CHAPTER III 



A FEW days after his departure, La Bonte 

 found himself at St. Louis, the empor- 

 ium of the fur-trade, and the fast-rising 

 metropolis of the precocious settlements of the 

 West. Here, a prey to the agony of mind wliich 

 jealousy, remorse, and blighted love mix into a 

 very puchero of misery, he got into the company 

 of certain rowdies, a class that every western city 

 particularly abounds in; and anxious to drown 

 his sorrows in any way, and quite unscrupulous 

 as to the means, he plunged into all the vicious 

 excitements of drinking, gambling, and fighting, 

 which form the every-day amusements of the ris- 

 ing generation of St. Louis. 



Perhaps in no other part of the United States 

 — where, indeed, humanity is frequently to be seen 

 in many curious and unusual phases — is there a 

 population so marked in its general character, and 

 at the same time divided into such distinct classes, 

 as in the above-named city. Dating, as it does, 

 its foundation from yesterday,* — for what are 



* He means as an American city. St. Louis was founded 

 by the French in 1764; transferred to the United States in 

 1804. (Ed.) 



93 



