Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-05-04

only one in return. You see by where
this is dated that / have moved my
camp. | came to this place syIyeek
ago last Thursday, Notwithstanding
the day was very cold (the thermome-
ter was 5 degrees below zero in the
morning) yet / enjoyed the ride much.
The country through which we
passed is in many respects different
from other parts of Wisconsin which
l have seen. Much of the way we
! travelled over high rolling prairies
from which the view we had of the
surrounding country was exceedingly
beautiful. Often upon the higher
points of the road we could see dis
tinctly % or 80 miles and as hill
! succeeded hill with no tree or bush to
obstruct the vision it seemed not un-
like the rolling ocean with it's waves
chained and motionless. In one place
our way lay across this prairie and for
10 miles we passed not a tree or
shrub of any kind and as the ground
was completely covered with snow,
in our windings among the hills with
three or four miles of the road often
in view, l thought l had some faint
idea of the travel over the deserts Of
the eastern hemisphere.
Summer will give a different color
ing to this landscape. These are not
dreary wastes though no tree or shrub
or cultivated field may be seen. still
through every valley and on every
hillock the luxuriant heritage and
beautiful wild flowers waving in the
summers wind shall tell to every
passer of the benefciept hand that
cultivates and adorns. l long for
the return of spring, to see these
fields clothed with verdure and these
pleasant groves shaking their foliage
in the breeZes. Beautiful as they
now are draped in the garb of win
ter, indescribably beautiful they must
be when disrobed of her covering. But
methinks | hear you say this smacks
little of enthusiasm, the picture is
| Overdrawn. When l take my pen to
/ describe this country / feel impressed
with the truth that no language
can use can adequately describe it
and then when the conviction forces
itself upon me that only a part of
what | write will be credited, | feel
disposed to lay down my pen while
console myself with reflections upon
that passage which says, eff a man
be ignorant let him be ignorant" The
task is not unlike that of describing
colors to one who has never seen the
| light. Yet though unsurpassed by any
country on which the sun ever shone
in its natural course, still there are
many things aside from soil and eli
mate to remind one this is not New
| England Could we place here New
England institutions and hear echoing
from these hill tops and swelling
along these valleys the sound of the
, church going bell" could we see
scattered through the country at con-
venient distances her village school
| houses and find here that cultivated
and refined society which education
moulded by principles of sound truth
there produces, then should we have
paradise indeed and much as love
New England, the hills and valleys of
old Litchfeld county, l would gladly
bid them adieu and fix permanently
my abode here.
But in morals and religion we look
for improvement, low as the standard
now is in Wisconsin. l have no doubt
that the day is not far distant when
marked change will have taken
place. 1t is fast filling up with New
England sons and daughters and the
principles they bring with them oper-
ate as a leaven upon the moral cor
ruption that pervades the community.
! The evils under which we suffer here
are always incident to a newly set
tied country. AS a population be-
comes more dense, they will in
measure disappear.
Where l now am seems upon the
confines of civilization About a
mile to the north of this place COM
mences the Indian territory which ex-
tends to Lake Superior. 1t is owned by
TIC hChOlulucG llIU6 WIN dIe the UlOSl
peaceful and best looking Indians |
have ever seen. | engaged one of
them to make you a pair of mecca
sins. When l gave the length of
them he said, Petite pappoose moe
casin.' On my left only a few rods
distant is the Wisconsin, a very rap
id stream hurrying to join the great
Father of Rivers and seemingly inn
patient to reach a summer cline. On
my right little distance across the
plain is the Fox, deep, still, sluggish
in its progress, apparently reluctant
to leave this for the colder regions of
the north. 1t is interesting to stand
here and see these two rivers and
fancy that you hear their farewell
murmurings as they start on their
diverging course to the ocean, the one
coursing its way through her Males
tvs domains and the 0fher through