In America It Is Seldom More Than
Hope, For One Always Hears That Such Enterprises Fail.
When I was there the war was in hand, and it was hardly to be
expected that any hotel should succeed.
The landlord told me that
he held it at the present time for a very low rent, and that he
could just manage to keep it open without loss. The war which
hindered people from traveling, and in that way injured the
innkeepers, also hindered people from housekeeping, and reduced
them to the necessity of boarding out, by which the innkeepers were
of course benefited. At St. Paul I found that the majority of the
guests were inhabitants of the town, boarding at the hotel, and
thus dispensing with the cares of a separate establishment. I do
not know what was charged for such accommodation at St. Paul, but I
have come across large houses at which a single man could get all
that he required for a dollar a day. Now Americans are great
consumers, especially at hotels, and all that a man requires
includes three hot meals, with a choice from about two dozen dishes
at each.
From St. Paul there are two waterfalls to be seen, which we, of
course, visited. We crossed the river at Fort Snelling, a rickety,
ill-conditioned building standing at the confluence of the
Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, built there to repress the
Indians. It is, I take it, very necessary, especially at the
present moment, as the Indians seem to require repressing. They
have learned that the attention of the Federal government has been
called to the war, and have become bold in consequence. When I was
at St. Paul I heard of a party of Englishmen who had been robbed of
everything they possessed, and was informed that the farmers in the
distant parts of the State were by no means secure. The Indians
are more to be pitied than the farmers. They are turning against
enemies who will neither forgive nor forget any injuries done.
When the war is over they will be improved, and polished, and
annexed, till no Indian will hold an acre of land in Minnesota. At
present Fort Snelling is the nucleus of a recruiting camp. On the
point between the bluffs of the two rivers there is a plain,
immediately in front of the fort, and there we saw the newly-joined
Minnesota recruits going through their first military exercises.
They were in detachments of twenties, and were rude enough at their
goose step. The matter which struck me most in looking at them was
the difference of condition which I observed in the men. There
were the country lads, fresh from the farms, such as we see
following the recruiting sergeant through English towns; but there
were also men in black coats and black trowsers, with thin boots,
and trimmed beards - beards which had been trimmed till very lately;
and some of them with beards which showed that they were no longer
young.
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