Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



of different sizes and shapes which they had represented on the i860 

 surface of the water everywhere. Then they pointed the rain- owe * 

 bows out with their forefingers and asked, Didn't I see them there, 

 and there, and there? I looked very hard, and as I was not 

 going to be outdone in the perception of beauty, I said that I did 

 see them, and I tried to believe that I saw them, but Heaven 

 knows, I never did. I hope this fraud will not finally be accounted 

 against me. Those were charming fellows, and other pictures 

 of theirs I have found so faithful that I am still a little shaken 

 about the rainbows. My artists were from Ohio, and though I 

 was too ignorant then to affirm that Ohio art was the best art in 

 the world, just as Ohio money was the best, still I was very proud 

 of it, and I suppose I renowned those invisible iridescences in my 

 letter to the Cincinnati paper. 



We walked all about the Falls, and over Goat Island, and to 

 and from the Whirlpool, and it was a great advantage to me 

 to be in the artists' company, for they knew all the loveliest 

 places, and could show me the best points of view. I drove 

 nowhere, because I had a fear, bred of much newspaper rumor 

 and humor, that my accumulated treasures would not hold out 

 against the rapacity of a single Niagara hackman. A dollar was 

 a dollar in those days, especially if it were a dollar of Ohio 

 money, or at least it was so till you got to Boston; and I was 

 not wiljing to waste any of mine in carriage fares. But to be 

 honest about those poor fellows, I always found the Niagara 

 hackmen, when I visited their domain in after years, not only 

 civil but reasonable, and I have never regretted the money I spent 

 upon them; it was no longer Ohio money, to be sure. 



Some places I could not walk to on that first visit, and as 

 there was no suspension bridge then near the Falls, I took a boat 

 when I wished to cross to the Canada side, and a man rowed 

 me over the eddies of the river where they reeled away from 

 the plunge of the Cataract. I do not think I crossed more than 

 once, or had any wish to do so, after I had visited the battle- 

 field of Lundy's Lane, where a veteran of the fight, so well 



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