5*3

CHAPTER LX.

SPECULATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS.

WE reached St. Paul, at the head of navigation of the Mississippi,
and iihere our Yoyage of two thousand miles from New Orleans ended.
It is about a ten-day trip by steamer. It can probably be done
quicker by raiL I judge so because I know that one may go by rail
from St. Louis to Hannibal-— ft distance of at least & hundred and
twenty miles — in seven hours. This is better than walking ; unless
one is in a hurry.

The season being far advanced when we were in Hew Qrleotts,
the roses and magnolia blossoms were falling ; but here in St. Paul
it was the snow. In iTew Orleans we had caught an occasional
withering breath from over a crater, apparently ; here in St. Paa!
we caught a frequent benumbing one from over a glacier, apparently.

I am not trying to astonish by these statistics. No, it m only
natural that there should be a sharp difference between climates
which lie upon parallels of latitude which are one or two thousand
miles apart. I take tl™ position, and I will hold it and maintain it
in spite of the newspapers. The newspaper ffrinfrtt it isn't a BJtfeoral
jibing • and once a year, in February, it remarks, with iH-coooenlecl
exclamation points, that while we, away up hare are fighting enow
and ice, folks are having new strawberries and peas cbva Soeth;
callas are blooming out of doors, and the people are

the warm weather. The newspaper never gets done being aorptiaod
about it. It is caught regularly every Febroary. l^ere mwai be «
reason for this; and this reason must be change of hands at tbe
editorial desk. You. cannot surpdse an individual Bfcore ti*ai twice
with the same loarvel— not even with the February aaioheiee of tib*