The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-30

to walk, and could have beaten tn
 stages under ordinary circumstances
 Many time did walk, but it was besid
 the stage, with a rail on my shoulder
 ready to help pry the stage itself out O.
 the mud.
 Tn those days canals were the best
 The canals boats would make from tC
 to three miles an hour, but If the time
 was long, the stories told by the captain
 and passengers were commonly good
 the beds were hunks, but they fed us
 well, that is, as things went then.
 "Of course. the ordinary every day
 meal of the drummer of to-day, the
 meal he's inclined to grumble at would
 have seemed a Thanksgiving feast tc
 us. We expected little, and commonly | got exactly that. Still, as said, we
 were content, and even happy, if only
 business was good.
 The drummers of to-day won't see the startling changes we have seen, who began back nearly fifty years ago. | or course, the old time drummers who traveled in New England saw less of | the rough and tumble of life than we whe went west, and who struck out boldly for trading posts, that we were destined in many cases to see grow to be great cities. Still never went through any of the thrilling experiences people tell of as a part of their life then, and I am inclined to think that adventures come to those who seek for them.
 We made long trips in those days, longer than most drummers would think of taking now. for then one man had to do all he could, and cover as much ground as possible. Forty-three years ago I went from Portland to New York, then by canal to Philadel- phia, from there to Pittsburg by canal, from there to St. Louis by boat, down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and from St. Louis to St. Paul by boat.
 Tn those days St. Paul was but a trading post. There were a few busi- ness houses. but I saw sight then that no man will ever see there again. It seemed to me that there were at least 1000 Indians at the post trading their furs. They brought them in cur iously constructed OK carts, made with out the use of scrap of iron, the wheels a section of tree. and drawn by one OK lashed to the poles. They were a drunken crowd, all but few, who seemed to be committee appointed to keep sober and see to it that the others were not cheated. Sometimes the crowd would give a yell that fairly seemed to take the roof off,
 q went then to the Falls of St. An thony, and looked at the surroundings Where Minneapolis now stands there was not a single building. When was there last I went to the falls, and, as looked at the great cities, I won dered if it was possible that I could have been there before they were built. It seems strange and almost past com prehension, that my business career could have antedated those cities, and even the commercial importance of Chi cago itself; but so 1t is, and am still a vigorous man."
 You spoke of having visited Chicago forty-four years ago, Mr Curtis. What sort of place was 1t then?''
 "Then there was but one railroad, a small local affair, rather contemptuous- ly called the milk route. went there l from Buffalo by boat, and was five days on the way, and, in fact, we drummers had that system on the route from St. Louis to St. Paul and along the canals" replied MT. Curtis.
 1T reached Chicago at night and put | up at wooden hotel on Lake street, | near where the Fremont house now stands.
 'In those days Chicago had but few brick buildings, and the wooden ones were seldom more than two stories high. In fact, I am unable to recall a single more than two stories high. There was not sidewalk, except on Lake street, and that was of wood, and the water came up through with almost every step. Steamboat and stages brought people there, and about he most interesting sight was old Fort Dearborn, with doors and log sides pierced with balls. There was not loot of paved street in all Chicago when first struck the place, and yet even