Year: 1878

rron writing to you and how many times
7 had failed to carry out my resolution


Tbore is very good proverb of which my
n,ropts often reminded me in my boy
food days, Never put off till tomorrow
,rb,t c,n be done to-day | have often


wandered if there was ever anybody who
,o,,Iv lived up to that. How much more
ro,orol it is for some (like myself, sup
no,c) to 90 on the opposite principle and
not do anything to-day that can possibly
bo mt off till tomorrow.


Rpt it would be better not to write at all
today than in waiting to reflect the dismal
onlook of everything that surrounds us.
Everybody is stuck in the mud just now
In war times those Of us who were sol
5er, in the Army of the Potomac knew
what it was to tramp through Virginia
mpd and later experiences in Kansas
nroved that state sometimes to be no mean
rival of Virginia, but | always expected
better things of Minnesott. Dry and
dusty in the summer, dry and frosty in the
winter, was supposed to be the character
i.tics of this state. But this fall is a nota-
HE exception. For a few days it was cold
and we had just a little taste of sleighng
that was simply superb, but now the snow
i, all zone and mud reigns supreme every
where. 1t is muddy in the street and on
he sidewalk, in the field and on the COM
mon and the housewife who can keep the
mul out of her house must be n miracle
Of energy and efficiency. Mud has clog
ged the wheels of business for farmers
most effectually. An empty wagon is a
heavy load for team now. lie cannot
haul off his wheat to market, nor haul
wood for his kitchen fire and there is too
much of drizzling rain to make it desir-
able to 60 visiting The children are all
hoping for change before Christmas.
They say they want it to " freeze up and
smooth off, which means that some time
must elapse after the ground is frozen
and some teaming must be done over the
reads before they will be smooth enough
to ride over with comfort. A freeze now
would make riding over the rough roads
like riding over frozen plowed ground.
After fog cold enough to freeze a dog
is a proycrb current here and before the
sun goes down there may be such change
as will make it seem impossible that such
warm weather as we are now enjoying
Or enduring | ought to say should ever
have been experienced.


But the farmer in this immediate vicini-
tv can afford to lose a little time in haul
ing off bis wheat. We have a new rail
road now and Il station close by. Instead
Of going twenty-five miles to Owatonna or
eighteen to Albert Lea they have road
now that comes right TO their own doors.
The Minneapolis and St. Louis road is now
completed. The last remaining link
which WAS put in last summer passed
within five miles Of the quiet little town
Of Ereeborn. A new town has sprung up
like magic right in the midst of a wheat
field. A line of stores are doing a -four
HhIng business in IIartland, the town Just
east Of US, said stores being situated on
ground over which the reapers passed but
few months ago. Of course Freeborn
mas no future prospects of greatness what
ever now. The fate of this little town is
an illustration of the vicissitudes of fortune
IN a new country Once the prospects of
this town were inferior to none in South
eTn Minnesota. Laid out on the bank of
an ptionally beautiful lake three miles
across and surrounded by a country of sur
passing fertility, what was there TO hinder
It from becoming one of the first cities in
this part of the state? The merchants
made money here rapidly at first perhaps
loorapidy. They became too confident of
The future and before they were scarcely
aware of it the glory of that future was
gone a proposition to assist the South
e'n Minnesota road was rejected under
Ine belief that the road wa theirs without
rendering the assistance asked for and the
consequence was that the indignant rail
ROAD company gave Freeborn a wide
berth. So real estate went down and not
up and those who expected to be made
FIch We're glad to get off with even rem
Haht OF fortune. Had the Southern
Minnesota railroad made Freeborn one OF
Inelr points and this Minneapolis and St.
LOUIS formed II junction here rs it probab-
" would, your humble correspondent
might have indulgod in the pardonable
PRIDE OF considering himself II citizen o.
no mean city. But these men in whose
OoSomS the regrets, it might have been
would naturally rankle the deepest have
'le most of them, gone, to seek their for
tunes elsewhere. The rest have Learned
10 be resigned.


lhe railroad WAS finished the last o
october. Farmers held on to their wheat
VII warehouse was ready to receive it
once that time there has been steady
'nrong of teams at the warehouse dool
unloading. | heard some complain bitter
" mat they had to wait SO long for thcil
'urh' One man told me that on on1 oc
CaSlon he found seventy-fve teams ahcat
ol MN, and lie had to wait till after mid
night before he coull be relieved Of hi'
'oau' 1t is simply marvellous what III
amount there was raised last season. Ii
o"atonna, the county seat of Steele
county the farmers have already haule'
III TWO hundred thousand bushels OF whea
W 'ne elevators and twenty-five thousand tc
'ne mills. They expect to have delivered
NJ mat one point alone before another har
vest SIX hundred thousand bushels ant
oIer places could tell the same story
Drive out anywhere from any of the town
"nere wheat is received and one will NEE
wagon IoAdel with wheat on an average
'l once in mile any time between har
vest and seed time again.