Favib sy 1 University of Illinois fae Meco ien | UNIVERSITY OF ILLINAIS Oak St. LiRBANA Unclassified Ee Landmark and Observer DEVOTED CHIEFLY TO THE SUBJECT OF Transportation to the Sea via the Mississippi, AS THE Pees Ty mR AT A TD TO. ALL OTHER MEANS AND ROUTES, THE CLEARING AND KEEPING CLEAR THE BAR AT ITS MOUTH, THE OPENING A _ Central, National, Grand Trunh Waterway FROM THE HARBOR OF CHICAGO TO THE GULF OF MEXICO,. AS A MEASURE OF NATIONAL ECONOMY, PROSPERITY AND DEFENCE, AND A Nationat Potrcy. s] © BY WM. DT. STACKPOLE Peeruroi) Ee Y Tie, CHICAGO: STEAM PRINTING HOUSE OF BIRNEY HAND & CO.,111 MADISON ST. 1879. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year me by ng eg, ee — en “a Puc and so of the States, communities and individuals composing it. We wish to attack or wound no one, but the wounds of the past, through the incompetency of the management of some public affairs, are so deep, and these effects have been so terrible to such immense interests of the peo - ple of the present, past, and future, and to individuals and their posterity, that the plain truth, in plain English, ought now to be presented, not to wound or injure any interest, party, men, or section, but to ume go01 man upon a few right measures, upon which all, or near!y all, can agree, and which could then be very easily, safely, cheaply and quickly accomplished , and thus the best interests of every man, woman and child be promoted. The lessons of the past we believe of far more value than the theories of the present and future, but our space and time will not admit of any lengthy discussion of either, but only inf the main the suggestion of some points that can be agreed upon, (we hope, ) by the great majority of the people. And of this character we think is the clearing and keeping clear the entrance to the Mississippi from the great Deep—usually obstructed (like party politics) with mud. The past history of our own and every othercountry proves that in all public affairs a fatal drift of popular error, aided by the perfectly selfish designs of a few or many individuals, conduct whole nations on to such ruin, that a whole generation or more is required for recovery. And the heaviest burdens of disaster are too apt to fall on the most worthy men, and on the 6 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. ” poor. The stupid and wild extravagance of speculation,and excess of importa- tions that brought on the revolution of 1837—the breakdown of the banking system in 1857—inadequate to transact the healthy business of the country, and other like events, illustrate in a slight degree in this country, what other countries have shown more fully, and more terribly. The headlong rush for endless and interminable speculation in railroads, and the neglect of the economic modes of transportation; nay, more, the de- liberate attempts to strangle and destroy them, has at last resulted in an honest movement for reform in the great and vital matter of transportation as well as in legislation. And trusting in the sincerity and integrity of that movement, and conscious of his own, this little book has been prepared, and this simple plan of concentrated and comprehensive action is offered to the public by the author, not with the vain idea that the subject is here exhausted or fully presented, but with the firm belief that the ground-work, here laid, is solid and impregnable. : : All the world knows that the attempt to establish a separate government that wouldinclude the Lower Mississippi, and so hamper the material inter- _ests of the great valley and the nation, failed—for the thunder of cannon, and the clang of arms, announced it far and wide over the whole earth. Yet, few know anything of the attempt to transfer to a private company— the Illinois—the link connecting, almost, our vast system of rivers with the great chain of lakes, nor the manner of its defeat. The part, which in the Providence of events, it fell in the path of the writer to take in defeating that great scheme of monopoly, (even though it was enrolled among the laws of Illinois,) may have been in the mind of the writer by that same Providence the nucleus for this work. If then the product is inadequate, and hastily written, may not it at least receive some kindly favor from intelligent and patriotic people, until a deter one appears Jrom some abler pen whom this perhaps may prompt. It has been suggested by friends, that this work should be continued, and madea periodical magazine, and beyond doubt the magnitude and import- ance of the suédjects demand this, yet circumstances, and personal health, will not admit at present of any positive plans of this kind. This edition is limited to five thousand copies, which, it is hoped, the friends of the cause will soon take, read and circulate. And may the Most High God, who blessed the effort sixteen years ago, and preserved the great waterways to the people intact—though lands and gold are gone—bless now this, extend it far and near, multiply its friends, and crown it with complete and full success. ‘ (Meloy NAG OS NN glancing over the great number of conventions that have been held in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, and throughout ae the country since January last, he would be adull man indeed, 1 *aiv@’ who would fail to see that a strong desire for reform generally, and in the pecuniary matter of transportation especially, existed in the en- tire country. And these conventions have been largely and well attended, by many able, patriotic, just, and sincere men, (and by some that were not, of course), and it would seem impossible that they could fail, in connection with the thorough and powerful organization now existing, of accomplishing a great good. But alas! The records of the past show many great movements, attended largely by many equally able and devoted men, that have been barren of results, or very nearly so, and if the gentlemen who attended them will re- flect, they may call to mind a number of notable River and Harbor Con- ventions, in Chicago and Saint Louis, in the last thirty years, attended by men of national reputation (as men of ability and patriotism), and it would be difficult to point to any results therefrom. Probably one great difficulty then was lack of unity and concentration of effort—lack also of the people holding their Congressional Representatives to a strict account. And in some degree the same causes of failure doubt- less now exist, and may and probably will be perpetuated, unless the move- ment is concentrated first on some given point, over which it can have easy and complete control, and be aided by the undeniable merit of the Obj ects - aimed to be accomplished. The newspapers give us lengthy accounts of the trip of the Congressional Convention held at St. Louis in May last—from thence to Galveston, over the new ratlways,; of the feasting—the immense and long-continued flow of champagne ; of the expense to Co]. Thomas Scott, (some $7,000 being that speculative railroad gentleman’s bill); of the seventy millions of acres of land depending, for two or three of those South-Western and Pacific Railroads, the most valuable of which can only be had by wresting from the Indians their reservations confirmed to them by repeated treaties, and at the cost of another war of sickening rapacity and injustice; of the visit to New “8 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. Orleans and the Gulf afer Galveston ; of the speeches and promises of opening the mouth of the River, and even threats that if nothing else would suffice, the West would move the Capitol to the Mississippi, &c., &c., &c. All this and much more, many‘of us have read; and while in the great mass there is much that seems plausible, and even hopeful, there is infinitely more cropping out that is dark, awful and revolting—beyond the power of language to express. , One thing is rather startling: that some of these great corporations, not satisfied with the incredible donations to them, are getting possession of all the alternate sections worth having ; another, that two companies are getting _ now donations of land nearly equal in extent to three times the area of the ‘great State of Illinois; another, that these lands (that are not worthless) are sold by the railroads at five times the government yprice ; another, that the donation to soldiers is rendered inoperative by the impracticable require- ment that the soldier must go on to the land and settle (whether he wishes - to or can) within six months—for the benefit really of the railroads afore- said; another, the amazing facility with which, (when plunder is to be had), excuses for war can be framed ; another, that when one Pacific rail- road can scarcely pay its interest and expenses, three more in less central and far less favorable localities are being built ; another, the total neglect of the rights of posterity, of those Americans born of Americans, who may want land, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, two hundred or three hundred years hence. Even pagan Rome lasted twelve hundred years, and it is base in any people to bar out their own posterity for the sake of establishing im- mense, zcredib/e monopolies in the land. It is most base to violate the faith of treaties with the long-driven Indian, and the rights of the white American men, women and children, and their children and descendants, who may want land, and be unable to get it, by reason of its absorption by a few, and occupation perhaps by Mongolian serfs, who, with cheap Chinese prostitutes, are now being emptied upon all the far West, from powerful and capacious steamships, plying between San Francisco and China, aided by subsidies from the United States treasury, and the traffic virtually encouraged and guarantied by treaties with China—introducing a new class unfitted for our institutions,-and that may easily become voters, and the convenient political make-weights of embryo. usurpers, robbers and thieves, whose claws civilization has amazingly sharpened, though concealed under a hypocrisy most wonderful. When did we surrender to this daring mob of speculators, and demagogues, and hypocrites, clamoring for plunder of the dead, the living and the unborn, and calling it glorious progression, when THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 9 indeed it is only selfish speculation, greedy expansion, and monarchical luxury, that wastes more than it builds securely and beneficently? If we turn back the pages of a few years of our history, (leaving the war out), some facts are startling. + The gold and silver product of our mines for twenty-four years past has been unexampled in the history of any nation, ancient or modern, yet it has all gone away like the morning dew, and debts, railroad, municipal, state and national, have been piled up like mountains on the breast of a giant in addition. . After mortgaging one-half of the continent to build railroads, we have suffered the obstruction of the great rivers, to swell their profits, and robbed posterity of their lands, and violated treaties, and taken Indian lands, and given to speculators to build more, where they are not wanted and cannot pay. The wail that has at last gone up is now derided by many, yet mighty revolutions have sprung from less causes. The Grangers are now organized, they claim, fora specific purpose. The writer bows the knee to no party, nor order, nor men, nor section, but most respectfully invites the attention of a@//, in this number of the Landmark and Observer, to one measure designed for the good of all; safe, peaceful, con- Servative and protective of all interests, certain in its general benefits, and furnishing the proper, natural and Jegitimate base for those great lines stretch- ing from the Lakes and the Mississippi to the Pacific coast; making the people’s line from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, the great (water) ‘Trunk line, not less important for navigation than the ocean itself—to the people of the West, the natural adjunct of the great northern lake route, (for one- half of the year especially), the proper and natural aid of the railways in their legitimate business, and that would form when improved the very key- stone (so to speak) of the great central system of the water-ways and rail- ways of the country, aiding more than can well be estimated the cheapening of transportation to the sea, the relief of the farmers, (without injury to any interest), the sound and healthy development of the country, and fending to AVERT the disaster that unhealthy speculation and injustice must inevitably cause if continued ; with all the evils of a desperate strife of classes in addi- tion. And when great disaster comes, it reaches nearly all, in every part of the nation. - With just and equitable freight and passenger tariffs on the railways, and good navigation to the Gulf, a great stride in the well-being of the people, (all classes and sections), will have been made, and for which an enlight- ened self-interest should induce every one to labor with sincerity and unity. ’ * THE BAR AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. a ‘““The Valley of the Mississippi is, upon the whole, the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man’s abode.”