Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-08
Price Four Cents.
CORRESPONDENCE.

St. Louis and Chicago Compared-A Lack
 ofEnterprise in the Former City-Real
 Estnte-A BenutffuI Drive--The Hotels
 Other Matters.
 ST. LOUIS, Jnly 5
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL COURIER:
 It is said the difference between St. Louis and Chicago is just this: Chicagoans drive business St. Louisans wait till business drives them. I sure I see the truth of these remarks. While there is great actual wealth in St. Louis, so that many cannot spend thelr income, there Is comparatively little spirit to act. There now, and have been within the time of my visits here, great building operations going on, but most ly elegant dwellings in the outskirts Many blocks of elegant stores have been erected Yet there is to be seen a holding on by prop erty owners in many of the best business streets, waiting for call to build, instead of building on the best situated lots which would at once be occupied in preference to the old places. Washington avenue is the natural Broadway, but is only built with stores for few blocks. Each block is, as in Philadelphia, numbered by the 100. Wash ington avenue stores extend to about Ninth street, and then vacant lots or dwellings, the arlstocracy having removed For one lot of 80 feet on Washington avenue $3, 800 rent IS asked on lease for what rents on suffer- ance for $50 month. For another place which has rented for ten years for $3, 900 an advance is wanted, and it is not the best bus mess stand. Situated equally well in other cities rents would be reduced. There are manyactive and wealthy business houseshere but rich men are rich enough and satisfied Thus the difference first spoken of.
 There is great feeling of surprise that the census takers have made Chicago the larger city, and now the postmen are employed to take a review of the census taken by the Gov ernment.
 For drive you must visit Forest Park, and go to the fair grounds. to the Tower Park, Halls Garden, and to Grand avenue, which is two miles from the postofice, west of the city center. Page avenue is also the driving ground for fast horses. It is hardly built upon at all. On Grand avenue is the most costly church in the city, the French Catholic For more than a mile, still west erly, building lots are held by the thousand at prices which will eat up the lots in interest over and over before they are needed.
 Linden Hotel, between Fifth and Sixth streets, on Washington avenue, and the Laclede, fronting three streets, Chestnut, Fifth and Sixth, are the popular hotels at present. The Planters is always filled with business men. The Southern, occupying nearly the whole square, and larger than the old Southern before the disastrous fire few years ago, is as freproof this time as pos sible, the girders and joists being entirely of iron.
 Politicians were plenty just after the Gin cinnati convention. It was easy to tell to what special party men, with one or more badges in their button holes and loud in speech, using adjectives as if not accounta- ble for their use, belonged. Some are still hanging about ready to be offered up for the salvation of their country. There is no mis- taking their faces or dialect. All kinds may be met in St. Louis. Among them the Gen eral who fought under Lee, who was at the surrender; knows Grant well; liked him; regretted he was not nominated (so do D and now is for the United States; had lost his millions by the war but what is past can't be helped" now for the Union! Colonels of the Confederacy are common. Imagine the New Haven House and the Ton tine Hotel having immense portico cover ing the width of the sidewalk, and every evening the walks filled with chairs on which men are sitting smoking, reading, or talking business and politics, and you can see the ho- tels of St. Louis. Now and then you are ap- preached by ''roper-in," but it is easy to keep free from their clutches by declining all limitations from strangers.
 The postoffice and custom house in process of erection for many years, appears some what near completion. The great bridge continues to be the pride of the city. Cars are passing over it and underground through the business parts to the Union depot. Steam CTS up and down the Mississippi are adver- Using for excursions cheaper than board at first-class hotels.
 For the past two weeks, judge from the papers, the weather has been cooler than with you. We have just passed through storm, and it has passed over us with tremendous power.
 The entire State of Missouri seems to be underlaid few feet from the surface with lime rock in strata of from two inches to two feet in thickness. It is used for build ing and for hardening roads everywhere A visit of a couple of days to the principal lead mines of the State convinced me that patience, perseverance and capital would eventually be rewarded.
 De Soto, on the Iron Mountain road, is a town of considerable importance as 0 railroad center, having grown up within half dozen years Such babel I never encountered be- fore except at some country frog pond, caused by the voices of little ones crying Apples six for five cents
 On the whole like St. Louis, but I should prefer to settle in Chicago. Franklin avenue runs parallel with Washington a few blocks north, and is lined with stores for two miles, Market street the same but the fashionable business is done on Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets. Barr's great dry goods store compares well with New York frst-class retail stores. The westerly part of the city takes the lead in fine residences as it should but few of the old streets are lined with elegant ediices all the way out for mile or two. The Union Depot is an institution. Trains are arriving and departing at the hours by the dozen. You may see your friends unexpect- edly from any quarter, and it is not unpleas- ant, while getting hurried breakfast, to meet one from New Orleans San Francis co, even from Connecticut.
 The man who few years ago wrote the Future of St. Louis," predicting that it eventually would be the capital of the United States it is the center geographically, still moves about the streets. M.