The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-11

MANITOWOC, Wis, Sept 10
(Special)-Plain people, who trace
their ancestral line to New England
make a nice discrimination in the use
of the words relation" and "connec-
ton" when referring to family mat
tiers. A relation" indicates ties Of
kindred blood, while connection" in
dicates ties formed by marriage. The
same distinction holds good when we
come to those larger families to which
we give the name of city. The 'rela-
ton" becomes the suburb" It is the
offspring of the city, children who have
left the parental roof and started life
on their own account. Minneapolis,
for illustration, is a relation of st. Paul,
a fact that goes to account for the tiftS
in which the two occasionally indulge,
Just as members of families have theirs,
without more serious results than
temporary eXcitatiOns of temper and
the washing in public of family linen,
to the delectatiOn of the scOrnful and
the sorrow of the wise. The "connec-
tons" Of a city are those communities
to which it becomes attached by lines
of communication. To some town, little
known and less cared for, some rail
way runs out it's bands of steel and
links the fortunes of the two cOmmu-
dependencies and obligations, such as
come when son or daughter form life
alliance, and bring into the family cir
Gle a stranger with all of his own COM
plications of relationship.
When pater familias discovers that
son or daughter have formed an attach
ment that promises to fruit in the ad-
dition of connection and Of connec-
tons to the family there rises in his
hNSnn1 q desire n know
something of the person with whom he
and his are about to be connected. And
so, when railway has performed the
ceremony that makes another city a
connection of st. Paul, the curiosity
to know what manner of people are
they who compose it, what their re-
sources are, what are their prospects,
what of material benefit they can
bring as their dOWry, is a natural one.
For some years the unveiled link of
the Omaha and Northwestern systems
made a round about route from st.
Paul to ManitOWOC, on Lake Michigan,
but the barrier of the great lake, so
long regarded as an insupeTable barrier
to the movement of freights on the line
of least distance between the East and
the West, compelling a DETECTION to the
south by way of Chicago, made the lit
tie city by the lake only a way-station
on a broken and disconnected route. It
was not even a connection" of our
city. Two or three years ago there
came the bold adventurer who believed
that the car ferry, that had long been
used in transferring trains across calm
rivers, might be made to do similar
service on the lakes. Like all of his
pioneer kind he was met with the
chronic objector. Severe storms swept
these inland oceans while their narrow
60,
before the wind; the ice formed in
great fields on their surfaces in winter
and venturesome vessels, daring the
dangers of a winter passage, had be-
come water-logged by the ice that
formed on them when ''the breaking
waves dashed high" Then the har-
bors became ice-locked with ice two
and more feet in thickness against
which any steamer would vainly try
to force its way. The cars would break
loose in a storm and smash things No
solvent railway would risk it's assets
In such a venture, but a bankrupt road
can afford to take chances which a
solvent one cannot and so the expert
ment of carrying railway freight trains
across this lake to connect with a line
touching a port on the eastern shore
was made, and a car ferry established
between Kewaunee, Wis, and Manis-
tee, Mich. inadequate harbors at either
terminal alone prevented the CONNER
cial success Of the scheme All the
other objections were swept away in
the demonstration. The ferries could
be run all winter. The ice fields form
ed no insurmountable barrier; the iron.
scow-shaped prov of the ferry, could
be forced upon the harbor ice and crush
1t with the enormous weight OF the
boat; the cars could be so securely
locked that no roll of the ship In the
severest storm caused the slightest
movement. The pioneer achieved a
triumphant vindication of his ideas.
It is worth remarlxing, In passing, that
the demonstrated success of the car
ferry on Lake Michigan solved a. diff
cult engineering problem for the Rus
sian government which confronted it
in it's scheme Of building Its transcon-
tinental- railway across Siberia. Dr.
rectlv athWart tha route Lake Baikal