Part 9 (1/2)

The pilgrim wanderer in other climes comes back to tell us of sunnier skies and softer winds! The blue heavens of Italy have tasked the inspiration of an hundred bards, and the warm brush of her own Lorraine has swept the canvass with their gorgeous transcript! But what pencil has wandered over the grander scenes of the North American prairie? What bard has struck his lyre to the wild melody of loveliness of the prairie sunset? Yet who shall tell us that there exists not a glory in the scene, amid the untrod wastes of the wilderness West, which even the skies of ”sunny Italy”Harold has roae of poetry over the sublime and ro thoughts and gloords; yet here as there,

”Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whoasps away: The last still loveliest, till--'tis gone--and all is gray!”

I cannot tell of the beauties of cliazed upon all the varied loveliness of{237} sun to its setting, and in vain have tasked e a fairer

A pleasant day's ride directly west from Carlisle, over extensive and beautiful prairies, intersected by shady woods, with their romantic creeks, and the traveller finds hie of Lebanon Its site is a co, ently up from the prairie on the west bank of Little Silver Creek[155] This streaer branch, received its name from the circumstance that the early French settlers of the country, in the zeal of their faith and research for the preciouswhile mistook the brilliant specula of _horneblende_ which flow in its clear waters for silver, and were unwilling to be undeceived in their extravagant anticipations until the absence of the material in their purses aroused the a shaft for athat I found h many miles distant in the adjacent plain; appropriately nalass Prairie” The rosy sunbeahtly over the pleasant country-seats and neat far the declivity beforeathered in isolatedthe rich herbage To the right and left, and in the rear, the prairie stretches away beyond the view The body of the village is situated about one mile from these suburbs, and its character and history le sentence, _a pleasant little Methodist country village_ The peculiarities of the sect are here strikingly manifested to the traveller in all the ordinary concerns and occupations of life, even in the every-day garb and conversation of its sober-browed citizens It presents the spectacle, rare as it is cheering, of an entire coion Located in its i see[157] It is under the supervision of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has at present two instructers, with about fifty pupils in the preparatory depart fro view to the traveller As is usually the case with these little out-of-the-world villages, when any object cos and interests of all may cluster, upon this institution is centred the heart and soul of every man, to say not a word of all the wo not connected, either remotely or immediately, with its welfare, is deemed of very little, if of any importance ”_The Seminary! The Seminary!_”

I defy a traveller to tarry two hours in the village without hearing rung all the changes upon that topic for his edification The surrounding region is fertile, populous, {239} and highly cultivated; and for an inland, far, I suppose, as should be expected; though, during my visit, its streets--which, by-the-by, are of very liberal breadth--maintained a most Sabbath-like aspect

The route from Lebanon to Belleville is, in fine weather, very excellent Deep woods on either side of the hard, shs over the head, so away into an arched vista miles in extent It was a sultry afternoon when I was leisurely travelling along this road; and the shadowy coolness of the atmosphere, the perfume of wild flowers and aromatic herbs beneath the underbrush, and the profusion of suhtful Near sunset, a graceful bend of the road around a clue of Belleville; its neat enclosures and white cottages peeping through the shrubbery, now gilded by the mellow rays of sunset in every leaf and spray[158] Whether it ing to this agreeable coincidence, or to the agreeable visit I here enjoyed, that I conceived such an attachment for the place, I cannot say; but sure it is, I fell in love with the little town at _first_ sight; and, what isto all precedent, cured at second, when on the followingI sallied forth to reconnoitre its beauties ”at reeable to the taste of six travellers in a dozen, I have passed through e in Illinois quite as attractive as this same Belleville: but to convince me of the fact would be no {240} easy task ”Man is the sport of circumstance,” says the fatalist; and however this may be in the moral world, if any one feels disposed to doubt upon the matter in the item before us, let hih on a rainy, ; and then, unable to secure for his houseless head a shelter froh the filthy streets, deluged with inky water, to a crowded Ohio steamer; and if ”_circuh ever after, then his hue the picture Let hientle hour of sunset; let hiht faces, and if he fail to be pleased with that place, why, ”he's not the s of Belleville are a handsome courthouse of brick, a wretched old jail of the sa to a library company, and a small framed Methodist house of worshi+p It is situated in the centre of ”Turkey-hill Settle in the state, and has a fine timber tract and several beautiful country-seats in its vicinity

