Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1903-06-18
An Outsiders Impression Of Mineral
Point.

ing last j. Tludy eNeHiIle vi iss J. ichti q
competent and duly appreciated
member Of the faculty, in response
to the request for An Outsiders
Impression Of Mineral Point" re-
called the large number present il
the following happy style.
"When | was "A child ! gained a
reputation for speaking the truth
and the whole truth, regardless o.
consequences. But gray hairs have
taught me this: that it may be Wist
to speak the truth, it may be lighi
to speak nothing but the truth, bui
it is not always best to speak the
whole truth. And so, when you
ask me to speak tonight on An Out
you will pardon me if / do not give
the whole impression, but only rs
much as is eXpedient, since here,
| too, is the School Board, in whose
power / am.
Before stepping on the train for
Mineral Point, | knew only this !:
One person told me it was very
ariStOcratic town, another said that
| the ari stocratic church here was the
Primitive Methodist, and third
| told me that one of your merchants
had had just tW0 bicycles in stock for
two years and would never be able
to sell them. That night, when rid
ing up from the depot, | realized
why he'd never do it.
TO the prairiu-accustomed strang-
er, who comes in on that evening
train, and, crouching in the darkness
Of the omnibus, is borne on and on
aud on up Main street, these words
must surely occur, Shall | be car
ried to the skies?' But then at Fled
ler's corner there is a lurch down
ward. IN awful, harsh, unheard of
grating Of IA brake, and the skyward
idea has vanished. And so the
stranger will always remember it as
IA town otups aud downs, and though
lie may live here one or even two
years and walk hither and thither,
he Will yet feel that some hill still
conceals a nook yet unseen by him.
Then, you hardly allow n stranger
"a whole nights sleep. For since you
cannot offer him the average
amount Of train whistling, and all
the noise of switching, you make up
for that by the unearthly, yet some
times, on busy days, quite conyen-
ient) five O'clock whistle. And so,
when he goes home he will say !:
Mineral Point people start work at
3 O'Clock; when you go down at $50,
you see hardly soul on the
street Everyone is already at work
What is rock house?' That was a
question that troubled me for sever
al weeks, and | didn't dare expose
my ignorance by asking any one,
but finally, discovered it was only
what we called stone house. Yet it
seems to me they are much more
common here than in other places.
And then all the one-story houses !!
Life IN Mineral Point would not
be quite complete without spending
part OF 1t in une-story house, and
SO we've tried that, too, along with
clstern water and pasties. Scalded
cream and saffron cake have also
come in for their share Of our atten-
ton, and when we have left town, it
has been with "a can of cream under
one arm, a recipe for pasties in our
purse, and package of saffron in
our satcheL And when we arrive at
home we tell our people how far we
have packed the cream, aud that
1t belongs to be eaten with plum
preserves, and wen tell those citi,
lens of southeastern Wisconsin that
they never more should say, Where
Is 1t at?' but always, where is it to?'
And then the saturday ia Mineral
Point. That weekly throng on
Main street! Up the right and down
the left, back and forth throughout
the center-'Rich man, poor man,
beggar man, thief, Doctor lawyer,
merchant, chief land their mothers.
their wives, their sisters and their
sweet hearts, Verify, it is h,u that
humanity streams forth from be-
hind these hills and couviuces YOU
that Mineral Point is cosmopolitan,
that here are all sorts aud conditions
of men.
And now have been in your town
for two years, and have learned
from what / have heard of your City
Council and from what | know of
your school Board, that one state
ment is true: that your town is AMI
aristocratic town provided you GO
back to the original Greek meaning
of the word aristecracy, which signi-
flies a government by the best
And when | look out from my
windows and then over to the hills
beyond, do not feel like stranger