I dare say any
respectable resident would laugh at us sentimentalizing over his city.
But Rochester is for us, who don't know it at all, a city of any time or
country, moonlit, filled with lovers hovering over piano-fortes, of a
palatial hotel with pastoral waiters and porter,--a city of handsome
streets wrapt in beautiful quiet and dreaming of the golden age. The only
definite association with it in our minds is the tragically romantic
thought that here Sam Patch met his fate."
"And who in the world was Sam Patch?
"Isabel, your ignorance of all that an American woman should be proud of
distresses me. Have you really, then, never heard of the man who invented
the saying, 'Some things can be done as well as others,' and proved it by
jumping over Niagara Falls twice? Spurred on by this belief, he attempted
the leap of the Genesee Falls. The leap was easy enough, but the coming
up again was another matter. He failed in that. It was the one thing that
could not be done as well as others."
"Dreadful!" said Isabel, with the cheerfullest satisfaction. "But what
has all that to do with Rochester?"
"Now, my dear, You don't mean to say you didn't know that the Genesee
Falls were at Rochester? Upon my word, I'm ashamed.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112