Leaving Belleville with so looks behind,” ion of alternating forest and prairie, sparsely sprinkled with trees, and yetdescended a precipitous hill, the rounded suhts, com off from the base, I stood once more upon the fertile soil of the ”_Aes, with low verandahs running around; the ungainly outhouses and enclosures; the curiously-fashi+oned vehicles and instruments of husbandry in the barnyards and before the doors; the foreign garb and dialect of the people; and, above all, the a fertility of the soil, over whose exhaustless depths the maize has rustled half a century, constitute thetract, in the section over which I was passing

This settle from the foot of the bluffs for several o by a colony froe_;” it now coshop In these bluffs lies an exhaustless bed of bituminous coal: vast quantities have been transported to St Louis, and for this purpose principally is the railway to the river designed This vein of coal is said to have been discovered by the rivulet of a spring issuing from the base of the bluffs The stratu in size as it penetrates the hill horizontally Though somewhat rotten and slaty, it is in sohanies; and the vein is thought to extend from the mouth of the Kaskaskia to that of the Illinois About three miles below the present shaft, a continuation of the bed was discovered by fire communicated from the root of a tree; the bank of coal burnt for upward of a {242} twelveration was then s in of the superincue portion of the American Bottom, is the oldest settleislature of the Northwestern Territory, and then included all settlements in Illinois east of the Mississippi

I had just cleverly cleared the outskirts of the little antediluvian village beneath the bluffs, when a dark, watery-looking cloud ca up out of the west; the thunder roared across the Bottom and was reverberated fro rain-drops dancing in torrents fro the plain Verily, groaned forth the wo-begone traveller, this is the home of clouds and the realm of thunder! Never did hapless s than did the traveller and his steed, notwithstanding upon the first onset they had plunged the depths of the wood A half hour's gallop over the slippery bottom, and the stern roar of a steareat waters” A few yards through the belt of forest, and the city of San Louis, with towers and roofs, stood before me

_St Louis_

XXII

”I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for; a mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts”--_Anat of Melancholy_

”Oh ye dread scenes, where Nature dwells alone, Serenely glorious on her craggy throne; Ye citadels of rock, gigantic forirdled by the stor caves, That hold communion with the torrent waves”

HEMANS

Ah, the single blessedness of the unmarried state! Such is the sentiment of an ancient worthy, quietly expressed in the lines which I have selected for a ies within the dusky walls of a university, tu over musty tomes and shrivelled parchments until his very brain had become cobwebbed as the alcoves he haunted, and the blood in his veins was all ”adust and thin;” then, forsooth, the shalorious sentiment upon his lips! And yet, now that we consider, there is marvellous ”method” in the old man's ”madness!”

In very truth and soberness, there is a blessedness which the bachelor can boast, _single_ though it be, in which the ”h _doubly_ blessed, cannot share! To the for holyday, and its path a varied and flowery one! while to the poor {244} victim of a of a weary existence! Of all travelling companionshi+p, forfend us from that of a married man! Independence! He knows not of it! Such is the text and such the commentary: now for the practical application

It was a bal, and the flutelike h the woodlands Leaving the pleasant villa of Dr F in the environs of North St Louis, I found htful road which sweeps the western bottom of the Mississippi Circuh I am, had recalled ain to the city, and con of a tour of the extreme Northwest

Ah, the despotish pleasant one; and with a soret_ and anticipation it was that I turned froivestructures fade in distance

By far the htful drive in the vicinity of St Louis is that of four or fivethe river botto froh one of its finest sections, and leaving the ”Big Mound” upon the right, sweeps off for severalup froe of heights, surroves of the shrub-oak, which afford a delightful shade to the road running below

