Peculiarities of American Cities

No one who visits Milwaukee can fail to be struck with the semi-foreign appearance of the city. Breweries are multiplied throughout its streets, lager beer saloons abound, beer gardens, with their flowers and music and cleanly arbor-shaded tables, attract the tired and thirsty in various quarters. German music halls, gasthausen, and restaurants are found everywhere, and German signs are manifest over many doors. One hears German spoken upon the streets quite as often as English, and Teuton influence upon the political and social life of the city is everywhere seen and felt. Germans constitute nearly one-half the entire population of Milwaukee, and have impressed their character upon the people and the city itself in other ways than socially. Steady-going plodders, with their love for music and flowers, they have yet no keen taste for display, and every time choose the substantial rather than the ornamental. Milwaukee is a sort of rendezvous for the Scandinavian emigrants, who are pouring in like a mighty tide to fill up the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Danes and Swedes, and especially Norwegians, stop here, and it may be, linger for a longer or shorter period, before they strike out into the, to them, unknown country which is to be their future home. Domestic service is largely supplied by the Norwegians, who prove themselves honest, industrious and capable.

This mighty influx of the Germanic and Scandinavian races into our Northwest is certain to produce a permanent impression upon the social condition of those States. Yet our system of government is adapted to the successful management of such immigration. It cannot, perhaps, do so much with the immigrants themselves. Many of them intelligent, but more of them ignorant and stupid, they remain foreign in their habits and ideas to the end of their lives. But it makes citizens of their sons, trains them up with an understanding of democratic institutions, gives them an education, for the most part, forces them to acquire our language, and instead of making them a separate class, recognizes them as an undivided part of the whole population. In brief, it Americanizes them, and though habits and traits of character and race still cling to them in some degree, their original nationality is soon lost in the great cosmopolitan tide of civilized humanity which swells and surges around them. Different races intermarry and blend, and form a composite of personnel and character which is fast becoming individualized and recognized as the type of the true American. After a few generations but little remains save the patronymic to remind the descendants of these immigrants of their original descent.

Wherever the German race has settled it has taken substantial prosperity with it. The members of that race have proved themselves honest, industrious, and preëminently loyal. To the "Dutch" St. Louis owed her own modified loyalty during the late civil war. The German element of Cincinnati also turned the tide of popular sentiment in favor of the North, and secured for that city, during war times, an immunity from disturbance, and a prosperity unexampled during her previous history. They bring with them not only thrift, but an appreciation for the refining arts which is not found in any other class of immigrants. The German quarter of a city may nearly always be discovered by the abundance of flowers in windows and balconies, and growing thriftily in secluded courts. The German better appreciates his beer when sipped in the midst of natural beauties, and to the sound of music. To this music-loving characteristic of her German population Milwaukee owes her finest music hall, the Academy of Music already described. They are not quick of thought, but even their stolidity, when it is offset and modified by the almost supernatural sharpness and quickness of wit of other nationalities which also look to America as a refuge from oppression, produces a useful counter-balance, and the offspring of the two will be apt to possess stability of character with intellectual alertness. The Germans have their faults, undoubtedly, but they are less obnoxious than those of some other classes of immigrants, and when modified often become virtues.

Milwaukee, since her existence as a city, has had a comparatively uneventful history. She has not been ravaged by flood, like Cincinnati, nor by fire, like Chicago, nor by pestilence, like Memphis, nor by famine, like many cities in the old world. She has moved on in the even tenor of her way, increasing her commerce and adding to her industries, perfecting her school system and enlarging her own domain. The only disturbance which is recorded against her in the chronicles of her existence, occurred in June, 1862, when there was a riot, in consequence of the rejection, by the bankers of Milwaukee, of the notes of most of the banks of the State. The banks of Wisconsin being governed, at that time, by a free banking law, modeled, in a great measure, after that of New York, had purchased largely the bonds of different Southern States, and deposited them with the State Comptroller as a security for their issues, the bonds of said States usually being lower than those of the Northern States. When the Southern States withdrew from the Union there was, in consequence, a rapid reduction of the value of these securities, and an equally rapid depreciation of the value of the bank notes based upon them. Their issues were finally curtailed, occasioning severe loss and great bitterness of feeling on the part of those who held them. The riot consequent on this state of affairs resulted in a considerable destruction of property, though no lives were lost. It was finally quelled by the State authorities.

