Look at this map; do not you see from the broad brown lines drawn around
this immense territory, that the enterprising inhabitants of Duluth intend
some day to enclose it all in one vast corral, so that its commerce would
be bound to go there whether it would or not? And on this map, sir, I find
within a convenient distance the Piegan Indians, which of all the many
accessories to the glory of Duluth I consider the most inestimable.
For, sir, I see vast "wheat-fields" represented on this map in the
immediate neighborhood of the buffaloes and the Piegans; and though the
idea of there being these immense wheat-fields in the very heart of a
wilderness, hundreds and hundreds of miles beyond the utmost verge of
civilization, may appear to some gentlemen as rather incongruous, as
rather too great a strain on the "blankets" of veracity, to my mind there
is no difficulty in the matter whatever.
Here, you will observe, are the buffaloes, directly between the Piegans
and Duluth, and here, on the right of Duluth, are the Creeks. Now, sir,
when the buffaloes are sufficiently fat from grazing on these immense
wheat-fields, you see it will be the easiest thing in the world for the
Piegans to drive them on down, stay all night with their friends, the
Creeks, and go into Duluth in the morning.
Sir, I might stand here for hours and hours and expatiate with rapture
upon the gorgeous prospects of Duluth as depicted upon this map. But human
life is far too short and the time of this House far too valuable to allow
me to linger longer upon the delightful theme. Nevertheless, sir, it
grieves my very soul to be compelled to say that I cannot vote for the
grant of lands provided for in this bill.
Ah, sir, you can have no conception of the poignancy of my anguish that I
am deprived of that blessed privilege! There are two insuperable obstacles
in the way. In the first place, my constituents for whom I am acting here
have no more interest in this road than they have in the great question of
culinary taste now perhaps agitating the public mind of Dominica as to
whether the illustrious commissioners who recently left this capital for
that free and enlightened republic would be better fricasseed, boiled, or
roasted; and in the second place, these lands which I am asked to give
away, alas! are not mine to bestow.
My relation to them is simply that of trustee to an express trust. And
shall I ever betray that trust?
Never, sir! Rather perish Duluth! Perish the paragon of cities! Rather let
the freezing cyclones of the bleak Northwest bury it forever beneath the
eddying sands of the raging St. Croix.
NATURE'S WILDERNESS COMPASSES.
Some Simple Facts Concerning Woodcraft Which Will Enable Wanderers in a
Forest to Get Their Bearings and Find Their Camps.
With the coming of vacation time, men's thoughts turn to woods and
streams, and there is a general rush for "the tall timber."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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