Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1878 — SUMMER EXCURSIONS. [ARTICLE]

SUMMER EXCURSIONS.

Exclusions from Iho hot amt dusty streets of chie9 amt largo towns in'tlie summer lime have become very popular in tale years among the people of the United Biales. Day schools, Sunday schools, society organizations, clubs and private pm ties of ladies ar.d gentlemen and ehild.en—people of limited means who havo not iho money to visit the fashionable health resorts nnd watering places or to make extensive top is in foreign countries, charter a f ain of cats and run out from their homes in the dust, din and close heated air of cities to spend a day of enjoyment apd recreation In the pleasant fields, cool shady groves ami pure uir of the couutry. Within forty miles of Rensselaer are two populous towns, or rather small cities—LaFayette and Log.inspo. t—whose people often make excursions of this kind during the months of July, August and Heptember. With the completion of the Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago road to Moniicello, which is expected to be doue by the first day of July licit, these cities will be placed within two hours’ ride of Rensselaer. Our town is most beauL ; fully located as an objective point for excursions of the description indicated, and possesses many natural attractions and objects of interest. The scenery which surrounds, though not claimed lo he awful, sublime or eveu magnificent or especially grand, is really very beautiful in the latter part of spring, during the summer aud until lute in the fall. Located on the hanks of a gentle river whose waters flow over a ledge of lock which affords an interesting study for the student in geology; in.the midst of a feitile plain, most beautifully dotted with groves of thrifty native timber, among whose foliage’sweelly singing birds nest and delight to warble; generously supplied with springs and flowing wells of cool and healthful mineral waters; inhabited with people social, kindly, intelligent, broadly democratic, liberal of sentiment, and remarkably free iroui (lie more repulsive vices which beset humanity;—there is probably not u towu iu the siate of Indiana where strangers coubl spend a summer’s day more healthfully, more profitably or more agreeably. Ey the expenditure of a little labor and an iusigiiificaut sum of money Weston’s Grove in the northern part of town might he made a delightful picnic ground; or Thompson’s Park in the soutneas.cre part would he perfectly charming. Trim up the shrub.* ami trees in the latier enclosure a little more, take away the brush thus cut o(T, huilit one or two neat and cheap foot bridges over the millrace, and erect a cheap shed over the artesian well nearby, fillingup a ouml it with gravel and sand or laying down a plank platform—aud there would not he a nicer resort for excursionists in this part pf-the—Uuiou. Then for u very little money cheap stands might he built in the shade of the trees in the park for hands of music, platforms might he laid for dancers, sw tigs could he hung to the limbs of trees or suspended from frames—-and a day spent there would he remembered as one of the happiest of a lifetime. Nor is this ail. The liver above the raWidam up to the Robinson b'idge, a mile or more in distance, woithl furnish a pleasant surface for those who delight in the exercise of rowing. The fishing in the Iroquois at and near Rensselaer, both below and übove ilie falls and milldam, though perhapo not the best in America, is fair; its waters being the home of gamey pike, bass and salmon. If the people of Reiitaelaer who would derive pecuniary beoefit from tlieso visits of excursionists would show ordinary enterprise in the direction indicated, our Decoration Days, Fourth of July celebrations, county Fuirs, political conventions, etc., might be made far more attract, ve and satisfactory than they have ever been in the past. Tills short article is but a rough outline, merely a suggestion, of what is within the means of the |K*opleliere to do. The subject la far from exhausted, (he enumeration of natural beauties and advantages and attractions merely a passing glance at one or two of a long catalogue. This is merely a text for thought. Think it over.