Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-06-08
Correspondence of the Spy.
UP THE MISSISSIPPI,
THE JOURNEY FROM DUBUQUE TO LACROSSE

THE JOURNEY FROM DUBUQUE TO LACROSSE.
HoUsroN Co., MINI, May 26.
Dear J. s. B.:-Some weeks ago, l gave
you a partial account of trip up the Missis-
sippi, which my negligence suffered to remain
unfinished. AS again resume the pen, vi
sions rise before me of broken promises and
neglected correspondence, which are rather
melancholy to a conscientious mind, and the
cloudy effect of which it will not be easy to
overcome in the present letter and yet l may
affirm without fear of contradiction, that, I'M
like the foreign epstles of many pretentious
journals in different parts Of our grand and
glorious Union the present account, although
dilatory, will yeritably be of that which the
author has personally seen and known. And
although it may lack the immediate inspira-
ton of the Calliope, yet it will have all the
inspiriting influence which careful perusal of
previous communication, so delicately treat
ed by the printer, could have upon sensitive
writer
Let me see! Where did l leave off? 0,
| abruptly, at Dubuque. The faces of the idle
hundreds grew DINNER and DINNER in the
| smoky light on the levee, their voices fainter
and fainter, until we were alone in the dark
ness and stiffness of the mighty river senti-
neled by the quiet bluffs and forests sloping
silently down to the waters edge. There is
something solemn in this mysterious hush Of
| the woods and hills of dark, starless night,
broken only by the heavy laboring sound of an
ascending steamboat. Ifthe weather is slightly
cool, so that the comfort-oving passengers
are inclined to remain within, it becomes
doubly so to any sentimental person who
chooses to remain without with the night
and the shadows All that can be seen
at such time is a small circle of foam
ing waters lighted by the glimmer from the
boat, and the wavy line where the hills seem
to touch the sky. The boat sweeps OH against
the rapid current, waking the sleepy echoes of
receding valleys whose sides but few years
ago no half-cvilized pioneer had schaed. No
CLEAN of light gives token of life along the
shore, the voices from within sound muffled
and strange, and the dreamer seems going
away into some distant and unknown region
from which, perhaps, he can never return.
The formation of the country along the river
above Dubuque is very different from that
below it and is peculiar to itself. The bluffs
are higher and sleeper, while the islands are
more numerous, and the current somewhat
less rapid. No one ascending would, without
previous information, think of the rich agri.
cultural districts lying in the interior, and just
beginning to yield their wealth to the perseyer.
ing labor of man.
There is something very amusing in the eff
forts at BODYBUILDING which are seen at occa
sional intervals as one gets farther up There
are scarcely half a dozen good town sites be-
tween Dubuque and st. Paul. The conse.
quence is that, wherever there is strip of
level land wide enough for single street, you
are sure to find Getty" whose advantages are
great, whose lots rule high, and whose circu
lars are sent nearly all over the habitable globe
If you see a lonely house on the face Of a
declivity you may rely upon it that it indi
Gates town, and you are no wise sure in
gazing at the most inaccessible places that
you have not in full view some village
OF prospective Importance, whose owner
may be at your elbow, gently insnuating
its future greatness and advising you to invest
your spare change in such valuable property
The back country, however, is wealthy in .fl-
tire, and needs outlets, which it can only have
through such precipitous places as those
have mentioned
There is a disadvantage in having too much
as well as in having too little land for a town
site. If too much, it is all laid out in lots at
high figures, and the town becomes very much
scattered seeming considerably like thickly.
! settled farming region. Prairie du Chen is Of
this description. 1t lies on a beautiful plain,
of several miles in extent, over all Of which
the people are spread at nearly equal distances
from each other. 1t is the terminus Of n rail
road across Wisconsin, and runs an opposition
line of boats to st. Paul Opposite lies Nc.
Gregor, town having but single street, or
| but one that deserves the name, and upon