Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-01-06
Sight Seeing.

| breakfast-for you see they don't al
| eat at one time; the male members tha
! have to go to work way up in the city
have their breakfasts at five in the
morning. About sunrise another par
of the family have their breakfasts
about six or seven the rest are up anG
finish the morning meal. Supper is
the only meal they are all at the table
at the same time except Sundays. AT
ter they had all had their breakfast;
and the school teachers and scholars
had gone, would, on those beautiful
fall mornings, go up to the heights,
above the house which are not more
than two blocks away.
At the old Soc Newman place where
once stood a fine mansion, but had
been burned down years ago, and ev-
erything had gone to ruins, that place
was one time time a most enchanting
spot. The house stood On the top OF
the high ground, just back from a
high precipice. At the edge of the
precipice had been wall so that any
body or anything could not slide down
the steep grounds and go way down
into the river which flows past right
at the foot of the bluff. From the
wall up to the house had at one time
been made in terraces-One above the
other. 1t must have been a lovely
home. Each morning when | would
feel like it, l would go to that lovely
place and sit down on the grass in the
October sun and feast my eyes on the
beautiful scenery and watch those great
steamboats, go by, with their loads of
passengers or produce for all parts of
the world. l felt as if 1 was in an en-
chanted world; I felt as though l
should love to always remain on that
lovely spot. What a grand proud
stream the old river is! With it's wa
ters rolling, rushing, over and over,
forever.
As | would sit and watch the waters
rush past, the mind would go back to
ages gone by with all the wild scenes
that have been enacted. In my imag-
ination saw the Indian in his bark
canoe, padding up against the swift
waters, while the water would be COW
cred with swans, wild geese, ducks by
the millions, and the air full of gulls,
and everything that has wings. o,
those early wild scenes. But what a
change! AS my mind goes over all
the changes that have taken place l
can hardly realize that l am in the
same world. As would sit and gaze,
way over to the other side, | could see
smoke rising way up, up from some
train or some railroad. 1 could not
help but think of the past, and of the
present, and of the future. In the
short space of half a century from
has risen a mighty empire,
such as few parts of the world ever
saw. And such a change-from a will
derness to a mighty nation of freemen.
A half century ago not foot of rail-
road was in all this territory drained
by the Mississippi and all of its tribu-
taries, with little or no commerce, ex-
cept what was carried in boats to New
Orleans. All of this great west wild, |
wide world, Its woods filled with deer, |
pauthers, wolves, bears, and all sorts |
of game and the praries covered with |
great herds of buffalos, elks and wild |
horses. AS all of these scenes came |
up through my mind, the
thought would come, how changed. |
Towns and cites have sprang up on
every side with churches, colleges and |
school houses at every cross roads.
And railroads in exery direction, and |
with it's millions of inhabitants.
AS I sat and thought, what change. |
1uu IL We dIO W JuOSO tAO 1OGdtO OS |
the past, what will all of this country |
be at the end of the next half century
Who can tell? AS I sit and dream of
the future l see great steamships from
all part of the world come tOiling up
against the current, making the wa
ter go in great waves from bank to
bank. Those ships, loaded with all |
kinds of goods from all parts ot the
world, everything that the outside
world produces; and other great ships |
that have just left St. Louis loaded |
with all kinds of produce. Such as
wheat, corn, oats, cattle, hogs and |
fruit, to go to all parts of the habited |
world. Everything that those vast
praries and forest and mines and quar-
ries can produce. And as l sit | see,
in my minds eye, city spread out
miles aud miles-the largest in the
western continent-with boats from
all the rivers above coming and going,
oaded down to the guards; and rail-
.oads from everywhere, with trains
going and coming every hour; for the
lying between the Allegheny
md the Rocky mountains will at that
.me all be brought under the hand of