146 USE OF TOWN FOR TOWNSHIP. 



trade of the Western States. That it Is surrounded by 

 a large German population is shown by the Gasthaus, 

 Buchhandlung, and other German announcements which 

 are to be read in abundance on the fronts of the houses, 

 and over the shop-windows. 



Winter rye appears to be sown very early in this 

 State. I had seen a field already sown upon the sandy 

 pine plain between Albany and Schenectady ; but near 

 Herkimer, on the banks of the Mohawk, I passed one 

 already above ground, {11th Sept.) and forming a beauti- 

 ful green braird. 



Fourteen miles, chiefly through sandy, gravelly, and 

 swampy barrens, brought us to Rome, an aspiring vil- 

 lage in a town (ship) of the same name — remarkable 

 chiefly for its large hotels, and for the outlines of fine 

 streets which are hereafter to be built up. 



Among the new meanings attached to old words which 

 one observes in this State of New York, is the sense in 

 which the word town is used even in legal phraseology. 

 For brevity's sake, I suppose, the word township has 

 gone out. of use, and town has taken Its place. A county 

 is divided into so many towns; and in a town, so many 

 villages, or even a city may spring up. This change in 

 the meaning of a familiar word perplexes very much 

 the stranger, is productive of inconvenience here, and is 

 much more injurious to the maintenance of a pure com- 

 mon speech between the Old Country and the New, than 

 any introduction of absolutely new words can ever be. 



Thus, a town in western New York may be a square 

 of land, without a house or an inhabitant upon it ; and in 

 some places a street is merely a road through a partially 

 cleared township. Then all collections of houses are 

 necessarily called either villages or cities. Where places 

 are Incorporated, they become corporate villages ; and if 

 the aspirations of the inhabitants make them discontented 

 with this inferior title, they make Influence with the 



