Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1873 — From the West. [ARTICLE]

From the West.

lowa City, July 27, 1873. Editors' Bkxsski.aku Union:— Have been on wheels since Monday evening, and have traveled over 1,500 Hides. Have' been in the penitentiary, pineries and the busy haunts of men. , J\e'w Chicago shows an assimilation to the most advanced ideas of taste, grandeur, convenience and safety. The architecture of the new structures is more massive and uniform. The general appearance shows a new and sure foundation for the greatest city of the West. The Joliet prison is built of native stone, and is capable of caring for three thousand convicts. There are now enrolled 1,385, 'which for. the third Sfato in the Union is not a large per centage of pimishedL felons. The administration of penal laws is aptly described by a learned philosopher as “floating on the surface of occasion, trusting to the diversities of chance.” The West Wisconsin railroad talfos one through an expanse of country whose arid soil forbids variety in either floral or faunal life, but on either side of track are fertile lauds. Scattered remnants of the native denizens of Wisconsin appear at the stations occasionally to gaze at the wonders of their white civilized successors. I saw one lord of the wigwam, his squaw and her pappoose, traveling in the mode we read of in books, to-wit: Male advances boldly, with gun, female follows meekly with her babe and an enormous bundle of effects, bowing her down ill slavery. The doctrine of extermination has little more of misanthropy in it, when applied to Indians, than the payment of bounty •'bn wolf scalps. The Chippewas still remaining ace. reported by the Whites as lazy, treacherous, thievish. The Wisconsoniaijs are rejoicing over the preparations to remove them all west of the Mississippi. The lumber business is the wealth of North Wisconsin. The trees are fallen, logged, and piled upon the icq in the streams in winter Ono firm, a meniher of whicJi was iny informant, had 1,200 men in their employ last winter whoplaccd over 12,000,000 logs in the Menomonee river. These logs are marked and branded, and at a convenient place men are employed in the spring months to assort and raft them to their proper destination. Tlie Menomonee, Chippewa and Wisconsin rivers, furnish unlimited water power. One* milt I visited was running one hundred saws and making 200,000 feet of lumber each day. Above this mill was eight hundred acres of logs floating, waiting to he sawed into lumber and rafted to market. The lumber business was a“right smart” curiosity to me, and some time I will tell you all about it. I caught a speckled trout in Wilson creek, which reminds me that j the small streams are pt*re, soft ’ spring water, as clear as it distilled ) in Art’s most finished laboratory 7 Fertility of soil nm in 1 rro. >■ nini-fy . defined zones. One can stand on a sentinel mound and see pine barrens, fertile poplar and sugar tree forests, tv.ud grassy prairie. The sandy pine flats predominate for a long distance. The musketocs — well their familiarity brcedetli disgust — are numerous and of large size. Wild raspberries, whortleberries and gooseberries abound in favTiieeb localities. - The “Badgers” are a clever, genial people, and my few hours in thei r society- sect no <lt o be enjoy slid o— for a consideration exacted. Passing to St. Paul we see a striving after first class city life.— Too many of her citizens live there for their health to ever succeed to her metropolitan dreams. Three miles above wc found Minneapolis moving swiftly to the front as the future Capitol of the State. If some daring Yankee would, by some vast machinery, utilize—the waterpower wasted at the falls, Minneapolis could supply the world with shop work. At one of the darns a daring tourist was walking across the apron in water and moss of shallow depth, when, failing to take heed where lie stood, a dark streak of humanity slid down the apron one hundred feet. lie was saved by the foot logs, rescued, anil .soundly la ughed at for. “ w’-ear-• ing o’ the green.” At Central Hotel, St. Paul, I yiewed a sunset wherein Nature,, applying all her long experience in that behalf, fairly out-did herself. The appearance in the heavens after a shower, a brilliant raiubotv and silver sheen on the river, etc., made up a gorgeous and not easily defined panorama of beauty. That sunset was a success.

Not heeding the Western maxim that the quickest route to any point north or south on the Mississippi is via , Chicago, I undertook by forced marches to travel down the river to Davenport. There is connected rail all the way. I first made Winona, an old and prettily •landscaped city, where I was taken in charge of by the landlord of the Huff House and furnished lodging and breakfast at one dollar each.— This was extortion added to venation. In the morning moved slowly down to Dubuque where two hours rest was taken. Then by easy marches to Clinton where was ordered to remain until morning. But to me time was as valuable as money, and I started for ©hiengor Stopped at Sterling and from there went to Rock Island- and Davenport, losing twelve hours on account of not going by way of Chicago. We'had a good opportunity for seeing the river and noticed aidimUieusc amount of lumber ya the

road to market. The demand is supplied. St. Louis dealers report they have lumber enough for two years without buying. Proprietors of lumber fleets are stopping at intermediate points apt! piling their boards. Had rather an unpleasant yet laughable experience with Mormon flies. For long distances, and several times, wc passed through swarms of them that filled the air and the cars with their innocent presence. I enclose a copy of one as a specimen. The crop prospect is fair, and the season’s general reputation is good. The city of Davenport is extensively plotted and remotely settled. The removal of the Capitol took away all the enterprise arid grit of thg people. It is bulldog grit that achieves success. Look at a thirty pound bull pup hanging to the nose o f taurus until the bellow ing monarch of the'pasture bites the dust! “Once get hold and never let go,” characterizes the hero in life’s arena. The air has been pleasant and have had tew petty annoyances, except mnsketocs, and last night some of those pesky black insects that bite and flea away. There was- a mass convention of them to witness my vain efforts to slumber. Will perhaps be at home by the time this reaches you, and will go by way of Chicago every time. Boland. Mishawakers can not decide whether they would like to have a paper mill, a car factory, ora Howe Sewing Machine factory that will give employment to GOO hands started in their town; blit rather than to miss either they would welcome all. Rev. Dr. Holmes, of Battle Ground, is reported to be failing fast mentally and physically. Application Fas been m ade for his admission into the insane asylum atlhdianapolls.but.it is thought lie cannot be moved from home, and that lie cannot live much longer. “Spiteful litigation between neighbors” is now indulged in by the good people of Franccsville, we infer from an item in their local paper; but as efforts are being made to organizer a Good Templar’s society there it may reasonably bo presumed the leading cause of trouble will be removed, when peace will be supreme. The taxable value of property in the 11 th Congressional district of Indiana is as follows: yt. Joseph county - - $14,231,875 Laporte - - - 12,935,138 . Porter - - , - 7,239,991 Lake - - G, 243,060 Starke - - 1,995,358 Jasper ... 3,827,403 Newton ... 4,131,003 Pulaski ’ - 2,809,001 White - - - 7.104,306 Carroll - - - 8,511,918 Total value of laxables $07,089,053