ST. PAUL, HOME OF THE SAINTS
717
of St. Paul was raised above the ancient sea." No man has done
more for St. Paul than James Jerome Hill, the empire builder. Here
we sing of Jim-not Joe- Hill. His pages in the D.A.B. at the public
library are thumbed and annotated-one feels that countless school
children, and elders too, have gone to them seeking inspiration and
guidance. His deeds and buildings and railroads live after him. (I had
meant to do some exhaustive research on Mr. Hill, but the public
library's copy of josephson's
The Robber Barons,
in which Mr. Hill
figures prominently, was in use, and the Hill Reference Library, which
he endowed, does not list the book.) Mr. Hill was not a Catholic, but
he paid for the St. Paul Seminary and contributed much to the
building of the Cathedral-doubtless remembering that Archbishop
Ireland had provided the immigrant settlers who in turn provided
the revenue for Mr. Hill's railroads to the coast. Mr. Hill's grandson,
serving his seventh term as a state representative, is said to be a small
chip off the old block; it is a little late in the day, even here, to try
to be more. The Hill mansion squats in stony gloom across from the
Cathedral, is now owned by the Church (a gift), is used for educa–
tional purposes.
III
I have met only one native who knew F. Scott Fitzgerald
here and when- and in his words: "He was a quiet neighborhood
boy; you know he moved away." My informant was present at the
party described in the story, "The Camel's Back," which Fitzgerald
explains was written "with the express purpose of buying a platinum
and diamond wrist watch which cost six hundred dollars." I thought
my informant
.a
little old to have known Fitzgerald as a contemporary
until I realized he was about the vintage to have been one of the
sad young men, and Fitzgerald himself, if living, would seem a little
old to have known himself.
Some of the stories of the period are set in St. Paul, usually with
no indication, sometimes under a thin disguise for no apparent reason.
(There
is
much to be said for keeping one's friends .and hometown out
of it, but Fitzgerald did the kind of job that would only hold up in
court.) Toledo in "The Camel's Back," not that it matters, is actually
St. Paul. It would
be
hard to think of Toledo at all
if
it were not in
the same baseball league with St. Paul, which, I submit, is how
