they found it a thriving place, with numerous engines, furnaces, and machinery; they found it with a rich and industrious population-a people that would work, and would therefore prosper-at the same time they found them an hospitable, gentlemanly class of beings, possessed of intelligence and willing to impart it. They doubtless took an early excursion upon the hills that environ the city. They looked down, and a sea of smoke lay like the clouds upon Chimborazo's base. No breath of air moved its surface; but a sound rose from its depths like the roar of Niagara's waters, or the warring of the spirits in the cavern of storms. They looked around them, and saw no signs of life or human habitation. They looked above them, and the summer sun, like a haughty warrior, was driving his coursers up the eastern sky. Then from the sea of smoke a vapor rose-another and another cloud rode away, and a speck of silvery sheen glittered in the sunbeams. "Again, a spire came into view, pointing heavenward its long slim finger; then a roof—a house-top-a street; and lo! a city lay like a map spread out by magic hand, and ten thousand busy mortals were seen in the pursuit of wealth, of fame, of love, of fashion. On the left, a noble river came heaving onward from the wilderness of the north, bearing on its bosom the treasures of the forest. On the right, an unassuming but no less useful current quietly yielded to the vessel's prow that bore from a more genial soil the products of the earth. They looked again, and extending downward through fertile and cultivated vales, checkered with gently swelling hills, they saw the giant trunk formed by the union of these noble branches. Ruffling its mirrored surface, they saw the noble steamer leaping like the panting courser, bearing a rich burden from the far sunny south; another, gathering strength and rolling onward to commence its long journey past fertile fields, high hills, rich and flourishing cities, and forests wide and drear, bearing the hand-work of her artisans to Mississippi, Texas, Mexico, the groves of India, and the hills of Pernambuco-nay, to every land to which the sun in its daily course gives light. Such they saw Pittsburg; and as such, as a citizen of the West, we are proud of her." And as such, a citizen of Pennsylvania, we are proud of her. But, alas! for the smoke! There is too much of that here—our anthracitalexperience never could be overcome sufficiently to allow our bituminization. You cannot walk the streets with a clean face or a white collar-pshaw! Pittsburg is full of soot and smoke, emitted from a thousand tremendous coal fires, and the whole aspect of the place is as black as a negro's skin. This makes a residence in it unpleasantkills taste for dress-prevents the ladies from promenading-destroys their complexions, and plants cabbages where only roses should grow. The sulphurous air, however, prevents eruptions of the skin, and people suffering with these disagreeable diseases should forthwith eschew medicine, and take up a residence for a short time in Pittsburg. It will cure 'em. Many of the extensive manufactories spoken of as being situated at Pittsburg, are not within the limits of the city proper, but are scattered around within a circle of five miles radius from the courthouse. Within this compass are the cities of Pittsburg and Alleghany, the latter already a large place of some twenty thousand inhabitants, containing many extensive manufactories, particularly of cotton, iron, and white-lead, and doing a large proportion of the lumber business of the district, the boroughs of Birmingham and Lawrenceville, and the towns and villages of Manchester, Stewartstown, Sharpsburg, East Liberty, Wilkinsburg, Croghansville, Minersville, Arthursville, Riceville, Oakland, Kensington, Sligo, Cuddysville, Temperance Village, Tarentum, Millersville, and New Troy. The manufacturing establishments located in these surrounding villages, have their ware houses, owners, or agents, within the city, and so far as general business interests are concerned, may be considered a part of the city itself, that being the centre where the greater part of the business is transacted. Judge Breckenridge, in giving some of his recollections of Pittsburg in its infancy, says: "At the time to which I allude, the plain was entirely unincumbered by buildings or enclosures, excepting the Dutch church, which stood aloof from the haunts of men, unless at those times when it was forced to become the centre of the hippodrome. And the races, shall we say nothing of that obsolete recreation? It was then an affair of all-engrossing interest, and every business or pursuit was neglected during their continuance. The whole town was daily poured forth to witness the Olympian games, many of all ages and sexes as spectators, and many more, directly or indirectly, interested in a hundred different ways. The plain within the course, and near it, was filled with booths as at a fair-where everything was said, and done, and