The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-25
LETTER FROM A DULUTHIAN.
The Northern Pacific RRiIrOad-rh Climate
of the Northwest.
No gIa & , yba Lpos,ss,
PH11ApE1PHIA, jan. 23.

of the Northwest.
TO the Editor # the EDsni'lg Telegraph.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. %, 1871.
Several times during this cold, unpleasant
day, friends, knowing that 1 was from Du-
luth, have met rae with the remark, "This
kind of weather seems natural to yOu, sup
pese." Their supposition was all wrong,
being based on an ignorance of the climate
of the Northwest which is too common, and
which, now that that great transcontinental
railroad the Northern Pacific, is building,
should be dissipated.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
If / have made any feature of the North
west special study it is it's climate. Nervous
debility, splitting of blood, fear of heredi-
tary tendency to consumption clustering
graves reveal a family foe), led mo some five
years ago to locate in Minnesota. A few days
since was reading in Duluth paper of
consumptive who went to our State as his
only hope of escape from an early grave. To
use his own language, uttered few months
afterwards, ''No life insurance company
would have insured me if l had paid q
premium of ninety-nine cents on the
dollar, but now am in fine health, and
only one thing annoys me; that is,
the constant Fostering of agents to get
my life insured" This was perchance in
tended as a hyperbole, but my experience
nearly measures up to it. The life insurance
company of ioticb I soGS a general agent
would not take risk on my life. About two
weeks since effected an insurance, and the
careful examining physician, total stranger
to me, man of reputation and skill, pro-
nounced me an excellent risk. While 1 am
relating my experience, let me add that in
Minnesota Illesrned what it is to enjoy living
life, mere existence, without regard to its
circumstances, became positive Joy. Eat
ing, to say nothing about sleeping, came to
be one of my luxuries, and the
horrors of forcing down your breakfast,
an experience so familiar to Eastern men of
sedentary habits and mental application, be-
came thing of the past. There even COM
mon food is ''rolled beneath the tongue as a
sweet morsel, and my little boy hit the nail
on the head when he said, Father, it tastes
good all the way down 1t stands to reason
that food thus eaten must strengthen the
system more than that which is eaten without
relish. To continue this speaking out in
thirty speeches of an hour each, speeches de-
livered with much of Methodist energy, and
grew fat while SO doing.
THE GLORY OF LIVING.
Oh, it is a glorious thing to really live; to
feel the blood leaping along the veins, as if
in very JOY; to realize every muscle braoed,
every nerve energized, labor pleasure and
not an effort, and the rapture of mental toll
not neutralized by subsequent depression. 1
went. there in the spring, and a lady told me,
"When winter comes you will find it hard
work to walk dignifedly, but almost in spite
of yourself you will be found skipping,
dancing along" Alas for my dignity, it was
too true, for in many of our glorious winter
mornings 1 have felt it would have been
a positive relief if l could have
frisked around like a colt. Said Boston
gentleman to me, "Your summers are trihe
too hot, but your aotnterS are grand" The
language of one of our editors is scarcely too
strong: "The whole winter is q radiant and
joyous band of sunny days and starlit nights. y
A grave Presbyterian clergyman of st. Paul,
writing of the coolest term known in Mime
sofa for many years (the mercury was more
than thirty degrees below zero), exelaims,
''The sky was without cloud; not breath
of air was stirring, and the stiffness and per-
feet quiet of everything was that of a
Sabbath in summer. 1 went to my study
as usual, and felt no unusual sensation of
cold. In fact, the exhilaration of being out
in, and breathing the air, was purely delight
fM. can now understand DIR. Kane's state
ment that he could without inconvenience
stand 20 deg. below zero if no wind were
blowing. And, fortunately. here the coolest
days are the stillest days. On the very cold
est day of the last ten years attended a
public meeting, to which men, women, and
babes ua their mothers arms came from
radius of ten miles around. True, these ex-
ceptionally cold days require exceptional care
of the ears and extrsmities, and an occasional
shielding of unduly extended nasal organs.
MINNESOTA AND PHILADELPHIA.
My enthusiasm as to our matchless climate
may be more lively now because am not
there, but doomed (perchance for my sins)
for awhile to dwell in a less hospitable cline
All things are by comparison, and in this my
first winter in the East since leaving it for
comparisons between the two latitudes, and
dear old Philadelphia has not been elevated
thereby. 1t is true that Minnesota is very
much colder, as cold is measured by the
thermometer, than Pennsylvania, but it is
equally true that you suffer more from the
cold than we do. Rev. DIR. Boardman, of this
city, writing from ST. Paul, says:-''It is the
T1nif 0f fha