Potosi journal. (Potosi, Mo.) 1894-1929, 1910-08-17

handled tong forks or with sort of dra,
seine. heavily weighted along the lowe
edge. They bring about SIS ton at th'
fisheries. where they are sought by buyer
travelling from camp to camp with small
steamboats,. and fisher never makes les
than three dollars day. was told. Oc
casionally they find valuable pearl in th.
shells. The low stage cf the water thi.
summer makes claiming unusually profit
able.
ST. Pau! and Minneapolis are practically
one city. divided only by the Mississippi
River, for where the houses of one city
end those of the other begin. They are
known as the Twin Cities" and maintain
quite rivalry as to which shall be the
most populous and progressive. St. Paul
is the capital of Minnesota and has a
| beautiful, white marble state house AS a
| railroad center it is probably ahead of
| even St. Louis. and the passenger traffic
that is discharged through its Unicu
Station is wonderful. Both St. Paul and
Minneapolis have 6ne. large retail districts
and business streets that are far better
lighted at night than those Of our own me-
| tropolis. There is also good street car
service. and you 60 from one city to the
other on the electric cars. Numerous
mammoth gram elevators are located here
and each of these establishments is SO big
that one would readily believe it
could hold all the grain the American
people could possibly consume in a whole
year, yet. as have said. there are mum.
bers of them in both cities. And the
Touring mills there are on just as stupen.
dous scale, the Washburn Crosby plant
being the largest in the world. The mills
are principally located on the Falls of St.
Anthony on the Mississippi from which
they derive the power that operates them.
What surprised me somewhat in these
cities was, that the residences are mostly
frame structures. only here and there
does one see brick or stone dwelling
house.
In passing from ST. Paul to Minneapo-
lis on the west bank of the river stands old
Fort Sn elling. which with its surrounding
grounds is still maintained as a govern
ment reservation, and is practically
park. The original round stone fort. built
to protect the troops from Indian attacks.
with its narrow rifle Sits. is preserved in
good condition. Just beyond the reserva-
ton lies scene no tourist who visits that
section probably ever misses:
''And he named her from the river,
From the waterfall he named her.
Minnehaha, laughing water"
The falls Longteliow describes SC charm
ingly in his ''Hiawatha." were somwhat
of disappointment to me. l had.
until saw them, always believed that
they were located on the Mississippi Riv.
er, instead they are on small stream that
has no larger dow than our own Breton
creek here in Potosi. All the pictures OF
these fails. unless they are actual photo.
graphs taken on the spot. exaggerate the
volume of water that flows over them. 1t
Can hardly be said that Minnie is ha.ha.
ing, or for that matter. even giggIing; her
expression is bright smile more than
anything else. Still, the scene is very
pretty. Approaching the fall the small
stream runs between large boulders, and
just before it reaches the plunge the water
spreads out over fat stone surface forty
or fifty feet wide and then falls over the
bowed edge of the cliff IN very thin veil.
The drop of the veil of water is about
forty feet. Something like ten feet from
the bottom the cliff juts out just far
enough all around to catch the lower end
of the veil. but not enough to cause it to
fold The face of this projection has been
colo:ed deep green by the water, which
adds very prettiIy to the color effect. The
sunlight wsaves the flowing veil into shin
ing silver. About half way down the cliff
is undercut several feet. the recess being
perfectly dry. I noticed that scales of
rock loosen and fall from the roof of this
overhang, and the gnawing tooth of time
will doubtless in future ages break away
the overhang entirely and ruin the falls.
The immediate surroundings of the falls
are left as much as possible as nature
formed them, and the sides of the ravine
or gorge below are covered with verdure.
will venture to say that on bright day.
when the tourist is abroad, Minnehaha
has her picture taken fifty times a day by
the snapsho.ter saw number OF them
about it during the short time was there.
Around the falls is Minnehaha Park. which
is maintained by the city Of Minneapolis.
but is pleasure ground for the people of
both cities.
Before leaving Minneapolis l made a
trip to Lake Minnetonka, which is reach.
ed by the electric cars in a ride OF less
than al hour Ones ticket on this line
also includes passage by boat from the car
terminus 10 Minnetonka Island. lying
! out in the lake several miles. The
car Company maintains the whole island,
! fifteen or twenty acres in extent. as a
pleasure resort, and ali who 60 to the lake
also 90 to The island. All around the
shore of the lake are summer resorts
, small towns. hotels and isolated summer
cottages. The lake itself is probably
forty or fifty miles in circumference. and
is the largest Of whole connecting chain
Of lakes in that section. and as place to
! spend the heated season of the year / hk'
! ed il best of any / saw on the entire
round.
| TO be continued