tering manner of the civility of our American men in looking
after their baggage and advising them as to the best routes.

As you approach St. Paul, at Fort Snelling, where the Mississippi and
Minnesota join forces, the country grows bold and beautiful. The town
itself, then boasting about thirty thousand inhabitants, is finely
situated, with substantial stone residences. It was in one of these
charming homes I found a harbor of rest during my stay in the city. Mrs.
Stuart, whose hospitalities I enjoyed, was a woman of rare common sense
and sound health. Her husband, Dr. Jacob H. Stuart, was one of the very
first surgeons to volunteer in the late war. In the panic at Bull Run,
instead of running, as everybody else did, he stayed with the wounded,
and was taken prisoner while taking a bullet from the head of a rebel.
When exchanged, Beauregard gave him his sword for his devotion to the
dying and wounded.

I had the pleasure of seeing several of the leading gentlemen and ladies
of St. Paul at the Orphans' Fair, where we all adjourned, after my
lecture, to discuss woman's rights, over a bounteous supper. Here I met
William L. Banning, the originator of the Lake Superior and Mississippi
Railroad. He besieged Congress and capitalists for a dozen years to
build this road, but was laughed at and put off with sneers and
contempt, until, at last, Jay Cooke became so weary of his continual
coming that he said: "I will build the road to get rid of you."

Whittier seems to have had a prophetic vision of the peopling of this
region. When speaking of the Yankee, he says:

"He's whittling by St. Mary's Falls,
Upon his loaded wain;
He's measuring o'er the Pictured Rocks,
With eager eyes of gain.

"I hear the mattock in the mine,
The ax-stroke in the dell,
The clamor from the Indian lodge,
The Jesuits' chapel bell!

"I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be;
The first low wash of waves, where soon
Shall roll a human sea."

The opening of these new outlets and mines of wealth was wholly due to
the forecast and perseverance of Mr. Banning. The first engine that went
over a part of the road had been christened at St. Paul, with becoming
ceremonies; the officiating priestess being a beautiful maiden. A cask
of water from the Pacific was sent by Mr. Banning's brother from
California, and a small keg was brought from Lake Superior for the
occasion. A glass was placed i