The History of Peru Part 4

For some years, attention has been attracted to the Great Central Coal Field of Illinois, the north eastern rim of which underlies the cities of Peru and La Salle. From the earliest settlement of the country the outcrops have been resorted to for fuel. More and more extensive explorations and excavations have, from time to time, been made, excited by the foresight, sagacity and scientific deductions of the pioneer of that interest, Dixwell Lathrop, Esq. In 1855, a thorough examination was made by J. G. Norwood, State Geologist, which demonstrated the existence of three veins or strata, underlying an area of about 500 square miles.

These veins vary in thickness, from three and a half to seven feet, the central being the thickest, but the value of the coal increasing with the descent. The existence of another strata, still lower and still better, is presumed, as the alluvial formation, or coal measures, has not yet been pa.s.sed by boring. A comparison of the a.n.a.lysis of these coals with those of the best Pennsylvania and Ohio bituminous, demonstrated that an open market could be successfully entered in compet.i.tion. Immediately afterwards, operations in mining were commenced on a more extensive scale and more scientific principles.

Several shafts were sunk and powerful and improved machinery employed.

These shafts were sunk in and near La Salle, with one exception, which was in the westerly part of Peru, immediately on the river bank, and on the track of the Chicago and Rock Island Rail Road. The structures, excavations, machinery and outfits of the company operating this shaft are of the most perfect and approved kind. Their facilities for raising are equal to three hundred tons per day. They are working the lower, or best vein--four and a-half feet thick--exclusively, which they have reached at probably its greatest depression, three hundred and forty-six feet below the surface. a.n.a.lysis and tests, made at many gas works and manufactories, are conclusive in establishing the fact, that NO COAL HAS YET BEEN RAISED, WEST OF OHIO AND NORTH OF THE OHIO RIVER, WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE COAL FROM THIS SHAFT, FOR THE AMOUNT OF STEAM IT WILL GENERATE, AND FOR ITS FREEDOM FROM SULPHUR AND TENDENCY TO CLINKER. What is true of this shaft is true, in a degree, of the coal from the same vein from the shafts at La Salle, the difference being due no doubt to its greater depression.

The importance of this coal field to the interests of Peru and La Salle can scarcely be over estimated. When it is recollected that this is the extreme northern edge of the Illinois coal fields; that the country all north, to the forrest's of northern Wisconsin, is but spa.r.s.ely supplied with timber, and that growing "small by degrees and beautifully less;"

that this country is already interlaced with Railroads, all having a connexion With the Illinois Central, upon which the coal can be "dumped"

directly from the mines; that the iron mines of northern Wisconsin are within easy and accessible distance; and that the locality itself possesses extraordinary advantages for manufacturing; its importance can be partially comprehended.

One word as to the advantages for manufacturing. One of the most considerable of these is the cheapness, excellency and unlimited supply of fuel. To this must be added the acknowledged healthiness of the locality and salubrity of climate; and the facilities for drawing supplies and distributing manufactures, by river, ca.n.a.l and rail road, which diverge in every direction, and penetrate a country which, for hundreds of miles, has a greater capacity for production, and consequently for sustaining population, than any other country of the same extent on the surface of the Globe. Laborers, mechanics and artisans can purchase the same degree of comfort here as in Chicago or other commercial and crowded centers, where of necessity rents and provisions must be high, for one third less price. This, it will be perceived, is a very important element to be taken into account. It would seem as if these advantages, combined with other and important ones not enumerated, would soon become so convincing, as to make resistance to the establishment of manufactories much longer impossible.

The present debt of the City of Peru is as follows:

Chicago and Rock Island Rail Road bonds, 40,000 Market House bonds, 12,600 Current expense bonds of 1855, 5,000 Interest bonds voted for in June, 5,000 Outstanding Scrip (about,) 1,000 ------- Total. $63,600

There is enough uncollected, (or in the officers hands) revenue of the year 1857, which is reliable, to pay all outstanding scrip. The revenue of last year, from all sources, was $8,582,34. The whole amount of taxable property, real and personal, as appears, by the a.s.sessment roll, was $1,752,306. It will be seen that the financial condition of the city is by no means desperate. When the rail road shall pay its dividends regularly, if the issue of no more bonds be authorized, and prudence and economy are observed in expenditures, no difficulty will be experienced in meeting all engagements, and gradually reducing the debt.

