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Savannah is situated just above the 32d parallel of latitude, and possesses a mean temperature of 66° Fahr. Being within the influence of the Gulf Stream it enjoys all the mildness of the tropics in winter, while the summers are less oppressive than at New York or Washington. It is a favorite resort for northern invalids, being comparatively free from malarious fevers and pulmonary diseases.
Colored people abound in Savannah, constituting about three-eighths of the entire population. They do most of the menial work of the city, being laborers, waiters in the hotels and public houses, and stevedores upon the wharves. It is astonishing to see the number of colored men it takes to load and set afloat a steamship; and one of the last sights which meets the eye of the traveler and lingers in his memory, as he leaves the city by means of the river, is the long row of upturned black faces, most of them beaming with good humor and jollity, on the wharf, as the vessel casts off her lines and turns her head down stream.
Savannah possesses certain famous suburban attractions, without seeing which the traveler can scarcely say he has seen the city. In a bend of the Warsaw River, a short distance from its junction with the Savannah, and about four miles from the city, is the famous Bonaventure Cemetery. A hundred years ago this was the country seat of a wealthy English gentleman, who, upon the marriage of his daughter, made her a wedding present of the estate. The grounds were laid out in wide avenues, and shaded by live oaks, and the initials of the young bride and her husband were outlined with trees. In course of time the property was converted into a cemetery, and for many years has been devoted to that purpose. It is filled with monuments to the dead, some of them bearing historic names. Meantime the live oaks have grown to enormous dimensions, their gigantic branches meeting and interlacing overhead, forming immense arches, like those of the gothic aisles of some great cathedral, under and through which are visible bright vistas of the river and the sea islands lying beyond. The branches are fringed with pendants of the gray Spanish moss, yards in length, which sway softly in the breeze, and by their sombre color add to the solemnity of the scene. The steamers on the Sea Island route to Fernandina, Florida, pass Bonaventure, and afford glimpses of white monuments through the avenues of trees. Bonaventure is a favorite drive from the city, and is also reached by the horse cars.
Thunderbolt, so named, tradition tells us, because a thunderbolt once fell there, is a short distance from Bonaventure, down the Warsaw River, and is a popular drive and summer resort. A spring of water flows from the spot where the lightning is supposed to have entered the ground. Jasper's Spring is two and one-half miles west of the city, and is the scene of the exploit of Sergeant Jasper, who at the time of the Revolution succeeded, with only one companion, in releasing a party of American prisoners from a British guard of eight men. Another fashionable drive is to White Bluff, ten miles distant from the city. The latter, with Beaulieu, Montgomery and the Isle of Hope, furnish salt water bathing and delightful sea breezes for the summer visitors.
There is but one line of horse cars in the city, running on South Broad street, and then out the Thunderbolt road to Thunderbolt, Bonaventure, and the other suburban resorts. This company, we are told, has been so reckless in regard to the limitations of its charter, that the municipal government refuses to charter a second road. If our Northern cities were as scrupulous, we wonder where their many horse railroads would be!
Since the war Northern men and Northern capital have helped to build up the various interests of Savannah. Planing mills, foundries, flouring and grist mills, have been established, furnishing employment to a considerable number of workingmen. Old channels of commerce have been extended, and new ones opened; and the natural advantage of her position, added to the public spirit which her citizens manifest in the accomplishment of great enterprises of internal improvement, give a guarantee of increased prosperity in the future.
CHAPTER XXXV.
SPRINGFIELD
Valley of the Connecticut. – Location of Springfield. – The United States Armory. – Springfield Library. – Origin of the Present Library System. – The Wayland Celebration. – Settlement of Springfield. – Indian Hostilities. – Days of Witchcraft. – Trial of Hugh Parsons. – Hope Daggett. – Springfield "Republican."
A journey up the Valley of the Connecticut at this season of the year is a positive luxury to the tourist or professional traveler. It is a broad, beautiful road, winding through hill and dale, with grand old forests and mountains in the background, their foliage tipped with variegated colors by the fingers of Autumn, as an artist would put a finishing touch to his landscape.
