Down three feet to the street here; then up four
slippery steps to the sidewalk there.
Here a perfect crowd and
commotion almost a mob because the drawbridge is up. You would
think there was a wonderful celebration coming off at twelve, and that
everybody was hurrying through his work to be in season for it. Last
year 20,000,000 bushels of grain were brought into Chicago. Five years
ago there were not a hundred miles of railroad in the state of
Illinois. Now there are more than two thousand. Illinois has all the
elements of empire. Long may its great metropolis prosper!
LETTER II.
CHICAGO TO ST. PAUL.
Railroads to the Mississippi Securing passage on the steamboat The
Lady Franklin Scenery of the Mississippi Hastings Growth of
settlements
ST. PAUL, October, 1856.
HOW short a time it is since a railroad to the Mississippi was thought
a wonder! And now within the state of Illinois four terminate on its
banks. Of course I started on one of these roads from Chicago to get
to Dunleith. I think it is called the Galena and Chicago Union Road. A
good many people have supposed Galena to be situated on the
Mississippi river, and indeed railroad map makers have had it so
located as long as it suited their convenience (for they have a
remarkable facility in annihilating distance and in making crooked
ways straight) yet the town is some twelve miles from the great
river on a narrow but navigable stream. The extent and importance of
Rockford, Galena, and Dunleith cannot fail to make a strong impression
on the traveller. They are towns of recent growth, and well illustrate
that steam-engine sort of progress peculiar now-a-days in the west.
Approaching Galena we leave the region of level prairie and enter a
mineral country of naked bluffs or knolls, where are seen extensive
operations in the lead mines. The trip from Chicago to Dunleith at the
speed used on most other roads would be performed in six hours, but
ten hours are usually occupied, for what reason I cannot imagine.
However, the train is immense, having on board about six or seven
hundred first class passengers, and two-thirds as many of the second
class. Travelling in the cars out west is not exactly what it is
between Philadelphia and New York, or New York and Boston, in this
respect: that in the West more families are found, in the cars, and
consequently more babies and carpet bags.
It may not be proper to judge of the health of a community by the
appearance of people who are seen standing about a railroad station;
yet I have often noticed, when travelling through Illinois, that this
class had pale and sickly countenances, showing too clearly the traces
of fever and ague.
But I wish to speak about leaving the cars at Dunleith and taking the
steamboat for St. Paul. There is a tremendous rush for the boats in
order to secure state-rooms. Agents of different boats approach the
traveller, informing him all about their line of boats, and
depreciating the opposition boats. For instance, an agent, or, if you
please, a runner of a boat called Lucy not Long made the assertion
on the levee with great zeal and perfect impunity that no other boat
but the said Lucy would leave for St. Paul within twenty-four hours;
when it must have been known to him that another boat on the mail line
would start that same evening, as was actually the fact. But the
activity of the runners was needless; for each boat had more
passengers than it could well accommodate. I myself went aboard the "
Lady Franklin," one of the mail boats, and was accommodated with a
state-room. But what a scene is witnessed for the first two hours
after the passengers begin to come aboard! The cabin is almost filled,
and a dense crowd surrounds the clerk's office, just as the ticket
office of a theatre is crowded on a benefit night. Of course not more
than half can get state-rooms and the rest must sleep on the cabin
floor. Over two hundred cabin passengers came up on the Lady Franklin.
The beds which are made on the floor are tolerably comfortable, as
each boat is supplied with an extra number of single mattresses. The
Lady Franklin is an old boat, and this is said to be its last season.1
Two years ago it was one of the excursion fleet to St. Paul, and was
then in its prime. But steamboats are short lived. We had three tables
set, and those who couldn't get a seat at the first or second sat at
the third. There was a choice you may believe, for such was the havoc
made with the provisions at the first table that the second and third
were not the most inviting. It was amusing to see gentlemen seat
themselves in range of the plates as soon as they were laid, and an
hour before the table was ready. But the officers were polite as is
generally the case on steamboats till you get down to the second
mate and in the course of a day or two, when the passengers begin to
be acquainted, the time wears away pleasantly. We were nearly four
days in making the trip. The line of boats of which the Lady Franklin
is one, carries the mail at fifty dollars a trip. During the boating
season I believe the fare varies from seven to ten dollars to St.
Paul.2 This season there have been two lines of boats running to
Minnesota. All of them have made money fast; and next season many more
boats will run. The "Northern Belle" is the best boat this season, and
usually makes the trip up in two days. The advertised time is thirty
hours.
[1 Three weeks after this trip the Lady Franklin was snagged, and
became a total toss.]
[2 The following is a table of distances from Galena to St. Paul:
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