On reviewing the census and other statistics, connected with the growth and present and prospective condition of the city, there will be found no cause for despondency and discouragement, but much for congratulation and hope. It is true that no such rapid increase of population has taken place as was antic.i.p.ated, or as has been the case in some other western towns. But there has been no decrease, even temporary. On the contrary, there has been a steady and gradual increase in population, business and wealth, from the recommencement of the work of building the ca.n.a.l in 1843, to the present time. That this increase has been no more rapid, may be accounted for, partially by the influence which the sudden and nearly simultaneous construction of such a net work of rail roads as covers Illinois, exerts upon all interior towns. There are here no mountain barriers to obstruct the construction of a rail road in any direction. With the exception of the Central, they all cross the State from east to west, connecting the Lakes with the Mississippi, and run without much reference to the location of existing towns. The consequence has been, that nearly all the towns upon the river have had their trade temporarily diverted, to a greater or lesser extent; and "prairie towns" have started up, to compete for the trade, at almost every station. These have enjoyed an ephemeral advantage, from their supposed superior healthiness. That this is a mistake, the mortality of Peru, as exhibited by the census table, for one year, 1857,--which is a fair average of every year except those when the cholera prevailed--abundantly shows. That these towns, while they have in no instance wholly stopped the increase of those on the river, but only divided their natural accessions, will shortly react upon their older sisters, and, in their turn, contributed to their advancement and prosperity, is inevitable. This is already manifest in the relation which Peru now occupies in reference to Amboy, Sublette, Mendota, Arlington, Tonica, Wenona, and other towns on the Central, Chicago and Burlington, and Rock Island Rail Roads, none of which had an existence before the roads were projected. That this is, and must continue to be the case, is obvious from the fact, that while she has all the advantages of rail roads which any of them possess, she has in addition the superior facilities which the river and ca.n.a.l afford. That considerable accessions to her population have taken place the present season is proved by the fact, that only fifteen tenements, little and big, are vacant, while over fifty have been erected.--The foreign element in the population, it will be perceived, is quite large. This is the case with all western towns. If, from the number set down in the census tables as "born in the United States," be subtracted the number "born of foreign parents and counted as Americans," there will be left only nine hundred and seventy-two who are Americans by birth and ancestry. But the amalgamation of interest and feeling is so complete, that society moves harmoniously, and the subject of nationality is but little thought of.

It is believed that the mortality, as exhibited by the census table, is unparalleled. It is about one and one third per cent. of the population.

This result has been obtained by enquiry in every family and can be relied on as nearly correct. It includes infants and adults, and those who have died by casualty, as well as by disease. It is true that we have not as large a proportion of old persons, whose lives are terminating in their natural order, as in older communities, but it is also true that we have a larger proportion of newly arrived emigrants, whose health is influenced by the fatigue and exposure of protracted voyages and journeys, and by a change of climate and habits. By a comparison with other towns and cities, and with the entire country, it will be perceived that the aggregate mortality is remarkably low. In Boston, according to the report of the Sanitary Commission, for a period of nine years, the average annual mortality was 2,53 per cent; in New York, according to the annual report of the City Inspector in 1853, it was 4,4 per cent; in Philadelphia, according to the report of the Board of Health in 1850, it was 2,29 per cent; in Baltimore, according to the report of the Board of Health in 1850, it was 2,7 per cent; in Charleston, according to the report of the Board of Health in 1850, it was 1,99 per cent; and in the United States in 1850, according to the census tables, it was 1,39. So it will be seen, that the mortality is less, if the year selected be an average one, than it is in either of the above cities, or in the entire country. This comparison, it is honestly believed, presents a fair index to the sanitary condition of the city.

Prominent among the objects which challenge the early and prompt attention of the citizens of Peru, is the subject of a bridge across the river, and a road across the bottom to the bluff, upon which pa.s.sing shall at all times be practicable. The trade from the north and west which formerly centered here, has been cut off, to a great extent, by the Central, and Chicago and Burlington roads. The most valuable trade which remains is that from the south side of the river. This is sometimes interrupted for months together, as has been the case the present season, leaving merchants to look despondingly upon their crowded shelves, and mechanics to stand idle in their shops. (Most likely they console themselves at Kaiser's--but this is not to be printed.) What means shall be adopted for the accomplishment of this object, is not the present purpose of the writer to enquire. But that some plan should be devised forthwith--always excepting running into debt--is too apparent to admit of argument. There is every reason to hope that the energy, perseverance and financial skill of the present Mayor, John L. McCormick, Esq., who is the devoted and zealous champion of the work, will triumph over all difficulties.