—DE TocQuEYVILLE.: P| 2 : $ F the entrance to the harbor at New York were obstructed )) by a bar of sand or mud, so that only vessels of light “Oa on draft could cross it, and Congress failed to provide for 7 e@" its removal or the deepening of the water by dredging, and the whole commerce of the city and of the nation was greatly affected and injured thereby, would it be borne in passive silence ? Or, if the light-houses of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States of America were allowed to remain dark and unlighted for one year, or for even one month, would there be no complaint? And if, by want of systematic attention, and of a regular system of work, adapted to the nature of the obstruction, a few score or a few hundred ships were grounded, and a few hundred or a few thousand kept away or sent to some other harbor a thousand miles down the coast, to which the freight of New York, or a large part of it, had to be sent in smaller vessels, and there unloaded, and loaded into large ships for exportation to foreign countries ; and if by this, millions, multiplied totens and hundreds of millions of dollars, were lost to the country ; and by these great leaks in its business, merchants and people were brought to bankruptcy, would it be agreeable to us,and espe- cially to New York, for a government of the people and for the people — as ours is theoretically supposed to be—to look on in cold indifference ? And yet this is precisely. what has been done—not for a month nor for a year, nor since the rise of the Republican party, or the defeat of the Demo- cratic party, but for two full generations, only the harbor is not that of New York, but of the Valley of the Mississippi, a domain surpassing any ever yet given by God to man, and so recognized by the ablest minds of modern times—outside of the American Congress—and so recognized by them, only the recognition is as yet 7a gaseous form, and has not as yet assumed a solid form, a practical point, resembling in this respect, the theory of some mod- ern scientists in regard to the origin of matter. The American Eagle has been made to soar, by many a windy orator, far and wide over the Great Valley, the Rivers and the Lakes, and mae Wii —--O Weil U7, Ta THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. ENE ventions have been held, and much honest and intelligent effort, (and still more that was neither,) has been made, yet few results have been won, so far as the rivers are concerned. In the autumn of 1848, (and again in 1851,) the writer crossed the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi, and at that time, while vessels of the lighter class, adapted to the coasting trade, floated over easily without grounding, yet -heavy ships bound for Europe experienced the greatest difficulty, and pow- ‘erful tow-boats were laboring to draw them through the mud, at great expense and some risk of injury to the ships. One splendid ship, the ‘‘ Forest King,” was stuck hard in the mud, and upon her two powerful tow-boats were exerting their utmost force to drag her over the bar and into the deep water of the gulf, a few rods beyond ; which, once reached, she could spread her white wings for Europe. All that was required then, was a little dredging out of the soft mud, de- posited by the Great River on the bar at. its mouth, and this is all that isnow, or at any time required. When once the bar is passed, outward-bound vessels enter at once the broad, deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, while those entering the river are, when the bar is crossed, safe from all danger of shipwreck — safe from the dangers of the seas, and find a deep, safe river, free from all danger from rocks, snags, or sand bars, up to and far above New Orleans, for ships of the largest class. Of course there have been various party dogmas, and narrow sectional in- terests, thrust in the way of the improvement of even the great national river, but the absurd or criminal neglect, so long continued, of the ex/rance of this great system of river navigation (estimated by Benton at fifty thousand miles of boatable waters) cannot be accounted for in this way, Clearly it ts national, and not only national, but being one of the most important har- bors it the world, the whole world is interested in easy and safe access to. if Were there great natural obstacles to be overcome, and these of a kind that could only be overcome by a vast expenditure — like that for the Suez Canal, there might be some excuse for the neglect. But there is no difficulty, nor has it ever been claimed that there is any. The great Lower Mississippi is comparatively gentle, safe, wide and deep, up to the bar at its mouth ; that passed, and the broad, deep waters of the Gulf of. Mexico and the salt-seas of our planet lie beyond. _ The distance across the bar isa mere trifle —the dredging to be done a ery little, comparatively, merely deepening the water, by dredging out from ee 12 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER, two to eight or ten feet of soft mud, and this need only be in a narrow chan- nel four hundred or five hundred feet in width ; (even much less might do) and then the largest ships that float upon the seas can steam up or be towed to New Orleans, or far above if required, with the greatest facility. Compared with the Suez Canal, the work to be done is as a farmer's ditch. to the Erie Canal, and when once cleared, the expense of keeping 27 so will be but a trifle compared with the importance of this great natural outlet to the world for the very heart of the American continent. But just there as the’ pont, United States dredges, (an adequate force), under the charge of a competent, working, practical, faithful and diligent officer, should be con- stanily kept there in service—or ready for service. No begging petition should ever again be necessary, or thought of, to se- cure this, any more than to secure Pees ue for lighting up the light- houses on the Atlantic coast. | Dredging the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi is not the whole duty of government, but it should be Aeld second fo none in importance, and as traly fh national as any service can be. The Mississippi river does not stop its current and wait for appropriations to remove a fraction of the sediment where its waters join the great seas. Its ceaseless flow pauses not one instant ; so let there be no break nor inter- regnum in this governmental duty. Even the scavenger carts of a city are always in service, and this dredging is important to hundreds of cities, and in some degree at least to one-third the population of the whole earth, especially to the United States of America, and most particularly to that great Heart of this Western World—the Valley of the Mississippi, and the score of great States it contains. Then, in the great name of justice and common sense, let us have no more of this ruin and waste of public and private interests, no more of these miserable spasms of Congressional appropriations, oncc in five or ten years ; but judicious, regular, sufficient service, as regular (except differ- ences in service) as that for the lighthouses, or the mails, the army, the navy, or the just payment of public officers; usual, regular work when required, only to be interrupted by storms or unavoidable delay; benefiting the merchant, the sailor, the boatman and the farmer; benefiting all the people, whose interests no rings or combinations can separate, and removing _ a long-continued grievance, injury and injustice to the West and Southwest, and a disgrace to the nation which prides itself upon its great river, the teeming country we call the valley of that river, and yet keeps a pitiful mud bar across its greatest natural entrance. CONNECTING THE WATERS OF THE GREAT AMERICAN ‘LAKES WITH THE WATERS OF THE GREAT RIVERS, Ger@REXT IN ORDER, after the clearing of the mouth of the | oe Dye: S(S@< Mississippi, that the ships of the world may safely and easily enter it at all times—and of the same eminently national little matter’”—very old, yet very much neglected, and seemingly about abandoned by Congress, even in the gaseous exhalations which it was. once fondly hoped would finally condense, solidify and lead to a most practical, most national and most beneficent result—the connecting by the United States, of the waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico by enlarging the Illinois and Michigan canal, and _ placing five to seven locks and dams in the Illinois river—wonderfully and admir- ably adapted as it is by nature to this use, as is fully proved. Over this simple, plain, yet most grand and beneficent project, the Amer- ican Eagle has also soared a great many times at many great conventions, but that is.all. Whether he has been diverted by some rabbit, rat, (Railroad rat) mouse, or owl, some cat bird, mocking bird, or fish-hawk, or some sectional barn- yard fowl, crowing for his dunghil!, for his constituents and for Buncomb, and demanding appropriations for Duck Creek, that that be placed on an equality with the Mississippi (as a matter of principle, you know), whether the Eagle was diverted by this menagerie, we know not. Certain it is, how- ever, that his gaze has been turned away from the beneficent sun of utility, and his talons have shown a wonderful affinity for plunder. It is idle, however, and probably would be unjust, to seek to find a polit- ical scape-goat—a party, or man, or set of men, upon whom all the blame © can be placed for the long neglect, or for the political sins of the whole people. Partisanship and Sectionalism are the monsters that have ridden us, from the first, and Demagoguism is the national and inherent weakness of all Republics—to be guarded against by an intelligent people, as well as monopolies. td 14 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER But now that a wail has gone up for reform and for cheaper transporta- tion, it would seem impossible that this work, after fifty years of discussion, could be permitted to be longer delayed, unless defeated by some unfortu- nate circumstances or villainous intrigues, from some quarter—or combina- tions of hostile, narrow, and selfish interests, uniting fora common purpose. And that these (secretly or openly) will certainly be arrayed, all experience shows. ' ‘If, however, the people who should favor the measure will unite, and unitedly and faithfully work for its success until accomplishment, it can certainly be carried through, by choosing men to Congress for that and kindred purposes, (if all other means fail), who will not dare BrTray their’ trust, or neglect it. And the work is not great or