The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-02
IN OLD BOOK ON INDIANA.

The other day, searching through library
for some books which perhaps have never
been written, 1 found little dull-covered
volume whose leaves are beginning to yell
low with time. Time, you know, IS alto
gether a matter of comparative value, and
when 1 saw the date of pubication-1S38-to
me it seemed quite a vast stretch of years,
though it has been much longer since a
Pharaoh reigned in Egypt.
Fifty-nine years is a long time-west of
tho Alleghanies. Much has been done in
this section of century-if work is a good
measure to apply to time-much to be proud
of and much to be-some time-understood.
This is the name of the little book:
The Valley of the Wabash,
Indiana,
With Hints on Its
Agricultural Advantages
And Notices of
Labor-Saving Machines.
BY Henry William Ellsworth.
Although 1 have the true American de-
hesitation of farming, looked In. In an in
troduction-how would book of 1888 have
dared present itself without an introduction?
this gentleman of the old school q am
sure he was such) tells how he wrote the
pages which follow to save himself Eek
pense and labor in the ordinary modes of
correspondence"
The need of the upper Wabash valley then
this is what makes the fifty-nine years
seem so long a Observation-Disclosures The
author modesty calls attention to it's ex-
tent it's fertility, its navigable river, the
beautiful prairie, "gemmed with flowers,
and, like the true man of business he must
have been, says naively: Its peculiar dis
eases if any, together with the mode of
their prevention or removal, will be found
within the pages of another chapter"
looked up the chapter referred to, expecting
to find description of the ague, which,
tradition says, robbed the life of the earliest
inhabitants of some of it's fresh joys, but
all | found on this subject was a foot note
the discreetest little foot note it was ever
nv pleasure to read. This was all it said:
Another source of much i'll health will be
removed by the substitution of wells for
running brooks whose waters are so often
charged with the noxious qualities of the
different soils through which they pass.
After gathering the full force of such diplo-
macy as this, my admiration for the author
was SO great that 1 read the whole book,
even to a terrible chapter on the compare
tive merits of different varieties of corn.
THE cause" saith the book, which has
hitherto prevented the true advantages of
this delightful valley from being known is
found in the extreme difficulty of gaining ac-
cess to it by any of the established routes
of Indiana The Wabash river. susceptible
as it is of improvements which would Sc
cure a constant navigation. has until lately
furnished an uncertain thoroughfare. A
Journey to the upper Wabash from the Ohio
river by land, owing to the extreme rough
ness of the roads; the difficulty OF obtaining
suitable vehicles and accommodations, and,
withal, the distance, was one of extreme
fatigue while all approach from Lake Erie
bv the Indian trails and traces of the Maui
,,lee river could be undertaken only with
a single horse and often at a risk of long
and serious detention from innumerable by
paths and streams almost impossible. The
single pioneer and hardy hunter could, in
deed. press through these obstacles, but the
emigrant, with his family could travel only
the more convenient routes along the bor-
ders of the State. Thousands in this way
emigrating from our Eastern seaports have
passed from Buffalo to Detroit. from thence
to Chicago, and finally settled Oh the lake
shore or near the water courses.p
The author looks forward confidently to
the ensuing year, when the Wabash and
Erie canal will be completed, saying:
..,rhe opening of this canal throughout its
whole extent WILL indeed be proud era
for the Wabash valley, and furnishing, as it
does. the most direct and natural channel
of communication between the East and
West. we can hardly estimate the travel that
will flow in this direction Poor old canal,
abandoned now, and useless, a greater than
Won was even then looked fora railroad.
But the first railroad was to supplement the
canal rather than supplant it by connecting
it's route with that of the Lafayette & Ill-
nols Railroad and then. says the hopeful
little book: travellers coming up the Mis-
sissippi and going eastward can take the
railroad at the mouth of the Ohio and in
s.nple day arrive at Lafayette, while these
from 81. Louis can reach the Wabash in
less time. Allowing two days more via ca