The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-02-12
SUFFERING MINNESOTA
minneapolis Journal)

Minneapolis Journal)
Minnesota this last decade has beer
stretched on the literary rack. The
thumb-screws have been applied
Sinclair Lewis started it all with his
Gopher Prairie, supposed to have
been located in this State and, be-
cause this brilliant young writer
came out of Sank Centre, that Wig.
orous little city has been held to be
the real site of Main Street. Oh
course, it was not, necessary. The
tide of Main Street flows in any part
of the Country, pretty broad anG
deep, and Iowa and Kansas towns felt
themselves as hard hit as did any sen.
sitive town in Minnesota. There was
uneasiness in the cities, too. Consid-
cradle "small song" was heard and a
desire was shown to edo something
about it 3" But, as Mark Twain noted
of the weather, everybody COM
planned, but nothing was done about
it. Minnesotans touring abroad, when
quizzed about Main Street, dis
claimed everything.
Then came George F. Rabbit and
his urban activities in Zenith, and the
trouble and hard feeling. Was Zen
18th Duluth, or Minneapolis, or St.
Paul? Anyhow, everyone thought he
knew Rabbit, Main Street and Bah
bitt completes were developed in
many quarters, but the kind assump-
ton of these burdens by so many 9TH
er sister States and sister cities
helped US to bear these literary stig-
mas patiently.
When Minnesota poet developed
a line of Indian lyrics and submitted
them to an Eastern publisher, the lat
ter threw up both hands. 'Minne-
sofa? Main Street? MOI" Investiga-
ton was made of the poets gealog-
ical antecedents and they were found
to be Russian. That would do very
well. Our Main street poet now has
a following in some quarters as a
Russian poet. Main Street does not
flow through Russian cities, and it is
possible for the Russian poet to SUBJ
sist and carry on.
Then came the frightful shock to
Brainerd, MINI. A radio magazine
described that fourishing community
as churchless and artless, with none
of the softening assistance of civil
cation, but depending entirely for it's
culture and for its touch with the
outside world upon radio. The moan
of agony that went up from this
fourishing Minnesota city still
echoes and re-echoes here and there.
Upon investigation, the radio publica-
ton took it all back and made proper
apology, but the scar, as broad and
deep as the trench of Main Street
across Sank Centre, still remains.
And more remains to be told. The
Hibbing, Mimi, News is having a ter
rible time and much sympathy for
the place where it is published is ex-
pressed in the press of Gopher Prairie
and Zenith and Brainerd, MINI. The
New York World sent a woman to
Hibbing to write up the famous mil
lion-dollar high school of the richest
village in the known world. She de-
scribed it as an Aladdin's palace Of
unspeakable wealth and splendor.
Among other things she said of it:
1t doesn't seem to belong
there. 1t is splendid as
cathedral. It's a gorgeous ex-
travagance built out of dreams
and ideals of people, who, per-
haps, have missed candlelight
and evening clothes in their
youth. 1t is a white elephant
in the land of the bucalo.
A gloriously childish expression
of newly acquired riches.
It is Hibbing's turn to do an ex-
cited and perturbed dance and to lift
strong protest to high heaven. And it
is doing that very thing.
Yes, we have been stretched on the
literary rack here in Minnesota of
recent years. AS Indiana was the
victim of the persifage about "Indi-
ana authors" the decade before, so
now Minnesota is chosen for the
stake, and the fagots are heaped
about her and the literati of other
States are dancing about, waving
tomahawks and throwing knives. But
let us take heart of grace. We are
doing very well in Minnesota not
withstanding. We have faith in her
ssthat will not shrink, though pressed
by every foe. /" In year or two some
other State or community will offer
itself an unwilling victim of the
searcher for slocal COLOR" and the
outcry of other victims will strike the
astonished stars perhaps above Iowa
or Illinois or Oregon or California.
We repeat it, no harm has been
done. Perhaps, even, little free
advertising may be claimed.