ALTON, July 11th.
_My dear E._--Harassed by no compunctious visitings for the enormous
package which I dismissed to you this morning through the Alton
post-office, I have seated myself deliberately before my little desk to
prepare you another. We have spent a delightful day among our friends
here, and are very much pleased with the towns of Alton, for there are
two of them. We are now, four o’clock, waiting for the steamboat to take
us to St. Louis, and I employ the time in making a few sketches of the
place for you. Alton is built as I told you, upon a sloping bank. This
ground is very uneven, and upon some of the elevated portions are the
public buildings. The churches here are well built and numerous, I think
seven or eight; the streets wide and airy; places reserved for public
squares, and several handsome private dwellings. The town has arisen
rapidly, and from a small town in 1832, it has now fine streets, and
houses, two hundred being built last year; merchants who transact
business to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars, and even
half a million in some instances. Eight or ten steamboats are owned
here, and two railroads in contemplation, and the great national road it
is thought will be conducted through this place. There are several
religious societies here, each having houses of worship; among them the
baptist church is spoken of as being nicely fitted up in the interior;
it is built of stone. Every convenience and comfort of life is at hand;
coal in profusion in the vicinity of the town, which is sold very cheap;
limestone, freestone, and water lime, besides other mineral productions
abound. The markets are stored with wild game--deer, partridges, prairie
hen, and water-fowl; fruits both wild and cultivated; various sorts of
fish; corn, beef, pork, and vegetables of the finest order. Madison
county, in which it stands, is one of the richest in the State, being
most of it upon the American bottom. It contains seven hundred and
ninety square miles, and the value of its productions, exclusive of
capital invested, and cost of buildings, amounts to two millions three
hundred and sixty-nine thousand one hundred and fifty-one dollars and
eighty cents. Of bushels of wheat, they have raised one hundred and
sixty-five thousand five hundred and twenty. Corn one million three
hundred and four thousand three hundred and thirty-five bushels.
Tobacco, eleven thousand two hundred and eighty pounds. Capital invested
in manufactures, two hundred and ten thousand four hundred and
thirty-five dollars. But I suppose you do not care for these details. If
I should come here again in a few years, I expect to see Alton three
times its size, for although it may not rival St. Louis, as the
inhabitants imagine, it must be the most considerable place after it,
west of Cincinnati. The Illinois brings to it the produce of the
northern lakes and States--the Mississippi waft to its doors the exports
of the west, and takes it over to the Ohio, and to the gulf of Mexico,
from which last it is only four or five days distant. The interests of
religion and education employ the benevolent inhabitants to a remarkable
degree and many thousands are expended every year for the furtherance of
these objects. Among these are Shurtliff College, Alton Theological
Seminary, Alton Female Seminary. But enough of statistics, you will say,
and I hasten to our own personal adventures. We ordered a carriage
to-day to take us to Upper Alton, to visit our friends there, and were
quite pleased to see as nice a coach and pair of horses as we could see
in our own Broadway. After leaving the town we drove through some rich
prairie land, interspersed with trees, through which we obtained fine
views of the swift rolling Mississippi, and across it the verdant plains
of Missouri, with green swelling hills beyond. A drive of two miles
brought us to Upper Alton, a pretty small looking village, with spires
and neat dwellings peeping through the trees. This place is very
pleasantly situated upon an elevated plateau of ground about two miles
from the lower town. Families here enjoy great advantages, in regard to
the education of their children, as colleges and schools abound in its
neighborhood. The society of this place is very superior, and its
situation healthy.
