Natchitoches spectator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1867-18??, 1868-06-02
The ssississipni Valley.

Gents tunnel, about seven miles il
; length, will establish intimate railroad
connection between France and Italy
The Suez canal, it is stated, will be for
mally opened i'll October, although thai
great undertaking, which has SO taxed
the credhlity of Englishmen and re
| f1ected so much houor upon the French
will require couple of years for com,
pletion. Freight is, however, now
transported i'm small barges from the
Mediterranean to the Red sea, and Port
said, town of ten thousand inhabi-
tants, has already sprung up at the
northern or Mediterranean end of the
canal. 81 81 t.3t l.s5lfti5 att 50
| But far more important than either of
these is our Pacific railroad, which is
being pushed forward with remarkable
vigor. The highest point of the Rocky
mountains has already been reached and
even passed by the screaming Iocomo-
tive. This great national work is des-
tined to have the same effect upon our
country that the discovery of the ocean
powers of Europe. 1t will make us
front to the west instead of the east
1t will bring us face to face with the
Asiatics, and carry the ripe civilization
of the nineteenth century around the
globe to those ancient countries where
the early civilization of the human race
originated. We quote some remarks as
to the influence of the Pacific railroad
upon the commerce of the Mississippi
valley, it's labor, immigration. ETC., from
the May number of Putnam's Maya
zine:
''The world is just beginning to
appreciate the value of cheap and
rapid communication as an element of
nj L.. -.
beginning to appreciate its value as an
element of unionism. But only after
the completion of the Pacific railroad;
when New York and San Francisco will
lie i'll the great highway of the worlds
travel; when gliding on the ''pale iron
edge" across the continent we may Jos
tie in the cars of Chinese mandarins
and Japanese princes on their way to
Europe, and the money-kings of Europe
on their way to the Golcondas and cotton
fields of the East; when we at last shall
have realized the dream of centuries-a
direct western passage from Europe to
India-and shall have grasped the rich
prize of Asiatic traffic; when Saint |
Louis, situated near the confluence of
the Missouri, the Upper Mississippi, |
shall become the distributing point of |
commerce greater than that of the |
Tarshish, Ph9nicia, Carthage, Rome,
Venice, and all the caravans that toll |
YEARLY across the deserts combined; |
then will the real value and significance
of this great river system be understood. |
Nor until then will its levees be properly |
built, will its currents be made to flow |
in even and regular volume, and this
Mississippi become, iif the
highest sense, liquid highway to the
millions of people living on its banks.
Already vast immigration from
Asia is climbing the western slope of
the Sierra Nevada. On the completion
of the Pacific railroad it will soon cross
the lofty intra-mountain basin of Salt
Lake; it will descend from the crest of
the Rocky Mountain in flood, com
pared with which the present emigration
from Europe will dwindle into insignifl-
canoe; for that great highway across
the continent will change not only the
course of the worlds travel and traffic,
but in time also affect the direction of
it's migrating races.
When the Irish shall become reconcil-
ed to Ireland, and good government
attract the Germans down the Danube |
to the rich plains of Hungary, to the
broad prairies of Wallachia and Molda-
via, to the fertile but almost uuinhabited
wastes of Bulgaria; when Biddy shall
Il
the bod, Hans refuse TO 'thire out" and
Pompey become a landowner, then these
soft, plant Orientals, living on the
cheapest food, working for the lowest
weges, submitting patiently to poverty,
to reproach and insult, will take the
places of one and all as "help," as !
Chilli will be maid of all
work in Boston and in Denver. Ching.
Wang will be cook in New York, wash
and iron in St. Louis, sell cigars in New
Orleans, tend babies in Omaha, draw
corks in Newport, Hop Change will
spin in New England, hoe cotton in
Georgia, carry mortar in Chicago, gather
rice in Louisiana, do farm work in Ken
lucky, and labor on canals and railroads
in every State in the Union. Those
pent-up millions of Asia want room.
want food, want the opportunity to
work; we in the valley of the Missis-
sippi want labor; we must have it; we
have farms for millions, work for tens
of millions. Here is the demand; there
is the supply. Those plodding, rice-eat-
ing, polygamic, idol-wOrshipping Orien-
tails live on the other side of the world; /
but steam will soon bring us together"
Tho london Court Tourno1 so,-e 49,