The Democratic advocate., 1908-06-12

erection of the jail, but apparently
became impatient, and one night
climbed down the transporting and
left the town.
| As the business center OF very rich
AGRICULTURAL district, Westminster has
grown into an important commercial
town. While it's population Is slightly
less than $500 people, it has three
national banks, one savings bank, two
water companies, electric lights and a
whole regiment of hotels.
Westminster is ideally situated II
is on PARIS Ridge, between the head
waters of the north branch of the
Patapsco and Little Pipe Creek It
is on the road leading from Baltimore
to Pittsburg and about 80 miles from
the Maryland metropolis.
Although the town has been stressed
as a one-street village Westminster is
by no means possessed of but a single
thoroughfare There are several par
alIel avenues to Main street and there
are numerous cross streets. But de-
spite these there is just one great
avenue of traffic, and that is Main
street.
Although the Carroll county seat is
built upon land that would have per-
mitted the construction of city ap-
preaching more closely to a square
it was commercial instinct which was
responsible for the building of West
Minister in its present shape.
Main street was the highway of
travel-and later the turnpike-and
every settler in Westminster and every
builder seemed possessed of mania
for getting on to this throughfare This
scramble would appear natural to the
business man, but the people of West
minister were no less determined to
build their homes upon Main street
than they were to locate there their
place of business.
Main street stretched itself east
ward and westward; it runs east as
far as it can, to where an inSurmount
able hill places an obstacle in the
way of it's further extension in
that direction. And it stretches it's
path westward up to and past the
college buildings.
An average worker in statistics
would doubtless glory in composing
numerical pictures of Westminster
And it must be confessed that his en-
deavor to give the reader some idea of
his subject would not necessarily be
vain.
Looking at the county seat of Car
roll through a statistician's spectacles,
the visitor is moved to observe, first,
that if Westminster were stood on
either it's eastern or western end it
would reach from earth to heav-
en-, and second, If Westminster were
turned up on either it's south or it's
north side it would be just a little
more than knee-high to a grasshopper.
In brief, Westminster Is very much
like many of Balt1more's overgrown
and under-developed girls-long and
lanky, but withal beautiful.
Of course, the struggling town is not
an uncommon thing in America. The
majority of the smaller urban settle
ments are built along some highway,
and whatever of size they boast con-
sists primarily of length.
But, as rule, in these small towns
the houses assume the aspect of dots,
and the thoroughfare on either side
appears to the travellers as a dotted
line.
But in Westminster the main street
is closely built. One house is jammed
up close to it's neighbors on each side.
Furthermore, there are comparative
ly few breaks in the way of cross
streets in the main avenue. And as a
consequence the stranger in Westmin-
ster becomes impressed, at first, with
the idea of street without turning.
The traveller through Westminster,
however-that is, if be journey via the
railWay-sees an entirely different
town. Going On the Western Mary
land railroad from Baltimore, he sees
on his left an impressive stretch of
business street. On his right he
catches a glimpse OF what appears
but an average partly improved viii
lage thoroughfare.
The railway moreover, crosses the
town from north to south. In other
words, the steam roads view of the
town is completed by covering a few
hundred feet. And as a consequence
of all this the traveller on the railway
seldom realizes that the left-hand
stretch of the business street reaches
far eastward, and that back of the
right-hand group of scattered build
ings there hides another-the newer
town-which numbers chiefest among
it's treasures the magnificent home OF
Western Maryland College.
Although the history of Westminster
as a county seat does not go back
nearly so far as the story of most OF
the county capitals in Maryland, still the
| town as a settlement has a long and
interesting record.
There is, however, this very great
difference; a county seat, no matter
how small town it may be, usually
accumulates in time a very rich his
tory of it's own, since as the seat of a
government it must necessarily be the
scene of more or less historic action
On the other hand, the town with nc
official status whatever, no matter
how it may grow, is denied this
source of Importance.
1t must be confessed, however, thai
Main street, especially in the eastern
part, Is too much like the ordinary
dusty street of the bigger cities. In
places there are, in something like
profusion, houses with side gardens
but entirely too many unornamented
plain brick houses crowd upon this
highway. There is painful i'm
preston of fiat red walls, punctureG
with mathematical precision, with ugly
square windows and big doors.
Of course, Main street has it's beauty
spots, but these spots are too much
like the ordinary city and too little
like the natural village. And in con-
nection with this it should be borne in
mind that many a farmer has for
saken his farm in Carroll and come
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