sold, and eaten or drunk-where every fifteen or twenty minutes there was a rush to some part, to witness a fisticuff—where dogs barked and bit, and horses trod on men's toes, and booths fell down on people's heads! There was Crowder with his fiddle and his votaries, making the dust fly with a four-handed, or rather four-footed reel; and a little further on was Dennis Loughy, the blind poet, like Homer casting his pearls before swine, chanting his master-piece in a tone part nasal and part guttural: "Come, gentlemen, gentlemen all, Genral Sineleer shall rem'ber'd be, "All at once the cry, to horse! to horse! suspended every other business or amusement as effectually as the summons of the faithful. There was a rush towards the starting post, while many betook themselves to the station best fitted for the enjoyment of the animating sight. On a scaffold, elevated above the heads of the people, were placed the patres patriæ, as judges of the race, and · but I am not about to describe the races: my object was merely to call to mind the spot where they were formerly executed; yet my pen on this occasion was near running away with me, like the dull cart-horse on the course, who feels a new fire kindled under his ribs, and from seeing others scamper, is seized with a desire of trying his heels also. The Dutch church, after some time spent in searching was found by me; but as for the race field, it is now covered with three-story brick buildings, canal basins, and great warehouses-instead of temporary booths, erected with forks, and covered with boughs just cut from the woods. "It will be the business of the annalist, or of the historian, to trace the gradual progress of increase, or the various changes which the city has undergone. Who would imagine, on beholding the concourse of country merchants from all quarters, laying in their supplies of merchandise for the purpose of retail, that but a few years ago, the business was done in small shops, part cash and part country produce, that is, for skins, tallow, beeswax, and maple sugar? Who would imagine that the arrival and encampment of Cornplanter Indians on the banks of the Alleghany would make a great stir among the mer. chants? It was quite a cheering sight, and one which made brisk times, to see the squaws coming in with their packs on their backs, and to whom the business of selling as high, and buying as cheap as possible was entrusted. Now an Indian is not to be seen, unless it be some one caught in the woods a thousand miles off, and sent to Washington in a cage to make a treaty for the sale of lands. "I can still remember when the mountains were crossed by pack horses only, and they might be seen in long files, arriving and departing with their burdens swung on pack-saddles. Wagons and wagonroads were used in the slow progress of things, and then the wonder of the West, a turnpike, was made over the big hills; and now canals and railways bring us as near to Philadelphia and Baltimore, as the Susquehanna was in those times. The western insurrection is not so much a matter of wonder, and there is no trifling excuse for the dissatisfaction of the West, when we reflect on their situation at that period. The two essentials of civilized and half-civilized life, iron and salt, were almost the only articles they could procure. And how could they procure them? There was no sale for their grain down the Ohio and Mississippi, on account of the Indian war, and the possession of New Orleans by the Spaniards... There was no possibility of transporting their produce across the mountains, for sale or barter. There was but one article by means of which they could contrive to obtain their supplies, and that was whiskey! A few kegs were placed on each side of a horse, transported several hundred miles, and a little salt and iron brought back in their place. Is it any wonder that the excise, in addition to the expense of transportation, almost cut them off even from this miserable resource?" From 1790 to 1800, says the editor of Harris' Directory, the business of Pittsburg and the West was small, but gradually improving; the fur trade of the West was very important, and Messrs. Peter Maynard and William Morrison were engaged largely in it, and from 1790 to 1796 received considerable supplies of goods, through Mr. Guy Bryan, a wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, and the goods were taken to Kaskaskia in a barge, which annually returned to Pittsburg, laden with bear, buffalo, and deer skins, and furs and peltries of all kinds, which were sent to Mr. Bryan, and the barge returned laden with goods. At that period there was no regular drayman in Pittsburg, and the goods were generally hauled from the boats with a three horse wagon-until in 1797 a Mr. James Rattle, an Englishman, settled in this city, and was encouraged to take up the business, and drayed and stored goods, until a box of drygoods was stolen from his yard and shed, for then we had no warehouse, or regular commis |