Show OUR ST LOUIS LETTER lettjr about abou 9 secretary alkine irhe th autumnal Autum ual festivities flaunted for foi beautiful Ifo Ite nult aults promised summer evening pleas Pleno a roe irea eto stephen B D elkins tho the secretary of war is a missourian and has foully warm personal friends la ill st louis for tills this reason every everybody body believes he is in earnest when lie he says saya that t before ile he goes out of the cabinet he will get enough money appropriated to make jefferson barracks one of the largest and handsomest military posta in ill the united states moro more than a quarter ot of a million dollars will bo be spent on tho the post if the plans for the improvement anro carried out and considerably over a million dollars will bo be added to the volume of business in tile the city real estate men too say that th the c new post will make property values rapidly increase in the southern part of town winch lie lies adjacent to the reservation very few people even artists know that when robert bringhurst the sculptor modeled that statue of grant on twelfth street ho be had bad posing for kt him m paul cornoyer the yount young american painter who has recently achieved distinction in in paris si the booted legi of gen grant are legs and tho the field glass in the heros heres hand band was modeled from the glass taken from gen john S marmaduke when 8 a prisoner by councilman nelson cole cola of this ci city ty these little things were brought out tho the other night by a conversation between two gentlemen who were having a taste of the glories of the fall fail entertainment to be set bet before us by the committees in charge of the festivities it was at a private exhibition of 0 miniature st louis lighted as it will be in the fall cha chairman irman john C wilkinson whose committee manages the illumination will make the grant statue and the statue of liberty which face each cadi other on twelfth street the central figures of a splendid columbian tableau A third statue will bo be put up tip between liberty and tile alie union depot and the three will vill be linked together and flanked by anally colored electrical devices the whole six blocks between the site of the new city hall and washington avenue will be a brilliant promenade overhung by pictures in light half historical and partly allegorical allo goncal the suggestion of columbus and his time will be preserved too in the illuminations on the downto down jowh to vita streets the warm weather Is leading to the annual revival of a very popular city custom only st louis peo people P lc know inov how hov to sit gracefully on their front fron steps summer afternoons the girla avin bring out cushions as soon as is done while it is yet light and post on the step booksin books in their hands the men follow the older with cigars and the younger with manjoor banjo or mandolin and unless a walk to an opera garden or a fountain where there is is lee ice cream soda interferes there the sit all the evening neighbors neigh bora como over to see each other and plans for picnic and excursions are laid take a wall just now along pine washington locust any of the streets lined homes out in the western part of the city and you will see the groups and hear bear the tinkle of the music the chatter and laughter now and then rising a bove above it many a st louis family lured away from home by tho the summer resort f fashion as lilon men and women n stilled stifled in small hotel rooms look bade back with biti longing to the cool on their front t steps and hasten their return doston boston is is the only other city in the country where this fashion obtains of making the front steps the reception room on summer evenings in new york it is held to be bad form with their front steps and na an occasional a day on the river or at one of the neighboring resorts st SL louis folk who do not want to enrich seaside a or mountain hotel men will get along very well this summer there are twelve summering places within two hours ride of the rall rail and boat all of these places malre make money four months in the year then there are the innumerable suburban spots which are high and cool nil all of them reached by fast street car lines in consequence of these surroundings the city looses but a small part of its po population P during the summer and even in the dog da days ys there is no DO exo due of the business m men en such as one sees in the large eastern cities |