Cairo evening times. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-28
NEW SERIES, VOL. l, NO. 16(

to go to Cairo when they desired to come to
Evansville.h The charge, in the sense it is in
tended to be understood, is predicated upon
falsehood. There is not word of truth in it.
They were driven from Evansville to Cairo by
the extravagant prices demanded by the mer-
chants of the former city and came to Cairo in
consequence of the liberal spirit evidenced by
our commercial men.
The boast that the freight bills and charges
paid at Evansville's wharf in single year
would purchase the eutire ciy of Cairo, really
and personal, is of piece with the rest of the
article, and in the classic language of the
Journa, % IS simply illiberal, gratuitous, ridi-
culous and .ta5se.'' ....
Now, Mr.. Journal, we wish to remind you
os one or two facts which you appear to have
lost sight of, and claim your ear for moment
When Cairo was an uninhabitable swamp,
and the waters of the Mississippi and Ohio riv-
ers sported over its surface, Evansville boasted
of being city, and made pretensions of COM
mercal importance. When tie delta upon
which Cairo now stands was covered with
drift wood. upon which the back woodsmal
sat and caught fish, Evansville had a natural
wharf, and sat upon an eminence beyond the
reach Of tide or wave. When Cairo lay bathed
in the waters Of the continent streams inhab-
tied only by the fshy tribes, Evansville boas-
ted of city corporation and daily paper.
No man owned single lot Of ground in Cairo
until the fall of 1858. The first lot sold in
Cairo was that now standing on the Southwest
corner of Sd street and Commercial Avenue,
the purchaser being the late Peter Stapleton,
and the date Of purchase, Sept. Is, 1853
Bit one building now stands in Cairo which
was here in 1858, viz /: the cottage on CONNER
cial Avenue fronting It'll street. Until years
thereafter we had no saw mills, neither were
there any convenient When man wanted
a building he had to have it framed at Pa
ducah and fioated or towed down stream. The
Iron Horse did not enter Cairo until January,
1856. In the interim dividing the present from
the days Of our proud city's infancy, fires al
most innumerable have visited us, and one flood.
Evansville has now $4,000 inhabitants; Cairo
commenced growing. Eight years since
Evansville was as important place as it now
is. The Journal is seventeen years old.
Where was Cairo When the first number of the
Journal was issued? Where the journal man
was years before the date Of his birth.
Look with now at the other side of the
picture-the present Cairo of to. day has a
population ranging from $4,000 to $4,000 in
habitants-ts brick structures are counted by
hundreds-t is surrounded on three sides with
any on either river, and is backed by popu.
lous settled conntry-its streets have risen,
are rising from the bosom of the turbid rivers
to an altitude far above high water mark-our
people are all solvcnt-our city is out of debt,
and we are not ground down with taxes. Stores
and dwellings are springing up upon our streets
and avenues as though their erection did not
involve the expenditure of money, and our
people are so contented that they would not
exchange their chances of living here and in
curing a completeness or Independent fortunes
for those presented in any other city on this
broad continent. Evansville never enters our
mind except when reminded Of it through the
explosion caused by the effervesence of its cit
zens As the Journal admits, our city g bas
the advantage of location to insure prosperity
and although we have neither 1.-THE Andes nor
Appenines, from which to raise us above the
level Of the rivers, we have dirt convenient
sufficient for the purpose indicated, and enough
surplus to bury Evansville beneath reach of
the rays of the sun. If you don't believe it,
drop in on us some fine day, and we will es-
cort you to the scene of our Steam Showers
OperationS.