The First
Engraving Of St. Paul Was Made From A View Taken At That Point.
As I
stood looking at the city, I recalled the picture in Mr. Bond's work,
and contrasted its present with the appearance it had three or four
years ago.
What a change! Three or four steamers were lying at the
levee; steam and smoke were shooting forth from the chimneys of
numerous manufactories; a ferry was plying the Mississippi,
transporting teams and people; church steeples and domes and great
warehouses stood in places which were vacant as if but yesterday; busy
streets had been built and peopled; rows of splendid dwellings and
villas, adorned with delightful terraces and gardens, had been
erected. I went out on Sunday morning too, and the view was none the
less pleasant. Business was silent; but the church bells were ringing
out their sweet and solemn melody, and the mellow sunlight of autumn
glittered on the bright roofs and walls in the city. The whole scene
revealed the glorious image of that ever advancing civilization which
springs from well rewarded labor and general intelligence.
Like all new and growing places in the west, St. Paul has its whiskey
shops, its dusty and dirty streets, its up and down sidewalks, and its
never-ceasing whirl of business. Yet it has its churches, well filled;
its spacious school-houses; its daily newspapers; and well-adorned
mansions. There are many cottages and gardens situated on the most
elevated part of the city, north and west, which would not suffer by a
comparison with those cheerful and elegant residences so numerous for
six to ten miles around Boston.
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