The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-12-16
A Magnetic City to be Illuminated b.
Electricity.-How Small Figures, Wei
Displayed, Do their Work.

Magnetic City to be Illuminated by
DECENTRALIZATION Small Figures, Well
Displayed, Do their Work.
Quite a number of the old pioneer
families OF Wells, who have been famil-
lar with that lively little burg in all its
ups and downs for the past ten years,
are becoming detached from their "first
love" and infatuated with the mystic
city of the Great Northwest-Fargo.
NJ. N. Leland, the heaviest business man
of Wells, has gone to that city and cast
his lot with the busy, bustling tide that
is continually pouring in that direction.
NJ. w. Greene, the postmaster at Wells,
after spending four days at Fargo, alb
sorbing all the phenomenal stories ema-
mating from the imaginative minds of
its magnetized capitalists, gives vent to
his surcharged feelings in the following
portions of a letter to the Wells Aduocate::
Nine years ago the lands in the vicinity of
Fargo were included in an Indian reservation.
Now nearly every acre in Cass county has
been taken up, and from nothing Fargo has
grown to a remarkably brisk little city of six
thousand inhabitants. Its population has
doubled in the last year, and will double again
in the next year. Sustained by soil whose
fertility and productiveness are probably I'M
surpassed in the world, it may be seen at a
glance that the Fargo Of to-day is but the EN-
bryo of what il will become in the near future.
Already 1t is the center of four railroad divis-
ions. 1t has three or four large iirst-class
private banks with abundant capital. 1t is
the county seat of Cass county, and the larg-
est town in Northern Dakota, and the largest
In the far Northwest. A court house costing
$50, 900 willb erected during the coming year.
Contracts have already been made for the con-
structiOn of a school house at u cost of $4,000.
The former a. the expense of the county, the
latter at the expense of the city. Wholesale
houses in dry goods, groceries, hardware,
drugs and liquors have already been estab-
tablished and are doing well, and many Others
will follow in the jobbing trade next spring.
The city is furnished with an excellent tele-
phone system, and almost every prominent
business house and Office is supplied with an
instrument connected with the central Office,
and from there to every part of the city. A
| street railway is now in process of cOnstruc.
ton, and will run through the principal
| streets. A corporation has been organized
| for the purpose of lighting the town and Its
| business houses with electric light. Apparat
| us for this purpose has already been purchas
ed, and Is on the way from the east, and in
| ninety days the infant metropolis will be al
ablaze" with this product of the genius OF
| Edison. The city is supplied with water by
tho Holly water works, which has some sil
miles of pipe now laid, and have a capacity OF
100000 gallons per day. On the principa
street, business lots are worth from $50 t.
$500 per foot. Groceries and dry goods are
trifie higher than in Wells. Fuel of all kind
in abundance can be had at the same prices
as are paid in Wells.
The above glowing account will, un
doubleday, cause Mr.. Greene's ultimate
removal to this fairy-land of apparen
perennial sunshine and prosperity bu
we have lingering doubt that CRANE
break will yet come, sooner or later
when the wheels of business, which ar,
now kept we'll fabricated by excitement
will cease to rev0lvc-- at least, until
more substantial basis than wind" i
provided. We doubt not but what in
vestments at Fargo a few years ag'
would have proved valuable, as indee,
they have; but unbiased men, who hav'
looked at the situation in all its phases
tell us that at the present time business
in all its branches is Overdonc, and tina
the town is far ahead Of the countr,
necessarily required to support it.