Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-05

thriving towns, and thousands of pleasant
homes that could never have been, and
which owe their existence to it. Give the
railroads of Minnesota, the pioneers of set
Element and cultivation, the credit they de-
serve, and let your Judgment of their short
comings be tempered with mercy in view of
what they have done and are doing in the
way of opening up our fertile but otherwise
uninhabitable prairies to the settler. R.
IN AND AROUND woRTHINGToN.
a Very Inaccurate Correspondent Hand
somely Corrected on Great Many
Points.
Editor of the Daily GLOBE:
A special reporter of the st. Paul Dispatch
has been here this week and carried home
with him letter which appeared in yester-
days edition of that paper. In which (al-
though his intention seems to have been to
do us proud) he gives US (half) away. He
makes truthful statement or allusion to our
firm and happy temperance principles and
laws, ETC., ETC., but he must have been
'slittle off, himself, when he penned por-
ton, at least, of that letter. For after
starting off in good style, and true, he says
''No grain is being marketed here, and very
many of the people are in destitute circum-
stances" For these misrepresentation (and
they are more or less gross, as we are ready
to prove) the gentleman is excused when we
read the next thing he says, viz: s'This is the
northern terminus of the Worthington &
Sioux Falls railroad ''The southern ter
minus being at Beaver Station, some forty
five miles SOUTH Comment is unneces-
sary. He simply takes our ''stub' railroad
towns, couties, and all, and swings the whole
thing around to the south, which we fear
may have tendency to send the crowds of
home seekers (that are every day coming)
south, towards the dread land of '!fever and
ague," etc., instead of going west to health
and happiness, as they have been doing, I'M
! til the special comes along to write the
county up, and "presto,' changes all our
geography with one flash of his mighty pen.
| It is scarcely needless to say that the Wor-
Ellington and Sioux Falls railroad
runs north of west from here,
not south, and that this is its southern term.
mus, where it connects with the St. Paul &
Sioux City road, which runs through our
charming little metropolis and forms the
connecting link between the great North and
East and the equally great South and West,
of our continent. (Now we are back again
where we were before this special came along
and .smade fooishness' with our compass.)
Well, he then proceeds and truthfully
enough, but with bad taste for us) tells of
our beautiful lakes, and says, '.Worthington
is situated on two beautiful lakes, named re-
spectively East and West Okabena, which
/ ;,% fo1S :,
Now isn't that sweet-scented send-off for
our magnificent, clear and sparkling lakes
with their enchanting banks of gravel, grass
and trees? Now we can't exactly blame the
reporter for all this, for this odoriferous def
milton needs further ventilation, which [ will
try to give. When / was small boy lover
twenty years ago. used to paddle my own
canoe with "big brother who used to
| shoot muskrats and ducks on an around the
dirty, froggy bosom of an ''okabena" slough,
situate, lying and being Immediately north
east of the steamboat landing at st. Paul, -
all old settlers remember the place. Well,
they don't call that s'stinking water now.
No; look there to-day and you see instead,
the grand and costly buildings of P. H. Kel-
ly, Beaupre, Allen & Keogh, McQuillan, and
others. No okabena there, and neither is
there here. The facts are these: Especial
wasn't to blame, but he hadn't
ought to have tol0 Just lite
northwest of here and near the west
lake used to be large slough Of stagnant
water surrounded by very heavy growth OF
very heavy grass, where innumerable skunks
or pole-cats used to congregate and hold
their odorous orgies, bury their dead and
mingle their lye-scent-us tears. Here the
gigantic bull-frog sung his love song to his
mate, who undisturbed was ever near, and
plenty, either laying or setting, or if the
Matching season was past training her off
spring how to kick and swim and croak
Here the fashionable muskrat fourished, ac-
cumulated, lived and died and smelled. Here
the gentle mud-turtles had national col
ony." But all, allare gone now. Oh, this was
an awful place for smell, but the Indians
} liked it, for in those days they had no Other
drug stores to 60 to for their physic-emetit
and their perfume, and they called it "Oka
bena," (s.stinking water,') and well it was
named But that was years ago, six years o.
more, and though we have had no Kelly
McQuillan or Beaupre to build up bushes:
blocks thereon, we have a Lackor, and hi
dug ditch and drained it dry. Now thu
> voice of the turtle is heard no more. The
7 Gg) noble bird that ever at mans too neal
approach flies off and away (and leaves thu
most of himself behind) is "gone" to wal
for the man that puts the silly little rhymes
\ at the head of the city column of the dali.
Dispatch. Sometimes there may be seen I
single dry and dusty patriarchal bull-frot
setting there alone, but the last ssOkabena'
cat has gone to Sitting Bull. The muskrat:
! have gone out towards Adrian, Luvern
and Sioux Falls, and a sweet perfume o
purity is waited to us on the very ''breezes'
' that come across that very place where one
! was so much "Okabena." The first settler
liked the sound of this name, and transferred
: it to these lakes without the Interpretation
But I'm in favor of change now. s'A los
t by any other name would smell as sweet
you know, and believe these lakes of our
= would smell charmed sight, sweeter b
: some, most any, other name, and especial
), to those who have not been here yet bu
. . read the Dispatch. hope this s.loose ida
: tion'' of these things which the special ha
= ANONYMOUSLY stirred up, will be satisfactory
! No offence is meant by this and none was in
= tended by him. Only mistake or two, an
!. a joke.
6 A rousing temperance meeting wgs bel
! here last night, and the sentiment of tn
:, = great majority seems to be to keep til
: demon outside the bounds of our no
: blessed and prosperous county.
y The GLOBE, both daily and weekly is tt
!, paper good many brag on here now.
= Afectionately yours, up. HE1GHTs.'
. 1fnother Correction of t1.e Same Coryespo,.,
= eMt.
Editor of the Daily GLOBE.
If WoRrHMaToN, Mimi, Feb. 4, 1874