The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-03-18
LETTER FROM WEST
Some Of the Things Of Interest In
Wisconsin

Gently and il made me proud TO think 4
that once l resided in your beautiful 4
city. There have been many changes
that l notice in reading your very |
readable paper. Since | have resided i
in what once was the far west now /
the middle west, have not experience /
ed much cold weather The lowest /
temperature was in Chicago, s below /
zero, for only one day. The weather /
here at the camp is like spring. | |
have made many pleasant acquain- |
tances in the nearest city, Sparta
The camp contains fourteen thOus-
and acres and there is only one other |
range in the United States, in Califor-
MIA for artillery and infantry practice.
Have an appropriation of forty thous-
and to be expended this year. We
expect seven to ten thousand troops
here for practice the coming season.
Our headquarters are the city of
| Sparta, located on the LaCross river,
a live city on the North Western and
Milwaukee & St Paul r. r..
There is talk of the city voting no:
| if so it will be a great draw back 10
our camp it is thought Chicago is
agitating this matter also. The Chi
cago Herald claims it would be a dis
aster to the city in many ways to
vote no. should not be surprised
if the matter was settled as it was in
Algiers recently. The water here is
tinctured with iron and sulphur from
artesian wells and to this | think may
owe my good health and longevity
l notice r. b. Patterson who was in
business many years ago ON Main
street now resides in an Evergreen
Cottage, Woodford. | remember him
though he was much older than my
self.
| am connected with the Milwau.
kee Branch; have one risk secured
as far west as Topeka Kansas, whom
| met by accident when travelling for
the pleasure of my family, who have
relatives scattered all over the west.
Haven't as yet heard of any being
caught in the great snow and land
slides on the Great Northern and vic.
unity, where so many were buried
alive and trains buried from forty
to one hundred feet. What terrible
destruction of life and proerty by nat
ural causes.
| notice the base ball season has
opened in Bennington and am much
interested in the discussion that is
going on. This Is one of the things
that keeps town from getting stag
nant in these progressive days. Wis
consin is great dairy country, rank
! ing first in the states. There are
! Gi
Butter is 80 cents a pound; eggs, II
cents. | notice that G. p. Endress of
your town has quite an extensive
plant and retails the product from 80
to 90 cents dozen. This seems high
to a Westerner. | find nothing in
this section that takes the place of
Endress Bros Bushnell and Gaia.
mount cigars that they manufactured
at one time.
There is a large amount of straw
berries and raspberries cultivated
here for market and shipped to the
Dakotas, Minneapolis and ST. Paul.
They ship from eighty to a hundred
car loads in the season.
There is one of the famous Helntz
pickeling plants located here. capac-
ity of forty thousand bushels. Farms
are worth from SIS to $3.50 an acre;
quite level country, with some
bluffs here and there; only twenty
miles from the Mississippi river. In
conversation with a school boy re.
Gently, speaking of rivers he made
the statement that Yarmouth (as he
pronounced III had no river as large
as the Mississippi. | mentioned the
Roaring Branch. Evidently the boy
had not heard of a river by that
name. gave him some of its lis.
tory and he said that he did not be.
lieye 1t was as long as the Mississ.
ippi if it was wider
was at Barnaboo a few days since
the winter quarters of the Ringing
Bros. circus and menagerie. Rem
ember of seeing them in Bennington
when ! resided there.
Madison, the capital is a city of
some twenty-five thousand, situated
on Lake Mendoza. Here we find the
Madison University of Wisconsin. an
Institution which the state feels
proud of, though lot as large as some
of our Eastern colleges. Here also is
- ''A 0N 'NHN' d'A lhili ibI lilt care Oh
the insane with seven or eight hun.
dred inmates
The Spartans have the largest
plant for asserting leaf tobacco in
the United States, the American
Cigar company which gives employ.
ment to a large number The wealth
err here is like spring, freezing nights
enough for food sugar weather if
they only had the hard naples. Very
little sugar is made in this state.
The principal wood used in this sec.
tion is oak from $3.50 to 200 a cord.
hard coal is worth $500 a ton. You
can imagine when we have the mer.
curry from 80 to 40 below zero that It
costs something to keep warm.
Hay is worth from $40 to SIP a ton.
The snow has nearly all gone in the
last ten days with the sun and warm
wind. No rain or storm here in the
last sixteen days Wonderful wealth
er and roads are getting dried up,
think the frost is all out of the
ground
There goes the call for hard tack
and coffee which interests ME at this
time, so ! will close After this
come practice Of artillery on long dis.