the expense heavy,, The State of Illinois has built one lock and dam in the river, and provided mostly for the building of a second one. The one completed cost four. hundred thousand dollars, and probably the average cost of each would be little, if any, above that figure. It is estimated that five locks are all that will be required to give a depth of seven feet, even in the lowest stage, from La Salle to the Mississippi. But as a different estimate, some seventeen years ago, fixed the number a; seven, it may be best to divide, and say six may be required. At this, and allowing for the reimbursement to the State of Illinois for its expenditure, two and a half millions would pay for the whole. But from La Salle to the Chicago River the expense would be heavier, Here too, however, the natural advantages for the work are excellent. Abundance of stone of the precise character wanted for walling the banks throughout its whole extent, thus making the work permanent,. secure, and adapted to the use of tow-boats and river steamers, would be excavated in the construction of the work. Precisely what it would cost is not known, but, judging from the cost of what has already been done—the old Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the deep cut to drain the Chicago river, and it is probable that eight or ten mil- lions would suffice to complete or enlarge the work, so as to admit of the passage of barges of five or six hundred tons, (carrying, say 20,000 bushels of corn or wheat, or 15,000 bushels of coal), or of the steamers adapted to usual navigation on the Ohio, the Missouri, the Upper Mississippi, the Illi- nois and the Cumberland. But even suppose it would cost double that, including the reimbursing the State, it would be the best expenditure that could be made, and would at once largely add to the value and advan- tage of all the inland navigation of the vast river system of the entire Miss-. ® THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. I5 issippi Valley, from the Alleghanies to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and of the great plateau of the Lakes and lake navigation throughout its entire extent, together with all its connecting canals, rivers, and even—seas. Though a national work and for our own benefit, advantage and devel- opment, yet the commerce of the world would feel it, even as its Oriental compeer, the Suez Canal. And as the heart and larger arteries, when full, healthy and vigorous, send a stronger, healthierand more vigorous flow through the whole human system than when enfeebled, weak and suffering, so the great railway system of the United States in its entirety, would be solidly and permanently bene- fited in the healthy and just fulfillment of its legitimate functions, by the stronger and healthier flow of the nation’s internal and foreign commerce in its great natural channels, which this would so largely promote. And though some lines might find their profits reduced, and some changes incident to the improvement of this ‘‘Grand Trunk” waterway through the heart of the country to the seaboard that they would not at first relish, yet they would get their compensation in the end, in the greater general pros- perity of the country through the better adjustment of its business, and especially the development of the manufacturing interests of the Mississippi Valley, which every patriot should desire to promote, encourage and aid, by all proper means, as the sheet-anchor of the pecuniary welfare and prosperity of the American people, and especially of the farmers of the west. In the report of the transactions of the Department of Agriculture of the State of Illinois for 1871, Vol. I, New Series, page 87 to 108, there is a most valuable essay on “ Manufactures in [llinois,” from James T. Dwyer of Springfield, that should be read by every one. Says Mr. Dwyer, ‘‘Our people are becoming slowly convinced of the great fact which other communities have practically illustrated, in the pros- perity flowing from diversified home industries, that the farm and the furnace, _ the workshop and the factory, the railroad and the water-craft, must exist within sight of each other, and are as necessary to the prosperity of each other as are the bricks, mortar,and material, in the erection of our buildings.” Of course, narrow critics might find a crevice in which to enter the wedge of their criticism in the expression ‘‘ within sight.” Of course, Mr. Dwyer means this, not in a literal sense, but with reference to the topography of our country, and tothe grand scale upon which nature has wrought in the valley of the’ Mississippi. Springfield is interested equally with Naples in the improyement of the Illinois River, and Chicago equally with St. Louis, 16 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER, New York equally with New Orleans, the dwellers near the Upper Missis- sippi equally with those of the Ohio and the Missouri. In short, to bring in an old, concise and comprehensive expression, reaching every city and village, every state, county and farm, of about two-thirds of the Union, which are in a certain degree interested, and which, we think, will apply correctly and accurately—those on ‘‘all the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.and all the waters flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” adding to the natural and acquired advantages all now possess a new facility for intercommunication, for trade, for travel and interchange of commodities, crude and manufactured, minerals, produce, lumber, manufactured articles, &e., &c., never before enjoyed—tending to cheapen freight, yet aiding the true office of the railway, tending to promote manufactures and a diversified industry, to add materially to the value of many articles at the place of pro- duction, and yet cheapening the same to consumers, tending to open up remunerative employment in many places where it had been wanting, to give that stability in all kinds of business, for the lack of which the great majority of the American people have so greatly suffered, tending to lessen demagoguism, and thus to promote all true nationality and all prosperity, and to giving the people of America a better hold on their heritage and birthright, the gift of their Creator, than they have had or now have or ever ~ can have, while almost wholly dependent upon such entirely artificial and costly means of moving bulky freight, as railroads alone, gorged as they are with a plethora, owing to the neglect of the great waterways, upon which the railway magnates (with some honorable exceptions) have looked with a jealous and unfriendly eye, seeming to think, in some cases, that they could. grasp the whole vast internal trade of this country, and fix the rates of freight without any restraint whatever or chance for competition, and (in far too many cases) using the power of money and corruption to aid them, and aided often by sectional interests and local jealousies of the most stupid character, in thwarting the improvement of the great natural waterways. Scarce a single great waterway has been opened or improved in these United States for twenty years, while debts to England for railways have been contracted, sufficient in amount to require a sum in gold and silver more than the entire annual yield of our gold and silver mines, to pay the annual interest, leaving the country continually in debt and continually drained to pay the interest. And still more means of transportation (and cheaper means) are needed, and still the cry is for more railroads, and still the same strange neglect of the great waterways, and mysterious hostility to their improvement. Call No. Date Ordered SilehTian, Date of Bill 4G el Cost 2.0 Charged to - Not in Library Univ. of Ill. Lib. PLAINLY Author (Surname first)-7 Now. ping, ” Fn: a7 Ov wrt 2 IE / Edition & ay Date of pub..../ To be charged to Recommended by When cataloged send to book stack (reserve shelves) (seminar) Try to give date of publication, publisher or place, and list price or estimated cost. Add special directions and other information about the book ON THE BACK THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. Lf We have said scarcely ome has been opened or improved for twenty years. Cannot all now for once agree that onE, the peculiar one most useful to the country and to all its varied interests and most eminently national, shall be opened up for the use of the country. From Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico is in reality one line and one work, requiring only a few millions at the. outset for construction and improve- ment, and when done it is the property of the people—their own for ever, their own to the sea, and let it be ‘‘ forever free from all tax, duty and im- post, not only to the people of the States where situated, but to all the people of all the States.” And to do this, only a comparatively trifling annual expenditure would be required, probably not one-fifth the annual national expenditure on the Atlantic coast and on the lakes for harbors and lights, and the whole first cost would probably be less than one-tenth the whole first cost for lighthouses and harbors on the Atlantic coast and on the lakes. For from Cairo down very little is to be done, and from Cairo to the mouth of the Illinois, not a great deal. ; At one place only (the Grand Chain) are there any rocks to be removed, and at only a few are sand-bars to be dredged, necessarily. Two or three snag boats should be kept in cons/ant service, and half a dozen dredges, perhaps ; but Mississippi pilots have never been indulged with lighthouses, and will not expect any. The removal of snags is not very expensive, and this will greatly lessen all trouble from low water, for then (when snags are removed) barges can be handled with greater ease and Aisafety:? ! : But this service should be cons/ant, as should that at the mouth of the river, and not spasmodic as it-has been. The officers in charge should ‘be in readiness when the river pilots report a snag or sawyer, (and they should be required to report promptly), to go at once with a snag boat and remove it. In this way accidents from this cause would be rare, and no snag need ever sink or injure more than ove boat, at the worst, and with the snags removed, the river navigation would be far safer than that of lakes or ocean, and safer even than railways. Of course there are those who would like the plan of this great national highway from north to south better, if its Zoca/ion was different,—if it ran, for instance, through Indianapolis and Cincinnatiand Nashville ; or through Des Moines, Omaha and Fort Gibson to Galveston, or took a ‘‘chute” off through Tennessee and Georgia to Savannah ; and still others who would favor it heartily if it passed through their State or their county, and yet others who could see nothing but a swindle in it unless it passed by their village or 18 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. within a convenient distance of their farm. To these it is enough to say that the planet was not created in that way, and that the United States cannot well afford the expense, at present, to make the little alteration they require. But were it otherwise, and could Mississippis be made to run through the country like irrigating ditches through a New Mexican farm, it is not at all probable they would be suited. One Mississippi is enough, and thus far one more than we have utilized as we might. We have given one railroad company, (the Northern Pacific), for a railroad that was not greatly needed, fifty millions of acres of land. At forty cents per acre—exclusive of Indian title (which we omitted to acquire; and which the railroad company will not, when war would be so much better for the company), the donation would be worth twenty millions of dollars. We have given to railroad companies, from the patrimony of posterity, more than two hundred millions of acres of land within the last few years, mostly (except the Union and Central Pacific Railroad, which was a very necessary work),* for purposes of speculation, inflation and expansion. Cannot the people now apply a few millions on their own great highway for their own present relief and future benefit, as a measure of political and national economy and naval defence, conserving all just interests and aiding and promoting all healthy development? Or shall it be defeated or delayed by apathy, by ignorance, by selfish and narrow sectional interests, east or west, or by bribery of officials, or intrigue, or subornation of the press, or the blather of demagozues, or by loading project upon project, or scheme upon scheme, sufficient to sink the whole? Doubtless the Ohio, the Missouri, ‘the Upper Mississippi and other rivers seed improving, (whether practicable or not), but which of all the great system is most national, will most benefit all the others, the whole great valley, the whole great plateau of the lakes and the nation at large, and give the surest, speediest and greatest benefits to the greatest number of people, and also to the greatest number of the diversified interests of the country, checking that insensible depletion and overloading, which excessive railroad building is bringing on the country ; cheapening transportation to and from the sea- board, both by northern or summer route and by southern or winter route, as well as by all the railway routes to the east, as no other one measure can. For from Cairo down the river is rarely obstructed by ice, and the depth of water is always ample for barges of the class described. So from Cairo the current of bulky freights would set south in winter time, when the lakes are closed and when ship-masters and sailors like to go to New Orleans, avoid- ing the hardship of coming on to the Atlantic coast off New York, or THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 19 northward, in the inclement, cold and stormy winter ; when ropes and sails are frozen and stiff with ice, and lives and cargo and ship demand unspar- ing effort, even if hands and feet are frozen, and bodies drenched with the ice-cold water of the sea. But when summer comes, and the malaria of the south brings fevers to those not™acclimated, and the northern lakes and sea invite the navigator, and canals “are in order, then the freighting tide from Cairo and below will turn northward, and pass through to Chicago and east by the lakes, . } . The same class of barges would be adapted to the entire service, winter and summer, from Chicago to New Orleans, and in this way would be in service the entire year, or as regularly as railroad cars, thus greatly promoting the ability on the part of boatmen to carry freight low ; canal boats, barges, and all the water craft in use on northern waters exclusively, being laid up nearly half the year. And this is one reason why sea-going vessels going to mild climates in winter and in service most of the time from the day they are built, can afford to carry freight so low, with a profit.to their owners. And with safe, deep water navigation from Chicago to New Orleans, (with the entrance at the passes always accessible for large ships), that great high- way would soon give us, dy far, the lowest average of freight we have ever known, or ever can know elsewhere ; and far lower than it is or can be pos- sible to carry it all the way by railway to the sea, Mr. Adams and his remarkable estimate to the contrary, notwithstanding. Mr. Adams’ estimate is, in some respects, like certain estimates once made that corn could be produced in Illinois at five cents per bushel with a profit to the grower. The elevation at which the railroads approach the rivers would admit of some plan for transferring grain, by dumping or otherwise, at small ex- pense, and without warehousing, in many cases. So too, frequently, at New Orleans and Chicago, floating elevators could transfer at once from barges to vessels, saving, in many cases, all warehousing charges, risks and delays. On this great highway to the sea, three great cities now stand pre-eminent. Yet neither has,.as yet, seemingly realized 2m its fullness the practical idea of safe, continuous, deep-water navigation between gulf, rivers and lakes. And, strangely enough, the two of the north seem to have hardly realized the need of putting in this link, connecting the great chain of lakes with the rivers, to facilitate for each what must or should be in the future, (the near future), their greatest home industry—vhe working of Iron. And it is in this regard that the country at large has a vital interest in their advancement, (as well as in that of every other iron-working city or town in the country), far more than in their sales of fancy goods, their ele- 20° THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER, gant buildings, or the prices of their corner lots. Heretofore, a large share of the intellectual force represented by the gentlemen of the western press has been expended in throwing sectional brickbats, for the edification of those of their readers who relish a little of this kind of fun. As, for instance, the badinage between the editors of Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis, like the triangular duel of Midshipman Easy, and the dispute in Congress between ‘‘learned and eloquent” senators as to whether the hay-crop of Massachusetts or the cotton. crop of South Garolina were most valuable. But alas! the crystal walls of the palace of the noblest utility and truest | beneficence may be thus shattered by intellectual brickbats,’ whether thrown by giants, or madmen, or boys, or blackguards, or demagoguess, or hirelings, or intellectual coxcombs, strutting their brief day of mischief: brief in eternity, but long—oh, how very long, in time ! Now, leaving all the past behind, may it not be that these cities,and many others, will give their united and efficient aid to promote unity, and fidelity untiring, in the accomplishment of this object, in which all the people upon. or near the lakes, or the remotest waters of the Mississippi, should join as one man, and legislate to complete this great central water-line of communi- cation from north to south, through the heart of their country—so wonder- ful in its extent, its tens of thousands of miles of connections, (by water and — by rail), provided by the God of Nature for their use, and requiring only a mere fraction of the annual waste, a tithe of the loss by the Chicago fire, a tithe of recent United States donations to railroads, to complete and make it the most valuable inland water-way on the whole earth ; and free for them and theirs—for their speedy relief and quick benefit, and for posTERITy, as some compensation for the lands so rashly given away, and the debt entailed upon them, securing to them firmly that which the beneficent foresight of men long dead secured to us. Why should we not improve and use it? But if other States, lying upon the trunk, or main, or lateral branches o¢ the great river system, or upon the lakes, should think that Illinois, by rea- son of her location, would reap a greater benefit than they, and so object to her reimbursement by the general government, for her expenditure on canal or river, —then let Illinois waive all claim for reimbursement, and give canal, lock and dam, all to Uncle Samuel, for the sake of the free use of his en- larged highway. Let nothing stand in the way of a work which will add an average of five cents per bushel to the value of the grain product of the Mississippi Valley, and help adjust its business, and the nation’s, on a safer, broader and_ better basis than it can possibly be otherwise. Will not the railroad men—as American transportation men—reflect that this most im- THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 21 portant and neglected improvement of the great natural, central waterway, from north to south through the heart of the Mississippi Valley, connecting the lake and river systems, is what the nation needs, and that it will aid in the solution of the great question of inland transportation, and in restoring healthy action to the varied interests of the country, more than any other one measure can? The annual consumption of iron in the United States is now unparalleled in the history of the world, and so is the tremendous, and, (if continued and increased), fafa? drain it.is making upon the resources of the country. One-third of it is imported ; and it requires every dollar’s worth of pro- duce we can spare, and every ounce of gold and silver we can produce to meet our foreign trade balances and interest, and then they are not met, and cannot be. The whole production of iron in the world amounts to about thirteen million’ tons annually, (of which England produces one-half, ) and we consume fully three million tons annually. And how much is that gentle reader, do you know? We will try to illustrate it. Take a railroad -car andJoad upon ita full load—twenty thousand pounds. ‘Then place at the end of it another, and load it likewise, and another, and another, and so on, until ten miles in length of loaded cars is reached ; and will that be three million tons? Not quite, although that is the first-thought estimate of several gentlemen with whom we have conversed. But go on, dear reader, until you have a hundred miles of cars—two hundred, three hundred, five hundred, seven hundred—and then, dear reader, you will have about one million tons, or an average of four months’ consumption. And this it is proposed to increase, by various and vast double and even quadruple track railways, from east to west, which will, of course, want rates high enough to pay dividends. Speed the plow, oh farmer of America! ply swiftly the pick and bar, oh sun-browned miner of the Pacific slope and Rocky Mountains! for yours must be a task heavier yet than the past, and in the future, desperate and hopeless. And you, oh most mighty statesmen and lawgivers, see if you can spread the Eagle’s wings far enough to cover this in corn at twenty cents per bushel ! An ordinary tow-boat on the river that God has given us can take to tide- water a fleet of barges carrying six or eight thousand tons, or what would load an unbroken line of railroad cars five miles in length, and this tow- boat only costs as much as a first-class locomotive, and by the most admira- ble invention of this century—for steering—this vast mass can be guided on the bosom of the great river by one man, and the river, after it has passed, 22 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. will not be worn or injured a particle. On the up-trip the steam-tug is able to tow the same number and size of barges with a moderate amount of freight, and make the round trip in about twenty days, say from the mouth of the Illinois to New Orleans and back. : But, says some one, wise in the lore of the daily papers, (which, when very large, and able to emit forty columns per day, are supposed to be infalli- ble, ) ‘‘we cannot ship corn to New Orleans, on account of the climate,” But we have shipped quantities that way years ago with good results, be- fore these absurd statements were so industriously circulated through such powerful and mischievous agencies, and in furtherence of such narrow and unscrupulous sectional interests, injuring the country at large for their own gain as they are. It is high time the people took the case in hand, and wrought a just and national reform, inducing a wise economy in transportation, substituting short hauls of from 30 to 300 miles by railways for long hauls of 700 to 1100 miles ; lightening the vast burdens upon railroad tracks by improving cheaper means of carrying bulky and low-priced commodities, thus getting some profits from our exports, diminishing our imports, and promoting our inter- nal commerce and manufactures, aiding to expand our iron ‘production (not consumption) by greater facilities for cheaply combining the valuable ores and coals of the