The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-13
THE GREAT NORTHWEST.

It's Advantages-An Excellent Address by
Judge Kelley-Important Statistics.
The riches of the great Northwest its i'm
mense deposits of minerals, its boundless
forests, its fertile lands, and its wonderful
climate are attracting the attention it de-
serves, and it was not surprising that last
evening the Academy of Music was crowded
by an intelligent audience to listen to the re-
marks of Judge Kelley and others in explana-
| ton of the business advantages of that impor-
tant section of our country. At O'Clock
| Governor Geary and General Robert Patter-
son, followed by Judge William d. Kelley
and others, appeared ON the stage, and we're
loudly applauded, the band playing 'Hail to
the Chief" Governor Geary was then called
upon to preside, after which the names of the
vice presidents and secretaries were read
On taking the chair the Governor made q
short address, stating that the object of the
meeting was to listen to an address illus
tratiDg some of the distinguishing physical
features of the country lying in them orth-
west and about to be traversed by the
Northern Pacific Railroad, which would event
ually become one of the feeders to the steam
ship line from Philadelphia to Europe.
Judge Kelley, the orator of the evening,
was then introduced, and began by the
remark that nothing bat the experience i'm
parted by actual observation of the country
in question could enable any one to conceive
fully the strange contrasts between the char
acteristics of the Atlantic and the Pacific por-
tions of our country, as exhibited in climate,
soil, and atmosphere.
Though that region of country had so long
been q matter of interest and the study of it
had afforded him SO much pleasure, each day
revealed new and strange conditions, and i'm
bued him with new sense, not only of the
extent Of our country, but of the grandeur
and infinite variety of its resources and the
benefcence and power of the Almighty in
adapting every portion of our vast country to
the sustenance and comfort of man. Facts
within the memory of some of the audience,
showed that the vast resources of the New
Northwest and its adaptibility to railroad pur-
poses were not as is sometimes intimated, of
recent discovery, but have long been known;
and that the route of the Northern Pacific
Railroad was that originally proposed, because
it was the shortest and best by which to con-
meet the seaboard at Baltimore, Philadelphia,
New York, Boston, and Portland with the
waters of Puget Sound and the commerce of
the ancient east, which is now the west, the
march of American ideas towards which is
illustrating again the truth that
"Westward the course of empire takes its way.n
After describing the difficulties which this
enterprise encountered at q time when but
few believed a railroad over the Alleghenies
was practicable, he continued
Let no man think that the Pacific Railroad
projected in 1916 was to run to San Francisco
or elsewhere than to the heart of the unor-
ganized territory of Oregon, which then
extended from the 42d to the 49th parallel of
| latitude, and embraced what is now the State of
| Oregon and Washington Territory, into which
| no settlers had yet gone. There was then no
| San Francisco. Not a cabin or hut stood
| within the now corporate limits of that beau
| tiful and prosperous city. California, Nevada,
| Arizona, and New Mexico were still Mexican
territory. Neither science nor observation
bad detected the vast deposits of gold and
silver, or the boundless agricultural resources,
of that vast region of country.
The great railroad centre of the West,
Chicago, had mott yet come into public view.
| The less than 10, 600 people who had gathered
at the confluence of the Chicago river with
Lake Michigan had no presentiment that the
swamp in which they dwelt would, in less
than twenty years, be filed up and raised
nearly twenty feet, to make the grade
| of the streets of the most enterprising
and remarkable city of the world of its age
Michigan then had population of less than
| 250, 900, and Wisconsin and Iowa each but
| 10000; and civilization had not yet pene-
trated the wide region then known as Mime
sofa Territory. where the census
takers, four years later, found but
6O3S people. In 1850 there were but 81, ,635
| people in California, which had then been
ceded to us by Mexico, and admitted to the
Union as State, and whose recently dis
covered deposits of gold had attracted immi-
grants from every cline. There was no gov
ernment in Kansas and Nebraska, that whole
fertile region being in possession of the
Indian and the buffalo. The name of that
busy centre of river and railroad commerce,
Omaha, had not been heard by English
speaking people, and the vast mineral, graz
ing, and agricultural region through which the
Union and Central Pacific Railroads are now
doing profitable and rapidly increasing bust
ness was noted by gesgraphers as the 'Great
American Desert" Philadelphia then had
no railroad connection with Pittsburg, Pitts
burg none with Cincinnati or Chicago, mol
any of them with st. Louis. But there are
many who, while admitting the vast extent OF
this territory and acknowledging the fact thai
it Iembosoms vast stores of gold, silver, coal
iron, copper, and other minerals, say that il
is unfit for the occupation of communities BY
reason alike of its latitude, its Typography
and the character of its soil and mountains
These objections are without foundation
Scientific exploration and experience unit,
in removing the doubts excited by such sug
gestions.
The speaker continued at great length, AM
was frequently applauded by the audience
whose interest in the subject did not seem t.
flag, although the evening was quite warm
and the female portion of the audience wer
compelled to use their fans vigorously, Ssleu
cius Garfielde, the delegate from Washingto
i Territory who was announced as one of tn
speakers, was absent in consequence of bein
, i'll, and Mr.. Kelley's address was therefore G
greater length than anticipated.