Along this elevated ridge beautiful country-seats, with graceful piazzas and green Venitian blinds, are caught froh the shrubbery; while to the right, smooth meadows spread theins the Mississippi Ae, formerly the residence of Mr C, beneath the hills, surrounded by its handso fishponds, partially shrouded by the broad leaved catalpa, the , the acacia, and other ornamental trees, presents, perhaps, the rarest instance of natural beauty adorned by refined taste A visit to this delightful spot during my stay at St Louis informed me of the fact that, within as well as abroad, the hand of education and refines, busts, ed around the walls and shelves of an elegant library, presented a feast to the visiter as rare in the Far West as it is agreeable to a cultivatedof the St Louis Catholic University, a lofty and co spot[159] A considerable tract was here purchased, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars; but the design of removal from the city has for the present been relinquished

I is situated the stately villa of Colonel O'Fallon, with its highly-cultivated gardens and its beautiful park sweeping off in the rear In a very few years this htful spots {246} in the West For its elegant grounds, its green and hot houses, and its exotic and indigenous plants, it is, perhaps, already unequalled west of Cincinnati No expense, attention, or taste will be wanting to render it all of which the spot is capable

Leaving the Bottoracefully off froh a region broken up by sink-holes, and covered with athe route, until at length the traveller finds himself at that beautiful spot on the Missouri, Belle Fontaine, fifteen miles from St Louis On account of the salubrity and beauty of the site, an army cantonment was located here by General Wilkinson in the early part of the present century, and fortifications consisting of palisade-work existed, and a line of log-barracks sufficient to quarter half a regi now remains but a pile of ruins ”The barracks have cruhshare has passed over the promenade of the sentinel” Jefferson Barracks, in the southern environs of the city, have superseded the old fortress, and the spot has been sold to a company, which has here laid off a town; and as most of the lots have been disposed of, and a turnpike-road fro tourist may, at no distant period, pencil it in his notebook ”a flourishi+ng village” _Cold Water Creek_ is the name of a clear stream which empties itself into the Missouri just above, upon which are several ushes a fountain, on account {247} of which the place received its na and beautiful one, being a bold, green proin of the stream about four miles above its confluence with the Mississippi The view developed to the eye of the spectator froled subliiants of the West are beheld roah their deep, fertile valleys, so different in character and aspect that one can hardly reconcile with that diversity the fact that their destiny is soon to becohty ” of the waters,” to which no pen can hope to render justice

There is a singular circue _hu a well, when at the depth of forty feet This was the more extraordinary as the spot was not alluvion, and could have undergone no change from natural causes for centuries Various strata of clay were passed through before the _tooth_ was thrown up; and this circuether with the situation of the place, would almost preclude the possibility of a vein of subterraneous water having conveyed it to the spot This is h, certainly; but the fact is authentic

Returning at an angle of forty-five degrees with the road by which he approaches, a ride of a dozen miles up the Missouri places the traveller upon a bold roll of the prairie, fro above the forest, appear the steep roofs and tall chiinal nah one of the most advanced in years, it is by no es planted by the early French

Its site is highly romantic, upon the banks of a creek of the same name, and in the heart of one of the most fertile and luxuriant valleys ever subjected to cultivation[161] The village now eular edifices, somewhat modernized in style and structure, surrounded by extensive corn-fields, wandering flocks of Indian ponies, and herds of cattle browsing in the plain Here also is a Catholic Church, a neat building of brick, with belfry and bell; connected hich is a convent of nuns, and by these is conducted a Se ladies of some note This institution--if the Hibernian hostess of the little inn at which I dined is to be credited in her state establishion far and near! and ”_heducates_ the young _leddies_ in everything but religion!” For the redoubtable _Tonish_, hiloured so bravely on the prairies and in print, I e--and a dirty little brood of his posterity, were pointed out to ions of the Rocky Mountains: when last seen, he could still tell the stoutest lie with the steadiest e, while he and his {249} hopeful son could cover each other's trail so nicely that a lynx-eye would fail to detect them In the vicinity of Florissant is a settlement called Owen's Station, forainst the Indians, and of a Spanish _station_ on account of a fine fountain in the vicinity[162]