Albany under circumstances that now cause show the character and variety of the public to repose in it the utmost its trade. Great breweries, which confidence. Its climate is pleasant sustain the city's ancient distinction and salubrious. It did not escape for the production of malt liquors, the great blizzard of 1888, but ow- continue to send forth a wonderful ing to the protection of the hills to output. The brick-making industry the westward and eastward, it is is an important interest. The city's free to a remarkable degree of the flour trade is one of the first imstorms of unusual severity that portance. It is a city where the visit other parts of the country. club life has long been a factor in Though the weather bureau reports public affairs, and the fame of the a range of over 93 degrees to be- hospitality of the Fort Orange, the low, such extremes are rare. The Albany, Dongan, and Adelphi, not mean temperature for the winter is to mention others of enviable repu26.6 degrees; spring, 45.6 degrees; tation, extends from the Atlantic to summer, 70.5 degrees; autumn, 51.2 the Pacific. The Executive Mansion degrees; average for the year, 48.2 | also is noted in this regard, and degrees. The average rainfall thither have been drawn the great, (which includes melted snow), com- the wisest and learned from the puted from 10 years' observations, is 36.97 inches, and is distributed throughout the year as follows: Winter, 8.07; spring, 8.69; summer, 10.95, and autumn, 9.26. The approaches to the city are handsome and attractive; whether the visitor comes by rail, boat or vehicle he finds much to please the eye. Entering the city he finds handsome streets and imposing buildings; he finds smooth boulevards, an excellent speedway and a viaduct connecting the main part of the town with Arbor Hill, which is a graceful and beautiful example of engineering skill. He finds a beautiful public park, studded with works of art, and here and there, scattered through the town, smaller four quarters of the globe. The visitor finds the people hospitable and enterprising. While the commercial spirit is dominant and while it has always been a scene for the display of great political energy, in the more gentler walks of learning, the city has also earned a high name. Its educational institutions. enjoy the highest reputation, and if Union College is transferred here Albany will gain added fame as a University town. Its astronomical observatory has long enjoyed a deserved reputation, and its literary and scientific societies are among the most respected in the land. It would be strange if this were otherwise, for a city which has sent into the literary world a‘Harte, a Saxe, a Street, James, Deming and Sprague, not to mention the host of lesser note who have gained fame in the different walks of literature, may certainly be regarded as a place where the muses are cultivated and where the delights of learning are deeply and truly appreciated. The future of Albany! It is something that may well excite the fancy of the speculative man. It has been great in the past an important point in history making, but unless all signs fail its future will be greater and grander than its past. Its peculiar prominence "as the council place of the Indians and the English Governors of the American provinces in the colonial period," says Weise," its peculiar geographical position as the military gateway of the country during the Indian and French wars and during the revolutionary struggle; its selection as the place for the convocation of the first Provincial Congress, which formed a plan of a proposed union of the several colonies;' these and many other important facts make its history notable and attractive." Its strategical position is as important to-day as it was at the time of the French and Indian wars. If war with England ever should occur, one of the first objective points of an invading force would be the capital city. The English commander would endeavor to follow Burgoyne's line of attack, whether he failed or succeeded would depead, in a large measure, on a variety of causes over which it would be idle to speculate just now. But there can be no denial of the fact that the vicinity of Albany would be the stage for offensive and defensive work, and that the city would become an object of national solicitude, for the command of the headwaters of the Hudson would be a point of great advantage to an invading foe. It is true that the danger of invasion is so remote that most persons are not disposed even to consider it: therefore, it is more profitable to discuss the ways and means by which Albany's importance will be cultivated and adv ncel under the arts and achievements of peace. This is a stupendous engineering age in which we live. It is a time of great surprises. What to-morrow may bring forth no man can say. What science may accomplish no one will venture to predict. There are not many cities in the world that possess greater geographical advantages than Albany or advantages which will yield so much to the art of science. And in this utilitarian age, he would, indeed, be a rash and inconsiderate person who would venture to maintain that a city thus situated and benefited, would continue to lie dormant in an age of great mechanical energy and of scientific development. Those who be It is an age of great canal building. The ordinary imagination is staggered at the proposals made by engineers. Their plans to connect the great lakes with the ocean are received with wondering skepticism and provoke the opposition of those who are convinced that artificial highways are superior to those designed by nature. lieve that steam roads furnish the best power, say ship canals and designs to connect the great lakes with the ocean are chimerical. This opposition is inspired in the same spirit as that which opposed the construction of the Erie canal. If deference had been paid to the desires of such people New York today would not be the first State in the Union. business of the two railroads that parallel its shores. A ship canal would prodigiously increase that The ship canal is bound to come, and it is as certain as the sun shines that a ship canal will greatly help Albany. The invention of the Dut- traffic. So even if it should come ton hydraulic lock will revolutionize | to pass that an electric railroad