Omaha daily bee., 1881-07-23
CRESTONC ULLlNGS.
The Enterprising Towns of
Creston and Glenwood as
Seen by Ranger.
Both Places Exhibit Unusual Live
Illness.

almost impossible from mortar boxes,
framing timbers, brick, stone, iron
columns, ETC., it is to be presumed
that it Is having a boom; and we must
say that we have not yet found any
Iowa town that could equal Creston
for rapidity of growth and gilt edged
future prospects.
Situated on the crest of the divide
between the W great valleys of the
west, it enjoys a pure atmosphere and
free breezes. Central Iowa is the
best farming point of the state, be-
cause the soil is extremely rich and
entirely unbroken by hills or bluffs.
The landscape stretches away nearly
a hundred miles with gentle undula-
tions of the surface barely
sufficient for good drainage.
Crops here as elsewhere are far below
the average, and yet the thrifty, in
dustrious farmer, who in working
land does not ''bite off more than he
can chaw," as a rule, has good corn,
for he got the seed planted in time,
thus keeping the weeds from getting
too rank while the corn was in its in
fancy, and with the hot weather to aid
him he will get sixty to eighty bushels
from every acre, but Mr.. Goeasy wait
ed in May for the rain to ''let up"
and, when in June he planted, the
weeds were half way to his knees.
July LIST gave him a sickly, yellow
stand of corn covered with Haunting
grasses, and now, when roast
ing ears should be plenty,
there is not, in one field
out of ten, a sign of silks or %tassels.
One-fourth of the wheat fields will be
uncut, and not one in ten will yield
q profit to the farmer. Harvest has
now its busiest days and the wheat
uncut this week will be white headed
with brittle straw and badly shelled.
Oats are thin, weedy and, where the
growth is up to the average, it is bad
ly lodged.
But to return from country to the
town, Creston is a railroad city. Its
six thousand inhabitants are largely
composed of g. B. 81 Q. employees.
Here is the largest round house UNI
der one roof that America can show.
Five miles Of new track is now being
added to the yard accommodations and
$50, 900 arc being expended on the
erection of new shops. T~hirty-two
brick stores are now in course of cree
ton, and one of the finest church
buildings in the state of Iowa is being
built by the Presbyterian So
ciety. A $4,000 Catholic
school has recently been completed
and there are two public school build
ings that will bear comparison with
any two of u ward schools.
A creamery has recently been COM
pleted that will handle 1000 17-quart
pals. The proprietors, Buchanan &
Co do their work with steam power
and have every improvement that has
been found advantageous.
The Pearl mills have been r%ejuve.
mated and have also changed hands.
On the streets. we met Col. John
O'Keefe, formerly an Omahoss, now
one of the governors staff and a prom
inent merchant. The colonel will go
to the Legislature this winter at least
his friends told me they would nomi-
nate and elect him.
The Summit house clerk / have
known as an Omaha man, but / can't
recall his name. Like all good clerks
he is a prince of gentlemen.
The reportorial chin of your cor
respondent was scraped by a tonsorial
artist, VIM. Meenach, who formerly
''carried a razor for a barber-us firm
in Omaha.
When we left Creston it was with
home in the minds eye, but one town,
Glenwood, was to be visited, and
while Wednesdays heat fried the
marrow in the bones, yours truly
cavorted over the warm brick side
walks of the great picnic town.
Almost every Omahoss has picniced
in Glenwood, and those who haven't
ought to. 1t is shady, romantic and
picturesque.
1t is just like a "down east vii
lage, not excepting the half brick,
half frame and verandah surrounded,
moss covered, elm shaded houses.
Wednesday, July Goth, was an ex-
citing day in the history of this town.
Two hotels and a bank were figured
on by A. I. Large, Omaha's architect,
who was gazed upon with admiration
and wonder. Being at large in Glen
wood is surely not unpleasant upon
such occasions.
There has not been a surplus of
building boom timber laying
around loose in Glenwood
for the last ten or twelve years, but it
has now struck the town square amid
ships and there is no telling where it
will end. A brick court house, an
asylum for feeble minded children, a
good opera house and a score of solid
business blocks are the principal
features of the town, which contains
more genial gentlemen than a dozen
of these mushroom, "board shanty,"
''fy by night" towns SO common in
the west, and We earnestly hope that
the coming building boom may carry
Glenwood forward until she becomes
as conspicuous for the teeming thous-
ands that throng her streets as she is
now for shady hooks, bosky dells,
pretty girls and picnic parties.
Yesterday Glenwood boy becoming
excited yer the coming commercial
greatness of his native heath, rushed
To the nearest peanut stand, pur-
chased a deadly weapon of the cast
iron order loaded it with a blank car