ugh there are
some fine specimens of the Dutch and later colonial architecture still
standing. Of these the best known is the Schuyler mansion,* built by
Gen. Philip Schuyler, in 1760, which, after serving for many years as an
orphan asylum, was recently purchased by the state and converted into a
museum.

Having served in the French and Indian wars, Philip Schuyler
(1733-1804) was chosen one of the four major-generals in the
Continental service at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and
was placed in command of the northern department of New York with
headquarters at Albany. The necessary withdrawal of the army from
Crown Point in 1776 and the evacuation of Ticonderoga in 1777
were magnified by his enemies into a disgraceful retreat, and he
was tried by court martial but acquitted on every charge. He was
a delegate from N.Y. to the Continental Congress in 1779, and
later joined his son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and
others in the movement for the ratification by New York of the
Federal constitution. In 1790 he was elected to the U.S. senate.
"For bravery and generosity" says John Fiske, "he was like the
paladin of some mediaeval romance."

The Van Rensselaer manor-house, built in 1765, was pulled down in 1893
and reconstructed on the campus of Williams College, Williamstown,
Mass., where it forms the Sigma Phi fraternity house. In the Albany
Academy, built in 1813 by Philip Hooker, architect of the old State
Capitol, Prof. Joseph Henry demonstrated (1831) the theory of the
magnetic telegraph by ringing an electric bell at the end of a mile of
wire strung around the room. Bret Harte, the writer, was born in 1839 in
Albany, where his father was teacher of Greek in the Albany College, a
small seminary.

Bret Harte lived in Albany until his 17th year. In 1896, lured by
the gold rush, he left for California with his mother, then a
widow. Once there, the rough but fascinating chaos engulfed him,
and from it, at first hand, he drew the stage
properties--Spaniards, Greasers, gambling houses--the humor, sin
and chivalry of the '49--which color all his stories. After some
little journalism and clerking, he was made secretary to the
Supt. of the Mint, a position which was not too exacting to allow
a great deal of leisure for writing. Later he returned to the
East with his family, made his home in N.Y.C. and gave all his