hich was finished in
1889 at a cost of $3,500,000. It connects New England directly
with the coal fields of Pennsylvania.

Poughkeepsie has more than 50 lines of manufacture, with products of a
total annual value of $15,000,000, including mill supplies, clothing,
cigars, candied fruit and preserves, cream separators, foundry products,
knit goods, ivory buttons, and piano and organ players.

Two miles beyond Poughkeepsie the red brick buildings of the Hudson
River State Hospital are passed on the right, and presently our route
skirts Hyde Park (79 M.) near which, to the north, can be seen the
estate of Frederick W. Vanderbilt. There are many beautiful
country-places in the district. A little beyond Hyde Park on the west
bank of the river is "Slabsides," the cabin home of John Burroughs, the
poet, philosopher, and widely known writer on natural history.

John Burroughs was born in 1837 at Roxbury, N.Y., the fifth son
of a farmer. His first books were bought with money he earned
from tapping maple trees, boiling the sap and selling the sugar.
One season, he tells us, he made twelve silver quarters, and has
never been so proud since. Although he has lived much in the
world and has travelled widely, the greater part of his time has
been divided between Riverby, in the little town of West Park,
N.Y., the famous "Slabsides," his cabin in the wooded hills back
of the Hudson, and, since 1908, an old farm house which he has
christened Woodchuck Lodge, 1/2 M. from the Burroughs homestead in
Roxbury. In his retreat at "Slabsides" he wrote some of his most
intimate and appealing studies of nature.

Esopus Island is now passed, on the high left bank of which, near the
water, stands the home of Alton B. Parker, Democratic candidate for the
presidency against Roosevelt in 1904. We now pass the estates of D.
Ogden Mills and W.B. Dinsmore, former president of the Adams Express
Company (on the right). Esopus Lighthouse is on the west bank where the
river curves sharply to the left. On the high ground on the east bank is
the country home of the late Levi P. Morton.

Levi P. Morton (1824-1920), American banker and politician, was
born at Shoreham, Vt. After some years in business at Hanover,
N.H., Boston and N.Y.C., he established in 1862 the banking house
of L. P. Morton & Co. (dissolved in 1899), with a London branch.
The American firm assisted in funding the