The hills that face Rondout Creek are honeycombed with galleries from wliich cement is obtained. The ciuarries for bluestone and flagging extend for nearly ninety miles through the region of countr\' for which the canal furnishes the outlet. Besides this, several railroads either touch at this place or make it a terminal station, and a fleet of steamboats equal in number to a combination of all others that ply upon the upper river give the front of the city a metropolitan aspect. Of course, on the

468 The Hudson River

principle that nothing succeeds hke success, the growth of population and of business due to foundries and machine shops has been considerable. Commercial Kingston has nearly swallowed the C[uaint, historic town that used to sit comfortabh^ on the site of old Wiltwyck. Gradually it has absorbed its neighbours, Rondout being the last to be digested. There is a ferry from Rhinebeck on the east shore of the river. The city has twenty-four churches, several daily newspapers, four national banks, and excellent schools and seminaries. Altogether, it is phenomenalh' active for a Hudson River town. In going forward from older times to more modern days, we have been obliged to omit mention of many people and events. But one name tempts a return for one brief jmragraph. John Vanderlyn, the celebrated painter, was born in Kingston late in the eighteenth century. He was first apprenticed to a waggon-painter, and the genius that was in him developed in spite of this prosaic occupation. For several years he struggled >to reconcile his vocation with his avocation, to possess his soul while laying smooth panels of coach varnish and striping wheels. At length one day that meddler with many fortunes. Colonel Aaron Burr, strayed into the Kingston tavern, and while waiting there saw some of Vanderlyn 's work.