8Q OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



the city and vicinity. Lectured at the Opera House 

 in the evening, being introduced to my audience by 

 Colonel Finley of Charlestown, to whom previous 

 reference has been made, and with whom I had 

 arranged to accompany me as far as Syracuse, New 

 York, and further if my advance agents should think 

 it advisable for him to do so. 



The fact that both my father and mother were na- 

 tives of Worcester County and that most of our 

 ancestors for several generations had been residents 

 of Worcester and vicinity made that city of unusual 

 interest to me, and I trust the reader will be in- 

 dulgent if I allot too much space or seem too 

 partial in my description of this early landmark in my 

 journey. 



Worcester, nestling among the hills along the 

 Blackstone River, the second city in Massachusetts, 

 the heart of the Commonwealth, has a population of 

 about 85,000. 



Shut in by its wall of hills, it seemed, as I first came 

 into it, something like a little miniature world in itself. 

 It possesses some share of all th^ good we know. 

 Nature, that " comely mother,'^ has laid her caressing 

 hand upon it. Art has made many a beautiful struc- 

 ture to adorn its streets. Commerce smiles upon it. 

 While its wonderful manufactures seem to form a 

 a great living, throbbing heart for the city. 



Sauntering up from the depot, through Front street, 

 five minutes' walk brought me to the Old Common. 

 There I found, what one so frequently finds in 

 Massachusetts towns and cities — namely, a War Mon- 

 ument. Apparently that mighty five years' struggle, 

 that brilliant victory, bringing freedom to two million 