Of the original inhabitants of Wisconsin, we have no knowledge whatever. The only traces they have left of their existence are numerous ancient mounds or tumuli, which are scattered at various points all over the State. Their antiquity is attested by the fact that trees of four hundred years' growth are found standing upon them. Discoveries in the Lake Superior copper regions, of mines which had once been worked, over which trees of a like age were growing, seem to indicate that the same people raised the mounds and worked the mines. In all probability their antiquity extends further backward than this. The Indians, improperly called the aborigines, have no traditions concerning the construction of these mounds, which are evidently none of their handiwork, but belong to a race which has been supplanted and disappeared from the globe. The similarity of these mounds to those discovered in Central America leads to the conclusion that they were both the work of one and the same race; but whether they were constructed as tombs or as places for altars, there is a division of opinion. Those in Central America were evidently once surmounted by temples or places of worship and sacrifice.

These mounds vary in size, shape and height. At Prairie du Chien one of the largest of these tumuli was leveled to furnish a site for Fort Crawford. It was circular in form, having a base of some two hundred feet, and was twenty feet high. The circular form is the most common in those mounds, although there are many different shapes. Some appear like wells, inclosing an open space; others like breastworks with angles; still others have a space through them, as if they formed a sort of gateway. On the dividing ridge between the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers mounds are found in the form of birds with their wings and tails spread; of deer, rabbits and other animals. One even bears a marked resemblance to an elephant. There are also a few mounds representing a man lying on his face. They are three or four feet high at the highest points, rounding over the sides.

One of the most singular characteristics of these mounds is that they seem invariably to be composed of earth brought from a greater or less distance. The surface of the surrounding ground usually comes up to the base of the mound in a smooth level, when it does not already possess a natural elevation; but there is no evidence of the ground anywhere in the neighborhood having been disturbed to furnish the earth for their construction. In some instances the soil of these tumuli is of an actually different character, the like of which has not been discovered within several miles of the mounds.

These antiquities constitute the only mementos and annals transmitted to us, of the mysterious race which once peopled our western territory, and extended as far east as the shores of the Ohio, as far north as the great lakes, and westward and southward to Central America. It seems a pity that no systematic effort has been made to perpetuate them, if not for the benefit of future generations whose interest and curiosity should be excited at beholding them, at least out of a consideration for the unknown race whose work they are, and as enduring monuments to whose numbers and industry they have remained up to the present time, when all else has perished. The plow, the hoe and the spade, those iconoclastic weapons of civilization, are fast effacing them from the surface of the country. When the plow once breaks the sod which has covered them and preserved their form, the wind and rain each lend speedy assistance to the work of destruction, and but a few years will elapse before most of them will have disappeared altogether, and the places which have known them for untold centuries will know them no more forever.

It is a fact worthy of mention that these mounds have most frequently been found on sites selected for modern towns and cities, as though ancients and moderns alike had instinctively chosen for their abiding places those localities most favored by nature for the uses of man. Numerous earthworks about Milwaukee attest the favor in which the locality of that city was held by this pre-historic race. These works extend from Kinnickinnic Creek, near the "Indian Fields," where they are most abundant, to a point six miles above the city. They occupy high grounds near but not in immediate proximity to the lake and streams, and are most varied in their form, while many are of large extent. They are chiefly from one hundred to four hundred feet in diameter, and represent turtles, lizards, birds, the otter and buffalo, while a number have the form of a war club. Occasionally, a mound is elevated so as to overlook or command many others, as though it was a sort of high or superior altar for the observance of religious or sacrificial rites. Milwaukee is to be commended for her failure to manifest that spirit of modern vandalism which, in other sections, has sacrificed the relics of a by-gone age and people to the fancied utility of civilization. The Forest Home Cemetery incloses a number of these mounds, and so they are preserved for the benefit of the antiquary and curiosity seeker. We trust she will continue to cherish sacredly these few monuments left as the sole legacy of the ancient inhabitants of the West.

