The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-09-30
THE NORTH PACIFIC.

So frequently have we been informed as to
the precise date when this line was to push
across the Montana boundry, but only to be
disappointed-so often have we been warned
to prepare for the good times coming in the
wake of the first N. p. locomotive, only to
find things following the same old routine
year after year-that the promises of the
North Pacific men have come at length to be
regarded pretty much as the prophecies of the
Millerites-as something very likely to come
to pass some time OF other, but at a period so
remote as to possess but little interest for
those now on the stage of life. Eight years
ago the building of a north and south line to
Montana was looked upon as a dream whose
future realization was Of extreme uncer-
tainty, while at the same'tilne the public ear
"as on the alert to catch the first notes of the
whistle as the North Pacific sent its trains
across our eastern boundry. In all schemes
stretched forth towards the Northern Pacific,
scarcely so much as a word of encourage
ment being vouchsafed the Missionaries who
suggested a line to start from the trans-con-
%tinental road and penetrate Montana. Towns
were enlivened by the prospect of the imme-
diate coming of the line, a newspaper was
established as its Fore Runner, and Montana
complacently awaited the era Of her railroad
prosperity. But evil days came. With the
financial crash of '73 the man who had at
o.,, 1>a. A. l.s:. o.l -, ~, 81 49, Noutl,,-,
Pacific went down in the general ruin,
and as in the case with all demi-gods Of
the masses, when once he fell no pit of oblo-
guy could be found deep enough to suit those
who formerly could find no pedestal sufi-
GENTLY high upon which to elevate him.
Jay Cooke fell and with him fell the North
Pacific as far below par value of its stock as
Cooke had sunk below par in the estimation
of his former admirers. With a corporate
body as with the individual, when once its
character becomes the object of well founded
suspicion, there is scarcely any limit to our
credulity in any bad rapport concerning it;
scarcely any abyss in our disesteem to which
it canno sink, no matter cow highly we may
Pi>NiooSiy hoN ANS IL ho IlldUGCi IO"
much we may have thought of it. Thus it
happened that from one extreme to the other
from the extreme represented by a three
million dollar subsidy, almost granted, to that
expressed in popular mistrust or even for
getfulness the Northern Pacific swiftly
passed in the public estimation. We paused
not to ask ourselves if the railroad field ahead
of it was not fully as inviting as ever; we
never thought of inquiring whether it's land
grant was apt to rise or decrease in value as
soon as the panic was over, but instead we
turned to the new candidate for favor, the
Utah Northern, which, almost unnoticed, had
crystalized from a visienary's dream to the
reality of a well equipped narrow gauge push
ing rapidly towards Montana's southern line.
But here the old story will be repeated,
only that this time it is the Northern Pacific
whose unlocked for advance suddenly chal-
lenges our attention. While all ewes are
fixed upon the Utah Northeln-while Mon
tana with her population of 10000, and with a
pardonable egotism is INDUCING in the pleas
ant fancy that any course she may elect to
take can possibly exert much effect upon that
game of giants, the game whose board is a
conference.-the all this is going on the
North Pacific suddenly calls s'attention' and
the immediate advance into Montana is an
nounced as the next move to be taken. And
such reports come not only from the officers
of the company. They are supported by
work actually done on the line by contracts
entered into for it's further extension, and
more particularly by the financial articles of
the eastern press. The N. Y. Herald of Sept.
18th thus speaks of North Pacific r. r. stock:
''There is a new movement to-day in North
Pacific shares aud bonds. As a speculative Sc
curity little Or nothing has been known about
the property since Jay Cooke made his fiasco
in it. Until lately dealings in both stocks and
DO nds have been confined to the Philadelphia
market. Within a few months past, how
ever, it has been admitted to the New York
Stock Exchange, and parties who have taken
the trouble to look into it have discovered
that, with its former legal embarrassments
burnt and purged away, it is really one of
the 'cleanest'-to use the financial phraseology
of the street of the railroad stocks on the
market. ...
We have only to possess cur souls in
patience, and 1880 will mark the beginning of
Montana's railroad era.