We have now looked at the past and present. What of the future? Will the magnificent pretensions of the "Head of Navigation" dwindle into thin air? Will the metropolitan airs which she a.s.sumed and flaunted before the eyes of envious rivals degenerate into the abject cringing of the vanquished and crest fallen braggart? Will the notes of arrogance and defiance which rung out upon the tympanum of an admiring world subside into the moanings and mutterings of imbecility and dotage? Will the hum of trade and industry be hushed in her streets, and be superceded by the fluttering of bats and the hootings of owls? Or will she decline into a quiet suburban appendage of her more fortunate and energetic rival? Or will both places languish in premature decay, while neighboring towns stride onwards in their march to greatness? Will the manufacture of inordinate quant.i.ties of gas continue to be necessary to remind the world of their existence? These are questions that must be answered by their own citizens. Certain it is, that if they properly appreciate and energetically grasp the advantages which nature, and a rare combination of external circ.u.mstances have placed within their reach, it will be a long time before the antiquarian will have to grope through superinc.u.mbent acc.u.mulations for evidence of their previous existence.

Not merely by the exchange and transhipment of merchandise; not merely by hotels, lager beer saloons, banking and exchange offices, and houses and places of refreshment and amus.e.m.e.nt, although they may be all prefixed with the word "city," can the destiny which is their inheritance and birthright be obtained. An intelligent and productive aggregation of bones, sinews and brains must be domesticated upon the spot, whose presence and influence will react, with beneficent results, upon each and every laudable interest and enterprise. No folly or madness can be more extreme, than that of those who think they can sit down with folded arms, and realize dreams of fortunes to be made through enhanced corner lots.

We have glanced at the material and political commencement, progress and prospects of Peru. Let us look at the moral and intellectual phases of her existence.

Among her early settlers were many families of high culture, refinement, social condition, and moral standing. Of these were the families of George B. Martin, H. L. Kinney, S. Lisle Smith, D. J. Townsend, Wm. H.

Davis, Fletcher Webster, George W. Holley, Lucius Pearl, H. P.

Woodworth, W. B. Burnett, Gen. Ransom &c. Seldom has a new, obscure, western settlement, whose inhabitants were thrown together by chance, gathered so brilliant specimens of eastern intelligence and civilization. There was an under strata, however, which by no means tends to brighten the reminiscence. The idlers, adventurers and vagabonds, who follow public works in new countries, and who congregate at the termination of navigation, made a rendezvous here. Peru, as ought to have been mentioned before, is broken by a precipitous bluff nearly an hundred and fifty feet high. On a narrow strip between this and the river is a single street, upon which most of the stores, warehouses and shops are situated, in the rear of which runs the rail road.--Most of the dwellings are on the bluff, upon a plane inclining towards the river and somewhat broken with ravines. Formerly, as now, the street under the bluff was generally avoided as a residence by the more orderly and quiet citizens. This became the rendezvous of all the congregated rowdies and ruffians. In the night it was almost entirely given up to them. Orgies and revelry were always in order. As this part of the town was, and has continued to be the most visited by strangers, the steamboats landing in front then, and the rail road running through the rear now, the fame of its doings soon spread throughout all the land. The reputation, thus acquired, clung to it; and while no place has had a larger proportion of quiet, orderly, intelligent and refined citizens, no place has had a more unenviable reputation, unless it be the sister town of La Salle. So true is it that the fame of bad deeds travels further and faster than good ones, the writer, when abroad, on informing a stranger that he was from Peru, has observed that stranger involuntarily b.u.t.ton up his pockets and move out of the neighborhood. What reason exists for this feeling may be seen from the fact, that during the whole period of the town's history, no riots; no fights, resulting in death or severe bodily injury with one exception, and that among a party none of which ever lived in the town; no robbery; and but few cases of burglary or larceny have occurred. No night police has ever been found necessary except at brief and distant periods.--Schools and churches have received constant attention and liberal encouragement. If the order and external sanct.i.ty of an interior New England town do not prevail, the difference in our circ.u.mstances, situation and history must be recollected; and that these are not the tests of morality all over the world.

Few among the citizens have yet found leisure to devote themselves to intellectual pursuits, yet it is believed that the clergymen, lawyers, doctors, merchants &c., have exhibited ability and attainments equal to those of their cla.s.s in other localities.

CHAPTER XI.

