Illustrated in the History of Albany. 



91 



lasted down to the beginning of tlie present century. As lute 

 as 179G, we find a reference to loads of furs arriving from the 

 Indian country. The fairness and honesty of their dealings with the 

 Indians gave them a strong and permanent iiold upon these simple 

 children of the forest. As a result of this, Albany never suffered 

 from the incursions of the Indians, and continued to hold the most 

 intimate and friendly relations with them. This fur trade especially, 

 and afterward the frontier trade, brought great wealth to the city, 

 which displayed itself in the character of the dwellings which they con- 

 structed for themselves. Before the revolution, new fashions had be- 

 gun to spring up in house-building, and the mansions of the more 

 wealthy were built in the English rather than the Dutch style. But 

 still, even long after the revolution, the town to the eye of a traveler 

 had a peculiar Hollandish look. The typical Dutch iiouse stood with 

 its gable end to the street, although the popular opinion that old Dr. 

 Morse, in his first geography, represents the inhabitants in the same 

 attitude, is not sustained by facts. In the ordinary house, the end 

 toward the street was built of brick. The sides and rear were almost 

 always of wooden plank. The roofs were of tile, and sometimes of split 

 pine or cedar shingles. The gables ran up to a peak in a series of 

 steps, and the topmost angle was invariably surmounted by a wind- 

 vane in the form of a rooster. Along the eaves of the houses were 

 fastened wooden troughs to catch the water from the roof. These 

 projected out two or three feet into the street, and in a rain sent down 

 a deluge of water on the unhappy passers. Finally there was so much 

 complaint made of this, that, although the old Dutch burghers stoutly 

 held that it was an infringement of their prerogatives, the common 

 council in 1T91 ordered these spouts to be cut off, and the water to 

 be led down in pipes. 



Each house liad its ample porch, or what the Dutch called a stoop. 

 It had seats on each side, and was covered with a roof, to which an 

 arbor of ^vild grape-vines or some other climbing vine often contrib- 

 uted its verdure and shade. Here the burghers of the town and 

 their families assembled on summer evenings after the sun went down. 

 The meinUerrs smoked their pipes in great comfort, and the vrows 

 and girls brought out their knitting. The dear old mother tongue 

 was still most often heard in these evening conclaves, although an Eng- 

 lish neighbor, who had not learned the Dutch, was always greeted in 

 his own speech. In the Dutch church the preaching was still in Dutch, 

 down to the coming of Dominie Westerlo in 17S2. The yoiinhers 

 gathered in gay and pleasant groups at each others' stoops, chattering 



