Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1881-06-25
JUNE 25, 1881.
DUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.
WASHINGTON, June Is, 1881.

ant IdCtS tUat uccu 10 pc COLSlucTcO ny
the managers Of trunk lines of railroads
terminating at tide water. There has
recently been a large diversion Of grain
from st. Louis by the Mississippi River
route to New Orleans for export. This
competition appears effective in the ac-
tual diversion Of traffic with respect to
grain shipped in bulk from st. Louis to
New Orleans and thence shipped in
bulk to Europe. 1t is found this compe-
tition, or regulating influence Of the
Mississippi River, is exerted almost ex-
clusively through commercial forces Of
st. Louis. The forthcoming report will
embrace an elaborate statement in re-
gard to commercial, industrial and
transportation interests Of the city Of
Cincinnati as illustrative Of the condi-
tons governing the internal IN
Of the country. 1t is alleged by those
interested ia the carrying 'utes to the
seaboard that shipments cannot be pro-
titably made via New Orleans, and that
corn shipped in vessels in that hot
climate is inevitably damaged by heat
ing. Be that us it may, n e thing is
certain transportation and cost Of hand
ling must be brought to "A minimum fig
ure il the cities Of the east continue to
maintain their commercial supremacy,
New Orleans, Guymas, San Francisco
and Portland in the neal future by their
railroad connections are ia be strong
competitors for the foreign trade and
the question of cost is to determine ut
what point and how shipments are to be
made.
The people of the country should not
think that the ''star route" scandal is
confined to the few routes hat have
been made public or that General
Brady by expediting routes has done
any different from his predecessors for
the last forty years. The truth is the
people are responsible primarily and
they alone, for every dollar appropriate
ed to make up the deficiency in the
revenues of the post Office department.
But for the action Of the people the
postal system would bring an actual
revenue to the government. Let me
illustrate. The town of Podunk and
Squauky Hill, have a semi-weekly mail,
bringing 100 letters each week, the
people being entirely satisfied. The
contractor, Mr.. Wide Awake having
rasNl0ra1 noSs,t;o1 carv;,a IN e,o,,.
the nomination, and hnrralied ut The
election of the Hon. Obed Goodenough
conceives the idea Of an expedite |"
service between the aforesaid important
towns. A petition is started by Mr..
Wide Awake asking for a daily mail,
the towns are growing. the people think
it is n big thing and Of course Uncle
Sam will pay the expense, and the petit
ton is signed by everybody and is sent
the Hon. Member who remembers tie
distinguished services rendered by his
constituent, Mr.. Wide Awake and forth
with he endorses thereon his recon-
mendation that the route be at once
expedited" and thenceforward the $50
letters are scattered through II daily
mail and Mr.. Wide Awake draws his
pay for carting empty mail pouches,
from our generous Uncle Sam. Gentle
reader this picture is not overdrawn but
represents thousands of mail routes and
no state in the Union is excepted.
"Will it tip over Or 60 through into
China ?" said an old Yankee as he look
ed at the uprising shaft of Washington
Monument TO- 1872 feet high. If this
ponderous shaft now strikes the behol-
der with amazement, what will it not do
when, with three years of steady work,
laying the stone at the rate Of two and
one-half courses per week the work is
actually completed. This shaft Of
marble and granite, topped with a
pyramidal roof Of iron covered with
beaten glass, will then reach the enor
nous ,aeisi.s os-s.4 feet. -making il the
highest structure erected by man.
Some faint idea of the meaning of this
term 900 feet high, is gained by citing
the heights Of the celebrated structures
of the world. The Pyramid of Cheops
is 480 feet; st. Peters, Rome, 457 feet (;
S%trausburg Cathedral, France, 465 feet r
the Cathedral at Cologne. 524 feet; st.
Stevens, Germany, All feet; Salisbury
Spirc, England, 404 feet; st. Paul's,
London, 365 feet; Capitol at Washing
ton, BOG feet; Bunker Hill Monument,
Boston, 221 feet; Washington Monu-
ment, Baltimore, 1913 feet.
It's erection is the carrying out OLA
work Of engineering greater in magni-
tude than anything ever before attempt
ed. When the monument reaches 500
feet will it not fall? is the question that
most every one asks. The only thing
that will effect the stability Of the
structure is the wind, and this is the
,nly factor that enters into the calcula-