The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-18
although other vegetation is quite


luxuriant
Winding out at the west end Of the
town OF st. James, the horses were
turned out across the open prairie
and from that until daylight the only
things visible were the horses ears
ant heaven.
Something less than half way be-
tween St. James and Sherburn is to
be found the county line which marks
the boundary Of the southern tier of
counties, being the first standard
parallel You may have read in the
geography Of the standard parallel and
its usefulness in the survey Of the
public lands. but you never properly
az preciate it's boundless fertility as a
producer of perpleXity until you have
come upon it in the dark of a cold
October morning and found its bifur-
Gated sign post standing in ghcstly
white against the black background
of a plowed field. You do not know
whether the section line road, which
you have been driving upon, is sup
posed to be the mate Of the one a quar-
termile east or the one three-quar-
tiers of a mile west. However, having
a general idea that you ought to reach
Sherburn by working to the west,
you take that course and drive on until
you come blindly up in to corn field.
wake up it's owner, scare him into an
early grave, and then wait for daylight
to bring you back to yourself
Daylight eventually came and soon
after it, through a vista of Windmills-
it's wonder there was anything left
for bank robbers after the windmill
men got through with Martin county
could be seen rising CITY, only about
half risen as yet, however. Driving
two miles east to reach 1t was found
that it was a singuiarly hospitable
community as the elevator, the hotel.
the creamery and everything else in
the town had welcome painted on it
in large letters. Even the end of the
depot had the same magic word en-
blazoned on it, and it was then de-
cided by the tired wanderers that the
village was not Sherburn, but We'll
come which is longitudinal varia-
ton of six miles. So long as the death
dealing cyclone in mercy overlooks the
center Of Martin county, there is one
community where the writer of this
will not have worn out his Welcome.
Sherburn, however, was finally
reached
Life in SIterburn is a symmetrical
serial of peace and contentment except
when interrupted by ira edies like that
which shocked the entire Northwest.
You rise with. the lark, or if the lark
will do just as well. The main thing is
to get up and breakfast in time to be
at the depot for the 7:3S train going
east This, is a passenger train and
with it's advent may be said to begin
the day in Sherburn. Other. coTnmuni-
ties have long days in summer and
shorter ones in winter, but in Sherburn
they are all alike, beginning at 7:38 a.
M. and ending at TIA p. m, when the
last regular day train goes west. The
7.32 train brings the ST. Paul evening
papers; with the evening taken out Of
the date line and the next day morning
inserted to make people believe that
the news. is not two days old when
they get it.
A little later the way freight east
bound comes. This is really the society
event Of the day. The way freight crew
on a rural line is the CLEANER of news
gossip in each town, as the head
brakeman picks up current happenings,
while the smoke jack is switching and
vice versa. Thus each community
learns what its neighbors are doing
$40, there is just time to digest the
newly secured information before the
1919 passenger, west, arrives. This
stops long enough to throw off q sack
Of mail and an occasional threShing
machine agent or windmill collector,
and then the little window at the post
office is closed while the postmaster
the pouch.
The mail is distributed before noon,
and then the community is ready to
go to lunch, for Sherburn has metro
politan airs in way and has a
o'clock dinner at half past five in or
der that the citizens may set back to
the depot for the 20 fast freigh east,
having in the meantime pqoperly dis
posed of the :05 passenger, also east7
bound. and the weSt-bound way freight
at 3:35. Finally there is the TIA pas
senger. west. and the village rests. The
saloons stay open until IL o'clock II
there is business enough, but there IS
no guarantee.
one train that day, the $40 p. m freight east.
If you miss that Saturday night you can't go
East until Sunday night. It's delightful
train left week ago last night the U p
man was sitting in the telegraph office writ
ing an account of the identification OF the
dead robber by the women who had seen the
cyclists in the village streets. Perhaps II he
had known what was going on round him in
the outside world he would have gotten on
the train and let the dear public worry
along without graphic description of the
scenes at the village mOrgue.
But he did not. When ii. comes to isola-
ton, the connivanee OF rev telegrapn op.
one might as well be in Kamschatka with an
oil stove and $4,000, 0o0.
The live robber had been captured at
Lake MffIse but so afraid were the authori-
ties that IL the Sherburn people found that
out they would lynch the fellow that 1t
was decided not to let the Sherburn folk
know 1r1asnfuch as Sherburn was about |
sixty miles from the scene Of the arrest, |
and the mud was uniformly foot deep |
through all the intervening country, the
fears would really seem to an outsider to
be unwarranted Meanwhile the Sherburn !
people were OF the anxious seat, and Doc |
Cronin. the STATEN agent, was keeping the |