(56 OLD BEITISH FORTS ON STATEN ISLAND. 



The student finds interest in its legends ;md early History and the 

 patriot is made more patriotic as lie learns of the valor of its sons in 

 the revolutionary war and the more recent fratricidal strife. 



Why is it that this "beautiful isle of the sea" is so maligned and 

 neglected? 



It is a mystery, hard to solve. 



We want not docks and coalyards, no oil refineries or gigantic 

 factories! Nature designed Staten Island as a place of homes nest- 

 ling under the trees. That is our dream of what its future shall be. 



An island of homes where we can breathe pure air as we escape 

 from the toil and turmoil of the cit} T , where our children may grow 

 up with strong physical frames and our wives and dear ones be sur- 

 rounded by those pleasures which no city tenement or high sounding 

 "flat" house can give. 



Homes in the midst of "coolest foliage, musical with birds" where 

 "when night came, amidst the breathless heavens" our souls would 

 give thanks to the Great Architect of the Universe who had given us 

 such variety of scenery and luxuriance of foliage on the "beautiful 

 isle of the sea," so near to the great Babvlon of the New World. 



OLD BRITISH FORTS ON STATEN ISLAND. 



BY WM. T. DAVIS. 



THE APPURTENANCES OF WAR are always displeasing as they 

 ! only suggest one of the most powerful methods of making men 

 miserable. A fort is first-cousin to a prison, though one is to keep 

 men out and the other to keep them in, and they both produce the 

 same effect upon the thoughtful observer and make him sorry that 

 such things are necessary. 



The old British earth-works of Revolutionary time, on the higher 

 hills of Staten Island are so grass-grown now that they seem to have 

 lost some of their harshness. Nature is taking them back into the 

 fold. A few have been entirely destroved by modern changes and 



