The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-06-16

ming for Hannibal, 30 miles below. had
repeatedly crossed the Mississippi, but
:. this was my first passage on it. The riv-
er is very high SO that its banks are sub
merged, and the water flows under the
trees which line either shore. In food,
as it is, the river is turbid, not muddy,
and pursues its course with deliberation
and gravity betting the majestic Father
Of Waters, to whom with head bare and
reverent spirit [ wave a respectful adieu.
For our good boat has reached Han
nibal. the first point below Quincy ct
which the Missouri bluff approaches the
river, and whence the valley of a stream
let makes up through the hills to the
broad. level prairie. 1t is bustling
growing village of sou 4 .00Oinhabitants,
which the new "Hannibal and St. Joseph
Railroad" has suddenly raised froa To-
cal to general Importance. Like most
villages in the Great Western rivers, it
has no wharf. and the river is now threat
ening TO eat away part of the bank on
which railroad and steamboat freight is
heaped in wild disorder.
The Pike rounded to, and sent US a
shore; the train backed down within for.
ty feet of her; the passengers got aboard
the cars and were followed by their bag
gage, and in half an hour we were steam
ing up through the woody ravine to e.
merge on one Of the largest prairies on
Northern Missouri. The road was com.
pleted 10 hot haste last Winter, in order
to profit by the Pixies Peak emigration
this Spring; no gravel is found on its line,
unless 10 the Immediate vicinity of the
Mississippi; and it was raining pitilessly
for the second day nearly tbroug hout, so
that the road-bed was causeway of NOR
tar OF ooze, into which the passing trains
pressed the ties, first on one side, then Oh
the other, making the track as bad as
track could we'll be. A year hence. it
must be better, even with the frost just
coming out of the ground; after a dry
week, it will probably be quite fair; but
yesterday it afforded more exercise to
the mile than any other road | ever trav.
elled. Abont one third of the way from
Hannibal. it is intersected by the North
Missouri Railroad from ST. Louis, which
city is about one hundred miles further
from St. Louis than Hannibal is.
| had not believed it possible to run a
railroad through Northern Miss ouri SO as
to strike so few settlements. Palmyra,
near the Mississippi, and Chilicothe,
hundred miles further west, are county
seats and villages of perhaps 100 dwell
ings each;' besides these, there is no village
of any size, unless it be one of those we
passed in rain and darkness as we near
ed the Missouri With such soil and
timber, the Mississippi on one side, the
Meeting them. it must be that Northern
Missouri is destined to increase its popu-
lation speedily and rapidly. am sure
that Beef can be made there at less cost
per pound than in any other region | ev-
er visited.
St. Joseph is busy, growing town of
some 10, 600 inhabitants. 1t is beauti-
fully situated on bend of the Missouri,
partly on the intervale (Which the river
is gouging out aud carrying away, and
partly on the Southwark slope of the BLUFF,
which rises directly from the riser bank
at the north end of the town.
believe this is further West than any
other. point reached by railroad con-
Meeting eastward with the Alta Dtic ports.
At all events, the travel, aud part of the
trade of the vast wilderness watered by
Upper Missouri and its tributaries, seem
to center here. At the City Hotel. where
l stopped (kept by two New Workers.
j. & j Hunter-from AuburD), some of
the guests were of and from Salt Lake
one an Indian trader from the head wa
ters of the Colunb bia, who came down the
Yellow Stone from the Rocky Mountains
ina canoe. Army officers and suffers
for the forts far up the Missouri and its
tributaries are constantly arriving and
departing. | may never see St. Joseph
again, but she will long be to me pleas.
ant recollection. Elwood, in Kansas, op-
posite, is a small place, which must grow
with the country behind it. The up-riv-
er trade is not for her.
l took passage for this place at 8 this
uoIDiUS Oh tue Soou SleamcF Ilatte al
ley, Capt Coursey. and defed the
chill east wind and damp, cold atmos-
phere, to take my first lesson in Nilsson
ri navigation. The river is once deep,
swift and generally norrow-bardly so
wide in the average as the Hudson below
Albany, though carrying the water of
thirty HudsoDs. ltcannot be half mile
wide opposite this city. Its muddiness is
beyond all description; its color and con-
sistency are those of milk porridge; you
could not discern an egg in glass of it,
A fly floating in tea-cup of this dubious
fluid au eighth of an inch below the sur
fase would be quite invisible.
Atcbison gives me my first foothold on
Kansas 1t was long Border Rufiap
nest, but has shared the fortunes of many
such in being mainly bought out by Free
State men, who now rule and for the most
part ownit. For the last year, its growth
has been quite rapid; of its four or five
hundred dwellings. [ think. two-tbirds