Year: 1879




| had failed to carry out my resolution.
There is very good proverb of which my
parents often reminded me in my boy
hood days, Never put off till tomorrow
what can be done to-day | have often
wondered if there was ever anybody who
really lived up to that. How much more
natural it is for some (ike myself, l sup
pose,) to go on the opposite principle and
not do anything to-day that can possibly |
be put off till tomorrow.


But it would be better not to write at all
to-day than in waiting to reflect the dismal
outlook of everything that surrounds us.
Everybody is stuck in the mud just now.
In war times those of us who were sol
diers in the Army of the Potomac knew
what it was to tramp through Virginia
mud and later experiences in Kansas
proved that state sometimes to be no mean
rival of Virginia, but always expected
better things of Minnesota. Dry and
dusty in the summer dry and frosty in the
winter, was supposed to be the character
istics of this state. But this fall is not;-
BILE exception. For few days it was cold
and we had just little taste of sleighing
that was simply superb. but now the snow
is all gone and mud reigns supreme every
where. 1t is muddy in the street and on
the sidewalk, in the field and on the COM
mon, and the housewife who can keep the
mud 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 Il team now. lie cannot
haul off his wheat to market, nor haul
wood for his kitchen fire and there is 100
much Of u drizzling rain to make it desir-
able to 60 visiting. The children are all
hoping for n 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 dog.
is proverb current here and before the
sun goes down there may be such Il change
as will make it seem impossible that such
warm weather rs we are now enjoying
or enduring l ought to say should ever
have been experienced.


But the farmer in this immediate vicin-
ty can afford to lose a little time in haul
ing off his wheat. We have II new rail |
road now and Il station close by. Instead
of going twenty-five miles to Owatonna or
eighteen to Albert Lea they have n 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 Freeborn. A new town has sprung up
like magic right in the midst of wheat
field. A line Of stores are doing flour
iShing business in Hartland, the town Just
east of us, said stores being situated on
ground over which the reapers passed but
few months ago. OF course Freeborn
has no future prospects of greatness what
ever now. The fate of this little town is
an illustration Of the yicissitudes of fortune
in new country. Once the prospects Of
this town were inferior to none in South
ern Minnesota. Laid out on the bank Of
an exceptionally beautiful lake three miles
across and surrounded by 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
TOO rapidly. 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
ern Minnesota road was rejected under
the belief that the road wa theirs without
rendering the assistance asked for and the
consequence was that the indignant rail
road company gave Freeborn wide



up and those who expected to be made
rich were glad to get off with even rem
nant of a fortune. Had the Southern
Minnesota railroad made Freeborn one of
their points and this Minneapolis and St.
Louis formed junction here as it probab
ly would, your humble correspondent
might have INDUCED in the pardonable
pride of considering himself Il citizen of
no mean city. But these men in whose
bosoms the regrets, it might have been,
would naturally rankle the deepest have,
the most of them, gone, to seek their for
tunes elsewhere. The rest have learned
to be resigned.


The railroad was finished the last Of
October. Farmers held on to their wheat
till a warehouse was ready to receive it.
Since that time there has been II steady
throng of teams at the warehouse door
unloading. | heard some complain bitter
ly that they had to wait so long for their
turn. One man told me that on on1 oc-
casion lie found seventy-five teams ahead
of him, and he had to wait till after mid
night before he could be relieved of his
load 1t is simply marvellous what an
amount there was raised last season. In
Owatonna, the county seat OF Steele
county. the farmers have already hauled
in two hundred thousand bushels OF wheat
to the elevators and twenty-five thousand to
the mills. They expect to have delivered
ri that one point alone before another har-
vest six hundred thousand bushels and
other places could tell the same story
Drive out anywhere from any of the towns
where wheat is received and one will meet
II wagon loadel with wheat on an average
of once in mile any time between har-
vest and seed time again.


thnNi