west for manufacture, and for distributing the products after- wards. eet Grangers and Clubs ! You have organized for a purpose, and a good pur- pose ; will you not take this measure into the center of your serried column and adopt it as your own, your country’s cause—to you, especially, it is com- mended, by one who has always been a faithful and devoted worker, and who is not without experience of the hardships of the worker, the’ farmer, the merchant, the boatman and the miner, and who realizes fully the ad- verse influences and internal dangers you have to encounter To err is human, yet yours seems in the main, though peculiar, yet a gen- uine,true movement of the people, as though inspired by Heaven for ultimate good ; and maya greater than human wisdom guide you, broaden and cor- rect your work, and give you andall true citizens speedy and peaceful suc- cess in all safe and just reforms, OUR TIMES. ’ EREWITH we give some extracts from the daily papers, giving ‘® reports from N ew Orleans, and the mouth ofthe river, at the time ofthe visit of the members of Congress, in May. It seems scarcely ’ possible, that men could be so base as to purposely ground ves- sels, or des:roy or injure peaceful commerce for the sake of gain. If it be true, or liable to occur hereafter, the laws should be so amended as to make it piracy, and provide for their speedy trial and punishment as pirates: And when there is a sufficient depth of water, the tow-boats should be held responsible in pecuniary damages, for the grounding of any vessel to which she may be attached, unless it can be shown to have been unavoid- able, and if necessary a U. S. Admirality court should be constituted, and kept constantly in session at New Orleans, and if that fails, let an associa- tion of shipmasters, sailors, shippers and river men be empowered to let down at the passes in some kind of a joint High Commission ; by some just and fair, yet speedy and, inéxpensive process, and with as little chance as possible for pettifogying, chicanery and evasion or cheating of justice. [Special Dispatch to the Chicago Tribune.] NEW ORLEANS, May 24. The Congressional party returned from the mouth of the river at 8 a. m., and jeave by special train for the North at 4 p.m. The partisans of both Kellogg and McEnery are doing all they know to gain ad-. herents among the Congressmen, and they have so far succeeded that a few Rep- resentatives will remain over and partake of the private hospitalities of Kellogg, Warmoth, McEnery, and other politicians. None of the Congressmen have com- mitted themselves to, an espousal of either sids, but they listen eagerly to all statements in order to take action in the next Congress, and nearly all the Repre- sentatives are pledged to support the Fort St. Philip Canal scheme. It is judged feasible, there being only one lock requisite,and the remainder of the work con- sists of mere excavating, except at the mouth of the river, where some jetties are to be put up. The cost will be $6,000,000 to $7,000,000. An attempt is made to load this simple scheme withall sorts of improvements, estimated to cost nearly - $30,000,000 in the aggregate, but the Congressmen are unanimous that the scheme will-not bear loading with anything else. The present channels were 17 feet deap, and can be kept by the present appro- priations at a conven‘ent depth of 29 feet, but the Government dredging officers complain that the Tow-Boat Company, which is said to be owned by the Custom- 24 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. House ring, with Grant’s brother-in-law, Casey, at their ‘head, deliberately run ships ashore. When they are forced to tow them in, they pretend there is no water. When they can avoid towing them in they do so, preferring to let them stick in the mud until the tugs are called to tow them off into port, at the rate of $100 per hour. The officers say they can keep up a constant depth of 20: feet, but, with such a game as this going on, is is practically useless to do so. They therefore favor the canal. Some anger was displayed by the friends of the Tug-Boat Company at these candid disclosures, but Lieut. Glynn, Maj. Howell, and Capt. Davis did not flinch. A pilot testified that he had run a vessel ashore by orders, so as to secure the $100 per hour for the Tow-Boat Company. Mr. Sypher, one of Kellogg’s members of Congress, and ex-Govenor Warmoth., yesterday evening, had a sharp battle of words on board the boat, and an exchange of pistol shots was momentarily expected. Sypher charged Warmoth with hay- ing perpetuated the biggest steals in Louisiana ever known, and Warmoth retort- ed that Sypher was mad because he did not have a hand i be Both*parties are deluging the Congressmen, who listen a great deal and say nothing, with political addresses, tracts, and pamphlets. No effect whatever was produced by Grant’s proclamation. It is regarded as. having been insisted on by Senator Carpenter, and Senator Carpenter is regarded as a man who has stated views here that are in,direct opposition to the views he expressed to his constituents in Wisconsin. The people have lost faith in him, and speak of him as one who is as ready to do Grant’s bidding as any of the Radi- cals. He certainly seems hereto be hand-in-glove with Kelloge, if all that is said batrue, and his public utterances are exactly what one would not have expected of hin. WR No language can describe the bitter feeling here. Nearly to a man the mer- chants, traders and better classes insist that their choice, and the choice of the people, was McEnery, and they angerly denounce the Federal Government for in- terfering. They say that if Grant would withdraw his troops, they would ‘hy their own affairs themselves inside of ten hours. | Fo the Associated Press. | NEW ORLEANS, May 24. The Hvening Times has the following : At 8 o’clock in the morning, the time appointed for the departure of the Belle Lee on her trip to the passes with the Congressional delegates’and their friends, passengers by twos and threes walked up the stages of this boat. They gathered in large numbers on the forward deck to await the coming of others who were to make up the full complement of the excursion party. By 9a. m., all the Con- gressmen, all the wicker baskets, with numbers labelled on them, and all the ice’ and their fixings, were safely aboard ; the mate shouted out in hoarse tones : “Cast loose your head lines !” and, with two or three snorts from her escape- pipes, the floating palace backed out from the wharf, her cannon pealed forth a farewell salute, the band burst forth with a triumphant air, the thousand on the wharf waved and cheered, and the boat, turning her head up the stream, after passing the long line of shipping which lines our wharves up to Jackson street, THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 2 » Cay curved round into the strong current of the middle, and sought the mouth of the great river which bears the wealth and the bounty of the earth from the moun- tains to the sea. A peal of artillery saluted the excursionists as they went by the United States barracks, and was still being fired when the swift steamer reached the earth-works of the old battle-ground and the monument of the gallant Pack- enham, all of which were kindly pointed out and eagerly sought by the strangers. The great cane-fields, the banana and orange groves, all had their charms for the visitors, for the sights of the growth of a semi-tropic clime were very interesting ito men who had come from the great States of the West, where, although a gener- ous soil brings the harvest, the days of verdure are more limited in number. They seemed especialy interested in what was formerly the residence of Judah P. Ben- jamin, on the Belle Chasse plantation, now owned by Mr. Stackhouse, and they spoke of the glory the expatriated statesman is gaining by his talent in an- other land. This place is one of the finest in the State, and the beautiful dwel- ling and grounds are calculated to excite the admiration of all who behold them. Jesuit’s Bend, one of the great rice-producing districts of Louisiana, next occu- pied their attention, and occasioned much comment from our visitors, who looked at the green fields and made comparisons between the enormous financial returns of this product and the wheat of the Northwest. Passing these, the boat soon reached Myrtle Grove, which the band saluted with the old sweet air, ‘““ Home, Sweet Home,” as a tribute to those who are living there. The magnificent estate of Mr. Bradish Johnson attracted a great deal of attention, and the neat, trim fields of these plantations showed many on what a grand scale sugar was former- ly cultivated in this State, for in old times all the places werelike these. The far- famed plantation of Mr. Lawrence, at Magnolia, had been anxiously inquired at- ter by the Congressmen, who had heard in other States of this place, and were very desirous of seeing it. They were not disappointed, for soon its immense green fields of cane burst on the view, and many were the exclamations of delight with which its first appearance was greeted. In the big fields were four locomo- tive engines, dragging ponderous steam-plows through the soil, besides many oth- er great objects, such as the sugar-house, which is a massive building, and the orange grove, which the Sicilian fruit-sellers say is the largest in the world. The men from the great western farm country were especially interested in the steam- plows, and their meaning exclamation when they saw them was, “That means business.” At Magnolia the boat rounded to, and took on board the Hon. Effingham Law- rence, who was most enthusiastically received and warmly greeted by all on. board. Passed the rice fields and rice mills of Pointe Ala Hache, the boat pro- ceeded on her way till Forts Jackson and St. Philip were in sight. The frowning guns of these grim fortifications recalled the smoke and flame they hurled forth jn our civil war, but the old rebels and the Northern Congressmen laughed and told stories of the war, which showed that those on board were at least reunited. The great object of interest on the trip was the site of the Fort St. Philip Canal, which has already been surveyed. When the small building that makes the pro- posed beginning of the work hove in sight, the deck was thronged by those who were anxious to see even the markings of this great scheme. The Congressmen. 