The early Indian name of the river upon which the city of Milwaukee now stands was Mellcoki. So says one tradition. Another gives the name as Man-a-wau-kee, from the name of a valuable medicinal root known as Man-wau; hence, the land or place of the Man-wau. Still another gives the Indian name as Me-ne-wau-kee – a rich or beautiful land. The Indians had a village on the site of the present city. The Milwaukee tribe were troublesome and difficult to manage. About the first trader who ventured to establish a post among them was Alexander Laframboise, who came from Mackinaw and located on the spot previous to or about 1785. This trading post, having been mismanaged, was discontinued about 1800, and another soon took its place. A succession of trading posts and fur stations followed, until about 1818, when Solomon Juneau, a Frenchman, established himself there permanently, with a little colony of half-breeds, who built themselves log cabins on the banks of the stream, two miles from the lake, near the junction of the Menomonee. Below them, on the river flats, where now extend the business streets of the city, the low marshy ground was overgrown by tall reeds and rushes, while away back from the river stretched the boundless prairie. The place was known, thenceforth, as Juneau's Settlement. This settlement gradually attracted, first, other traders, and finally immigrants. In 1825 it was still nothing more than a trading station, but ten years later it had become a settlement and called itself a town, taking the name of Milwaukee, from the river upon which it was built.

Chicago had already begun her marvelous growth, and was at that very time extending herself to extraordinary dimensions – on paper. The little town of Milwaukee had then no thought of rivalry, but was content to plod along for eleven years more before it received its city charter. By 1850 its growth had been remarkable, and it numbered more than twenty thousand inhabitants. In 1860 it had more than doubled this population, recording over forty-five thousand inhabitants, and in 1870 it had almost doubled again, the census reporting more than seventy-one thousand persons for that year. In the same year Milwaukee received 18,466,167 bushels of wheat, actually exceeding Chicago by about a million of bushels. The shipments of wheat the same year were 16,027,780 bushels, and of flour 1,225,340 barrels. Her exports for that year also included butter, hops, lumber, wool and shingles, of all which commodities she shipped immense quantities. From 1870 to 1880 the increase of population and commerce was equally astonishing, while her manufactures had grown in like proportion.

The vast lumber regions to the northwest help to build up her business; new towns which spring up throughout the State become tributary to her; and the farms which are multiplying in that fertile region send a share of their products to find a gateway through her to the eastern markets and to Europe. She divides with Chicago the trade which, by means of the great lakes and the great railway trunk lines, is busy going to and fro in the land, from east to west and from west to east. When the Northern Pacific Railway furnishes a continuous route of travel and freight between Lake Superior and the Northern Pacific States, the business of Milwaukee will be naturally augmented. But her future prosperity depends largely upon the prosperity of the agricultural population which surrounds her, which fills her elevators and warehouses, and furnishes freight for her boats with its products, and has need of her manufactures in return. And thus we see illustrated the fundamental principle of political economy, that that which concerns one must concern all; that one class or section of people cannot suffer without affecting in some degree all classes and sections. All are interdependent, and all must stand or fall together.

CHAPTER XVII.

MONTREAL

Thousand Islands. – Long Sault Rapids. – Lachine Rapids. – Victoria Bridge. – Mont Rèal. – Early History of Montreal. – Its Shipping Interests. – Quays. – Manufactures. – Population. – Roman Catholic Supremacy. – Churches. – Nunneries. – Hospitals. – Colleges. – Streets. – Public Buildings. – Victoria Skating Rink. – Sleighing. – Early Disasters. – Points of Interest. – The "Canucks."

