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

L
l had labored so long and arduously
for months past, that felt / had de-
served holiday; and have enjoyed it
greatly. &
Accompanied by my wife. l 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 2 :35 o'clock. making the trip 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 lust about two days! This is strik
inv contrast with 1856, 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 memora-
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 a mean
and shabby set Of frame buildings, with
everything Of the toughest; but it will
soon, learn. enter handsome and CON-
modious buildings
The B. & .. K. r. is we'll conducted,
with a great deal of style and circum-
stance, and it's 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
stantially the same as that of the old
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. At
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 farm hous-
es looked old and dilapidated; there was
plentiful lack OF paint; and the fields
did not appear to have yielded very
abundant harvest, We saw great
many log houses, with their great chin
neys built outside of the house, of stones.
or mud and sticks. One would have
thought himself on the frontier instead
} of in country where farms are worth
. 500 per acre.
Upon entering West Virginia we found
the lanl which had been gradually be
coming more and more broken, rising
into great hills, which they call noun
, tains. By the way, l wonder some
times why they do not cal. the Missis
sippi bluffs in Goodhue, Wabasha ant
Winona counties, mountains. They de
serve the name as much as many points
e in Pennsylvania and Virginia, which ar,
, d,gnified with that high-sounding title
The soil of West Virginia is a rel
clay, which seems to be in a perpetua
state OF muddiness The wayfarers ar
plas,ered with it to the knees; and 20,
q can recognize young girl from thi
|, region even in parlor, for as she walk
her whole attention is concentrated o.
; the grave problem Of where she vii
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 her
and there a horseman gong toamiIl wit
n his grist before him divided into the tw
n ends Of sack, even as his ancestors ha
probably carried it for centuries. w
should not be surprised ii some Of ther
bore the traditional s. 1ne In one end o
the sack, and the grain in the other.
y Corr seems to be the chief c: op raised
:. and could not but think how strange
was that while our white ace had driv
q en- out the red-man we had retained hl
e, favorite maize. We had turned his wi
e vans into houses and widencd his littl
"a corn-patches into great fields.
Here and there was . green garde
le spot, (as we would call it in Minnesota,
y devoted to winter wheat; and occasion
d ally upon the hill-sides You could Sc
:. black noies with men working aroun
them, and going in and out. like an
busting about the entrance of an al
al gallery. These were coal mines sour
r. es of great and inexhaustible wealth
J. the people. What was said Of Pennsy
vania might with equal truth be apple
10 West Virginia; that it .'raised ~
I'D crops annually, one upon the surfa,
u and another, and richer one, below Il
ne surface" And, by the way. was show
"a in the cars, before reaching Chicago.
Nv q fellow-uavelcr, some splendid spec
of mems Of copper ore. from the vein d
i'd covered recently in or near Duluth
na Father Germ. Certainly if those q
=. fair specimens Of the mine, Minneso