The Weekly Minnesotian

Correspondence of the Minnesotian.

Quick Trip from St. Paul to Pittsburgh.—Steamer

Falls City—Happy Omen—Pioneer Hook and

Ladder Co.

PITTSBURGH, June 11, 1855.

Messrs. Editors:—Leaving St. Paul, on

board the War Eagle, on Wednesday, 24th ult.,

at 11 o'clock A. M. I arrived at this place at 8

P. M. the following Saturday—(after lying over

six hours in Galena,) making the trip in three

days and nine hours.

The Steamer Falls City, Capt. Gilbert, left

this port yesterday, destined for St. Anthony

Falls. The Falls City is said to be one of the

best jobs of steamboat work that has left this

port, and is pronounced by the Inspector an A

No. 1 boat. Her dimensions are as follows:

Length, 155 feet; depth of hold, 4 ft. 6 in.

width of beam, 27 feet; three boilers—length,

24 feet—diameter 36 inches; stern wheel; 400

tons burthen.

There is rather a singular incident connected

with the first movement of this boat; and

which is viewed with considerable superstition

on the part of Capt. Gilbert. I give it as published

in the Daily Post of this city:—"On

Saturday last, as the Falls City backed into

the Ohio river at Wellsville, to make her trial

trip, a large grey eagle, which had not been

observed before, flew across the boat, through

the dense smoke, and between the chimneys

taking up a position directly in the van, where

it continued until the boat had made the distance

of several miles up the river—all the

time flying very slow, in order not to get out

of sight of the steamer. A bird of this kind is

not often seen in this neighborhood, and as the

Falls City is intended for the Upper Mississippi

Capt. Gilbert seems to think it must have come

from the Falls of St. Anthony, expressly to

witness the first trip of his new boat."

The Captain and myself have made various

small bets as to the Falls City arriving at the

Falls this season—he that he would take her

there, and I that he would not. But we shall

see. The following is her manifest for St. Paul:

Nichols & Burkey, 195 slabs steel, 2 kegs nuts

and washers, 5 bars steel, 300 half boxes glass

J. L. Farwell & Co. 25 bdls. sheet iron. B.

Presley, 12 boxes glass. B. Weide, 12 bxs. axes

12 doz. hoes, 6 doz. mattocks, 6 doz. spades, 1

doz. forks. The largest portion of her cargo

is for St. Anthony, and Capt. Smith, of the

steamer Anoka, now building above the Falls

On account of low water in the Ohio, Capt.

Gilbert was forced to leave behind a considerable

quantity of St. Paul freight now ready for

shipment at this place. But there is now every

prospect of a rise in the river.

The steamer Fanny Harris, left this port the

week previous to the departure of the Falls City,

destined also for St. Paul, with a large freight

and a cabin full of passengers

About 700 Mormons arrived here on Monday

last, from England, Scotland and Wales, en

route for Salt Lake. With the exception of

their leaders, they seem to be of the very lowest

order of beings.

To-morrow I start for Philadelphia to procure

an apparatus for the Pioneer Hook and

Ladder Company—being unable to purchase

such an one here as directed by the Company.

I hope to be in St. Paul by the last of

this month, and think I shall.

Yours, &c.,

J. W.