On One Side The Light-Green Waters Of The Lake, Of
Crystalline Clearness, Came Rolling In Before The Wind, And On The Other
The Dark Thick Waters Of The River Lay Still And Stagnant In The Sun.
We
did not go up to the town, but we could see that it was compactly built,
and in one quarter nobly.
A year or two since that quarter had been
destroyed by fire, and on the spot several large and lofty warehouses had
been erected, with an hotel of the largest class. They were of a fine
light-brown color, and when I learned that they were of brick, I inquired
of a by-stander if that was the natural color of the material. "They are
Milwaukie brick," he answered, "and neither painted nor stained; and are
better brick besides than are made at the eastward." Milwaukie is said to
contain, at present, about ten thousand inhabitants. Here the belt of
forest that borders the lake stretches back for several miles to the
prairies of Wisconsin. "The Germans," said a passenger, "are already in
the woods hacking at the trees, and will soon open the country to the
prairies."
We made a short stop at Racine, prettily situated on the bank among the
scattered trees of an oak opening, and another at Southport, a rival town
eleven miles further south. It is surprising how many persons travel, as
way-passengers, from place to place on the shores of these lakes. Five
years ago the number was very few, now they comprise, at least, half the
number on board a steamboat plying between Buffalo and Chicago. When all
who travel from Chicago to Buffalo shall cross the peninsula of Michigan
by the more expeditious route of the railway, the Chicago and Buffalo line
of steamers, which its owners claim to be the finest line in the world,
will still be crowded with people taken up or to be set down at some of
the intermediate towns.
When we awoke the next morning our steamer was at Chicago. Any one who had
seen this place, as I had done five years ago, when it contained less than
five thousand people, would find some difficulty in recognizing it now
when its population is more than fifteen thousand. It has its long rows of
warehouses and shops, its bustling streets; its huge steamers, and crowds
of lake-craft, lying at the wharves; its villas embowered with trees; and
its suburbs, consisting of the cottages of German and Irish laborers,
stretching northward along the lake, and westward into the prairies, and
widening every day. The slovenly and raw appearance of a new settlement
begins in many parts to disappear. The Germans have already a garden in a
little grove for their holidays, as in their towns in the old country, and
the Roman Catholics have just finished a college for the education of
those who are to proselyte the West.
The day was extremely hot, and at sunset we took a little drive along the
belt of firm sand which forms the border of the lake.
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