The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1904-12-30

II 80
sSs s
f,, pantr s. OIL could d d CO.
operate along slbroasil and general.
slines and With = We Id fined pur..
pose IA view.
sso things, however, appear to
me 10 BE ecessary. If We wish to
start on q solid found tion. FIRST,
we must iceland act and talk as if
we expected e. live here for the rest.
ct our earthly existence: second, we.
must be willing to cooperate; along
these broad and general lines for.
the public good. with people who
ma may not agree with ue personally
and with whom we may not agree
npon some ma alters Of a purely To-
cal nature. s.5 5, = i ;,. s.g NJ re
Very we'll then, suppose we do
organize on the County Division
question. Aftersthe Law has been:
amended 80 that the question Of
division can be voted upon by it.
self il November, 1905, shall we sit
back and allow our organization to
go to pieces or shall we all pull to:
gether and make Virginia such a:
big, bustling, beautiful place that
It will just naturally look like a
County Seat long before the, time
comes to vote upon THAT question.
: Surely the other: towns having
County Seat ambitions couldn't
blame US for making Virginia a.
better place to live in than it is.
now; and if we, had an Improve
ment Association or a City League
or a Get-together Club or. any kind
of an organization (call it what you
wilD through which each individu-
al would have a chance to do some.
thing, however little, for the good
of all. just think of the things that.
might result. =. =
In the first place we might easily,
and without cost, extend our city
limits 80 as to increase our popula-
ton by some hondreds and our tax
able valuation ysome hundreds of
thousands; there will=be a State
census taken next summer.
After that, it wouldn't be a very
hard matter, nor would it strain
our credit very much, to buy out,
the light and water plant and have
It operated for the benefit of the
people.
: It would be a, pretty good thing
to have a curb line and the location,
width and grade Of sidewalks, de-
finitely established on every street
in the city so that all who might
desire to improve their premises or
to set out shade trees could do 80 in
conformity with general plan and
be sure they were doing the work
pc rm n ntly. We might. even
hope, in the near future, to have our
streets decently sprinkled in sum-
mer; horses and other animals pre-
vented from running at large and
possibly the snow removed from
t h e sid al K 8 on our principal
thoroughfares, during the winter
months.
About the time We had finished
looking after the above little trifles
We would begin to think about
parks and the first thing we knew
we would own an entire square of
ground somewhere near the centre
of town and keep it open as a COM
mon in case it might be needed for
some large public building such as
a Court House, also a good liberal
piece of land in the suburbs, large
enough and level enough for race
track and base ball ground and a
good place in which to hold county
fairs.
= , Few cities are favored by nature
as we are in the way of park ~possi-
bilities, by having, as we have, two
beautiful little lakes almost in the
heart of the town. What have we
done with them? Used them for
log ponds and it's all right to con.
tinue to do so as long as there are
logs to be sawed in Virginia. = The
lumber industry is: our chief sup
port.andit brings with it a splendid
class of citizens. But why can't we
fix it 80 that, after the pine tribu.
tary to Virginia is all cut off, the
lakes may be a source of pleasure
to those who will live here after we
are gone -. s-, = II : -.
!. Everybody says the lakes are "no
good" even those who claim to
own them, so it should be a very
easy matter to buy them and hold
their shores in trust for the public,
forever The parts Of the shores
not now used by the lumbermen=
could, at a very triflino exDenae: he