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sometimes found at mines are beyond their found in almost every county in the south reach.

There was a subtle charm about the roar and ominous hum of the great furnaces after dark, when the clink of the hammers and the noise of the blasting on the mountain had ceased, and darkness had shrouded the little valley. The chimneys of the "blasts" glowed like dragons' eyes; the semi-nude figures flitting in the huge, open sheds, before the doors of the furnaces, looked like demons. When the blast was ready to be drawn off, and the masses of broken and carefully selected ore, together with the requisite charcoal and limestone, had been transfused in the fearful heat, the workmen gathered half timorously about the aperture whence the molten iron was to flow, and gave it vent. Then first sprang out a white currentthe slag, looking like gypsum, and hardening as it touched the sand. Finally came the deep fiery glow of the iron itself, as it flowed resistlessly down the channels cut in the sand to receive it, from time to time fiercely hissing, and lighting up the great stone vault of the furnace with an unearthly glare, then "dying into sullen darkness," and forming the cold, hard, homely bars which are one day rolled into the rails by means of which we annihilate distance, and build cities like St. Louis.

The whole region round about is rich in mines and minerals. A few miles below Iron Mountain rises Pilot Knob, a stately peak, towering far above the lovely Ozark range, which surrounds it in every direction; and from the porphyry there and on Shepherd Mountain great quantities of ore are extracted. It is the boast of the people of the section that Iron County, in which lie Shepherd, Arcadia and Bogy mountains and the Knob, contains more iron than any other equal area known on the globe. From this valley more than

one hundred thousand tons of iron have been shipped since the formation of the Pilot Knob Iron Company. The works there and elsewhere in this section were much injured, and some of them were burned, during the war, by Price's raiders. The silicious and magnetic and specular oxides found in the Pilot Knob and Shepherd Mountain region are abundant and pure. The specular oxides abound in Dent, Crawford, Phillips and Pulaski counties. The beds of bog ore extend for miles among the swamps and cypresses in Southeastern Missouri; and hematite ores are

of the state. Throughout the coal measures of the commonwealth there are vast beds of spathic ore, which will serve even when the more available deposits have been exhausted.

And this is not all. For miles and miles along the Missouri river iron crops out from the bold and picturesque bluffs, and it is estimated that it can be easily mined and placed in barges for less than a dollar per ton. On the line of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad also, vast deposits of blue specular are gradually being unearthed. At Scotia, at Sullivan, at Jamestown, at Salem, the treasures of iron are astonishing. Missouri should take care to keep the furnaces for smelting these ores within her borders, for pig iron and Bessemer steel can to-day be made cheaper there, at the present prices of labor and coal, than in Pennsylvania. The policy of transporting the ores from these fresh fields to the furnaces in the Quaker State, whose occupation is gone, seems neither wise nor economical, if America desires or intends to one day supply Europe with the ore which she is beginning to clamor for. The stores of coal match those of iron; it was long

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ago estimated that Missouri had an area of twenty-six thousand square miles of coal beds between the mouth of the Des Moines River and the Indian Territory; and along all the railroads in Northern Missouri, and beside the Missouri Pacific, coal veins have proved very extensive.

The development of the lead mines of Missouri is full of romance. More than three hundred years ago De Soto carelessly passed them by, disdaining any thing save gold. One hundred and fifty years ago Renault and La Motte hunted in the Ozark hills for the precious metal, but only found lead, and to-day La Motte's mine is still called by his name. As early as 1819 the annual yield of the lead mines in the State was three millions of pounds; in 1870 the annual production amounted to nearly fourteen millions; and in 1872 it had risen to over 20,000,000. The revival of the lead mining interest, in 1872, created almost as much excitement in certain sections as if gold had been in question. The largest investments were made in South-western and Central Missouri: old mines were reopened, new machinery was hurried in, and in Jasper County, a wild section on the borders of Kansas and the Indian Territory, a new town sprang up as by magic in the midst of a section where lead lay near the surface. There was genuine Californian excitement: furnaces, stores, shops, hotels, and churches arose on Joplin Creek,