A ride of twenty-five miles northward from Hartford brought us to Springfield, the most enterprising and important town in Western Massachusetts. The United States Armory, located here, gives to the city a national consequence. No city in the Union did more to crush out the Rebellion than Springfield, through her Armory. Two or three thousand men were kept constantly employed here during the war, turning out the various arms used in the Federal service. The force now employed is considerably less than in war times. All hands are engaged just now upon the Springfield rifled musket, which has recently been adopted by the Government. The military precision with which every detail is attended to is the admiration of all who are shown through the Armory.
A visit to the City Library, on State street, cannot fail to interest every person who feels a pride in the public institutions of New England. A fine, large, brick and stone building, with plain exterior and artistically finished interior, is the Springfield Public Library. Over forty thousand volumes cover its shelves, and are so systematically arranged that the librarian or his assistants can produce at once any work named in the catalogue. The oblong reading room is furnished with black walnut tables; and winding staircases, painted in blue and gold, lead from the columned alcoves to the galleries above.
The library owns some very old and valuable books of engravings. A room on the first floor is devoted to stuffed birds, geological specimens, preserved snakes, and a wonderful assortment of curious relics obtained from all parts of the world. Icelandic snow shoes and Hindoo gods occupy places on the same shelf, in peaceful proximity, and catamounts, paralyzed in the act of springing, glare at you harmlessly behind their glass cases. Patriotic mementoes are not wanting, as the bullet-riddled battle-flags of Massachusetts regiments will testify.
The free public library system is distinctively a New England institution, and wields a mighty influence for good. It was originated in 1847, by Rev. Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. On Commencement day of that year Mr. Wayland expressed a wish to help the inhabitants of the town of Wayland, Massachusetts, to a public library, and tendered a donation of five hundred dollars to the town for that purpose, upon the condition that another five hundred should be added by the town. The required fund was quickly raised, by subscription, and President Wayland immediately placed his donation in the hands of one of their prominent citizens, Judge Mellen. This was the beginning of the movement which resulted in the "Library Act," of May, 1851, in the State of Massachusetts.
The people of Wayland bought their library and provided a room in the "Town House" for its safe keeping. A librarian was chosen, whose salary was paid by the town, and the institution made its first delivery of books August seventh, 1850. Rev. John B. Wright was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, from Wayland, during the session of 1851, and through his agency the Act "to authorize cities and towns to establish and maintain public libraries" was passed. A "Library Celebration" took place in Wayland, August twenty-sixth, 1851, and was a most interesting affair. Thus it came to pass that through the practical working of this man's idea public libraries were established, not only all over the State of Massachusetts, but throughout New England.
Springfield was founded in 1636 by William Pyncheon, who with seven other men settled here, with their families, on May fourteenth of that year. They were bound together by mutual contract, with the design of having their colony consist of forty families. There was an especial provision that the number should never exceed fifty.
The early prosperity of Springfield was considerably retarded by Indian hostilities.
In October, 1675, the brown warriors of King Phillip made a descent upon the place, burning twenty-nine houses and killing three citizens – one of them a woman. The timely arrival of Major Pyncheon, Major Treat and Captain Appleton, with their troops, prevented further destruction and repulsed the attack of the Indians. Springfield was also the scene of operations during the troubles of 1786-87. At that time, General Shepperd was posted here, for the defence of the Armory.
Thus, through much tribulation, has the thriving town attained its present prosperity.
In its infant days, Springfield cherished a strong belief in witchcraft, as the following incident will testify: In the same year that Hartford set such a bad example to her northern neighbor on the Connecticut, by hanging Mrs. Greensmith, Springfield, not to be outdone, preferred a charge of witchcraft against one Hugh Parsons – a very handsome and pleasing young man, it seems, with whom all the women fell in love. Of course, this was not to be tolerated by the male population of the place, who hated him, as a natural consequence; and, accordingly, the handsomest man in Springfield was indicted and tried, on the grave accusation of being in league with the powers of evil. It is not surprising that the jury found him guilty. But, through some influence not explained, the judge, Mr. Pyncheon, stayed proceedings in his behalf until the matter could be laid before the General Court, in Boston. There the decision of the Springfield jury was reversed, and Mr. Parsons set at liberty. Whether after this his dangerous attractions were duly husbanded, or whether he went on, as of old, winning such wholesale admiration, we are not informed.
