Studies in the South and West, with Comments on CanadaWarner, Charles Dudley
History
Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada
Warner, Charles Dudley
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
There seem to be two elements in the State contending for the mastery,
one the New England, but emancipated from tradition, the other the
foreign, with ideas of liberty not of New England origin. Neither is
afraid of new ideas nor of trying social experiments. Co-education
seems to be everywhere accepted without question, as if it were already
demonstrated that the mingling of the sexes in the higher education
will produce the sort of men and women most desirable in the highest
civilization. The success of women in the higher schools, the capacity
shown by women in the management of public institutions and in reforms
and charities, have perhaps something to do with the favor to woman
suffrage. It may be that, if women vote there in general elections as
well as school matters, on the ground that every public office “relates
to education,” Prohibition will be agitated as it is in most other
States, but at present the lager-bier interest is too strong to give
Prohibition much chance. The capital invested in the manufacture of beer
makes this interest a political element of great importance.
Milwaukee and Madison may be taken to represent fairly the civilization
of Wisconsin. Milwaukee, having a population of about 175,000, is a
beautiful city, with some characteristics peculiar to itself, having the
settled air of being much older than it is, a place accustomed to money
and considerable elegance of living. The situation on the lake is fine,
the high curving bluffs offering most attractive sites for residences,
and the rolling country about having a quiet beauty. Grand avenue, an
extension of the main business thoroughfare of the city, runs out into
the country some two miles, broad, with a solid road, a stately avenue,
lined with fine dwellings, many of them palaces in size and elegant in
design. Fashion seems to hesitate between the east side and the
west side, but the east or lake side seems to have the advantage in
situation, certainly in views, and contains a greater proportion of the
American population than the other. Indeed, it is not easy to recall
a quarter of any busy city which combines more comfort, evidences of
wealth and taste and refinement, and a certain domestic character, than
this portion of the town on the bluffs, Prospect avenue and the adjacent
streets. With the many costly and elegant houses there is here and
there one rather fantastic, but the whole effect is pleasing, and
the traveller feels no hesitation in deciding that this would be
an agreeable place to live. From the avenue the lake prospect is
wonderfully attractive—the beauty of Lake Michigan in changing color and
variety of lights in sun and storm cannot be too much insisted on—and
this is especially true of the noble Esplanade, where stands the bronze
statue (a gift of two citizens) of Solomon Juneau, the first settler of
Milwaukee in 1818. It is a very satisfactory figure, and placed where it
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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