notabilities land, there was a wide space, kept clear
by the police. Admirable police these, who can handle crowds with any
police, who held us up with a wall of adamant until we showed our
letters from the New York Reception Committee (our only, and certainly
not the official, passes), and then not only let us through without
fuss but helped us in every possible way to go everywhere and see
everything.

In this wide space were gathered the cars for the procession, and the
notabilities who were to meet the Prince, and the camera men who were
to snap him. Into it presently marched United States Marines and
Seamen. A hefty lot of men, who moved casually, and with a slight
sense of slouch as though they wished to convey "We're whales for
fighting, but no damned militarists."

Since the Prince was not entering New York by steamer--the most
thrilling way--but by means of a railway journey from Sulphur Springs,
New York had taken steps to correct this mode of entry. He was not to
miss the first impact of the city. He would make a water entry, if
only an abbreviated one, and so experience one of the Seven (if there
are not more, or less) Sensations of the World, a sight of the profile
of Manhattan Island.

The profile of Manhattan (blessed name that O. Henry has rolled so
often on the palate) is lyric. It is a _sierra_ of skyscrapers. It is
a flight of perfect rockets, the fire of which has frozen into solidity
in mid-soaring. It is a range of tall, narrow, poignant buildings that
makes the mind think of giants, or fairies, or, anyhow, of creatures
not quite of this world. It is one of the few things the imagination
cannot visualize adequately, and so gets from it a satisfaction and not
a disappointment.

This sight the Prince saw as he crossed in a launch from the New Jersey
side, and "the beauty and dignity of the towering skyline," his own
words, so impressed him that he was forced to speak of it time and time
again during his visit to the city. And on top of that impression came
the second and even greater one, for, and again I use his own words,
"men and women appeal to me even more than sights." This second
impression was "the most warm and friendly welcome that followed me all
through the drive in the city."

When the Prince landed he seemed to me a little anxious; he was at the
threshold of a great and important city, and his welcome was yet a
matter of speculation. In less than fifteen minutes he was