The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1869-07-15
Chicago on st. Louis.

An editorial correspondent Of the
Chicago Post has been to Kansas City
on m excursion, and thus docs ST.
Louis in passing through:
"a fel!ow-feeling makes us won
drous kind" after oil, and can't
have the heart to "write dowa" st.
Louis, as some jealous people on Lake
Michigan would be glad to have mo
do. am bound to be frank, and con-
fess that, as a location for q sugar rc-
finery, she has some slight advanta-
ges over Chicago that, being an old
city, she is more finished than ours
Cit was the Union Pacific, and other
westward stretching railroads that
finished her) and that, as a grower
Of may-weed, particularly toward
her suburbs, she has no equal. If the
Common Council of st. Louis would
enact an ordinance prohibiting all
drinks'but may-weed tea Ciced), and
then tax the tea, they would secure a
revenue that would soon place the
city out Of dobt, whereas her county
bonds have now gone to protest and
the common currency of the town is
city treasury warrants. However
much others may build their hopes
upon the Grain Shippers League, /
cannot but regard may-weed tea as
the panacea OF all her complaints.
1 am compelled to yield the palm
of st. Louis in still another point,
wherein Chicago has hitherto won
wide fame. She can seat us at the
Social Evil. Chicago has no Green
street like st. Louis's Green street /;
and I am credibly informed BY those
who lived in both cities, that there
exists not, even in much vaunted
Chicago, any such entente cordiale be-
tW cen men of the first families and
women Of other first families, as may
be found in st. Louis. A friend Of
mine went Gas o missionary to q
fashionable house of sssiguation in
this ancient city. While laboring
with the landiady on the nefarious-
ness of her calling, he saw enter a
denizen of one OF the finest residen-
ces on Washington avenue. Within
fifteen minutes there arrived another
residant Of Ahe saaao arfst0cr0ttc
street. The popularity Of the sltua-
ton was that each came 10Th the 9th
er's ,cife, and each went away pro-
foundly ignorant of the others prox-
imity!' What could bo moro tooth
some to the readers Of tho Sunday
Tribune or Times than such an cpl
sode as this, properly worked up and
elaborated Yet st. Louis can fur
nish them any day, or, rather, night.
The big thingin ST. Louis is Shaw's
Garden. If stranger arrives in
town the first thing they say to him
is, "Have you been to Shaw's Gar
den Z" If the newly-arrived is .
delegation they take it TO Shaw's
Garden, incontinently and without
parley. They show it thro' Shaw's
Garden, and Shaw treats it to brandy
and water and shows it his banyan
tree, which doesn't look, as yet, very
unlike any other homesick exotic
The collection Of plants is very large
and fine. 1t is q private enterprise
ofShaw's, but he holps the city ont,
in an emergency, by showing it to
strangers. At one time the Garden
came near being closed to the public.
Shaw got sued for breach of fpromise
and mulcted in 100000, notwith-
standing the old fellow spells better
than Sprague. st. Louis began to
fear she would loose the Garden, and
so Grain Dealers Protective Union
League was formed to get the DANA
ges remitted. They were remittcd
and the public continues to be admit
ted. It is the frequent mention o.
this Garden that induces in the st
Louis folks o habit ofsaving "Shawl'
to all other cities-a habit in which
since it is harmless, VIC ought, ir
courtesy, to indulge them. &c.