20 a THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. of the west looked at the narrow strip of low alluvial which bars the great rive, from the deep waters of the gulf, and seemed to see at once the great importance of the project. They spoke of the feasibility and cheapness of cutting through this narrow neck, and foretold the great results accruing from it to the great val- ley. They were infused with ardor at the prospect of having an unobstructed outlet for the pent-up graneries of the west. They seemed to enter into the pro- ject with heart, head and soul, and one especially was so much carried away as, to say, “ We will make New Orleans and St. Louis yet the great rivals of New ‘York, and ten years will see the fullfillment of this prophesy.” After arriving at the proposed route of this canal, and stopping there long enough: for all parties to make their observations, the boat started again on her trip to Pass Al Ontre. Before reaching their destination the gong sounded for dinner, the viands and wine of which were in keeping with other hospitalities ex- tended on the occasion of this distinguished visit. The excursionists discussed the topics of the day with the merits of pompous roast-beef and turkey, while their appetites were superinduced by the fresh, balmy gulf breezes which had been blowing all day. The substantial salads and liquids of life occupied them for some time, and the feast was truly one of reason, while the after-feast had an abundant flow of soul and kindly sentiment. The champagne sparkling in many goblets with the sparkle of wit and repartee for a long time kept the company full of life, hamor,and happiness. Even a poor joke was at one time respected, and even relished, because all parties had an excessively kindly feeling toward each other. But the,bounteous feast was at last brought to a close. Those whe were able 1o overcome the somniferous influence of a good dinner left the Belle at the Pass Al’Ontre Station, where she had to stopped, and, embarked on the “Beau- tiful Creole,’ sought the open gulf beyond the bar. With an inspiring air, the band bade farewell for a while to those who chose to‘remain, and the more lively excursionists sought deep waters outside the bar. The sound of the surf and the life-giving sea-breeze seemed to impart new vigor to these dwellers on the land, while with a foaming bow the swift steamer cleft the green waves. Everybody was interested in the dim lines of smoke which was raising far at sea below the horizon, and where now and then a dark steamer or tow passed. The band gave a lively greeting as they glided by. In her course the Creole passed near the dredge-boat, E. 8S. Sayons, which was hard at work dredging out the channel. Those who had often heard of this ves- sel and her operations for the benefit of commerce were particularly interested in watching her removing the mud. The Creole, after running a short distance out to sea, returned to the bar, which the steamer Alabama was crossing at the time. Soundings were taken in going across for the benefit of the excursionists, who seemed surprised at the depth of the water. Then up the Pass by the light-house standing like a grim sentinel on the land, she wended her way back to the boat which was quietly awaiting ler return. The Creole transferred the passengers who had gone out to the bar back to the Belle Lee at 7 A. M., and the latter steam- ver, backing out of the Pess Al’Ontre wharf, started on the homeward-bound" trip. Shortly after supper, a convention was called in the ladies cabin, which consisted ‘ THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 27 of all the members of the Congressional delegates and many distinguished citi- zens of New Orleans. The meeting was called to order with Mayor Wiltz in the chair, and was addressed by J. H. Oglesby, Esq., and Judge Kennard, who demon- strated all the advantages of the Mississippi export route over all by rail and canal commercial lines in the country. They brought up figures and facts to sub- stantiate their assertions, and then how cheaply this St. Philip Canal could be ex- cavated, and how a vessel of any draught or tonnage would be able to come to our port, while now the bar obstructions kept heavy vessels from coming in, and thus occasioned a great scarcity of export tonnage at New Orleans. After our citizens had expressed their views on the subject of the necessity of this canal, the immense advantages it would bring to the West, the Congresmen of many States were called on, and each gave his opinion on the scheme in a short speech. More than twenty Congressmen of the west and south, men of influence and standing, took the floor, and all entertained the same opinion as to the necessity of this canal. They condemned the legislation of the government for so long neglecting the Mississippi River, and said that as the last Congress just appropriated $4,000,000 to paving the streets of Washington with asphaltum and wood, that it should atleast pay 6,000,000 to the completion of a scheme which was of paramount importance to the whole western and southern country. They said that eastern railroad monopolists ,had crushed the products of the west too long, and that the fact of not finding a route for exporting their produce was getting to be a question of starvation with the immense population of these States; that a quantity of grain had been burnt during the past year because it would not pay the cost oftransportation ; that this was the route that the God of Nature had marked out as the outlet to the great graneries of the west, and down this route the grain was bound to come. They hinted that if the men of the east could find no better way of spending their power than decorating the Capitol and big seaboard towns, they would combine with the south and move the Goy- ernment Capitol and all to St. Louis, where it would be better cared for. They said that New Orleans was destined to become the great city of the continent, and that no city in the world possessed so many natural advantages. They intended, to aman, to bring this matter of giving the Mississippi a deep outlet before Con - gress at its next session, and force action upon it. They had all decided to give it their firm support, and some said that, if $50,000,009 were necessary to this, they would demand it from the National Government, as a right of the west. The Kanawha and the Savanah canal routes were then discussed, but this of the Mississippi they considered of paramount importance to all others. They said that Mexico and the Antiles were tempting objects that were waiting for us to step in and take them, and relirve them from their miserable Government ; and that, with the accession of these, New Orleans would be their great port of exchange. Major Howell, United States Engineer, was called upon to give his views, and express his opinion as to the feasibility of the project ; also to state the result of his-survey. This gentleman clearly illustrated the feasibility of the scheme. He told them that the proposed connection of the canal with the Mississippi was six miles below Fort St. Philip, and it would have to be dug nearly out to the Breton Island channel, where there was thirty feet of water at low tide. He also explain. , 28 THE LANDMAKK AND OBSERVER. ‘ed the manner in which the banks were to be kept from being washed in. He stated that a great objection had been made to the project on the supposition that the ground below was not firm enough to bear the foundation of the locks, but recent boring has discovered a splendid base whereupon the foundation could be built. Before the Convention adjourned, Mayor Wiltz read the delegation an invitation extended them by the Mayor of Vicksburg, to visit that city, which was declined. Gen. Hayes then made an eloquent speech to the Convention, after which, at 1 A. M., the members being much wearied, it adjourned. The Committee of Arrangements have done everything in their power to render the trip agreeable to the excursionists, and, if the faces of all are indices to their feelings, every one has enjoyed himself to the fullest extent. Great hopes are expressed by all parties in the results of this ocular demon- stration to the members of Congress of the state of our channel, and they say, cost what it may, they are going to help us along every way. THE “BAR AT NEW ORLEANS, At the St. Louis Conference of menbers of Congress, General Bussey, of New Orleans, presented himself to invite the assemblage, on its return from Galveston, to visit the Crescent City, and in his speech he said : “We are here not to ask you to do a charitable act, but to demand our rights. We are not here to.ask that you shall remove from the National Government of the United States that which is in the eyes of all Europe a disgrace to-day, and that is the impossibility of an English ship to reach one of the most important rivers on the face of the globe. I tell you, gentlemen, if you will accept the in- vitation which we propose to extend to you, and come to New Orleans, then you will understand why it is that the farmers of Illinois, lowa and Missouri are im- poverished and wifhout money to pay their taxes. I tell you, gentlemen, that the thing that ails the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana to-day is be- cause our commerce is fettered, and because the men that ought to be unloading our ships are to-day without the power of feeding their women and children. And this is the reason why our warehouses are filled with the products of this great north country, without the ability to send them to market, and we have been com- pelled to telegraph to St. Louis : “ Dont send anything more down ; our ware. houses are full ; we can’t pay our drafts ; we can’t ship anything.” To-day we could load twenty of the largest ships that sail the ocean with the article of tobac- co alone. But there is no vessel there ; we can’t take it away. These are facts that will apply to your barrels of pork and your barrels of flour as well.” This gentleman states the truth, and nothing more. There is enough cotton and tobacco that might be shipped from New Orleans to furnish regular freights to seventy-five steamers. One immediate trouble is, that the mouth of the river is so interrupted by bars that heavy-laden vessels can neither enter nor depart. New Orleans thinks that if the mud were dug out, and an open channel main- tained, things would be different.—Chicago Tribune, May 19th, 1878. The steamer City of Memphis, which had been on the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi river about a month, got off a few days ago, and went to sea, but find- / THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 29 ing her propeller damaged, returned to New Orleans for repairs. Her large cargo bulk corn, was returned to the elevator, to enable the steamer to enter the docks. The corn was found in perfect order throughout. It had been on board 36 days. —Chicago Times, May 31st, 1878. THE MISSISSIPPI PASSES. NEw YorK, June 20. A letter from New Orleans says that there is almost as secure a blockade of the Mississippi river now‘as when the United States fleet cruised off its mouth, and that the passes are choking with detritus, and each year increases the difficulties of navigation. Congress had appropriations for experiments in dredging, but the tow-boat monopolies actively conspire to prevent a successful prosecution of the work.—Chicago Tribune, July 2nd, 1878. AND YET, At this hour,while passage over the bar at the mouth of the great river is ob7 structed with mud, and millions upon millions of people are injured there- by, and many are ruined, a great military expedition (granted by the terms of the charter by Congress to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company) is penetrating a howling wilderness, in aid of a vast scheme of speculation —the building of a very costly railroad where there are no white people (save those taken there by the railroad expenditure) for a distance far greater than that from Chicago to New Orleans, (or from Chicago to New York); wild railroad speculation which nothing can sustain save immense subsidies of land, supplemented, perhaps, by the disbursements of expensive, useless and wicked wars, caused by gveed more insatiate than that of ancient Rome, and bringing the same injuries to the poor, to society, to the nation and to posterity. From the Special Correspondent of the Chicago Inter-Ocean of June 25th, 1878. THE YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION. The mammoth Yellowstone expedition, the engineering party of which left Fort Lincoln Monday last to take up its general route from the Heart river, is estimated as containing as high as 3,000 men. ‘Thirteen hundred mules are required to transport supplies sufficient for the expedition until it reaches the navigable wat- ers of the Yellowstone, and 1,000 tons of freight have been shipped upon steamers at Bismarck for its use beyond the Yellowstone and on the return. Some of you would like to know what the object of this imposing caravan is. It is well known that the Northern Pacific Railway is now running daily trains ‘from Lake Superior to the Missouri river, a distance of 480°’ miles, Well, this company is desirous of extending its track, and as the proposed line runs through a country.infested with sanguinary red skins, the labor of survey and construction is attended with considerable risk to scalp-locks. Very fortunately, for the North- ern Pacific