The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1869-08-12
Correspondence of the Cou-
rIor.
ST.. CLoUD, MIMI,
July 30, 1869.

Il rIer.
ST. CLoUD, MIMI,
! July 80, 1869.
1 MY DEAR GENERAL:
] am here, in the
neighborhood of tho northern rim of
civilization. This human invention,
however, rather inexplicable in char
acter, as l find it, the more I come
to understand the status of mon and
things on this point, continues to in
vado the surrounding obscurity with
an astonishing speed, SO that, next
year, if | should come here, I should
expect to find Pembina within the
radius of its influence. and its hideous
mingling of breeds claiming that the
border, like the fever and ague in all
western villages, is "a little farther
on"
Now l don't call the Pembina peo-
pie "hideous mingling Of breeds"
without knowledge Of what speak;
for some fifteen hundred of their lit
tie one-ox carts have been down here
this summer, involving, of course,
the presence of good proportion of
the inhabitants of that region, in.
cluding a great many women and
children. They constitute mixture
of French, English, Scotch and In
dian in every degree of blood, color,
temperament andpropensity, and ap-
pear as if they might be the rags OF
all. They live scattered over the
country up there, almost wholly in
tepes, with scarcely the prctence Of
a border shanty to mark their aspi-
rations for moro comfortable state
of existence. Their women are ex-
tremely hideous. | think a cross of
the Chinese and the negro would
produce petticoat that would rule
as queen among them by divine right
of grace and beauty.
And as to the matter of ague, let
me, before | forget it, give this re-
gion the great praise which is it's
due, of being free from this hateful
torment of the Northwest. About
the state at largo, / do not know
but in this region thcre is no fever
and ague, except in cases where i'm
migrants have brought it with them,
in which instance it early abates.-
Now why is this? 1 never heard
any body who pretended to know
about such things, who did not assert
that the prevalence of aguo in the
West was a consequence of turning
up new lands to the sun and air, and
Of the decay of rank vegetation
Yet those two things create no ague
here. Doesn't tho case require tho
invention of some other theory?
This is a pleasant little town, on
tho west bank of tho Mississippi;
seventy-fi five miles above St. Paul.
1t contains--its residents say-rising
of 1000 people. That is u pretty |
large allowance, l think. During a
residence west of Lake Michigan of |
more than twenty years, (including |
what time l have MT been here l |
have never known the inhabitants of |
a western "city" (there are no
clowns, y guilty Of the sin of UNDER
stating their population. 1t is a
crime of which habit has happily
rendered them exempt. st. Cloud is
no exception to the rule. But my
judgment really is that there may be
here from 5000 to $500 people. l
don't know Of any thing interesting |
in its history, except the sacking CT
a printing office somo years ago
Ma'am Swisshelm printed a paper
hero, in which she was ESQ they say) |
very free-spoken concerning social
and personal affairs, and not knowing |
what she might say next, or whom
she might make the text of her re.
mark, it was concluded that the wis.,
est way TO forestall the matter was
to dump her stuff in the river-which
they proceeded to do. Her ultimate
successor, however, was one of her
own blood, a nephew, who publishes
here one of the very best country
newspapers in the State, the 81.
Cloud Journal. Success to him. He
IN ~sOnnd Republican. and IA bright
as new pin.
The Mississippi is baby up here.
The volume of its waters where the
bridge crosses it is less than five hun
dred feet. 1t is very rapid and shall
low. 1t has nothing of that majes-
tic bulk and dignity of march which
are seen from an Iowa shore. | have
angled in its waters some, thinking
that l might spend some of my idle
time as foolishly that way as in any
other that occurred to mo. And the
result showed that l was correct, for
| never yet had a "blte," and never
heard of but two instances in which
bites were reported among my COM
panions, one Of which resulted in the
capture of perch weighing about
an ounce and the other Of musco.
longe weighing nearly thirty pounds.
These were probably all the fish to
be found in the Mississippi at this
season above st. Anthony. The rest
have gone to rusticate in the interior
lakes connected with the Mississip-
pi, for the tinny tribe up here are
extremely prone TO resort to these
abundant watering places during the
hot season, (only ! have MT seen any
hot season yet; it's all spring and