Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1885 — How to Build up a Town. [ARTICLE]

How to Build up a Town.

rWt> hope that our subscribers will appreciate the efforts we are constantly making to give; them a good paper, and will also take note of the difficulties of n printer’s lot, —especially in dull times like I'hese, when though his receipts tire small and uncertain, his expenses qye just as great n£ in more prosperous times. A'

The Indianapolis Smiir.d, in its account of the recently discovered Township Trustee frauds, makes the fact that • Clawson, of Warren county, is a Republican very prominent, but does not mention the politics of the three trustees from Davies county, and the one from Posey,all of a whom are rock-rooted Democrats.

The foreclosure sale of the Chicago & Great Southern railroad is advertised to come off at Indianapolis, October 14th, but the Indianapolis Jouitirl says that another batch of holders of stock ot the road have come to the front, and have the court so to amend the legal proceedings as to admit their claims. Should their petitions be granted it will, it is stated, delay the time for selling the road.

The Democratic * Sentinel says that “Miss Ada Sweet, of Chicago, has accepted Gen. Black’s request to resign.” The statement does injustice to Miss Sweet. She has resigned the office, but not in response to Gen. Black’s invitation, but because the firm of- A. H. Andrews Co,, the furniture and school supply dealers, have offered her a better salary, to take charge of a branch of their business in the East, than she draws as pension agent.

Mein, for the third-party political prohibitionists: In the state of Georgia, John P. St. John received just 168 votes, yet in Georgia there is prohibition in 108 counties, under the operation of a local-option law, and a Georgia newspaper says: . “Weperdict that in three years, at the longest there will not be a single liquor store in the state of Georgia. In less than a generation the people will look into the past —and: talk about bar-rooms, and the children will ask, ‘What is a bar-room?’ ” —lndianapolia Journal.

People who think that the talk of the extension, at both ends, bl the Chicago & Great- Southern railroad is all wind, don't know anything about the character and standing of the men who are at the back of the movement. Among them are such men as H. PI. Porter, one of the wealthiest stockholders of the First National Bank, of Chicago, the president of the same bank,. Hugh Riddle, and Mr. Cable, two of the biggest magnates, of the great Chicago Rock-Island & Pacific railroad system, Robert Law, the wealthiest coal dealer of Chicago, and others whose names escape us. Men like those do* not g 6 about the‘-country trying to build railroads for what- they can get out of them, but when they want - road, they go to work and build it, ‘“without any foolishness.’ The connecting link between the ; nertherjn terminus of the Chicago <fc Gne.-tt Southern and tlie southern terminus of the Chicago . & Vvest Michigan will soon be constructed. Whether the connecting linejjoins with the Great Southern at Fair Oaks or at or near Forresm an is yet to -«be determined. Eacl route has its advantages and each its disadvantages, and of which we have already spoken and shall have more to say as Occasion requires. .

The White House has just been refitted and refurnished in a manner of luxurious extravagance that far surpasses any thing ever done there before—and that is the way this Democratic administration is getting back to the days of Jeffersonian simplicity.

The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette declares ,vith much apparent truth, that the character of Dr. Leonard, the prohibition candidate for governor of Ohio, “is below the level that the code of honor in good society demands.” The Gazette offers to submit the quarrel between it and the reverend dector to the hearing or any three bishops in the Methodist church, and agrees, if it does not prove that Leonard not only drank wine and ale, but considerable first class whisky, to pay SSOO to any charity the bishops may select.

Every time a Republican writer or orator ventures to make any public reference to the manner in which the South is made and kept solid for the Democratic party, or any comparison is made between loyalty and disloyalty in favor- of the former there goes up at once a general* howl of “bloody shirt” and “raking up the issues of the war.” The howl will not accomplish its purpose, however. The Republicans or the North have at last realized that their opponents have obtained possession of the government through the unfair methods in the South, and the agitation will continue until that section lias fair elections.

People who are disposed to grumble at tlie county commissioners on account of their decision in a license case shoivd remember that the Board of commissioners in hearing cases like that of an applicant for a license, are acting in the capacity of a court of justice and are bound by the same rules of evidence and methods of procedure as any other court. They are bound by their official oaths to decide cases oh the d£* the evidence presented, and can properly give no weight to their own or the community’s general impressions of the unfitness of aif applicant except so far as tli at impression is brought forward and sustained by theevidence.

The. following from a leading eastern paper has our hearty endorsement, and in brief space, contains much for true and practical friends of temperance to ponder over: . We are inclined more and more, as we study the question, to coincide with the Christian Union in favor oHiigh license for beer aiid ale, a still, higher license for hard liquors, and for local option wherever a majority may desire it. Such, a law would lead up gradually but surely to such a reformation as the friends of temperance are laboring for.- pi would bring the reformation about without the confusion, the strife and bitterness that are making -enemies of prohibition even among the best friends of temperance reform.

Just liqrtv to build up a town is something worth knowing, and when once known should be practiced. The following suggestions may serve as pointers worth considering : Talk about it. Write about it. Help to improve it. Speak well about it. Beautify the streets. Patronize its merchants. Advertise in its newspaper. JElect good men to all its offices. Speak well of its public-spirited, enterprising .citizens. If you are rich invest in something; employ “be a hustler.” •- - •

If you don’t think of any good word, don’t say anything bad about it. Bemember that every dollar •you invest in a permanent improvement is that much on interest Be courteous to strangers that come among you, so that they go away with good impressions.' Always cheer up the men who go in for improvements; your portions of the cost will be nothing only what is just. Dont kick at any proposed necessary improvement because it is not at your own door, or for fear that your taxes will be raised fifteen cents. - Dont use rubber stamps on your ' otter heads; that is a “dead give away” on your own business, ‘on lie town and on the newspapers published in it. Get your letter leads, envelopes, business cards, Ac., printed at the local newspaper offices "

Never condemn the local paper unless it has uufaii ly used you. If it lias dealt with you unjustly, write to it or go i nto the office nnd :ell the editor about your case; if ig was wrong he will lose no time in telling it to the public. If‘you owe the newspaper a dolar or five dollars, or twenty-five cents, pay it if you can; there is no force jn the community which can do anything like the same amount of good for it as the newspaper. It deserves prompt and fair re numeration. Don’t let politics get mixed up with your business; don’t lose the help that a newspaper can give you because its politics are not your politics, and by all means don’t advertise merely to “help the printer along;” advertise to help your business and town along.