A home geography of New York city . was only twenty years old. He was a graduate ofYale College, a school teacher, and one of the first young men to enlist. His friends and brother officersbegged him not to risk his life by actingas a spy. He said he considered it anhonor to do anything to help his coun-trymen win the independence for whichthey were fighting. He decided to go to New York citydressed as a Dutch school teacher. Hisfriends helped him to change his uni-form for a plain suit of brown citizensclothes and a round broad-brimmed put his college diploma in his pocket,and left eve
A home geography of New York city . was only twenty years old. He was a graduate ofYale College, a school teacher, and one of the first young men to enlist. His friends and brother officersbegged him not to risk his life by actingas a spy. He said he considered it anhonor to do anything to help his coun-trymen win the independence for whichthey were fighting. He decided to go to New York citydressed as a Dutch school teacher. Hisfriends helped him to change his uni-form for a plain suit of brown citizensclothes and a round broad-brimmed put his college diploma in his pocket,and left everything else with an officerwho was his most intimate friend. On the day before the battle of Har-lem Heights, Nathan Hale started fromWashington Heights, then called Har-lem Heights, crossed the Harlem river,walked through The Bronx, and thenfarther on to Norwalk, crossed the sound from Norwalk toHuntington, Long Island, walked through Queens and Brooklyn,and crossed the East river to New York. You see he did not go. Nathan Hale NEW YOKK AND THE KEVULUTION 183 directly from Washington Heights downtown as you would do to-daybecause the British army was between Washington Heights andthe city. He stayed in the city long enough to get the information hewished for, and was on his way back to the American lines whenhe was recognized and captured. He was taken to the generalsheadquarters at 51st street, near the East river, and hanged thenext morning about eleven oclock without a trial. As they werepreparing to hang him, some one said, What a death for an officerto die ! Gentlemen, said Captain Hale, any death is honorablewhen a man dies in a cause like this. We do not know whether he ever sent Washington any infor-mation. We do not know exactly where he was captured. We donot know exactly where he was put to death, and we do not knowwhere he was buried. But we do know that he was cruelly treated,died a sorrowful death, and that his last words were, I only regretthat I
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