the Directors of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, on which line we are
travelling. It is neatly fitted up with little "state" rooms, with sofas
all round. There were four of these, besides a general saloon in the
middle; but the whole was greatly inferior to the elegance of Mr.
Tyson's car on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. Our party consisted of
about thirty persons, of whom four were judges, and about a third of the
number were ladies, accompanying their liege lords, and chiefly asked in
honour of me, to prevent my being "an unprotected female" among such a
host of gentlemen. An ordinary car was attached to that of the
Directors, for the use of any smokers of the party. We left Cincinnati
at half-past eight, and reached this place, Vincennes, where we are to
sleep, at about six o'clock. The road was very pretty, though the leaves
were nearly all off the trees; the forms of the trees were, however,
lovely, and it was quite a new description of country to us, the
clearings being recent and still very rough in appearance, and the
log-houses, in most places, of a most primitive kind. Vincennes, where
we are to sleep, is an old town of French origin, prettily situated on
the river Wabash, which we can see from our windows.
_St. Louis, November 4th._--We came on here on the 2nd instant, and soon
after leaving Vincennes found ourselves in a prairie, but it was not
till after sixty miles that we got to the Grand Prairie, which we
traversed for about sixty more. The vastness, however, of this prairie,
consists in its length from north to south, in which it stretches
through nearly the whole length of the State. These prairies are
enormous plains of country, covered, at this time, by a long brown
grass, in which are the seed-vessels and remains of innumerable flowers,
which are said to be most lovely in their form and colour in the spring.
It was disappointing only to see the dark remains of what must have been
such a rich parterre of flowers. One of our party, Colonel Reilly, of
Texas, who had seen our Crystal Palace gardens at Sydenham, in full
flower, said that they reminded him of the prairies in the spring. The
ground is so level, that the woods on the horizon had the effect that
the first sight of the dark line of land has at sea. In many places near
the road on each side, small farms were established, and good-sized
fields of Indian corn were growing; and wherever there was a railway
station, a town, or even a "city" with one or two churches, and an
hotel, besides grocery stores and wooden buildings of various kinds,
were in progress in this immense wilderness.
The rain poured down incessantly, giving the country a melancholy and
forlorn appearance. Towards the latter part of our journey, we descended
into and traversed the great valley of the Mississippi. We passed
several coal-mines, and here, where the vein of coal is eight feet
thick, the land, including the coal, may be bought for one pound an
acre. The country soon assumed the appearance of a great swamp, and is
most unhealthy, being full of fever and ague.
At length our train stopped, and we were ushered into omnibuses of
enormous length, drawn by four horses, and two of these caterpillar-like
looking vehicles were driven on to the steam-ferry, and in this
unromantic way we steamed across the great Father of Waters, and a most
unpoetic and unromantic river it appeared to be. There is nothing in
its width here to strike the eye or the imagination, though its depth is
very great, and it has risen ten feet within the last week. But it
appeared to us ugly and inconsiderable after the wide, rapid, clear, and
magnificent St. Lawrence. We were driven through a sea of mud and mire
to this large and comfortable hotel, and were shortly afterwards seated
at table with the rest of our party.
I forgot to mention that, at Vincennes, seven sportsmen had been out all
day, before we arrived, to procure game for us, and were much
disappointed at not being able to get us any prairie hens, which are a
humble imitation of grouse, though Americans are pleased to consider
them better than that best of birds; but "comparisons are odious," and
the prairie-hens are very praiseworthy and good in their way. We had,
however, abundance of venison and quails, and the same fare met us here,
with large libations of champagne. The owner of our hotel at Cincinnati
travelled with us, and looked as much like a gentleman as the rest of
the party; and we have been joined here in our private drawing-room by
the landlord and landlady of this hotel. Not knowing at first who they
were, papa turned round to the former, and asked him if he knew St.
Louis, and had been long here, to which our friend replied, "Yes, sir;
I have lived here eighteen years, and am the master of this hotel."
