Yet, in
admirable keeping with everything else, all these present a grand
contrast to the valley of the Mississippi, and only prove the latter
has no equal in all that pertains to grandeur, beauty, and abundance,
on the globe. To appreciate all these, you must know and mingle with
the population who have thus ornamented, with labor and taste, the
margin of this stream of streams.
As this great expanse of beauty is a fairy-land to the eye, so is the
hospitality of its homes a delight to the soul. In this population, if
nowhere else in America, is seen a contented and happy people--a people
whose pursuit is happiness, and not the almighty dollar. Unambitious of
that distinction which only wealth bestows, they are content with an
abundance for all their comforts, and for the comfort of those who, as
friends or neighbors, come to share it with them. Unambitious of
political distinction, despising the noisy tumult of the excited
populace, they love their homes, and cultivate the ease of quiet in
these delicious retreats, enjoying life as it passes, in social and
elegant intercourse with each other, nor envying those who rush into
the busy world and hunt gain or distinction from the masses, through
the shrewdness of a wit cultivated and debased by trade, or a fawning,
insincere sycophancy toward the dirty multitude they despise.
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