FOVn DAYS AT ALBANY. 131 



its steady advancement an influential future to v/hich 

 its citizens may look forward with pardonable pride. 



My arrival in Albany and lecture at Tweddle Hall 

 on the evening of the eighteenth were to me among 

 the notable events of my journey. Colonel J. M. Fin- 

 ley, who accompanied me from Boston, a veteran of the 

 late war and manager of ray lecture course from Boston 

 to Buffalo, introduced me. 



Called at the Capitol on the nineteenth to see 

 the adjutant-general in relation to my lecturing in the 

 interest of the fund for the erection of a Soldiers' 

 Home which at that time interested persons had pro-' 

 pos«ed to build at Bath, New York. I was presented 

 to General Townsend by Colonel Taylor, assistant ad- 

 jutant-general, whom I had known for several years, 

 Found that General Townsend was not, as I had been 

 informed, the treasurer of the fund. Colonel Taylor 

 then went with me up Washington avenue in search 

 of Captain John. Palmer, Past Department Commander, 

 G. A. P., whom I was advised to consult on the subject. 



These matters attended to, I went in pursuit of 

 Captain William Blasie and Lieutenant Arthur 

 Kichardson — acquaintances of many years and both 

 of W'hom had been the companions of my capitivity 

 in Southern prisons during the War of the Pebellion. 



My stay in Albany was prolonged by preparation for 

 lectures at Troy and Schenectady, and "by needed in- 

 formation concerning the early history and development 

 of the former city. The second Sunday of my journey 

 found me here and I wqjit in the morning to the 

 Presbyterian Church at the corner of Hudson and 

 Philip streets. 



