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Travels in Some Parts of North America, in the Years 1804, 1805, & 1806, by Robert Sutcliff

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already of considerable extent, although, like Hudson, of but few years standing. Divers of the steeples and towers of their public buildings, being covered with tin plates, as at Albany, gives the place a very splendid appearance. I lodged this night at Troy, having had the company of a friend from New-York, in the evening. 11th Month, 17th. I attended the meeting at Troy in company with the before-mentioned friend. Here is a very neat meeting-house, kept clean and in good repair. There is something not quite right, or at least something that produces very unpleasant feelings and reflections, in suffering meeting-houses to become dirty and out of repair. We sometimes judge of the estimation in which people hold their guests by the room assigned for their reception and entertainment. What those people think who suffer their places for worship to remain a scene of dirt and ruin, whilst perhaps their own habitations are superfluously elegant, I cannot comprehend; I fear it bespeaks their having no very high idea of the Divine Majesty, to whose service they profess to appropriate such buildings. This meeting-house at Troy, I was informed, was built chiefly by two female friends, whose husbands had sometime before been disowned for dealing in spirituous liquors; this traffic being contrary to the rules of friends in New-York State. Those persons not seeing the propriety of the rule, or not choosing to