of appealing interest. Here, within cannon shot, stood half a dozen forts; here, in the very center of Rome is the wide straight roadway over which millions of pioneers moved to their conquest of the West; here is the junction of the Black River and the Erie Canal, which, "conceived by the genius, and achieved by the energy of De Witt Clinton, was, during the second quarter of this [nineteenth] century, the most potent influence of American progress and civilization." And, in its turn, here lie the gleaming rails of the New York Central—and the "Empire" has covered the canal boat with dust.
The conditions here make it almost possible to say, "All roads lead to Rome, New York." From one and the same point of observation it is possible to see the junction of the Erie and Black River Canals, the portage path from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, the New York Central Railway, and the terminus of the Utica and Mohawk Valley Electric Railway. Two canals, a highway, a railway, and an electric line converging within an air-rifle shot would not be found in a town of only a few thou-
