Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-06-28
For the Watchmnr
A Trip to CalifOrnia.-.NO. 3.

could the readers Of the Journal 80 well afford to
have me say nothing The reason is obvious.
Montpelier and vicinity has done more in stocking
Chicago with business men. lawyers and doctors,
| think, than any other locality Probably not
school district Of Washington county but has IT.
representative in Chicago store or shop OF
Office and 50 there is much visiting Of "my son
George in Chicago by the good Vermont fathers
and mothers. and in consequence much talking
around quiet tea-tabe, of summer afternoons by
the mothers and around cracking stoves Of winter
evening. hy the fathers, about the wide straight
avenue. Of Chicago, not like the rams horn
streets of Boston you know, the palatial stores,
the pleasant parks the indomtabe energy dis
played in thi. elevated city with water drawn from
[ the lake, three miles out from shore, (Grecn
Mountain energy. that is y much talking also OF
the grand blue old Lake itself, that stretches far
away under the sky 10 the north and east, and Of
the equally level prairie that meets the horizon
as far as the eye can gaae oll 10 the south and
west. Put upon thi. pr,iric, We glide Of o Satur-
day morning along tle Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy road.
Coming into Chicago by the Michigan Central,
aud leaving it by the Chicago, Burlington and
| Quincy, one hes this in his favor, that be does
not have to he transported across the city from
/ depot n depot. Their depots are under the same
roof What a nui-asce it il, this transportation
Of ones self and luggage from depot to depot ;
ths involuntary suhiecton to the rule of hackmen,
baggogemen and expressmen, who may be angels
/ in disguise sent 10 try our tempcrs and destroy
our trunks il 50. they are faithful 10 their mis-
sion, very. But all this might he avoided IL there
were in all large centres OF travel, what there
ought to be, and what there might b. it it were
not for the jealousy between rival railroad cor
| porations one grand central depot into which all
roads should carry their passengers. let me see ;
have not heard Of almost innumcrabie lines of
railroad destined yet to converge in Montpelier
let thi, be- the cry of all is citizens, one depot
/ for all, though Vanderbilt controls the Wells
River. Jim Fisk the White River and Gov Smith
the Vermont Central
| One does not get tar into the prairie before he
begins to ruminate curious thoughts. 1t is so
perfectly level, scarcely tree, never a hillock /,
so different from our Eastern lands. Why this
difference? What caused it? win it always be
thus? viii the prairie, through which we are
| gliding as smoothly asalong well-matched door
be always nounmiulesS and treeles.? With
these questions rising up, one calls to memory
the theories OF the various biologists who have
explored this region and IL he looks through my
eyes he accepts the latest that of Prof " uchel of
Ann Arbor, as the most reasonable His theory
is, that these lands have within time compar-
! lively recent been the bed Of an immense inland
lake, of which the present chain OF lakes are the
remaining drop in the basin their rich soil is the
| the wash and waste OF countless centuries the
lands are too recently reclaimed from the lakes
bed to have the germs Of trees borne over them
BIZ bird and wind but that step hy step, as the
years roll by the trees that encrce this basin
are marching in toward the center to take posses
sion. This last is fact; about the borders and
wherever trees have chdnced to spring up, whether
planted by the hand of man, OF sprung from seeds
sown By Gods unconscious messengers. the wind
and the bird, slowly, but surely, the woodland
is gaining ground In five hundred years. east
Of the Missouri, there will be no such thing as
treeless prairie Whether there will be such O
thing a mountainless prairie, viii depend upon
how quietly Dame Natures internal machinery
runs, that is situated under these lands or more
closely to the truth, whether the Creator is hold
ing in reserve beneath these plains twin noun
tain ranges to the Green the Adirondacks and the
Alleghanes, which lie is going 10 send up all III
His own good time, to stop the tornadoes, the
fever and ogue, and other similar indigenous
products Of these western prairie- of course n,
| one will dare to dispute the above prophecy con
. corning the future Of the treeless prairie unles
he expects to live that length Of time
In the meanwhile one thing is patent to US all
we are riding through a country that is treeles
nor and ieartully level the very best place il
the world for man who wishes 70 farm riding
T and who doesn take kindly to picking up stone
e or drawing manure We pass through an
. amount of exceenty ordered cities, and Of good
size too. do not what is to hinder these place
from growing indefinitely, until they rival in pop
ulation tho cities Of China and Japan I fee
like endorsing what Californian observed As VI
rode over the country, and were looking out upoi
the towering gardens and orchards, upon the field
Of waving grain and grass, upon the cosy cottage
Of the happy residents, 4" This is indeed the gar
den of America" " But they have winters Oh
these praires, and how are the houses wa rmed
IS zee no forest, says an Eastern man. [ nder thi
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