Among her early settlers were many families of high culture, refinement, social condition, and moral standing. Of these were the families of George B. Martin, H. L. Kinney, S. Lisle Smith, D. J. Townsend, Wm. H. Davis, Fletcher Webster, George W. Holley, Lucius Pearl, H. P. Woodworth, W. B. Burnett, Gen. Ransom &c. Seldom has a new, obscure, western settlement, whose inhabitants were thrown together by chance, gathered so brilliant specimens of eastern intelligence and civilization. There was an under strata, however, which by no means tends to brighten the reminiscence. The idlers, adventurers and vagabonds, who follow public works in new countries, and who congregate at the termination of navigation, made a rendezvous here. Peru, as ought to have been mentioned before, is broken by a precipitous bluff nearly an hundred and fifty feet high. On a narrow strip between this and the river is a single street, upon which most of the stores, warehouses and shops are situated, in the rear of which runs the rail road.—Most of the dwellings are on the bluff, upon a plane inclining towards the river and somewhat broken with ravines. Formerly, as now, the street under the bluff was generally avoided as a residence by the more orderly and quiet citizens. This became the rendezvous of all the congregated rowdies and ruffians. In the night it was almost entirely given up to them. Orgies and revelry were always in order. As this part of the town was, and has continued to be the most visited by strangers, the steamboats landing in front then, and the rail road running through the rear now, the fame of its doings soon spread throughout all the land. The reputation, thus acquired, clung to it; and while no place has had a larger proportion of quiet, orderly, intelligent and refined citizens, no place has had a more unenviable reputation, unless it be the sister town of La Salle. So true is it that the fame of bad deeds travels further and faster than good ones, the writer, when abroad, on informing a stranger that he was from Peru, has observed that stranger involuntarily button up his pockets and move out of the neighborhood. What reason exists for this feeling may be seen from the fact, that during the whole period of the town's history, no riots; no fights, resulting in death or severe bodily injury with one exception, and that among a party none of which ever lived in the town; no robbery; and but few cases of burglary or larceny have occurred. No night police has ever been found necessary except at brief and distant periods.—Schools and churches have received constant attention and liberal encouragement. If the order and external sanctity of an interior New England town do not prevail, the difference in our circumstances, situation and history must be recollected; and that these are not the tests of morality all over the world.
Few among the citizens have yet found leisure to devote themselves to intellectual pursuits, yet it is believed that the clergymen, lawyers, doctors, merchants &c., have exhibited ability and attainments equal to those of their class in other localities.
CHAPTER XI.
Western Towns—Surrounding Country—Scene as viewed from the Chamber's House—Salubrity of the Climate—Water—Soil—Markets—Roads—Hogs and Cattle—Dairies—Sheep—Grass fatted meat—Horses—Choice of Markets—Scarcity of Timber—Morals and Society—Former difficulties of the Emigrant—Present Condition.
What ambitious communities these western towns are, to be sure! How they do chirp when they once get their bills through the shell, and while the greater portion yet adheres to their backs! What laughable contortions they make in their efforts to crow, strut and clap their wings! Eastern people must understand that there are no villages in the West. Every aggregation of a half dozen houses, a blacksmith shop and tavern is a city, and their name is Legion. A meeting house and school house—so necessary in the East to constitute a village—are not necessary appendages of a city in the West. Clapboard shells, with their gables to the street, embellished with square battlements to the ridge, are emblazoned with "City Drug Store," "City Saloon," "City Hard Ware Store," &c. There are "first class hotels," too, between which and the rail road depot, gorgeous omnibuses run. When the cars stop, what a din the runners set up of "Metropolitan Hotel," "St. Nicholas," "Reviere House," "St. Charles," &c. Wo, to the unlucky traveler who falls into their clutches. He will find when he comes to settle his bill, that in respect to charges, they are determined to do no discredit to their sea board prototypes.