Western Towns--Surrounding Country--Scene as viewed from the Chamber's House--Salubrity of the Climate--Water--Soil-- Markets--Roads--Hogs and Cattle--Dairies--Sheep--Gra.s.s fatted meat--Horses--Choice of Markets--Scarcity of Timber-- Morals and Society--Former difficulties of the Emigrant-- Present Condition.

What ambitious communities these western towns are, to be sure! How they do chirp when they once get their bills through the sh.e.l.l, and while the greater portion yet adheres to their backs! What laughable contortions they make in their efforts to crow, strut and clap their wings! Eastern people must understand that there are no villages in the West. Every aggregation of a half dozen houses, a blacksmith shop and tavern is a city, and their name is Legion. A meeting house and school house--so necessary in the East to const.i.tute a village--are not necessary appendages of a city in the West. Clapboard sh.e.l.ls, with their gables to the street, embellished with square battlements to the ridge, are emblazoned with "City Drug Store," "City Saloon," "City Hard Ware Store," &c. There are "first cla.s.s hotels," too, between which and the rail road depot, gorgeous omnibuses run. When the cars stop, what a din the runners set up of "Metropolitan Hotel," "St. Nicholas," "Reviere House," "St. Charles," &c. Wo, to the unlucky traveler who falls into their clutches. He will find when he comes to settle his bill, that in respect to charges, they are determined to do no discredit to their sea board prototypes.

Here and there, one of these clapboards "cities" emerge into one of brick and stone. Then three, four and five story structures rise like an exhalation. Enormous turrets, bay windows, lofty ceilings, gold and vermillion, marble, iron and gewgaws, without end, without order, without taste, and without regard to adaptability, business or convenience meet the eye on every side. Plate gla.s.s windows disclose a profusion of costly and variegated wares and merchandise, and enormous mirrors entice unsophisticated rustics down endless avenues. Turning your eye upwards along these aspiring structures, you behold broken windows and other evidences of dilapidation, denoting the utter uselessness of these lofty creations; and your amazement is no way lessened when you learn, that from twelve to twenty per cent. interest is paid for the money to erect them, secured by trust deeds upon the building itself, upon "out lots," and upon broad acres of "wild lands."

Then what palatial residences are reared in the suburbs! Palaces, cottages, temples, pavilions, paG.o.das and mosques adorn valley and hill top. Domes, steeples, spires, turrets and minarets, gleam in the sun light, peer out of clumps of foliage, and struggle upwards at every unexpected point. Porticos, verandas, observatories, pillars, are here, there, everywhere, in endless profusion.--Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, Gothic and Yankee architecture are every where attempted, sometimes several of them on the same building, and sometimes all jumbled together.--Around them are close shaven lawns, graveled walks, arbors, climbing vines, summer houses, green houses, and flower plats, all under the care of one, two, three or more Patricks. Within, frescos and gilding, paint and upholstery, marble and porcelain, rose wood and mahogany vie, in their power to please, with magnificent toilets and languid ladies. Carriages, drawn by thousand dollar bays, groomed by blue coated Hibernians, flash upon the vision like the gleam of a meteor. But alas, for the inevitable revulsion! Down on the "business street," in front of premises where deposits are received and ten or fifteen per cent. interest allowed thereon, and exchange is sold on all eastern and European cities, a motley crowd of anxious and excited people--merchants, farmers, mechanics, seamstresses, laundresses, draymen, and laborers--are a.s.sembled. What brings them there? Why, Messrs. Dash & Splurge have "suspended"--that's all.

What weazen-faced, moustachioed abortion is that who declares upon "his honaw, the place is almost equal to New Yawk." Why, that's Mr. Hound, junior partner in the eminent firm of De Laine, Brocade & Co., of New York. He is the same individual whose acquaintance we made six or eight months ago, when he visited this locality and was introduced to us as Mr. Drummer. What a capital fellow he was! How bland! How civil! How polite! How he amused us with stories of the splendor and grandeur of the metropolis! How delightfully he sang! What a superb game of billiards he played! How he insisted upon paying for all the Hiedsieck!

