14 John M. Zurn, 15 Robert J. Rudd, 16 Edward C. Brennan, One Hundred and Nineteenth Session. 17 Henry Marshall, 19 George E. Waldo, 19 Frederick Schmid, 20 Fred. G Hughes, 21 J. A. Livingston. Lewis. Livingston. Madison. Monroe. 1 Charles J. Smith, 2 J. M. E. O'Grady, Charles B. Gorham. Putnam. Queens. 1 Jacob Stahl, 2 Frederick Storm, 3 Morton Cromwell. Rensselaer. 3 Wm. W. Armstrong,1 Edward McGraw, 4 Thomas H. Eddy. Montgomery. Edward L. Schmidt. New York. 1 Daniel E. Finn, 3 Wm. H. Leonard, 4 James A. Donnelly, 2 John I. Norton, 3 George Anderson. Richmond. Gustav A. Barth. Rockland. Otis H. Cutler. St Lawrence. 5 George Gregory, 1 Ira C. Miles, 6 Jacob A. Mittnacht, 2 Martin V. B. Ives. 19 Frederick Schmid, 20 Fred. G. Hughes, 21 Henry S. French. Lewis. Livingston. Otto Kelsey. Madison. Robert Jay Fish. Monroe. 1 Merton E Lewis, 2 J. M. E. O'Grady, 8 Wm. W. Armstrong, 4 Frederick E. Gott. Montgomery. Edward L Schmidt. New York. 1 Daniel E einn, 5 Richard Van Cott, 6 timothy P. Su livan, 7 E ward W Hart, 8 Charles S. Adler, 9 James F. Maccabe, 10 Jeremiah J. Sullivan, 11 Wm. H Gledhill, 12 Joseph Schulum, 13 Patrick F. Trainor, 14 Jacob Fritz, 5 Thomas F. Myers, 16 Benjamin Hoffman, 17 John A. Dempsey, 18 John F. Daley, 19 Robert Mazet, 20 John P. Corrigan, 21 George C. Austin, 22 Daniel D. Tooher, 23 Richard Gilleland, 24 John B. Fitzgerald, 1 Jame S Harrison, 25 Patrick H. Murphy, 2 Joel Clark. 26 Patrick J. Andrews, 27 Francis E Laimbeer, 28 Joseph I. Green, Suffolk. 1 Erastus F. Post, THE NEW ALBANY. In many respects old and historic Albany has almost disappeared. A new town has risen on the banks of the Hudson. The change was gradual, but is almost complete. The Albany of to-day typifies the timethis age of progress, enterprise, business activity and ability. In describing the town in 1695 the Rev. John Miller said: "It is in circumference about six furlongs and hath therein about 200 houses, a fourth part of what there is reckoned in New York. The whole city is well stockaded about and in the several fortifications named are about 30 guns." A hundred years later it was the sixth largest city in the United States. In 1786 it contained 550 houses and it was estimated that it had about 4,000 inhabitants. The houses were seldom more than one story and a half high, and says a writer of the day, "have but little convenience and less elegance; but they are kept very neat, being rubbed with a mop almost every day and scoured every week." Now in the year 1896 it is a new and modern city that stands upon our hills. The traveler approaching it from the south and east sees looming on the storied terraces before him a town whose picturesque beauties are emphasized on closer examination. With the disappearance of the Albany built of houses with their gable ends to the streets, there have gone those customs and observances, those traits of the population's character that made the city interesting and marked for years, even if they did not add to its attractiveness. The story of this ancient community's rise and growth is told in the history of the Republic. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the 13 original States. From colonial times until the present day it has been the scene of marked political activity. Here have dwelt men whose names have made American records bright and glowing. The most illustrious of our statesmen have trod its streets. Its business men have been famous for their shrewdness since the days when they bartered for furs with the Indians and too often took advantage of the red man's fondness for the cup that cheers and inebriates. But it is not Albany the political capital; the city whose strategical position made it the gateway to the great northwest; the scene of the strifes, the intrigues, the contentions and victories that have gone to make its history of the American people with which we have to deal in this place. It is the new Albany - the city that was quick to adopt modern invention; the city of the close of the nineteenth century that now engages interest and study. There is an opinion abroad that Albany is slow and unresponsive to the demands of the time. Yet Albany was the third city in the world to adopt a telephone plant; it was brilliantly illuminated by the ele tric light years before other cities which boast of their progress and enterprise had discarded gas. It was among the first, if not the first, that collected mail matter by horse and wagon instead of by the old, slow system of the postman walking about to empty the mail boxes. The The metamorphosis that has been wrought was so gradual in its development that few, even of those who love to study the features of the old, historic place, appreciate the full significance of what has been accomplished. The change was effected during the last quarter of the century. The Albany of the later sixties retained many features of the colonial times. Old customs still lingered. It was the transition period, and the effects of the conservatism of an age to which the possibilities of electricity were unknown, showed its effects in all the walks and relations of life. city then was growing, but it grew in the old way. Then, as it has always been, it was rich and robust. But, in the main it was plain and unpretending. North Pearl street from State to Clinton avenue; Broadway from Clinton avenue to Lumber street, now Livingston avenue; State street from Pearl, westward beyond the old Capitol were lined with the stately homes of the opulent of the time. But there was a dreary uniformity in their outward forms, though