Excerpt from Recollections of Albany: An Address Delivered Before the Young Men's Association of Albany, February 7th, 1854 Mr. President And Gentlemen: In asking your attention for a few minutes to the recollections of an old Albanian, I may remark that I was drawn to this subject, less by the hope of affording to yon instruction or amusement, than by an impulse, which it would have been difficult to resist. It is now thirty years, since in early manhood I left Albany as a permanent residence; I return to it - such is the inevitable effect of time - a stranger. The intervening period, which would not be unimportant in a nation's history, is almost the allotted term of an individual's life. Ties, once close and dear, - interests once inseparable, - friendships and affections, which absorbed the whole heart, have yielded to the influence of time; and still the birth-place - the home of the happy child and light-hearted boy, radiant in the memory with all that is glowing and beautiful in youth and health and innocence, becomes dearer and brighter as "the abbreviation of time and the failure of hope begin to tinge with a browner shade the evening of life." In the few observations, which I shall have the honor to offer, you will, of course, not anticipate any intrusion into private life, even long gone by. My design is only to attempt a slight sketch of some of the phases of Albany, during the few years when the present century was commencing its eventful course. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.