Company, however, they had the forethought to see when they secured their charter that the peace policy would not have effected perfect safety to-pale- faced operators in those regions by the time when it would be necessary for them 30 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. to operate there, and, therefore, they secured in the charter ample protection by the government against any and all Indian tribes along the line. From the Missouri westward to the mountains no part of the line has been definitely located, although several unsuccessful attempts have been made. A force of nearly 1,000 men, under General Stanley, failed to accomplish that object last year. This year the force is expected to be ample to insure protection tothe engineers: It consists of some sixteen companies of infantry and ten of cavalry, a battery of light artillery, and about 100 Indian scouts. It is under command of General Stanley. General Custar also accompanies the expedition. The engineering party is under the command of General T. L. Rosser, Engineer of the Dakota division of the road. A scientific party of six or seven gentlemen, representing the different departments of natural history, accompanies the expedition. FIRST FIRE. Monday last the engineering party left Fort Lincoln, opposite Bismarck, with’ an escort of six companies of infantry. They were to be joined in about ten days by the main body of the escort, which started on Wednesday following from Fort Rice, twenty-five miles below Lincoln, expecting to intersect the other party When two miles out of Fort Lincoln, on Tuesday, the engineering party was at- tacked by 150 Sioux. A brisk skirmish followed between the infantry and their Ree scouts, in which four Sioux were killed and a pony captured. One Ree boy was wounded. The party continued its journey after the skirmish. The route of the expedition will be somewhat north of the line of 1871, from the valley of Heart river, and will strike the Yellowstone near the mouth of Glen dine Creek. Thence it will proceed up the Yellowstone, 150 miles above the mouth of Powder river, thence across the divide in a northern direction to the valley of the: Musselshell, thence to connect with the survey made last year by Mr. Hay- den. ) BOUL Rye Ad ie: HE local jealousies of States, or any State, east or west, north or South, or any city or section, always to be considered in the light of that just consideration which would tend to con- serve and guard all just interests, should never be allowed to stand in the way of great measures of national economy, utility and de- fence. But how has it been? We have always had many good and able men in our national Congress, but have we had.a majority who came up to the full measure of true nation- ality, and who would do right for the sake of the right, without regard to personal benefits or applause, or re-election? It is very natural and right that members should consider the interests of their constituents, but in a national Congress, should not these be considered in the light of safional interests ? For morethan thirty years, when under some spasm of Congressional ap~ propriation, there were any snag boats on the Mississippi, they have in- variably ‘‘laid up” when the weather became warm and the water low. Just at the very time when they could work most efficiently, and with most ben- efit, they have ceased working. Why is this ? Suppose when the stormy weather of winter and spring is over, the light keepers should all abandon their work and leave the coast- line dark until-November? What kind of service would that be? And yet the same governmental power has controlled the one as the other. It may be, indeed, that western and south-western members have been in fault for want of real interest, thoroughness of work and practical knowl- edge to be derived czly from practical men. Perhaps too, sometimes all work for the government, instead of being guided by practical intelligence and fidelity properly paid—is liable too much to be controlled by unprin- cipled, greedy and selfish speculators and destructionists, always the deadly bane and blight of all healthy enterprise. But whatever the cause, we {want reform, and that reform can easily give us an adequate and regular service, andso remove the snags and logs, that accidents from this cause would be almost unknown. 32 ‘a THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. The roots when cut off have often been so left as to be almost as much in the way as the whole tree, which of course ought not to be, and could easily be avoided, . This clearing the river would not only promote the safety of navigation at all times beyond all ‘computation, but would also in various ways lessen all the troubles of low water. It would also enable boat owners and builders to use lighter timbers and planking, and‘so lessen the cost of construction, in- crease the carrying capacity, and diminish the cost of towing, especially on the up-trips. Of course, it would be absurd to expect as heavy a dredging force at every sand-bar on the upper river as at the mouth, yet most of the practical men agree that at certain times, a judicious, well-directed dredging service, al- ways in readiness, with stations at central points, could do much practical good, and at a comparatively small expense, it not -being necessary to take away the sediment in mud scows, but only to loosen it up or stir it by the use of the wheel or revolving dredge ; the old river itself will do the rest, cheerfully, and without pay, bribes, coaxing, or lobbying. It isa noble old river, willing and able, if decently treated, to be the father of the inland transportation of the Union, helping every railroad, helping every corn and cotton grower and consumer, every miner and man- ufacturer, and aiding to promote to the people reduction of expense, reduction of debt, better political morals, and sounder prosperity. God made the river, but man made the railroads, and a high triumph of mechanical art, they are, truly, but far too expensive to supplant the great river altogether, in the use for which it was given us. And let it be remembered that we do not own the sea, or the lakes, but the river is the nation’s exclusively, and here, if war comes, navies can be most securely built, and in the deeper water of the Chicago river ; and below the mouth of the Red river, equipped for service on lakes and seas. Many of the barges now in use between St. Louis and New Orleans will carrry 1600 tons each, (or what would load more than a mile of railroad cars), freighting corn through, this season, at seven cents per bushel. The dumping of railroad cars loaded with coal on to barges, is now practiced, and can probably be applied to grain, and an expense saved. ‘The tow- boats now in use will easily tow from three to five of these barges, though ~ more are often taken in high water, and the use of BALANCE RUDDERS on the steam tug gives a wonderful facility for handling so vast a weight in so strong a current. Probably, no s¢mg/e invention so valuable as the balance THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 33 rudder has been applied to navigation on the Mississippi, since the introduc- tion of steam. As to ‘‘hot corn,” &c., the cause of this is the water the grain contains, which is a larger per cent. than in any other grain. If shelled in the winter, or at any time before this is exhausted by the drying winds or by artificial heat, the corn is liable to heat on somebody’s hands, if kept long ; but if thoroughly dry before shelling, it will keep, and can safely be exported or shipped anywhere, by any route ; otherwise it cannot. Usually, corn prop- erly handled and kept on the cob until the end of May, and then shelled, can safely be shipped by any route. If shelled in the winter following its growth, it would be safer and better to ship ¢en by the southern route, than to wait for the opening of the lakes and New York canals. Abundant shipments have proved fully that these objections to the gulf route have been largely magnified, and that all that is needed is the reasonable inprove- ment of the river and bar at the entrance, to make it the great auxiliary to all other means and routes, for exportation and for inland transportation, and all interior commerce : while the connection of the harbor of Chicago with the rivers, by the widened and deepened canal, would give this city facilities for manufacturing, (especially in cheapening coal), it never can otherwise possess, and she whole lake country would enjoy great benefits from this connection, in many ways; and in the event of war, the om/y means we have of bringing a fleet to the lakes. And fleets could be constructed then in places easily secured from all approach by the combined navies of the world. Of course, it is to be hoped that this contingency will never occur. But look at the mighty and increased armaments, on land and sea, con- stantly maintained by Great Britain and all Europe ; then look at our own Situation, and reflect whether any one measure of defence, costing so little, would equal this in efficiency for national defence. The proposed ship canal below Fort St. Philip, below New Orleans, may be practicable. It is estimated to cost at least six millions of dollars. This, at six per cent., would yield nearly twelve hundred dollars per day, for all the working days in the year, and this would pay for more than double the amount of dredging at the passes ever done there, and would probably be all-sufficient. The present season, it is said, there were only two dredges there, and, being liable to get out of repair, would often have to be sent to _ New Orleans for repairs. It is said that ‘Aree, regularly in service, would have been enough. Of course, a reserve is wanted to guard against accident. This is the view of Captain Rea and other very practical men, and probably of Major Howell, 34 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. of the United States service, who has had charge of the work. But the /rue friends of an open route will all certainly agree that it is a work to be accomplished and kept good by the Federal government on the safes? plan, as a matter of justice to all. Fora large part of the year, it is said, there is little dre dging needed, and the more steamships pass, the less dredging there is to do. Will the friends of the St. Philip canal reflect on this plan of an ample dredging force? Ofcourse, the people of N ew Orleans must see to abating the enormous port charges and cost of towing, &c., and other abuses within their control, but the zzzfal point of the matter is the improvements referred to. These, too, will tend to greatly cheapen coal from the north, and make ita great coaling station, and promote the use of steamships, and the same benefit, (cheaper coal), will accrue to St. Louis, Chicago and other places. Chicago, with the improved water route south, will have a command of the coal fields, at rates lower than can ever otherwise be had, and so by manufactures anchor her prosperity securely. As an illustration of the general benefits that would accrue to the country for example, corn could be taken from Chicago at ten or eleven cents per bushel, as well (for boat owners), as at seven from St. Louis, and this in early spring or late in the fall and beginning of winter, when the lakes are dangerous, (if navigable at all), and tonnage scarce and freights high, would aid the packer, shipper and producer very greatly. For instance, early last spring, when freight charges were highest, rates were on corn and wheat as high, at one time, as sixteen to eightéen cents per bushel to Buffalo, thence to New York about twelve cents. Now, could some large barges from St. Louis and other points have gone to Chicago and taken southward, say even two or three millions of bushels, as soon as the canal and river could be navigated, and so relieved the pressure upon the Chicago elevators and lake shipping, it would have prevented the friction of those corners in freight rates, so very sharp for the shipper and producer, and have tended to maintain the equilibrium of ‘all interests, and values, and routes; and pro- mote the general welfare, which is not promoted by excessive accumulation of fat in one place, and excessive leanness elsewhere. For, allowing some- thing for a little higher ‘rates from New Orleans to Liverpool than from New York, there would then have been a’difference in favor of the owners of corn of from 25 to 40 per cent. on its value. The farmers of Livingston county, Ills., have been amongst the most ultra for reform, so let us make an illustration there. From Fairbury to New York, last winter, when the lakes were closed, the freight on corn was THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. 