The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-09-05
THE TALE OF THREE CITIES.
Chicago the City Of the Lakes. Gin
cinnati Forty-three Years ago.
Chicago and St. Louis. How they
Compare. Their Interest in Trans
Mississippi Commerce.
Correspondence OF the Citizen.
CHICAGO, Aug. 3Ist, 1873.

1eTe L dn III Ju0 HeITI Vi Jut
Northwestern Metropolis-the city
of the lakes, and one whose long
solid blocks of beautiful ediflces,
uniform in height and general ar
chitecture, furnish the only resem.
blance in America to the magnifi.
cent city of Paris. 1t stands at the
North angel of an equatorial trian-
gle, of which Cincinnati and st.
Louis form the other two.
CINCINNATI FORTY THREE YEARS AGO.
Forty three years ago the writer
lived in Cincinnati, at that time a
long way in advance of her two Sis
tiers of the Lake and the Mississip-
pi. At that time Cincinnati had as
sumed the size aud characteristics
of a most respectable and thriving
city-far in advance of snything
west of the Alleghanies, unless it
was New Orleans. 1t had eXten-
sive jobbing houses, daily papers,
book publishing firms, good church
es, handsome residences and first
class Hotels. The Pearl Street
House was much affected by the
fashionable, and new married coup
les from the Blue Grass region came
hlther to spendj the honey moon,
witness the varied wonders of the
city, not forgetting to see Hiram
Powers, whose genius eliminated
in the Greek slave-disport with
Greek fire and stir up the home
made devils in the smoke and flame
of his internal regions. But the
great artist gave a new turn to his
efforts and immOrtalized and hon
ored his country by achieving
world wide fame as a sculptor. The
city as well as the artist advanced
in the course Of progress. Wisely
and well it turned its attention to
manufactures, as the true source of
increasing population and general
prosperity. This interest alone has
probably given half the population
to the fair City of the Ohio Valley.
CHICAGO AND ST. LOUIS.
The other two cities of the West
ern triangle were later in the start,
but more rapid in their growth, and
now after fifty years, the two strug
Cling villages hold within their
combined limits more than a mil
lion of people. Between them there
is a sharp but wholesome rivalry,
just enough of emulation and com
petition for trade, to keep both
wide awake and on their good be
havior. Their papers and claquers
brag and bully and quarrel, but the
two great cities preserve their equa-
nimity, and pretty nearly an equali-
ity in trade and population.
CHICAGO AND ST. LouIs-How THEY
COMPARE.
Chicago and st. Louis-St. Lou
is and Chicago, one looks as well
as the other on paper, they become
the mouth as well.
Spell them. They are both com
posed of the same cabulastic num-
ber of seven letters, and each weighs
the same { in printers type.) Con
jure with them, one can raise the
devil as quick as the other. Smell
them. A lively soap factory can give
as healthy an odor as a stagnant
pool or loud smelling river that
flows both ways, as it did when
the writer first saw it in the flood
of 1874. In climate, Chicago gets
the mercury down below nothing in
winter aud St. Louis keeps it up in
the nineties during summer; so
they are about equal in the matter
of temperature. If one gets little
ahead in population, the other has
only to employ a directory man of
greater genius and audacity in or
der to restore the equilibrium. In
architectural beauty Chicago has
more palace like edifices and more
streets lined with elegant structures;
but st. Louis answers back that
many of her palaces are shingled
with mortgages. In business both
cities are contending sharply for the
trade Of the grandest empire in the
world. One has its great water
channel to the Atlantic, and the 9th
er to the Gulf. But those facilities
Cor transportation have been supple
mented by many thousand miles of
railway, reaching Atlantic ports by
several trunk lines, gridironing
their own States, and extending
west three or four hundred miles by
a half dozen lines. Beyond this
limit (Kansas excepted } but a sin
gle line of railway stretches out into
the broad eXpanse of the far west, a
region marvelously rich in the
treasures of the mine and the soil,
and covering more than half the
area of the United States. The one
Pacific railroad on the 42nd paIal-
lei has the whole inter-ocean trade
under its control, arranges its tar
iff of charges to suit the greed OF a
few great monopolists, and by its
discrimination and extortion, not
only taxes commerce eight or ten
millions q year, but stands in the
way of settlement of vast and fruit
ful regions lying TO the north and
south of it's line. This it does by
persistent opposition to the con-
struction of competitive lines
through the northwest and SOUTH
west. The three cities named are
equally interested in the completion
of the northern and Texas Pacific.
two roads that would bring an in
calculable amount of trade to the
whole country, as well as TO the
South, West and Northwest.
They are amongst the absolute
and imperative necessities of the
hour, and the early Inauguration
and vigorous prosecution of these
works would do more to restore
general prosperity TO the country
than a thousand tinkering fnaL-
ciers and all the laws on money and
labor that can be enacted. The
new trade in farm and mine prod
ucts thus developed, would flow
into all the leading markets, and
each city N the east, west or south,
would have just such share as its
situation, enterprise and business
facilities would naturally command.
For this reason Chicago, Cincin-