The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-20
A FRIEND TO THE CANAL.
Joaquin Miller, the Poet, is anxious
to see Its C0mpleti0n-.-His
Advice to Congress.

In an article in the Chicago Times,
Joaquin Miller. the poet, gives some ex-
cellent advice to congress. Referring to
the Hennepin canal he says;
And now, my dear members of con-
gress, enough on those subjects, and let
me tell you the name of this new Alad>
din's lamp, which you have only to rub
and rub and rub, and so open the doors
to future fame for your great land and
eternal fame for yourself by linking
your name with that of the Father of
Waters. 1t is simple Internal improve
ments. Make the hear. OF your land
healthy, happy and content, and all the
rest will follow as surely as the suns
internal improvements do not sound
very glorious or thrilling There is
plenty of tin horn and stump speech
oratory that can out-sound this sort of
canal water and reservoir talk; but my
dear members. leave such subjects to the
very numerous fools who can talk OF
nothing but The war of the past and the
fortifications of the future. They need
them You can do better
Why. as far back as hisotry can trace,
beyond tradition, beyond the foundation
of the pyramids, even the Africans
whoever they were-had bride in the
mouth of the Nile and girth about his
swelling body. The canals made gar
dens In the deserts. The snowwhite
sails of a thousand ships blew gayly
threw the yellow harvest fields ages be-
fore Israel appealed to Egypt for corn
Now, | hope these great engineers and
canal makers we're not all negroes. Fol-
| would be ashamed to prove to you, oh
my spirited members of congress, thai
you in this enlightened age have not as
much spirit and enterprise as the negroes
of fifty centuries ago! want you 10 be
gin by building that seventy mile of Hen
nepin canal. want you to build it widt
enough and big enough for ship fron
Cuba to eunpack her pine apples in the
streets of Chicago. Do you new western
members think you can get TO the sea by
way of New York or Quebec? New Yorl
and her railroad kings will cut YOU
throat every time you attempt it. Ant
the road to the sea by way of Quebec is I
mighty rocky road.
But went over all this seventy-fon
miles of level Hennepin cansl land be
fore; went over it patiently, as did brave
old Father Hennepln long before thu
great Illinois, once the northwestern
country of Virginia, was even named, AM
| don't want to write over the SAINT
ground again. l may mention. however
| that since | wrote on that subject last tn
produce exchange of New York, bod,
of three thousand able men. where eacI
seat is worth $4,000, has bravely swep
aside all selfish rivalry and advocated thi
little improvement which Calhoun tough
for, Seymour advocates, and for whic
the two great states Immediately concern
ed have appealed to congress.
| Why ask the nation to build it! Be-
cause it is the heart and life blood OF thu
nation. Reason enough, | reckon. You
He'll Gate near the city of New York ha'
taxed the revenues and the ablest engi
neers of the nation for lifetime. an
did the west complain? The west pa
tiently paid the most of it voted thu
money, and paid the money out OF he
wheat and cattle, and never dreamed o
refusing. Well. now, the s., 000.0JO. o
$40. 900, 900 at most, which will enabl
your invalid mother to step out OF TIL
snow OF Chicago into barge that wi
bear her TRANQUILITY away to the tropics,
seems to me, would be bravely investe
/ indped