The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-05-12

proud" disdains the veneer and is
more tasteful if more quiet.
Not all of us can become acquainted
with the popularity which distinguish
es one city from another, as sometimes
the difference is intangible and con-
sists of certain spirit visible only to
an old resident. In other cases the pc
cuiarity is strongly marked, making
the town or city stand out prominently
as the embodiment of one idea. This
is particularly true of university towns
and capitals. Such places frequently
lose their identity and become merged
with their principal feature.
Sing-Sing illustrates case of this
kind. Here the identity of the town
was wholly lost in the prison located
there, and to regain its individuality it
was necessary to change the name of
the town to Ossining.
In the South small place is likely
to merge its identity with its leading
citizen, especially when the latter
comes of an old family. Here civic
pride gives way to hero worship and if
the idol proves to have feet of clay the
whole town is humbled in the dust.
Sometimes the idols have passed
away and the interests of city is GEN.
tered in its graveyard. The Concord
writer's gained fame for themselves
and for their home, and this influence
is still so much greater than any that
has since arisen, that we must look for
the individuality of Concord in Sleepy
Hollow.
Washington is distinctively capital,
perhaps more so than any city in the
world. Government is the sole busi-
ness, and here the only game played is
politics.
| 1t is unfortunate that Baltimore is
famons for its oysters. for here is the
true social capital of the South and the
cradle of the Catholic Church in Amer
lea. There remains little of the old
time aristocracy which made Baltimore
society town and the church is still
powerful factor there; but Baltimore
tends toward commercialism and it's
jobbing and oyster industries outshine
the spirit of romance which was its
heritage.
The easy going Philadelphia, with
out the energy to stop the undisguised
robbery of it's public funds; cultured
Boston; the circus town of Bridgeport;
Pittsburg in the white light of its fur
naces,-each has its personality famil-
lar to us all.
Altho it is sometimes difficult to
read the real spirit of city, you will
have no trouble in New York. Take
the Waldorf-Astoria, Broadway, the
Mills Hotel, the Bowery; take the peo-
pie from every quarter of the city, con-
dense them, label the product "Self-
Satisfaction" and you will have a fair
sample of New York. If the compos-
ite mass could speak it would say,
''This is little old New York and all
else is province" This is the spirit of
the Metropolis. 1t knows nothing
else. The New Yorker is so self-in.
fiated, that he is an easy prey for every
green goods game on the market, the
older the better; so narrow-minded
that he is unfamiliar with the extent
of his state or nation; so ignorant that
he believes the woody West to be but an
hours ride from Jersey City; so rustic
that he would be lost in his own town,
had not provident nature decreed that
it could extend but few blocks in
width; so far behind the times that
it was only last week he discovered
that slow, benevolent and pious Phila-
delphia has been getting the better of
him for years in the way of freight
differentials. The New Yorker claims,
and we must admit with business. that
his city has everything that any other
city has, but he should learn something
about the great country which has made
New York what it is, and incidently
learn something about New York him
self, as New Y orkers are woefully ig-
norant of their own city.
If self-satisfaction is noticeable in
New York, you do not find it in the
West. In Seattle it turns to expectan-
cy as if the spirit of Seattle arose each
morning expecting to see the shipping
| of the world anchored in her harhor