Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-03-14
NEW YORK. Feb. a. 1900.

EDITOR CENSOR: New ork ndu ltS
! fiyst snow storm of the winter last sat
urday and everyone that could muster
sled of any kind turned out to enjoy it.
Central Park looked like fairy land and
was as gay and smart as could be-
with its throngs of bri hit sleighs, fine
horses and smartly dressed people. The
less fortunate people quietly fill up the
seats in the park on such occasions or
stand along the borders Of the driveways
aud watch thei. more fortunate broth
ers and sisters with apparently the deep
est pleasure. So the rich people, with
out intending it, are perhaps giving as
much pleasure as they are receiving, Ii
is really pathetic to me, sometimes, to
note the interest with which crowds of
poor people will stand and watch the
smart set" as they go sailing by in all
their glory l am sure that many of
those interested watchers were never in
a carriage in their lives. But the snow
is all gone now and the sun is as bright
and warm as it usually is in mid-April,
1t seems so strange to read of your storms
and snow when we have been having
green grass and mild weather the most
of the winter
If one may judge by the newspapers
and what one hears talked on the street
cars and in other places, New York has
been more interested in the last four
weeks in the Molineaux murder trial
than in any ching else. The Boer war,
our own Filipino matters all We're tenn
porarily displaced by this great murder
trial. Young Mr.. Molineaux, the son of
Brooklyn millionaire, whose family
stands high, apparently, in the esteem
of everybody, has been convicted of muir
der on purely circumstantial evidence
and has been sentenced to be electro
cuted in March. 1t seems that nearly
everyone was surprised at the verdict
and newspapers have been filled with
protests 1t is always such comfort to
me that my own state of Wisconsin man
ages to keep the upper hand of the Grim
inal classes without resorting to me-
diaeval form of punishment. ! think
this trial has done more TO stir people up
to realization of the defects in our sys-
tenn of circumstantial prosecution than
anything else thai has happened for
years OF course Il is no worse for the
son of millionaire to die IN the electric
chair than it would be for the son of a
street cleaner, but being q young man of
good family and known to large mum
Der of people, greater interest has been
taken in his trial and conviction.
New York is as busy as ever The
beautiful stores down town are filed
with spring goods from all over the
world and the business streets are packed
with people. Sometimes, when you step
off from car ON lower Sixth ayenle,
or Broadway, you wonder where you
can find place in that crowd. often
wonder where all the people come from
but then when / think of the solid
blocks of four, five and six-story houses
wonder where enough people come
from TO fill up all those houses. And
the city keeps on building and growing
and as it can grow in but one direction,
the problem of transit gets every day
more serious. New York is very slow
in making changes. It is only within
the last two years that horse cars have
been to any great extent displaced by
the trolley, and even now many of the
busiest thoroughfares are provided only
with horse cars. | think it always
strikes a stranger as very queer and
funny, but there is one satisfaction, that
when the changes do come, they are of
the best kind. Our trollies are all un-
der ground, so we have none of the
hideous overhead wires, common to
Chicago and most other cities But we
have now prospect of underground
rapid transit. and then we people who
live up in Harlem, so as to be able to
have sunshine and fresh air, can get
down town and back within reason
able time.
am sorry that Milwaukee losC the
| democratic national convention, but
~. 4 - ID
| as the political welfare of Mayor Rose
seemed to the delegates of more import
ance than the convention-or at any
rate the convention was to help Mayor
| Rose.
| see that Superintendent Harvey il
doing what his friends expected that ht
would do when he went into Office. III
is pushing Wisconsin farther to the from
than ever in her school system. Wiscon
sin certainly has reason to be proud o
her common schools. | know of NJ
other state which make normal school
count as ours. The good those norma
schools do, 1t seems TO me, Is simply in
estimable. They are the schools fo
poor young men and women who havt
their own way to make in life, and il
those schools they get training which
| no uulftISIb5 tsbA BlF6s vi cFtA pA1
tends TO give feel that / can neve
say enough for our normal schools, will
which we are 50 literally provided.
say ,ce, for though ! have lived in New
York nearly eight years Wisconsin is a
much my state as ever it was There i
such difference between people her
and those in the west. Of course here
! as in Wisconsin, the people have com
from everywhere, and 1t would seer
that they should be much alike, bu
there is a great difference, and we VIII
: have lived in the west all our earl
! lives, can never make ourselves quit
feel really at home here.
/ am glad that Viroqua has librar
: and reading room. 1t is what has bee
needed there for many years and | al
| glad that Mr.. Haughton dear 10 I
{ people Of the early high school days, hs
7 charge Of it. And / know that some {
E us, who would have been so glad of
+ library when we lived in Viroqua, III
looking forward 10 the time when "
!; can make some contributions 10 it.
$ Judging from the CENSOR, nearl
r everyone in the county seems prospe
Gus, and with hearty wishes for its col
tinuance, am Sincerely yours,
( Er Ffrs .s.s. . - Ton 70 a