The Portland daily press., 1870-08-23

THE FUTURE.
OF the future of Duluth it becomes one to
speak with some degree of caution. There
are those who have ''great expectations" in
relation to it; who see in this embryo city,
not the rival simply of Chicago, but the great
eclipser if not extinguisher of thes s"garden
city," l am one of those who don't see it.
To one ardent man 1 said, "Have you unfal
tering faith in Duuth?" rIIis reply was sig
nifcant: "Yes! for the neat t,oo gears r.
The great disadvantage of the place is its
total lack of back country to sustain it. Ex-
cept in small detached patches, there is no
land within hundred miles suitable for farm
ing purposes. 1t has no water power, and if
this want were supplied by steam, the lumber
manufactured would not pay except so far as
needed to supply the local demand. There
would be no available market for it. To send
it down to the, lake or to st. Paul would be
carrying Goals to Newcastle" True, to ihe
visitor, Duluth presents to-day a busy appear
ance, but one is led to ask, "after the Eleva-
tor, the Railroad and the Breakwater, what ?"
He sees very little demand for labor beyond
these, and these are fast approaching compile
ton. As for commerce, it is all inward with
nothing outward. The people subsist as ex-
clusively upon supplies brought in from with
out, as does the Light Keeper at Pond Island
or the garrison at Fort Gorges.
To me Duluth is the most contingent city
ever beheld. Its future hinges entirely upon ex
traneous doubtful things. If it could be made
the permanent terminus of the Northern Pa
cific Railroad, it would have solid basis to
rest upon. AT present it has no such guaran-
tee. An arrangement has been made, in con-
sideration of privileges granted By the L. S.
& M. Railroad, and the Duluth Land Co., to
make it the terminous during the sir qears
gifts construction; beyond this all is uncer-
tain. This is six years reprieve from total
collapse, which is time enough for the present
holders of property to make clean thing
Very few people believe the Northern Pacific
will ever run cars into Duluth on its own
track. Their operations have been COM
menced nearly thirty miles from Duluth,
south of the st. Louis river, and on the di-
rect line to Bay field, should the road be con-
tinued east in the same general direction that
it approaches the junction with the present
Lake Superior road. Bayfield, has the best
harbor on the Lake, and is soon TO have close
connection by rail with Milwaukee. The ex-
pense Of constructing line into Duluth
would nearly comp lete the line TO Bayfield,
which would be in the direct line o. an after
extension to Saut st. Mary, and thence, via
Saginaw and Sarnia, through the Grand
Trunk to Montreal, or via Ogdensburg to
Portland and other Atlantic ports.
1t is far more probable that a tar-seeing cor
poration will adopt this route, and thus Sc
cure auinter connection with the seaboard
and rail as we'll as water connection in sum-
mer, than to adopt Duluth as the terminus
and thus have only a water route TO the
ocean in summer, and lor SIX or seven months
be as eifectuaily ice blockaded as was ever Sir
John franklin or DR.. Kane in the Arctic seas
70 my mind, while Duluth may enjoy a mod.
crate prosperity tor the nexl five or six years
her permanent prosperity hinges upon an ex-
ceedingly doubtful ''if," the final solution o
(which Of which is not so very doubtful to the
mind of an OBSERVER.