e in more than a hundred cities, including nearly all that
are introduced in this work, leads me to feel that I shall succeed in my
purpose of giving to the public a book, without the necessity of
marching in slow, and solemn procession before my readers, a monumental
array of time-honored statistics; on the contrary it will be my aim in
the following pages to talk of cities as I have seen and found them in
my walks from day to day, with but slight reference to their origin and
history."

* * * * *

We will bring this chapter to a close by recording one incident in the
life of its hero, which, humble and common-place as it may be deemed by
some, is one which, in the judgment of a majority of our readers we
venture to think, reflects glory upon Willard Glazier as a son, and the
nation may well feel proud that can rear many such sons.

A subject of great domestic interest which had occupied his thoughts for
a considerable period, but to which he had, in his busy life, been
unable hitherto to give the necessary time and attention, at this time
again forcibly presented itself to his mind. Glazier's sense of a son's
duty to his parents was not of the ordinary type. He was profoundly
conscious of the moral obligation that devolved upon him, to render the
declining years of his parents as free from discomfort and anxiety as it
was within his power to do. They had nursed and trained him in infancy
and boyhood; had set before him daily the example of an upright life,
and had instilled in him a love of truth, honesty and every manly
virtue. Their claim upon him, now that he had met with a measure of
success in life, was not to be ignored, and to a good father and a good
mother he would, so far as he was able, endeavor to prove himself a good
son.

The Old Homestead near the banks of the Oswegatchie, in St. Lawrence
County, New York, where his parents still resided; where all their
children had been born, and where many happy years had been passed, was
not the property of the Glazier family, and there was a possibility that
the "dear old folks" might in time have to remove from it. The thought
of such a contingency was painful to Willard Glazier. It was the spot of
all others around which his affections clung, and he resolved to make a
strenuous endeavor to possess himself of it, so that his father and
mother might pass their remaining days under its shelter.

He accordingly opened negotiations