The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1876-03-09
TO OUR READERS .ABR0AD.-

~ OUH 1tEADERS ABROAD."
There are hundreds Of readers 81 the
ADVANCE who live at a distance, scat.
tered throughout the States, many .of
whom expect to make tile National
COLONY their home. We wish to. adj
dress few words to you in this nun
Oer OF our paper. ., : ~ >t,.,.s:.. .,,n,;
You will lear us witness that we
have said much in praise of this local.
ty and of this community. We have
been often charged by those who look
upon the dark side and by our enemies,
with refrigeration" Some; have
cursed lis, in impotent rage, for SO per-
sistently praising the advantages of
this region and the character of this
community.
We do not bate one jot of this praise.
We still have the climate of the noun
t:'ins and the soil of the river bottoms;
we still have a county without single
grog-sl'op within its limits and a PEG.
pie determined to maintain the temper
ance feature; we have a Seminary of
Learning in operation, an excellent
graded school, and u people aiming to
make Worthington an educational CEN
ire; we have churches and Sabbath
Schools which are a wonder to all visi-
tors, considering the age and size of
our place; and we have n community
remarkable for intelligence and moral
ity.. This we have said thousand
times and say it again.
But, according to. an old saying,
where the Lord builds church Satan
builds chapel. with all our advan-
tages and with all our morality, we
have 4 good deal of the Old Adam A.
mo''g us. Evil is in Worthington us
we'll us elsewhere, and although labor
ing at disadvantage, he .accomplislles
a good deal.
You saw by Our last issue, and by
some former issues, that we have some
rowdyism in Worthjngton. If you
were led by these articles to infer that
we were 4 community Of rowdies, or
that we are in general state of rowdy-
ism, you have Inexperienced our
meaning. AS faithful journalist, we
have mentioned cases of rowt'yism and
condemned them as they arose. But
the rowdyism Of Northington is of
the mild and subdued type, the moral
force of the community modifying but
not entirely suppressing it. But mild
though it he, it is rowdyism neverthe-
less. 1t is a rowdyism which breaks
out occasionally, and which, as we have
no ordinance against it, and no police
OH duty. goes unpublished. Let us give
some examples:
!. Citizens have been tripped up by
ropes stretched across the sidewalk,
This is 10y no means u common trick,
but it has been done.
2. Last spring 4 boat belonging to
two Of our citizens was knocked loose
from its moorings, set atloat, and when
it went ashore followed up and crushed
will, stones. We have heard Of but
one case of this kind, though boats in
one or two instances have been carried
off.
5. One night last summer several
young men were seen carrying a dead
skunk about our streets. They laid it
on the porch Of the Worthington Hotel,
but an employee of the house came out
in time to take them in the act and
compelled them to take the animal
away: They then tied it to tile door of
the ADVANCE Office and retired to EN-
joy tile 0dor. Tie olor raised next
morning was greater than anticipated,
and it still clings to the clothes of some
of the young men.
4. Last winter il resident of this place
endcavored to hire two young men to
egg the ADVANCE Office. One of them
refused. and the other refused to be
hired, but came and did the act gratis.
5. Recently dead dog has come up
from the suburbs and has mysteriously
appeared on our streets and at our
doors. One or two of the boys have
boosted of their part in calling the dog
back and making him do duty after
death.
These are some of the principal acts
Of rowdyism. There has been much
ill-behaviour of young people, girls
sometimes taking part, on occasions,
sometimes ut public meetings and some-
times on the street. Occasionally young
men have disturbed public meetings.
There has been, at times. great deal
of ho0ting and other noise, about the
houses of citizens to the disturbance
and annoyance of their families. These
latter, of course, are not serious things,
and occur everywhere.
The ADVANCE las alluded to these
things from time to time with view
to suppressing them. We have been
censured for using the term ''rowdyism"
to describe anything so insignificant as
laying a skunk at hotel or a print
ing office door, or so trifling as disturb
/ ing a meeting on Sunday night. OF
course the disturbances were light, and
under the moral restraint which char
acterizes what is done in Worthington,
but we have thought best to call 1t
''rowdyism" though Of a mild form.
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