The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-03-21
from a Female Contri6wor.l
Letters from st. Paul-NO, 3.

From a Female Contri6,aor.l
Letters from st. Pauline. 3.
ST. PAUL, March z, 1862.
Cousin DICK You may view land
scape from one point of view, l from an
other, and somebody else from third, and
each will make different picture. Society
here presents as many different aspects and
unfolds as many different phases as the
widest landscape: from which point of view
then shall write
My knowledge of a st. Paul society must
necessarily be somewhat superficial, but the
more see of it, the more convinced am
of the TACT that the West is the place of all
others to develop latent enegies, to give
resoluteness and individuality to character,
and l am firmly persuaded, Dick, that you
will never realize all you are capable of de-
ing and being, till you renounce the luxu-
ries and soft appliances of your modern
Athens, your bachelor parlor, pleasant and
sunny though it be, your centre table with
its books and papers, your morning lounge
at the reading room or picture gallery, and
resolve to be yourself I" the architect Of
your own fortune"
And with " the world before you where to
choose, and Providence your guide" who
can doubt that you will turn your face
thitherward, and join the driving thousands
who are here upon the same errand.
st. Paul is young city, and has all the
fire and vigor Of young life. Her sons do
not boast hereditary honors, or " landed
estate" nor do they stand propped up by
the plethora purse of rich fathers and
uncles. Most OF them, on the contrary,
come here with little besides their own
strong arm, and their own bold will, with
which to win name and carve fortune !;
and the result is that each man stands firm,
self-reliant, an absolute unit, and as indie
pendent of another as the Sand upon the sea
shore. The men who are making this city
the wonder of the East, are those who DO
not shrink from toll, or from mingling in
the fierce struggles of life. They are men
who have met and conquered difficulties, and
who expect to meet and conquer Difficult
ties still.
What possibilities of life and character
are here, what hope is here, what faith in
the future! And such splendid future as
is evidently beckoning this people onward !!
1t is grand at any time 10 think of prepar-
ing the future, but here, especially, where
first steps are 90 important, and first set.
tiers have such an immense power for good
or evil, does there seem to be a special
meaning in the expression.
The society here-tbe intercourse of man
with man-is free and unconstrained in
comparison with that of Eastern cities {;
there are fewer arbitrary distinctions, there
is less of cast and conventionality.
Each new conner finds himself gradually
and by natural momentum borne to that
level for which bis natural tastes, bis culture
OF mind and heart best fit him. And this,
Ijudge to be the normal condition of so
ciety, as refinement, goodness, and cultiva-
tion are its only natural aristocracy; and
may the day be far distant when ignorance,
and pride, and prejudice, shall build up an
artificial society that looks down upon the
mass of men as Father Abraham, saying
Between Us and you there is great gulf
fixed, so that they which would pass hence
to you cannot, neither can they pass to us
that would come from thence"
So much has been said OF society in gem
eral that little room is left to speak of its
social institutions, or of its home life.
OF the first, indeed, much cannot be said.
A fashionable party, masquerade and
fancy dress ball is essentially the same
the world over, and l do not know that
there is more "eIegant gossip retailed, or a
greater excess OF dress, and card playing,
and immoderate drinking, or greater want
OF whatever is most ennobling and inspiring
in it's Influences, here, than in similar enter.
tein,nontS at the East.
Galleries Of Art, scientific associations,
cabinets, lectures, etc., are the cut crop.
pings OF wealth and leisure, as we'll as of a
cultivated taste, and will come ell in good
time; but at present st. Paul is too young
a city, and its people are in too much of a
hurry, are too much occupied in tearing
down and building up, in establishing them
selves in business, in making themselves
homes, and in marrying wives, to have much
time to devote to matters purely literary.
You will smile, then, when | tell you that
Ethel" in her "papers" compares st. Paul
society with Boston, AID even giOes hep7e
| ference to til yformer.