will canal construction. In an age of transport passengers between New great mechanical invention there York and Albany in one hour and had been no changes or improve- a half, the value and the necessity ments in the building of canal locks. of the waterway route in no degree The form and design of Leonardo di will be impaired. Vinci was still used. This involved such prodigious expense it could hardly be expected that backed even by the general government, a ship canal could be constructed to unite the waters of the great lakes with the waters of the Atlantic ocean. But unless the value of Mr. Dutton's invention has been vastly overestimated, it is only a matter of time when vessels loaded on the lakes will sail for Europe without breaking cargoes en route. Whatever is done in that line can not fail to help Albany. "We learn in geography," says Berthold Fernow in "Albany; Its Place in the History of the United States," "that a range of lofty mountains traverses the United States from North Carolina northward to the St. Lawrence. This Appalachian range allows access to the Atlantic ocean, to various rivers, the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna, but none of them navigable for boats unThe value of water routes will al- til within a short distance of their ways remain unimpaired no matter mouth, except the Hudson, which what part electricity and steam can be navigated by considerable play in transportation. Great craft as far as Albany or 150 miles cities will continue to grow on the from the sea. It was, therefore, banks of navigable streams, and necessary when a connection with that the natural route must always the great lakes and the Atlantic be a determining factor in the seaboard was considered, the transportation question is found in Hudson should be chosen. Anwhat is constantly occurring before other consideration was the our own eyes. There is a common shorter distance between the complaint that the traffic of the settlements then growing up in Hudson river has been ruined. the west and the Hudson, as comMany persons contend that it is pared with a possible Mississippi useless to spend more money on route. From Buffalo, at or near the the canals, as they are unable then contemplated commencement longer to compete with the railroads. of the canal, it is about 300 miles to The railroads endeavor to deepen Albany; from Buffalo to Montreal that impression, but, nevertheless, 350 miles, and from Montreal to the in spite of their wonderful develop-mouth of the St. Lawrence 150 ment and of their great competition, miles. From Buffalo to New Orin spite of the fact that the fleets of sloops and schooners which once whitened the waters of the Hudson have disappeared, the volume of traffic on the river is yet many times greater than the combined ments on these lakes had to go east leans by the lakes and the Illinois river 2,250 miles. The upper lakes, Superior, Michigan and Huron, have no other outlet than into Lake Erie; hence the trade coming to settle ward to find a better market. The distances of towns then in existence tell their own story. Chicago is distant from Albany 1,050 miles; from New Orleans about 1,600 miles, and from the mouth of the St. Lawrence also about 1,600 miles; from Detroit to Albany the distance is 550 miles; to the ocean by way of the St. Lawrence, 1,050 miles; to New Orleans, by way of Cleveland and down the Muskingum, 2,400 miles. The mountain range mentioned touches the Hudson a comparatively short distance below Albany. It would have been folly, and caused needless expense, if it had been attempted to reach the navigable Hudson through this range, and as the shortest way is usually the best, Albany had to be chosen as the eastern terminus of the Erie canal." The exigencies of engineering may dictate a connection of the waters of the great lakes by way of Lake Champlain, but no matter what | route is selected Albany can not fail to be greatly benefited. Here, as formerly, the traffic of the great west must pass, and with the restoration and improvement in canal traffic, there must come vast benefit to the city. It occupies a position the value of which can not be impaired. Whether steam, electricity, the railroad or the steamboat, be the major propelling power, Albany must be the gainer. A ship canal would go a long way toward rehabilitating its fortunes and it seems to be as certain that a ship canal will be built as anything can be. The subject is not one of local concern or local pride. It is a great, broad, national, beneficent undertaking. "I am rejoiced," said Governor Tilden in the course of a speech delivered in Utica, "that it is impossible for us to protect and de velop our own interests in respect to the great systems of inter-communication which traverse our State without conferring like benefit on the great western communities of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri." In this manner did that great and sagacious statesman go to the very heart of the subject of internal improvement. The question which affects So vitally the fortunes of Albany, is one that concerns the whole general subject of western trade. It is one that is already discussed there with growing enthusiasm. It was pressed with energy at a time when it was supposed that the immense expense which would have to be incurred by the adoption of the old style of locks, was necessary; and now that the knowledge spreads that an invention has been perfected which will sensibly reduce the cost of the structure, it is certain that the agitation for deepened canals will become greater than ever. The future of Albany then, it may be said, is brighter than was its past, solid and substantial though old Albany has been. A revival of its shipping interests will affect a great transformation along the river front. Where now there are rotting wharves and dismantled warehouses; streets given up to the idle lounger - where there is an entire absence of those scenes of bustling excitement that once made the piers and docks of Albany the center of a lively trade - there will be a return of all that was once beheld there. Again there will be lines of boats tied up to the docks; the streets will be lively with the crowd coming and going; the old rookeries that have been given over these many years to rats or used merely for storage purposes, |