But granting that human power is moving westward, we must assume that somewhere in time it will be arrested, and culminate in the highest enfoldment of civil, social, and material life. Then, in its westward movement, will it be arrested in North America, or will it cross the Pacific to the inferior races of Asia, or will it reach and make a lodgment on the Pacific slope? We cannot so reason or apprehend. The vast arid and mountainous regions of the western half of the continent, and the unequaled extent of fertile lands on the eastern half of the continent, and adjacent to and on either side of the great river, fixes its location inevitably in the central plain of the continent; and in the center of its productive power, and with the development and complete organization of human power in the center of the productive power of the continent, will most certainly grow up the great city of the future-the great material, social, civil, and moral heart of the human race. The raw materials necessary to the artisan and the manufacturer, in the production of whatever ministers to comfort and elegance, are here. The bulkiness of food and raw materials makes it the interest of the artisan and the manufacturer to locate himself near the place of their production. It is this interest, constantly operating, which peoples our Western towns and cities with emigrants from the Eastern States and Europe. When food and raw materials for manufacture are no longer cheaper in the great valley than in the States of the Atlantic and the nations of Western Europe, then, and not till then, will it cease to be the interest of artisans and manufacturers to prefer a location in Western towns and cities. This time will probably be about the period when the Mississippi shall flow toward its head.

The chief points for the exchange of the varied productions of industry in our Western valley will necessarily give employment to a great population. Indeed, the locations of our future great cities have been made with reference to their commercial capabilities. Commerce has laid the foundation on which manufactures have been, to a great extent, instrumental in rearing the superstructure. Together, these departments of labor are destined to build up in our fertile valley the greatest cities of the world.

It is something to us Americans that this great city, the great all-directing heart of the race, is to grow up in our land. Even to us of this generation a realization of the final fact is a proud thought to enjoy, in the present and coming conflicts of this progressive life. As we have already seen, St. Louis is substantially central to the Mississippi Valley, and no city on the continent can lay any just claim to become the future great city, and occupy a central position to so many valuable resources as she does. She is not only substantially in the center of the Mississippi Valley, but, allowing her to be nine hundred miles from New York City, she occupies the center of an area of 2,544,688 square miles, and within a circumference the outer line of which touches Chicago. She occupies the center of an area of country which, in fertility of soil, coal, iron, timber, stone, water, domestic navigation, and railways, cannot be equaled on the globe.

Cities, like individuals, have a law of growth that may be said to be constitutional and inherent, but the measure of that law of growth does not seem to

be sufficiently understood to furnish a basis for calculating their growth to any considerable time in the future. In the development of a nation and country, new agencies are continually coming into the account of growth and work, either favorable or unfavorable. The growth of cities is somewhat analogous to the pursuits of business men: some move rapidly forward in the accumu lation of wealth, to the end of life; others only for a time are able to keep even with the world. So, too, in the growth of cities; and thus it is difficult to calculate with exactness their future growth. Cities grow with greater rapidity than nations and States, and much sooner double their population; and, with the constantly increasing tendency of the people to live in cities, we can look with greater certainty to the early triumph of our inland cities over those of the seaboard; for, so surely as the population of the Valley States doubles that of the seaboard States, so surely will their cities be greater. The city of London, now the greatest in the world, having more than three million people, has only doubled its population every thirty years, while New York has doubled every fifteen years. According to Mr. J. W. Scott, London grows at an average annual rate, on a long time, of two per cent.; New York, at five; Chicago, at twelve and one-half; Toledo, twelve; Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Cineinnati, Buffalo, and St. Louis, at the rate of eight per cent. Mr. Scott gives these calculations as approximately true for long periods of time. They may be essentially true in the past, but cannot be relied on for the future; for, as I have already said, the growth of a city is as uncertain as a man's chance is in business he may pass directly on to fortune, or may be kept back by the fluctuations of the markets, or greater hindrances interposed by wars. Touching the subject of climate, I shall not deem it of sufficient bearing upon this subject to enter into a nice discussion of the influence of heat and cold upon man in civilized life, in the north temperate zone of the North American Continent. All experience teaches that there is not sufficient variation of the elimate throughout the middle belt of our country to adversely affect the highest and greatest purposes of American industry and American civilization. The same rewards and the same destiny await all. The densest population of which we have any record is now, and has been for centuries, on the thirtieth degree of north latitude; and if such can be in China, why may it not be in America?

Again, returning to our first fundamental fact, that human power is moving westward from the city of London, we must calculate that that great city will be succeeded by a rival, one which will grow up in the new world, and that that new city will result in the final organization of human society in one complete whole, and the perfect development and systemization of the commerce of the world; will grow to such magnificent proportions, and be so perfectly organized and controlled in its municipal governmental character, as to constitute the most perfect and greatest city of the world-the all-directing head and heart of the great family of man. The new world is to be its home, and nature and civilization will fix its residence in the central plain of the continent, and in the center of the productive power of this great valley, and upon the Mississippi river, and where the city of St. Louis now stands. All arguments point

to this one great fact of the future, and, with its perfect realization, will be attained the highest possibility in the material triumph of mankind.

Let us comprehend the inevitable causes which God and civilization have set to work to produce, in time, this final great city of the world in our own fair land; and, with prophetic conception, realizing its final coming, let us hail it as the master-work of all art and the home of consummated wisdom, the inheritance of organic liberty, and controlled by an all-pervading social order that will insure a competency to every member of the in-gathered family. The immense accommodation of railroads will, by rapid, cheap, and easy communication, draw to great centers from great distances around, and thus the great cities of the world will continue to grow until they reach a magnitude hitherto unknown; and, above them all, will St. Louis reap the rich rewards of modern discoveries and inventions, especially as regards steam and all its vast and varied influence.

