Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Drawn by Jules Guérin.
See "The Water Front of New York."
On the Harlem River—University Heights from Fort George.
Scribner's Magazine
VOL. XXVI OCTOBER, 1899 NO. 4
Copyright, 1899, by Charles Scribner's Sons. All rights reserved.
THE WATER-FRONT OF NEW YORK
By Jesse Lynch Williams
Down along the Battery sea-wall is theplace to watch the ships go by.
Coastwise schooners, lumber-laden,which can get far up the river under theirown sail; big, full-rigged clipper shipsthat have to be towed from the lower bay,their top masts down in order to scrapeunder the Brooklyn Bridge; barques,brigs, brigantines—all sorts of sailing craft,with cargoes from all seas, and flying theflags of all nations.
White-painted river steamers that seemall the more flimsy and riverish if theyhappen to churn out past the dark, compactlybuilt ocean liners, who come so deliberatelyand arrogantly, up past the Statueof Liberty, to dock after the long, hard jobof crossing, the home-comers on the decksalready waving handkerchiefs. Pluckylittle tugs (that whistle on the slightestprovocation), pushing queer, bulky floats,which bear with ease whole trains of freightcars, dirty cars looking frightened and outof place, which the choppy seas try toreach up and wash. And still queerer, oldsloop scows, with soiled, awkward canvasand no shape to speak of, bound for no oneseems to know where and carrying youseldom see what. And always, everywhere,all day and night, whistling and pushing inand out between everybody, the ubiquitous,faithful, narrow-minded old ferry-boats,387with their wonderful helmsman inthe pilot-house, turning the wheel andlooking unexcitable....
