A collision was a mere question of time, and of short time at the
best.

As I visited _The Herald_ office for final instructions, I found that
the managing editor had determined upon a vigorous campaign. Every
point of interest was to be covered, so that the operations of our
armies would be fully recorded from day to day. The war correspondents
had gone to their posts, or were just taking their departure. One
correspondent was already on the way to Cairo. I was instructed to
watch the military movements in Missouri, and hastened to St. Louis as
fast as steam could bear me.

Detained twelve hours at Niagara, by reason of missing a railway
train, I found that the opening war gave promise of affecting that
locality. The hotel-keepers were gloomy at the prospect of losing
their Southern patronage, and half feared they would be obliged to
close their establishments. There were but few visitors, and even
these were not of the class which scatters its money profusely. The
village around the Falls displayed positive signs of dullness, and
the inhabitants had personal as well as patriotic interest in wishing
there was no war. The Great Cataract was unchanged in its beauty
and grandeur. The flood from the Lakes was not diminished, and the
precipice over which the water plunged was none the less steep. The
opening war had no effect upon this wonder of the New World.

In Chicago, business was prostrated on account of the outbreak of
hostilities. Most of the banks in Illinois had been holding State
bonds as securities for the redemption of their circulation. As these
bonds were nearly all of Southern origin, the beginning of the war