The Town and Country Club of St. Paul 
Some Country Clubs of the Northwest 
By MARY HODGES 
L a SALLE, proudly wrapped in his “scarlet 
cloak edged with gold,” and bearing authority 
from Louis XV to prosecute his plans of dis¬ 
covery, would surely record it as a charming spot, 
should he skim down the Mississippi river to-day in 
his birch batteau, passing the site ol the “Town and 
Country Club ol Saint Paul.” A site indeed which 
no longer than fifty years ago was put down 
on a school-boy’s map as “ A region inhabited 
by Indians and Buffaloes.” Lor here, on a spot 
so recently wrested from the savage that the smoke 
ol the log fire almost lingers in the vale, has 
arisen, Aladdin-like, a prototype ol an old world 
civilization. 
By some whirl and' eddy of wild waters and gla¬ 
ciers in eons past, this picturesque site was formed 
and the tiny springs now gurgling gladness to the 
thirsty gollers on the unusually beautiful links, then, 
no doubt, poured their greater volume into that 
mighty stream. 
On a wooded bluff ol the Mississippi—wooded 
with magnificent specimens ol oak and elm and 
maple trees, was built in 1888 the first country club 
ol the Northern Middle West; a blulF closely sodded 
with a grass very like the blue-grass of Kentucky; a 
bluff' where the luxuriant kinnikinic hedge thrives 
—-lending an added charm to a spot to which Nature 
was so lavish in the beginning ol time. 
The country being new, no old estate was remod¬ 
eled, as is so often the case when country clubs are 
projected; hut in a lorest almost primeval, this very 
artistic house was built; the interior of which is quite 
as attractive as the exterior. 
Lrom the high brick chimney piece in the living- 
room which occupies the whole center of the build¬ 
ing, a huge log fire blazes out in winter, a welcome 
quite as enticing as the grass and trees and murmur¬ 
ing water of summer. 
The golf course, of eighteen holes, is one of the 
most interesting in America; the names of the holes 
—“The Birches,” “Springs,” “Shelter,” “Ram¬ 
parts,” “ Billows,” “ Boomerang,” etc., suggesting 
at once the natural characteristics of the surround- 
ings. 
Skirting the course here and there are clumps of 
trees through which perhaps a shaded path gives a 
short cut to a teeing ground; a path beside which 
one may find perchance a crystal spring. “ The 
Pergola” (sheltered as it is by a miniature arbor), 
or “ The Basswood,” a sparkling Ireshet bursting 
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