American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1866-03-29
Letter from the North.
CLINTON. IOWA. Mich. %. 1866.

JOlceu by Ine SlSnt OF all Olu 1llenu
and extended to him a truly hearty
welcome-I mean THE CITIZEN,
which seems not to have grown old
through all these wearysome years
past, but looks as fresh and youthful
as when | first made it's acquaint
ance. | wonder if it's proprietor and
| could be fixed up with new heads
and look as youthful? Perhaps wigs
and hair dye might effect something
All me
There is one happy indication in
the paper-that is, that you are flour
ishing again, and that business men
are doing well, as is evinced by lib
eral advertising. "LOng may you
wave !"-best wishes for your sue
cess. = -
A long, long time ago, though not
very many years, it is since | wrote
to YOU before. Time is not always
measured by hours or days, and the
last letter written, five years ago,
seems like the impressions received
a quarter of a century back. Events
enough for one century have been
crowded into that space. 1t is too
fearfully impressed upon us all to
need reviewing.
The war benefited Chicago and the
West in its vicinity very greatly, and
in, proportion to the stagnation in
business in st. Louis and Cincinnati,
Chicago hourished. SO did all the
little places in the vicinity of Chica-
go, of which this is one. 4 hundred
and forty miles west of that place, at
the nearest point to the Mississippi
river, a railroad runs west, and here
crosses the river by a magnificent
bridge. The road now stretches west
from here two hundred miles. The
impetus given to farming was so
great that two years ago freight ac-
cmnulate1 SO largely at all the little
stations, that they were months be-
hind, with all the rolling stock they
could put upon the road.
We felt the effects of the war but
little except in the way of prosperity.
Troops were raised here, and there
was one draft, but men were found
in abundance to work on the bridge
and push forward the railroad.
The ending of the war helped us,
also. Most of the troops were dis
banded and paid off here, and the
men returned to their farms to make
Improvements in fencing
and buildings, and all the humber
used along the whole length of the
road, west, first comes down the riv-
er from the Wisconsin pinerics, and
is manufactured here. a dozen mills,
with numerous hands, run night and
day, for the last twelve months, to
supply the demand.
Iowa is a prairie State, with belts
of timber along the streams. 1t is
becoming famous for its large herds
of sheep. Last fall, sixty thousand
entered the State at this point. The
year before, there were more. Wool
en- factories are springing up in many
places, and homemade suit can be
easily obtained that does credit to its
wearer, even in Washington. We
mean to be srlf-sustaining before
long. We are now looking for the
next turn of the wheel. st. Louis is
bidding for OIr trade, and will hap
PLY compete with Chicago, which
has really become putfed up to an
extent, and Expresses us
with its monopolics.
The Mississippi river at this point
is always Of respectable magnitude,
but below lis runs over rapids that
can hardly afford water
to tide over a tlatboat. At present,
the largest boats can 90 up to st,
Paul. (Not just at present, either,
for there is a solid covering of ice yet
on the river, which extends from the
head water down to Davenport and
Rock Island. 1t rains now, and the
ice will soon begin to move.
The people are a mixed race, tho
the most Of them are from New Eng
and restless, only max
ing a temporary settlement here,
money or failing entirely,
and then leaving for some other To-
cality. Meet any dozen men ON
street corner, and ten of them have
been to California or Idaho, and in
half the States of the Union; all have
speculation in their eye, and most of
them will tell YOU they intend to 90
back to Maine or Connecticut, to
spend their days, when they have
made their pile. Few of them ever
return, or if they do, the old States
are too tame for them, and they re-
turn here again to enter into the bus
tie of western life. Thus we have a
tiuctuating population,
and all the losses caused by the war
have been readily filed, so that we
hardly miss any one now.
Political lines have all been broken
over, and there is now much apathy
in relation to politics. Some are
the "dog fights" in Con
gress, but with much less interest
than in years past. OF the papers,
many of them are on one side to-day
md somewhere else tomorrow. MOI
general bad feeling exists among the
people towards the South, and many
ire only waiting the settling down
If affairs there, to come among you
md go into business.
The Fenian humbug does not eX-
end very far out of the larger cities,