24 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



" The printing is by the Guide Printing and Publishing Com- 

 pany of Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Compiled, Edited and Published by 



Darby Richardson 



For S'taten Island Chamber of Commerce 



Copyright, 1914, by Darby Richardson." 



It is of the same general character as the publications with the 

 same title, issued by the Chamber of Commerce in octavo form in 

 1896 and in quarto form in 191 1. 



The text and the illustrations constitute a curious descriptive 

 mixture of commercialism, civic activities, natural features, and 

 local history. To anyone possessed of any sense of humor the 

 attempt to reconcile all of these incongruous elements and to give 

 them the appearance of a united happy family, with allied aims 

 and interests, is amusing. To boom the advantages of Staten 

 Island as a commercial and manufacturing locality and at the 

 same time to make an effort to enthusiastically advertise the few 

 remaining natural charms and historical features which industrial 

 development has not yet destroyed, but soon will, causes the 

 average reader to smile at the ingenuousness and the lack of all 

 sense of proportion and perspective displayed by those who were 

 responsible for the compilation of the contents. 



It is to be presumed that the work must possesss some immedi- 

 ate economic value, as otherwise practical business men would not 

 have contributed time, energy, and money for its publication; 

 but the real value of this and all similar publications is always best 

 appreciated by those for whom they were not designed, the future 

 historian or student of local history, who is interested in tracing 

 the evolution of a locality from a suburban into an urban com- 

 munity. And we may imagine such a reader, at some time in the 

 future, noting with interest the landscape views, the pictures of 

 residences and public buildings and the crude business centers of 



