Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1881 — LETTER FROM MINNESOTA. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM MINNESOTA.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, \ Aug. 3, ’Bl. \ Dear Sentinel : We send you greeting from the margin of the magic Northland. St. Paul, in its infancy was known as “White Rock.” from the color of the stone bluff on which it is built. In its villugehood, and until it was named as the capital of the territory, the frontier name was “Pig’s Eye.” The city is now the focus of a mighty commerce. The fat soil and laughing waters of the great North-west bas attracted and grown myriads of stalwart workers in the human hive This city looks to the power of St. Anthony for sustenance aod growth. This is a manufacturing eity, second to none in the world in the articles of lumber, flour and ice. The two metropoli of t.he State are near together, and one is the complement of the other, and the two will no doubt one day be under one rule—a rounded up, model city. The great Jakes and rivers, we understand, have been declared high seas, and under the special con trol of the General Government. The good effects of “an appropriation” are here manifest. The wild and furious cataract obeys the will of applied science wheniiFjKed up by Uncle Sam’s money.

The tractile power of the falling river turns the golden wheat into suowy flour at the rate of twenty barrels per minute. The rough pine logs are sawed into convenieutbui ding lumber at the rate of fifteen square feet per second. Many other industries are sustained by this giant power and “’tis the prop and mainstay” of this wonderful city. Private capital would have been slow in completing this most perfect system of dams, aprons and tunnels. Ours is a great and good nation, and nothing adds more to its greatness and goodness Tnan a wise system of internal as well as harbor improvements. In a seleish light these appropriations are wrong, but our patriotism should lift us to a broader and higher plane. The people’s will ought to sustain the hand of government in doing a good work where it is needed. The water power here is yet but half used, and the farmers of the North-west 'can send in their grain and timber for ages and receive back flour and lum ber. The value of such a power, and the vast machinery it will propel at a trifling expense, can scarcely be estimated. In the dim future the great Niagara will be tamed and made to grind the grain for the continent. We would not have believed of the St. Anthony’s Fails, a few years ago, what we now see with our own eyes. Let us utilize all the powers of nature that consume no fuel, and still we will

have enough for steam and furnace to do In the industries of a great nation, This city is the pet and pride of the people and each one of its citizens seems to point with pride and tenderness to the beauty and use of its providential blessings. We h&ve been hsrs several dny;,aod our recollection has been so constantly jogged by a recital of those objects which touch the finer feelings that we could not go away without a look. The city is forgotten in the lakes and cataracts as well as the human skill displayed in turning the great falls to account.

• MINNEHAHA has won public and poetic distinction. Thus passing to that degree of perfect regard as to be a model for all restive little waterfalls seeking public favor. Like most of the works of nature mentioned in the guide books to this weird North Land, this waterfall is saddled with an ludian Legend. More fortunate still, a poet has clothed the legend in l hythm. The arrow maker’s daughter, in her starving delirium, |said: •‘Hear a roaring and and a rushing, Hear the fails of Minnehaha Calling to me from a distance.’’

It is true, perhaps, that “’twas but the wind among the pine trees,” as old Nokomis said at tne time. We visited the poetic and legendary spot, and looked into the glen below the falls, and along the murmuring cascade. The picture is fair to look upon and we were glad to see “a thing of beau ty” and forget the noise work and oare of hum-drum prose. The stream is about the size of the Iroquois river at medium stage. There is room under the crest of the fall and we passed behind the sheet of water, and looking through at the morning sun could see rainbow tints. The descent is almost 45 feet and no rapids preface the falls. The rocks on either hand are clothed with vines and bushes The place has been allowed to remain almost as nature formed it. The pho tographer has erected his shanty, and a bridge and wooden steps assist the walkist to make the round on both both sides of the creek below the oascade.

Minnehaha is frse ground to all. In summer it is pretty as Longfellow pictures it: “Here the hills of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak trees. Laugh and leap into the valley.” In winter the icicles heighten the beauty and make it more picturesque. The oak, linden, birch, ash, maple and other trees grow on the banks. This is indeed one of nature’s “beauty spots.” Minnehaha oreek is the outlet of a chain of more than a score of lakes, including

Minnetonka, The scene of a legend of another Indian girl that floated over the lake tojthe hunting ground of her spirit lover. “Beautiful Water” it is, and must ever be the pride of Minnesota’s lakes. CALHOUN is another lake In the chain, which has a legend of an “Angel guide.” On its banks a white man, after searehlng twenty years, found his sister who was stolen by the Indians when a babe. The prefix “Minne” to so many names here is the Indian for water. We will go from here home via tbs great lakes, and let our eyes rest from a contemplation of a varied landscape dotted with sky-tinted lakelets by viewing the monotony of our inland seas.

S. P. THOMPSON.