Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-08-07
THAT LOVELY OLD ENGLAND.
A Chicago Nan Sees Many Things i'm
the Mother Land to Admire
and Reverence.
An Enormous Surplus of Wealth Seek
ING for Investment Else
where-BritOns Great as
Merchants.

seem possible that anywhere else can be
found such restful expanses of greer
meadows and pastures beside still waters
such sleek. fat contented horses and cat.
tie grazing in them, such neat, well-kept
hedges, such wealth of red and white
hawthorn bloom, such picturesque cot.
tages powered in ivy and roses, and such
magnificent oaks, elms and beeches. the
GROWING glory of old England 1t is a
land of solid comfort, where everything
seems to have been finished and nothing
Is left to do but just to keep it running
and enjoy an elegant leisure. There are
want and sorrow and vice enough in the
cities, and it may be that many of the
peasants and miners have a hard lot but
the impression given to every stranger
travelling through rural England is that
of a country of unequaled beauty and
prosperity.
There Is something wonderful about the
trees. The soil and climate seem perfectly
adapted to them, and they are found
everywhere, along the highways and dot
ting the fields so that all England seems a
great park. Then they grow to such an
enormous size, with such dense and luxur-
ant foliage and graceful shape that even
old acquaintance will scarcely be recog-
nized in their regal dress here. After one
has walked through the grand trees of
Windsor Forest, Hampton Court and Ep-
ing Forest, he will be almost inclined to
confess that he has never seen real trees
before. Another almost unconscious feeling
of pleasure a person will feel in travelling
here IS the evidence of wealth and power
visible on every side, the number of large
cities so close together and the splendid
railway service with the hundreds of
trains crowded with people we'll dressed
and prosperous, the signs of great manu-
features and commerce and the abund-
ance of money. A man may not be able
to set his hands on much of this British
gold, but after using for months in south
ern countries dirty. ragged paper money,
which is at discount of to 25 per cent,
it is a source of solid qualification to see
heaps of COLA In the banks shoveled about
like wheat or weighed like coal. and one
will involuntarily fatter himself with the
thought that by and by he may be fortu-
nate enough to get some of it. At any
rate, it is pleasant to be in country where
money is so plentiful and where the peo-
pie in general are not forced to study
grinding economy all the time.
OIlly IdI SG
try that compares with England in wealth
and fertility, and while that is an exceed
ingly fair land and its wealth is unques-
tionably much more evenly distributed
than in England, yet the scarcity of trees
and the grouping of the peasants houses
In unattractive hamlets take from it the
beautiful home-like look that charms every
sojourner here. But one does not need to
come to England to find out what power
full country she is. The proof of that is
visible IN every seaport Of the world.
Wherever one sees a ship larger and finer
than any other in the harbor, with its
brass work shining in the sun, every piece
Of wood oiled and polished, its deck as
clean as table and a general ship-shape
tidy air, he may be sure that this is an
English vessel, and wherever there are
rival lines from port the almost universal
advice to traveller is, YOU'D better wait
and take the English ship
England seems almost to monopolize the
carrying trade of the world, and from
every known part of the globe her splendid
ships are bringing treasure and pouring it
into her lap until she hardly knows what
to do with her riches. This commerce
makes her familiar with every land, and
no place, even the most remote, seems for
elgn to her adventurous merchants and
capitalists. Just glance at the columns of
one OF the leading morning papers of Lon
don to see what varied and remote fields
her capital seeks. In single issue are
prospe ctuses of companies in operation in
or about to be organized for iron mines in
Spain. silver mines in Peru, Mexico and
TTtoh Fort ,,,otor,ol f.o,1, H.
lend Islands, tin mines in Malay, coffee
works in Australia irrigation in Egypt,
railways in China and Africa, the pur-
chase of Touring mills in Minneapolis,
and of breweries in st. Louis. Peoria, La
Crosse, st. Paul, Chicago and Rochester.
Conservatism is said to be the very es-
sence and kernel Of a Briton, and we all
know that he hangs to a time honored
custom, senseless as it may be, till Death
compels him to let 60, and looks on every
American invention as suggestion of the
devil, but in commerce he is the very per-
sonifcation CT enterprise and daring, and
the spirit of Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins and
Cook animates the British merchant man
of to- day At present there seems to be
an irrepressible rage for investing in all
sorts of trusts and combinations in Ameri.
ca that hold out promise of monopoly in
certain lines, and for turning all sorts of
partnership businesses here into Joint
stock companies. The papers TEEN with
prospectuses of firms in every sort of bust
ness down to the manufacture of patent
medicines and horse lin ,ment that are
anxious to divide with the dear public the
profits of business that is paying from Is
to Is per cent. per annum, according to the
certificate of BLANK & Blank. chartered
accountants" 1t would occur to almost
any mind, given to very superficial reHec-
ton, why should they be so ready to share
with strangers a business so phenomenally
profitable? and the conclusion is almost
irresistible that there is more profit In
disposing of it to company at their own
price than in continuing it.
The fever for investing in stocks of
American brewery combinations is at its
full height now, and almost anything in
that line can be unloaded on the capital
lists here. It will be curious if among all
these deals some of our English friends to
not got their fingers badly burned by
their sharp American cousins, and retire
before many years and more experience
than capital.
Perhaps the first sensation of pleasure
one has in coming into an old and noted
city like London and looking out of the
cab window is to see posted up on the
corners the names of streets familiar from
childhood, names that have figured in his
tory and romance for centuries, and to
know that they are actually here and one
is looking at them with his own eyes.
This is especially true Of London, and as
in the first short drive one sees Thread
needles!reet Cornhill, Cheapside, Newgate
street, Paternoster Row, Old Bailey, Fleet
St,.aat A,:,,,:.. ono and tho Stra,ad how