The cars were filled with
lusty yeomen, all gabbling politics.
There was an overwhelming
majority for Fremont. Under such circumstances it was a virtue for a
Buchanan man to show his colors. There was a solid old Virginian
aboard; and his open and intelligent countenance peculiar, it seems
to me, to Virginia denoted that he was a good-hearted man. I was
glad to see him defend his side of politics with so much zeal against
the Fremonters. He argued against half a dozen of them with great
spirit and sense. In spite of the fervor of his opponents, however,
they treated him with proper respect and kindness. It was between
eleven and twelve when I arrived at Zanesville. I hastened to the
Stacy House with my friend, J. E B. (a young gentleman on his way to
Iowa, whose acquaintance I regard it as good luck to have made). The
Stacy House could give us lodgings, but not a mouthful of
refreshments. As the next best thing, we descended to a restaurant,
which seemed to be in a very drowsy condition, where we soon got some
oyster and broiled chicken, not however without paying for it an
exorbitant price. I rather think, however, I shall go to the Stacy
House again when next I visit Zanesville, for, on the whole, I have no
fault to find with it. Starting at eight the next morning, we were
four hours making the distance (59 miles) from Zanesville to Columbus.
The road passes through a country of unsurpassed loveliness. Harvest
fields, the most luxuriant, were everywhere in view. At nearly every
stopping-place the boys besieged us with delicious apples and grapes,
too tempting to be resisted. We had an hour to spend at Columbus,
which, after booking our names at the Neil House for dinner and
which is a capital house we partly spent in a walk about the city.
It is the capital of the state, delightfully situated on the Scioto
river, and has a population in the neighborhood of 20,000. The new
Capitol there is being built on a scale of great magnificence. Though
the heat beat down intensely, and the streets were dusty, we were
"bent on seeing the town." We my friend B. and myself had walked
nearly half a mile down one of the fashionable streets for dwellings,
when we came to a line which was drawn across the sidewalk in front of
a residence, which, from the appearance, might have belonged to one of
the upper-ten. The line was in charge of two or three little girls,
the eldest of whom was not over twelve. She was a bright-eyed little
miss, and had in her face a good share of that metal which the vulgar
think is indispensable to young lawyers. We came to a gradual pause at
sight of this novel obstruction. "Buchanan, Fillmore, or Fremont?"
said she, in a tone of dogmatical interrogatory. B. was a fervid
Fremonter he probably thought she was so he exclaimed, "Vermont
for ever!" I awaited the sequel in silence. "Then you may go round,"
said the little female politician. "You may go round," and round we
went, not a little amused at such an exhibition of enthusiasm. I
remember very well the excitement during the campaign of 1840; and I
did my share with the New Hampshire boys in getting up decoy cider
barrels to humbug the Whigs as they passed in their barouches to
attend some great convention or hear Daniel Webster. But it seems to
me there is much more political excitement during this campaign than
there was in 1840. Flagstaffs and banners abound in the greatest
profusion in every village. Every farm-house has some token of its
polities spread to the breeze.
At twenty minutes past one less or more we left Columbus, and
after travelling 158 miles, via Dayton, we came to Indianapolis, the
great "Railroad City," as it is called, of the west. It was half past
nine when we arrived there. I did not have time to go up to the Bates
House, where I once had the pleasure of stopping, but concluded to get
supper at a hotel near the depot, where there was abundant time to go
through the ceremony of eating. It strikes me that Indianapolis would
be an agreeable place to reside in. There are some cities a man feels
at home in as soon as he gets into them; there are others which make
him homesick; just as one will meet faces which in a moment make a
good impression on him, or which leave a dubious or disagreeable
impression. That city has 16,000 people. Its streets are wide, and its
walks convenient. All things denote enterprise, liberality, and
comfort. It is 210 miles from Indianapolis to this city, via Lafayette
and Michigan City. We ought to have made the time in less than twelve
hours, and, but for protracted detentions at Lafayette and Michigan
City, we would have done so. We reached the latter place at daylight,
and there waited about the depot in dull impatience for the Detroit
and Chicago train. It is the principal lake harbor in Indiana.
It is about two years since I was last in Chicago; and as I have
walked about its streets my casual observation confirms the universal
account of its growth and prosperity. I have noticed some new and
splendid iron and marble buildings in the course of completion.
Chicago is a great place to find old acquaintances. For its busy
population comprises citizens from every section of the United States,
and from every quarter of the globe. The number of its inhabitants is
now estimated at 100,000. Everybody that can move is active. It is a
city of activity. Human thoughts are all turned towards wealth. All
seem to he contending in the race for riches: some swift and daring on
the open course; some covertly lying low for a by-path.
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