Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-05-24
Let us go to the Country.

Aet us SO W tue country. 1De morning
stretches out its jeweled palm TO beckon US and
the gay sunshine and the singing birds and the
coy glance of Green Nature from under her
hood Of dead leaves-invite US to the country.
Let us go. Away from the hustle and sweat
and toil-away from the dust and din of the
| town-over the hills, over the beautiful hills
| that fold like the arms Of sleeping love around
our young city-we will go to the dear old
country:-We will see the pleasant pastures
and the new wheat fields in their first tinge OF
| spring g-,ide-we will see the young corn blades
cleaving the brown earth like an army of sprites
on parade--we will see the fresh sod curling its
luscious lip to the kiss Of the plow--we will
drink new milk from the foaming pail--we will
wander in the shade Of orchards--thrcugh tan.
gled lanes and COW pa,hs---we will pluck spring
flowers from the meadows---and chat with farm
ers daughters over the stle---Let US go. ....
. l said this, remember, TO Snooks--- -whercup-
on that gentleman looked exceedingly grave--.
but kept num-
Will you go---I said.
| Not if L can help it, replied Snooks finally.
blowing his nose.
What not 60 to the countryl
"Igreve to say it my friend---quoth he, there
is no country---you will look fer a country, you
will find wilderness---you will fatigue your
self in vain.
You will travel for miles, and find no signs
of human presence, nor face, nor habitation,
Beauty sits there alone, widowed mistress of a
wide domain, weeping to be husbanded to man.
You will find an Eden but no country, trees
and flowers and meadows and lakes, enough,
| trow but never cow or hen or milkmaid or
cottage or barn. 1t is Paradise from which
the avengng Angel has thrust out man for
some mortal sin. Squirrels and birds are its
only tenants. 1t will be desert to you''
went to see this desert, which glrdles ST..
Paul like haunted ground, and l have come
back to ask: What Is the fearful blight that
rests like curse on this fair region! Wha,
does it mea II, this silent, voceless wilderness for
miles around 1t is not in the soil, no richer
exists. II is not in the water, no purer ever laved
the lips Of the thirsty gods. 1t is not in the
air. The breeze that stirred the leafy curtain
of Adams marriage bed, was not more healthy
or more balmy What then, in Heavens name,
has curst it with a curse worse than sterility,
worse than fire, worse than the judgment Of
Sodom :? What damned Exorcsm has devas-
tated it, denied it human presence, sealed it up !?
Is St. Paul the upas tree whose rich luxuriance
poisons all around it! Is St. Paul the incubus
which sucks the life blood from the limbs of the
country 10 feed its own morbid excrescence?
mo stree, said Snooks with solemn indig-
nation. St. Paul Hourlshes IN spite Of the causes
that produce this state of things IN its vicinity.
To my mind it is a proof Of very great intrinsic
vitality that St. Paul has not succumbed to the
terrible despotism Of absentee speculation.
Aye, speculaton--specuation---wr it in
fire, said Snooks, violently. Write that an
area of half a million acres is swallowed up in
the ravenous NAV of speculation, that ten thou
sand fertile farms and happy homesteads are
sunk beneath the sluggish waves Of the Dead
Sea of Speculation. Write that" Whereup-
on Snooks sloped. You see we have obeyed
orders.-&. Paul Fin 1ncial .4dp. .'. IT,.