Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-08-30
Letter from Minnesota.


ST. PETRR, MINI. August -, 1859.
Ed. CITIzEs:-Leaying Butler about
noon, the greater part of Ohio and Indiana
are passed duriLg the night. and daylight
came when we were about two hours ride
from Chicago. One who is making his first
Western journey meets with a two-fold
surprise-the boundless prairie in that part
of Illinois is a myth and the evidences of
inexhaustible fertility are not forthcoming.
The horizon is almost invariably timber. of
course but a small part Of the land is tim
bered, but enough to make one feel dis
appointed who has been told of prairie, un-
bounded corn or wheat. The trees are about
such as one sees about Saxonburg, where the
woods have grown since the settlement Of
the country. The land is either swampy
or very sandy. \ curiosity is the dunes Of
the whitest sand swept by the wind from
the lake shore The route of the b. d O.
r. r. east of Chicago does not give the
traveller favorable impression.
Taking the Central Dakota line Of the c.
d y. W. r.. Il. one finds better cars and
better country. The timber continues
with more evidences of original woods
gradually appearing till at seventy-fve to
a hundred miles from the Mississippi River
we find a region fairly wooded. with here
and there sawdust heaps and slab piles
telling of the portable sawmill. The farm
ers were stacking their oats near Chicago.
1t did ones eyes good to see what crop
they were Toward nightfall, among the
sandstone hills of Wisconsin, l noticed
fields uncut and instead of the self-binder,
the cradle was to be seen. There was
gradual improvement of the corn for hun
dred miles from Chicago. After passing
Madison the country gradually changed
from the appearance of wet season to
greater dryness. There has not been an
injurious drouth even so far east as this
place. The crops here, | am told, are IN
usually heavy. The region of drouth lies
farther west, chiefly in Northern Dakota.
The soil here is a sandy loan. Here and
there are beds of coarse land and gravel.
The railroad through town is ballasted
with this sand st. Peter is at the edge of
the big woods, so that looking north and
east from the bluff one sees what looks
much like a Pennsylvania landscape. The
traveller from Mercer or Crawford county
might feast his eyes on choice collections
of niggerheads and boulders of many sizes
and showing several varieties of granite
and assorated rocks.
ST. Peter is a town of about 1000 in
habitants. 1t is 435 miles from Chicago
and 70 miles southwest of st. Paul. 1t is
the county seat of Nicolett county. A
short distance out Of town is the State In
sane Asylum with about 900 patients.
Gustavus Adolphus College is built on the
bluff back of town. The central building
is of beautiful sandstone. There are three
other buildings of am-colored bricks
used for dormitories, boarding hall, com
mercial and musical departments. Last
years catalogue shows an enrolment of
over 270. There is every prospect Of an
increase for the coming year. 1t is under
control of the Swedish Lutheran Church
and most of the students are of Swedish
descent. Nearly all the teaching is done
in English The Swedes are a power in
Minnesota Unlike the Germans, their
leaders are exerting themselves to Anglicize
their people rapidly. II. X. SHANoR.