Here and there, one of these clapboards "cities" emerge into one of brick and stone. Then three, four and five story structures rise like an exhalation. Enormous turrets, bay windows, lofty ceilings, gold and vermillion, marble, iron and gewgaws, without end, without order, without taste, and without regard to adaptability, business or convenience meet the eye on every side. Plate glass windows disclose a profusion of costly and variegated wares and merchandise, and enormous mirrors entice unsophisticated rustics down endless avenues. Turning your eye upwards along these aspiring structures, you behold broken windows and other evidences of dilapidation, denoting the utter uselessness of these lofty creations; and your amazement is no way lessened when you learn, that from twelve to twenty per cent. interest is paid for the money to erect them, secured by trust deeds upon the building itself, upon "out lots," and upon broad acres of "wild lands." Then what palatial residences are reared in the suburbs! Palaces, cottages, temples, pavilions, pagodas and mosques adorn valley and hill top. Domes, steeples, spires, turrets and minarets, gleam in the sun light, peer out of clumps of foliage, and struggle upwards at every unexpected point. Porticos, verandas, observatories, pillars, are here, there, everywhere, in endless profusion.—Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, Gothic and Yankee architecture are every where attempted, sometimes several of them on the same building, and sometimes all jumbled together.—Around them are close shaven lawns, graveled walks, arbors, climbing vines, summer houses, green houses, and flower plats, all under the care of one, two, three or more Patricks. Within, frescos and gilding, paint and upholstery, marble and porcelain, rose wood and mahogany vie, in their power to please, with magnificent toilets and languid ladies. Carriages, drawn by thousand dollar bays, groomed by blue coated Hibernians, flash upon the vision like the gleam of a meteor. But alas, for the inevitable revulsion! Down on the "business street," in front of premises where deposits are received and ten or fifteen per cent. interest allowed thereon, and exchange is sold on all eastern and European cities, a motley crowd of anxious and excited people—merchants, farmers, mechanics, seamstresses, laundresses, draymen, and laborers—are assembled. What brings them there? Why, Messrs. Dash & Splurge have "suspended"—that's all.
What weazen-faced, moustachioed abortion is that who declares upon "his honaw, the place is almost equal to New Yawk." Why, that's Mr. Hound, junior partner in the eminent firm of De Laine, Brocade & Co., of New York. He is the same individual whose acquaintance we made six or eight months ago, when he visited this locality and was introduced to us as Mr. Drummer. What a capital fellow he was! How bland! How civil! How polite! How he amused us with stories of the splendor and grandeur of the metropolis! How delightfully he sang! What a superb game of billiards he played! How he insisted upon paying for all the Hiedsieck! Who would have expected to see him transformed into the morose, sinister, vindictive looking personage which he now appears? Who would have expected to see his jocund, rounded physiognomy, where a bland and perpetual smile sat enthroned, distorted into a shape as angular as a problem in Euclid? We find, on enquiry, that his present business here is to look after a little matter between his house and one of our leading firms who have also "suspended." He made the acquaintance of this firm on his late visit, took tea at the house of one of them, sang an accompaniment to the piano with the daughters, bade them adieu with his hand on his heart, took a lunch and a "smash" with the "old man" at the "saloon," and left with a long order for silks, calicos, &c. Mr. De Laine, the head of the house, being a little more cautious, consulted the Commercial Agency and found them set down as "reliable—rather extravagant in living, indulge a little in horse racing, but generally attentive to business," and concluded that it was "all right." Hound finds it "aint all right." Mother-in-law owns the house, furniture, horses and carriage; brothers are preferred creditors; clerks and servants are charged with the collection of debts, from the proceeds of which they are to retain arrearages due them for wages; and the landlord has sued out a distress, and home creditors an attachment, which will surely cover every thing, should there be any little flaws in the assignment. Hound comes to the conclusion that he is taken in—sold—done—and that it will not pay even to employ a lawyer in the premises. In fact, his settled conviction is that there is a collusion between all the residents of this portion of the Earth, and that he will not trust any of them again—never.
The writer hopes that he will not be understood as attempting to ridicule western towns, as a whole, or to throw discredit upon western merchants and bankers, as a class. Thriving villages are springing up all over the country, and many towns and cities are great centers of trade, justly depending for their future advancement upon their great advantages for interior communication, upon the matchless wealth of the soil, and upon the enlightened enterprise of their citizens. The merchants, bankers and real estate owners, are, as a class, shrewd and intelligent men, holding their credit and characters sacred and inviolable, and many families live in elegant luxury, fully justified by a permanent and reliable income. Many, here as elsewhere, have been overtaken by the recent monetary calamities, and are suffering from causes which ordinary foresight could not have foreseen.