Tableaux 1 It is difficult to make suggestions for tableaux which will be applicable to all parts of the State, to the different conditions under which they are to be given and to the varying resources of the participants. Tableaux can be given out of doors with natural surroundings which can not be given indoors; and effects can be produced in a theater or a large auditorium which can not be had in a schoolroom. Each community must be guided largely by its own history, and each company by its own facilities. While the primary object of the Hudson-Fulton celebration is to commemorate the achievements of Hudson and Fulton, it is designed also to stimulate the study of the local history of all the communities of the State. Therefore, any important or picturesque or interesting event in the annals of a town or city may appropriately be represented. There are no more picturesque subjects than those relating to the Indians. If purely aboriginal life is to be represented, scenes may be given representing passages in the "Legend of Hiawatha," which is supposed to depict the origin of the Iroquois. If there is any local Indian legend, it may likewise afford material. Scenes in Indian domestic life; the making of pottery, wooden dishes, bows and arrows, etc.; the stringing of wampum; an Indian meal; the gathering of corn; the pounding of corn; Indian games, etc. are admirable subjects for purely Indian characters. Then there is a range of subjects, as wide as the State, dealing with the contact between the Indians and the white men. The settlers of New York were usually very scrupulous to buy their land from the Indians, even if the price paid was small, so that from the purchase of Manhattan island by Peter Minuit in 1626 to the Big Tree Treaty on the Genesee by which the Senecas parted with most of their land, there were innumerable incidents of that There were a great many councils with the Indians like that on Bowling Green, New York; that between Stuyvesant and the Indians at Albany (Fort Orange); those of Sir William Johnson at Johnstown; those under the Council tree at Geneva, etc. The dealings of the fur traders with the natives are susceptible of simple and effective representation. Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales" will suggest several picturesque scenes. Scenes of captivity may also be represented, and an incident like Mary Jemison's arrival in the sort. 1 Reprinted from a bulletin prepared by Edward Hagam Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. should not borrow subjects from another. Washington refusing the crown at Newburgh, the adoption of the Constitution at Kingston, the capitulation of Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the making of the first American flag flown in battle at Fort Stanwix (Rome) are events in the latter class. Almost every community has had one preeminent historical character, like Peter Stuyvesant, George Clinton, Peter Schuyler, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Horatio Seymour, William H. Seward, or scores. of others who could be named. Such a character, represented in his most famous attitude or act, would make a tableau by itself. Oftentimes a local statue will convey a helpful suggestion in this direction. "Living statuary" representing a soldier and sailor, would symbolize the Civil War. Robert Fulton's life suggests several subjects, such as taking painting lessons from Benjamin West; working on a steamboat model; making mechanical drawings; conferring with ex-President Jefferson, President Madison and others when he explained his torpedo plans, etc. Irving's "Sketch Book" can be drawn on for legends of the Hudson river, foremost among which is that of Rip Van Winkle and Henry Hudson's crew in the Catskills. HUDSON AND THE RIVER ESS is known of Henry Hudson than of other explorers of America in the 17th century; and all that is known of him is included within four years-from the May day in 1607 when he sailed from Gravesend for Greenland, until the fatal day of June in 1611, when he was cast adrift by his mutinous crew in the far northern James bay, and so passed forever into the unknown. We know nothing of his youth, his education, his associations, his personal appearance, his vocational training or experience, or anything about him, prior to his first recorded voyage, when he looms into view; but the years of which we do know are sufficient to reveal him as a man of large intelligence and enterprise, of abiding courage and indomitable will, which lift him into fame as conspicuous among those who opened the new world to the old, and especially as the pathfinder for the commerce and civilization of the Empire State. In the agreement with the Dutch merchants in 1609 he is described as "Henry Hudson, Englishman.” This doubtless settles the country of his birth. It is suggested that he was a grandson of another Henry Hudson, who was an incorporator of the Muscovy Company, but this is a mere conjecture based upon the identity of the Christian name of each and the interest of other Hudsons in the company. It is said by some that he had been a master of Dutch vessels, and by others that he was with the Muscovy Company before he was sent by the latter on his arctic voyage, but it may fairly be stated that he was then a skilled seaman. He was about 40 years old and was married, for he had a son who accompanied him in his expeditions and perished with him, and there is reference to other children in the subsequent contract with the Dutch East India Company. The Muscovy Company, trading in Russia, was anxious to find a northwest passage to China. This was the dream that entranced many hardy mariners of the day. It was the dream of Hudson, who was willing to brave dangers and mischances that he might realize it. So the company hired him, and on May 1, 1607 he set out from Gravesend in a craft of 80 tons, the Hopewell, with a crew of 11 men, some of whom were turbulent and worthless fellows, as was the case also with his succeeding crews. In six weeks he reached Greenland and named the first land seen Young's cape after one of his men, a name it still retains. Thence he headed north to 72° on the coast and steered for Spitzbergen, touching 80° 23′ and holding the record for "farthest north" until Captain Phipps in 1773 went 25' further north. He perplexed himself in vain about a northwest passage, and by this time his men had become restive and even rebellious and clamored for home. He was obliged to yield to them, and turning his prow east ward put into Tilbury docks on the 15th of September, having been plagued throughout a large part of his course by thick fogs and tempests and pounding ice floes. The voyage was a disappointment. Nothing had been accomplished except the high northern mark. Other adventurers had preceded him in their visits to the arctic region. But he still had his stout heart. Hudson's second voyage was under the same support and probably in the same small but stanch vessel as the first. It was an effort to find at the northeast that which had baffled him at the northwestcommunication with China and the Indian ocean. He left St Katherine's docks on the 22d of April 1608, coasted western Norway, rounded Cape North on the 3d of June, and after much buffeting by the ice rested in a quiet cove of Nova Zembla on the 1st of July. He was soon satisfied that further search at that time would be useless, and "being void of hope," as he says, "the wind stormy and against us and with much ice driving, we weighed anchor and set sail west." He was back on the Thames on the 26th of August, to be coolly received and even scolded by the company for his failure, and his relations with it ended. His own ardor, however, was not eclipsed by his rebuff. The dream still possessed him. There were other ways to try and other patrons to ask. Like "soldiers of fortune" with their swords drawn at any bidding, a number, if not a majority, of the discoverers and explorers of America were aided by governments and associations other than those of their own nationality. Some tramped from court to court, cap in hand. Columbus, a Genoese, was commissioned by Isabella of Spain; Cabot, an Italian, by Henry VII of England; Verrazano, a Florentine, by |