Year: 1879




amount of discussion on the subject can lead
to better understanding of the case. 1t is
only necessary to suggest that united action
may lead to the accomplishment of substan-
tial results in the near future. and that when
the time arrives such action should be had.


The authorities of the city are derelict in
duty in some very material respects. In
the first place the streets of the city are not
in proper condition. Some of them are in
an exceedingly filthy condition; on others
the pavement is in bad ord or, and the alleys
are not as clear of rubbish as they should
be. To be sure the winters accumulation
of garbage is yet toSbe got rid of, but we
have noticed no effort on the part of
the authorities looking to the clearing
up of the debris. This ought to
be attended ito withou delay. There
is danger, even in so healthy city as St.
Paul, of encouraging, and perhaps creating
a pestilence during the summer months, and
to avert such possibility ought to be the
first duty of the city government


In the matter of public improvements the
city government is not at all behindhand.
All matters that concern the city's interests
that properly come before the common
council, are attended to "with neatness and
dispatch" Our new market house was or
from the legislature was received, and SO
have other necessary public buildings. The
only thing that appears to be lacking in the
council is that already adverted to, and we
are sure that reference to it is all that is
necessary to secure reform.


We need at the present time little excep-
tional enterprise on the part of private citi-
zens. There are score of men in st. Paul
who each own score of lots that have for
twenty years remained unproductive. They
are generally we'll located, and might be made
to return handsome revenue to their owners,
yet they prefer to allow them to remain idle
in the hope that adjacent Improvements may
result in large increase in their value.
This is the worst kind of short-sightedness,
and if the men who pursue such policy
would take the trouble to examine this ex-
perience of others in the past and to look a
little to the future, they would soon become
convinced of their mistake. We need in St.
Paul hundred good stores sufficient to ac-
commodate the retail trade that is bound to
come here the present season, and we need
from five hundred to q thousand houses suit
able for the accommodation of the popula-
tion that will soon flock to this city. Tho
man who sells a lot for the purpose of build
ing store or house on another lot will in
the future be regarded as public benefac-
tor, but he who holds his real estate in the
hope that others will enhance it's value will
find an unexpected number of delighted
| friends at his funeral.


st. Paul is now entering upon a new ca
reer. She wants help from all her citizens
to improve her opportunities. Those who are
able to assist in her progress and yet refuse
to do so will meet with little favor from the
of the city in hand. little less of old fogy-
ism would come into play just now. If some
of the ''old settlers' would but shake the
scales from off their eyes-burst the cere-
ments that have so long enveloped them-
they would find that thugs are not now as
they were twenty years ago; that there is
need now of enterprise, of vigor, of new
blood. As to the future there can be nc
doubt. There can be no possible chance OF
the loss of money through too lavish an e1-
penditure for improvements, and we would
therefore suggest that the experiment. be
tried by some of our old citizens, who have
become fossilized.