St. Louis - The Fourth City, Volume 1. Walter Barlow Stevens

high in office in this government testify to his character and service." From the forecast of these performances it will be inferred properly that the art of advertising was understood by the earliest St. Louis press agent.

      Colonel Leistendorfer gave his entertainments once a week for several months. He reaped a harvest. The performances took place at the Robidou house. One evening the magician inspired by a crowded room, and seeing in the gathering some of the most prominent citizens, said he would hatch a chicken from an egg, bring it to full growth, cook it and serve it. There was great applause. Colonel Leistendorfer showed the egg and put it in a box. When the box was closed the chirping of the chicken was heard. When the box was opened there was the chicken. Into and out of several boxes the chicken passed, growing larger with each change, until it was shown full grown. With the spectators following every movement, the colonel cut off the chicken's head. The body was put in a box and when the box was opened a well roasted chicken, with gravy dripping, was lifted out. The colonel called for someone to serve the chicken. William C. Carr, a dignified young lawyer, afterwards circuit judge, was pushed forward. He took the knife and fork, but as he was about to begin by plunging the fork into the breast of the roasted chicken a live chicken flew out of the dish, splashing gravy liberally over his ruffled shirt front.

      Colonel Leistendorfer had a very profitable season in the old Robidou house. He liked St. Louis so well that he bought a home in Carondelet, where he raised a large family. The Leistendorfer descendants became quite prominent locally.

      Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, an Englishman who traveled in North America and wrote a book, met this strange international character during his visit to St. Louis and Carondelet. He said of him:

       His name was given as Leistendorfer. I concluded he must be German but he answered me with such a strange patois in that language that I was soon convinced of my error; upon cross-examination of him I discovered that he was from the Italian side of the Tyrol and that his real name was Santuario. lie boasted of speaking German, French, Spanish, Turkish and English equally well. He was made a sharpshooter in the Austrian army; he was with Bonaparte; he was some years at Constantinople. Then he went to Egypt and contrived to render the pasha some service in Arabia; after which he was employed by General Eaton to assist in his expedition against the Bey of Tripoli, and was instrumental in the settlement of that trouble. For that he was made a colonel in the United States army; he lives now upon the proceeds of some land which he bought with the money earned by his services. He is a strangely prejudiced man but with a fine face and the remains of an athletic frame.

      Because the town of St. Louis was small, it is not to be supposed that the Gazette was without sporting news. A local character was a man named Pierce, who was always ready for a fight or a foot race or any other kind of sport. Pierce was a bully. He had a series of encounters which established his supremacy in the community to such a degree that it was impossible to get up a fight with him, except when some stranger, who did not know his prowess, arrived. Pierce was not only a hard hitter but he had a hard head, upon which no blow seemed to have any effect. He was so confident of his skull that one day he offered to fight a ram which was running at large in the commons and was the terror of all the small boys. Pierce said he could whip the ram butting. He offered to try it on a bet of a gallon of whiskey to be given him, if he was successful. The population of the town turned out to see the fight between Pierce and the ram. After the ram had been teased to the fighting point, which did not take long, Pierce got down on his hands and knees. The ram was turned loose and made a bound toward the man. Pierce waited until the ram was almost upon him, then dropped his head and jerked it up in time to strike the under jaw of the ram, breaking the animal's neck. Having won this victory, Pierce was not satisfied to rest upon his laurels. He tried the performance again and again with increasing honors. At length a bout was arranged between Pierce and a ram of unusual size, owned by Colonel Chouteau. The usual preliminaries took place. Pierce following his hitherto successful tactics, dropped his head, but his nose struck a sharp pointed stub of a weed which penetrated the nostril. Involuntarily, Pierce threw up his head too soon and received upon his forehead the full force of the ram's bound. His skull was fractured and he died.

      Henry M. Brackenridge, a young man from Pittsburg, came to St. Louis in 1810. While trying to choose between journalism and the law he did some writing for publication. His description of St. Louis as he saw it and studied it was graphic. His forecast was the more remarkable because both Ste. Genevieve and St. Charles at that time crowded St. Louis in population, and immigration seemed to be inclined to favor New Madrid. In his "Views of Louisiana" Brackenridge wrote of St. Louis:

       This place occupies one of the best situations on the Mississippi, both as to site and geographical position. In this last respect the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi has certainly much greater natural advantages, but the ground is subject to inundation, and St. Louis has taken a start which it will most probably retain. It is probably not saying too much that it bids fair to be second to New Orleans in importance on this river.

       St. Louis will probably become one of those great reservoirs of the valley between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, from whence merchandise will be distributed to an extensive country. It unites the advantages of three noble rivers, Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri. When their banks shall become the residence of millions, when flourishing towns shall arise, can we suppose that every vendor of merchandise will look to New Orleans for a supply, or to the Atlantic cities! There must be a place of distribution somewhere between the mouth of the Ohio and Missouri. Besides, a trade to the northern parts of New Spain will be opened, and a direct communication to the East Indies by way of the Missouri may be more than dreamt; in this case St. Louis will become the Memphis of the American Nile.

      When Brackenridge made his predictions St. Louis had 1400 people. This writer said, of the impression he received as he went about St. Louis, first taking the view from the Illinois bank:

       In a disjointed and scattered manner, it extends along the river a mile and a half, and we form the idea of a large and elegant town. Two or three large and costly buildings, though not in the modern taste, contribute in producing this effect. On closer examination the town seems to be composed of an equal proportion of stone walls, houses and fruit trees, but the illusion still continues. In ascending the second bank, which is about forty feet above the level of the plain, we have the town below us, and a view of the Mississippi in each direction, and of the fine country through which it passes. When the curtain of wood which conceals the American bottom shall have been withdrawn, or a vista formed by opening farms to the river, there will be a delightful prospect into that rich and elegant tract. There is a line of works on this second bank, erected for defense against the Indians, consisting of several circular towers, twenty feet in diameter and fifteen feet in height, a small stockaded fort and a stone breastwork. These are at present entirely unoccupied and waste, excepting the fort, in one of the buildings of which the courts are held, while the other is used as a prison. Some distance from the termination of this line, up the river, there are a number of Indian mounds and remains of antiquity, which, while they are ornamental to the town, prove that in former times those places had also been chosen as the site, perhaps, of a populous city.

       St. Louis contains according to the last census one thousand, four hundred inhabitants, one-fifth Americans, and about four hundred people of color. There are a few Indians and metiffs, in the capacity of servants or wives to boatmen. This town was at no time so agricultural as the other villages; being a place of some trade, the chief town of the province, and the residence of a number of mechanics. It remained nearly stationary for two or three years after the cession; but is now beginning to take a start, and its reputation is growing abroad. Every house is crowded, rents are high, and it is exceedingly difficult to procure a tenement on any terms. Six or seven bouses were built in the course of the last season and probably twice the number will be built the next. There is a printing office and twelve mercantile stores. The value of imports to this place in the course of the year may be estimated at $250,000. The outfits for the different trading establishments on the Mississippi or Missouri are made here. The lead of the Sac mines is brought to this place; the troops at Bellefontaine put $60,000 in circulation annually. The settlers