The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-10-05

for another winter. He got a job with
Uncle Sam, another with the state Of
Minnesota, and at the age of rs, just
10 years after he landed in America
with an empty purse and no language
but German, he was made secretary
of the Minnesota State Forestry asso-
ciation.
About two years ago he and for
estry chum went into the business of
|selling wild lands on commission. They
now have a main Office in St. Paul and
my Swiss friend, within the last few
weeks, has opened branch office in
McGrath with contracts to sell 10000
acres of rail road land at liberal COM
mission. He has already started
things, having disposed of several
160-acre tracts and has plans for ex-
tensions of enterprise and industry
that will make him a well-to-do man
before he is 40. >,
~ am doing the work love best"
he said as we sat at breakfast in the
decidedly primitive hotel where he
lives, "and it isn't merely for the
money that is in it, either. This coun-
try has great future. 1t is the only
undeveloped region in the state that is
close to the big markets, and if I can
help to bring out here from the cities
a few poor devils whose slavish noses
are on the hopeless grindstone of hard
earned wages, I shall feel that life
hasn't been lived in vain. Get the
work you like, is my system, and then
go at it hammer and tongs. If you
make money and at the same time help
others to get the work they like, you
can become a millionaire without be-
ing ashamed of it,
After breakfast I'VE took his brand
new Ford, which may be classed
among the necessities of a new coun-
try now rather than the luxuries, and
rode all morning through the wonder
full autumn forests Of flaming maple,
Of bronze and maroon oaks, of golden
Eastwood and elms, the whole pune
tuated and accented with gothic spires
of rich green spruce and the digni-
fled beauty Of the white pines, at once
strong and gentle, standing here and
there, survivors of the battle with the
lumberman's ak in which nearly all of
their comrades had fallen years ago.
Mile after mile we went through the
winding roads dappled with autumn
leaves. 1t was like a curving isle
through a glorious cathedral built by
the God of Things as They Are for His
seeing disciples to worship in. Little
farms came into sight at intervals,
and were soon passed for another
plunge into the tangle of woods and
underbrush. Presently we came to the
magnificent lake, lying smooth as pale
blue glass to the unbroken horizon,
dotted with fairy islands and fringed
by forest shores whose glory of color
was doubled by center-glory of re-
Election in the still mirror below, Isle,
Wahkon and Onamia are the principal
towns on the south shore Of Mile Laos,
and the only reason they are principal
towns is because there are no other
towns in their vicinity.
From Onamia, where we dined wise
ly but not too we'll, we turned south
west and started for St. Cloud to catch
a regular train on the Northern Paci-
fic, the 500 branch running only one a
day, which had already run.
The change of scene and conditions
after leaving Onamia and passing
through Milaca gave me the sharpest
realization of the oddity of this little
area of northland set down, all by
inself, in the lower part of the state.
The farms grew large and venerable,
sleek cattle fed in broad, turfy mea-
dows, houses and barns increased in
size and showed evidence Of long and
honorable careers, though not in wear
and tear, and the short rise of the Rum
river valley gave way across the di-
vide to the longer slope Of the vaster
Mississippi.
At St. Cloud my Swiss friend de-
posted me at the Grand Central hotel,
we snatched bite to eat, and he
mounted the faithful Ford with a
CHEEKY good-by. Then he started back,
through the gathering twilight, toward
the distant home he had chosen in
new town where Main street consists
of one hotel, postofice and four or
five stores, but where the surrounding
forests invite his young and buoyant
energies to help carve from their
tangled richness a new community in
a new world; where life may be built
from the, ground upward to fair and
certain castles in the air.
Rheumatism Follows Exposure.