One of the sensations of the hour during my sojourn in Springfield, was an encounter between the State Street Baptist Church and Hope Daggett, one of its members. The disaffected sister had at sundry times and in divers manners made herself so obnoxious to the congregation, by her strong-minded peculiarities, that an officer was called upon the scene and requested to eject by force, if necessary, the eccentric and uncompromising Hope. Officer Maxwell, suiting the action to the word, seized the unruly sister, and without stopping to consider the sudden fame which this act would launch upon him, thrust her into the street, amid the cheers and taunts of friends and enemies. Now it was the peculiar misfortune of Miss Daggett to have a wooden leg, and on the day following this tragic affair the press of Springfield was devoted to various accounts of the engagement, in which Maxwell and the wooden leg figured alternately.
I cannot leave Springfield without some mention of its leading paper, the Springfield Republican, which for many years has been one of the solid papers of the Bay State, and a representative organ in politics and literature. Its editor, Samuel Bowles, is an energetic business manager and a stirring politician, who has fought his way up from obscurity to a position in the front rank of American journalism.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ST. LOUIS
Approach to St. Louis. – Bridge Over the Mississippi. – View of the City. – Material Resources of Missouri. – Early History of St. Louis. – Increase of Population. – Manufacturing and Commercial Interests. – Locality. – Description of St. Louis in 1842. – Resemblance to Philadelphia. – Public Buildings. – Streets. – Parks. – Fair Week. – Educational and Charitable Institutions. – Hotels. – Mississippi River. – St. Louis During the Rebellion. – Peculiar Characteristics. – The Future of the City.
The visitor to St. Louis, if from the east, will probably make his approach over the great bridge which spans the Mississippi. This bridge, designed by Captain Eads, and begun in 1867, was completed in 1874, and is one of the greatest triumphs of American engineering. It consists of three spans, resting on four piers. The central span is 520 feet in width, and the side ones 500 feet each. They have a rise of sixty feet, sufficient to permit the passage of steamers under them, even at high water. The piers are sunk through the sand to the bed-rock, a distance of from ninety to one hundred and twenty feet, the work having been accomplished by means of iron wrought caissons and atmospheric pressure. Each span consists of four ribbed arches, made of cast steel. The bridge is two stories high, the lower story containing a double car track, and the upper one two horse-car tracks, two carriageways and two foot-ways. Reaching the St. Louis shore, the car and road ways pass over a viaduct of five arches, of twenty-seven feet span each, to Washington avenue, where the railway tracks run into a tunnel 4,800 feet long, terminating near Eleventh street. Bridge and tunnel together cost eleven millions of dollars.
This wonderful structure, which has few if any equals upon the continent, will impress the traveler with the commercial magnitude and enterprise of the great western city to which it forms the eastern portal. Looking from the car window he will see, first, the Mississippi, which, if at the period of low water, disappoints him with its apparent insignificance; but which, if it be at the time of its annual flood, has crept, on the St. Louis side, nearly to the top of the steep levee, and has filled up the broad valley miles away on the hither side, a rushing, turbulent river, turbid with the yellow waters of the Missouri, which, emptying into it twenty miles above, have scarcely, at this point, perfectly mingled with the clearer Mississippi. He will see next the river front of St. Louis – a continuous line of steamboats, towboats and barges, without a sail or mast among them; the levee rising in a steep acclivity twenty feet above the river's edge; and multitudinous mules, with their colored drivers, toiling laboriously, and by the aid of much whipping and swearing, up or down the steep bank, carrying the merchandise which has just been landed, or is destined to be loaded in some vessel's hold. Beyond the river rises the city, terrace above terrace, its outlines bristling with spires, and prominent above all, the dome of the Court House.
