The daily crescent., 1851-05-19
st. L0uis-.Its Present and Future

A citizen of Maryland, travelling Westward,
has addressed Letter from the West to the
Baltimore Patriot, which is published in that paper
the 9Th inst. His view of st. Louis and the
trade Of the West is given with graphic SIM
pcity that invests it with unusual attraction
while his foreshadowng of the future greatness Of
that city shows, at least the exercise Of healthy
observation
"The census of last June showed the popula-
ton of St Louis to be eighty thousand-fve times
large as it was but ten years before. 1t is now
well nigh upon an hundred thousand, and every
day is adding to it. It is this remarkable prOp0r-
ttonate increase which gives to the city in the eye
of one who has been familiar with the large cities
of the East its peculiarly striking character. There
is business going on everywhere There is hardly
a square OF houses in which new buildings not
going up improvement of some kind going
The Levee, which extends for miles along the
river, is covered with goods, and there is
scarce room anywhere for drays two abreast to
pass !; steamboats, of all sZes-rom the largest
| which run between here and New Orleans, down
| to those which navigate the smaller rivers, and
draw little more than span OF water-lle along
the shore, farther than the eye can reach squares
of really splendid stores and warehouses have been
| erected at the top of the Levee and altogether
form picture of trade and hustle Of which we can
| form but faint idea from what, in glance, is
| presented any where in largest cities OF the
/
the West, all the great sales are made-it is here
that all the goods are received it is from here that
they sent of, so that every day the whole com
| merce Of the city is brought under the eye, it
| were, of one person. And magnificent sight it
is Of wealth. of enterprise, of industry, and o
| prosperity.
Every thing to be going ahead here
| and from what has come to pass, we'll from
the indications which the present gives Of the
future it is safe say that St. Louis will be the
great city of the West, and if things continue Or
as they now going, it is not improbable that il
will be, in time, he great city OF the Union. 1t.
position the Mississippi, and at the first poin
where city could ne erected below the mouth o
the Missouri, makes it the market and place o
trade for country reaching to the Rocky Noun
tains and extending to the Atlantic ocean. But it,
advantages not to stop here. The proposed
railroad from the Mississippi to Cincinnati, and
thence to Baltimore, will connect it with Philadel
phia, New York and Boston and when completed
the traveller from the last named place will react
here in less than four days. The railroad from
Baltimore to the South, it progresses, will brins
it into close connection with the Southern Allan
tic States and the enterprise now on foot to maxi
railroad to Santa Fe and thence across the Rock
Mountans-the early commencement and earl
completion of which is confidently predicted an
expected by many-all these great works. whic
sooner or later must be made, will make St. Loui
the great commercial centre Of the Union Thi
is the expectation which the present holds out, an
it is easier believe in it than it is to controvert