Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1840-11-26
ST. LOUIS AND BOSTON.
We copy the following interesting article
from the st. Louis Gazette Of the 2Ist ult.

/ we copy the iolio"HnS interesting aIuC
from the st. Louis Gazette Of the 2Ist ult.
/ The two cities of the U. S. which are pr,
crossing most rapidly in population an
wealth, at the present time, in proportion I
their size, are undoubtedly Boston and S
Louis, one III the Eastern, the other in tn
| Western section of the Union. For man
| years-from 1900 to 1S3O-Boston was los
| ing ground, in the race for greatness with New
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore /; but a
| bout the year 1880 new era dawned on tina
| city, through the instrrmentality of its enter
| prising capitalists, Hhic,i has turned the It'd
| strongly in its fu.or. At that time, the frs
railroad was constructed on one side of TIN
city, and the first steam-power loom estab
lishment erected on the other. From tina
| time to the present, Lowell has increased il
population from 900 to 10000, and in wealth
from 100000 to 2O,OOO,0OO. The cotton
manufactures of Lowell, and the hundred
other manufacturing villages in New Eng.
land, have given stability to the trade OF
Boston unknown to any other city in the
Union.
Massachusetts, formerly exporting, it was
said, nothing but granite and ice, now pro-
duces manufactures valued at ninety millions
OF dollars per annum, a large part of which
to all parts OF the Union.
At later period than that first mentioned,
her far-seeing citizens became convinced that
although she had no river like the Hudson
the Delaware, or the Susguehanna, to bring
to her wharves the products of the boundless
and fertile West, yet that an iron pathway
might be laid along her mountain gorges, O.
yer which a steam-engine with train of cars
could move at the rate of thirty miles per
hour, taking the produce of the lakes at the
outlet of the New York Canal, and landing
it Mt Boston in less time than it can be deliv-
cred at New York. About one-half of this
road is completed, and the whole will be fin
ished within twelve months from this time.
This road will cost not far from seven mil
lions of dollars. 1t is calculated to support
an engine of fourteen tons weight, and to car
ry 1000 barrels of flour in a single train of
cars ten miles an hour. 1t is estimated that
when finished, flour can be transported from
Albany to Boston, 2OI miles for 80 cents
per barrel. Two thousand men are now at
work on this road, in some sections, both
night and day. The capitalists of Boston
have also contributed largely to the funds re-
CURED for laying down railways from Alba
ny to Buffalo, between which places there
will soon be a continuous line completed
many years shall have elapsed, continue the
same line across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
to st. Louis, in case the funds required for
the work are not furnished by the States on
the route.
St. Louis owes its present prosperity to
neither manufactures nor railroads, for it has
scarce dollar in either.
Its progress has been accelerated mainly
by the hundreds of thousands of Immigrants
who have overspread the prairies of Missouri,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa-who have
come here for the sale of their agricultural
and mining productions, and for the purchase
of merchandise. The increase of this city in
wealth and population, within the past ten
years, is scarcely paralleled. In 1881 the
population of the city and suburbs was esti-
mated at 5000. 1t is now not far from 3d.
900, and rapidly increasing. The number
of buildings recently commenced is very
great, and the value of those in course of COM
pletion will exceed million and half Of
dollars.
The trade between this city and Boston is
greater, and the connexion more intimate,
than is generally imagined. The various
staple articles of export from Boston, includ-
ing domestic goods, boots, and shoes, oil,
candles, &c. required for this market, and
which are forwarded from here for the upper
country, cannot fall short of two millions of
dollars.
We shall close these remarks with com
parative statement of the value of Western
productions shipped from New Orleans to n.
y ork and Boston.