Who would have expected to see him transformed into the morose, sinister, vindictive looking personage which he now appears? Who would have expected to see his jocund, rounded physiognomy, where a bland and perpetual smile sat enthroned, distorted into a shape as angular as a problem in Euclid? We find, on enquiry, that his present business here is to look after a little matter between his house and one of our leading firms who have also "suspended." He made the acquaintance of this firm on his late visit, took tea at the house of one of them, sang an accompaniment to the piano with the daughters, bade them adieu with his hand on his heart, took a lunch and a "smash" with the "old man" at the "saloon," and left with a long order for silks, calicos, &c. Mr. De Laine, the head of the house, being a little more cautious, consulted the Commercial Agency and found them set down as "reliable--rather extravagant in living, indulge a little in horse racing, but generally attentive to business," and concluded that it was "all right." Hound finds it "aint all right." Mother-in-law owns the house, furniture, horses and carriage; brothers are preferred creditors; clerks and servants are charged with the collection of debts, from the proceeds of which they are to retain arrearages due them for wages; and the landlord has sued out a distress, and home creditors an attachment, which will surely cover every thing, should there be any little flaws in the a.s.signment. Hound comes to the conclusion that he is taken in--sold--done--and that it will not pay even to employ a lawyer in the premises. In fact, his settled conviction is that there is a collusion between all the residents of this portion of the Earth, and that he will not trust any of them again--never.

The writer hopes that he will not be understood as attempting to ridicule western towns, as a whole, or to throw discredit upon western merchants and bankers, as a cla.s.s. Thriving villages are springing up all over the country, and many towns and cities are great centers of trade, justly depending for their future advancement upon their great advantages for interior communication, upon the matchless wealth of the soil, and upon the enlightened enterprise of their citizens. The merchants, bankers and real estate owners, are, as a cla.s.s, shrewd and intelligent men, holding their credit and characters sacred and inviolable, and many families live in elegant luxury, fully justified by a permanent and reliable income. Many, here as elsewhere, have been overtaken by the recent monetary calamities, and are suffering from causes which ordinary foresight could not have foreseen.

But whatever may be thought of the advantages offered by the towns of Peru and La Salle--for their destiny is one--for settlement and the investment of capital, there can be no doubt about the inducements presented to farmers and others by the surrounding country. The climate is genial and salubrious, the atmosphere invigorating and free from miasma, and the scenery delightful--alternating from green and billowy swells of prairie, varied by cultivation and improvement, to wild and romantic dells and ravines. Looking eastward up the valley of the Illinois from the observatory on the Chamber's House, no lovelier scene can be presented. The fair and beautiful city of La Salle, joined to her westerly neighbor by continuous streets and structures; the graceful spire of her cathedral rising clear and sharp against the sky; the wooded outline of the Little Vermillion, indicating its sinuous course northward until lost in the blue haze of the distance; the cultivated fields, yellow with waving wheat and oats, or dark with luxuriant corn; the quiet farm houses nestling in their bowers of foliage--homes of those whose "lines have fallen in pleasant places"--the verdant and undulating stretch of prairie bounding the vision as the waters do upon the ocean; the delicate tracery of the Central Rail Road bridge, spanning the broad chasm of the Illinois from bluff to bluff, nearly a mile in length; the silvery thread of the river, now hid by majestic elms and cotton woods, now divided by islands, and now gleaming in sun light, in the far distance; the jagged sand stone ramparts of the southern sh.o.r.e, in some places rearing their perpendicular sides more than an hundred feet above the waters that lave their base; the rounded and cone like tower of Buffalo Rock, rising abrupt and isolated from the valley below--all present a panorama of exceeding beauty and loveliness. Unlike some other landscapes, fair and pleasing to the eye, no deadly or unwholesome exhalations arise from the dank and luxuriant vegetation. The breezes which fan this scene come laden with health and exhilaration, pure as the icy breath of the Arctic Sea. No portion of the United States is more favorable to health than the counties of La Salle, Bureau and Putnam. No means are at hand to enable a positive statement concerning the mortality of these counties to be made, but observation from almost their earliest settlement, and a residence in many other different localities, justify the a.s.sertion that it will fall short of most portions of New York, Pennsylvania or New England. It is true that in the early settlement, bilious fevers, of a mild form, rarely resulting in death, prevailed to some extent, as they have in the early settlement of all parts of the country. These have almost entirely disappeared, and have not been succeeded by the more acute forms of disease, as has been the case in other localities. The climate is particularly favorable to recovery from all complaints of a pulmonary character. Consumption--the scourge of New England--hardly exists here.--No doubt but that in a few generations, it will be eradicated from families where it is hereditary. No nepenthe can reconstruct the consumed, vital, human organ; but it is believed that where no considerable inroads have been made, a residence here, with proper precautions, will do much towards staying, if it does not completely baffle the destroyer. It is also true that the country did not escape the ravages of the cholera. What country did? A few elevated, mountainous regions may have enjoyed immunity from that slow, never wearied, implacable traveller, who comes as the wind comes and "bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sounds thereof, and canst not tell whither it cometh, and where it goeth."

