The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-05-03


Being at loss this morning for
something to do, concluded [ would
drop line to my old friend, the
JOURNAL. We left Leavenworth,
Kansas, on the ed of March, on the
good steamer Jennie Brown, for the
head waters of the Missouri. As her
cabin passengers consist entirely of
invited guests, bound on a pleasure
trip, it is hardly necessary to say that
we have had pleasant time. We
have seven ladies on board-a gay
party of young men, an excellent
string band and some No. l singers.
Almost every calling is represented
among our passengers-lawyers, doc
tors, parson, and even poet. For
employment we have lectures, essays,
&C., interspersed with dancing, tab
leaux, charades, &c. So you see we
are at no loss for ways to kill time.
enjoyment, time hangs heavily. A
trip of two thousand miles up rapid
river like the Missouri, being of ne
cessity very Slow we shall be home
sick enough. fis2
The Jennie is loaded for Mr.. E. Ell.
Durgee of Leavenworth, Kansas, and
DIR. G. A. Cutler, of the house. of
Scott Cutler & Co., of Kansas City.
Her cargo consists entirely of Indian
goods, and as her owners, together
with the North American Fur Com
pany, have entire control of the Indi-
an trade of the Northwest, she can
not but do well. A trip of two thou
sand miles up this, the longest river in
the world, can but be replete with in
terest. / say the longest river In the
world, because the Missouri is un-
questionably the proper continuation
of the lower Mississippi, and affords
at least four times the amount of wa
ter that the upper Mississippi does.
The scenery on the Missouri is beau
tiful, and at times absolutely grand
On either side of the river are beauti-
full prairies, stretching as far as the
eye can reach, or abrupt mountains,
rising as it were from the very bed of
the river Then again, chalk bluffs
present their verigated faces with
9 their many colored stratas, presenting
almost every hue of the rainbow, and
covered with luxuriant growth of
cedar, adding beautiful green bor-
der to the already varied tints. Each
changing scene presents some new
feature of beauty or grandeur.
The bottom lands bordering on this
great river and its tributaries, present.
most singular richness and uniformity
of soils, furnishing the most splendid
natural meadows Of luxuriant grass.
And the footprints of the future
the future of those great States
stretching across the nations inevita-
bic highway, from the great lakes to-
hesmountains-a are already beginning
to show themselves. Where, but a
few years ago, the red man roamed. in
undisturbed quiet, and hunted his
buffalo and elk on the hillside and
plain, where his fathers hunted before
him, is now reared the cabin of the
pale-face And still the intelligent
and aggressive army of the white man
is pressing up this great artery of the
Northwest, causing its valleys to re-
sound with the hum of invineible en-
terprise and its gold -seamed lnoun-
tains to ring beneath the strokes of
10000 miners. Who can tell what is
to be the. future of this great West.
when the iron-horse shall have pene-
trated into regions now almost undis-
covered, and shall speed on lightning
wings Ger its level plains, its freight
train groaning beneath the weight of
treasures, now hid in the bosom of its
dark and sombre mountains; CONNER
3 eial cities, springing to future great
e ness, where now roam the immense
herds of buffalo, elk and native saw
age? We can only judgeof the future
from the past-the future remains to
be lived and recorded. But when we
look back but few years, a little
8more than a third of century, we
find the great cities of the lakes, the
commercial emporiums of the Great
West, was then but wild and tangled
wilderness. the haunt of the untamed
red man, roaming in fancied security,
little thinking how soon the relentless
march of the pale-face was to drive
him still farther towards the setting
sun; and on the spot that now makes
the groundwork for those palatial res
licences and lofty spires, rear them
selves amid the clouds, was wont
to sit the hungry wolf, making
the night most hideous with
his frightful howlings. Verify,
'The starof empire westward takes its
way"
Each year the finger of COM
commerce points from the eastern
rivers, to the great river of the North
west In 1860 there were but nine
steamers assembled the Missouri as far
as Dacota Territory; in 1861 eleven
1920 4h,rkcor,. In 1902 oinh foor