Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-03-22
BRAINS, MERCY, NEALTH
THESI. AND PRACTICAL EDUcATION,
ART Transforming IHE SOUTH
Notthern Capital and Enterprise. Force
and Brains will Make the old SouGh-
land Commercial Power

Z A
a great painting, Bierdstat's West
ward the Star of Empire Takes Its
Course" 1t impressed me wonderful
/ ", the expression of fatigue in the
faces of the men, the anxiety of the
mothers holding infants in their arms;
even the CALLED horse, the faded OK and
! the torn wagon covers all denoted
/ hard road had been travelled. The
scene was pass in the Sierras looking
/ towards the Eldorado on the Pacific
coast, the end of Westward Hot" and
near the end of long, hard journey.
The Liberty Pole college art gallery
had nothing like it, and was much inn
pressed at this, my first view of a mas
terpiece of art. The mountain was
cold, sterile, rugged; awful in its grand
eur, withal sublime. Clouds hung heav-
lily and rolled in great white caps
toward the peaks, there to supply the
cold storage with more water. Years
after was in Pullman in the pass,
held by a storm of great severity, and
my mind reverted TO the painting above
mentioned. Latar | saw the great liv-
ing war panorama of an hundred thous-
and men and youths in the awfulness
of carnage, the young life of America
in the death struggle; and lifeless
mangled bodies lying in their own pools
of blood. 1t was war, and wonderfully
impressed me.
The compass that steered the immi-
giant over the ocean, pointed westward
The magnet that guided the immigrant
from the Atlantic coast was westward
toward the gaps of the Appalachians,
from the top of the mountain and down
the slope it still pointed westward be-
You'd Ohio, to Indiana, then Illinois; il
turned north few degrees to guide
the way to Michigan, then pointing TO
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, then
Nebraska and dipping to Kansas, again
turning northwest to the Dakotas; now
the magnet drew the compass south
and west to Oklahoma and Texas; quick
ly swerving to the northwest TO the
great wheat empire, Canada; and for a
period of sixty years homeseekers have
crossed the plains, forded rivers,
through mountain passes to arrive ut
the Pacific coast, where they found fer
tile soil. genial climate, mountains, val
leys and forests, and which is today the
mightiest Of all zones on this continent.
of the greatest energy, of unparalleled
city building, fruit growing. grain har-
vesting and civic reform of any coun-
try. Quickly the compass swung TO
Florida: it pointed along the gulf coast
to the Rio Grande, while now the mag
net lode is Louisiana.
The Pelican state has long hidden her
great store house of wealth in soil and
climate by continuing to be a southern
planter OF the old school. A new life
Ia pushing ahead, the northern capital
list is here and locates men of brains,
Drawn and money to build over the old
foundations as sluggish as the bayous
that have no tides. He finds oil that
gushes and flows a stream OF wealth,
builds railways, encourages good high
ways and quickens everything he takes
hold of, while the Daughters of the
Confederacy are building monuments TO
commemorate the dead past unmindful
of the living present. The forests are
fast being felled. band and gang saws
are making lumber, foreign ships are
transporting the milled stuff TO far
away countries; old plantations are be-
ing divided into small holdings; more
sugar refneries, more rice fields. The
young farmer at this time is receiving
farm education as to planting corn
and breeding swine, with a hope of RI
valinR Illinois in the corn cribs and hog
pens January and February truck
farming is keeping pace with Florida.
Why all this transformation Northern
men with mont y, practical education
and a Willingness 10 work. The code
duello the gentle mans defense of hon
or "bef0' the war, has gone out of
existence; horse racing. the southern
amusement, died hAra and the last
struggle for existence ended IN the
races AT Pensacola, February 28. As
they could not mooBahue or bind pig,
ii yielded to the majesty of the law.
Gambling, tn lac.es' and genlemen's
after dinner game. is prohibited by law,
but goes on in pariors and sitting
rooms A God fearing woman from
Memphis, devoted member Of the
Methodist church, q young woman IN
war. time, who had seen fighting in
streets, front and back yards, in the
hallway and kitchen, still believes that
slavery was a divine institution, but
now gone, and she was pleased. She
believed the burning Of the negro at
stake, and summarily was right; that
| the great blast that rolled southwark
and frosted the Alabama truck, then
growing, was Gods punishment for re-
peal of the temperance laws. .'Vox
| populi WAS all right for temperance,
/ but ''vox populi' was wrong for Ii
7 z
/ sect life, informed me that killing
! fiosts was a divine blessing had killed
millions Of pests, destroyed insects then
ready TO ravaRe the fields and kept
/ back millions to hatch later. ] thought:
/ God moves in a mysterious way, His
wonders TO perform
Gulfport is a place of large lumber
! shipment. Back country is a forest of
/ pine through which a railway with
/ branches has been built. also many saw
+ mills. a pier extends one mile out
( toward deep water Staeding on the
I rier I saw solid line OF sail and steam
/ vessels loading lumber timber aud cot
/ ton. a steamer from France unloading
( cargo Of pyrite which was taken TO a
! fertilizing plant. the sulphur taken out
/ and the oar shipped to Birmingham TO
/ be melted ipt0pIg iron. Closely ship
( was unloading d cargo o. nitrate ship
ped from Buenos Aires Along that mile
/ Of pier not one United States flag was
seen. The captain Of German freight
4 er invited me on board and told me he
/ had stored in hold $, 900 bales of cotton
/ for France and was loading 4001, 600
/ feet Of lumber and timber for Ham
burg. Carloads Of lumber and cotton
/ are run alongside of ship, easily lifted
aboard and dropped below Timbers
are dumped into the water, towed
alongside ship, then easily raised by
steam power and slowed away,
The great peril to cotton is the boil
weavil, which seems to defy the secre-
tary Of agriculture to destroy it. Cot