Water, pure, clear and cold, is everywhere found trickling through the subformation of gravel, at a depth of from twenty to forty feet. It is generally slightly impregnated with lime, but otherwise holds but little mineral in solution.--Many of the early cases of fever and ague were no doubt to be attributed to the necessity which compelled the settlers to content themselves with the surface water, putrid with decaying vegetable matter, to be found at a short distance below the surface in sloughs and other depressions. Running streams are not infrequent, though not so common, as in hilly and mountainous regions.

The soil. What shall be said of it? The Delta of the Nile, in its original opulence, was not more fertile. It consists of a rich, black, vegetable mould, from one to six feet in depth, resting upon a sub-soil of stiff clay. Its surface has as yet been only scratched. When this shall be expended, the wealth below can be brought to light by the sub-soil plow, an instrument as unfamiliar here as the Koo-i-noor. An intelligent farmer in La Salle County--an old resident--has been experimenting upon a piece of land of a few acres, by planting and harvesting a succession of corn crops, without fertilizers, for a series of years.--As yet he has found no diminution of yield. All the cereals, fruits and esculent roots, adapted to the climate, produce in perfection and abundance.--Winter blight and rust are incident to wheat culture every where, here as well as in other sections; but insects--the gra.s.shopper, army worm, midge and weavel--have never yet made their appearance. The corn crop never fails. In two seasons out of the last twenty, a slight diminution of yield occurred--in one year by protracted rains preserving the esculency of the plant until the season of frost, and in another by drought.--With these exceptions, it has grown and ripened in all its perfection. Of course, crops are "short" with some people always. The Hibernian said that he believed that "if the steamboat never sailed somebody would be left;" so if the frost never comes, somebody's corn will be caught. So, too, the disposition among farmers to complain of short crops is chronic, here as elsewhere. If the statistics, gathered by means of agricultural fairs or otherwise, do not exhibit so large yields per acre, as in places where land is dearer, it must be recollected that cultivation is as yet conducted only in a very rude manner. No application to the soil of materials whereof it is deficient, for the production of certain crops, was ever dreamed of.

None of the high cultivation, adopted where that practice is a necessity, is ever resorted to.

No portions of the three counties named are more than ten miles distant from some rail road station, or river, or ca.n.a.l landing, at all of which a cash market is found for every kind of farm produce, and a supply of all kinds of "store goods" is for sale. Leading to these are roads whereon the low places have been turnpiked, and the sloughs and streams bridged, and which, if not so solid and smooth, in wet weather, as those over the flinty or gravelly soil of some portions of the eastern States, are infinitely superior to those corduroy affairs, running through the timbered regions of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. In dry weather, no McAdam, no pavement, no Imperial causeway is so smooth, so even, so easy, so noiseless as the slightly elastic prairie road bed. Talk of two-forty on the Avenue! A natural prairie road is the paradise of Jehus.

Horses, cattle, hogs--those whales of the prairies--sheep and fowls thrive and are profitable. The high price and great average yield of grain have, of late years, induced farmers, to a great degree, to neglect the dairy. The ruling price of cheese, in the towns, for several years past has been from ten to fifteen cents, and of b.u.t.ter from fifteen to twenty-five cents per pound. Think of that, you dairymen and dairywomen of the Western Reserve, New York and New England!--Cows, grazing through the long summer upon common prairie pasture, and requiring to be fed only through the short winter, and the product of their udders bringing those prices at your doors! Wool growing, too, for the same reason has been neglected. No country offers greater inducements to raise sheep, were it not for the gangs of worthless dogs which most farmers persist in keeping. The carca.s.ses were formerly of but little value. Now the cost of getting them to the great eastern markets is so small, that for that purpose alone their production would be profitable. What delicious lamb, mutton and beef grace our market stalls! How hidden and buried are the kidneys beneath the white, thick, oleaginous covering! How the layers of fat and lean alternate through rib and sirloin! How the rich juices follow the carving knife as it slides, almost of its own weight, through the roasted haunch! Oh, you benighted Vegetarians! Have you no music in your souls? Do no involuntary drops ooze from the caverns of your mouths, as you contemplate the gastronomic treasure, and inhale the rich fragrance which rises like a halo? Oh, you unfortunate denizens of inland eastern towns, who are compelled to essay mastication upon the blue, stringy, tenacious substance which you call butchers meat! What wonder that the dental art flourishes in your vicinity! How would you like to luxuriate upon these gra.s.s-fed fatlings of the prairie?

