hill. They had no dealings with each other except for war- like encounters, and woe to any urchin who was found 35 Digitized by Microsoft® 546 The Hudson River alone by those of the opposing camp. How this deep and long-continued animosity commenced history does not relate, but many an old Albanian will recollect the encounters that took place between the "hillers" and their adversaries, and recall, perhaps, the names of leaders more famous in their generation than any Schuyler or Clinton who ever guided the councils of the State. Mr. Gorham A. Worth, already quoted in this chap- ter, has given a list of the men who seemed to him most prominent in the city at that time. They were George Clinton ; John Tayler, who was Lieutenant-Governor of the State and acting in Governor Tompkins's place after the latter 's election to the Vice- Presidency; Ambrose Spenser, Attorney-General and Judge of the Supreme Court; James Kent; Chancellor Lansing; Abraham Van Vechten; John V. Henry; John Woodworth; Thomas Tillotson, Secretary of State in 1801-07 '< Abra- ham G. Lansing; Elisha Jenkins, a merchant, of the Hudson family of that name ; Edmond Charles Genet ; and Solomon South wick, editor of the Albany Register. This, it will be understood, is only a very partial list of the Albany celebrities of the time, yet it furnishes a clue to the character and standing of the men who constituted the better element of society at the State capital two generations ago. We have spoken of the level strip of low land bor- dering the river for several miles. Back of this rise, almost abruptly, four hills, separated by ravines and Digitized by Microsoft® An Old Dutch Town 547 attaining a height of from two to three hundred feet. Prospect Hill is the highest of these. There are many narrow streets, paved as of old with cobblestones, to remind us of a former day; but there are also some noble thoroughfares, chief among them being State Street, which is accounted one of the broadest streets in the country, and was, until quite recently, only second to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The chief object that challenges the attention from State Street, and, indeed, the principal attraction of Albany to strangers, is, of course, the Capitol. Its architectural beauty and commanding position con- spire to render it one of the most imposing buildings in the world. The effect of the steep approach is aug- mented by the pyramidal tiers of steps, up which a regiment might pass with unbroken ranks. The struc- ture is of Maine granite, built in the style of the French renaissance, and is surmounted by a tower and dome, from which the eye may sweep over sixty miles of country to rest upon the blue profiles of the Catskills, or follow the windings of the river, or return to trace the streets that are spread like a map at our feet. There is the City Hall, that was built in 1882, carry- ing in the spirit of its architectural design a suggestion of the HoUandish origin of the city. There are the two cathedrals — one to the north and the other southward — and numerous churches that testify to the religious sentiment still animating the descendants and succes- sors of those who nodded to the preaching of Domine Digitized by Microsoft® 548 The Hudson River Megapolensis. There are the four Hbraries, the num- erous educational institutions, the Dudley Observatory that was opened with such a flourish of trumpets in 1856, the numerous houses of a public character, and the residences of prominent citizens of the past and the present. On the outskirts of the town hangs a cloud of smoke from its blast-furnaces and factories, and at its wharves are the great lumber yards that con- tribute to its industry. The Capitol was commenced in 1871 and completed at a cost to the State of twenty-one million dollars, and is of such noble proportions that its mere bulk alone is impressive. The main structure is three hundred by four hundred feet on the floor plan, with walls that rise one hundred and eight feet from water-table to cornice. It contains chambers ample for all the de- partments and business of the government, besides housing the magniflcent State Library, with its one hundred and fifty thousand volumes and its collection of priceless manuscripts and documents relative to the history of the State. In these few notes upon the history and the legends of a fascinating old city we have hardly opened the subject. The records are so full and rich, the tradi- tions so abundant and so varied, that it is with deep regret and the sense of a pleasant task left uncom- pleted that the chronicler closes this chapter.