35 forty-two cents per bushel, at a time when corn was only worth twenty cents. Now, by rail to Cairo and barge to New Orleans, twenty-five cents per bushel would pay the carriers probably as well as forty-two to New York by the all-rail route. For the winter months, freight to Europe from New Orleans should not be higher than from New York, when the great interior arteries work healthfully, but if we allow three cents per bushel more on ocean freight, there is still a difference left of fourteen cents per bushel in favor of the owner of the corn shipped wa the river and rail, instead of the all-rail route to the seaboard. In other words, the farmer would get thirty - four cents per bushel for his corn instead of twenty cents per bushel, or an increase of seventy per cent., with the same profit to the merchant and carrier, and all this merely by the substitution (in most of the great transit), of a very cheap for a very costly way of carrying freight, and without touching the question of extortion and overcharge by carriers, but leaving that out of the estimate, for the one route would be as well paid as the other, —at least, the difference would be trivial. The difference in time of transit would nog exceed three or four days to the sea-board, and thence by steam to, say Liv- erpool, about the same; and if by sail a proportionate difference ; and as to the warm current of the gulf stream, eavy ships bound for Europe can- not cross the Bahama banks, as the coasters do, but pass to the south of Cuba, and so are not much in it, if in it at all. And all this great work of economy, of averting financial and _ political disaster, which no man can measure any more than he can measure the whirlwind, or the storm of human passion and folly in revolutions, when human action and error reach their climax, and can go no farther ; all this great work for national defence and fora great initial point in real reform, will cost—what? Simply an agreement of unity of action, and an expendi- ture of less than one cent on the dollar of the aggregate cost of the railways, less than one cent on the dollar of the specie we have dug, or about one- tenth the value of recent United States donations to railroads, of which the people do not own one mile. But this waterway is theirs by inheritance and by the gift of God, and can be improved and transmitted to posterity. Moreover, the work will cost only about she price of the national consump- tion of tron for one month, But, on the other hand, its saving benefits in their various ways, phases and amount, and also in their far-reaching and beneficent results, cannot be computed. “A thousand years scarce serve to form a state, An hour may lay it in the dust ; And when can man its splendors renovate, Recall its glories back, or vanquish time and fate.” 36 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. Professor Creesy, in his admirable and unrivalled “work, discloses to the student, upon what an imminent and narrow verge the fate of nations de- pend, and how small, seemingly, the events that turn the scale. He treats of battles, it is true, but they are the result of separate affairs, and his great lessons should not be lost on us. All times have their dangers, and if ours — are safe, then all history’s lessons are indeed vain. | CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. SHE Japan Gazefe prints a translation of a letter which has ap- € peared in the native paper, Minato Shimbun under the heading SZ aS of the “Christian Religion.” The latter, after discussing the g Y@@ various forms of religion which had been national in Japan, con- cludes as follows : “In various countries of the West, there is the system of worship of the Lord of Heaven, which forbids the worship of idols of wood or stone. . “Tt teaches that which is of daily use to men, and the tendency is towardan in- creasingly careful observance of its precepts. Its teachers, in proclaiming its doctrines, teach what is for the benefit of‘all, and, thus silencing a narrow spirit, they incite to a broader and better, which teaching is the secret of the cizilization of the West. ‘‘Since the Government of the Tenno has been renovated, the time has come for - the abandonment of evil habits. A religion there must be, but if Shintoism is proposed, we know not how to teach it. If Confucianism or Buddhism, these will 5 >) not do. “Tf, therefore, despising the foolish charge of changing the national customs and of defiling the country, the religion of Jesus be introduced, it will be well for the people. Nor will such a course involve any thing incompatible with the customs of the country or true reverence for our ancestry. “Tf this religion should be tolerated, it would spread like fire in the dry grass of the plain when lighted at a hundred points. “Should some who hate this religion break out in rebellion, this, by the thought- fulness of the followers of the new religion, might be easily subdued.” Let the Japanese, however, not imitate the ‘‘ Western Nations’ quackery of vast standing armies, and useless, exhaustive and expentive wars, such as Carlisle glorifies and the world applauds. The Shah of Persia paid great attention to the drill of his army, -discard- ing French officers and tactics, and introducing Prussian — (after the Franco-Prussian war) —and this while the people were starving by the thou- sands. And yet the rulers of Europe now vie with each other in doing honor to this Oriental robber of the starving poor over whom he holds ab- solute sway. If there are not some reasons of state connected with this, it must be another illustration of ‘‘ that demagoguism which is spreading throughout the world,” as bad among the potentates and people of Europe, ; in the 38 THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. its press and its literary men, as it is and has been in America. The /rue practice, however, will keep them clear of the quackery, and abate the evils of ambition and avarice, and bring them to the golden age of love. A Ne CERINA LePRINCIPLES SIRs E have a large number of people constantly endeavoring to construct what is called a perpetual motion. We have also had the peculiar curse of large numbers of people and way politicians, endeavoring to construct /heordes that shall be a and run forever, and before which facts shall bow or be over- turned. These are SCRA one-idea people, and their numbers are most formid - able. Dogma is with them, a club with which they strike right and left. With them a square or a cube has but one side, and that is their side. The great cable of truth has but one strand, and that is securely tied to their dog- ma. There is but one move on the checker-board, and that is their move. Times, and seasons, and circumstances may vary infinitely, but a sound principle, they say, never varies, and theirs is always the sound principle, the unvarying thing, more than planets, or worlds, or suns. Somewhat of this character are the interminable arguments, showing the infallibility of tariffs and free trade—respectively ; abstract ideas, versus—the practical facts of business. Of course these men (devoted solely to a great principle, you know) never have a word to say about the neglected little matter of a distinctive national . policy, in the light of which these questions could be considered properly. There is some truth in both theories, and both are capable of being har- monized when brought out of the interminable labyrinths of dogmatic dis- cussion to the clear light of a national policy, which should stand guard like a faithful sentinel over all home interests in /oretgn trade and conserve all. Forinstance, take the articles of tea, coffee and sugar, articles of al- most universal use among our people, and which none can deny would be very desirable to have at as low prices as they can be afforded. The first two we cannot produce in our country, at least that is the common and probably correct view, but the last we can, and have once produced largely and suc- cessfully at low prices. Acting in harmony with a sound national policy, our statesmen of fifty yearsago thought it advisable to collect revenue from this article, and encourage production in our own territories. * LTT» 40 és THE LANDMARK AND OBSERVER. The result was all that"could have been desired. Up to the time of the war we had a large supply of Louisiana sugar at low prices, with a fair profit to the planters after their business was established on a safe footing. We im - ported some sugar, but that, owing to the aggregate increase of production, we had at lower prices than wouldotherwise have been current in the markets — of the world. Now, of course, that industry has been affected by the hur- ricane of war and emancipation, and has been, indeed, almost extinguished, though now reviving. In this juncture of affairs, what would be seund national policy? We think clearly to revive the culture of sugar in our land by a tariff that would make it a good, safe and permanent busi- ness, attracting the capital absolutely necessary for its re-establishment, and admit tea and coffee free from all duty. When South Carolina undertook to secede in 1832, her great imaginary grievance was this duty on sugar, which was peopling and building up a prosperous business in another State—a rival, perhaps—of whose wealth and position at the mouth of the Great River of the continent, (the greatest in the world, in a commerciai sense) she was perhaps jealous—her proud aris- tocracy having a rival—all declared, however, to be a matter of principle. And, General Jackson, when he issued his proclamation, while taking a firm stand and warning them that the United States government could not bow its sovereignty, admitted that their cause of complaint was just, and pledged himself to secure its removal. . 7 But we think they were wrong. We think also that New England was wrong, when, suffering under the distress of the war of 1812, she held her Hartford Convention and proposed to secede, while a foreign war was going on. ‘The war was necessary to protect our flag on the high seas, and it made that flag inviolate. It is true the treaty did not provide for this, but Packen- ham’s defeat at the battle of New Orleans, fought after the treaty of peace had ; been signed in Europe, added a very large seal to the treaty on our side. These memories should not be revived to encourage sectionalism, but zo abate wt, and encourage TRUTH, and that magnanimity which will not rise upon any other foundation. Both were wrong, (in those cases,) both were sec tional, both were led by demagogues who inflamed the irritation the local pecuniary question produced, and with both foreign intrigue: was not idle. Above all, each was wanting at each respective period in a fixed principle of obedience to the requirements of asound national policy, and the just authority of the Federal government. ‘“‘To err is human—to forgive is divine.” The Puritan and the cavalier should both learn HUMILITY AND TRUE NATIONALITY. MR WEEGER’S, GREAT (‘COA P= LEV SWAY Hie PU EE ON. UNCLE SAM’S GREAT COAT— ERED WAY IHE MIGHT, FUT) Id.-ON. T will be remembered that in Mr. Weller’s recital of the way in