The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-12-30
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 26, 1877 j

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 26, 1875.
had labored so long and arduously
for months past, that | felt | had de-
served holiday; and have enjoyed it
greatly.
Accompanied by my wife. | left St.
Paul on Tuesday, the 2lst inst. at
o'clock, D. M, and arrived in Philadel
phia on Friday morning the Oath inst,
at 80 o'clock. making the tri p from the
waters of the upper Mississippi to the
shores of the Delaware in two days
seven hours and half! If we had
taken the lightning mail train from
Chicago, we would have come through
in Just abou. two days! This is a strik-
ins contrast with 1886, when was sew
en- days going from Dubuque to st.
Paul, and that too. in an uncomfortable
covered sleigh, amid cold and snow.
At Chicago we took the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad 1t made itself mcmora-
BILE some months since by its refusal to
enter the railroad ring to put up freights.
1t found itself obliged at that time to
force its way through to Chicago in or
der to obtain fair share of the western
trade. We found its depot in mean
and shabby set Of frame buildings, with
everything OF the toughest; but it will
soon, learn. enter handsome and COM
| modious buildings.
| The b. g. q. r. X. is we'll conducted.
with great deal OF style and circum-
stance, and its employees look like mill
tary men with their brass and trappings.
AS far AS Shelby Junction, near Cleve-
land, Ohio, the line OF the road is sub
stanIiaily the same as that Of the old
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. All
Shelby junction it turns off South
eastwardly through the central part OF
Ohio.
AS W approached the Ohio river
conld not but notice that the tarm hons
es looked old and dilapidated; there was
plentiful lack OF paint; and the field:
did not appear to have yielded a yer,
abundant harvest. We saw grea
many log houses, with their great chin
neys built outside of the house, of stones
or mud and sticks One would hav,
} thought himself on the frontier instea'
of in country where farms are wortl
. 500 per acre.
, Upon entering West Virginia we foun,
the Ian /, which had been gradually be
coming more and more broken, risin;
in great hills, which they call noun
: tains. BY thu way, wonder some
times why they do not cal. the Missis
,ippi bluffs in Goodhue, Wabasha an
Winona counties. mountains. They dc
! serve the name as much as many point
c in Pennsylvania and Virginia, which ar
, dguified with that high-sounding title
The soil Of West Virginia is a re
clay. which seems to be in 4 perpetu1
; state OF muddiness The waytarers ar
b plas,ered with it to the knees; and 70
@ can recognize a young girl from tn
/. region even in a parior. Tor as she walh
her whole attention is concentrated o
y the grave problem Of where she wi
set her foot next with greatest safety an
. least damage Few carriages or eve
wagons are to be seen; travel is nearl
: ali on horseback. and | could see he'
. and there a horseman gong to mill wit
n his prist before him divided into the Tvs
n ends OF a sack. even as his ancestors ha
probably carried it tor centuries. w
should not be surprised IL some Of thel
I bore the traditional stone in one end {
the sack. and the grain IN the other.
l. Cor. seems to be the chief c. op raises
;. and could not but think how strange
was that while our white ace had dri
20 en- out the red-man we had retained h
2. fayorite maize We had turned his wi
G vans into houses and widened his lit
- corn-patches into great fields.
Here and there was green garde
ls spot, las we would call it in Minnesota
y devoted to winter wheat: and occasion
ID allv upon the hill-sides you could 81
: black noies iwith men working arouE
them. and going in and out, ike an
busting about the entrance OF an a
a! gallery. These were coal mines; sour
er IS OF great and inexhaustlDie wealth
j. the people. What was said OF Penns,
vania might with equal truth be appli
10 West Virginia: that it raised ~
I'd crops annually, one upon the surfa
Il and another, and a richer one. below t
ne Surface.'' And. by the way. was sho7
:. in the cars. before reaching Chicago.
liz q fellow-uareler. some splendid spo
sof mems Of copper ore. from the vein d
Id covered recently IN or near Duluth
"a Father Germ. Certainly if those q
- fair psc:mens of the mine. Minnest