o of the
great marts of the country, and thus to put an end to all its seclusion,
its simplicity, its peculiarities, and we had almost said, its happiness.

It is to us ever a painful sight to see the rustic virtues rudely thrown
aside by the intrusion of what are termed improvements. A railroad is
certainly a capital invention for the traveller, but it may be questioned
if it is of any other benefit than that of pecuniary convenience to the
places through which it passes. How many delightful hamlets, pleasant
villages, and even tranquil county towns, are losing their primitive
characters for simplicity and contentment, by the passage of these fiery
trains, that drag after them a sort of bastard elegance, a pretension that
is destructive of peace of mind, and an uneasy desire in all who dwell by
the way-side, to pry into the mysteries of the whole length and breadth of
the region it traverses!

We are writing of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
nineteen. In that day, Oyster Pond was, in one of the best acceptations of
the word, a rural district. It is true that its inhabitants were
accustomed to the water, and to the sight of vessels, from the two-decker
to the little shabby-looking craft that brought ashes from town, to
meliorate the sandy lands of Suffolk. Only five years before, an English
squadron had lain in Gardiner's Bay, here pronounced 'Gar'ner's,' watching
the Race, or eastern outlet of the Sound, with a view to cut off the trade
and annoy their enemy. That game is up, for ever. No hostile squadron,
English, French, Dutch, or all united, will ever again blockade an
American port for any serious length of time, the young Hercules passing
too rapidly from the gristle into the bone, any longer to suffer antics of
this nature to be played in front of his cradle. But such was not his
condition in the war of 1812, and the good people of Oyster Pond had
become familiar with the checkered sides of two-deck ships, and the
venerable and beautiful ensign of Old England, as it floated above them.

Nor was it only by these distant views, and by means of hostilities, that
the good folk on Oyster Pond were acquainted with vessels. New York is
necessary to all on the coast, both as a market and as a place to procure
supplies; and every creek, or inlet, or basin, of any sort, within a
hundred leagues of it, is sure to possess one or more craft that ply
between the favourite haven and the particular spot in