THE GRATIOT STREET PRISON-ST. LOUIS,

and the town of "Joplin " was born. An impulse was there given to the lead production of Missouri, which will not be deadened until the imports of lead from Europe to this country have been vastly reduced. The area of the lead region comprises nearly seven thousand square miles. In the neighborhood of Jasper and Newton counties are large stores of zinc ores, supposed to extend into the Indian Territory. In the counties of St. François and Madison there is a fine vein of lead, of great length, thrown broadcast through limestone strata. Upon this vein are the splendid properties of the Mine la Motte Company. Most of the lead in that vicinity, and in Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Crawford, Phelps, Dent, and other counties, carries cobalt and nickel in abundance, and not far away, brown hematite iron ores are found in profusion. The extension of the Iron Mountain and the Atlantic and Pacific Railroads through the mineral regions has done more for the future development of the State than all other efforts put together. In a few years both roads will be lined with furnaces and mines of all descriptions, aud will extend branches in every direction. Several varieties of copper are found in the State, and the mines in Shannon, Madison, and Franklin counties have been worked successfully. New discoveries of zinc ore are daily made in all sections: cobalt, nickel, manganese, tin, and marble are also found. The Ozark marbles of Missouri are already famous; they aid in the adornment of the national capital. Excellent building limestonescoarse reddish granite, which answers very well for large buildings, and various shades of sandstones-are to be found in all quarters.

But the iron and coal interests tributary to St. Louis dominate all others, and give the finest promise. It is evident that Missouri is about to enter in earnest upon one of the greatest industrial fields in the world as a formidable competitor. She has cheap food in a strong new country, rapidly receiving emigration; ores of surpassing richness lying close to the surface; coal in vast areas, and easily mined -coal, too, which does not require coking before it aids in the smelting of iron ore; an economical system of inter-communication by river and rail; and plenty of money lying in the strong boxes of the fathers of St. Louis. The time is coming when that capital, which has so long lain dormant,

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will be awakened, and turned into the service of the industry that is to make St. Louis a city with a million inhabitants in less than a generation.

Here we are again at Carondelet-passing the long ore trains hourly arriving from the Iron Mountain. What crowding, what noise and clang of machinery, what smoke and stench of coal! Here the workmen, with thick leather aprons about their waists, and gloves on their hands, are bringing the bars of pig-iron from some blast furnace, and cording them up by hundreds. Here is a crowd of perturbed Irish laborers, shrieking and dancing around a prostrate man, whose limbs have been scarred and seared by a sudden spurt of hot iron from the furnace. Some comrades are bending over him, cutting away his garments with their knives, while the iron consumes his flesh. Then they roll his limbs in ashes and water, and send for the doctor.

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fayette Park, much like one of the great squares in the West End of London, and, rattling through street after street, lined with elegant houses, at last descend towards the banks of the river, and the business section of the town. Although the suburbs of St. Louis are not remarkable, there are many attractive parks and parklets near at hand. The superb botanical garden known as "Shaw's," adjoining the "Tower Grove Park," is the especial pride of Missouri. The Forest Park, containing fourteen hundred acres, clothed in delicious foliage, dotted with elms, oak, ash and sycamores, festooned with grape vines, and watered by the capricious little Rivière des Pères, is not as yet improved, but will doubtless be the principal recreation ground of the city in time. Lindell, Belmont, and the Park of Fruits are all beautiful; and the park upon which the famous St. Louis fair is annually held, has many lovely winding walks, garden-spots, and knots of shrubbery. To this fair-ground every October hundreds of thousands of visitors flock from the whole Mississippi Valley; and the vast amphitheater, which will seat twentyfive thousand people, is daily crowded by a constantly changing audience. St. Louis. worships annually one day at the shrine of this fair, which is mechanical as well as agricultural in its scope. All business is suspended; schools are closed, and a spe

cies of high carnival is inaugurated at the fair grounds. Inside the amphitheater there is a huge procession of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, at which the good burghers look on something after the fashion of ancient Romans at the Coliseum.

After you have wandered the whole city over-dined at Porcher's and loitered in the pleasant parlors of the "University Club;" been to concerts at Uhrig's and to mass in the old Cathedral; inspected the plafonds and other gorgeous splendors of the palace in which the St. Louis Life Insurance Company transacts its business; seen Benton on his pedestal in Lafayette Park; visited the burial grounds of beautiful Bellefontaine; dived into the great vaults of the Imperial Wine Company, where a million bottles of native champagne lie always cooling; done reverence to the Water Works, where two powerful engines each force the Mississippi river to contribute seventeen millions of gallons daily to supply the wants of the city; had a peep at the prisons of the "Four Courts," and even been a looker-on at the morning matinee, locally known as "The Terrible Court," where a police judge dispenses justice, sends vagrants to the workhouse for a thousand days, and suspicious characters across the river in twenty minutes; explored the score of mammoth foundries, where iron is manufactured in every form, from gas-piping to architectural work for houses; noted the 'dome of the imposing Court House, a kind of miniature "St. Paul's," and climbed the hill at the city's back, on which the ungainly Lunatic Asylum stands;-after all this, you may look about you for amusement, and be surprised to find that a city of four hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants cannot boast a first-class theater,* and is compelled to have its opera season in a second-rate variety hall. If you insist on being amused, however, you can read the editorial columns of the leading newspapers, and note the playful animosity which evidently guides the editorial pens. But you may also get a lesson or two in journalism, for St. Louis is as rich in journals as it is poor in theaters, and The Democrat, The Republican, The Globe, and The Times can all show admirably equipped establishments. The Republican building is one of the most elegant and complete.