The traveler who visits Montreal should, if possible, make his approach to that city by a descent of the St. Lawrence River, that he may become acquainted with some of the most beautiful scenery in America. Leaving Kingston, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, he will wind his way through the mazes of the Thousand Islands, which will seem to him as if belonging to an enchanted country. These islands, situated at the head of the St. Lawrence, extend down the river for a distance of thirty miles, and are innumerable and of every size and shape. Wolf Island, about fifteen miles in length, is the largest; while some of the smallest seem like mere flower-pots rising out of the water, with but a single plant. They are most picturesque in appearance, their rocky foundations being veiled and softened by the trees and shrubbery which cover them. In past ages mythology would have made these islands the sacred abodes of the gods, and peopled their woods and dells with nymphs and fauns, while the intervening channels would have been presided over by naiads. A little more than a generation ago, a single inhabitant, a freebooter, who levied toll upon the passers up and down the river, and who concealed his ill-gotten booty in his numerous lurking-places in the islands, turned this terrestrial paradise into a pirate's den. To-day the Thousand Islands have become famous summer resorts for the denizens of our northern cities; and large and small are studded with attractive cottages and imposing villas; while nature, already so beautiful in its wild state, has been trained into the tamer beauty of modern landscape gardening.

Beyond the islands the majestic St. Lawrence rolls on until it reaches the rapids, celebrated in song by Thomas Moore. Here the river narrows, and the current rushes impetuously over and between the rocks which jut from its bottom; while the pilot, with watchfulness and skill, guides the boat through the treacherous channel, and lands her safely in the smoother waters beyond. These rapids are known as the Long Sault Rapids, and are nine miles in length. A raft will drift this whole distance in forty minutes. The passage of boats down these rapids was considered impossible until 1840, when the famous Indian pilot, Teronhiahéré, after watching the course of rafts down the stream, attempted it, and discovered a safe channel for steamboats. Many of the pilots are still Indians, who exhibit great skill and courage in the undertaking. There has never yet been a fatal accident in shooting these rapids. The Cornwall Canal, eleven miles long, permits vessels to go around the rapids in ascending the river.

The Lachine Rapids, nine miles above Montreal, although the shortest, are the most dangerous. It is easy enough to descend these rapids, if one is not particular as to results; but it is difficult enough to descend them safely. The faint-hearted had better commit themselves to the more placid waters of the canal, or take to the railroad. But to the brave traveler there is a certain exhilaration in thus toying with and conquering danger. The rapids fairly passed, one can distinguish the long line and graceful archways of the Victoria Bridge, and the towers and spires of Montreal.

Montreal is on an island thirty-two miles in length, and with a width at its widest of ten miles. It is at the junction of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, both of them noble rivers, and is connected with the mainland by two bridges, one of them spanning the Ottawa by a series of immense arches; and the other, the Victoria bridge, thrown across the St. Lawrence. The length of the latter bridge is nearly two miles. It rests upon twenty-three piers and two abutments of solid masonry, the central span being three hundred and thirty feet long. Its total cost was about $6,300,000. It was formally opened to the public by the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of his visit to America during the summer of 1860. The railway track runs through an iron tube, twenty-two feet high and sixteen feet wide. The river rolls nearly a hundred feet below, in summer a sweeping flood, and in winter a sort of glacier, the ice masses piled and heaped upon one another, as they have been upheaved or hurled in the contentions between the current and the frost-king.