St. Louis is situated in the very heart of the great Mississippi Valley, and a large share of its rich agricultural products and mineral stores are constantly poured into her lap. Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, both containing inexhaustible supplies of the useful ore, are not far distant. The lead districts of Missouri include more than 6,000 square miles. In fifteen counties there is copper. In short, within one hundred miles of St. Louis, gold, iron, lead, zinc, copper, tin, silver, platina, nickel, emery, cobalt, coal, limestone, granite, pipe-clay, fire-clay, marble, metallic paints and salt are found, in quantities which will repay working. In the State there are twenty millions acres of good farming lands; five millions of acres are among the best in the world for grapes; and eight millions are particularly suited to the raising of hemp. There is, besides, a sufficiency of timber land. With all these resources from which to draw, it would be surprising if St. Louis did not become a leading city in the West. Situated, as she is, on the Mississippi River, about midway between its source and its mouth, the junction of the Missouri twenty miles above, and that of the Ohio about one hundred and seventy-five miles below, and being the river terminus of a complicated system of western railways, the towns and cities, and even the small hamlets of the north, south and west, and to a limited extent of the east also, all pay her tribute. As Chicago is the gateway to the East, by means of the great chain of lakes and rivers at whose head she sits, so St. Louis holds open the door to the South and the East as well, through the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers.
In many respects the business rival of Chicago to-day, it has a history reaching half a century further back. While Chicago was still a howling wilderness, its only inhabitants the warlike Pottawatomies, who sometimes encamped upon the shores of its lake and river, St. Louis had a local habitation and a name. On February fifteenth, 1764, Pierre Laclede Siguest, an enterprising Frenchman, established at this point a depot for the furs of the vast region watered by the Mississippi and Missouri, and gave it the name of St. Louis. This was done by permission of the Governor General of Louisiana, which was then a French province. In the course of the year cabins were built, a little corn planted and the Indians placated. The Frenchmen seemed to have gotten along with the Indians tolerably well in those days. They had no hesitation in marrying squaws, even though they already possessed one lawful wife; they were good tempered and merry, and attempted no conversion of the Indians with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other. So the two races got along nicely together.
The peace of 1763 gave the country east of the Mississippi to the English, and the Frenchmen who had settled upon the Illinois made haste to remove to St. Louis, to avoid living under the rule of their "natural enemy." This was scarcely accomplished when the more terrible news reached them that Louis XV had ceded his possessions west of the Mississippi to Spain. For the next thirty years the town was a Spanish outpost of Louisiana, in which province no one not a Catholic could own land.
To go to New Orleans and return was a voyage of ten months; but in that early day, and under such surprising difficulties, St. Louis began its commercial career. It exported furs, lead and salt, and imported the few necessaries required by the settlers, and beads, tomahawks, and other articles demanded by the Indians in exchange for furs. In 1799 the inhabitants numbered 925, a falling off of 272 from the previous year. In 1804, St. Louis passed to the United States, together with the whole country west of the Mississippi. In 1811 the population had increased to 1400, and there were two schools in the town, one French and one English. In 1812 the portion of the territory lying north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude was organized as Missouri Territory. In 1813 the first brick house was erected in St. Louis. In 1820 its population was 4,928. In 1822 it was incorporated as a city.
After the cession of Louisiana to the United States, the law forbidding Protestant worship, and requiring owners of land to profess the Catholic faith, was repealed, and men American born but of English descent began to pour into the town. In 1808 a newspaper was established, and in 1811 many of the old French names of the streets were changed to English ones. In 1812 the lead mines began to be worked to better advantage, on a larger scale, and agriculture assumed increasing importance. In 1815 the first steamboat made its appearance.
In 1820 St. Louis cast its vote for slavery, and settled the question for Missouri. The population then was 4,928, which in 1830 had increased to 5,852; 924 additional inhabitants in ten years! From 1830 to 1860 its population trebled every ten years, the census returns of the latter year giving it 160,773. In 1870 it had nearly doubled again, the number being 310,864 inhabitants. According to the United States Census report of 1880, the population was 350,522, which made St. Louis the sixth city in the Union. Since that time it has been rapidly on the increase.
