Year: 1871




EDITOR CHRONICLE In wander
ing around the west l have finally
drifted to the city from which this
letter comes. 1t is a strange ming
ling of the east and west, and of
Europe and Asia, for that matter. At
the Union Pacific Depot one may see
baggage checked from Calcutta to
Southampton. To-day at the leaving
of the train 1 saw several japanese
returning home from a visit east.
None of your common "Japs " who
run with circuses, but genuine princes
as might be seen by their distin-
guished air and tall hats. 1t is in
teTesting to notice the traveller at this
same Union Pacific Depot. Every
class and cline is represented, from
the native come in from some reser-
walton to sell his furs, to the English
magnate on his way to India; miners
tired of civilization going back to the
mountains, immigrants bound for
the cheap lands west; the Southren
come up the valley of the Missouri
this far from the land of cotton and
Ku-KluX, and the Yankee green from
the New England hills.


And the city is nearly as cosmo-
politan as the depot. The numerous
"Sts." prefxed to the hotels show
that the SOutherner north drifts into
the hotel business as naturally as a
German does into a brewery, or an
African into barber shop.


The town is on an east slope of the
bluff, which is here much less abrupt
than in most places. Between the
city and the Missouri is a wide bed of
sand, which in time of high water is
was first projected the river was quite
close to the foot of the bluff-now it
is nearly mile away, and the stream
is constantly cutting further into the
Iowa side. On this sand bar between
the town and the river are most of
the machine shops and the freight
depOts of the roads that terminate
here. If some freak of the Missouri
should cause a shifting of the current
"Omaha under the Bluff might
have free transportation to the Gulf
Of Mexico. Stranger things have
happened. Walkers Island, con-
taining several thousand acres of
land, was a few years ago part of
Dakota. A small bayou in time of
high water cut them of from the
mainland. This enlarged until it
became the main channel, and now
the old bed is dry; the balance is
shallow lake and the boundary of
Nebraska has been put several miles
further north.


The continuous chain of railway
which seems to bind the continent is
hvsntrar, hnrn ftar1 q nrNI INv 0rncGnd
by transfer boats, and these in the
present low stage of the water often
remain stuck on bar for hours. This
break in the traffic of the world has
had an important influence in build
ing up Omaha to what she is. Whe-
ther the bridge which is now building
will not rather retard than promote
this growth is yet to be seen. This
bridge is in its way one of the won
ders of the world. Immense hollow
columns of iron must first be forced
down through from fifty to a hundred
feet of quieksand before they find
rock 10 rest on. Then on these col
umns a bridge must be built high
enough above the highest water mark
to allow the tallest steamboat smoke
stack to pass under lt-for the current
shifts so there can be no draw. The
bridge now is about half done, and
will cost when completed not much
short of S2, 100000.


In the country back of Omaha, five
TO ten miles from town, the price of
land will not vary much from what
land is held at that distance from
Warren. In quality il is excellent,
bringing better corn and grass, but
not nearly so good wheat as the Yer
million valley in Dakota. On the
whole would recommend the latter
country rather than Nebraska to the
immigrant. Nebraska is older, and
IN most places to obtain government
land one must 90 several hundred
miles from the Missouri, while in
South eastern Dakota Uncle Sans
estate reaches almost to within sight
of that stream.


Monday evening 1 heard Geo.
Francis Train. 1t is a common
enough thing of late, am aware, to
hear this seif-nominated candidate
for the Presidency, but 1 congratulate
myself on hearing him in his own
town talking to his own neighbOrs.
George is a riddle. Whether he is
lunatic or knave, in sport or in ear
nest, striving for tree rent at the
White House, or simply using his
notOriety as q means Of money
making, he is at least a wonderful
man. In speaking there does not
seem to be faculty of mind or muscle
of body that he does not bring in full
use. There is something horribly
ludicrous in the cool impudence with
which he defies Church and State,
God and man, and boldly processes to
derive his powers from the evil one
himself. His fellow-citiZens of Omaha
are proud of him as one would be of
a pet bear, but they take no stock in
him. But for this time enough.


p H