Yesterday our dinner was even better than on the day of our arrival,
closing with four or five omelettes soufflées, worthy of Paris, and the
same number of pyramids of Vanilla ice. So much for the progress of
civilisation across the Mississippi.
We paddled about in the muddy streets yesterday, and looked in at the
shop-windows. We found even here plenty of hoop petticoats, and of
tempting-looking bookseller's shops. Our hotel is close to the
Court-house, a handsome building of limestone, with a portico and a
cupola in process of building, being a humble imitation of the one at
Washington. Yesterday evening, one or two of the gentlemen amused us
after dinner with some nigger songs, ending, I suppose out of compliment
to us, with "God save the Queen." I studied the toilette of one of our
party this morning--the only young unmarried lady among us. I had often
seen the same sort of dress at the hotels, but never such a good
specimen as this. It is called here the French morning robe or wrapper,
and this one was made of crimson merino, with a wide shawl bordering
half-way up the depth of the skirt. The skirt is quite open in front,
displaying a white petticoat with an embroidered bordering. The body of
the wrapper was formed in the old-fashioned way, with a neck-piece, with
trimmings of narrow shawl borderings; there was no collar at all, the
crimson merino coming against the neck without any break of even a frill
of white. The sleeves were very large, of the latest fashion, with white
under sleeves, and the waist was very short, confined with a red band of
merino. These dresses are very common in the morning, and are, I
believe, thought to be very elegant. They are frequently made like this,
of some violent coloured merino, and often of silk, with trimmings of
another coloured ribbon.
Having digressed so far from my account of St. Louis, I will go back for
a few minutes to Cincinnati, to describe the grand fire-engines we saw
there, with horses all ready harnessed. One particular engine, in which
the water was forced up by steam, could have its steam up and be ready
for action in three minutes from its time of starting, and long,
therefore, in all probability before it reached the place where its
services were required. These engines all had stags' horns placed in a
prominent position in front, as a sign of swiftness, and on this
particular one there was printed under the horns, "Sure Thing, 287
feet," meaning that it could throw the water that height. Another had
on it, "243 feet. Beat that!" the Americans being very laconic in all
their public communications. The regular plan on which most of the
American towns are built and the division into wards, give great
facilities for showing where a fire takes place; balls are shown from
the top of a high tower to direct the engines where to go, the number of
balls pointing out the ward where the fire exists.
Another grand invention, which we found here as well as everywhere else,
is their sewing machine. These sewing machines wearied us very much when
we landed at New York, for they seemed to be the one idea of the whole
country; and I am afraid we formed some secret intentions to have
nothing to do with them. I had seen them in a shop window in the City,
in London, but knowing nothing of their merits, almost settled in my own
mind they had none. At last I found how blind I had been, and what
wonderful machines they are. There are numbers of them of various
degrees of excellence. They are so rapid in their work, that if a dress
without flounces is tacked together, it can be made easily by the
machine in a morning: a lady here showed me how the machine is used; she
told me it is so fascinating that she should like to sit at it all day.
She works for her family, consisting of a husband and nine sons, and
takes the greatest pleasure in making all their under clothing; and
working as she does, not very constantly, she can easily do as much as
six sempstresses, while the machine, constantly worked, could do as much
as twelve. The work is most true and beautiful and rapid, and the
machine must be an invaluable aid where there is a large family. It is
much used also by tailors and shoemakers, for it can be used with all
qualities of materials, whether fine or thick. The price of one is from
15_l._ to 25_l._ It requires a little practice to work at it, but most
American ladies who have large families possess one, and dressmakers use
them a great deal.
_November 4th._--To return to this town of mud and mire, we have been
nearly up to our knees in both to-day, and went on board one of the
large steamers, but found it was not nearly so grandly fitted up as the
one in which we went from New York to Newport. There is an enormous
fleet of steamers here, but the Mississippi still looked most dingy,
muddy, and melancholy. We were given tickets this evening, to hear a
recitation by a poet named Saxe, of a poem of his own, on the Press, and
we soon found ourselves in an enormous hall about 100 feet by 80,
nearly filled by a very intelligent-looking audience. A man near us told
us that Mr. Saxe had a European reputation, which made us feel much
ashamed of our ignorance, in never having heard of him before, and,
unhappily, we came away no wiser than we went as regards the merits of
his poetry; for though our seats were near him, there was something
either in the form of the hall, or in the nature of his voice and
pronunciation, which made us unable to hear what he said. There were
bursts of laughter and applause at times from the audience, but we took
the first opportunity of leaving.
