The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-11-15
The number of boats engaged in the trade

otoIc oii IHlFu street, costing Rz,ZOU Is lcaS-
ed for five years at ST 500 pr year.
| A stone house on the same street, costing
about Sc, 600 is leased for five years at So =
| 500 per year. And third on another street,
costing l. 600, is rented for 5000.
Choice dwelling houses bring 5000. Small
ones costing 5000, rent for $500.
Still smaller, costing $500, bring $3.50
without difficulty.
Persons engaged in building houses to rent
inform me they can make from 25 to IS per
cent. upon their investments, according to
the character of the building and the cost of
| the groul d.
| We have actually built about 100 stores
here this season, many of them costly and
substantial and even this enormous supply
thrown upon our market has not glutted it,
but our young and vigorous city has devour-
cd the whole like cormorant, and with un
appeased appetite still cries out for more,'
and there being scarcely,a store left, Gf in
deed there be a single one to be rented }
for love or moncy-the demand is still not
supplied.
Tire number of dwellings, large and small,
erected this season, has been variously csti-
mated at from 600 to 1000, and yet no class
of persons find SO much difficulty in sup
plying their wants as those who I" wish to
rent house."
The eXtravagant per centage indicated by
the above figures will shock my old fogy
friends, | am certain, and be denounced as
too great an imitation to last. But those who
have marked the progress OF Western towns
and arc posted, know that immigration gen
orally keeps pace with improvement, and
nscqnently the supply of houses rarely en-
cec'ls the demane.
But there are special grounds, pre-emi-
nently peculiar to St. Paul. for believing that
these high figures will continue to rule, and
o ir town to go on and prosper. Her natu-
raj advantages are the very best of any town
in the country, to make her large CONNER
cal city. With these alone. and with
scarcely any surrounding population, she
h Us in eight years, grown from an Indian
w.gwam into thriving city of 10000.
Bling the natural point of transhipment
from the larger steamboats, running below to
the smaller ones adapted to the rivers above,
and west of us, she has an area of trade
(acihoW q rical,) as great as that of the Miss
issipp Valley from St. Louis to st. Paul, EN-
bracing the country from the Lakes to tie
Rel Biver and Pembina, 700 miles above us,
where there is now thriving population de-
pen ent on St. Paul for its supplies, and
from thence to the fertile valleys of the Min
nesota river, navigable for small boats, in
high water, for 800 miles west of us-all
rapidly settling with hardy and industrious
pioneers.
Being at the head of navigation, and The
city Of the rth-West, she must be the
stem of all railroads, branch where they may.
Having by nature the commerce of the Mis-
sissippi, which bears upon its bosom the
wealth of the continent, she is now stretch
ing her arms to grasp the commerce of the
Lakes, and when the Superior Railroad is
finished, will make the country below, as
well as above, and west of her, pay tribute
as they trade and trvel eastward.
If thit is st. Paul with the avenues of bu-
siness just opening; the great thoroughfares
hardly commenced /; the fertile soil of the
Territory almost unbroken; its immense
mineral resources undeveloped and its ma
nufactories in embryo it is surely not too
sanguine to predict, that her future will be
at least equal to her past, when all this vast
machinery of her power is in full play, and
impelled by the very momentum acquired by
the prestige of her past brilliant career.
The prices of property here are very I'M
Q lual, and discrimination, prudence and
foresight are necessary in buying to advan-
tage. f5 z "'
1t is great mistake, however, to suppose
that property is too high here though croak-
crs have charged this for five years past
For instance, central dwelling lots can be
bought for SIS to $40 per foot, so by $50
feet, and some lots which, in five years, will
be most popular business property, can be
had for Sss335 to $40 per OF. ~esa.o
These rates are very little if at all higher
than the ruling prices in almost every fourth
and fifth rate town in the older states, and
when it is considered that those towns are
generally finished cities" with dullness
and stagnation as the order of the day, and
that Saint Paul is SAINT PAUL-the empo-
rum of the North-West-with the inside
track in the race with all her rivals, (if any
she has, and with prestige for progress and
rapid growth second only to San Francisco,
our prices cannot properly be considered as
too high.
am informed, moreover, that business
lots in Keokuk, Davenport, Burlington, Du-
buque, and Galena, are 800 per foot high
er than at St. Faul.
But find that / am extending this letter
to too great a length, SO will close. AT some
future time may devote letter to the So
cial and political affairs of Minnesota, and to
matters and things in general. PIONEER.
E~ Nothing so heiChtenS q wOman's