Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-06-26

Looking down upon the st. Louis Of to
day, from the high roof OF the superb
temple which the Missourians have built
to the mercural god of insurance, one can
hardly believe that tho vast metropolis
spread out before him represents the growth
of only three.quarters of century. The
town seems as old as London. The smoke
from The Illinois coal has tiuged the walls
venerable brown, aud the grouping Of
buildings is az picturesque and varied as
that of "a continental city. From the wator
side, on ridge afer ridge, rise acres of sol.
idly built houses, vast MANUFACTURES, mag
azines of commerce, long avenues border
ed with splendid residences; II labyrinth of
railways bewiders the eye; aud the clang
of machinery aud the whirl of myriad
thousand wagonwheels rise to the ear.
The levee Is thronged with busy and I'M
couth labOrers dozens of white steamers
are shrieking their notes of arrival and de-
parture the ferries are chokod with trai-
tic "a gigantic and grotesque scramble for
the almost limitless West beyond is spread
out before the vision. The town has leap
! ed into a new life since the war has doub-
led lis population, its manufactures and its
ambition, until il stands 50 fully abreast OF
| its wonderful neighbor, Chicago, that the
traditional acerbity of the reciprocal criti-
cism for which both cities have so long
| been famous is lalterly much enhanced.
| The city, which now stretches twelve miles
along the ridges, branching from the wa
| tershed between the Missouri, the Mera-
NEE aud the Mississippi rivers, fanked by
rolling prairies richly studded with groves
and vineyards; which has many railroad
lines pointed to its central depUts, and a
! mile and a half Of steamboats, at It's lcvec,
| a thousand miles frum the sea; whose pop
ulation has increased from 5000, IN 1885, TO
1000 in 1873; which has a banking capt.
al of nineteen millions; which recei es hun
| dreds of thousands OF tons of iron ore month
| w, has bridged the Father OF Waters, and
| talks of controlling the cotton trade of Ar
kansas and Texas lis but little like the st.
| Louis of the days when Col. StuddaId had
his headquarters IN II rude cottage, and the
| United States, in his person, had just a
dopted the infant city. In those days the
houses were nearly all built Of hewn logs,
set upon end, and covered with cOarsely
shingled roofs. The town extended along
the line of what are now known as Main
and Second streets little south of the
square called the Place d ATmeS, Fort st.
Charles was held by tiny garrison, and
| in the old stone tower which the Span
iards had built, debtors and criminals were
confined together. French customs and
French gaiety prevailed; there were two
| diminutive tayerns, whose raGlers nightly
rang to the tales of hair-breadlh escapes
| told by the boatmen of the Mississippi.
| The Chouteaus, the Lisas, and the Labba-
dies were the principal merchants; French
and English Schools, ilourished; peltry,
lead and whisky were used for currency,
and negroes were 10 he purchased for
them the semiIndan garb of the trapper
was seen at every street corner; and thou
sands ofiurs, stripped from the buffalo and
the beaver, were exported to New Orleans.
The mineral wealth lying within hundred
miles of st. Louis had hardly been dream
| ed of; the colonists We're too busy in kill
ing Indians and keeping order in the town,
to think of iron, lead, coal and zinc. 49, Ed
,odrd King; ScribneI's for Juiy.