Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-11-16
LETTER FROM DAKOTA.
ELK Po1NT, D. T., Oct. %, is


EDITOR CHRONICLE The prairie:
west Of the Little Sioux river, in
Iowa, have not a very inviting look
as one passes through them on a train
on the Dubuque and Sioux City rail
road. A scarcity of timber. of run
ming streams, of anything, indeed
to break the monotony Of the level
plain, make them an uninteresting
country to pass through. But few
settlers shanties are seen. Half the
land is granted to the railroad, and
much Of the balance was bought uT
by spectators Lefore settlers began tC
come into this part of the country,
consequently the houses are scatter
ing and the depOts are lone buildings,
with perhaps a grocery near and a
farm house in sight.
This scarcity of population is not
owing to any defect in the soil, but TO
the fact of the land being held by the
railroad and spectators. The policy
of the government, in allowing any
of the public domain to be sold 10
other than settlers, is questionable at
least. Emigrants do not wish to set
Z tie where there is much land owned
I by nOn-residents they prefer tO 20
further from a railroad than to live a
Robinson Crusoe sort of life on an
island of homestead, surrounded by a
sea of speculatOrs' and railroad lands,
that will not, likely, be settled for
years. 1t is encouraging to know
that now the movement seems to be
in favor of keeping the public land
from market and dispOsingof it only
TO homesteaders and pre-empters-
men VINO settle their land and do some
thing toward developing the country,
instead of acting the dOg-in-the-man-
ger part of the land speculatOr.
may be wandering from my text,
but cannot forbear, at this place, of
saying word regarding land-grants
to railroads, whilst am speaking of
the public lands. The great want of
the west is railroads. At the east, the
reader Of this paper will realize how
indispensable, almost, they are. Here
at the west they are much more so;
for here not only do the inhabitants
depend on them to a greater extent
for fuel and building material; but
moreover their productions are more
bulky, grain constituting the greater
IIart, thus making a railroad dOubly
necessary. But the country is too
poor TO build them and the policy Of
the government has been to grant
them large tracts of land 10 aid
in constructing. Without question
these grants have often been unwisely
large, and the people of the east reas-
Onably protested against the squan-
dering Of the government domain.
But the reaction has carried Congress
and the people as far in the other
extreme, and instead of making no
i1ljudiciOus land-grants, they make
none at all, and the wheels of emigra-
tiOn are blocked. The people should
realize that If the grant il judiciOus,
theagOvernmenu loses nothing in a
money point of view; for as land
grants are now asked, the railroad but
gets every other section, Ia section is a
mile square, and the land which is
thus left the government, near the
railroad, is sold, much more readily /
at $3.50 per acre, instead of Sl.25, the /
usual price; or if homesteaded, the /.
settler gets eighty acres instead OF one /
hundred and sixty. So the govern /
ment literally gives without impOver- l
ishing. If the east could once realize /
this, they would not, / think, con-
denim all grants of lands TO railroads. /
/ should not thus have tried the /
patience OF yourself and readers, Mr.. ]
Editor, but for seeing the platform of
your Republican State Central Com 4
mittee, against any granting of lands /.
tO western railroads. Be generous in |
this matter, eastern friends. The time
may come when you will want a lift /
at your tariff from the west.
As we near the Missouri, the surface
il more rolling and the country more
thickly settled. Soon it grows too !
rolling for cultivation, the wave-like |
bluffs and ridges looking like i'm /
mense snowdrifts by the roadside, |
after a winter storm. Then the hills /
part little, and we see in the open /
ing, Sioux city, and beyond, the I
Missouri, with its steamboats, lying /
at the levee. Over the river, on the I
Nebraska side, the land is low and 4
for some distance from the /
stream; but on the Iowa side, the /
bluffs above and below the town rise, |
bare and bold, two or three hun |
dred feet in height. The Missouri, |
which above this place has a south
easterly course, here makes a bend /
to the south, thus leaving Sioux 1
City the nearest point, on the upper |
Missouri, to the east. Several rail- |
roads terminate here, also, and it is
the point from which most of the |
troops and supplies for the up-river"
forts are shipped. The goods which /
Uncle Sam gives the Indians, too, are
mostly transferred from rail TO boat at /
this point. This method OF hiring
" LO. the poor Indian to be good 1
boy, by feeding and clothing him al
Uncle Sans expense, is a rather costly |
way of keeping him quiet-nor is it |
always effectual. The papers are sell |
dom without some story Of Indian |
outrage. A few cavalry regiments /
would be more successful in pacifying
the mobile red men," than the sup
plies which several steamboats, are
employed carrying to them from this I
place. Sioux City's name and fame |
has gone abroad through the land, I
and vet il Is q place not much, il any, .
larger than Warren. These western 4
towns are larger on paper than in 1
reality. Omaha, for INSTANCE, in the |
east, was supposed to be a little smaller /.
than New York. The census gives it /
a population Of seventeen thousand, l
(about one-third that of Cleveland } |
and so with most Of these western /
towns. But il must be admitted that |
in enterprize they are far ahead OF
those east. Here, in this city, are two /
weekly and two daily papers. whole /
sale houses in every branch Of trade,
and brag and bluster enough for half .
the cities in the State.
For the first time ! realize that I 4
am approaching the frontier. The I
sign, "GOld Dust Bought" the up I
river men in half civilized costume,
the occasional Indian seen on the
streets. show that we are not far from
Il