For nature is a great
instructor and purifier. As Talfourd says in that charming little
volume of Vacation Rambles, "to commune with nature and grow familiar
with all her aspects, surely softens the manners as much, at the
least, as the study of the liberal arts."
St. Cloud is favorably located on the west bank of the river,
seventy-five miles above St. Paul. It is just enough elevated to have
good drainage facilities, should it become densely populous. For many
years it was the seat of a trading post among the Winnebagoes. But the
date of its start as a town is not more than six months ago; since
when it has been advancing with unsurpassed thrift, on a scale of
affluence and durability. Its main street is surely a street in other
respects than in the name; for it has on either side several neatly
built three-story blocks of stores, around which the gathering of
teams and of people denotes such an activity of business as to dispel
any idea that the place is got up under false pretences. The St. Cloud
advertisements in the St. Paul daily papers contain the cards of about
forty different firms or individuals, which is a sort of index to the
business of the place.
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