town-lots are to be bought and sold; and people now are living, who are persuaded that their mission is to lay out cities, and sell town-lots at enormous prices; so that they may become fabulously wealthy, lose their digestion, pass sleepless nights, travel in Europe, and come back sick of themselves and the world.

Such people will look with interest upon rising cities on the west bank, upon the town of Wabasha, the future rival of St. Paul, and Winona: upon La Crosse, in Wisconsin, where a railroad will one day extend itself from Chicago, and Prairie du Chien, and Mendota. Then, in Iowa, many towns will interest the traveler and speculator-Guttenburg, Dubuque, Lyons, and Davenport, the place of the music store; Muscatine, Burlington, and Keokuk; some of which are large cities, furnished with streets of brick warehouses piled with merchandise, so that one might fancy portions of New York or Philadelphia had been transported as they stood. All these have done much, and promise to do more; and active, determined men do not fear to build mills and hotels and shops there, sure of good returns. Illinois shows the towns of Galena, and Rock Island, and Oquawka, and Nauvoo-where the Mormons built their strange temple and their strange religion, but lost their remarkable prophet, one Jo Smith, Esq., whose successor, Brigham Young, now challenges attention.

Our view of Galena is as it once was, but these towns come up in a night, and grow, like the prophet's gourd, so fast that one can hardly keep pace with them. It is the metropolis of the great lead region, and ships away annually 42,000,000 pounds of the metal, which is valued at $1,780,000, and gives direct employment to about two thousand people. In the region round about the ground is penetrated with pits and diggings, many of which extend deep below the surface. Thousands of tons of zinc and copper ores are dug out and lie on the surface, unused for want of coal to smelt them. The town contains about ten thousand people, and is charmingly built on the rising banks of a branch of the Mississippi; it has

churches of many kinds-Baptist, Presbyterian, I discharging cargoes from steamboats that ply Episcopal, Methodist, and Roman Catholic-up and down the Mississippi.

and is well supplied with schools, newspapers, Time was when the flat-boat was the only and mills and shops in abundance. Galena will not go backward. Railroad trains rush in daily, bearing their loads of freight and passengers, and her levee is busy in receiving and

means by which travelers could reach New Orleans-a slow but surer means than the early Western steamboat. It once happened that an impatient passenger, bent upon getting away

from Cincinnati, applied to the captain of a flat, | them are good hearts and strong hands; but who decidedly refused to take him. The passenger would not be refused, and at last was allowed to bring aboard his "unpretending luggage." He slept on corn sacks, was jolly under the most discouraging aspect of things, helped to sweep the boat out of the eddies, and made himself so useful and agreeable that the gruff reserve of the captain softened. At last, after many trials, they did reach New Orleans, and the single passenger prepared to depart; the captain then shook his hand heartily, and said,

"Good-by, Mister Gill-good-by! I didn't want you aboard at fust a bit-I thought you was a gentleman, and I'd ruther be alone any time than have a long-legged cuss yawpin' round and askin' all kinds o' nonsense; but now I'm glad you com', for, by George, there ain't the least bit of a gentleman about you! Good-by, Mister Gill-good-by!"

among them also have been some of the most desperate and drunken and brutal men that are ever found in a border country-men who stopped at nothing-to whom conscience and honor were ridiculous. But as society has become fixed that breed has gradually disappeared, and California and Nicaragua have enjoyed the benefits of their social virtues. The standard among them at present is not very high, though if Louis Napoleon and Count Morny are the finest characters of Europe, flat-boatmen need not despair.

It was during the year 1842 that one of them stepped into a broker's office at New Orleans to get some money changed. The broker, finding he was from Illinois, naturally inquired as to the State finances, and said, bluntly,

"Well, are you going to repudiate up there?" "No, I guess not-I guess we shan't repu

The flat-boatmen are a rough set, and among derate."

Travelers will not fail to remember the Western steamers-a great feature of the Western and Southern rivers. If you are at St. Louis, and wish to take passage on one, you approach the levee or landing-place, and find them lying with their noses against the paved bank ranked in a row, with puffing steam, burning fires, rolling smoke, turning wheels, and ringing bells.

Of course you seek for one of the finest boats -one which you "guess" will be likely to go within two days of her advertised time. You mount the stairway and find the cabin on the second deck; and this is the peculiarity of these boats, the ordinary deck being devoted to the machinery and to freight. This cabin is a saloon extending over the whole boat except a small space at the bow, and in some boats is nearly three hundred feet long.

This great hall is sure to be finished with white and gold, and to be, as the newspapers say, "very gorgeous indeed." Perhaps this "gorgeousness" may be appropriate to steamboats, but when it invades the "sanctity of the domestic hearth" is it not time for the conservative classes to pause?

"Indeed," said Mrs. Jones, in describing the elegance of Mr. Mulligan's new Fifth Avenue palace-his happy home-"Indeed, it is almost as handsome as a steamboat!"

"But what," asks the judicious reader, "can Mr. Mulligan do to show the world that he has got so much money?" Far be it from us to interfere with the rights of property; but might not Mr. Mulligan build a real steamboat, and have that for his home, leaving some quiet and comfort in the houses of the people?

stretched, and, with military precision, the work goes rapidly forward. Plates are placed, then forks, then knives, then bread, then pickles, then castors, then cake and candy ornaments, then chairs, and finally meats, and so on. With military promptness the hungry passengers stand in solemn silence behind their chairs; but no man thinks of sitting until the "polite and gentlemanly bar-keeper" bows in the ladies; then the gong sounds, the roof trembles, every man seizes his chair and goes grimly to work; not a sound is heard but the click of knives and the clatter of plates for ten minutes; then each man rises from his place and goes away, silently giving thanks, the work of demolition being for that time ended.

Three or four sets of passengers and crew are thus fed three times a day; and, although one sees too much of it, yet the fare on good boats is excellent and varied. Three times a day the ladies go from the table and sit for a little music or talk, and the men go forward to smoke or play cards.

On both sides of this long hall, or saloon, are state-rooms, each containing two berths. These rooms open into the saloon and out on a gallery, where one can walk or sit.

About two hundred miles below the Missouri, the Ohio pours in its volume of waters. This river, called by the early French settlers, "La Belle Rivière," brings down the wealth produced from the mountains and mines of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and that which is collected along its course from the hills, valleys, and plains of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. At this point the Mississippi may be said to have collected its strength, ready to pour down through the broad alluvium into the Mexican Gulf; above this have flowed in the St. Peters, Iowa, Des Moins, St. Croix, Wisconsin, Rock, Illinois, the Missouri, and many smaller streams; while below, the Ohio, the St. Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red; the Yazoo, the Hatchee, and When twelve o'clock comes these tables are Big Black empty in their many waters.

To proceed with our floating palace. In the forward part of this mighty hall are the clerk's office, and the social hall and bar, where one can smoke cigars and spit-the after part being devoted to the fair sex, who, "by courtesy," are supposed not to smell smoke; in the centre are tables for dining.