Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-23
HISTORY THAT rs NOT HISTORY.
Big Fraud PSrpetrated on the People o
Rice County,

Big Fraud PSrpetrated on the People of
Rice County.
Some time last summer the agents of
certain publishing concern in Minneapolis
under the management of one Mclean or
McLain, or some other similar name, Wis
tied Faribault and Rice county gener-
ally, representing that they were under
taking a very large work which would
INVOLVE great amount of time and
expense, being none other than the COM
pilation and publication of very exhaust
i've history of the early settlement and
subsequent development of Rice county
and Fl its several cities and villages.
The. =, book was to be IL mo. in size
leather bound, and to contain over 900
pages, and would of course require long
time of preparation. It was to be fur
sum of $40, mere bagatelle for a work of
such mammoth size and elaborate prepar-
alton.
The guileless solicitor would cautiously
approach his viction, detailing the impor
lance of his grand work, and amid gen.
eral questions concerning the early or sub
fequent history of the county or town
would contrive to acquire all the principal
facts in the life of the individual, which
would be presented the next day written
up as "a biographical sketch of -, one
of the earliest or most influential residents
of Rice county" Very rarely did the taffy
fail to take the cake and the subject of the
sketch became ten-dollar subscriber to
this most elaborate and invaluable work
to be delivered long months ahead. e.
Early in the fall, however, q new set of
agents appeared ON the scene with the
lists of subscribers on their hands
and book bound in cloth
and containing about 400 pages, which they
presented to the aforesaid subscriber as
the promised great work, the history of
Rice county. Regardless of the merits of
the work itself, as a manufactured article
it would be worth to lie on the shelves and
to look at without reading about two dol
lars. On its merits as valuable history
it is worth about two cents. It is neither
complete or correct. Except for the at
tempt to make heroes and heroines out of
commonplace people with which the bio
graphical sketches abound, there is little
real merit in it as literary
production, while it's errors
and omissions Of objects of general inter-
est renders it source of universal dissat-
isfaction and annoyance to its victims.
For instance, while pretending to give q
review of the manufacturing interests of
Faribault city they purposely omit even
the bare mention of the Polar Star Touring
mills, the largest in the city, operating with
either steam or water and turning out $50
barrels per day, thereby reducing to the
amount of this very important figure, the
daily product of the milling interest in the
city. Again, the first church
built was wooden building,
since destroyed by fire, which was erected
by the Catholics on spot near the one
now occupied by the imposing stone struc-
ture known as the Church of the "Immac-
ulate Conception" which, from its COM
handing position is the first and last OBJ
ject descernable as you enter or leave Far
ibault by the cars. They give the First
Congregational that credit. In mentioning
the educational institutions, too, the very
important Catholic schools are entirely ig-
nored.
Of these there are two. The free paro-
chial school of the parish, just mentioned,
which employs seven teachers, and ad-
mlts both sexes, and Bethlehem academy,
for ladies. which employs eleven teachers.
The former is located in a neat stone build
ing adjoining the church lots and cost
over $1,000, and is supported by subscrip-
ton. The latter on the next block is
neat three story brick building supplied
with all modern appliances, gas and water
includued. and cost over $4,000. It con-
tains accommodations for forty boarders
and an unlimited number of day scholars,
and where all the arts and sciences, music,
drawing and the languages are most thor
oughly taught, and all corrupt or immoral
influences excluded.
These are only brief mentions of few
of the glaring Misrepresentation
and omissions with which this fraud
abounds, and it is no wonder the people
of Rice county very justly refuse to quite
general extent to be swindled out of their
money. Some of the best lawyers in Fari-
bault declare it impossible for them to
compel subscribers to receive a work SO
vastly inferior to the one agreed upon, and
which is SO full of misrepresentations and
errors.