Few among the citizens have yet found leisure to devote themselves to intellectual pursuits, yet it is believed that the clergymen, lawyers, doctors, merchants &c., have exhibited ability and attainments equal to those of their class in other localities.
Western Towns--Surrounding Country--Scene as viewed from the Chamber's House--Salubrity of the Climate--Water--Soil-- Markets--Roads--Hogs and Cattle--Dairies--Sheep--Grass fatted meat--Horses--Choice of Markets--Scarcity of Timber-- Morals and Society--Former difficulties of the Emigrant-- Present Condition.
What ambitious communities these western towns are, to be sure! How they do chirp when they once get their bills through the shell, and while the greater portion yet adheres to their backs! What laughable contortions they make in their efforts to crow, strut and clap their wings! Eastern people must understand that there are no villages in the West. Every aggregation of a half dozen houses, a blacksmith shop and tavern is a city, and their name is Legion. A meeting house and school house--so necessary in the East to constitute a village--are not necessary appendages of a city in the West. Clapboard shells, with their gables to the street, embellished with square battlements to the ridge, are emblazoned with "City Drug Store," "City Saloon," "City Hard Ware Store," &c. There are "first class hotels," too, between which and the rail road depot, gorgeous omnibuses run. When the cars stop, what a din the runners set up of "Metropolitan Hotel," "St. Nicholas," "Reviere House," "St. Charles," &c. Wo, to the unlucky traveler who falls into their clutches. He will find when he comes to settle his bill, that in respect to charges, they are determined to do no discredit to their sea board prototypes.
Here and there, one of these clapboards "cities" emerge into one of brick and stone. Then three, four and five story structures rise like an exhalation. Enormous turrets, bay windows, lofty ceilings, gold and vermillion, marble, iron and gewgaws, without end, without order, without taste, and without regard to adaptability, business or convenience meet the eye on every side. Plate glass windows disclose a profusion of costly and variegated wares and merchandise, and enormous mirrors entice unsophisticated rustics down endless avenues. Turning your eye upwards along these aspiring structures, you behold broken windows and other evidences of dilapidation, denoting the utter uselessness of these lofty creations; and your amazement is no way lessened when you learn, that from twelve to twenty per cent. interest is paid for the money to erect them, secured by trust deeds upon the building itself, upon "out lots," and upon broad acres of "wild lands." Then what palatial residences are reared in the suburbs! Palaces, cottages, temples, pavilions, pagodas and mosques adorn valley and hill top. Domes, steeples, spires, turrets and minarets, gleam in the sun light, peer out of clumps of foliage, and struggle upwards at every unexpected point. Porticos, verandas, observatories, pillars, are here, there, everywhere, in endless profusion.--Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, Gothic and Yankee architecture are every where attempted, sometimes several of them on the same building, and sometimes all jumbled together.--Around them are close shaven lawns, graveled walks, arbors, climbing vines, summer houses, green houses, and flower plats, all under the care of one, two, three or more Patricks. Within, frescos and gilding, paint and upholstery, marble and porcelain, rose wood and mahogany vie, in their power to please, with magnificent toilets and languid ladies. Carriages, drawn by thousand dollar bays, groomed by blue coated Hibernians, flash upon the vision like the gleam of a meteor. But alas, for the inevitable revulsion! Down on the "business street," in front of premises where deposits are received and ten or fifteen per cent. interest allowed thereon, and exchange is sold on all eastern and European cities, a motley crowd of anxious and excited people--merchants, farmers, mechanics, seamstresses, laundresses, draymen, and laborers--are assembled. What brings them there? Why, Messrs. Dash & Splurge have "suspended"--that's all.