Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-07-19
The City of Minnesota.

M1NNEAPoLIs, Mimi, July 18th, 1889.
Editor transcript, dustin. Minn.
DEAR SIR:-Nearly three weeks have
passed since the close of school, during
which time have been renewing old &C
quaintances and associations in this the
metropolis of Minnesota. The last two
years have brought many changes to this
city. That indefinite, illimitable some
thing we call progress has been at work.
1t has been said that God made the
country but man makes the town. Art
and nature do interfere sometimes, and
here art seems to have the best of it.
My first visit on reaching the city was
to the University grounds. The campus
is beautiful place. Oak trees are there,
SO ancient in appearance that one can
easily fancy that Hennepin camped
beneath them when he visited the Falls
of St Anthony in 1880. A carpet of
green, sprinkled with white clover BIOS
SONS, is spread beneath the shading
branches. A little brook runs down a
valley and tumbles over the rocks into
the Mississippi. On the high banks of
the river one can stand and see the city,
and up the river are the Touring mills,
the pride and boast of the west. The
Falls of St. Anthony too are in sight,
but they are now harnessed and tanned,
wearing as badge Of their slavery, an
"apron' of wood, which the U. s. govern
ment constructed to prevent the free
waters tearing away the limestone rocks.
In the center of the campus stands the
University building, and at little dis
lance, the Agricultural College, where the
State theoretically makes theoretical
farmers. When was student here the
quiet of the spot was unbroken, save by
the roar of waters and the distant but
ominous steam whistle and rumble of
wheels. Now, however, a railroad is
built down the valley and the screech of
what Ruskin would call the work of the
devil in the shape of steam engine
reminds the dreamy student of Cicero and
Demosthenes, that Progress, now a days,
goes on iron wheels. The nymphs of
water fall and shady groves are getting
sadly begrimmed with SCOT and cinders
am afraid. The brook that wondered
down between willow covered
banks is now shut up in stone walls.
The whole city is on the alert for gain.
The rise of lots, increase of trade and
population are every where topics of
Property in favorable
localities doubles in value in six months.
The growth is wonderful. rode half
mile on the street cars with the man who
scarce thirty years ago titled his wheat
fields on the very ground we were passing
over. A spirit of unrest and enterprise
has seized upon all classes. A party of
young ladies, some of them teachers in
the city schools, has gone out west in
Dakota and taken tree claims and home
steads. They have built shanties and
expect to get rich on the rise of land I
fancy they will find it little different
from city life. noticed several stores
lighted by electricity. The light is very
clear, and gas burns red and dim by COM
parison. 1t is said to be much more
one light costing seventy-five
cents per evening.
A large attendance and much interest
is shown at the summer school at the
This affords an excellent
for teachers to improve their
material and methods of work.
Yours, &C., ALBERT w. RANKIN.