Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-08-25

accomplishment or of some attempt
to do the thing, large or small, which
helps to make states great.
Nearby Scenery.
The PERCEPTIONS cliffs along the
nearby rivers edge tell of bygone
avalanches, the breaking up of man.
moth lodges of stone turned and
twisted in all directions; of their
erosion and natures process of MAX
ing the soil, but the greatest and best
of all is the community itself, the
people who comprise it.
The Town.
The town is a division point on an
important railway connecting two
large terminals. 1t has a stone
quarry of considerable extent. which
before the days of commercial ce-
ment did thriving business. For
long time 1t was idle, but recently
the demand for cut stone has been
renewed and the powder blast is
heard again and the click, click of
stone hammer.
The soil in the vicinity is good,
though hard to subdue, for much of
it contains stones or rocks, also pine
stumps as it was burned over many
years ago by devastating fires, new
ertheless it yields abundantly to the
farmers efforts. Hence the village
is surrounded with substantial foun-
dation for prosperity awaiting only
the pillow and the strong hand of the
husbandman.
Fine Qualities of People.
But people are about the same ev-
erywhere. Their characteristics are
moulded and modified by their en-
vironment to large degree, but still
the finer qualities are there and in
the country these are not hampered
or restricted in kindness and SYM
pathy.
The Auctf0neer.
There is the auctioneer with whom
we became acquainted. He seemed
to know everybody and had friend
the little children on the street or
on the country roadside, he hailed
with the customary "how-de-do."
Whether speaking to strangers or &C
quantainces mattered little for the
spirit was right and his friendliness
was good to see. It was my pleasant
lot to accompany him on several jour-
neys to auctions at farmsteads some
distance from the village. AS he
drove his little car along, he gave
me information about the farms we
were passing and about the people
who were the pioneers. There were
no discordant notes in his utterances
for he believed In himself, his village
and his people. At the auctions we
met men from farms far and near
who had come, many with their
wives, some with children in their
arms, to profit by selecting goods
and animals bid in at their own
price. Good natured, interested
crowds, but after watching the auc-
tioneer for some time as he sang his
song of opportunity, Fifty I have
who'll make it five, who'll make it
five? Fifty once,-ffty twice,-fifty
three times, the third and last call,
are you all done? A fair offer and
a fair sale sale, and sold to Halver
Peterson for fifty" I suspected that
some time an enthusiastic bidder al
lowed his emotion to run too high
and that later he would repent and
feel that he had paid "too much for
his whistle" This was not always
the case, of course. There were many
bargains offered and accepted, and
many a bidder went away fully salts
fed that he had earned more than
a good days wage by attending the
sale.
The Country Village.
The country village replica in mini
ature of the large city when we came
to consider the relationship of bust
ness men with one another. There
is the same strong desire to get
ahead and to acquire property and
the same effort to drive bargains, the
SdIHS CllOIL W dCQulI0 u duS IhIouSii
friendship, and the same resort to
Establishment. In the city, the large
numbers and the intensity of opera
lions obscure a great deal of the
mechanism, but in the village all is
open and all with eyes to see may
see Keen vision and shrewd know
ledge of human nature is not so ap-
parent here as in the city. There is
not the sharp, cutting friction noted
in the metropolis. There are not
the strong incentives to modify and
intensity action and therefore there
is the tendency to lag. There is OPP
portunity in abundance for the wide
awake, energetic business man to
thrill his customers with his bar
gains and bargain days. Business
will not move anywhere without a
leader.
We Go. Marketing.
There being no market place. we
had to search to find the vegetables
we desired. But as in all such cases,
after little investigation, we found