Chelsea Is Still A Thriving Village

CHELSEA IS STILL A THRIVING VILLAGE

The Grass Lake News man is nothing if not a humorist. About the only live thing in Grass Lake, he has long derided Chelsea, while Chelsea has been forging rapidly ahead, being in many ways the liveliest and most thriving village in Michigan. Hence these tears! The Grass Lake News this week says:

"Anson Patchin made his last mail delivery at Sharon last Saturday, and on Tuesday James O. Raymond took out letters and other mail matter to rural patrons on the newly opened route southeast of Grass Lake. Meantime the excitement over the heavy loss of mail patronage and business generally consequent upon the new order of things, has arisen to a white heat in Chelsea. Traveling men bring word that tradesmen in that village only buy goods from hand to mouth, as they are justly fearful that their chief trade, that from the south and southwest, is lost to them for all time. It is even hinted that some of the poor fellows are casting about for other fields, the future has such an unpromising look; while all are reducing their help and cutting down expenses in every possible way. On the other hand, here in Grass Lake the merchants are laying in heavier fall stocks than ever before and already a marked increase in business is noted from the neighborhoods favored with rural mail delivery. The News feels much sympathy for Chelsea in its retrogradation and decline, as it is really a pretty little hamlet, but the laws of trade are ' inexorable and its eyes are 'sot.' "