As we walked home, we passed a brilliantly-lighted confectioner's shop,
where we each had an ice, but they were too sweet, and after eating and
criticising them, we came to another confectioner's, when papa insisted
upon going in, and ordered two more ices, which were very good. We were
presented here with filtered water, the usual drinking water in this
town being something of the colour of dingy lemonade, though its taste
is good.
We purpose going to-morrow.... I turn to ask papa where--and he shakes
his head, and says he does not know. On my pressing for a more distinct
answer, he says, "Up the Missouri at all events." This sounds vague,
but I believe before night we shall be on our way to Chicago, and shall
thus have taken leave of the "far west." And now I must take my leave of
you for the present, though I fear this is but a dull chapter of the
journal.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] As an instance of the ingenious devices used to save labour in this
country, we may mention a machine for paring apples, which we bought in
the streets at Boston for twenty cents, or about 10_d._ English. By
turning a handle it can perform, simultaneously, the operations of
peeling the apple, cutting out the core, and slicing it.
[12] For fear that we may have misinterpreted what is said above, we
think it advisable, as the matter is a most important one, and one that
may interest others, to extract from the report the passage on which
these observations were founded; for it is not a clear specimen of
American composition, and might, therefore, easily become a subject of
misrepresentation:--
"The Opening Exercises in every Department shall commence by the reading
of a portion of the Bible, by or under the direction of the teacher, and
appropriate singing by the pupils.
"The pupils of the Common Schools may read such version of the Sacred
Scriptures as their parents or guardians may prefer, provided that such
preference of any version except the one now in use be communicated by
the parents or guardians to the Principal Teachers, and that no notes or
marginal readings be read in the school, or comments made by the
Teachers on the text of any version that is or may be introduced."
LETTER XI.
ST. LOUIS.--JEFFERSON CITY.--RETURN TO ST.
LOUIS.--ALTON.--SPRINGFIELD.--FIRES ON THE
PRAIRIES.--CHICAGO.--GRANARIES.--PACKING HOUSES.--LAKE
MICHIGAN.--ARRIVAL AT INDIANAPOLIS.
Jefferson City, on the Missouri,
Nov. 6th, 1858.
Here we are really in the Far West, more than 150 miles from the
junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, though still 2950 from
the source of this great-grandfather of waters--for I can give it a no
less venerable name. We first caught sight of it, or struck the river,
as the phrase is here, about 98 miles below this city, and for a long
time we followed its banks so closely, that we could at any point have
thrown a stone from the car into the river. At Hermann, a little German
settlement on its banks, we stopped and had an excellent dinner, but it
was so late before we left St. Louis, that we passed the greater part of
what seemed very pretty scenery in the dark, so that I shall defer any
further description of it till we return over the ground on Monday.
We were most unfortunate in our weather during our stay at St. Louis,
and I had no opportunity of seeing the beauties of the neighbourhood,
which we hear much extolled, but respecting which we are rather
sceptical. The only drive we took, was to a new park being made outside
the town, called Lafayette Park, which gave us anything but a pleasant
impression of the _entourage_ of St. Louis; we must admit, however, that
a very short distance by railway brought us into a very pretty country,
and no doubt the dismal weather and bad roads made our drive very
different to what it might have been on a fine day. Still, with the
impression fresh in our memory of our drive in the neighbourhood of
Cincinnati in much the same sort of weather, we are compelled to think
that the country about the Queen of the West and the banks of the Ohio
greatly surpasses in beauty St. Louis and the muddy river which has so
great a reputation in the world.
