The Side
Walks Are Literally Encumbered With Bales Of Scarlet Flannel, And Every
Other Article Of An Emigrant's Outfit.
At the outfitters' stores you can
buy anything, from a cart-nail to a revolver; from a suit of oilskin to a
paper of needles.
The streets present an extraordinary spectacle.
Everything reminds that one is standing on the very verge of western
civilisation.
The roads are crowded to an inconvenient extent with carriages of curious
construction, waggons, carts, and men on horseback, and the side-walks
with eager foot-passengers. By the side of a carriage drawn by two or
three handsome horses, a creaking waggon with a white tilt, drawn by four
heavy oxen, may be seen - Mexicans and hunters dash down the crowded
streets at full gallop on mettlesome steeds, with bits so powerful as to
throw their horses on their haunches when they meet with any obstacle.
They ride animals that look too proud to touch the earth, on high-peaked
saddles, with pistols in the holsters, short stirrups, and long, cruel-
looking Spanish spurs. They wear scarlet caps or palmetto hats, and high
jack-boots. Knives are stuck into their belts, and light rifles are slung
behind them. These picturesque beings - the bullock-waggons setting out for
the Far West - the medley of different nations and costumes in the streets
- make the city a spectacle of great interest.
The deep hollow roar of the locomotive, and the shrill scream from the
steamboat, are heard here all day; a continuous stream of life ever
bustles through the city, and, standing as it does on the very verge of
western civilisation, Chicago is a vast emporium of the trade of the
districts east and west of the Mississippi.
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