They Know, Doubtless, All That They
Ought To Know, But Then They Know So Much More Than They Ought To
Know.
They are tyrants to their parents, and never practice the
virtue of obedience till they have half-grownup daughters of their
own.
They have faith in the destiny of their country, if in nothing
else; but they believe that that destiny is to be worked out by the
spirit and talent of the young women. I confess that for me Eve
would have had no charms had she not recognized Adam as her lord. I
can forgive her in that she tempted him to eat the apple. Had she
come from the West country, she would have ordered him to make his
meal, and then I could not have forgiven her.
St. Louis should be, and still will be, a town of great wealth. To
no city can have been given more means of riches. I have spoken of
the enormous mileage of water communication of which she is the
center. The country around her produces Indian-corn, wheat,
grasses, hemp, and tobacco. Coal is dug even within the boundaries
of the city, and iron mines are worked at a distance from it of a
hundred miles. The iron is so pure that it is broken off in solid
blocks, almost free from alloy; and as the metal stands up on the
earth's surface in the guise almost of a gigantic metal pillar,
instead of lying low within its bowels, it is worked at a cheap
rate, and with great certainty. Nevertheless, at the present
moment, the iron works of Pilot Knob, as the place is called, do not
pay. As far as I could learn, nothing did pay, except government
contracts.
CHAPTER VI
CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD.
To whatever period of life my days may be prolonged, I do not think
that I shall ever forget Cairo. I do not mean Grand Cairo, which is
also memorable in its way, and a place not to be forgotten, but
Cairo in the State of Illinois, which by native Americans is always
called Caaro. An idea is prevalent in the States - and I think I
have heard the same broached in England - that a popular British
author had Cairo, State of Illinois, in his eye when, under the name
of Eden, he depicted a chosen, happy spot on the Mississippi River,
and told us how certain English immigrants fixed themselves in that
locality, and there made light of those little ills of life which
are incident to humanity even in the garden of the valley of the
Mississippi. But I doubt whether that author ever visited Cairo in
midwinter, and I am sure that he never visited Cairo when Cairo was
the seat of an American army. Had he done so, his love of truth
would have forbidden him to presume that even Mark Tapley could have
enjoyed himself in such an Eden.
I had no wish myself to go to Cairo, having heard it but
indifferently spoken of by all men; but my friend with whom I was
traveling was peremptory in the matter.
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