St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-10
WITH PROPHETS EYE,
A "Vision" of st. Paul as a
Writer Saw 1t Thirty
Years Ago.
With Historic EXactneSs Al
most the Vision Has Come
to Pass.
Graphic Description of the
SANITY City by One Who
Never Saw 1t.
It Seems AS If He Must Have
Written Under An In
spriation.


present commercial position by the
young city of st. Paul, and in con-
sideratiOn of those who, notwithstand-
ing the city'S achievements in the ways
OF business prosperity, population,
building developments, etc., are dis
posed to regard all future predictions
with cynical doubt, and to class san
guine prophets as Eighty dreamers.
A ''viSion'; published in the Minnesota
Pioneer, of Thursday. April %, 1853
thirty-tive years agO-iS of exceeding
interest. What the frontier city of ST.
Paul then amounted to can only be
truly appreciated by the oldest pioneer
He will tell you that there was big
ravine where the First National bank
building and Gilfillan block are now:
that all the city between Sibley
street and Dayton's bluff was
one immense swamp, almost navi-
gable: that the only known means of
communication between st. Paul and
st. Anthony was via the old St. An
thony road, on board of one of Allen &
Chase's tally-hO coaches, that the best
hotel in the city was the old log stand
known as BaSS'S tavern, which occupied
the site where is now the Merchants
hotel, and that Lott Moffat's CASTLE"
on the bank of the ravine and near the
present site of the First National bank.
was the recognized political headquar-
tiers. The city proper took up the small
area between Bench (SecOnd) and Fifth
streets. and Jackson and Fort, while
strips of land held in scrip on narrow
strips of about one block wide and four
teen blocks long. and lying side by side
from Slbley street east over the SWampy
bottoms, were held by easy going
French settlers, who never dreamed of
the union depot, the prosperous jobbing
quarter, large railroad offices, and sew
eral miles of railroad track,
which to-day are regarded as very
ordinary things. 1t is true that
this vision looking forward to the Fourth
of July, 1876, and the centennial of
Americas independence has not been
literally fulfilled, but doubtless all Wis
ions bear broader construction than
mere literal Interpretation, and if thus
literally construed, the curious predic-
ton has since been, in a way, verified
by the centennial at Philadelphia, the
Willard celebration of the opening of
the Northern Pacific, and several other
well-lInown events. And like some
great prophecies the fulfillment of MANY
of the lofty predictions of this dream is
simply postponed, awaiting only the
shaping of events. The following ex-
tracts are copied from that shadow of
the future. 1t was dated Feb. %, 1852,
which indicated that the dreamer must
have waited nearly a year until his
faith was sufficiently strengthened to
prompt him to make it public:
THE VISION.
'Methought that Time had shot his
arrow suddenly forward some twenty
years and odd, and in manhood's prime,
and life and health l stood upon the
lofty bluffs overlooking the great and
populous city of st. Paul. Beneath
and around me on every side hundred
lofty spires glittered in the morning
sunlight, while still further in the dis
lance countless habitations of humble
unpretentiOuS, suburban cottages, and
lovely gardens seemed wing in a COM
mon race to cover the plain, and from
the grassy plain and shady nook looked
cheeringiy up, or from gentle hill slope,
or clingmg to the sleeper sides of the
semi-circular bluffs, looked down and
smiled The SUBMITS of the bluffs
were crowned with the residences of
the merchant princes of st. Paul-the
homes of luxury, taste, refinement, ease
and elegance. just below, and
almost at the doors of these mer-
laden boats, from all parts of the upper
and lower Mississippi, the st. CroiX and
Minnesota, lay proudly at the levee,
loading and unloading freights, while
the song of the laborer reached even to
the bluff where l stood. From
opposite to Fort Smelling, away down to
Carver's cave, the city stretched her
snowy front, and then across the river
to the south, and away off over the
bluffs to the north. as far over the plain
as the eye could reach, villages of lesser
note. the rural palace and the princeIy
mansion, with here and there a single
cottage, with lavish and benignant hand
were strewn along the vale. CITY,
town and hamlet, the hill, the valley.
the bluffs. almost like mountains, and
the far-off plain, with the mighty Mis-
sissippi and the deep blue of far-off
Minnetonka were before me.
The ceaseless roll of drums and the
clang0r OF martial music were mingled
with the roar of artillery, which from
early dawn had continued to peal from
one end of the city to the other; and OH
the river, and from st. Anthony to Men
dota, and from where Fort Smelling used
to stand-the lofty site now covered
with growing town-cannon answered
cannon, and in tones of thunder reyer-
bertted from bluff to blutf-from plain
to plain and from shore TO shore-dying
Off at length towards Lake Pepin to the
south.
1t was the Fourth of July, 1876, and
on that day representatives from several
old Mississippi valley states, from Ne
braSka and the other new states and ter
ritories extending westward to the Rocky
mountains, the people from the North,
too. from Pembina and the old Selhirk
settlement, formerly so-called-now the
state of AissinibOia-and even from old
Fort York, on Hudson bay, together
with the people of Minnesota, generally,
had congregated in st. Paul for
the tw0fold purpose of Gel
ebrating the centennial annlver-
sary of American independence.
and to witness as well the opening of
the great Atlantic e Pacific railway
from Boston, New York and PhiladeI-
phia, via ST. Paul, to Ogden and Call
fornia, its terminus being San Fran
cisco.
In connection with all this, was the
first dispatch to be sent in words of liv-
ing fire, upon that day, along the wires
OF the Great Britain Submarine and
North American Telegraph line from
London, via. the States, to San Fran
cisco.
The full time for the contamination
OF mighty and glorious event had
finally arrived, which for twenty wears
had been anxiously looked for, hoped
for, sighed for, aye, died for! The