The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-24
FOURTH AMERICAN CITY
CHARACTERISTICS OF ST. LOUIS, THE
MISSOURI METROPOLIS.
How 1t Differs from Other Cities-Esle-
ments of the POpulatiOn-Trade
FaciIities-some Drawbacks.
corresponding New York Post.

Correspondence New York Post
st. Louis now ranks fourth among Amer
lean cities in poulation, wealth and general
business, and is the second city in the West.
The next federal census will show that it
has three-quarters of a million inhabitants.
In the steady, conservative fashion that has
always characterized it's growth, it went
forward during all the years of general de-
preston which followed The panic of 1898,
and did not contract the paralysis which
fell upon most Western cities when the
great era of speculation came to an abrupt
conclusion. Not a single bank failed dur
ing that period of gloom, and not an impor-
tant business house suspended payment st.
Louis then showed that it had an immense
reserve force of accumulated capital, and
that it's business methods had been SO pru-
dent that it could easily weather the storm.
While other cities halted to take breath and
recuperate, it went ahead at about its old
regular gate of growth.
1t is as unlike Chicago as Philadelphia is
unlike New York or as Baltimore is unlike
Boston. In Chicago nearly ali the dwell
ings in the new residence districts are of
wood. In St. Louis drove for three hours
yesterday in the residence quarters and saw
but one wooden house, and that was relic
CT very old times. Even in the far outlying
suburbs all the construction is of red or
yellow bricks. In st. Louis the current
idea is that home should have an appear
ance of permanence, which pine boards can
not supply. There are very few fiat build
ings or apartment houses, and l am MOI
sorry to hear that those which have been
put up are not regarded as good invest
ments. l saw on that drive surprisingly
large number of really fine houses-build-
ings SO large and stately, and of such sub
stantial construction and handsome archi-
lecture, that the word house seems too mod
est name to apply to them. 1 am con-
WINGED that in no other city does the aver
age citizen devote so large share of his
fortune to the building of a home for his
family. Perhaps climate has something to
do with this. for in st. Louis people build to
Keep out the heat as in more northern cities
they build to keep out the cold, and the
house that Is the best shelter from the ex-
IRENE heat of the intolerable st. Louis sum-
mer must have thick walls and high rooms
and the owner wants broad halls and many
rooms SO that he can walk about indoors
ana get the exercise which the fierce sun
SHINE Keeps him from taking without.
MIXED POPULATION.
A lawyer friend who bears one of the most
Famous names in American history dis
cussed for my benefit this morning the
various elements of population in st. Louis,
the causes that have produced a large city
here and the drawbacks to its DEVELOPMENT.
First he said, came the Spaniards, who left
no mark in the annals of the place. Then
followed the early French settlers, some OF
whom founded families that still exist and
left many names upon the map. These
French were hindrances to progress They
displayed no enterprise and no public spirit
They got possession of large tracts of land
and held on to them tenaciously so that the
city In Its growth was compelled to jump
over their farms and build beyond them be-
fore they would plat their land and sell it in
lots. The first American element came from
the middle belt-from Kentucky, Tennessee
Virginia and North Carolina. Not until
there were evident opportunities in COM
merce and finance did the New Englanders
arrive, but now they are prominent in bank
Ing, manufacturing and trade. Among for
eign elements of population the Germans
are dominant. There are at least two hun
dred thousand of them in st. Louis, and, as
everywhere else, they make thrifty and in
telligent citizens. To them is due the de-
velopment of the immense brewing indus
try, in which ST. Louis is a close second to
Milwaukee. The Germans are merchants
mechanics and laborers. They are sound
money men in politics and can usually be
depended on to Oppose the political bosses
and to support movements for municipal re-
form. The Irish are much less numerous
but count for a good deal in politics. There
are many Italians who have not come to
America from any intelligent volition OF
their own, but who have been imported by
padrones and are held to strict Servitude
until they have worked out the money adj
vanced for their fares from Italy. They are
not desirable element in the population.
Nobody can now say why st. Louis hap
pened to grow up at the exact point where
it stands. or why it did not plant itself at
Mississippi, where there is just as good
ground for town building. The only explana-
tion is that the French fur-traders happened
to build a post here, and people who came
after them stopped at the post for the sake
Of the company of white men In wilder
ness where red savages still roamed at
large. Thus the post became village, and
when steamboats, took the place of the old
flatboats and pirogues the village speedily
grew into city, for the reason that its sit
uation was advantageous for trade along
the Mississippi, the Missouri the Ohio, the
Illinois and other rivers. The more modern
growth of the city into the chief center of
Population in the Mississippi valley must be
attributed to the nearness of the great coal
beds of southern Illinois. This coal is an ex-
I celent steam fuel, and it is the basis Of a
very great variety of manufacturing enter
prises, which have more than doubled the
population of st. Louis since the civil war.
price as 81 a ton, delivered in st. Louis.
doubt if there is any other city in the world
that gets fuel so cheap.
THE BRIDGE TOLLS.
Steamboats, and coal have made st. Louis,
but for many years the great navigable
channel of the Mississippi was barrier in
the way of commerce to and from the East.
All trains from Eastern cities were COM
PEELED to stop on the other bank of the river.
and the transfer of freight by boats in sum-
mer and by wagons on the ice when the
river froze over was slow and expensive.
A remedy was found in the great Eads
bridge, but the bridge company which was
a Gould interest, charged a toll on merchan-
disc which the merchants of the city re-
garded as oppressive. So they combined to
organize new company, and this company
built second bridge little way up stream,
but it soon fell into the ownership of the
old terminal company which controlled the
Eads bridge, and now the rates are the
same over both structures, and the conn
plants about them are as loud as ever
Whether the bridge tolls are really a Sc
rious burden to the commerce of st. Louis
cannot determine. Certain 1t is, however,
that the city has been compelled to meet
and overcome some important drawbacks to
its progress and prosperity. The gravest of
these, / should say. is the presence in the
population of over one hundred thousand
neoroaa a valua HE labor element no doubt.