The city of Montreal is distinctly outlined against Mount Royal or Mont Rèal, which rises back of it, its edifices showing dark and gray, except where the sun catches its numerous tin roofs, making them glitter like burnished steel. It takes its name from Mont Rèal, the mountain already referred to, which closes it in on one side, and rises seven hundred and fifty feet above the river. Its eastern suburb, still known as Hochelaga, was the site of an Indian village when it was discovered, in 1535, by Jacques Cartier, and this explorer it was who gave the name to the mountain. In 1642, just one hundred and fifty years after the discovery of America, it was settled by the French, retaining its Indian name for a century later, when that appellation was replaced by the French one of "Ville Marie." In 1761 the city came into the possession of the British, and received its present name. In 1775 it was captured by the Americans under General Montgomery, and held by them until the following summer.

Montreal was, under both French and British rule, an outpost of Quebec until 1832, when it became a separate port. The shallower parts of the river being deepened above Quebec, Montreal became accessible to boats drawing from nineteen to twenty-two feet of water. It is now the chief shipping port of Canada. It is five hundred miles from the sea, and ninety miles above tidewater; and being at the head of ship navigation of the St. Lawrence, and at the foot of the great chain of inland lakes, rivers and canals which connect it with the very centre of the American continent, its commerce is very important. At the confluence of the Ottawa with the St. Lawrence, it is also the outlet of a vast lumber country. It feels, however, the serious disadvantage of being, for five months in the year, blockaded, and made, to all intents and purposes, an inland city, by the closing of navigation during the winter. Then, by means of the Grand Trunk and other railways, it becomes tributary to Portland, Maine, and finds, at that city, a port for its commerce. Its two miles of quays, including the locks and stone-cut wharves of the Lachine Canal, all built of solid limestone, would do credit to any city in the world; while a broad wall or esplanade extends between these quays and the houses which overlook the river. Montreal takes a front rank in its manufacturing interests, which embrace all kinds of agricultural and mechanical implements, steam engines, printing types, India-rubber shoes, paper, furniture, woolens, cordage and flour. In 1874 its exports were valued at over twenty-two millions of dollars.

The population of Montreal in 1779 was only about seven thousand inhabitants. In 1861 it had increased to 70,323; and in 1871 the census returns made the population 115,926. Of these inhabitants, probably more than one-half are Roman Catholics, representing a great variety of nationalities, among which, however, French Canadians and Irish predominate. The Catholics were, at first, under French dominion, in exclusive possession of the city, and the different religious societies gained vast wealth. Ever since Canada has passed into the hands of England they still hold their own, and exercise an influence over the people, and display a magnificence in their edifices and appointments, unknown in other sections of America.

No city of the same size in the United States has such splendid churches. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame, fronting on the Place d'Armes, is the largest on the continent. It is two hundred and forty-one feet in length, by one hundred and thirty-five feet in width, and is capable of seating more than ten thousand persons. It is a massive structure, built of stone, in the Gothic style with a tower at each corner, and one in the middle of each flank, numbering six in all. The towers on the main front are two hundred and twelve feet high, and furnish to visitors a magnificent view of the city. In one of these towers is a fine chime of bells, the largest of which, the "Gros Bourdon," weighs twenty-nine thousand four hundred pounds. But as large as is this cathedral, it will be surpassed in size by the Cathedral of St. Peter, now in process of erection at the corner of Dorchester and Cemetery streets, and built after the general plan of St. Peter's at Rome. This cathedral will be three hundred feet long by two hundred and twenty-five feet wide at the transepts, and will be surmounted by five domes, the largest of which will be two hundred and fifty feet in height, supported on four piers and thirty-two Corinthian columns. The vestibule alone will be two hundred feet long by thirty feet wide, and will be fronted by a portico, surmounted by colossal statues of the Apostles. It will, when completed, be by far the finest and largest church edifice in America. St Patrick's Church at the west end of Lagauchère street, is noticeable for its handsome Gothic windows of stained glass, and will seat five thousand persons. The Church of the Gesü, in Blewry street, has the finest interior in the city, the vast nave, seventy-five feet in height, being bordered by rich composite columns, and the walls and ceilings beautifully frescoed.