The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-07-08
[from an Occasional correspondent
FROM THE STATE CAPITAL.
Impressions Of an Ey~ansviIlian at the
Capitai-Beauty of the Streets
The Carriages Of the Wealthy
Progress of indianapolis, Business,
&e-PersORai.

Editors journal:
Driven into my room by the intense
heat Of outdoors, which makes pedes-
trianation positively awful, and know
ing nothing better l a do than to
make known to my friends the impress
sions an Evansvillian receives in be-
ing suddenly deposited in the middle
of what is not only the Capital, but
the biggest city in Hoosierdom, [ will
follow my bent"
The first impression is that Of pleas
ure, accompanied by a very consider
able admixture of something hat
seems like envy. The streets here
are so wide that to one who has been
"cabined. cribbed, confined" in a
place like Evansville, there is a feel
ing that his area of liberty has
been decidedly enlarged, and, insensi-
bly,, he finds himself saying, why
couldn't we have had this down in the
Pocket City, where town lots were so
plenty and fresh air so coveted?" But
as the thing can't be did over again,
we must accept the situation" Let
US console ourselves with the thought
that that situation is not quite so bad
as 1.-The last ditch" and that habit
and familiarity, and especially pros
perity, can make things not only toll
cradle, but genial. The Prisoner of
Chillon, if | remember, says, My
very chains and | grow friends; so
much a long acquaintance makes us
what we are"
Well, to begin: Washington Street
is really a superb drive, promenade
and business haunt. 1t runs due east
and west, and Was identical with the
Old National Road. 1t is one hun
dred and twenty feet wide, with
foot pavements on either side of
twenty feet wide. The other streets
are ninety feet wide, crossing each
other at right angles; but besides
these are four avenues. radiating
The Circle" which is a plot
of ground once in the centre of the
city, originally designed for the guber-
Material mansion, but that idea has
long ago been abandoned, and the
Circle is in, a shameful state of shah
byness and neglect, as are also some
other of the public grounds. These
avenues exactly intersect the blocks
and streets. running as they do, ex-
actly 45 degrees between the car
and, of ceourss. they greatly increase
what some people would call the waste
room, but which, as a sanitary feature,
must add not a little to the health of
the place. On a smaller scale, it is
like Washington, "a city of magnif
cent distances"
The streets in the main portion of
the city are all powdered or ~graveled,
perhaps some of them macadamized.
This, with their ample width, enables
these who own carriages to display
their e~quipage and blooded stock to
advantage, and | may say you see a
higher average of good carriages than
with us, though [ have seen none to
equal what we sometimes turn cut in
T., by such Of our townsmen as Mr..
Viele or Keen, or Preston,
or Morgan. I have seen Gov
n Bakers establishment; the
bays and the barouche from
the hands Of our towns
man, Mr.. Greene, which he
brought up here with him. Like him
SELF, they are good, but unpretentious
like himself, a specimen of pure
republican simplicity. By-the-bye,
the Governor is winning golden opin-
ions among the people here, and if
you leave it with the people ofIndian-
apolis to decide. there will be no
doubt who is to be the meat Governor
Of Indiana.
But, to other impressions-those
about the ctty-the immense passenger
depot, the street railroads, and, on
Meridian Street, the multiplied con-
centering telegraphic wires, and then
their hotels, Ct mean hotel buildings.)
the Bates House, the Palmer and
the Oriental and the Spencer; their
public buildings, too numerous to
mention; some fine blocks of stores,
as Glenn's, Schnell's, Alvord's and
others; these impart to the city an APP
pearance OF Importance unapproached
by any other city in the State; and,
say what we may, Indianapolis is
v to be any other han " no mean
city"
1t is suffering now by reaction from
the unnatural stimulation of the war
years, but it must continue to grow,
and it will make a hard contest to
keep its claim to the championship as
being the chief city of the State.
There certainly is a vast amount
OF wealth here. and the number of
mansions such as you see IN a drive
over North Meridian Street exceeds
largely what | expected to find.
As it regards progress, Indianapolis
is net stepping along very briskly.
There is at least a partial paralysis or
concession From this thew exnec-