But it is proper to forewarn the reader that the author has by no means contented himself with gleaning over the fields where Mr.
Louis in the satisfactory shape which it now assumes. These invaluable stores, which fully justified the author's expenditures in securing them, and his patient toil in arranging and apportioning them, it would have been impossible to present the history of St. Billon's treasures, and profit by all that he had discovered. Billon, whose unwearying, indefatigable research had unearthed them, and his first step was of course to get access to Mr. These materials the author found were, to a large extent, in the possession of Frederic L. Those materials, collected, arranged, and digested for the first time in these volumes, are of the purest ore the gold of history is produced from, and they exist, not simply in "outcrops" and "placers," but in true "lodes" and "mother-veins," abundant, and without a "fault" or a break in their absolute continuity. Louis had never been fully or adequately studied, so far as could be ascertained from outward and published manifestations, the materials of which it could be made were not only in existence, but were rich and comprehensive almost without parallel. Under such circumstances the author finally consented to undertake the task, and he admits that by the time this determination was reached he had discovered that while the subject of the history of St. Although discouraged at first by the magnitude of the task, the author fully realized that the field was a promising and fruitful one, and his generous and thoroughgoing publishers held out to him every possible inducement, in the way of collaboration of manner with matter, of expenditure upon the form and make-up of the work to keep its appearance fully abreast with its contents, which the most exacting and fastidious writer could demand. Much has been done, and well done but the history itself was not written, nor were the sources of it explored and its materials searched out. It were very unlikely that a theme so rich, so various, and appealing so strongly to the imagination and the sympathies would be left untouched by the writers of a community as ardent, as proud of their home institutions, and as sanguine of the future as the inhabitants of St.
The author does not wish to be understood to say that much has not been written about the history of St. Virgin soil was sure to be rich and to yield great fruits to the cultivator, but it is hard work to plow the prairie for the first crop, - "Haec loca non tauri spirantes naribus ignemĪnd it was not necessarily a labor that would be rewarding. Not only was the field unoccupied, it had never even been explored. There was so much more to be done than he had anticipated that the magnitude of the task frightened him. Louis to make inquiries and survey the field, he was disposed to shrink from the undertaking and withdraw from the engagement partly made. When, however, the author, after completing his History of Baltimore City and County and the preparations for the History of Western Maryland, came to St. They knew that no such work had been produced the general complaint on the spot proved that, and seemed to prove also that it would be welcomed if written. Louis offered an inviting subject for an exhaustive local history. IT has been some time since the author and his publishers - whose enterprise and liberality have always kept pace with him in every new undertaking - agreed that St. Olympic Theatre, Fifth Street, St Louis, Mo. Louis Globe-Democrat, corner Fourth and Pine Streets, St. View of the Old McDowell Medical College and Military Prison.Īutographs of Distinguished Men in the Early History of St.
Louis with all the Houses on March 10th, 1804 Plat of the Fortification on the Hill, Completed in 1794. Section of the Channel of the Mississippi as drawn by a Moundbuilder. Louis City and CountyĬopy of the Map Published with Marquette's Journal 1681
0 kommentar(er)
