Dutch Byways in New Jersey 
A DUTCH HOUSE AT HACKENSACK 
far from fertile, and it was only the frugality 
and industry of the Dutch which could make 
a fertile field out of what at first sight appeared 
to be a stone-pile. They not only did make 
fertile fields, but in the process built fine 
stone walls about their pastures and strong 
stone houses which have withstood until 
to-day the stress of war and weather. Al¬ 
though they are small and unassuming, they 
are honest houses, well built and stocky of 
outline, with great hewn timbers supporting 
their floors, and not infrequently a carved 
mantelpiece or door frame so well executed 
and designed as to be worth recording. 
There are several railroads that, seeking the 
northern passage from Jersey City, run back 
of the Palisades along the eastern edge of 
the Hackensack meadows. From the win¬ 
dows of the cars one looks to the east upon 
the sharp slopes back of Hoboken and Jersey 
City, slopes dotted with the impossible frame 
shanties of the outskirts of poor towns, ash 
heaps, tin cans, half dead trees and ill kept 
back yards; the typical, dispiriting environ¬ 
ment of all American cities, as seen from 
the cars. 
Looking to the west, one sees the flat 
and soggy stretch of the meadows, to most 
minds quite as bad, doubtless, as the easterly 
outlook; but rightly considered, not at all 
unpicturesque in its great flat expanse of 
waving water-grass and cat-tails, its narrow 
lanes of water and a few semi-islands with 
willow trees just bursting into spring. As 
one gets closer to the Hackensack River, long 
low buildings with smoking roofs show where 
the brick yards lie close to the bank’s edge, 
and the arable land comes down to the water 
in places. A few dilapidated old houses have 
some semblance of former homelikeness and 
make one fancy how the early Dutch may 
have been enticed in this direction by the 
resemblance of this flat landscape to the 
lowlands of home. 
Near Bogota, on the right, stands a house 
in many ways typical of them all. 1 he first 
storey of the main house is stone, in this case 
covered with cement. 1 he roof is hipped, 
with the hip well up towards the ridge and 
the eaves project at least three feet on either 
side; it is safe to say these are characteristic 
points. I have often speculated on the origin ' 
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