The average estimate of a large number of intelligent farmers is that it costs about thirty-five dollars to raise a colt to the age of four years. For years past the price of a good work colt, at that age, has been one hundred and fifty dollars.

The choice of markets, enjoyed by agriculturists here, is of great advantage. It often happens that the eastern markets are depressed while the southern markets are buoyant, and vice versa.--The location upon the navigable waters of a tributary of the Mississippi, and upon the ca.n.a.l connecting with the Lakes, gives a valuable option to farmers.

One great bug bear of the prairies was formerly the scarcity of timber.

The early settlers skirted with their farms and homesteads the borders of timber, and deemed the central parts of the prairie as valueless as an African desert. Experience has shown that these are the most valuable lands, and that no serious inconvenience is felt on account of remoteness from timber. Lumber from Michigan, transported by ca.n.a.l or rail road, is cheaper for fencing than rails, though the timber were at hand. Wire is also used to considerable extent. The abundance, cheapness, contiguity, and excellent quality of the bituminous coal, underlying portions of all three of these counties, obviate all necessity of wood for fuel.

Society is already established and settled, as in older communities. The present race of farmers is as intelligent and enterprising, as a cla.s.s, as those of the eastern States. The tone of morals and integrity is as high as elsewhere. Schools are everywhere sustained and fostered, and are no where so remote as to render their advantages unavailable.

Churches, of all the several Christian denominations, are in reasonable proximity. The price of land varies from five to fifty dollars per acre.

What a difference in the condition of the emigrant farmer now and twenty years ago! Then, having bade good bye to the home and scenes of his childhood, having sold a portion and packed a portion of his household goods, and having exchanged the last sad and faltering salutations with kindred and early and life long friends--each believing that never more on earth should they meet--with wife and children who tore themselves reluctantly from each cherished face and object, he set his face towards the setting sun. A long and tedious journey by land, through primeval forests; over gullied and precipitous roads and paths; across bog, and mora.s.s, and fen, and unbridged torrents, and dreary wastes of sand, and scarcely less desolate prairie; with wearied and jaded animals, and lagging and loitering gait; camping out by night and pacing through its long watches, by turns, as sentries; or by ca.n.a.l boat, steamboat, stage and wagon, at length terminated in a bleak and lonely prairie. Miles across an ocean of verdure or a charred and blackened waste, as the season was summer or late autumn, glistened the roof of a settlers cabin; or if this were hidden by the swells of prairie or the convexity of the earth, rose a small, faint column of smoke against the sky. Away on the furthest verge of vision stretched a blue and indistinct thread, like the first glimpse of coastline, as caught from the deck of a vessel at sea. This was the timber which skirted some distant water course. No other object relieved the eye, as it wandered around the circle. The loneliness of ocean--the wearisome expanse of sea and sky--had here its counterpart. The few articles of furniture and clothing, of prime necessity, were hastily unpacked; a rude and uncomfortable domicil was extemporized; a stable, covered with long gra.s.s, to shelter a horse and cow, was erected; and a hole was dug in the nearest slough, whence was obtained a limited supply of dirty and impure water. These were the comforts and accessories which welcomed the early emigrant. No running brooks, no trees, no shade, no merry children frolicking to school, no music of Church bells, no decorous and well dressed people, wending their way to the edifice, where the organ's diapason and the solemn chant, in memory, rose with their stately swell, no cheerful faces of neighbors and friends, no kind voices to congratulate in good fortune and console in bad, surrounded and cheered the saddened pilgrims. Soon, fatigue, exposure, privations, bad water, unwholesome diet, repining and discontent brought on the inevitable "ager." Doctors, calomel, quinine, yellow and jaundiced faces, emaciated forms, broken spirits and general misery followed.