We found our friends in a large picturesque house in the cottage style,
surrounded by piazzas, whose pillars were wreathed with the clustering
Michigan rose, and shaded by the graceful cotton wood, and pretty red
bud and locust. Here indeed was a western paradise! upon the Mississippi
banks we found realized, those visions so many have sighed after, a
lodge in the vast wilderness, a secluded retreat from the haunts of men,
where the confusions and follies of the world are only remembered as a
troubled dream. A charming young family, and a well selected library,
render this retirement most delightful. A seminary upon a new plan had
been lately erected near their abode, and with a view of showing us
every thing of interest around them, our friends drove us in their
carriage through a pleasant road in an oak forest, to the Monticello
Female Seminary. The building is of limestone of that region, four
stories in height. It stands within a lawn ornamented with groups of
trees, and a fine garden is laid out in the rear. This extensive
establishment was founded by Benjamin Godfrey, Esq., a gentleman of
Alton, who, to this benevolent purpose devoted a large share of his
property. While a resident of the west, many examples had come before
his eyes, of the miseries arising from the imperfect education of the
young women who settle here. The dearth of servants rendered it
necessary for the young wives around him to superintend, if not assist
in household labor, and he saw how much better it was they should come
prepared for these duties, and quite able to perform them, instead of
wearing themselves out, and pining away over tasks, which, by being new,
appear much more arduous than they are in reality. As the evil lay in a
defective system of education, this generous individual at once saw how
great a desideratum an institution would be, uniting useful with
ornamental accomplishments. With a public spirit to be much applauded,
Mr. Godfrey erected this spacious building, for educating ‘wives for the
west.’ Eighty young ladies is the limited number, all to be over
fourteen years of age. With the course of scientific study usual in
female seminaries, the pupils are taught music, instructed in religion,
and in various _household duties_. Among other lessons, they are taught
to set a table, arrange their rooms, even sweep and scrub them; wash,
starch and iron all their clothes. Some young ladies, who had been bred
in idleness, or who had come from the indulgent homes of Alton, or
luxurious mansions of St. Louis, where slaves await their nod, were very
reluctant at first to undertake these menial employments; but the
advantage which so good a school presented in its other departments,
rendered their mothers deaf to their complaints. They were soon,
however, broken in, and sing as merrily over their wash tubs, as the
other pupils. As gain is not the object of its generous founder, the
price of admission is placed low, still there are some, whose means are
too straightened for even this, and these are allowed to pay for their
instruction, by labor in the house. The eagerness to get admittance for
young persons, is very great, and many thus receive instruction who are
of high respectability, and are enabled to attend to the younger
branches of the family, or even, if required, teach others. Some of
these young persons are beneficiaries of a benevolent society, called
the ‘Ladies’ Association for Educating Females.’ The object of this
society is to ‘encourage and assist young females to qualify themselves
for teaching, and to aid in supporting teachers in those places where
they cannot otherwise be sustained.’ Young females of all ages are
selected from poor families and placed in schools, where they are
watched over by these benevolent ladies, their tuition paid, and to
each, every year, is addressed a circular letter of advice, with the
donation of an appropriate, instructive book. When prepared, they are
placed in situations where they can support themselves. Several have
become missionaries, and at this school are two of the Cherokee tribe
who are preparing to be teachers among their people. The great amount of
good performed by these ladies entitle them to the hearty wishes of the
benevolent and patriotic. The Rev. J. Spalding, in his address before
the seventh annual meeting at Jacksonville, says: ‘Since its
commencement it has aided one hundred and forty-seven young ladies in
their preparation for usefulness and heaven, thirty-one of whom are
professed followers of the Lamb.’ Now that I have thoroughly described
the institution, we will leave the carriage and enter the house. We were
shown into a neatly furnished parlor, where we were soon joined by the
principal of Monticello, the Rev. Theron Baldwin, a gentleman of great
information and piety. He kindly explained to us the principle upon
which the seminary was conducted, and then offered to show us the house.
Every thing was arranged with the greatest order and neatness. The
dining, school, and recitation rooms, were large, clean and airy, and
the bed rooms commodious. Upon the ground floor was a chapel fitted up
with the beautiful black walnut of their woods; here divine service is
performed, by the Rev. Mr. Baldwin, to the school and people of the
neighborhood, who assemble there every Sunday. You see the Illinois
people are determined their people shall enjoy the blessings of
education; and when we reflect how much the destiny of our nation
depends upon the next generation, we cannot devote our time or our money
to a better purpose, than furthering such institutions. We left the
seminary, pleased with its arrangements, and wishing all success to the
generous individual who originated the establishment. It is delightful
to see wealth so well employed, to behold the ‘just steward’ thus ably
disposing of his master’s property. Such disinterestedness shone out in
bold relief from the selfish and reckless waste of fortune which we had
beheld in our pilgrimage, like one of his own ‘oak islands,’ upon a
sunny and treeless prairie.
Once more we experienced the pains of parting, and were forced to leave
our friends that afternoon. We returned to our hotel where we are
awaiting the arrival of our steamboat which is to take us to St. Louis.
