Leaves of Knowledge/Chapter 19
EASTERN TRIP TO ST. LOUIS
CHAPTER XIX.
Eastern Trip to St. Louis.
After a delightful trip of over two months, in the warm and moist climate of the Pacific Coast, I arrive back home to find snow, and as usual the smoke. But for all we have the disagreeable smoke caused by the smelters, from which we get the fumes of arsenic and sulphur, it still seems to be invigorating, and gives activity to the brain, for the people of Butte show more life than I find elsewhere, and there is more stir than in any city in America, according to its population. Its streets are always crowded with busy, well dressed citizens, who all have plenty of money, regardless of their vocation, and certainly know how to enjoy themselves. I remained in Butte until May 12, 1903, when I took the Burlington for an eastern trip, and was treated with every courtesy over their system. I went over the Northern Pacific track as far as Billings, where I changed to their own line, and after riding about fifty miles I passed Fort Custer, near the Crow agency, and the monuments which mark the spot where General Custer and his followers were massacred by the Indians.
Formerly I have described every city and important town, as I saw them, and knew the conditions thereof. From now on I will explain any important place as I pass through, with a fuller description of the places where I stop to gratify my own enjoyment.
I now leave Montana and pass through the coal mining town of Sheridan, Wyoming. At Edgemont, South Dakota, a branch line extends north to Deadwood, and the famous gold mines of the Black Hills.
From Alliance, Nebraska, a branch extends south to Denver, Colorado, with connections to Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming.
I made a short stop at Lincoln, Nebraska, where one branch extends to Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. At St. Joseph, Missouri, I was detained for some time within two miles of the depot. Our train had been running at the rate of sixty miles an hour to make up for lost time, and on stopping at a little station, smash went the front wheel of our engine. This caused the passengers to all look serious, when each one thought what might have been had the wheel gone to pieces when we were running at such speed, as the trainmen claimed that the wheel had been broken for some time, but did not go to pieces on account of its great velocity. After awhile a freight train came along and pushed us into the depot. I was in St. Joe long enough to have lunch, ice cream soda, and to be one of the spectators at a very lively runaway.
Our train going to Kansas City, I changed cars going on to St. Louis, where I stopped to view the city and the preparations being made for the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, whereby our government acquired what now consists of fourteen states and territories, among them the greater portion of our noble State of Montana.
St. Louis is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, through which an immense traffic is carried on, both north to its head and south to New Orleans, and its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. There are also twenty-seven different lines of railway, carrying passengers and freight in all directions. This city has the largest union depot on earth, erected at a cost of six million and a half dollars.
St. Louis is the fourth city in population in the United States, being a great commercial, manufacturing and wholesale market. The exposition will cost fifty million dollars, and will have under cover over one hundred acres of floor space for exhibits, and has enclosed by fences twelve hundred and forty acres, and there are over three hundred separate buildings, ranging from eighteen acres down to the smaller ones.
The "Pike" will be to the fair of 1904 what the famous "Midway" was to the fair of 1893, and the "Ivory City" of St. Louis will be even more amazing than was the wonderful "White City" of Chicago.