Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-11-26
A LIFE PICTURE.

The following beautiful sketch of the birth and growth
of civilization in the West is from FREDERIKA BREMERs
new work. entitled Homes of the New World 1t will
be recoected by our old citizens (says the Mnnesota
Pioneer that Miss BREMER spent some days in ST. Paul
in 1885, the guest of Elk Governor RAMSEY and visited
the Falls of St. Anthony places of interest in
the neighborhood She highly delighted with the
picturesque beauties of the place. and often observed
walking out alone along the bluffs of the Mississippi con-
empatng Its natural scenery Who does see in the
following picture the rise and progress of many Of the
great cities of the West but particularly Of own
st. Paul, the future Metropolis of the Northwest?
Your Majesty has certainly often read descriptions
Of the wonderful waterfall Niagara of the almost mira
cuous prares Of the West, where the mirrors his
image in an ocean Of sunfowers waving in the wind of
the rapid growth Of States and cities in the Great West
of the great river Mississippi and the gold mines of Cali
ornia and many other lions Of the Great West But less
known the first steps Of cultivation its first impress
the wilderness and this it together with the great
spectacle of nature which most attracted my earliest at
cnton for il is amusing to observe the first steps Of the
child, and how he advances and grows to mans estate
II image worthy the regards Of motherly queen
The trees fall before the along the banks of the river
and rivers every where abound in North America little
house is erected the skirts Of the forest banks
Of the river; woman stands in the doorway with lit
tie chubby child in her The husband has dug up
the earth around the house and planted maize beyond
Craze couple of fat cows, and sheep in the free,
uninclosed meadow-and. The husband s the land and
mks the and performs the whole out Of door work.
The wife remains in the house and takes of child and
home; nor can any woman do it better The cleanliness
and order Of her person reflected by every thing with
in the house. No neater excellent home can be
found the face of the earth than that of the American
of the poorest No wonder that the husband
is happy within it that the American knows few other
pleasures than those which he fndsn his home other
goal Of bliss earth than that Of possessing good wife,
good home The log house has been erected in the
Forest and not far from erected in the way,
two three other loghouses they all furnished with
excellent beds and there always lies the shelf Bible,
hymn book, and some other religious books. little
further off stands somewhat larger log house, where
dozen two chdren-he haf-wild offspring Of the will
derncss-are assembled. This is the school The room
is poor and without furniture but the walls covered
with maps of all parts of the globe and in the hands of
the children books which present them with views
over the whole world, and reading books which contain
the noblest pearls of literature in paragraphs short
says, narratives POEMS &c. Anon other houses spring
up Of framed timber some Of stone they become
more and more ornamental; they surround themselves
with fruittrees and flowers; you chapel Of wood
arising at the time with the wooden houses but
when the stone houses come, there come also stone
church and state-house The fields around covered
with focks and herds increase and before long
you behold steamboats, advancing up the rivers
they lie to at the buildings; they purchase wares
and CATTLE and leave newspapers behind them In two or
three years there is here little city of two thousand
souls mothery women institute Sunday schools in the
church. and assemble the little children to instruct them
in Christianity, and establish asylum for orphaned lit
tie ones Shops spring up at the time with the
school and the church. and they constitute together with
the printing and the Statehouse the ensign Of the
Anglo American and wherever he plants this, thence
treats the red man. almost without resistance with
his wigwam and his subjected women, and goes to light
his fires further off in the wilderness. lie knows by
perience that the erections which he beholds will
within quarter of century, become great city, with
its fifty thousand inhabitants or more and that the whole
region round about will be full OF people alike potent in
war as in peaceful civilization" s