When I look around in this interesting country, and upon such towns as
Alton, I wonder why our Atlantic cities are so full of people. How many
young men do I know there, and indeed, whole families, who are
struggling for a living, and denying themselves every comfort that their
spare income may suffice, to give them a showy appearance in public;
crammed into crowded boarding houses, narrow, hot, dusty streets, when
there is here in this wide beautiful land, room, fresh air, fine
scenery, employment, everything to be enjoyed, at half the expense they
are forced to lay out among so many discomforts. The steamboat bell
warns me to put up my note book, and I will resume when aboard.
We found ourselves in a small steam-boat, which makes regular trips
between this town and St. Louis, twenty-five miles. Alton looked very
pretty when we turned to bid a sorrowful adieu, and we regretted our
time would not allow us to remain in this interesting place. We are now
all eagerly looking out, for the giant Missouri, whose junction with the
Mississippi is but two miles below Alton. At length the point is in
view, all gather upon the guards, and bend our eyes towards the right
shore,--we are now before the mouth and behold an extraordinary scene.
The Missouri does not, as travellers tell us, come rushing, and
bounding, and dashing along, striking the Mississippi with such a
concussion that volumes of mist arise in the air,--we beheld nothing so
wonderful--a broad stream rolled down between its verdant banks,
rapidly, and very like a torrent, but in quite a decent and proper
manner. Its color--alas, for our pellucid lakes--is a tint not often
recognized by artists, but generally called gruel or soap-suds hue. It
holds in solution such an extraordinary quantity of clay, that one
wonders how the steamboat can force its way through it. Its rapid
current is distinguished by the curls and little whirlpools among the
mud. Where it meets the Mississippi is a small ridge of clay, and thick
masses push themselves under the clear brown water, coloring it more and
more with its impurity, until at last, the unhappy Mississippi, after
struggling for some time, is completely lost in the clayey stream, as
some pure young heart, striving against temptation, but lost at last.
The streams continue separate for some miles below St. Louis, and there
the river takes the Missouri character. I looked up the vista of this
grand stream, as we passed its mouth, with sentiments of awe. A mighty
mass of water--it came rolling down nearly four thousand miles from its
source in the wild recesses of the Rocky Mountains, bearing upon its
bosom, not a fleet of Argosies, but materials for their construction in
whole forests of gigantic trees.
Such an admirer of water as you know I am, you may be sure I regretted
the soiling of my bright brunette Mississippi. To watch the foam of our
vessel had been a favorite pastime, but alas, what a change from the
diamond and emerald of our lakes, the topaz of the Illinois, the Zircon
of the Mississippi to the soapsuds of the Missouri. I have called the
Mississippi coffee color; it is now coffee-au-lait, and indignant must
the father of waters be under so great an oppression. Several green
islands adorn the stream, and the shores are spotted with a few houses,
and now chimney, and roof, and tower, piled up against each other,
proclaim a city, and we are soon in sight of the city of St. Louis. An
old castellated Spanish mansion is the first relic we have seen of that
brave Castilian race which once reigned over these broad lands. It is, I
think, their _ultima thula_, their most northern point. The appearance
of St. Louis, from the water, is very much like Albany, as it is built
upon rising ground, consisting of two plateaus of land, the last
elevated several feet above the other, but its water craft gave it quite
a different character. We are used in our cities to behold the water
front, bristling with masts, but here we saw steamboats alone, there
being about seventy moored at the wharves, which gave a novel and
western appearance, to the scene. The flat boat, is fast disappearing,
and steamboats, are the only style of boat, with few exceptions, which
we see; of these, five hundred and eighty-eight have been built upon the
western waters.[21] The city of St. Louis stretches a mile along the
elevated shore, and nearly the same distance back. We almost fancied
ourselves in New York again, so great was the stir upon the wharf. The
ware-houses, of brick or limestone, made of the rock upon which they
stand, appeared filled with goods and customers, boxes and bales, carts
and barrows were floating about, and every one seemed active except the
negro slaves who were plodding about their work with the usual
nonchalant gait of this merry but indolent nation. We missed our good
wharves at home, and even the paved bank of Alton, for a shower had
rendered the shore muddy. Surely some Yankee might contrive a more
commodious landing; something that might rise and fall with the river,
or a long pier. We drove to the Missouri House, where we arrived in time
for tea, and at night were lulled to sleep by a Spanish guitar, and
chattering of French voices from the shops and _cafes_ in our
neighborhood.