A tour around New York, and My summer acre; being the recreations of MrFelix Oldboy . f his may not wear it on his sleeve, yet it is there. Hispatriotism, indeed, is a good deal like old Bishop Gris-wolds religion. When that saintly man of God wasbishop of the Eastern Diocese — Massachusetts andMaine—an ardent young preacher made up his mindthat as an Episcopalian the bishop must be destituteof vital godliness, and he concluded that he wouldgo and convert him. The bishop received him kindly,and, on making known his mission, invited him to his 278 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK study, asked him
A tour around New York, and My summer acre; being the recreations of MrFelix Oldboy . f his may not wear it on his sleeve, yet it is there. Hispatriotism, indeed, is a good deal like old Bishop Gris-wolds religion. When that saintly man of God wasbishop of the Eastern Diocese — Massachusetts andMaine—an ardent young preacher made up his mindthat as an Episcopalian the bishop must be destituteof vital godliness, and he concluded that he wouldgo and convert him. The bishop received him kindly,and, on making known his mission, invited him to his 278 A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK study, asked him to be seated, and told him that hewas ready to hsten. Bishop, have you got religion ?the young man asked, with great solemnity. Noneto speak of, responded the bishop, quietly, as he sattwiddling his thumbs, as was his custom. The ardentevangelist paused, pondered, struck his colors, apolo-gized, and left the house convinced that true religiondid not consist mainly in talk. Yesterday I stood in front of the old Stryker man-sion, at the foot of Fifty-second Street and the North. River, and marked the changes and ravages that timehad wrought. I had known the house when it wasthe seat of an extensive and always hearty hospital!- A TOUR AROUND NEW YORK 279 ty, and when it was one of the conspicuous country-seats on the lower outskirts of Bloomingdale, havinga pedigree and history of its own. The old Strykerhomestead still stands, but it is shorn of its formerglory. Tenements and stables hedge it in on eitherside, and docks and lumber-yards occupy the placewhere its green lawn used to stretch down to the river-edge. Near by the Stryker mansion was the Hopperhouse. The two farms were adjoining, and the fami-lies naturally became allied by marriage. It is not tenyears since the burial-ground of the Hopper familystood twenty feet above the level of the street, at thecorner of Ninth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, an open,desolate, unshaded piece of ground, sown with graytombstones, on
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnewyorknybuildingsst
