A MODEL CITY

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8294, 24 September 1903, Page 4

A MODEL CITY

The American correspondent of tlie Dunedin Star writes:- 1 - . Shenandoah is a lovely little city of nearly 4000 inhabitants, who are all well-to-do have fat bank accounts, are up to date 'in every particular and are quite as proud as they are contented. It looks like a New England town, and is settled with New England people. The residents ra nearly all of American birth. There are no foreigners except a few Swedes, who are employed in the nurseries There are no saloons, and everybody testifies that no liquor is sold surreptitiously at the drug stores. Therefore tliere is no disorder, no crime, no vice, no poverty, and nothing for the criminal courts to do. There are , no police, because fhey are not needed, and the money that other towns pay for such purposes is here expended on the schools. There are three banks "with more than a million dollars of deposits.. There is a telephone for every eight inhabitants in the tow, and a total of 2000 tetephoMs in the county for a population of ,44,1b/. This is one telephone for every twelve inhabitants, men, women arid children, or an, average of one for every third _ house in Countv. I doubt if there is any other county in the United States so well equipped for purposes of communication, but the transportation facilities are short. There are -plenty of horses and carnages but no trolley lines. Plans have been formed for a general system of trolleys to connect the principal towns in the county, and it is expected that they will be built in a short time. Some years before Shenandoah existed, Bayard Taylor, the famous poet, author, journalist, and traveller, crossed this part of lowa. It was then unbroken prairie, occupied by Indians, prairie chickens, and sad-eyed does. Standing upon a hill near the site of the city, Mr Taylor, gazing across the valley of the Nish-na-bot-na-Biver, he declared that the landscape was the most beautiful that he had ever seen. It has not changed since then, except that here and there have sprung up groups of houses and groves of trees. The other city of importance in the same county is Clarinda. Like Shenandoah it is beautiful for situation!, occupying a rolling prairie, with shaded streets 160 ft wide, well-kept lawns, comfortable homes, an imposing county house, two model hotels, several banks with deposits of over a million dollars. It is not often that one finds a superabundance of good things, yet that phenomenon sometimes occurs in lowa, and here you find it in the shape of fourteen churches for a population of 4000 people, which, by an easy calculation, is an average of one church to every 300 people. Although, the people of lowa are scrupulous in observing their religious duties, and give generously of their abundant means, it is scarcely possible for any community to support so many pastors in a proper manner: The same maybe said of many towns out-here. In' Shenandoah; there are- thirteen churches for a. population' of 39P0at .the last census, : and:m which contains .t&'ilatest. complete,Jstatis-: tics' I have .been" able there were chui-ehes . for "a ;populationi.-:6f 21,341, an average of one church.>forj;eye<ry 350 men, women, "and children, saints and sinners included. If you assume.that there is an average of five members to a family, this, makes : only., seventy families-1« a church, and. it is : tp_say that the non-church-going at least. 25 ;per .cent, .of ihe: Deducting; them,: you have left a, little more than fifty; families to a.'churc&T The town spossesses; a public library, thanks to Mr Garntegie'e gift of £2OOO for atouilding. ~J:/,a : " ' ;