St. Louis is among the first of our cities in the manufacture of flour, and is a rival of Cincinnati in the pork-packing business. It has extensive lumber mills, linseed-oil factories, provision-packing houses, manufactures large quantities of hemp, whisky and tobacco, has vast iron factories and machine shops, breweries, lead and paint works. In brief, it takes a rank second only to New York and Philadelphia in its manufactures, to which its prosperity is largely due. In 1874 the products of that year were valued at nearly $240,000,000, while it furnished employment to about 50,000 workmen. Great as are Chicago's manufacturing interests, St. Louis excels her in this respect, while she rivals the former city in her commercial interests. The natural commercial entreport of the Mississippi Valley, the commerce of St. Louis is immense. It receives and exports to the north, east and south, breadstuffs, live stock, provisions, cotton, lead, hay, salt, wool, hides and pelts, lumber and tobacco.
St. Louis is perched high above the river, so that she is beyond the reach of all save the highest floods of that most capricious stream. She is built on three terraces, the first twenty, the second one hundred and fifty, and the third two hundred feet above low-water mark. The second terrace begins at Twenty-fifth street, and the third at Côte Brillante, four miles west of the river. The surface here spreads out into a broad, beautiful plain. The highest hill in the neighborhood of the city was the lofty mound on the bank of the river, a relic of prehistoric times, and from which St. Louis derived its name of the "Mound City." Greatly to the regret of antiquarians a supposed necessity existed for the removal of this mound, and now no trace of it is left.
In 1842 Charles Dickens published his American Notes, in which is found the following description of St. Louis:
"In the old French portion of the town the thoroughfares are narrow and crooked, and some of the houses are very quaint and picturesque, being built of wood, with tumble-down galleries before the windows, approachable by stairs, or rather ladders, from the street. There are queer little barber shops and drinking houses, too, in this quarter; and abundance of crazy old tenements, with blinking casements, such as may be seen in Flanders. Some of these ancient habitations, with high garret gable windows perking into the roofs, have a kind of French spring about them; and, being lopsided with age, appear to hold their heads askew, besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the American improvements."
There is nothing of this now seen in St. Louis, except in the narrower streets along the river, which remain a lasting relic of the ancient city. Yankee enterprise has obliterated, in the appearance of the city at least, all trace of its French and Spanish origin. The work of renovation must have commenced soon after Dickens' visit, for Lady Emeline Wortley, visiting St. Louis in 1849, describes it as follows: —
"Merrily were huge houses going up in all directions. From our hotel windows we had a long view of gigantic and gigantically-growing-up dwellings, that seemed every morning to be about a story higher than we left them on the preceding night; as if they had slept, during the night, on guano, like the small boy in the American tale, who reposed on a field covered by it, and whose father, on seeking him the following day, found a gawky gentleman of eight feet high, bearing a strong resemblance to a Patagonian walking stick."
If Chicago is a western reproduction of New York, with its characteristic alertness preternaturally developed, St. Louis takes Philadelphia for her prototype. The merchants and statesmen plodding wearily across the continent during the latter part of the last century and early in this, found Philadelphia the chief city of the country, and went home with their minds filled with the distinguishing features of that city. These they reproduced, as far as was practicable, in their own young and growing town. They laid it out with regularity, the streets near the river, which describes a slight curve, running parallel to it. Further back, they describe straight lines, while the streets running from east to west are, for the most part, at right angles with those they cross. Imitating Philadelphia, the streets are named numerically from the river. Those crossing them have arbitrary names given them, while many Philadelphia nomenclatures, such as Market, Chestnut, Pine, Spruce, Poplar, Walnut and Vine, are repeated. The houses are also numbered in Philadelphia fashion, the streets parallel with the river being numbered north and south from Market street, and those running east and west taking their numbers from the river. In numbering, each street passes on to a new hundred; thus No. 318 is the ninth house above Third street on one side of the way.