_Springfield, Illinois, November 9th._--Although our damp disagreeable
weather has not left us, we have contrived to see a good deal of
Jefferson City. We made a dash a short way up the Missouri in a
steamboat, and landed and took a walk on the northern side of the
river, and as we exchanged a mud for a sandy soil, it was less
disagreeable than on the south side. The northern shore, which from the
opposite side seemed hilly and well wooded, is very pretty, but on
landing the hills had receded to a distance, and we found a considerable
plain between them and the river. Up to the water's edge, however, the
country is well wooded. On the spot where we landed we saw a large tree,
at least ten feet in diameter, burnt almost to its centre, and its fine
head destroyed by fire; and on asking some bystanders if any one had
intended to burn it down, they said, "Oh, no, some one has merely made a
fire there to warm himself;" a strong proof of the little value put here
on fine timber.
The view of Jefferson City from the opposite bank, looking down the
river, is very striking. Being the capital of the state of Missouri,
there was the usual Capitol or state-house, and, unlike most others that
we have seen, the building with its large dome was completed. It is a
fine edifice of white stone, standing at a great height above the river,
on what is here called a bluff, namely, a rock rising perpendicularly
from the water's edge. The principal part of the town is built along the
heights, but the ground slopes in places, and the houses are then
carried down to the river side. The railway runs under the cliff, and
can be seen winding along up and down the river, for some distance each
way; it has not yet been carried much further, as this is the last large
town to which railways in the west reach; but, as its name, the Pacific
Railway, implies, it is intended ultimately to be carried "right away"
west till it joins the ocean. We went on Sunday to the Episcopal church.
There was the Communion service, and a very good sermon on the subject
of that ordinance.
We yesterday returned to St. Louis, and after a brief halt came on here.
As our journey back to St. Louis was in the daytime, we had an
opportunity of seeing the very interesting country which we passed on
Saturday in the dark. The most remarkable feature of the road was
crossing the Osage within 200 or 300 yards of its confluence with the
Missouri. It is about 1,200 feet broad, and we saw in it one of those
beautiful steamboats which give so much character here to the rivers.
The Osage is navigable for these large boats for 200 miles above this
place. We passed various other rivers, among others the Gasconade, at a
spot memorable for a terrible catastrophe which happened on the day of
the opening of the railway, when the first bridge which crossed it gave
way as the train was passing, and nine out of thirteen cars were
precipitated into the bed of the river; thirty people, chiefly leading
characters of St. Louis, were killed, and many hundreds desperately
hurt.
We have little more to say of St. Louis, as the museum was the only
public building we visited. The great curiosity there is the largest
known specimen of the mastodon. It is almost entire from the tip of its
nose to the tip of its tail, and measures ninety-six feet in length. We
left St. Louis, and were glad to escape for a time at least out of a
slave state. The "institution" was brought more prominently before us
there than it has yet been, as St. Louis is the first town where we have
seen it proclaimed in gold letters on a large board in the street,
"Negroes bought and sold here." In the papers, also, yesterday, we saw
an advertisement of a "fine young man" to be sold, to pay a debt.
We took our departure in the Alton steamboat, in order to see the first
twenty-four miles of the Upper Mississippi, and the junction of that
river and the Missouri, which takes place about six miles below Alton;
both rivers, however, are very tame and monotonous, and it was only as
we were reaching Alton, that the banks of the Mississippi assumed
anything like height. Alton itself stands very high, and as it was
getting dark when we arrived, the lights along the hills had a fine
effect. We are told it is a pretty town, but it was dark when we landed,
and we had to hurry into the train that brought us to this place. The
steamboat in which we went up the river was a very fine one, but not at
all fitted up in the sumptuous manner of our Newport boat. Papa paced
the cabin, and made it 276 feet long, beyond which there was an outside
smoking cabin, and then the forecastle.
