Mexico weekly ledger., 1890-01-09
A BUSY STREET,
AS Viewed From an Inyalid's
Window-,yud a FOrTist on
Soiac Interesting
Topics.

g.. T. Spis' t--.zf-Fj h ls:""tT
MExico. Mo, Jan. 6-Tne
hu-.cst stree in he ,i j. Union,
Iea,.ii.s i.utn Liberty To Pollock :
mill, and bounding on the east my
window. where | am now sitting
and watching, and have so done Tor
more than one hundred consecutive
days. The streams Of wagons up
and down 1t. loaded with Audraln's
standard productions one way and
the product of their grinding the
other, each having on top one of
more farmers, and not infrequsutly
his talr wife and fairer daughter,
are wonderful. Then whole broods
and swarms of colored citizens,
old aud young. male and female,
cover up the sidewalks singing,
talking, laughing and sparkling as
they 90, following their business
or pleasure, from six . clock, a
M. TO the "wee sma' hours" as
Bob Burns once sang.
Besides all this, just across the
way lives everybody's friend, Bro.
Cornelius Ragsdale, who has a
flock of blocded chickens of huge
proportions, as big and strong as
ostriches, grand to look upon,
spending heir time in the street,
"gleaning'' after the overloaded
wagons of corn. Dear me the
roar and rumble of the traffic of
this surging torrent of business !!
| see much that interests me, al
though l fear in another hundred
days of vision it may become
monotonous. 1t may be that l
may grow reminiscent and now and
then send you some train of
thought suggested by what I have
seen, or some forgotten facts, the
recollection of which has been re-
vived. Just now what startles me
most is how few of those carrying
forward this traffic I know. A
new peoples have come in and
possessed the land.
The world moves All, me !!
This is too apparent. Twenty
years ago knew every man, woman
and child in the city-nearly all
in the county. To-day, l am a
stranger in my street and in the
county, as if l never saw it. Nor
have | been an idler. Looking back
for near quarter of a century,
what pubic event which has ~
terested the public that | have not
seen or been a part of? In or out
of court, of what interesting contro-
versy have l not made a part? Yet
new race has got Sin the swim"
and we are stranded along the
banks of the stream, like mile
stones along the highway, indicat-
ing the velocity of the current.
Remember, l am not finding fault.
City and county have been won
drous kind to me. I am only
striving to make a fact strikingly
apparent. l need it, just now, in
my business. Let the man of af-
fairs in Mexico twenty years ago,
who knew everybody, to-day stand
outside of the counter of that most
genial bank cashier, Maj. Ricketts,,
of busy Saturday, and note who
make deposits, sell and buy ex-
change or draw checks, and he
will be astounded to know that
they are young men-strangers, or
a new and strange people. | have
done this many time and won.
dered and unused.
1t was the Psalmist, as remem-
Der, who said, "As I mused the
fires burned" So, as | have
thought over the great fact sug-
gested, the fires within me have
burned and 1 put the questions to
myself a thousand times: The faith
ers, where are they ? And even the
prophets-do they live forever?
And yet, IN what short time does
this revolution come-withou,
warning and complete without note
or current observation.
In another number, by way OF
illustration, 1 may say something
of men and things intimately as.
sociated with the completion of the
Chicago & Alton railroad to this
city, the main incidents of which
will, in that number, cluster about
Mexico and Vandalia