The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-01-19
EsteIIine Tribune Editor Speaks
sns.HHisMy Of sMankato. 5
CULTURE is IN EVIDENCE.
Greatly Impressed With the Hand
some Buildings, Elegant Resi-
dences; Educational Center.
From Mondays Daily.

The editor of The Estelline, S. d.,
Tribune was in Mankato a few days and
his impressions of the city are found
in the following well-written article:
To write another chapter of the trip
the editorial staff took recently, we
may say we spent few days in Man
kato, that beautiful metropolis of south
ern Minnesota, famed alike for its COM
mercial enterprises and its educational
institutions. Mankato is a city of about
$4,000 and one of the most attractive
= and up to date places in the west While
it is city of no mean commercial i'm
s portance it is lacking in that sOrdid,
get-rich-quick appearance characteristic
of many western towns and wears an
expression of culture and aristOcracy
which we'll becomes it's character as an
educational center. In fact as we OBJ;
served its elegant residences, paved
streets, well kept lawns and magnifi-
cent public buildings we were strongly
reminded of some of the college towns
of the east where learning counts for
more than lucre and culture for more
than cash.
Mankato is prominently city of
churches and of schools. As l have al
ready said, it is a commercial center of
no mean rank, having number of mills
and manufacturing establishments which
give employment to hundreds of men;
but its chief claim to distinction rests,
/ think, in the number and excellence of
its institutions. At any rate it is far
better known in these parts on account
of it's schools than on account of it's
quarries or breweries. Another inter-
esting fact about Mankato from his
torical standpoint is that it was here
that number of Sioux Indians were
hanged in the COS for massacres per-
petrated at New Ulm. A piece of the
rope with which this execution was per-
formed may now be seen among the cur
iosities in the museum of the normal
school.
Mankato has number of fine pub
lie buildings, the most notable of which
are the postoffice, the public library,
the court house and the recently erected
Y. M. G.. A.. building. Its chruches are
among the most imposing in the west,
and all receive liberal support. There
&c oil fo1 of ar
institutions too numerous to mention.
The newspapers of Mankato are abreast
with the times and The Free Press office
of which Mr.. Fritz, former editor of
this paper, is now secretary and man
ager, is. one of the best equipped in the
state. sa-
Our chief interest center, however, in
Mankato's educational institutions on
account of the large number of our
young people who have gone there to be
educated, Among those we may mention
the State Normal school, which occu-
pies commanding position on a hill
overlooking the city and the site of
which is significant of it's influential po-
sition in the world: the Mankato Com
mercial college, which Arthur Jennings,
Will Downs and Harry Horswill are now
attending, its new rival the Toland Bus
mess college and numbera of denomin.
atienal schools. t ~
Mankats is excellently fitted to be a
college town on account of its location
and other advantages and it took us
back to the old days to see little groups
of care. free students going to and fro
on their way to lecture or with skates
over shoulder hurrying along to enjoy
an hours celebrating sport on the river.
Mankato students are like all other stu
dents the world over, fun loving, slangy
and irresponsible, but they are a whole
some lot of young people after all and
many of them are earnest students who
will make their mark in the world. And
l may add that during my stay in town
/ saw no evidence of rowdyism or dis
sipation on the part of the normal or
commercial students.