Charles City intelligencer., 1864-12-29

the Iowa towns | visited are in the
same happy condition.
CEDAR FALLS is young city, pros
pering like greGn-bay tree. The
population must be hearty three thou
sand. It's Gazette is one of our best
journals, the Perkins brothers being
enterprising, talented and patriotic.
The water-power at Cedar Falls is
very, fine but, unfortunately, the own
ers or lesseessdo not seem to under
stand its value. ahe fiji value of its ac-
tual Nse to the towsi si.end to the coun-
try. When the railway shall have
passed by Cedar Falls, it will not con-
tinue to have its present Importance,
except upon condition that much of its
capital be diverted to manufactures.
In fact, except as to certain railway
centres" or places made commercial
centres" by the hand of nature, like
Chicago in the latter case and India
napolis in the former, not to mention
your Des Moincs that is to be, one town
must outrun other towns because of
superior manufacturing facilities well
used. Cedar Falls has the facilities.
She must use them, or after a while
she will present the melancholy spec
tacle, played-out town. But l cx-
pcct much better result.
WAvERLY is a fine place, on both
sides of the river, and will soon have
the iron horse snorting through her
suburbs. There is good watcr.powcr
here, too, as there is all along the &C.
dar.
BRApFoRp, jolly little town, is ncs-
tied costly in the midst of a fine grove,
into which the rude winds of winter
cannot too roughly penetrate My old
friend Thaycf very happily remarked
that, on cold day, Bradford was just
one overcoat warmer than the sur
rounding country That is, you would
need one overcoat in town and two in
the country. That is the true way to
measure the cold after all.
CHARLES CRY, the county-seat of
Floyd county, is regular Yankee
town, wide-awakc, go-ahcad, always
astir. They have there magnificent
Court House, built of an excellent
quality OF stone, which is quarricd all
along the Cedar river. There are ma
ny houses in town built of the same
fine material. My stay here was ne
ccssarily very short, fact which |
much regretted at the time, and have
not ceased to regret since. | took
time, however, to call upon Hildreth,
of the htelhgeaoer, found him serene,
his Office in magnificent trim, and his
paper highly prosperous.
Here | left the valley of the Cedar,
and in company with Fairfield, rode
down to Clarksville, through a rain
storm, but made excellent time. "The
Judge" is an expert whip" and one
of the jolliest souls ever met. We
laughed and sang the storm away, and
if our music were not such as might
have charmed the shade of Mozart, our
laughter was enough to make amends.
The rain ceased and we had q nice,
comfortable time at the goodly and
venerable town of Clarksvillc, formerly
the county-seat of Butler, but now sim
ply a pleasant, thriving village, full
of good people, and having fine edu-
cational institution of some kind, |
forget precisely what Butler is a
good county, and will undoubtedly i'm
prove rapidly from this time on. The
Shell Rock river is a beautiful stream.
| suppose it takes its name from the
fact that the rocks of the stream, where
the current is swift, or where there
are fords, look white and glistening
like the inside of shells. At any rate,
| noticed that such was the fact.
Washington, Nor. Is, 1864.