The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1876-03-30

What Il United States Onlccr
Says.

General Merritt, of the Military
Division of the Missouri, who has
Just returned from an investigating
tour to Red Cloud Agency, connect
ed with affairs of the Government,
has been interviewed by Chicago
Times reporter in regard to the Black
Hills. The opinion OF the General in
regard to this much pulled Eldorado,
are worth the consideration of those
who are looking in thas direction. He
said:
Now, mind you, ! don't say that
there is no gold there. There is gold
there, even in the area they have
opened up already ior mining purpos-
es. But it is a fact that the area in
which gold is found at present is so
limited that it wouldn't support one
half Of the the people who are there
already. The gold yield at the best
will not pay more than wages, and
wherever there seems TO be promis-
ing location it is already covered with
experienced and practical gold min
ers, with whom the crowds of people
going there could not possibly com
pete, even if they had chance
Away up north, now, it is asserted
that the region is more aurilerous.
but how are they going to get there
north Of Fort Fetterman with wild
bands of Sioux on every side? Gen.
Crook is after them now with large
force, and | think will give them
thrashing. But such an idea as go
iog a gold mining up there with
swarms of hostile Indians to meet
them is the most prepostcrous folly
that any lot OF too credulous people
ever took into their heads. Crazy
Horse, too, has gathered band of
young and moody redskins from Red
Clouds band and gone up north to
join the insurgents. Had they not
the conviction that large force was
after them to whip them, these NAL
contents would attack miners even in
the already cleared mining area.
X
Under the most favorable crcum.
stances the whole thing is a wretch
ed showing. Produce is high, and
the people cannot get enough to live
on. Besides, they are not used to
such country; work they cannot,
for they are not experienced miners,
and there is no other work for them
to do. They go out there as a for
lorn hope, totally unprovided with
the mears Of obtaining for reasona-
bic time the necessaries Of life, and
leaving the crowded cities from the
fear Of starvation, they find them
selves in a strange, bleak, inhospita-
bic country, face to face with the
certainty of starvation. The great
majority of the poor deluded people
going there are broken down city
people. Their dress, demeanor, and
habits prove it beyond doubt. Re-
cruited by these lying adventurers,
greedy to skin them out of what little
friends have contributed to sustain
their delusive hopes, they come from
Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and
other cities in parties of three and
four hundred, and when they arrive
at Laramie City, Sioux City, Sidney,
or any other of the depots in which
they are swindled and feeced by
these harpies for implements" ,""out-
fts," and what not, they find them
selves ushered into new country,
into what is for the most of them a
wholly impossible life, and they are
at their wits ends to preserve them
selves from starvation"
He states that he met as many peo-
pie coming as going. Speaking Of
the "ranchmen, stage-line people, and
and the fellows who make profitable