achers from states near and
far, and by visitors from abroad. The devotion of one or more societies
of private individuals has of late years conferred a boon upon the
public which can hardly be too highly appreciated, in causing durable
memorial tablets to be placed on buildings of historic interest. In this
and kindred ways New York is fast removing all justification for the
stale reproach that it cared not for shrines and took small interest in
its own history.

A mere suggestion, yet a very helpful one, toward realizing somewhat of
the enormous shipping business done for the country by New York can be
got by a tour of the main wharves. There is a water-front of twenty-five
miles around the island, without reckoning the shores of Brooklyn and
Hoboken. The bird's-eye view from the wonderful and graceful Suspension
Bridge enlarges one's conception of what such a metropolis is and can
do. Alpine grain elevators circle the city on the opposite shore of the
rivers and upper bay. Two thousand ships sail out each year laden with
the grain that feeds the nations on the other hemisphere. Three thousand
steamships enter these wharves yearly with human and commercial freight
from foreign ports. Nearly ten thousand steerage immigrants land each
week the year round, besides an immense passenger contingent. These are
the sights that fascinate the thoughtful: the comings and goings of the
peoples of the earth and its products. Old Castle Garden and the Battery
have greatly changed in recent years, but their memories linger. If it
had been possible to keep the triangle south of Fourteenth Street as the
select residential quarter, what an unrivalled site it would now be! A
water panorama worth crossing the Atlantic to see, for its immensity,
its picturesque bordering, and the magnificent view of the foreground of
an embowered city by the sea.

Human needs shaped these water avenues to other destinies. They draw
from the great ocean beyond the Narrows the sources of all that has gone
to the building of national greatness. In turn they have borne to other
lands the seeds of a larger liberty, patterned after and stimulated by
the unparalleled success that has so splendidly rewarded self-achieved
freedom to grow, to think, to speak out, and to speed the commerce of
the world.

The wealth thus created has of recent years done much to beautify the
city with palatial residences. In the northern districts detached
mansions in grass-plots s