The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-12-15


Atchison does not seem to have grown
very much, it had the look of dull
town. The site of Kansas City was a
very difficult place on which to build a
city. From the railway station down in
the hollow near the river, the cable road
runs up frghtful grade, and over the
| top of high hill; the other roads get
down to the river level by going around.
| The streets are narrow, and as it is a
busy place, are uncomfortably crowded
during business hours; the whole site is
q series of ups and downs, very like the
waves of the sea; but by pluck and lots
OF hard work, fine city has arisen. Tue
business part has quite a metropolI-
tan air, and for miles out toward the
suburbs, are streets lined with hand
some residences. The two principal
avenues show a good many really ele-
CANT mansions. From Kansas City our
route followed the south side of the
Missouri, which here turns almost due
east, and reaches the Mississippi at st.
Louis. Much of the way the road lies right
on the bank of the river, but if the truth
must be told, really cannot admire the
Missouri. The muddy current, low
shores torn and ragged, and the channel
full of sand bars, snags and mud banks,
formed very different picture from that
presented by the Hudson. We passed
through Jefferson City, the capital, a
good sized place perched on the river
bluffs; the capitol building, with its
great dome looming up above the town.
just beyond the city is the great State
penitentiary with its crowd of inmates
in striped clothing. Missouri scenery
looked real home-like; great tracts of
timber, rolling country with some
steep hills, and the numerous brawling
streams, were very pleasant to look at
once more.
st. Louis is not nearly so pushing
city as Chicago. but to me, it has always
seemed the pleasanter place; the dead
level of the country about Chicago being
extremely monotonous. while the land
about st. LOus is sufficiently hilly to be
picturesque. and the gradual rise from
the river affords good drainage. The
city covers n great area, and has many
very fine residence streets, although
some large districts are any thing but
handsome. Our first visit was TO
"Shaw's Garden" formerly Mr.. Shaw's
private place, which covers twenty ur
more acres. The grounds are surround
ed by high wall, and are principally de-
voted to trees, shrubs and plants, the
collection being considered unusually
fine: the whole became city property at
the death of Mr.. Shaw three years ago,
but it had been open to the public for
many years. st. Louis owns several
parks, the largest containing several
hundred acres of rolling land, heavily
wooded with splendid great trees. and
here is established large geological col
lection. The electric and cable railways
are very numerous, and it is easy to get
about the city. The city has an old and
solid appearance, the business portion
covers much ground, and contains nu-
;cerOus fine blocks and buildings, but
the smoke nui 'ance soon covers up
architectural details with black coat of
SCOT. One feature of St. Louis that
have seen elsewhere only in Rochester,
is that of private residence parks. A
street is opened through tract of land,
running through from one city street to
another. On each of these streets,
across the end of the private street, are
erected handsome ornamental gates,
standing open through the day, but
closed at night with porter in charge
of each gate, after the European fashion.
Along the private street elegant man
sIons are built, each With plenty of
ground around it, and no travel in the
private street is allowed, except to resi-
dents or their friends. The street hav-
ing double roadway with flowers and
shrubs in the centre, each dwelling has
the advantage of location in good
sized park, and still is virtually on city
street. Since the completion of the great
Eads bridge over the Mississippi, the
railways all centre in Union station;
those running east reach the bridge by
way of tunnel under the city; this and
the bridge belong to separate corpora
ton who provide locomotives to handle
all the freight traffic between the vari-
GUS roads, collecting tariff therefore,
and fifty cents for each passenger cross
ing the bridge: the tickets are collected
by the special conductors of the bridge
company on each passenger train. This
is great advantage over Chicago, where
there are a number of sepal ate depots,
often long distances apart, which is
great nuisance. The outlook as the
train rolls oyer the bridge is fine: just
underneath is the broad levee where
many of the queer looking river steamers
are lying, and one can see long dis |
tance up and down the stream, and !
across the low lands on the Illinois |
river. The levee extends from the edge |
of the river at low water to the further |
side of the street which faces it; dis
tance of 800 or 400 feet, and extending |
up and down the river front a long way. |
In all the large western cities located on |
navigable rivers, the levees are much |
alike; long steep slope paved with
great square stones, which, since the de-
cadence OF river traffic ON account of the |
railroad competition, have not been kept |
in as good condition as formerly, and |
the levee is full of holes, with stones
gone from the pavement here and there
the damage caused by the floods, as
well as the natural wear and tear, are
not looked after as they should be, for
badly as the railways have hurt the
business, there are yet many
boats plying constantly on the western
rivers, the channels of which have of
late years been greatly improved by the
There are Ines from ST.
Louis to st. Paul. to Cincinnati, to New
Orleans, and to all the navigable rivers
flowing into the Mississippi; besides
many lines between cities 100 to 200
miles apart. Our route was southeast
after crossing the river, through South
ern Illinois, the part generally known as
Egypt" then across Kentucky to the
Tennessee hue, and finally northerly to
Louisyille: the long detour made neces-
brated of caves, the Mammoth, which we
were very desirous of seeing, both on ac-
count of its history, and that we might
-