The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-06-09
HALFWAY ACROSS.
Our Country From Salt Water at Provi
dence to the Mississippi.

Our Country From Salt Water at Provi-
dence to the Mississippi.
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENTS OF THE NEwsl
MINNEAPOLIS, June 9.-The political ex-
pediency Of holding the convention of a
great political party nearly 1,5OO miles
from the Atlantic seaboard Is undoubted,
but the policy has another advantage
gates aud their friends it is lesson in
political geography, the like of which
does not often occur. Next year the big
gest lesson of the sort ever given will be
the Worlds Fair.
to Minneapolis did with run through
the Blackstone valley. now SO familiar,
and the less usual farms and hills OF
Western Massachusetts,. From Rotter-
dam Junction to Niagara Falls all Is
familiar enough. Everybody-at least
everybody who has been married-has
been to Niagara once at least. Beyond
woods of Canada.
This is not the soil and these are not
the people of the United States. Some
day we all hope they may be. 1t is a
country sparsely settled, but rich In pos
sibilities. he faces one sees at the sta
traits appear The railway conductors
are fatter, grayer-headed and more impor-
tant Of manner, reminding one somehow
OF merchant steamer officers on the AT
lantic. There is more fuss and feathers
about starting the trains ut the stations
There is none at the Custom House.
The inspection is farce. A breathless
minute on the suspension bridge, hung
high above the wonderful green rapids or
the Niagara and one passes from Uncle
Sans domain to Queen Vlctoria's with
out changing sky, soil or, to any great ex-
tent, political institutions. There ought
not to be so much change as that.
Western city. Through Buffalo one
sweeps on the train, and gets such an
idea of 1t as one would of Providence
passing through. At Windsor, opposite
Detroit. there is q considerable stop, and
the railroad cars are loaded upon an
enormous barge which takes them across.
The city is spread out along the river for
miles, magnificent sight, teeming with
business and beautiful with homes. Here,
as at Buffalo. the enormous grain eleva-
tors remind us of the golden harvest
which makes America the food giver of q
good share of the world.
Big towns are plenty between Detroit
and Chicago, with miserable roads but
thriving business, fine buildings and ener-
getic people. Chicago is among cities
the marvel of the western continent. It's
vast business blocks, beautiful residences,
well fed and well cared for men ana
women rs well dressed as those of New
York, which means considerably better
than those of Boston. attest a community
which is, in a word, up with the times.
Remember that Chicago Is village of
yesterday and that there is i'm all Amer
lea, North and South, but one city larger
and in Europe only two or three which
exceed it in size and but one which ex-
crrds It IN trHfffC-remember this and see
how Chicago does things, and any one
ought to be ready to give up jokes about
big feet and pork packers and take off his
hat to a live Yankee town.
The prairies of Wisconsin and Mime
sofa are dreary to ride through but rich,
wonderfully rich in soil They are not
fiat nor treeless but gently rolling slopes
and sparse groves and bottom fringes of