Not only in these superficial matters is Philadelphia imitated, but the resemblance is preserved in more substantial particulars. Many of the buildings are large, old-fashioned, square mansions, built of brick with white marble trimmings. There is less attempt at architectural display than in Chicago, apparently the main thought of the builders being to obtain substantiality. Yet there are many handsome buildings, both public and private. One of the finest structures of its kind in the United States is the Court House, occupying the square bounded by Fourth, Fifth, Chestnut and Market streets. It is in the form of a Greek cross, of Grecian architecture, built of Genevieve limestone, and is surmounted by a lofty iron dome, from the cupola of which it is possible to obtain an extensive view of the city and its surroundings. The building cost $1,200,000. The fronts are adorned with beautiful porticoes. The Four Courts, in Clark avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, is a handsome and spacious building, constructed of limestone, at a cost of $1,000,000. A semi-circular iron jail is in its rear, so constructed that all its cells are under the observation of a single watchman. A Custom House and Post Office has recently been erected, at the corner of Olive and Eighth streets. It is of Maine granite, with rose-colored granite trimmings, three stories in height, with a French roof and Louvre dome, and occupies an entire square. The cost of the structure was $5,000,000.
The Chamber of Commerce is the great commercial mart of the city, the heart of enormous business interests, whose arteries sometimes pulsate with feverish heat, and whose transactions affect business affairs to the furthest extent of the country. The edifice is the handsomest of its kind in America. It is five stories high, wholly built of gray limestone, and cost $800,000. The main hall of the Exchange is two hundred feet long, one hundred wide, and seventy high. In the gallery surrounding it strangers can at any time witness the proceedings on the floor, and watch how fortunes are made and unmade.
The most imposing and ornate building of the city, architecturally speaking, is the Columbia Life Insurance building, which is of rose-colored granite, in the Renaissance style, four stories high, with a massive stone cornice representing mythological figures. The roof is reached by an elevator, and affords a fine view.
The city abounds in handsome churches. Most prominent among them all is Christ Church (Episcopal) at the corner of Thirteenth and Locust streets. It is in the cathedral gothic style, with stained-glass windows and lofty nave. The Catholic Cathedral, on Walnut street, between Second and Third streets, is an imposing structure with a front of polished freestone faced by a Doric portico. The Church of the Messiah (Unitarian), at the corner of Olive and Ninth streets, is a handsome gothic structure. The Jewish Temple, at the corner of Seventeenth and Pine streets, is one of the finest religious edifices in the city. There are many others which will challenge the visitor's attention and admiration as he passes through the streets of the city.
The wholesale business of St. Louis is confined to Front, Second, Third and Main streets. Front street is one hundred feet wide, and extends along the levee, being lined with massive stores and warehouses. Fourth street contains the leading retail stores, and on every pleasant day it is filled with handsome equipages, while on its sidewalks are found the fashion and beauty of the city. Washington avenue is one of the widest and most elegant avenues in St. Louis, and west of Twenty-seventh street contains many beautiful residences. Pine, Olive and Locust streets, Chouteau avenue and Lucas Place, are also famed for their fine residences. Lindell or Grant avenue, running north and south, on the western boundary of the city, and slightly bending toward the river, is its longest street, being twelve miles in length.
The corporate limits of St. Louis extend eleven miles along the river, and about three miles inland. The densely built portion of the city is about six miles in length by two in width. Its public parks are one of its striking features. They embrace an aggregate of about 2,000 acres. The most beautiful is Lafayette Park, lying between Park and Lafayette, Mississippi and Missouri avenues. In it are a bronze statue of Thomas H. Benton, by Harriet Hosmer, and a bronze statue of Washington. It is for pedestrians only, is elaborately laid out and ornamented, and is surrounded by magnificent residences. Missouri Park is a pretty little park at the foot of Lucas Place, containing a handsome fountain. St. Louis Place, Hyde Park and Washington Square are all attractive places of resort. Northern Park, on the bluffs to the north of the city, is noted for its fine trees, and contains 180 acres. Forest Park is the great park of the city. It lies four miles west of the Court House, and contains 1350 acres. The Des Pares runs through it, and the native forest trees are still standing. With great natural advantages, it requires only time and art to number it among the handsomest parks in the country. Tower Grove Park, in the southwest part of the city, contains 227 acres, offers delightful drives among green lawns and charmingly arranged shrubbery.
