Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-08-06

now splendid city with its beautiful
paved and macadamized streets, its
modern conveniences and luXuries,
it's stretches of massive shade trees
towering above palatial residences,
it's teeming activity of vitalized ener-
gy, when all these things were less
in evidence than they are today-aye
the time was when envious neighbors
now far in the lurch, did not hesitate
to dub your town a ''mudhole'-it is
not so much the environments of life
that draw your children back to you
as it is the remembrance of the wram
nest they once occupied with you in
mutual affections.
1t is a happy trait in the human
character which makes us forget as
the years roll by the unpleasant and
unhappy experiences of our lives, and
brings into bold relief all the good
things we ever experienced. To illus
trate: Who now remembers when or
where Or how often in his childhood
days he stubbed his toes on the
warped old wooden walks, or balanced
on one foot to pick the lost carpet
tack, which he had found, out of the
other? But ah, the delight of going
barefoot will it ever be forgotten.
Or, who remembers the pain of moth
er's shingle playing a tattoo on the
handiest part of his anatomy because
he had run away from school to go
D11t y1yho
the Joy of those blissful hours at the
'old swimmin' hole" up the river,
which were thus paid for. And above
all how vivid remain the memories of
the thousand expressions of that
| faithful mothers love. 'Tis the re-
collection of the happy things in life
experienced with you and mayhap
through you which draws the child
| back to it's old home and it's sweet
memories, which draws the Water
towner back to his dear old Water
| town.
And there goes with it a certain
degree of civic pride, that pride
which Schiller commended in his i'm
mortal Lay of the Bell as he sang:
"Das lists ia was den Menschen zieret
Und dazu ward linn der Verstand,
Das er i'm inneren Herzen spueret
Was er vollbracht nit seiner Hand
Aside from the kindliness, good fel
| lowship, brotherliness for which the
people of this city are famous there
is much in the history of the past OF
which it's citizens may of right be
proud You are fully justified in the
possession of civic pride. You have
had some hard and trying eXperien
ces. Conditions which paralyzed in
dustry and handicapped progres:
were upon you and had to be over
come, and you resolutely applied
yourselves to the task until victor!
was yours. You arose like Phoeni2
from her ashes, and the determined
battle you fought was characteristic
Of a people who, themselves honest
refused to be bled by others. Since
those days your progress mas been NJ
less than marvellous. The true Amer
lean grit and enterprise back and re
enforced by genuine Teutonic perser
verance and sticktoitivness ha'
placed you high up in rank among the
solid, safe, sane gem cities of th'
world.
When we stop to realize all these
things, and further that your loveC
and happy city is planted in one o
the grandest of natures garden spot:
in the whole world-a valley of won
derful natural wealth and beauty
one ceases to wonder that the Water
towner loves his town as the patrio
loves his country.
You may not always have been jus
right or have done just right. l an
not unmindful of the fact that you ar
not infallible, that you may some
times be hasty in your judgment ant