The growth of the city
all the way to Jerome and Van Cortlandt's Park during the last few
years has been marvelous. It has literally stepped over the Harlem to
find room in the picturesque county of Westchester.
=The Island of Manhattan.=--As we approach the northern limit of
Manhattan we feel that in the preservation of the beautiful name
"Manhattan," distinctive of New York's chief borough, Irving's dream
has been happily realized. The meaning of this Indian word has been
the subject of much discussion. It is, however, simply the name of a
tribe. As the old historian De Laet says, "On the east side, on the
main land dwell the Manhattoes," and again from the "Documentary
History of New York." "It is so called from the people which inhabited
the main land on the east side of the river."
* * *
Pleasant it is to lie amid the grass,
Under these shady locusts half the day,
Watching the ships reflected in the Bay,
Topmast and shroud, as in a wizard's glass.
_Thomas Bailey Aldrich._
* * *
[Illustration: INDIAN HEAD, PALISADES]
The word Manhattan signifies also it is said: "The People of the
Islands," and it was evidently used by the Indians as a generic term
designating the inhabitants of the island itself, and also of Long
Island and the Neversink.
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