Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-07-04
Gbe Antt- 5laperp Buolr.
LETTER FROM IOWA.
DAVENPORT, June, 18th 1857

DAVENPORT, June, 18th 1857.
MARIus Were not rail road travelling such a
common place every day business in these times,
would tell quite story about definitions, get
ting on wrong lines and other perplexites Incl.
dent to this fast way Of getting over Earth's SUR
face. Though these would DO something peculiar
in my recent experience it would fail to be inter
esting, and will therefore be omitted.
Any description Of country given from car
drawn by the iron horse, must of necessity be
very imperfect, for while the observer is adjust
ing himself, the obj ject which he wishes to exam
inc has hidden itself behind him. A general out
line is all thatthe fight mile ln two or three
minutes will afford.
Without the least intention to wound the feel
lngs Of home staying folk will suppose that a
pery fe,c of you have not passed from the eastern
county of Ohio through all that is west, in that
state, and then, toward tho setting sun, through
Indiana and Illinois, in thirty six hours, will
briefly state that wes. Of Mansfield for hundred
miles there is little that is especially attractive
to the agriculturalist Land very level, of course
wet with q dense forest that one would scarcely
know whether to call the growth trees or bushes.
When cleared the proximity Of the stumps is
Abel and strength of Sampson would be in requi-
sition to encounter it in the character Of po ugh
man with any we'll founded hope Of doing good
Job with an unrufled temper. lie must be indeed
ill natured who should intimate that they do not
earn their living.
The word Prarie had we'll nigh a charm for me
until l found myself in their midst We passed
thousands of acres that must remain valueless
for anything can see, immersed as they are in
water several inches in depth and no chance to
dispose of it but by evaporation. These tracts OF
lands covered with dark green grass, resem.
bling that ON the sea shore which is overfown by
the tides, luxurant but not edible. Around Chica'
90 for many miles, the country has different as
pect. After leaving the wet praries and the ster-
lie sand hills with meager growth of scrubby
pine, it is refreshing, almost to exhileration, to
have view of level dry meadow extending until
it appears to meet the sky. Not tree to be seen
but one continued plat of healthy rich verdure.-
Dwellings far assunder, though it is certainly
brought into use. The fences, bitches and em
bankments prove that it is owned probably by
men who often make enquiry after the rents,
hay and pasturags. After leaving Chicago some
fifty miles say, the whole distance to Rock Island
is rolling prarie broken by woody ravines every
few miles. The soil has the appearance Of
richness, but the grass less luxuriant than | had
anticipated. In a hundred miles east of Rock
Island, I:doubt if five hundred cattle could have
been counted, very few hor ses and no sheep or
hogs neither did human bipeds come into view
except!at stations ahd iu small villages.
In boyhood heard and read of Allegheny.
Monongahela and Ohio, and thought how fa-
vored they must be who were permitted to stand
on the banks of the far off rivers bearing those
high sounding names. The great Mississippi be-
yond which, according to indian tradition, Deity
drove the last great bull of the masodon race was
too distant to be conceived of but in the charac-
ter of a myth. Arrived at maturity, foated on
the surface of the former three, and near the end
of my sevonty-fourth year l am soourner with
in bullet shot Of the great father of waters--tho
world renowned Mississippi. Not knowing what
a day will bring forth how could we calculate the
changes of life of time?
The river runs nearly west at tAis place with
Rock Island Todd name for a town) on it's south,
and Davenport on its north bank, the former of
longer standing, the latter of faster growth Da-
venport is one of the hot bed towns of which the
new states have furnished 80 many specimens
within few years. 1t ha been found necessary
to transplant IN some instances this may be the
fate of Davenporters. Plants taken from hot beds
appear stunted for a time but after the habit of
making their own warmth-laboring for their own
subsistence, they attain to healthier harder con.
dition. North of US at the distance of half mile
is what, here is called the bluff, rather bold
elevation of hundred feat in height beyond this
so far as have seen the soil must be fertile, and
is beautifully undulating. A few days since DR..
LANCER, rich, hungarian physician took two
wagon loads of us ou, on picnic party;to one of
his farms. ! was almost delighted with the pro-
posal of gazing on wild prarie; what was nv
disappointment when nothing but finished farms
came in the line of vision. Our host dropt GER.
tain words in connection which gave hopes nearly
new to me, but this is all have to say till / learn
more.
AMOS GILBERT.