Springfield is in the midst of the Grand Prairie, and, as we are not to
leave it till the afternoon, we have been exploring the town, and, as
far as we could, the prairie which comes close up to it; but the moment
the plank pavement ceased, it was hopeless to get further, owing to the
dreadfully muddy state of the road. This mud must be a great drawback to
residing in a prairie town, as the streets are rendered impassable for
pedestrians, unless at the plank crossings. On our way back to the
hotel, we accosted a man standing at his door, whose strong Scotch
accent, in reply to a question, told us at once where he came from. He
asked us into his house, and gave us a good deal of information about
the state of the country. He was originally a blacksmith at Inverary,
and had after that pursued his calling in a very humble way in Fife and
in Edinburgh, and came out here penniless twenty-six years ago, when
there were only a few huts in the place; but he has turned his trade to
better account here, for he lives in a comfortable house, and has
_$_50,000, or 10,000_l._ invested in the country. He seemed very pleased
to see us, and talked of the Duke of Argyle's family, as well as of the
Durhams, Bethunes, Anstruthers, &c. Having lived when in Fife, at Largo,
he seemed quite familiar with the Durhams, with the General's little
wife, and with Sir Philip's adventures, from the time of the loss of the
Royal George downwards.
This is the capital of Illinois, and the state-house here, too, is
finished, and is a fine building. The governor has a state residence,
which is really a large and handsome building, but is altogether
surpassed by the private residence of an ex-governor, who lives in a
sumptuous house, to judge from its external accompaniments of
conservatory, &c.; it is nearly opposite our Scotch friend's abode, but
the ex-governor dealt in "lumber" instead of iron, and from being a
chopper of wood, has raised himself to his present position.
_Chicago, Nov. 10th._--We did not reach Chicago last night till 12
o'clock, our train, for the first time since we have been in America,
having failed to reach its destination at the proper time; but the delay
of two hours on this occasion was fairly accounted for by the bad state
of the rails, owing to the late rains. Before it became dark we saw one
or two wonderful specimens of towns growing up in this wilderness of
prairie. The houses, always of wood and painted white, are neat, clean,
and well-built. There is, generally, a good-looking hotel, and
invariably a church, and often several of these, for although one would
probably contain all the inhabitants, yet they are usually of many
denominations, and then each one has its own church. About twenty or
thirty miles from Chicago, we saw a very extensive tract of prairie on
fire, which quite illuminated the sky, and, as the night was very dark,
showed distinctly the distant trees and houses, clearly defining their
outline against the horizon. On the other side of us, there was a
smaller fire, but so close as to allow us to see the flames travelling
along the surface of the ground. These fires are very common; we saw no
less than five that night in the course of our journey.
We have been busily employed to-day in going over Chicago. The streets
are wide and fine, but partake too abundantly of prairie mud to make
walking agreeable: some of the shops are very large; a bookseller's
shop, to which papa and I made our way, professes to be the largest in
the world, and it is certainly one of the best supplied I ever saw with
all kinds of children's books. From the bookseller's we went to papa's
bankers, Messrs. Swift and Co.; Mr. Swift took us to the top of the
Court-house, a wonderful achievement for me, but well worth the trouble,
as the view of the town was very surprising. We went afterwards to call
on William's friend, Mr. Wilkins, the consul, where we met Lord
Radstock. Mr. Wilkins kindly took us to see Mr. Sturge's great granary;
there are several of these in the town, but this, and a neighbouring
one, capable of holding between them four or five million bushels of
corn, are the two largest. The grain is brought into the warehouse,
without leaving the railway, the rails running into the building. It is
then carried to the top of the warehouse "in bulk," by means of hollow
cylinders arranged on an endless chain. The warehouse is built by the
side of the river, so that the vessels which are to carry the corn to
England or elsewhere, come close under the walls, and the grain is
discharged into the vessels by means of large wooden pipes or troughs,
through which it is shot at once into the hold. Mr. Wilkins has seen
80,000 bushels discharged in this manner, in one day.
We afterwards drove about six miles into the country, through oceans of
mud, to see one of the great slaughter and packing-houses. I did not
venture out of the carriage, but the proprietor took Mr. Wilkins, Lord
Radstock, and papa through every part of the building. In a yard below
were a prodigious number of immense oxen, and the first process was to
see one of these brought into the inside of the building by means of a
windlass; which drew it along by a rope attached to its horns and
passing through a ring on the floor.