those who were fortunate enough to cross their portals were the recipients of that elegant hospitality for which the town justly has been famed. manding and now gloomy passages. The Schuyler mansion was still a residence; the Staats and Pemberton buildings yet rearea their fronts, but most of the structures which had given grace and distinction to the city in older days had gone with the Vanderheyden palace and the Lydius house. Commerce was asserting its sway more energetically than ever. A new era had dawned. Modern Albany was awakening. The city which has been evolved in the intervening years is one which may excite native pride and arouse the appreciation of the educated traveler. Architecturally it will compare with any city of its size in the world. Its credit is deservedly high. Its securities are as good as the bonds of the United States. Its financial institutions stand among the highest in the land. Its business men are noted for their prudence, their enterprise and their skill. The beauty of its daughters has been sung all over the world. Its attractions are manifold. Travelers come from every quarter of the globe to visit that wonderful granite pile standing 200 feet above tidewater, whose beauty and symmetry have caused it to be compared with the eastern potentate's monument - emblematic of his devotion to his dead wife- the Tag Majal. Where will a finer thoroughfare State street leading to the Capitol — be found. Its educational institutions rank with the best of their order in the world. The public school system embodies the most approved features of this wisest and most beneficent of modern public institu Its public buildings at this epoch were not distinctive or ornate. The old Capitol whose corner stone had been laid in 1806 had outgrown its usefulness, and work on the new edifice, now one of the world's architectural wonders, was projected. The "Patroon's Mansion," tions. Its high school has no susoon to be deserted, had lived down | perior all its glory and only the ghosts of ments. For over 70 years the Boys' bewigged and ruffled courtiers and Academy has been turning out gradgallants, resplendent dames and uates who have adorned all stabeauteous maidens filled its com- tions of life. The fame of the Fe among similar establish male Academy is world-wide and Its public buildings, the Capitol, its alumnae have come and gone the City Hall, the Federal wherever the English language is Building, the old State House, heard. The Medical College and Geological Hall, its hospitals, the the Law School have made their im- Armory, Harmanus Bleecker Hall, press on the times. The reputation its theaters all in their way of the Normal School is deservedly testify to the advancement, good high. The Business College has taste and liberality of its people. filled the ranks of successful busi- Other places have more pretentious ness men, and some of its graduates points of public interest, but there have taken high rank in the finan-are few cities of Albany's class that cial world. Albany, which has made such bountiful provision for the educational needs of its sons and daughters, has also looked carefully after their spiritual wants. The city's churches are not only wisely administered, but the high character, eloquence and unremitting labor of those in charge of them sustain the enviable reputation which the spiritual counselors of the town have enjoyed since the days of Dominie Johannes Megapolensis. In the effective series of distinctive points of view around the city which accompany this article, there will be found pictures of some of the representative church edifices which adorn the streets of Albany. The Cathedrals of the Immaculate Conception and of All Saints are noble and impressive specimens of church architecture. St. Peter's Church, with its rich relics, is embellished with a tower which is an admirable specimen of the French Gothic school and makes the edifice one of State street's commanding features. Another tower that attracts attention is the fine specimen of a reproduction of Norman work on the City Hall. The Greek, the Gothic, the French Renaissance, and some specimens of "Early English" find expression in different parts of the city, and will provide abundant study for those interested in architecture. possess advantages which make them so attractive as a place of residence or so interesting to the intelligent traveler. Situated as it is, at the head of tidewater, it possesses geographical advantages which, in time, must make it greater than ever. What engineering genius will do for its future is a subject upon which fancy may riot. There is no danger that Albany will dwindle in importance. Pessimism may cry that the decadence of certain of its industries indicates dry rot. Albany, at one time, was the greatest stove manufacturing town in the world, but the development of railroad systems has transferred that interest to other paris of the land. Its shoe manufactories were once of importance and the source of great wealth. Keen competition has deprived it to a degree of the importance in this respect that it once possessed. Its lumber trade is not what it used to be, but the changes in these lines of business that have been brought about, are the natural effects of forces constantly at work in this bustling, competitive age. Similar changes are going on everywhere. It is the story repeated of the survival of the fittest, and he who would give way to despair in consequence must have a circumscribed, narrow visage. As well might the farmers in Albany county complain that they have no |