Henceforth St. Louis must be viewed in the light of her future, her mightiness in the empire of the world, her sway in the rule of States and nations. Her destiny is fixed. Like a new-born empire, she is moving forward to conscious greatness, and will soon be the world's magnet of attraction. In her bosom all the extremes of the country are represented, and to her growth all parts of the country contribute. Mighty as are the possibilities of her people, still mightier are the hopes inspired. The city that she now is is only the germ of the city of the future that she will be, with her ten million souls occupying the vast area of her dominion. Her strength will be that of a nation, and, as she grows toward maturity, her institutions of learning and philosophy will correspondingly advance. If we but look forward, in imagi nation, to her consummated greatness, how grand is the conception! We can realize that here will be reared great halls and edifices for art and learning; here will congregate the great men and women of future ages; here will be represented, in the future, some Solon and Hamilton, giving laws for the higher and better government of the people; here will be represented some future great teachers of religion, teaching the ideal and spiritual unfolding of the race, and its allegiance to the angel world; here will live some future Plutarch, weighing the great men of his age; here some future "Mozart will thrill the strings of a more perfect lyre, and improvise grandest melodies" for the congregated people; here some future "Rembrandt, through his own ideal imagination, will picture for himself more perfect panoramic scenes of nature's lovely landscapes." May we not justly rejoice in the anticipation of the future greatness of the civil, social, industrial, intellectual, and moral elements which are destined to form a part of the future great city? And may we not realize that the millions who are yet to be its inhabitants will be a wiser and better people than those of this generation, and who, in more perfect life, will walk these streets, in the city of the future, with softer tread, and sing music with sweeter tones, be urged on by aspirations of higher aims, rejoice with fuller hearts, and adorn in beauty, with more tender hands, the final great city of the world?

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF ST. LOUIS.

To determine the importance of a State or city, its essential condition and advantages must be defined and understood, both in their immediate and approximate relations; and to ascertain their future greatness and controlling influence, their local and general relations must be considered in connection with the natural advantages which they possess for the civil and industrial pursuits of man, and their natural and artificial facilities for the exchange of the products of different lands and climates, and the intercommunication of one people with another. By these means the commercial and civil value of all States and cities can easily be determined, and their general values estimated in the march of civilization and progress. It is by these means that we propose to determine the commercial importance of St. Louis, and the place she will fill, and the influence she will exercise in the present continental strife for commercial supremacy.

The most important consideration of the subject is her system of railroads and navigable rivers, a full description of which we submit, in so far as the facts relate to the practicable purposes of commerce.

The Mississippi river is the continental stream of North America. It forms a line of unbroken navigation from New Orleans to Fort Snelling, a distance of 2,131 miles. No stream has ever served so valuable purposes to commerce and civilization, and no city upon its banks has ever or can ever share so largely in the commerce that floats upon its waters as St. Louis. In connection with its tributaries it affords more than ten thousand miles of inland navigation, and more than three-fourths of which bear directly upon the interests of St. Louis. More than ten thousand steamboats, together with a large number of barges, lighters, and similar crafts, used as auxiliaries in the carrying trade, are actively engaged in the commerce of these waters; the far greater part of which does now and will continue to bear upon the interests of St. Louis.

Besides the already navigable streams there are many smaller tributaries which will, when the country is older and more wealthy, be converted into canals, and thus furnish an extended western slack-water navigation.

Turning from the rivers, we now proceed to set forth her great system of

railroads, as they are now completed; also those which are being built, and the most importaat of such lines as have been agitated.

4. St. Louis and Southeastern Illinois R. R. Building.

10. Chicago, Alton and St. Louis R. R. This road will soon have a double

steel track between Chicago and St. Louis.

11. St. Louis, Jacksonville and Bloomington R. R.

12.

Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis R. R.

Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville R. R.; a connection.

13. Quincy and St. Louis R. R. Prospective.

Crossing the Mississippi river, north of St. Louis, the first road we meet is 14. The St. Louis and Keokuk R. R. Building.

17. The North Missouri and St. Joseph R. R., via Hannibal and St. Jo. R. R. 18. St. Louis, Chillicothe and Omaha R. R. Building.

19.

21.

Missouri Pacific R. R.

Sedalia and Lexington Branch of Mo. Pacific.

Sedalia and Ft. Scott Branch of Mo. Pacific.

St. Louis and Ft. Scott Air Line R. R. Prospective.
Southwest Pacific R. R.

22. Iron Mountain R. R. to Galveston and Mexico.

23. St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois. Projected.

24. Illinois Central R. R. Running through trains between Chicago and St. Louis and St. Louis and Dubuque, using the Vandalia line to come into St. Louis.

Thus we have twenty-four distinct trunk roads converging at St. Louis, nearly every one of which is built, or under way of construction, and not one will be abandoned. No other city on the continent or in the world has so many, nor is it likely that any rival place will ever be favored with so great a number. I have neglected to place on the list several local and connecting roads, which properly belong to the St. Louis system and are valuable feeders to other lines, but for their not being essentially trunk lines, were omitted. My object has been more especially to show that St. Louis stands in the center of a great system of railways and navigable rivers, which radiate from her as a focal point to almost every extremity of the country, touching oceans, lakes, and seas, and uniting the civil, social, and commercial interests of a continental people, as well as creating an easy exchange for the fish, fruits, and other products of antagonistic climates.