Minnesota and Dacotah | Page 6

had the pleasure of stopping, but concluded to get supper
at a hotel near the depot, where there was abundant time to go through
the ceremony of eating. It strikes me that Indianapolis would be an
agreeable place to reside in. There are some cities a man feels at home
in as soon as he gets into them; there are others which make him
homesick; just as one will meet faces which in a moment make a good

impression on him, or which leave a dubious or disagreeable
impression. That city has 16,000 people. Its streets are wide, and its
walks convenient. All things denote enterprise, liberality, and comfort.
It is 210 miles from Indianapolis to this city, via Lafayette and
Michigan City. We ought to have made the time in less than twelve
hours, and, but for protracted detentions at Lafayette and Michigan City,
we would have done so. We reached the latter place at daylight, and
there waited about the depot in dull impatience for the Detroit and
Chicago train. It is the principal lake harbor in Indiana.
It is about two years since I was last in Chicago; and as I have walked
about its streets my casual observation confirms the universal account
of its growth and prosperity. I have noticed some new and splendid iron
and marble buildings in the course of completion. Chicago is a great
place to find old acquaintances. For its busy population comprises
citizens from every section of the United States, and from every quarter
of the globe. The number of its inhabitants is now estimated at 100,000.
Everybody that can move is active. It is a city of activity. Human
thoughts are all turned towards wealth. All seem to he contending in
the race for riches: some swift and daring on the open course; some
covertly lying low for a by-path. You go along the streets by jerks:
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