believe that slavery will die out in Missouri. The institution is
not popular with the people generally; and as white labor becomes
abundant--and before the war it was becoming abundant--men recognize
the fact that the white man's labor is the more profitable. The
heat in this State, in midsummer, is very great, especially in the
valleys of the rivers. At St. Louis, on the Mississippi, it reaches
commonly to ninety degrees, and very frequently goes above that.
The nights, moreover, are nearly as hot as the days; but this great
heat does not last for any very long period, and it seems that white
men are able to work throughout the year. If correspondingly severe
weather in winter affords any compensation to the white man for what
of heat he endures during the summer, I can testify that such
compensation is to be found in Missouri. When I was there we were
afflicted with a combination of snow, sleet, frost, and wind, with a
mixture of ice and mud, that makes me regard Missouri as the most
inclement land into which I ever penetrated.

St. Louis, on the Mississippi, is the great town of Missouri, and is
considered by the Missourians to be the star of the West. It is not
to be beaten in population, wealth, or natural advantages by any
other city so far west; but it has not increased with such rapidity
as Chicago, which is considerably to the north of it, on Lake
Michigan. Of the great Western cities I regard Chicago as the most
remarkable, seeing that St. Louis was a large town before Chicago
had been founded.

The population of St. Louis is 170,000. Of this number only 2000
are slaves. I was told that a large proportion of the slaves of
Missouri are employed near the Missouri River in breaking hemp. The
growth of hemp is very profitably carried on in that valley, and the