Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-06-27
Ehe 8. LonIs ID fTo-Day.

Looking down upon the st. Louis
of to-day, from the high roof of . the
superb temple which the Missouri
ans have built to the mercuria god
of insurance, one can hardly believe
that the 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
tinged the walls of a venerable
brown, and the, grouping of build
ings is as picturesque and varied as
that of a continental city. From
tthe water side on ridge after ridge,
rise acres of solidly built houses,
vast manufactures, magazines of
commerce, long avenues bordered
with splendid residences; labyrinth
of railways bewilders the eye; and
the clang of machinery and the
whirl of a myriad wagon wheels rise
to the ear. The leeve is thronged
with busy and uncouth laborers;
dozens of white steamers are shrek
ing their notes of arrivals and de-
parture; the ferries are choked with
traffic; a gigantic and grotesque
scramble for the almost limitless west
beyond is spread out before the vi
sion. The town has leaped into a
new life since the war; has doubled
its population, its manufactures and
It's ambition, until it stands so fully
abreast of its wonderful neighbor,
Chicago, that the traditional acerbi- |
ty and the reciprocal criticism for
which both cities bave so long been
famous is latterly much enhanced. |
The city, which now stretches
twelve miles along the ridges, branch
ing from the water shed between the
Missouri, the Meramec and the Mis-
sissippi rivers fanked by rolling
praires richly studded with groves
and vineyards; which has many
railroad lines pointed to It's central
depots, and mile and a half of
steamboats, at its levee, a thousand
miles from the sea; whose popula-
ton has increased from 5000, in
1885 to 45O, 900 in 1873; which has;
banking capital of nineteen millions
which receives hundreds of thousand |
of tons of iron ore monthly, has
bridged the Father of Waters, and
talks of controlling the cotton trade
of Ar kansas and Texas-is but little
like the st: Louis of the days when
Col. Stoddard had his head quarters
in a rude cottage, and the United
States, in his person, had just adop-
ted the infant city In those days
the houses were nearly all built of
heWn logs, set upon end, and COW
cred with coarsely shingled roofs.
The town extended along the line of
what are known as Main. and Second
streets; a little south of the square
salled the Place d' Armes. Fort st.
Charles was held by tinny garrison
md in the old stone tower which the
Spaniards had built, debtors and
criminals were confined together.
French customs and French gaiety
prevailed; there were two diminu-
AVE- taverns, whose rafters nightly
,ang to the tales of hair breadth es-
,apes told by the boatman of the
Mississippi. The Chouteaus, the
Iisas, and the Labbadies were the
principal merchants; French and
English schools, fourished; peltry,
cad and whisky were used for cur
.eAcy, and negroes were to be pur-
,hased for them; the semi-lndian
,arb Of the traper were seen at every
treet corner; and thousands of furs,
tripped from the buffalo and the
,eaver, were exported to New Or
cans. The mineral wealth lying
within ahundred miles of st. Louis
ad hardly been dreamed of; the .
olonists were too busy in killing
indians and keeping order in the
own, to think of iron, lead, coal,
nd zinc.
l6laoard King ScriJner's for July.