The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1906-07-18
FORTY YEARS AGO.
Excerpts Taken from st. Paul Papers of
Forty Years Ago.

Dy the war we must cOun. Cnat OF
the mode of celebrating the Fourth
of July. In ante-war days the day
was celebrated by noise and parade;
by cannon and music and spread
eagle orations. This has totally
gone out Of fashion and will scarcely
be heard of again during the pres
ent generation, which has been
pretty we'll surfeited with gun
powder and parades and martial
music. In place of such displays the
people now prefer quiet family
picnics and small private pleasure
excursions. We never remember in
this or any other state such a quiet
Fourth. 1t was quieter than the
most rigidiy kept Sunday ever seen
in St. Paul. The explanation of this
is that every one who could get
away was out of town. Every lake
in this region was crowded with
pleasureseekers. Every vehicle in
town, except drays, Pembina carts,
hearses and wheelbarrows was
pressed into the passenger business.
Even stage coaches and buses were
chartered by family parties.
The tide of emigration is flowing
into Minnesota in larger volume
than ever before. Steamboatmen
estimate that more than $4,000 emf
grants have been brought up the
river on boats alone, while immense
numbers besides have come over
land from Wisconsin, Illinois and
Indiana, crossing the Mississippi on
the various ferries. The roads from
Brownsville, Winona, Wabasha, Lake
City, Hastings and St. Paul, into
the interior are so blocked with
emigrant trains that stranger
might almost fancy that Grants
entire army was moving westward
in pursuit of a flying enemy.
Of this immense concourse of
emigrants many are taking up the
vacant lands in the older Eastern
counties. Thousands of settlers have
already been added to the popula-
ton of Fillmore, Mower, Freedom,
Dodge, Olmsted, Steele, Goodhue,
Rice, Dakota, Ramsey, Hennepin,
Washington and the older counties
of the Minnesota Valley and the
Upper Mississippi. Nearly 1000
families have moved into the Sank
Valley alone, and they are rushing
by thousands to the prairies beyond.
Old steamboatmen declare that
the signs of the past four or five
years point to the permanent drying
up of the Mississippi river, reducing
it from a stream navigable for the
largest boats the whole season to
one of uncertain navigation like the
Missouri, passable at certain sea-
sons, and the rest of the year shrunk
to a mere creek, winding along
among sand bars and shoals. There
is certainly some change taking
place in our climate that is affecting
our lakes and rivers. They are
greatly different in their habits from
what they were eight or ten years
ago. The average of water is stead
lily decreasing Our June rise, once
as certain as the coming of the
month, has totally ceased. Some
claim that the cultivation of the
country and destruction of the for
ests have tended to decrease the
rainfall and retard the flowing OF
extra moisture into the streams
This has been noticed on all Western
rivers.
An eminent surgeon of the United
States army pays the following
splendid tribute to DR.. D. w. Hand
who is once more a resident of St
Paul: Attic credited with grea
bravery on the field, his courage
was still more marked during thu
prevalence of yellow fever at New
Berne, N. c., the headquarters O.
which department he was medica
director When the whole city wa
city of the dead he stood at hi
post with manliness and self-devo
ton rarely equaled. His duties a
medical director were executive. bu