Catfish and Crystal

St. Louis! To some people it's an all-American city, the one that introduced the ice-cream cone, the home of the "St. Louis Blues" -- to others it's the namesake of Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, and that part of American sentimentality which will always cherish "Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie." Ernest Kirschten, a loyal son and editorial writer for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, analyzes the many elements of this cosmopolitan yet gemuetlich city. Here he displays the city: the once German realm of Anheuser-Busch where housewives still scrub the stone steps of their red-brick houses six times a week; the "Muni Opera," truly more corny than Iowa in July; the Crystal Palace and the more sedate Gaslight Bar; the Golden Eagle Saloon, an old time reminder of the river packet that sank in 1947; and last but not least, the piers and levees of the surging Mississippi which, by bringing trade, brought wealth to St. Louis. Ernest Kirschten's town is a talking town, a gay one that annually throws a jubilant party which includes the Veiled Prophet parade and ball - a city whose spirit of loyalty brought the business of all St. Louis to a five-minute standstill during the funeral of Adolphus Busch. It is the city of Chief Joseph; Pierre Jean de Smet, who persuaded Sitting Bull to smoke the peace pipe; Carl Schurz; Meriwether Lewis, who was succeeded as governor by his lifelong friend, General Clark; Eugene Field's father, who carried the Dred Scott decision cause to the Circuit Court; Joseph Pulitzer, Jordan Chambers, and many, many others. Catfish and Crystal is a rich, full panorama of this great metropolis of the Midwest - its history, its breweries, its ballplayers - written by a man who is as St. Louis as the city itself.