The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-05-09
Random, Thoughts
of
Busy Outsider

is usually at ltS greeneSt, the trees
/ just putting forth their fresh, young
leaves, aud the orchards all in bloom
But 1t has not been so this year, and
in little trip the other day, the Out
slider found many brown fields and
meadows where the new grass psi
struggled with the withered for q
glimpse of vivifying sunshine. The
young leaves of the trees were soft
green, and the distant forests were
beginning to show their varied tints
but bare branches were still so com
mon that it was like ride in fall
rather than in spring. Nature is slow
in waking this year.
The Outsiders way lay along the
beautiful river whose name our state
bears, and there was the usual yarie
ty of glade and hill each in itself Al
subject for a painters brush. Yet
there was wintriness about the land
scape which matched the chill in the
air and the sunshine that lacked both
warmth and brightness.
There were flying cat-tails over the
| sky, and banks of clouds forming and
breaking up on the horizon, so that
| anybody who had lived quarter Of
a century in Iowa knew that a wealth
er break up was imminent. When the
sky is red in the morning, and when
the cattalls go wandering over the
hazy sky and bank upon the horizon
and when you have forgotten your
umbrella-then the flood-gates Of hea
ven open upon Iowa.
In the course of several years
whose experiences have led over the
beautiful prairies of Iowa, the Out
slider had never been privileged tc
visit the old capital of the state, Iowa
City. OF course its fame as the Ath
ems of Iowa is known to all, but the
real appreciation of the fact comes
with the view of the town.
1t is emphatically a university
town. 1t is said that some of the mer-
chants of the town object to its schol
| astic reputation and would prefer a
commercial one, but they can't help
the distictively university appear
ance.
In the first place, the university is
in the very heart of the town. 1t star.
ties the stranger by its contiguity to
the haunts of commerce as it were
1t is as II it said, You are all very
well and very necessary, my CONNER.
cial friends, but represent the treas
ures of mind and heart which are be
yond you"
Then there is so much of the greai
State institution. Fronting the main
business street, little above it as i
were, and at the head of Iowa Avenue
stands the old capitol, just south OF
it in the campus the university pro
per, while matching that great build
ing and just north of the state house
is the new college of liberal arts.
When completed the three will be a
most magnificent temple of learning
The old brick which stood where
the new college of liberal arts is go
ing up, was moved off the grounds
| and across the street, an undertaking
whose success proves the skill and
honesty of the builders. Across the
streets in the next block east is 10
Gated the medical building, with the
big clinic attachment, the great state
hospital to which a huge wing Is be
ing added. There to the Outsiders
wondering eyes were displayed the
Homeopathic building, the college OF
law-and diverse and sundry other
buildings which cursory view in q
shower of rain failed to locate on the
tablets Of memory. The whole is very
imposing.
Churches are plenty in the univer-
sity neighborhood. There are four OF
| five in the neighboring blocks, and
the bells, bells, bells would wake ev,
cry echo-if there were any. st
| Mary's has a clock that strikes every
quarter of an hour, with an evident
determination to remind all of the
fight of time. From some other quar-
ter the hours are also sounded, prob
ably from the city hall. At any rate
the ringing and jingling of the bells
is very pleasant rousing from a late
Sunday morning nap. q
The homes in Iowa City are said to
be beautiful, but in the university
neighborhood, they are plain, simple
and very attractive, because you can
imagine the histories that each could
tell The old-fashioned red brick
home of Prof, Currier was especially
iuJCISoJlub DSCduS6 lue pTOISSSOI
himself is much in the public eye
since he is the recipient Of Carne
gle pension. From the top of the hill
above it you can look down upon the
winding river and the tract of land
which has been lately purchased for
a park
The Outsiders view Of the univer
sity was a brief one and was on the
outside, but the air of the old univer
sity town was delightful. There are
over two thousand students there this
year, and they absolutely own the
earth. Everybody talks and thinks oil
school, nearly everybody has been q
student of the university, will be one
or Is one now
Everybody discusses the policy of the
state in its support of three great
schools, and only the politicians ven
ture to say that such a policy Is right
1t requires considerable courage to
mention the Ames engineering course
to even the most ordinary citizen. He
has strong Views on IL.
It is no wonder that the spirit Of
university support is so marked
There is really something very I'M
pressiye about those great buildings
and to see hundreds upon hundreds
OF young men and women flocking &c
those great doors in the early, rainy