tion of the distinctive charms of the Niagara scenery. In August and September of that year, Mr. Henry Norman contributed a series of such letters to the New York Tribune, the New York Herald, the New York Evening Post and the Boston Daily Advertiser. Nourished by these fertilizing communications, the movement grew materially that summer, in spite of the chilling frost which it had received in the spring at Albany. During the summer of 1882, Mr. J. B. Harrison carried the campaign forward effectively by means of eight letters written from Niagara to the New York Tribune, the New York Evening Post and the Boston Daily Advertiser. In reprinting his letters later, in pamphlet form, Mr. Harrison paid a merited tribute to the press when he dedicated them "to the Journalists of America, with the conviction that if the final ruin of this scene of beauty and wonder shall be averted, that fortunate result will be brought about chiefly by the intelligence and public spirit which find expression through the newspapers of two countries having a common interets in the subject herein presented."

THE NIAGARA FALLS ASSOCIATION.

In November, 1882, the Hon. Grover Cleveland was elected Governor, and encouraged by the understanding that the Governor-elect regarded the movement with interest and favor, the campaign was taken up with renewed vigor and in a new manner. On the evening of December 6, 1882, about a score of the leading spirits met at the residence of Mr. Howard Potter, in New York city. Mr. Potter, who presided, ex-Lieutenant Governor William Dorsheimer and Messrs. J. B. Harrison, F. L. Olmsted and Charles E. Norton were among those who spoke, favoring an appeal to the public spirit of the people of the State in favor of State ownership of the Falls. As a result of the conference, Messrs. J. Hampden Robb, Francis H. Weeks, James T. Gardner, Buchanan Winthrop and J. T. Van Rensselaer were appointed a committee with power to devise a plan.

On the evening of January 11, 1883, a second meeting was held at Municipal Hall, No. 67 Madison Avenue, New York, in response to invitations sent out by Mr. Potter and the Committee. Mr. D. Willis James presided. The Committee recommended the formation of an association for the purpose of forwarding legislation and other measures designed for the restoration and preservation of the Niagara scenery in accordance with the plan proposed by the Commissioners of the State Survey. The Committee also reported a Constitution, which was adopted and signed by all present, thus forming the Niagara Falls Association. The following officers were elected:

President: Mr. Howard Potter.

Vice-Presidents: Messrs. Daniel Huntington, George William

Curtis and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Recording Secretary: Mr. Robert Lenox Belnap.
Corresponding Secretary: Mr. J. B. Harrison.

Treasurer: Mr. Charles Lanier.

Executive Committee: Messrs. J. Hampden Robb, Buchanan Winthrop, James T. Gardner, Francis H. Weeks and Robert W. De Forest.

A membership fee of ten dollars supplied a portion of the funds necessary to carry on the propaganda. The society grew rapidly in numbers and the movement acquired great prestige under its initiative. It printed and freely circulated a great deal of literature; and the very efficient and enthusiastic secretary, Mr. Harrison, went from town to town, arousing local interest throughout the State by his public addresses and private appeals. He was succeeded as Secretary by Colonel Henry W. Sackett, who in that laborious office, carried the work along sympathetically and effectively.

During the first year's canvass, the Association used the following form of petition:

PETITION.

"The undersigned citizens of the State of New York, feeling that in the possession of that greatest natural object of its kind the Falls of Niagara, this State is Trustee not only for its own citizens but for the Nation and the World; believing that owing to the deflection of the river at the Falls and the character of the banks below, the whole industrial power of the Falls can be availed of without impairment of the natural beauties of the scenery; hearing with alarm of the rapid progress of disfigurements of it, which threaten its speedy destruction, and protesting earnestly against the complete neglect in the past, by this great, wealthy and intelligent State of these considerations, and of the rights of the citizens to the enjoyment of the gift of Nature, from which it results that there is not one foot of American soil from which our citizens can obtain, without payment, a sight of the Falls; and believing that the sublime spectacle of Niagara is one which every citizen should have the right to enjoy without money and without price; and feeling that the present state of things, which makes it a luxury beyond the reach of poverty amounts to a public wrong which ought no longer to go unredressed, do most earnestly petition your honorable body that the recommendations of the Commissioners of the State Survey, in their reports on the subject in 1879, may be speedily adopted and carried into effect by such legislation as may be necessary for that purpose."