Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-06-03
County Seat
Attractions

County Seat
Attractions
In living in the country, it is a de-
cided advantage to live somewhere
near the county seat. There is always
an intense rivalry among the towns
In every county as to which town
shall occupy this proud eminence, and
in the frontier states the ''county-seat
wars" have been distinctively and
bloodily American. To live near the
county seat is to reside close to the
hub of county happenings: and to
be able to attend all important trials
which are held during the year, and
in many other ways to keep in touch
with local affairs and to enjoy the
privileges of the county seat band
concerts and other diversion. The
county fair is almost invariably held
at the county seat, and the horse
races flourish there. Likewise the old
soldiers reunions are there found
f1ourishing with greater vitality than
elsewhere. And where we lived, the
memory of the great battle to secure
the county seat had not yet quite
faded away from the minds of the res
idents of the county, and local pride
still stiffened it's bristles at the
thought of the contest.
The county seat was situated among
rows OF splendid naples, and was
guiltless of any modern fripperies of
an effete taste such as paved streets.
In the summertime paralytic sprink-
ling-cart dribbled few random
squirts of water on the thick dust
that blanketed the various thorough
fares of the town; but every passing
wheel stirred up cloud of it over the
loungers or passersby. At the cross
jngs there were walks laid, sometimes
of brick, sometimes of stone, and in
dry weather these we're not entirely
covered by the dust. In wet weather
they We're navigable, and that was
about all.
There was not much architectural
grandeur visible, even the courthouse,
which was the monument of the
triumph Of the citizens, being very
moderately ornate structure. But as
it was the house of the county
archives, as well as the temple of JUS
tice, it served to point the moral of
success and it was the scene of many
hard-fought legal battles during the
year. Court terms were about once
every three or four months, and there
were always one or two murder cases
on the docket; and these could be de-
pended on to bring nearly the entire
county over to hear the evidence and
listen to the eloQuence of opposing
counsel.
Court week was a real institution.
The various restaurant keepers took
on more optimistic view of existence,
and the farmers would even lay aside
work in the fields to sit and listen to
some one of the more celebrated local
orators split the empyrean with his
tmpassioned harangue. Sometimes
these cases would last for a week, and
the courtroom was always crowded to
the very doors to hear the passages
alarms between opposing counsel.
The chief delight in a country audi
ence is to listen to some lawyer who
has reputation for wit in the county,
and his sallies are always greeted
with hearty laughter that even the
surly raps of the sheriff's gavel can
only curb, but not suppress.
Men, women and children flock to
these trials, and they even bring their
the courtroom during the dinner hour,
when some important trial is in prog
ress, rather than to lose the chance
of not getting their seats again when
the trial is resumed in the afternoon
Some very dramatic battles were
fought there during our stay on the
farm, and once we attended a trial for
two days where the relatives of the
dead man, and of the defendant, sat
looking daggers at one another from
opposite sides of the seats reserved
for spectators; or leaned forward lis
tening hungrily to the charges and
counter-charges that fell from the lips
Of the respective attorneys for the
state and for the defense.
During court week the hotels at the
county seat we're always crowded, and
at the most pretentious of these the
judge always had his headquarters
The stray ''drummers" who stopped
off during this time were not so much
in evidence as on quieter weeks, and
they sat around mostly playing soil
taire in the corners of the "corridor''
at little desks that had been placed
there, or stood on the street corners
cycling the crowds that drifted up and
down the streets.
In the drug stores, on the corners,
at the livery stables, at the hotel, and
even in the courtroom itself there was
constant debate on the rights and
wrongs of the case that was being
tried, and on the respective abilities
of the men who were conducting the
case. Each lawyer had his champions,
and wonderful reports of one or the
others mastery eloquence were hand
ed about with picturesque additions
of assertion and emphasis.
1t was something that stood in place
Of the drama, and to follow a murder
trial from start to finish is much in
the pature Of some staged tragedy,
only the court scene is stripped to the
bare and harsh realities, and you feel
that the waits between the acts hold
more Significance than the shifting of
scenery. or the makeup of the actors.