Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-06-22

of country whose surface, clad in a mantle
of somber brown, undulated like the pillows
of the sea.
The river which forms your eastern boun-
Diary, leaping and ripping as though re-
joicing at the honor was then unvexed by
the fretful wheels Of commerce. On this
broad prairie the wild flowers wasted their
beauty and fragrance in the primeval soil
tude; the luxuriant grasses ripened and de-
cayed to enrich virgin soil untouched by
pIOw, which yielded year by year the same
ungathered harvest.
Now the primitive home of the old set
tiers are gone. They have not crum bled
from the decay Of age, but have been
brushed aside by the ruthless hand of prog
ress- Far as we are from the East, we
find ourselves, not in the rude infancy Of
society, but in the midst of it's arts it's
refinements and its culture, which are to
be expected only after centuries of human
effort.
While we contemplate in Europe the fate
of Kingdoms that have been tottering for
ages on the brink of decay, slowly dying
for thousand years, we behold our own
states growing to maturity within the ex-
perience Of generation.
But it is not merely the rapid transition
Of the Western settlements into populOus
states that surprises the traveller from the
East. What most astonishes him is the
advanced condition of the people He finds
fertile lands, but with cultivated farms
filled not with wild hunters but with in
teIllgent yeonanry. The forests are inter
villages endowed with all the arts of life.
He finds that here, If by the touch of
the magic wand of some fairy godmother
Il city has sprung up which challenges the
admiration of all, city which is extend
ing it's hoSpitahle hands to the nations Of
the earth, urging them to come and
the glorious fruits of the new. civilization
1t Is eminently fitting that Omaha, which
so we'll represents the spirit of Western
advancement, should at the consummatfon
Of the Nineteenth century set up In its
midst this magnificent object lesson.
heart continent
story Of American progress, written by
American enterprise and illustrated by
American accomplishment, may be read by
the nations of the world.
Here are assembled the successful
achievements Of the Nineteenth century,
representing the genius Of the past, the
trumphs of the present and forming an
inspiration for the future.
Wisconsin and Nebraska used to be the
West; they are the West no longer. Now
from the pinnacles Of the Rocky mountains
from the remote shores of the Pacific, peO-
pie come to Omaha and Milwaukee, now
and gather something of courage and
strength from their great throbbing, thirty
ing life and noble patriotism.
Emerson said: 1.-The old world ended
and the new world began at the Allegheny
mountains" But when he uttered this
Gus development in the imperial valley Of
the Mississippi.
AS we look about US today we realize that
we live in the heart of republic whose
shores touch either ocean, which stretches
from the frozen zone to tropic lands. whose
| men and women are the demigods of indus
| trial and intellectual conquest, Of and con-
| corning whom 1t is not necessary that any
man make explanation or apology, but who
| stand upon the hilltops Of civilization With