Twenty years! Presto, what a change! Rip Van Winkle has awoke! Where stood the lonely hovel, now stands the commodious and comfortable farm house. Orchards, barns, granaries, flowers, luxuriant foliage, pure water, broad fields of grain and gra.s.s, lowing herds, good roads, schools, churches, neighbors, friends, cheerful and smiling faces, happiness and contentment have replaced the former surroundings. The poor and dejected emigrant is now the independent possessor of a domain a prince might envy. The disconsolate and almost broken hearted mother who, during long and weary days and nights, in solitude and loneliness, watched and nursed her puny and sickly brood, is now the happy, comely and dignified matron, whose children and grand-children are cl.u.s.tered around her. The friends and kindred with whom she parted so sorrowfully twenty years ago--those of them who are yet spared to earth--are again her neighbors. With them she frequently exchanges visits--from fifty to sixty hours only, at most, being necessary to bring them together. If Old Rip had actually gone to sleep, twenty years ago upon the prairies, upon awaking now, it is opined, his amazement would far exceed that inspired by the neighborhood of the Catskills. Who will now complain of the hardships incident to a removal from the most favored regions to a country, already so far advanced in all that contributes to the comfort, enjoyment and embellishment of life?

On the 6th August the world was astounded by the announcement that the Atlantic Cable was successfully laid. Previous failures had left no hope in the minds of any, even the most sanguine, of such a result. The short, laconic, simple dispatch of Mr. Field--the world renowned projector and master spirit of the work--flew with lightning wings throughout America and fell upon minds, where skepticism for a long time repelled and resisted conviction. Slowly the possibility of its truth gained the ascendency over disbelief and doubt, till at length, the amazing reality of the achievement began to be comprehended. The dispatch to his family of Capt. Hudson, of the United States' Steam Frigate Niagara, from which the cable was laid, was telegraphed over the country and dispelled all doubt. That dispatch, beautiful in its epigrammatic terseness, and sublime in its devout thankfulness and grat.i.tude, will be carried down the coming centuries, as long as the remembrance of the great feat shall survive. "G.o.d has been with us! The telegraph cable is laid, without accident, and to Him be all the Glory.

We are all well." In its first efforts at comprehension, the mind utterly fails to grasp and measure the terrible sublimity of Niagara, the awful majesty of Mont Blanc, or the colossal proportions of a vast cathedral, which

"Defy at first our nature's littleness, Till, growing with their growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate."

So with the Atlantic Telegraph. The mind is bewildered and baffled when it undertakes to contemplate either the consequences which are to flow from it, or the simple extent of the cable, and the mysterious regions which it traverses.

Far down along the groined and vaulted caverns of the Ocean's bed; along the slimy pathway, strewed with the wrecks of sunken argosies, their treasures darkling in oozy dungeons, and the forms of their once living, breathing, human freight, stark and ghastly in eternal sleep; along rayless and gloomy depths, where silence and solitude, profound and supreme, unending and eternal, encompa.s.s, pervade and encircle as with an atmosphere; along submarine alpine peaks, vainly struggling upwards towards the regions of light and warmth; beneath where the storm Fiend rides on the billow's crest, where the tempest howls the hoa.r.s.e refrain of its anthem, and where sweeps the ice berg, congealed, perhaps, when the morning stars first sang together; stretches a metallic thread no bigger than your finger, uniting lands two thousand miles asunder in bonds of harmony and brotherly love; along which glides a subtle fluid, conveying thought and intelligence--those mysterious emanations of the human brain--and writes them in distant lands as rapidly as they are engendered. A thought is born, and instantly it is stamped upon a human mind two thousand miles away, across the pathless waste of ocean! A human heart beats, and its throb is felt before the blood returns for another circuit. A word is spoken, and it is re-uttered before the sound has died upon the ear of the first speaker!

A question is asked, and its answer comes back as the shuttle returns with the woof! A boon is craved, and the heart leaps in exultation as it is granted, or sinks in despair as it is denied, almost as soon as the lips have closed upon its utterance! Stupendous achievement! Is there no limit to the conquests of man over the forces of nature, tangible or invisible? Shall he yet find means, by the clarity of his messengers and the invincibility of his power, to overtake and reclaim the lost and wandering Pleiad, and restore the fugitive to its celestial companions?

Shall he go on, step by step, into the shadowy realms of the Impossible, until he shall claim affinity with Supreme Intelligence? Shall he advance, in the order of progressive creation, until he shall be developed in a being more nearly allied to Ultimate Destiny? Shall the curtains which conceal the arcana of hidden knowledge be gradually drawn aside, and his eye rest, with unflinching gaze, upon the secrets of the Infinite? Thoughts like these crowd upon the brain, stupefied and amazed by the announcement of an event, more wonderful, as a triumph over Nature's obstacles, than was ever proclaimed since the world began.

CHAPTER XII.