Richland beacon., 1873-07-26
THE BORDER OF CIVILIZATION


THE BORDER OF CIVILIZATION
Asm%msr Trip 90 the TsrmInu. Of III,
ITS POpulance.
lGeorge Alfred Townsend.l
About eight o'clock in the evening
broad daylight, we came to Bismarck
an assemblage of canvas-tents, plank.
honses, turf-huts, military structures
Of frame and log, with folt-like i'm.
closure, and a broad plaza, Spanish.
fashion, between the railroad and the
town, on which the entire population
was assembled to hail the new arrivals.
In the enormous expanse of this Da-
kota country, the hilarity of the Bis
marckers and the sizable bulk of their
town affected me like the most solitary
place l had ever known. To see, in
this far corner of the world, two hun
dred miles from any. settlement worthy
of the name, and Immediately opposite
hostile bands of indians who had taken
scaIps the day before, the huddled ava
rice, enterprise and r. rtfianism of civili-
zatiOn standing Gallously out in the van.
was somewhat like a presentiment Of
the day Of Judgment. Omnipotent,
ubiquitous nature was all before them,
and on either side and yet the bully of
the slums, and his Mo1l beside him
the old army-suttler; a little the worse
for his probation the shiftless negro
barber. who has come MS fara he dhfed,
and, with all his record, was permit. ed
twenty times a day TO lay his razor at a
gentleman's throat the great duief
gambler, from the gulf whom every
body in the Mississippi Valley has
sometimes seen, now smoking his cigar
in front of his premises, where, per
haps, forty sweat-clOths invited the
stranger; here was sOcietys refuse
mixed with many men of official posi- |
tion and deliberate purpose, 100 miles
northwest of Chicago, and the nearest |
ncighbors of the Sioux!
In this town, there was no law or ju-
r'sdiction whatsoever. There was no
mayor. There was not even vigilance
committee. The territory of Dakota
has as yet taken no steps to extend its
to this new town.. And the
authority, close at hand, had
made up their minds that what hap
pcned among the civilians of Bismarck
was nose of their business, and. there
fore, nobody has been arrested for fipht.
ing or shooting. But there NAV have
been something in the very loneliness of
this colony which kept crime down and
il. - Perhaps the conscious
ness OF the laws nOn-existence made
even the criminal feel unprotected.
Certainly more subdued settlement of
the kind ] have never found in our
,o,lntry. All the desperadoes who had
QfesteJ the Union Pacific Railroad. and
lad survived'suchs q lapse of time, were
lere at Bismarck; but, with the excep-
ION OF two or three scuffles of no con-
cquence. life had been safe and proper.
y secure. The organic spirit of the
american, uncxercised, but still extant.
made law in Bismarck without q code
II magistrate.
- rAvEns. r. = ~ -
Right opposite the place where the
.rs stop, saw new sign, "The Capt.
d i.Otel." .f
Therein was . register, a. barbers
hair, aia, and well-spoken proprei-
or. Carpet -hags lay in terraces against
he paper sides of the room. Supper
Tas smoking at the inner table where
7Omen from New England were doing
he cooking; and the, men who, handed
on the dishes had aims like ship-car-
enters. ,Miatt4t1'I /
MISSOURI. al
pper, we strolled down to the ,
about mile from the town
nd right across the way WAS Fort Abra-
am Lincoln, an. imposing post, with G
,ng barracks and quarters of painted a
imber, . parade ground, fortifcations Z
nd landing. Standing on high bluff
the riser thirty miles. la
Tho Missouri river rolled beneath, g
(erly N wide as at Omaha, q great, d
Rawing red-man's river, full of oxide q
mife. living, rs IL rolled along, n
~ its uwu hanks, biting concavities g
'om tthem. 40 that they fell, and il
paa.hed, and were borne away every Il
q u the year. II seemed to me to be q
.tnref greatest gutter around which O
"a assemb-d her red canaille to Il
AK the feet IN her pools and eddies, o.
no meqitate grand larceny on civiliza- Y
- river tawnv and bemired like il
.m iMl 1000 miles, Il had vet de- m
oeo from some Of the sublimest n
erles m the world, and beoun its n
uAder the best motherhoed but D
een spoiled by the length Of its .,
No longer theshughinex ,I.en. !"
!pg Nhich drew its milk from th. =.
re Of the Yeliovstone. ~ 10
fe the gold vsins bsyond 0slsr -
= cataract, il has become -. w
bavy and hea6hen, like ths.at :.
a Of ". rtains, whose or;- - -
Pe No 49, than ouss e .