The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1908-05-30

of various misfit strains, and the
bearded lady and the headless wonder
divided honors with the enormous
python and the beautiful albino of the
side tents.
Bankers" blatant OF voice and
brazen of demeanor, tore off strips Of
verbal dissonance in praise of their
wares or exhibits, and many a hard
earned quarter was beguiled to their
cavernous pockets. Kerosene lights
| fared wildly and all went merry as
marriage bell until time came to
| douse the lights and prepare for to-
morrow. The marshal, an imposing
! spectacle with his glittering star and
awful air of authority, drilled up and
down through the crowds, and repre-,
scented, with an imposing length of
whisker, the inviolable majesty OF the
| law.
At the county seat the Oldest set.
tiers always lived Those who had
| been In the legislature with Lincoln;
those who had listened to the ante
bellum debates. Old settlers, indeed;
the grass itself was old on their
graves, the messy lichens were
ancient on their tombstones.
At the county seat the revivals were
usually held, and all the people from
the surrounding country crowded in
! to hear the noted evangelistS. Here,
too, Of course, tbs principal papers of
the county We're printed, one of them
having been published by the same
man for so years. A very ably edited
! paper, too. Its editorials were full Of
! fire and energy, and it's makeup, and
! selection of news denoted the posses
sion Of ability and journalistic pre-
science of a high order.
Here was also the hot-bed Of politi.
cal intrigue, for here the plans for
! the elections were consummated, and
here the Offices We're distributed to
! the successful aspirants. The county
seat had once been a manufacturing
| point, but its rival to the west had
| long since outstripped it in material
| power, and had manufactures that
sent their products to the ends of the
world. And each year this growing
rival perfected little by little its plan
| to wrest away from the present coun-
ty seat its importance as the real
hub and there was a slow, insidious
| feeling in and about the town that
eventually its hated opponent would
capture the coveted honor and leave
| the present courthouse mere bar
racks in the public square, a melan
choly reminder of the days that were
Every year the old soldiers held
their reunion at the county seat, and
their march past the courthouse, and
their meeting in the evening was one
Of the occasions for oratory and the
revival of the days when the call for
volunteers came. But each year the
line grows thinner; each twelve-month
makes gaps in the ranks. And to the
children of those who marched to the
front the recollections of those times
is dim indeed; to their grandchildren
it is holiday
There is always, about a county
seat which is losing its grip, some
sense of self-pTeservation, some spas.
modic attempt to revive public spirit,
and send current of action along the
veins of the town But no town can
advance without a restless activity
and a steady plane Of public spirit
and in our county seat the spirit OF
Sleepy Hollow was rampant It's
streets were unpaved from year to
year; its sidewalks barely kept out OF
the mud during favorable conditions;
its electric service was sputteringly
Inadequate; its water works primitive
and subject to breakdown: its rev.
enues uncertain and insufficient
And yet from the clarion-voiced col.
! umns of the one real paper in the
town there was always the note OF
courage, the herald OF warning, the
tocsin Of encouragement. But as 1t
was in the beginning, so now, and so
it should ever be that this county seat
was doomed to dry out and disappear
from sight as an entity and a social
community, and sink into the shadows,
a forgotten hamlet. 1t was off Of the
main Travelled tracks Of the steam
highways, and it was far from any
river that might give it hint OF re-
viving power 1t was stunned OF
manufactures, and its commerce de
pended largely on its position as the
county seat.
And yet inch by inch the encrOaCh
ing advances OF the nearby town came
seeping and gnawng at the founda
tons Of its power and month by
month its citizens either heedlessly
or slothfully ignored the rising tide
and issue by issue the sentinel at the
gate, the editor Of the weekly paper
sought in vain to arouse a healthy
flow OF public spirit which should give
the town renewed vitality and
check the approach Of It's impending
dissolution.
But with placid and cow like com
plaisance the citizens ate, slept and
put on clothes They did not and do
not now know the doom that cncom
passes them around about We saw