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14 September 1901 — Buffalo | |
Saturday. 14th September [1901]. We arrived at Buffalo at 7 A.M. & found the poor President is actually dead—so the dastardly deed of the Anarchist Czolgosz is consummated & the poor man is gone. One cannot but feel awed at the thought of such a horrible crime & one so stupid at the same time & so useless as it only kills the individual, not the institution. We found that the Exhibition of Buffalo is now closed for two days out of the respect & therefore we decided to go to Niagara for the day. We chose to go by the trolly as they here called the electric tram and as there were a great many other people who had been reduced to the same resort we found it difficult to get places in the trolly. We first went down in a carriage the Delaware Avenue to see if we could see Melburn House where the President had died—but we found one could not get very close as the police turned one back. We saw the tents which had been put up in a garden opposite the side of the road to hold the Press representatives & reporters & the police. The whole Avenue has a succession of handsome houses with bountiful gardens & is a couple of miles long– We drove about to see the public buildings & churches which are very handsome. The town is really handsome & appears to be very flourishing– When we got our places in the trolly off we went at a good rate towards Niagara—we had one change to make & rather a rush to get into the 2nd trolly. It took us about 1 hour & ½ to reach Niagara & we went to the Constitution Hotel to get some luncheon– We found the huge dining room full of people & not a table to be had. We almost despaired of getting any lunch but luckily Juan Riaño had been there before knew the proprietor & managed to get us a table, a waiter, & some food (Mme de Riaño & her son Juan have been invited by the Griscoms to join our trip & they met us this morning at Buffalo having come from Boston by a night train which arrived here about the same time as we did). We took Baker with us to Niagara so we were a party of 8 & it was a great scramble to get places on the trollies. After lunch we walked from the hotel through the public gardens to the edge of the mighty falls. They are certainly most astoundingly fine & as one stands close by the great wall of water one is overawed by the sense of ones own smallness. We got into railway which looks rather terrible, to go down to the bottom of the Falls. It is worked by the weight of one car going up pulling down the 2nd car and when once set off it goes a great pace. One sits on a moving platform wh looks as if it were merely moving steep steps & one is soon at the end of ones journey. The falls are here seen from the levee of the river into which they fall but the spray is such that one cannot stand out near the edge of the rock without soon getting wet through. We returned to the top level by the same railway & made again for the trollies. We had a great difficulty in getting places in one wh took us the round over the bridge into the Canadian side from wh we had a far finer view of the Falls & the horseshoe part of it. The whole thing from here is stupendous & the spray so tremendous that we could not realize whether it was raining or merely the result of the spray. We got back finally to whence the trolly started & then walked to the station & took the train back to Buffalo wh we reached abt 6. Mr Williams who had personally conducted the party & was most kind & active telephoned for our carriages to drive us back to the yard where our private car is placed to be out of the way of trains. We had to wait at Buffalo station for a while till the carriages came & then drove back tired, hungry & glad of an excellent dinner which had been prepared for us. Our private car, as soon as it had got to Buffalo this morning was moved to a remote yard in the station where it was out of the way—abt 3 miles from the station. | |
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