Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-26
.RoomipSn Dakotn Towns.

The peculiar social flavor and BUSH
ness enterprise of life in "The New
Northwest" is strikingly depicted lin
the first of series of papers) by E. V.
Smalley, in the August Century, in part
as follows:
Tower City boasts of its artesian well
and of its prohibition ordinance, which
keeps out the saloon, that curse of
frontier towns. 1t has a weekly newspa-
per. So has Valley City, which got down
too close to a stream and was flooded in
the May freshet. The Tower City edi-
tor tainted his contrere of the neighbOr-
ing town with being forced to "paddle
to his grub-counter in wagon-boX."
Whereupon the Valley City editor re-
marked in his next issue that it was true
that his place was not as "dry" as Tow
er City, and he hoped 1t never would be.
Both these active, ambitious little set
Elements are surpassed in population by
Jamestown, which has pretty situa-
ton on high shale shelf in bend of
the James or Dakota River, in an am
phitheater formed by sweep Of bold
green bluffs that look like the glacis OF
some immense ratification. The place
used to be called Jimtown, but has
quite outgrown the nickname. 1t has
perhaps fifteen hundred inhabitants,
and already supports a daily paper, In
older communities, a town OF ten thou
sand with thickly populated country
tributary to it will barely sustain little
daily, but in the far West the daily ap-
pears about as soon as the church.
steeple. How these sheets live is mys-
terry to journalists. They are probably
sustained by merchants and real-estate
owners as an appliance for booming"
q town. To "bOom" town in Dakota
is an art requiring a little money. a
good deal of printers ink, and no end OF
push and cheek. Dropping the quota
tion-marks, for the word in its various
forms is one of the most common in
northwestern phraseology and ans
wers equally well for noun or a verb,
the object of a boom is to attract set
tiers, advance the price of real estate,
and promote speculation. Fargo Is
said to be the best-boomed town in Da-
kota. AS specimen of skillful BOOM
ing, here is q paragraph from the circu-
lar of a Fargo real-estate operator:
1--WE have anything you want, and at
any price. We can sell you City or
Country Home, and if you ever come
near our office, we will do 1t. The
preachers will look after your moral
and spiritual welfare and we will take
care of your temporal affairs; and If
YOU ever come our way, it shall never
be said, when final settlement IS had,
that YOU were like one of the foolish
virgins of old who wrapped her talent
i'm a napkin and sunk it in well. (See
New VersiOn.) On the contrary, your
record shall be that of the good hus-
sandman, who put his wheat in good,
rich Red River Valley soil, and 1t pro-
duced thousand fold, and it came to
pass that he, who had nothing, had
more than he knew what to do with"
Another real-estate dealer bursts with
rhyme in the heading of his announce
ments i'm this fashion:
mo Other Land, No Other Cline On
Top of Gods Green Earth, Where
Land is Free as Church Bells Chime,
Save the Land of Dakota Dirt. Here,
For a Year of Honest Toll A Home
You MAY Insure, And From the Black
and I,oamy Soil Title In Fee Mature.
No Money Needed until the Day When
the Earth Itself Provides; Until You
Raise Crop, No Pay:-Whst Can You
Ask Besides?"
Perhaps the future American poet 'is
to come from these breezy plains.
Whether it is the prairie air or the pros
pect of large profits on small invest
ments, i cannot say, but the readiness
with which people in Dakota "soar
into song" Is surprising.