The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1865-10-14
The Pacific Territories and their Popu-
1atiOns


three per cent. of its population during th
lpast four years. The decrease in population
has been principally in the mining counties
but the consequent destruction of the marke
for agricultural products has materially in
Ijured the agricultural counties, in turn caus
ing them to diminish in population and pro-
auctions
This rapid falling off of the population O
the interior must eventually produce seri
Gus impression upon San Francisco. As
long as the transmigrations were simply
across one range of mountains, as from CAL
ifornia to Washoe or Esmeralda, it was i'm
material The source of supply was still the
same. When Reese River was added to the
list of 81 Dorados, the supplies were drawn
from the Bay the Oregon mines, through
the Columbia, were furnished from the same
lsource; but when the gates of the Rocky
Mountains were thrown open by the eager
thousands pressing into the new Territory Of
Montana, thronging the streets of Salt Lake,
and prospecting for basins and gulches in
Eastern Idaho, the sense of dependence upon
the markets of San Francisco was sensibly
diminished. AS the field of exploration is
annually enlarged, and the distance from the
-radiating point continues to increase, the
commercial grip which that city has held
upon the stomachs and tastes Of the people
is weakened. Already the furthest wave Of
emf gration stands upon the dividing line be-
tween the commercial domains of San Fran
cisco and st. Louis. And still the human
current flows steadily to the eastward, losing
but little of its volume by hefriction of eth
er time or distance. The heightened chain
of mineral discoveries which is yearly en-
larging, link by link, continues to charm the
busting crowd, as with an Arabian sorcery,
away from the tide-waters to the uplands of
the East and North.
But while the forces which impel these
may carry them beyond heancient
commercial influence, these new Territorial
populations will never lose their peculiar,
distinctive character. It is singular COM
bination of good and evil, ofruggedness and
of energy and capacity min !
gled with love If social ease and pleasure
ofthrift, sel6shness, and of generosity. Phys
ologists affirm a connection between the in
lividual and the soil upon which he lives.
That being dust himself he partakes of the
nature of that earth from which be draws his
ubsiStance. 1t is probably true, to a C er tain
xtent; and it is undoubtedly true that as
very individual is possessed of certain traits
Which give him distinctive character among
zen, so every city, and every community,
cquires character as remarkable, and as
eculiarly its own. California has it In
marked degree. The explorations, the set
ements, and the organizations of these
nstrations of its unceasing enterprise. 1t :
as made this Pacific coast ring with its in q
uStry. California has in fact conquered the
acifc Coast and the Rocky Mountain region.
Three quarters of the great trains penetra-
ng these gloomy forests, and skirting the
ceary deserts, with the rising sun in their I
'es, are old Californians. They have been
e first "to plant the rose of beauty on the
ow of chaos. to explore and people 2
untry as great in extent as all Europe, over T
e map of which, as school boys, they traced a
tn wondering awe the words, "Unexplored I
gion.n That State has been the hive which :
8 sent out its annual swarms. What thu :
nth of Europe was to the Roman provinces 0
lat England is to the world, what the New I
lgland States have been to the West Cali ;
mia has been, and still is, to the country B
,st of he great Plains. Nature piled up
e Sierras on the Eastward, seeming to say
'hese are thy limits" constitutions and
enactments combined to deter :
me her latitude and longitude,-but break
g over all these, her people have swept in =
ccessive waves over every adjacent district
I'M Durango to the Yellowstone. She has :
nquered by the force of numbers, and by "
onderful energy which seems to acquire the
,ength which it oyercomes: and through "
+ tens-of- thousands Representatives main .,
ms an imperial influence undreamed ofby IN
ain, France or England, in the days of their Il