Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1858-01-16
ptLTTEvuLE.

PLATTEVuLE.
Visiting Platteville this week, we no
ticed considerable very substantial iln-
provements had been made since a pre-
vious visit in the summer. The increase
of dwellings. business blocks and shops has
not been so great, but SO many OF the old
board buildings have been removed and
fine brick walls erected in their places
Main street, imperfectly inclosed on either
side with buildings heretofore, is fast be-
coming a fine business street, with costly
blocks designed for store rooms, dwellings,
Offices and fancy shops. The new block,
erected in the fall jointly by Kelly AID
Rount,ee at a cost of many thousands, is
a work that would not discredit any wes-
tern city; it is designed for stores and Of
fees: the third story is owned by the Odd
Fellows and is SAID to be a magnificent
hall, SO feet long by 80 wide. The Post
Office is kept in a small building attached
TO the west end of new block. Gen. Roun-
tree, the Postmaster, has supplied his Office
with drawers and other additions sugges-
led by invention, taste and convenience, all
at his own expense; it is prot ably the best
designed and furnished post Office in the
state, west of Madison. As we said be-
fore, buildings have not greatly multiplied
at Platteville, but edifces of indestructible
material have superseded old and perisha-
BILE ones, which is far better and warrants
a long life and opulent future. Many Of
the combustible old work shops and I'M
wholesome abodes surrounded with accu-
mutations of rubbish till the floors are un-
der ground have passed away within q few
months and new structures Of stone and
brick appear in their places. The process
goes on; next year many more of the old
will disappear and new ones Of solid ma
terial aPpear-thus powerful for good or
evil is the example of leading men of a
town. Men are but great children, look
ing to greater ones for example. When
the greater take a shoot down hill, the rest
follow-but if upwards, all Chamber up,
however steep OF difficult the ascent
There are immovables at Platteville, men
who lie low, exceeding low, S o low that
time only waits on eternity to let them
down through the bottom; they live for
money, even though earth recedo into
waste and wilderness. But, such leading
men, in a downward direction, are few and
Of short weight, while noble chiefs are MI
merous at Platteville.
Indeed, there is much to admire, an d
the people of Platteville have much TO
make them feel justly proud. Their AGA
denny is a tower Of strength and power, as
we'll as of lime rock. This institution is
silently but surely attaining an influence
in this part Of the State sufficient to invi-
gora.e the deafness and inherited back
wardness visible everywhere as obstacles
in the way of every advancement. The
young men, and more particularly the
young women, rising to high moral, intel
%lectua. and social capabilities, under Mr..
Pickard's tuition, are to be our future pat
terms; as such they will be the means OF
leading Others into paths Of morality, in
telligence, industry and happiness. Even
now, almost every vicinity has its one OF
more male or female ~luminaries, educated
at Plattevills and occupying a valuable in
huence; and whether on the farm or in
the shop or school-house, that influence is
wholesome and rightly directed.