SINCE the Falls of Niagara have been brought, by means of "lightning" railways, almost to the doors of the citizens who dwell in the vast wildernesses of brick and mortar-New York, Philadelphia and Boston-their roarings have become familiar, and the charm of novelty has gone. The tourist no longer makes that cataract the "ultima thule" of his summer wanderings, but roams beyond the great inland seas, to the territory of the "sky-tinted water,"* and gazes upon lofty limestone turrets and battlements,-worked out by the ancient architect TIME, with his tools of frost, air and water,-that guard the Mississippi on each bank for hundreds of miles; bathes and fishes in its thousand lakes with agate pavements, and dwells with rapture on the picturesque scene around the Falls of Saint Anthony. Saint Paul is eight miles distant from the falling waters, and bears the same relation as Buffalo to Niagara. It is the capital of the territory of Minnesota, which was created by Congress a little more than four years ago. The steamboats at the levee of Saint Louis, eight hundred miles below, and also at Galena, with signs marking their destination for Saint Paul, gives evidence that there is "a city in the wilderness" that has sprung up since our most modern geographies were issued. The traveler, as he steps from the steamboat that has brought him from below, and walks Minnesota is the name of the principal tributary of the Mississippi in that region, from which the territory his derived its appellation. It is a compound of Minne (Water) and Sota, which, in the Dakota language, is applied to that peculiar tinge of the clouds which is ceither blue nor white. through the streets of this north-western capital, is forcibly reminded by the many stumps standing in the middle of the thoroughfares, and by the Indians stalking about with their blankets, pipes, and vermilioned faces, that he is some distance from the Atlantic coast and towns, whose buildings have grown gray in the service of man. The origin of the settlement is ignoble. As at Saint Mary, in Maryland, no Lord Baltimore was the presiding spirit-no graduate of the University of Paris, like the founder of Philadelphiano men of faith and principle, like the settlers at Plymouth Rock, erected the first log tenements. Situated as it was, immediately contiguous to the military reserve of Fort Snelling, and in the vicinity of several Dakota villages on the Minn sota and Mississippi rivers, it became a choice spot for those modern harpies, the frontier whisky sellers, to pitch their tents. Until the erection of this portion of the country into a territory was agitated, this place was an enchanted spot. Here the siren voice of the low Indian trader decoyed many a poor soldier and ignorant savage-emptying their purses, and filling them with the supernatural water, (minne wawkon) they started forth with uplifted tomahawk, yelling like demons rather than singing like sirens. For a time the place was without a name. By the Dakotas it was called sometimes Imneesia ska, or White Rock, because of the saccharoid sandstone which underlies the limestone rock upon which the town is built; at other times they designated it by a sentence, which translated signifies the place where they sell whisky." On the occasion of the first marriage of one of the French Canadians, in making out the certificate it was designated as the Chapel of Saint Paul. From that time the voyageurs began to know Saint Paul's Chapel, and soon Saint Paul's became familiar in the Indian country. When it was chosen as the capital, the possessive termination was dropped, and the place became known from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico as Saint Paul. In the year 1847 there were about one hundred persons dwelling here, chiefly half breeds; but at the time of the formation of the territory, in 1849, several American families had moved here, and the population was about three hundred. The close of the year 1853 discovers but few of the original tenements or settlers, but in their places modern and tasteful mansions, and an active, intelligent population of about four thousand five hundred. L Beaulier the water, but descends gradually, forming a good steamboat landing at each extremity. This may be termed the city proper. The plain from the river to the semicircular ridge in the rear is about one mile in width, and until quite recently was a dense grove. Upon it stands at present the First and Second Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic Churches, the Stone Hospital of the Sisters of Mercy, the Town Hall, the Court House, the Territorial Capitol, and the Baldwin School. The Daguerrean artist has succeeded in obtaining a very correct view of some of the buildings on the central plain. The small house in the back ground marks the ridge to which reference has been made. The building on the extreme right is the Town Hall; that in the centre, with dome and portico, is the Capitol, situated equidistant between the river and the ridge, having Saint Paul is a city of three hills or plateaus, a front of one hundred and twenty feet. The overlooking the Mississippi, and in the rear sur- building to the left is the Baldwin School, an rounded by a gracefully undulating and elevated edifice which owes its erection to the unselfish ridge, already covered with cottages, and des- benefaction of Matthias W. Baldwin, of the city tined to afford sites for many more handsome of Philadelphia, at present a member of the suburban residences. legislature from that city, but better known as The central plateau is about ninety feet above the successful manufacturer of locomotives on |