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*There are several theatrical buildings, but there is no regularly organized theater.

ST. LOUIS LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY'S BUILDING.

newspaper offices in the world; there is but one in the country which equals it, and that is in New York. The Democrat is a Republican journal, and The Republican is Democratic. The first number of The Republican was issued in 18c8, as The Gazette, printed on a rude press of Western manufacture. It has twice arisen, an untiring phoenix, from the ruins of great fires. Mr. Knapp, its editor, was always an opponent of secession, and his paper might now b. strictly classed as an opposition sheet. The Democrat was an early advocate of free soil principles, and a stout defender of the new Republican party in the troublesome times following the election of Buchanan. It is now ably managed by George W. Fishback, one of the leading journalists of the West. The Globe grew out of a division of interests in The Democrat; both it and The Times have grown up handsomely. The Dispatch and The Journal are evening papers, respectively Democratic and Republican. The religious and literary press of the city numbers several able periodicals, among which is The Southern Review, a quarterly of national reputation.

The higher intellectual life in St. Louis is not apparently as vigorous as that of many of the Eastern cities. The nature of its population prevents a large and symmetrical growth at present in that direction. The great mass of the population is either foreign born, or in the transition from the old to the new nationality; and the material growth of the city and country round

about is so "fierce and vast"* that people have little time for abstractions, or for the graces and culture which come with literature and art. There are one or two promising artists, and Mr. Diehl and Mr. Pattison have done some good work. Some one has told me that no course of lectures has ever paid in St. Louis; this seems astonishing, if indeed, it be the fact. The libraries are numerous and good. The Mercantile is the largest, and its spacious rooms are adorned with statues by Miss Hosmer and other sculptors of note. Of course, the city boasts many splendid interiors and almost princely establishments. It could hardly fail to produce them, with a dry goods trade which, in 1872, aggregated fifty millions of dollars, and is steadily increasing at the rate of thirty per cent. yearly. Before the war the dry goods business engaged but from ten to twelve millions. The retail trade of one dry goods establishment in St. Louis now amounts to more than six million dollars annually, and there are two which boast a million, and four half-a-million each. The trade in groceries spreads over an immense section, and in this business there are three firms whose transactions amount to two millions each annually, and no less than seven which claim a million each. The sales of sugar by one of the principal sugar refinery companies amounted to 32,000,000 pounds in 1872, and yielded the Government nearly $1,000,000 of revenue. The wholesale trade in hardware counts up several millions, and in 1871 seven wholesale firms reported sales varying from $600,000 to $150,000. More than one hundred million feet of lumber are usually on hand in the St. Louis markets. From five to seven million dollars are invested in leather manufactures, and the annual sales exceed fifteen millions. Three-fourths of all the sheetings sold in St. Louis are now manufactured in cotton mills in the Mississippi Valley, and St. Louis herself has invested capital in manufacturing textile fabrics for her own market. The gain that the city has made since the war is shown by the statement that in 1860 the capital invested in manufactures there was about $13,000,000, while it is now nearly fifty millions. Fine churches, hospitals and many worthy charities show that much of

* See Gen. Walker's preface to last Census Report.

the profit from these immense businesses is properly employed. In the local and municipal politics there are but few excitements. The Germans are not so readily welcomed in official positions as they once were, because a pretty liberal exercise of power had revived their feeling of nationality rather too strongly, and they were making German blood an overweening qualification for office.

The present value of the property within the limits of St. Louis city is $300,000,ooo. The bonded debt of the metropolis is a little over $14,000,000; the floating debt is $543,669; the amount of cash and assets now in the sinking fund, $805,744. It is impossible in the limits of a paper of this description to give an exact statement of the amount of trade, and increase in wealth and manufactures. I have endeavored

merely to show how vigorous and substantial that increase has been. New industries are constantly locating at St. Louis, or in its immediate vicinity; and a persistence is shown in their establishment which augurs grand results. The history of glass manufacture there has been one of disaster for many years; it is said that a million dollars has been sunk in unsuccessful efforts to establish it, but at last St. Louis has the credit of an establishment which can produce plate glass, said to be equal to the best of European manufacture.

St. Louis is, I believe, the only city in the United States which has adopted the Continental method of licensing the social evil, and there has been a great battle re

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