Part 17 (2/2)
Another matter of striking interest is the bicycle-path system, which crosses the city in every direction and extends for miles into the country.
The paths are constructed and sustained by a license tax of fifty cents on each wheel which uses them. During the past year this tax produced more than $20,000, all of which was expended in the construction and maintenance of the paths.
[Ill.u.s.tration THE FALLS OF MINNEHAHA.]
The State University is the crowning feature of the non-commercial inst.i.tutions of the city and State. The first cla.s.s was graduated in 1873, and ten years thereafter the graduating cla.s.s numbered thirty-five. Its great weakness, as of all Western inst.i.tutions, was the lack of proper preparatory schools, and President Folwell devised a unique plan by which the State high schools became feeders for the University. There are now about 3500 students in the University, making it the second or third largest in size in the United States. Upon the foundation broadly laid by the first president of the inst.i.tution, President Northrup has since 1884 builded until the inst.i.tution now has a magnificent income and an equipment second to few in the country.
Another notable feature in connection with the local government in Minneapolis is her method in dealing with the liquor question. After a period of controversy an ordinance was pa.s.sed under which a line was drawn around the downtown district. Within this patrol limit saloons can exist upon the payment of a license fee of $1000 a year. As a result, the residence part of the city is entirely free from the demoralizing influence of the saloon.
In a general way the difference in population expresses the present relation between the two cities in other respects. In appearance St. Paul is more metropolitan than Minneapolis, as it is more compactly built. St.
Paul lies along the side of a steep bluff. It is rugged and diverse and has the narrow streets and crowded appearance of a large city. From the crest of the hills, many magnificent residences look down upon the river.
Westwardly the city straggles over the rolling country until it reaches the Minneapolis line, enclosing in the meantime the State Fair Grounds and centres of population which were originally separate munic.i.p.alities, such as St. Anthony Park, Merriam Park, and Hamline. Minneapolis is built upon an almost level plain, lying between the river and Lake Calhoun, broken toward the north by a line of high ground parallel with and a mile west of the river. Its streets are broad and the houses set well back in ample grounds. Enclosed grounds are the exception. In St. Paul the fas.h.i.+onable residences are largely concentrated upon the crest of the bluff, while in Minneapolis they are scattered in various localities. There is also a general lack of concentration in the business districts of Minneapolis, which does not exist in St. Paul.
St. Paul's wholesale trade, if we exclude lumber and flour, is greater than that of Minneapolis. It is also the head of practical navigation on the Mississippi and the railway centre of the Northwest, although all trains reach both cities. The Minneapolis and St. Louis and the ”Soo” are the only railways with headquarters in Minneapolis, while St. Paul is the headquarters of the Chicago and Great Western and of the great transcontinental lines, the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern.
The electric street-railway system in both cities is owned by one company, but the business is conducted in each city under a local management.
There are 150 miles of track in Minneapolis, and 123 in St. Paul. Two busy interurban lines connect the centres of the two cities. The public-school systems are of the same general character and stand well the comparison with those of other cities. St. Paul has many children in the parochial schools. Her park system is extensive and beautiful and comprises about 1100 acres. The most extensive is Como Park, which lies in the interurban district and is a popular resort for thousands of people during the summer months. St. Paul has a large number of successful denominational educational inst.i.tutions, such as Macallister College and Hamline University. The most conspicuous building in the city is the new white marble capitol now being erected by the State at an expense of over $3,000,000. The St. Paul Public Library is not equal to that of Minneapolis, but her citizens have the advantage of the use of the library of the Minnesota Historical Society, which is the miscellaneous State library.
[Ill.u.s.tration THE CAPITOL, ST. PAUL.]
A great deal of nonsense has been written about the characteristics of the people of these two cities. To render the situation more interesting and romantic all manner of inherent racial and sociological differences have been invented. Their struggle for supremacy has been described as exceeding in bitterness the ancient rivalry of Hooks and Kabbeljaws. Nothing could be further from the truth. The munic.i.p.al and commercial rivalry was natural and beneficial, and was ordinarily kept within reasonable bounds. Both cities bounded upward under the impulse thus given to energy and enterprise. Each without the other would itself be less. The people are of the same type,--restless, ambitious empire builders. They have striven mightily and manfully in business and politics, but mingled amicably in social intercourse. What differences in character do exist are largely due to the different race elements which compose the population. If G.o.d sifted three kingdoms to obtain the seeds with which to plant New England, he resifted New England and the kingdoms for the planting of the Northwest.
The present population is diverse, but the predominant element is the old Saxon blood.
For purposes of comparison, Ramsey County is St. Paul, and Hennepin County is Minneapolis. By the State census of 1895, Ramsey County had 147,537 inhabitants, of which 140,292 were in St. Paul; Hennepin County had 217,798 inhabitants, of which 192,833 were in Minneapolis. Bearing this proportion in mind, the following table, which gives the nativity of the population of the counties, is of interest:
Ramsey. Hennepin.
Native born 96,486 146,848 England and Canada 7,036 9,646 Ireland 5,468 4,339 Germany 16,593 11,337 France 281 264 Sweden 10,665 22,480 Norway 3,087 12,762 Bohemia 1,245 815 Poland 1,541 1,093
This does not show the number of the descendants of such foreign born residents now in the counties who are included under the head of native born. It appears that the percentage of native born is much larger in Minneapolis than in St. Paul. Thus, Ramsey County with 70,261 less population, had 1129 more Irish and 5256 more Germans than Hennepin County.
In Hennepin, the Norwegians and Swedes form a large element. St. Paul with its German and Irish born citizens, is Democratic in politics and strongly Roman Catholic in religion, while in Minneapolis the Scandinavians and Republicans predominate. The sons of Maine, Vermont, New York, and Ohio maintain flouris.h.i.+ng societies, but are completely eclipsed by the sons of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They are everywhere, in all positions and all kinds of business, from the highest to the lowest. Coming of the old Germanic stock, they take to self-government and officeholding as deftly as the sons of the town meeting. At present it is not a h.o.m.ogeneous people but an aggregation of all the elements,--a seething cauldron of the races, the residuum of which we believe will be a type of genuine American citizens.h.i.+p, broadened and liberalized by the ancestral outlook upon the world.
[Ill.u.s.tration A CALM EVENING.]
It is fas.h.i.+onable at present to speak lightly of Buckle's theory of the influence of climate upon the character of a people, but it is certain that we cannot understand the development of a people unless we know something of the climatic conditions under which they live. The northwestern climate is much better than the reputation it succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng in the early days before the blizzard centre moved eastward. While not strictly like that described in the old hymn,
”December as pleasant as May,”
there are few pleasanter localities in which to spend the entire year. It is a climate for thinking and doing. Spring and autumn are delightful beyond the power of description, and the heat of midsummer is tempered by the myriad lakes which dot the surrounding country. In midwinter the thermometer takes an occasional downward plunge which sadly disarranges the record of averages, but for four days out of every five between December and March the sun s.h.i.+nes gloriously through an atmosphere of mountain brilliancy. Then there is in the air a hidden food of life, upon which has fed the strenuous race of men which within the short s.p.a.ce of one life has builded two great cities where none were before.
FOOTNOTE:
[13] The prediction was fulfilled the following year, when it became necessary to construct elaborate works to save the waterpower.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
DES MOINES
IOWA'S CAPITAL CITY
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