ld have reminded us, in a way we
expected to be reminded, that we were out of the common track; and we
might have been amused with the change, though it is one singularly hard
to be endured. I remember to have heard a young man, accustomed from
childhood to the better habits of the country, but who went to sea a
lad, before the mast, declare that the coarseness of his shipmates, and
there is no vulgarity about a true sailor, even when coarsest, gave him
more trouble to overcome, than all the gales, physical sufferings,
labour, exposures and dangers, put together. I must confess, I have
found it so, too, in my little experience. While acting as a strolling
musician, I could get along with anything better than the coarse habits
which I encountered at the table. Your silver-forkisms, and your purely
conventional customs, as a matter of course, no man of the world
attaches any serious importance to; but there are conventionalities that
belong to the fundamental principles of civilized society, which become
second nature, and with which it gets to be hard, indeed, to dispense. I
shall say as little as possible of the disagreeables of my new trade,
therefore, but stick to the essentials.

The morning of the day which succeeded that of our arrival at Albany, my
uncle Ro and I took our seats in the train, intending to go to Saratoga,
via Troy. I wonder the Trojan who first thought of playing this
travestie on Homer, did not think of calling the place Troyville, or
Troyborough! That would have been semi-American, at least, whereas the
present appellation is so purely classical! It is impossible to walk
through the streets of this neat and flourishing town, which already
counts its twenty thousand souls, and not have the images of Achilles,
and Hector, and Priam, and Hecuba, pressing on the imagination a little
uncomfortably. Had the place been called Try, the name would have been a
sensible one; for it is trying all it can to get the better of Albany;
and, much as I love the latter venerable old town, I hope Troy may
succeed in its trying to prevent the Hudson from being bridged. By the
way, I will here remark, for the benefit of those who have never seen
any country but their own, that there is a view on the road between
Schenectady and this Grecian place, just where the heights give the
first full appearance of the valley of the Hudson, including glimpses of
Waterford, Lansingburg and Albany, with a full view of both Troys,
wh