The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-01-01
AMERICAN CITIEs-CAIRO.

e. AMERICAN CITIEs-CAIRO.
The Nashville (Tenn.) Patriot is publish
ing over the signature Of "X" glances at
/ American cities. The glance at Cairo is
rich. Read it.. -
The city of Cairo is situated behind mut
bank, called through courtesy levee, ut
the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers. 1t stands on Il sand bank, the right
and title to which is vested in the State ol
Illinois, and is destined, at no distant day
to become place Of that vast Importance
which always characterizes Avery small
potato. On paper, and it doesn't take m
unusually large scrip of paper to hold it,
Cairo is II magnificent city, which it is i'm
possible to see on account Of the immense
number of very fine houses; on its native
sand bank, where it must be confessed you
have the most reliable view Of it, it inspires
you with the belief that there has been a
three days cock fight in the neighborhood,
and the sportsmen had suddenly absquatulu.
ted and left the coops standing. In the eyes OF
the people who have lived there (if any body
ever did live there long enough to swear to
the fact) the city possesses in the highes,
degree,
The glory which was Greece,
And the grandeur which Rome;'
In the eyes Of other people it doesn't not
much no how.
Seriously, Cairo is Dutch-Irish village
of one and half musketoe power during
the winter season, and Of no power at ali
during the summer-unless it be tho power Of
seIf-cxaltation, which it possesses, it must
be confessed, in a remarkable degree. 1t is
decidedly fast place, how ever, as fast
as one set OF inhabitants are killed off by
the smal! pox (Which attains too large u
growth there to be called smalI) and yellow
fever, or are shaken to death by high-p
sure ague fits, "a thing that doesn't huppen
oftencr than three times year,) another
set rush in from the first fleet Of lat boats
and lumber RATS that passes down the river,
to fill up that vacuum in the town which
the nature Of that sort of people ab-
hors. This state of things, together with
the dilapidated condition Of some Of the
craft engaged in the Cairo trade, gavo rise
to the poplar Ethiopian melody ut whose
pathetic touches a thousand lovely eyes have
been dimmed with tender tears:
"Oh, the ,lerndest boat ever saw
II was stern-whecled boat;
The clerk he had no shoes
And the captain had no coat.
hear my trne-ove weep
hear my true-lovc sigh
Way down IN Cairo
This nggers gU in TO die!'
The inhabtan of the city consists of
about fifty Dutch Irishmen and the same
number of Irish Dutchmen, who spend their
time in drinking adutcrcd whiskey out Of
dirty tumblers, (thereby making dirty tum-
blers of themselves,) in breaking the Sab
hard things about Mound City on the Ohio,
six miles above here.
During n small rise in tie Mississippi last
summer the water broke over the city, and
covered it to the average depth of six feet.
1t is n wonder to some that the city was not
washed away, but it will cease to be Won
der if they will remember that there are
some things too dirty to be washed, even by
the Mississippi.
The Rhune doth wash Cologne
But what, oh what shall wash the Rhone?"
During the dog days the equator runs
Immediately throu gh Cairo, and in the win
ter the north pole stands directly in the
center of the town. The Ohio steamers all
lie up there during the summer season.
This is one of the stipulations in their insu-
rance policies, Cairo being the safest place
in the western or any other waters for Il
steamboat to stand the chances of confa-
grafton; for when it is hot there, it is so
ron,oundedly hot that such fires rs we are
used to in this country go out in disgust
The southern terminus of the Illinois Cen
tral Railroad has the misfortune to call
Cairo its place of residence: cars stop in the
city during the reign of the 'baleful Sirius
stand in the midst Of the Inhabitants until
the steam whistle revcrberatcs along the
fiery sand-bars of the river, and you can
easily imagine yourself in the basement
story of pandemonium, and that the head
devil Of the establishment is calling each
dme dGmnfe to judgment.
Cairo has one redeeming feature. Had
Sodom and Gomorrah been so fortunate,
the shower Of fire and birthstone had never
fallen, and the Dead Sea had never existed.
Let Cairo take warning from the fate of her
oldcn nntetypes, and guard with vestnl vigi-
lance the life and citizenship Of her one
righteous man-Len. Faxon, the editor Of
the Times & Delta, who is a gentleman, n
scholar. a Judge of brandy, and United
States Mail Agent. That he is a United
States mail agent is sufficient evidence that
he is Buchanan Democrat: and the color
of his politics is the best of proof that he is
n Judge Of brandy. That he, gentleman
and "A scholar, succeeded in obtaining nm
appointment under the present Administra-
ton, can only be accounted for upon the
supposition that he suffered the President to
suspect him Of neither learning nor honesty
Len. Faxon is a bricks lie has seen Cairo
in all phases, and clings to her still with n
tenacity worthy of better object. In his
efforts to build up the city he is neither
daunted by danger nor deferred by Difficult
ties. When the Mississippi overfowed the
place, he sat a-straddlc Of his Office, with
his feet dangling in the food, and wrote
editorials in praise of the town on shingle
lie is man of courage, and he has secured
by letters patent the exclusive right to tell
the truth about Cairo, you will please sup
press the copies Of this number of the
Patriot that should go,to Southern Hi,
nOls.
A SPUNKY DIVINE.
An amusing incident occurred in one OF
the New Orleans churches on Sunday of last
week. The pastor and congrc & ,tion art
Germans, and their mutual relations have
always been of an amicabe nature but al
the evening service he took some theological
stand which displeased portion of his con.
gregation, and they openly commented upor
it in an unfavoraDle manner. Rev. Mr.
Pressly stopped in his discourse and gazeC
upon his flock in astonishment. Could it be
possible that the faithful would differ from
him on n subject which he had made the