the
greater part of the carrying trade, and great railroad bridges span the
Father of Waters at several points, and more are coming.

I took a little independent trip from St. Louis by rail, to Alton, on
the Illinois side. It just took three hours; one to get there, one
there, and one to return.

It was many long years since I resided in Alton, and it was with a sort
of fearfulness that I made the excursion. Would any one remember me?
Were my friends yet living? And so on. I crossed the great railroad
bridge over the Mississippi, and up on the east bank to Alton, which
lies just above the confluence of the two great rivers. I passed
through, on the Illinois side, what seemed a continuous series of
manufacturing settlements, all emphasizing the vast development of
industrial enterprises in the West.

On arriving at Alton, the changed aspect of all was most apparent. The
river front--where in old times I had seen the steamboats line up, and
watched their loading and unloading, picturesque by day or by night,
but especially attractive when seen under the glare of torches, and
enlivened by the songs of the negro hands--was now, almost, unused. The
railroad tracks dominated everything, down to the water's edge.

I wandered off at random through the streets, until I came to the old
familiar Alton Bank, which looked exactly the same. I entered to
inquire after friends, and as the clerk was obligingly giving me
information, I asked him if he knew a former clerk, Mr. W----, who was
there years before. "Oh, yes," said he; "he is now our president." By
this time a pleasant face looked fixedly at me, and, in a moment, an
outstretched hand grasped mine, and my old friend was calling me by
name, and we were once more young men again, when, in the old time,
music was our bond of fellowship, and all that that involves.

While we were speaking--the bank president and myself--a lady, with her
little girl, entered the office, and again my name was called. "I have
been following you in the street," she said. "I knew it must be you,
but I could scarcely believe my eyes." It was the daughter of a dear
friend of years long gone, and her daughter was by her side.

How lovely it all seemed to be thus recognized, and to bind together
afresh the ties of years that had fled!

But my hour in Alton was almost up. I could only look at the outside of
the dear old church where I once worshipped. My friend of the bank
brought me, to the train, a