grown poor and discontented.

The great question for statesmen now is, "What is to be done for the
relief of the masses?" and the answer to it is as difficult to find
as ever.

But I have to proceed up the Illinois river.

The steamboat stopped at Lasalle, the head of navigation, and we had
then to travel on the Illinois and Michigan canal. We went on board
a narrow passenger boat towed by two horses, and followed by two
freight barges. We did not go at a breakneck pace, and had plenty of
time for conversation, and to look at the scenery, which consisted of
prairies, sloughs, woods, and rivers. The picture lacked background,
as there is nothing in Illinois deserving the name of hill. But we
passed an ancient monument, a tall pillar, rising out of the bed of
the Illinois river. It is called "Starved Rock." Once a number of
Indian warriors, pursued by white men, climbed up the almost
perpendicular sides of the pillar. They had no food, and though the
stream was flowing beneath them, they could not obtain a drink of
water without danger of death from rifle bullets. The white men
instituted a blockade of the pillar, and the red men all perished of
starvation on the top of it.

The conversation was conducted by the captain of the canal boat, as
he walked on the deck to and fro. He was full of information. He
said he was a native of Kentucky; had come down the Ohio river from
Louisville; was taking freight to Chicago; reckoned he was bound to
rake in the dollars on the canal; was no dog-gonned Abolitionist;
niggers were made to work for white folks; they had no souls any more