Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-10-19
AROUND THE LAKES.

CONCLUDED
Our lakes have an old history. y
/ century before our country was ripe
for the Revolution, the birch canoes
of La Sale, Joliet, and Father Mar
quette, played with these waters OF
Mackinaw Straits. The old fort that
we left so peacefully above its pleas
ant gardens, has witnessed Indian
| treachery and slaughter; and in l3l2
/ its garrison was captured before being
aware that war had been declared
and the news of its surrender pre-
pared poor Hull for a vastly greater
sacrifice.
As one sails in this region, the white
wave-washed sand which binds the
edge of every shore, cannot fail to
make him think that these lakes were
many feet higher once.
a lOng-faced Mainite, whose life
/ has been given to numbering here,
says that the Flats of st. Clair con-
vince him that the old channel for
these waters did not lie there, and the
low land below Chicago makes him
Delieve that the Illinois river once led
these lakes down to the Mississippi.
Prof. Winchell, in his Sketches of
D
lakes were once damned up mole
when the Niagara river poured over
the bluff at Lewiston, in series of
cascades, three hundred and seventy
two feet, to the sea, which at that
time filled the basin of Lake On
tario."
On waking up, one morning, we
found our propeller driving US, with
q good strong push, down towards the
Sleeping Bear A bold and for the
most part bare bluff of sand seems
TO run for several miles out into the
lake, and at one point, where white
sand is perhaps piled up some four
hundred feet, a mound thickly COW
cred with pines and evergreens, rises
some fifty more, having, from some
points of the compass, q fair resem-
blanee TO a sleeping bear.
Of to our right were islands that
had a charm in their dark foliage.
II DeFOe had placed Robinson CrusOe
on one Of these, We should have been
here years ago.
Another morning found US in Mil
Waukie, city whose clay bakes into
yellow bricks, the second grain city
Of the continent, having a half dozen
elevators now bursting with eleven
million bushels of wheat. 1t seemed
very neatly banked in among green
leaves as we steamed away. The In
dian name " Milwaukee, e'-rich land
is, perhaps, not out OF place.
1t never has been our lot to find
a very attractive steamboat land
ing; such a thing is certainly not
to be found in Chicago. We were re-
minded at once of the ChicagOan who
having gone abroad where there was
pure air, tainted away, and was only
" brought to" by having a spoiled fish
applied to his nose. Still Chicago has
clean places and beautiful places, and
if il gets no favor from other towns, il
is at least to be said that it asks none.
We have heard at Unity church
lone Of the best in the city of grand
churches) a sermon from Robert Coll
yer. Mr.. Collyer prsys to a God
a." Whose love brightens not only the
brightest Heaven but the deepest
hell ;" and it is orthodox to call his
discOurses "thin sentimentalisms."
He has quick sympathy and a strong
physical control over his audience,
if one may say so. To-day he spoke |
on Sympathy" the going out to
meet poor lonesome fellOw-hearts.-
He seemed to lead in feeling and his
audience pressed close behind-yes,
even ahead.
At the south edge of the city, in
front of the fine University, looking
over a green hank on to Lake Michi- !
gan, is the grave Of Douglas. Only |
the base is yet complete, but even |
that gives a good home for all that !
Through the grated door |
you can read on his enclosing marble: !
Stephen A. Douglas: Born April %, |
1913; died June 8, 1861. "TelI my
children to obey the laws and uphold |
the constitution" :"
We like those dying words. No
political opponent reads them, thinks I
when they were spoken, and then !
goes away to revile the dead. We
wished that Lincoln's grave were here |
too, where the waves say hush" for |
ever. Whata monument there would |
be here Of one great period in the |
worlds struggle for holy liberty! "a
ii ne when
- bitter pangs brought Joy,
And death gave life forever"
CHICAGO, 1870. E.B.w.