Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-26
FARGO.

Y
An Enterprising Western City-Its Hotels
Its Business and Its Mud--The Railroads
and Future Prospects.
lRoaming Correspondence of the Globe
If one were to judge by the handbills cir
culated on the trains before reaching the city
the impression would be that Fargo had but
ono hotel and that (the Headquarters) the
best in the world. When, however, the
visitor has time to look about little he
finds that the Sherman, lately enlarged to
double its former capacity, under the genial
''Kissner," late of the Sherman of st. Paul.
and the Continental, large and commodioua
structure lately completed and under the
management of it's owner, Mr.. j. B. Chaplin,
Esq, are both houses that would do honor to
city of $4,000 inhabitants. The plan of ad-
vertising. however, alluded to is an excellent
one, thought strikes the stranger as being
somewhat exclusives the headquarters have
the monopoly of it. The other houses are,
however, having all the trade they can
handle and are fast becoming popular from
being removed a little from the roar and
crash of passing trains.
Fargo has begun to assume metropolitan
airs. From it's spacious hotels, First Nation
al bank with its army of clerks and ceaseless
rush of business, its large we'll stocked stores,
shops and agricultural depots, mammoth ele-
vators, vast railroad yards full of cars, and
its numerous elegant residences, all is sug-
gestive of thriving city. In viewing it
you are reminded of Chicago-either
from natural impulse or by the sugges.
ton of some enterprising citizen
who has spotted the "tender foot IN. B. This
is the appellat1on the visitor from the States
receives in all frontier towns), and has some
choice corner lots for sale. ssThis is the
city of the Northwest" s.We are graded in
the lap of Destiny and similar expressions
testify to the fact that its people have an
abiding faith in its future greatness.
Fargo bias mud par excellence. Not your
ordinary clay, but the genuine article, man
ufactured nowhere else on earth to such per-
lection. Soft as velvet, smooth as oil, mo-
bile and plastic as dough, and as adhesive as
glue, it sticks like Republican to post
Office. No effort will dislodge it,
and involuntarily you catch a
sort of shutting gait, cross
between run and slide. 1t builds
up underneath you, gaining new.accesions at
each successive step until you fancy yourself
upon stills. It is as free as air and as hard
to shake off as fit of the chills. There
are, however, good plank walks somewhere
when you get down to them so that absolute
burial on the main streets is not
probable, and after all this soil, SO fearfully
soft and sticky when wet, possesses pro-
ductiveness nowhere else surpassed.
The absolute railroad monopoly here is
all but broken. On the other side stands
the st. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba road,
ready 10 cross on the run as
soon as they get permission,
and whose grade is nearly all ironed
down the west bank to Grand Forks. This
line practically reaches there now and runs
its regular trains morning and evening, to
and from Moorhead, transferring to the
Fargo side by buss free. These two great
lines of road, the one mentioned and the
Northern Pacific, bind Fargo to the rest of
the world and will themselves build great
city.
/ Everything the people do is done more for
the future than the present. company
has been putting down water works at cost
Of $50, 900 on the Holly system. The city
to pay $4,000 per year rental and $500 for
every fire plug. very fine park almost
in the heart of the city attests the progress
sive state of things and the numerous fine
church and school edifces are certainly q
credit and an ornament. That the expeo
tations of its people in regard to its becom-
ing great commercial center will ever be
realized is on the whole hardly probable
st. Paul $50 miles distant with its prestige
and location as the head of navigation and
the great railroad center of the northwest
will prove too abble competitor although
light local jobbing traffic will possibly
spring up. Still the zeal and enterprise of
its people is commendable and is very heal
thy for any town, old or new.
Moorhead seems to be partaking little of
the generous prosperity which is visiting
Fargo, and number Of fine solid brick
buildings indicate that they still live.
No snow of any amount has as yet reached
this point, and although the frost king has
sealed the mud, Oet us hope for the winter, J
yet the cold has not been severe, and a
regular blizzard like the October one that
swept over southern Minnesota has not as
yet favored this valley. There will probably
be one or two, however, before the season is
over, by way of variety. No trouble need be
apprehcnded in reaching here during the
winter, though beyond may, like last winter,
be little uncertain. Anyway, we say,
"Hurrah for Fargo and may she prosper.