The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1869-03-17
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, /
March 8. 1869,

INDIANAPOLIS, IND,
March 8, 1869.
The weather clerk is disposed to
give us another installment of winter,
although the time is past when it
should have been. Snow fell in con-
siderable quantities last week and
again we had the merry jingle of the
bells--for short time only. WOW
the ground is bare and looks sterile
enough to suit the most melancholy.
The city ofMadison, on the Ohio in
this State, wore a sepulchral palor
and stiffness at 5 o'clock A. NJ, on
Tuesday last, as the train for Idianap
oils mounted the steep bluffs that over
look the town and river. So wrapt
and profound was tho silence it was
easy to imagine the clank of the cars
the protest ofgnomes whose domain
we invaded. Four or FIVE miles from
the river the country assumes its prop
er level, and we dash on through
laden forests and wide reaches
of prairie land. The sun rolls up
granlly above the horizon, and Dart
ing his quivers Of light across wood
and field, tints all with a mellow
lustre. Our conductor, long, lank
and awkward, a perfect specimen of
the genus West, observes to a lady
passenger that "it is a nice morning.
She knows it, Of course, and follows
up this hint for "a chat until she ex-
hausts the subject and flies oft onto her
family relations and was going on to
tell-when the entrapped conductor
imagines 90 station just ahead /" That
was a talking machine he spang and
must run down before she could stop,
so the car had the benefit of the re
mainder Of her conversation, addressed
apparently to fellow traveller.
Things unimportant to enter here and
which Ishopld have made no note Of,
|ifg!er rhad' 'not,, vf,rahnif drawnsrgn,
said she "always liked Bill, but he
was high tempered"
At Greenwood, twenty miles from
indianapolis, q Western Pennsylva-
nan got on the train, and sitting be-
side him 1 piled my questions concern
ing the country, he having lived in
Hoosierdom since '39. Land in his
part was worth 500 per acre. Far
lners raise stock of all kinds, grain
large and small, fruit moi 50 good
Soil from eighteen inches to three feet
thick, black loan. Fever and ague
scarce. Th& last, however may be
fondly apotrophiaed as that fam9gs
myth who is
$50 far and yet SO near"
One mile and half out from In.
dianapolis on the road is the late U. S
Senator Hendricks residence, look
ing, through therifts in the smoke
from the locomotive, to be a comforta.
bic place; not airish, in the hifalutir
sense, but estledaway among clumI
of trees presenting in itsface the home
of refinement. l cannot tell you thu
secret of "Tom" Hendricks favor
among Indianians, but he has an en-
viable popularity with all partie4here
that, as Democgat, is unexptainabl'
any other way thG. putting him as ar
exception to thegeneral Sse. A,..,
The suburbs of Indianahsfis IN
uninviting in appearance, .hnildlhgs
3small and of wood. + alightSl from
the train in a depot that is an honor I,
any. city, capacious, clean, with every
mcdeth convenience and but a shor
walk to the business centre. Min,
railroads centre here, The first thin.
that strikes the attention Of the stran
ger on the sidewalks ofthe city is thu
width Of its thoroughfares and tn,
beauty in its plan Of construction
The centre Of the city isa circle, dies
tined to be . park at some future day
Streets terminate at and pass this circl
at right angles to each other, extend
ling to the outskirts at all points of tn
compass, and at the angles ofthe fou
central blocks four avenues radiat
diagonally to the perimeter ofan out
er circle, imaginable anywhere in th
suburbs. Street trainways run dowl
each avenue and along the four side
Of the quadrilateral they converge up
on, making the transit easy and eheal
to any section Of the city. When tn
war broke ont Indianapolis had abou
twenty thousand Inhabitants; now il
population numbers nearly y sixtython
! sanda Business blocks continue tog
81 . >.~nssvkos~uoo