INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STATE.

The water system of the Stare.—­Its pure atmosphere.—­Violations of hygienic laws.—­A mixed population.—­General features of the country.—­Intelligence of the population.—­The bountiful harvests.—­Geographical advantages.

The interest attaching to the State of Minnesota, as compared with other of the Western States, is two-fold.  While all are well known for their great fertility and prosperity, Minnesota alone lays special claim to prominence in the superiority of her climate.  How much this may be due to her peculiar geographical position is not wholly evident, but its influence must be great; and it is important to observe that the position of the State is central, being, in fact, the very heart of the continent.

It is likewise remarkable for the vast water systems which have their origin within its boundaries, and their outlet through three of the great interior valleys, namely, the Red River, northward to Hudson’s Bay; the St. Lawrence, eastward through the lakes; the Mississippi River, southward, and all having one grand terminus where, through the powerful agency of the great river of the ocean, the “Gulf Stream,” their reunited waters are borne away to the tropics, again to be returned, in gentle rains, to this central and elevated plateau known as the State of Minnesota.

Since the first settlement of the State it has become gradually known as possessing an extremely salubrious climate.  There was no scientific or official board of weatherwise people to proclaim the advantages of this young State, either in this or any other particular; but, by a continued succession of extremely favorable reports from the early settlers immigrating from adjoining districts, and from unhealthful and malarious localities in the older and more eastern States, her reputation steadily increased until the sanitary fame of this “far northwest” is now coextensive with its civil history.

The chief characteristics of a healthful climate are pure atmosphere and pure water.  These are seldom found in conjunction, except in the temperate latitudes; though there are a few localities in the sub-tropical regions where these conditions may be found, such as Fayal, off the coast of Spain; the high altitudes of some of the Bahama and Philippine islands; also at San Diego in California; and likewise at St. Augustine, on the east coast of Florida.  There are others which do not as readily occur to us at this writing.  These two elements are always absolutely necessary to insure a good degree of health, but they do not secure it; quite far from it, as is well known, since the most careless observer must have noticed the varying sanitary degrees of localities in temperate latitudes, that are even contiguous to each other; the one, perhaps, being highly malarious, while the other is measurably