Omaha, the capital of Douglas County, the chief commercial city and metropolis of Nebraska, is the half-way station across the Continent. It is aptly called the "Gate City," seeming, as it does, a sort of opening to the great railroads, the great waterways, and the whole fascinating great beyond of western enterprise and western commerce.
As I rode into the city it seemed that it would be hard to find a more attractive place.
"A fine plateau nearly a mile broad, and elevated fifty or sixty feet above the Missouri, is occupied by the chief business portion of the city," while the beautiful bluffs, the low, rounded, tree-covered hills, forming a semi-circle on the west and south, are thickly dotted with tasteful and elegant residences and buildings surrounded by carefully laid-out grounds.
The streets cross at right angles. Most of them are one hundred feet broad; but Capitol avenue is one hundred and twenty feet in width.
On high grounds, just southwest of the city limits, is Hanscom Park, a fine, natural grove, beautified by art for the delight of pleasure seekers.
Conspicuous on the west is the extensive Poor House Farm, containing the fine brick poor house.
To the north, on a high wooded hill, solitary, apart from the city, yet always within sight of its bustle and rush, lies, in its solemnity, Prospect Cemetery.
In the northern section of the city, also, we find the Douglas County Fair Grounds, the Omaha Driving Park, and Fort Omaha.
A bridge, the erection of which cost $1,500,000, spans the Missouri and connects Omaha with Council Bluffs.
I found Omaha not only fair to look upon, but also interesting in many ways. It is the key to the Rocky Mountains and the gold mines of California. Its wholesale trade amounts to about $15,000,000 annually and is constantly increasing. Its industries include smelting, brewing, distilling, brick making, machine and engine building and meat packing. The trade in the latter branch being only excelled by that of Chicago and Kansas City.