Page:Early History St Louis and Missouri.djvu/83

Rh manner that language can present, and, as the character of each for sincerity was never doubted, their words always carried weight, if not conviction, to the judgment of their hearers and always gave them a crowded and attentive auditory and merited fame.

The city of St. Louis had enjoyed the advantage of its chartered rights under its indefatigable and accomplished Mayor, Dr. William Carr Lane, two years, and had adopted a system of street improvements that gave evidence of a determination on the part of the people to make it a commercial and manufacturing city with all the advantages the Mississippi could be made to afford.

The attempt, therefore, of Dr. Lane to retire from the Mayoralty, in the spring of 1825, would not be listened to by the people, and he was re-elected each succeeding year, as if by acclamation, as long as he could be persuaded to fill the office.

Front street, or the Levee as it is now called, then had no existence as a street or landing, except at the east end of a few cross streets, but was a serrated limestone ledge of rocks, which formed a part of the inclosures of the blocks east of First or Main street, from the north line of the city to near the foot of Spruce street, where it disappeared under the alluvial bottom of Mill Creek, the southern boundary of the city at that ]3eriod. The formation of this front into one grand continuous landing, levee or wharf attracted the early attention of Dr. Lane's comprehensive and scientific mind, and he was prompt in placing it before the public eye for consideration. The St. Louis public then viewed the project as visionary, and the labor as herculean, unnecessary and impossible, and it required years before those interested in its completion could be persuaded to acquiesce in and willingly aid in its execution.

Dr. Lane, however, lived to see his plan universally approved, and so far carried out as to afford berths for more than one hundred steamboats at a time to lie discharging and receiving freight, and crowded by commercial transactions and travelers. This was his chief reward for his services as Mayor, for his yearly salary was but three hundred dollars for performing all the duties of this responsible office.

But few of the benefactors of St. Louis have left a more honorable record of their labors than the first Mayor, and none