New Ulm review., 1921-11-02
SH0RT I ON f lAC rs
LONG ON FICTION.
JOURNAL SCRIBE HAS HISTORY
AND HIS IMAGINATION
MIXED.
y
NOT A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE
OF INFORMATION TO
SAY THE LEAST.

Jumping to conclusions has lcng been
the method of the Brown County
Journal for arriving at the ideas set
forth in the columns of our este Amed
contemporary. Our fellow scribe is
like Eve in Mark TWain's Adams s
Diary" Adam felt that Eve was not
particularly logical when she said the
dodo must be a dodo, because it locked
Just like a dodo. But her reason for
50 naming the creature was quite suf-
ficient to the fair Eve, and SC, doubt
less, is the little fairy story published
by the Journal last week to account
for the presence in German Park Of
the so-called Cyclone Cellar. !"
Stick to the Facts.
However, in relating history, it is
quite as we'll to stick to facts where
they are SO well known as in
this instance. The old cellar which
is being demolished this week in Ger
man Park is really one of the old, old
landmarks of the city. That cellar
was built, not as a protection for the
citizens against a second cyclone, after
the tornado that wrecked the city in
the 80's, but long, long years before
that and had done duty valiantly as
one of the outposts at the time CT the
Indian attack upon New Ulm in 1862,
twenty years before the inhabitants
of New Ulm ever dreamed of the yio-
lence of summer storms.
The cyclone cellars built after the
tornado we're built in the Easements Of
the peoples own houses, where. they
might reach them at moments
warning, not half mile away from
most Of the residence district, as the
old cellar in German Park was. The
people Of those days knew that a tor
nado had long legs and can travel
considerably faster than the best sprin-
ter even with fear driving him along
at top speed,
Other Facts and Fancies.
And long before the outbreak, the
old cellar served other less heroic
purposes than that of an outpost in
time Of savage attack or as refuge
in time of storm. No, no, the old
cellars origin was more prosaic than
either Of these ideas would lead one
to guess. When the eray-sheaded men
of to-day were going to school IN
German Park some half 9 cen
tury and more ago, it was favorite
pastime Of theirs to get into the cellar
and with sturdy legs astride the kegs
of beer therein, and a straw between
their lips, sample to their delight and
their ultimate confusion, as well, the
contents of the barrels which were
placed there for ripening by the Fri
|ston Brewery. One highly respected
man of sixty years Of age tells Of ons
little adventure he had OF the sort
when the straw drew SO well that he
became very lively and on his way
home he chased all the girls and ths
adventure ended in his mother chasing
him and catching him and putting
him to bed to sleep it { off in the goot
old.fashioned way. Oh, yes, you al
know him.. He and his mother botl
.vouch for this tale Of the old celia
| in the days before the cyclone
The spritzenhaus Of the '70's
/ Going Still further back, ask Charlie
Brust, Fire Marshall to tell you hoy
Egood the sausages made in the oil
lcellar BY Joe Sehmucker and Henr,
sFrenzel tasted when they sWer
"snitched' by the boys Of that day
The Brusts came to New Ulm in 81
] and the old cellar was there then an
4 above it stood the 1ssspritzenhaus'
lin which the fire apparatu
i was stored. Mr.. Brust, who ough
Ito know considerable about such maj
i tiers, says that the Fire House was de
1 lstroyed by the tornado but that th
i cellar still stood and was not a late
development. s. 4 81
/. Indian Outpost.
And, farthest back Of all the info
nation we have been able to dig q
4 is the following: During the siee
Of New Ulm, Alois Palmer, father
Mrs. B. Kennedy, Henry staiil
hauser, ST., and Mrs. Thiele, 81
mother Of VIM. Thiale, who forrne1l
lived on Summit Ave, ia The, prsse,
1sVetter place, were a party who bel
!, the old cellar as one Of the outpost
! to keep watch over the swamp ths
I then lay where the st. Louis tract
!. are now built. es, the old cell
!. Twas there then, and that was il 1856
4 SO the old land mark that has bee
demolished was really much older an
q Of greater interest in the history