The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-07
CLEANED BY A GIRL,

| NAAA&NGO D d
nave friend whose friendship I
count among the benefits that fate has
bestowed upon me. In a quiet. unassum-
| ing way, he does much philanthropic
| work, and many of the poorer class of
the city think of his name as q synonym
| for help.
| ne would be an old man IL 1t were not
Tor the fact that, In spite of Father
1ime, he retains. the brightness Of youth.
Last week he came to me and invited
me to take a drive II will show you
two sides of the, city this afternoon he
/ sald' we shall revele in contrasts And
] 1t was so. Out of the din and clamorso of
the downtown business portion of the
| CITY we drove up Third street to the
hill district, and were soon on Summit
| avenue
II was much Travelled man of st.
Louis who said that none of the cities
| winch aoorn the banks Of the great Mis-
siSsippf can vie In beauty with the resi-
| oehce portion Of our own st. Paul I
! thought of how truly he spoke as we
drove along the wide avenue.
The expansive. smooth lawns, the we'll
Kept grounds, the magnificent homes all
! told their story Of culture, beauty and
| art.
Rosy happy children played out Of
| doors, carefully attended by sweet-faced
nurses. Men and women, whose bearing
| pore every token of refinement and af-
| rluence, sat in luxurious chairs upon
piazzas overlooking the spacious velvet
lawns. Handsome carriages passed us on
the driveway, drawn by spirited horses,
seeming proud of their silver-mounted
harness. Here, indeed, was the higher
| HE which Is the result when wealth and
culture unite. When we passed the
massive residence Of Mr.. ]. J. Hill,
thought of what a girl had said to me
once She was an art student here, one
OF the schools most enthusiastic pupils.
One afternoon the class was invited by
Mrs. Hill to view the paintings in her
home. They went, and this girl was en-
| tranced with the beauty about her, with
| the pictures. with the elegant appoint
| ments of the whole house. Il cannot
conceive of heavens being any more de-
| lightful.' she exclaimed rapturously. She
| was very young, and besides had a soul
| to appreciate the beauty wrought by art.
and had, perhaps, no conception of heav-
| en-, such as you and I have, in which, of
| course, no thought of things material is
allowed to enter
But it was all very beautiful. even to
drive on the avenue. and view all things
from the outside. AS we passed the num-
| erous homes, which Nine. de Sevigne
would say. seemed like frozen music"
I thought of how many wealthy people st.
Paul has.
Coming down from the hill, we drove
on Pleasant avenue. which. strangely
enough. is rightly named. with its pleas
ant, comfortable homes.
There are two places here which hold
themselves in my memory. One is that
quaint little stone church, dear to hearts
which remember fOndly it's prototype in
the Fatherland. 1t is just such struc-
ture as I shall expect to come upon when
my dream comes true. and 1 am making
that trip through Europe which is to oc-
cur in mythical, magical "some time"
The other place is the Peoples church,
which is always associated in my mind
with it's founder and pastor, whom
know, only by having heard, but who
seems, from such an acquaintance, to be
a near personal friend.
Eventually, we left pleasant scenes be-
hind, and drove down Chestnut street
which stands sadly in need of the pro-
posed paving now under consideration.
1t seemed like going to another world to
go down upon the flats near the high
bridge-a world of poverty, ignorance,
pain. sickness-a world whose denizens
seem born to obscurity and discomfort.
The houses, no more than loose boxes,
some of them partly submerged in water,
the air. reeklng with vile smells from the
city dumping grounds, even the river los
ing the beauty which distance lends to it.
1 saw men and women with coarse, fiat,
| expressionless faces, going doggedly
about. Children in rags and dirt quar-
relied over some treasure taken from the
garbage heaps. A child-a mere baby
staggered under the weight of an over
grown infant he carried.
The saloon was apparently well pat
ronized, for light-haired SWedes and
dusky Italians looked out at us from the
open door Women along the river banks
were getting up their supply Of fire
wood Each had her part of the river
lotted off by means of long pole ex-
tending from the bank out into the wa
ter to hold the fine pieces of driftwood
which came down in the current. One
broad-backed. stout, dark-skinned wom-
an had found a large pile of chips by her
pole and stood out near the waters edge
armed with heavy pitchfork with which
she threw the fine wood upon the bank
to dry. Another one trundled Il wheel
barrow heavily laden with the rivers
gift of wood.
There is one little house which forms a
strange contrast to it's surroundings. 1t
is clean and neat as possible, and boasts
the possession of piano 1t is the home
of a family Of thrifty Swedes, but the
care which it receives only makes the
other ramshackle buildings seem the
more pitiable.
It appears that long ages of evolution
must transpire before these people be-
come of the enlightened race. and yet
if their environments were changed
WELL we do not know what the 9yster
will be when he has gone through col
lege.
1t seemed as if I had viewed so much
that afternoon-a microcosm of life, d
miniature of the great world in this city
where the two worlds are not so far
apart but that they must sometimes
meet. Beth.