The Portland daily press., 1869-08-28
Letter from the Nor shw est-No. XII.

Letter from the Norshwest-No. XII.
ST. PAUL, M1MN., Aug 1s, 1859.
To the Editor Of the Prese
1t is proverbially an ungrateful, thankless
labor, that of saying words not deemed fat
tering by those whom they most intimately
affect Local pride i, no less sensitive than
personal pride. "Love me, love my dog" is
an old adage, and holds good in nearly all de-
partments of life and being To secure the
good will of the fond young mother, you must
not fail to compliment the beauty of her baby.
To reach the heart of almost any person you
must praise that in which his heart is closely
bound up. "Where the treasure is''-you
know the rest.
The truthfuness of the principle of action
here recognized has been impressed upon my
mind with peculiar emphasis since I have
been sojourner in this fourishing North
western State. So long as you swear by it
with the same JUNCTION with which Jew
swears by his beard, or Mussulman by the
Prophet, so long you are good fellow
and your salvation, both present and prospee-
tive-here and hereafter-is assured; but
failing in this one point, though you may full
fl the law in all other respects, you become
no better than heather man publican
"Ichabod" is inscribed upon your forehead,
and "anathemas" is your desert.
1t is "whole hog or nothing;" no half way
devotion will ensure your standing, you must
see in the sun more brightness, in the stars
more clearness, in the lakes more beauty, in
the climate more health, in disease less pain,
in death less ter. r.ors, and in the people more
activity and merit than are discovered else
where on the earth's surface, or you are no
true friend to the State in which you happen
to have cast your lot. g. if A.-'i
Nor will it do to think too well of other
localities, not even of the State which gave
you birth or from which you have emigrated,
or even the soil which holds your ancestral
bones. You are expected to speak, if not sneer-
irgly at least lippantly, of the East, and par
ticularly of New England; tell what excellent
States those of the East are to emigrate from,
and cater to low prejudices, silly pride and
the personal and local egotism of those by
whom you are surrounded, or you are not
perfectly "sound on the goose" es
i Perhaps some of your readers may think
speak in terms of exaggeration; very likely
have in the foregoing, for we have in the
Northwest as elsewhere, large sprinkling Of
excellent, common-sense people, who do not
think it needful to exalt their own State
above all others in order to promote its pros
perity, but are satisfied to let its prosperity
result, in some measure, from its many and
acknowledged merits. But I say without
fear of successful contradiction, that for any
man here to send back TO his old and cherish
ed home perfectly truthful reports concern
ing the State;-it climate, soil, productions
resources end general facilities for business,
is almost sure to draw down upon his devoted
head the frowns and curses OF large army of
scrbblers and spectators, who assume to
speak for the State and to uphold its honor
They are the parties who exaggerate, and not
only make themselves ridiculous, but injure
the State by their foolish efforts 10 exalt it in
ordinately above all others, and to disparage
all portions of the country that invite the at
tention of capitalists and settlers.
The foregoing is specially fitting comment
upon a couple of leading journals-one in this
and the other in neighboring city-both OF
which have "fired up" at some OF the state
ments contained in "Letters from the North
west," published in your columns, a brace Of
oh oil suhiaofc ralafinU tn ttpI
respective localities, are like Herod and Pi-
late, but which, like the two ancient gentle
men named, sometimes become like David
and Jonathan, and make common cause in
"pitching in" to whom ever may happen to
express opinions which do not recognize the
superiority of their State over all others.
These papers,-by either of which it would
be easy to prove that the locality of the other
is place of no account, "sm Ill potatoes and
few in the hill" destitute of business facili-
ties and without brilliant prospects,
hiss in the most perfect and sweet accord,
not only when third party dares spit upon'
anything, or any interest belonging to the
State, but even If he declines to spit upon the
interests, institutions or prospects of other
States when named in comparison with those
of their own. f...
But let them pass while perform the CRATE
full labor of speaking good word for two 10
calties which have both been exalted to
heaven in point of privileges, or cast down to
the other place, by the papers referred to,
just as their local prejudces happened to sug-
gest.
st. Paul and Minneapolis are both "mira-
cles" of the last twenty years, and If not, as
YOUR friend Stebbins says of San Francisco
ga poem by the sea-" they are at least brace
of small poems on the upper Mississippi
whom mutual interests should bind in one
st. Paul is older than the State--as cd as the
Territory Of Minnesota, about twenty years
is two thousand miles from the Gull oil Mex
leo by course of the river, the political and
commercial centre of the State. having per.
haps 10000 population, and afford signs, O
thrift, enterprise and business activity thai
would do credit to cities on the Atlantic of {
hundred years growth. Large steamers ar
rive and depart daily, connecting the saint,
city with Dubuque, st. Louis, and the rest o
the world, and several railroads terminate ~