Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-08-21
CORRESPONDENCE - the Yorkyille Enquirer.


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Correspondence - the Yorkyille Enquirer.
LIVERPOOL, July 25.-I reached this place
by steamboat, at about o'clock this morn
ing. After securing room at the Royal
Hotel, set out again to see sights This
sightseeing business becomes a mania.
Perhaps the idea would be better expressed
by saying that the individual who devotes
his time and attention to running round,
looking at the grand old things in the grand
old cities of the British Isles, becomes par
tally, if not absolutely, insane. When,
on the 23rd instant, left London, intend
ed to do nothing more. I was tired. My
feet were worn out and my eyes had the
feeling as if they were full Of dust. No
sooner, however, had set my foot on the
banks of the Mersey, this morning, than L
felt young and fresh again and ready for
another tramp, and again set out to see
sights.
Liverpool, as perhaps most of the readers
of the ENQUIRER know, is situated on the
right bank of the Mersey, about three miles
from the sea. On the opposite band is Birk-
enhead.
According to the census of 1881, it con-
tained 552,425 inhabitants, and was the sec
ond city in point of population in the Unit
ed Kingdom. 1t is claimed that since that
time Glasgow, in Scotland, has outstripped
ond to London. Of this I cannot speak de-
finitely. All that I know is, that Glasgow
claims to have over 100000 inhabitants,
while such clain,4se far as l know, is not
set up by Liverpool.
In form, the city of Liverpool is an
irregular semi-circle, the diameter of the
circle and base line of the city being the
docks, which line the estuary for distance
of more than six miles. The city covers
an area of more than five thousand two
hundred acres of land. This is undoubtedly
a large tract of land to be covered with
houses but London and it's suburbs cover
more than five hundred thousand acres OF
land This is calculated to make the dwell
tainly humble.
Nearly all the large cities of the British
Isles are remarkable on account of their
venerable antiquity. Take away from Ed
inburgh its old castle, Greyfriars and ST.
Jiles Churches, the house of John Knox, the
Grassmarket, Holyrood Palace and the
tombstones of the martyrs, and the history
which clusters around these places, and Ed
inburgh, with it's Princess street left, is moth
ing compared with New York. These old
things, however, make Edinburgh what
New York nor any city in America ever
can become for centuries in the future. Liv-
erpool can boast of none of those old relics
of past generations. Compared with many
other cities in Great Britain, far less in
point of population and wealth and present
commercial Importance, Liverpool has no
history. When it was founded and by
whom, have, at present, no means of as
certaining. Suffice it to say, that it was
originally small borough lying between a
large pool and the river Mersey. From
this pool, I suppose, it took its name in
part, but why [ do not know. The old
town was, historians tell us, miserably con-
structed, being laid out with no order and
without any reference to the health of the
inhabitants. The streets were only narrow
alleys, and the houses with which they
were lined were wretchedly poor and un-
comfortable. During the sixteenth and sew
enteenth centuries it was at different times
visited by plague, which on each occasion
carried off multitudes of its inhabitants.
At the beginning of the 18th century, Llv-
erpool was small town of only about eight
thousand inhabitants. About that time it
began to increase, and its growth has been
rapid and steady ever since. The old hous-
es were torn down, the streets changed and
Widened, and the result is that Liverpool is
a modern and not an old city.
To the people of the United States, es-
pecially to the people of the cotton belt,
Liverpool is, perhaps, the most important
foreign city in the world. Between the
cities of New York and Liverpool, five
lines of steamers are constantly employed.
In addition to these, there are lines between
Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and New
Orleans and Liverpool. These lines of
steamers carry produce OF every descrlp-
o,,1 orfn Of (rl
Nearly all the cotton shipped from the
United States finds its way directly or in
directly to Liverpool. This has been the
case ever since cotton began to be cul-
tivated in the Southern States. The trade
has grown from a single bale, packed in a
meal sack with a crowbar, to several mil
lions of bales packed with steam compress.
Not only is the cotton crop of the South
shipped to Liverpool, but enormous quan-
titles Of provisions are annually exported
from the United States to Liverpool. The
provisions consist of corn and wheat, beef,
pork, live hogs and cattle. Some sections
of Liverpool are made by these exports to
resemble an American city. Thousands of
bushels of corn and wheat are seen stored
away in warehouses, and long trains of Wag-
ons heavily loaded with bales of cotton, are
seen slowly moving through the Streets
The scene has striking resemblance to
what was seen every fall thirty-fve years
ago in "Cotton Town" in Columbia, South
Carolina.
That which gives to Liverpool its great
commercial facility, is its docks. Here I
feel, intensely, my ignorance. am unable
even to undertake the description of these
docks. Every profession has it's technicali-
ties. A knowledge of these technicalities,
rather, clear understanding of these tech
nicalities, is necessary to speaking or writ
ing intelligibly about these professions.
Shipbuilders and dockbuilders have their
technical words and phrases, but I frankly
confess that do not know what these tech
nicalties are, and consequently cannot un-
derstand them. Such being the case, l will
in language borrowed from land fabrics.
Without holding either Webster or Worccs-