Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1883-12-27
DAKOTA,

|
DAKOTA.
AS Seen by n Correspondent of the St. Louis
Globe Democrat.
\ mong all the regions of the earth
this young Dakota land is in many re-
spects without rival or peer, in
vastnesss Of area, variety, and exhaust
hssnness Of resources, invigorating
qualities of climate, intelligence, en-
ergy, and enterprise of population, and
amazing rapidity of settlement and de-
veIopment, it Is without an equal
among the states and territories of the
union. 1t is as large as all the New
England States, New York. New Jer-
sey, Delaware, and a half of Pennsylva-
MIA combined. 1t is as far in straight
line from Pembina, on its nortaern
boundary, to Yankton, on its southern,
as from Chicago to Memphis; IRON On
tario to Washington, or from New
York to Raleigh, N. C. From its north
western to its southeastern corner is as
lcng a journey rs from st. Paul to New
York, or from Burlington to New
Orleans. In this mighty breeze-swept
and lake-gemmed domain, lie the great
est gold mines and greenest pasture
hands upon the face of the globe. Its
climate is better than all the porous
plasters, liver perambulators and lung
balsams that luacks' or chemists skill
ever invented Its merry zephyrs,
which untutored barbarians of the out
side world sometimes decry as bllzzards,
sweep all miasma and malaria away
from its rich soil and beauteous valleys
and plains; and all the ISLANDERS about
the arctic frigidity of its winters may
be silenced by glance at any reliable
map. The enorthernmostl line of Dakota
is a hundred miles south of the south
ernmost point of England, and Pembi-
bina, on tn Manitoba border, is precisely
the same latitude as Paris.
Crops, ideas, people, fortunes, and
everything else grow so fast that it
makes down-easter's head swim like
a tishing-cork in maelstorm to watch
them. This the only region on earth
where five months work in the year
will enable the farmer TO spend his
winters in California, Florida or
Europe. His wheat Is sown in May,
harvested in August. and threshed and
delivered at the elevator in September;
and he can go where and when and as
he pleases all the rest of the year. Up
on every thousand acres he calculates
upon from $1,000 to $4,000 of net profit
every summer, and this year the clear
gains are in many instances double
that, for thirty and forty-bushel-to-the-
acre crops are not uncommon.
1t is not strange that the dwellers in
this realm without a parallel should be
somewhat different from the common
folks. Nowhere else beneath the sun
was there ever gathered such Il pioneer
population. No hickory shirts and hob
nailed, raw-hide boots; no log cabin
and coon-skin caps; no numbering old
OK wagons, full OF tow-headed brats,
with half-dozen brindle dogs trotting
along between the wheels; no coarse
homespun and hog aud hominy; no
toil-swoolen hands, and smell of sour
sweat and manure piles. No, no; none
of these! Our pioneers come in palace
cars, reading the latest novel, or Long
fellows rythmetical twaddle about the
Land of the Dakotahs," which always
reminds me of two tailed dog with a
tin can tied to each. Their costumes
tell of jaunts to Saratoga and Newport,
and their wives and daughters are up
to the mysteries of Worth Demorest
and Butterick, and familiar with the
newest agonies in opera arais and dance
steps. All farm work Is done by ma
chinery. The ground is broken with
sulky plows, and sowing done with
buggy seeders; the golden grain is har-
vested with self-binding reapers and
threshed by steam, while the engine
feeds itself with straw for fuel. Our
grangers farm in city tailor-made suits,
with kid gloves on their hands and dia-
montls blazing in their shirt fronts,
while the dainty cambria handkerchiefs
with which they carry on gentle tlirta-
tions with toll, give forth the soft fra
GRANGE of new-mown hay, wild rose or
jockey club.
Such opportunities, such advantages,
such bewildering chances to combine
labor and luxury, profit and pleasure,
fortune and fun, could not long escape
the notice of the working millions in
other and less favored lands, and the
growth of this far northern elysium,
this modern paradise regained, has
amazed the world until it's eyes stick
out snail fashion past its hat RIM, so
that you might rake them off NTH a
stick. All the tabled power of Aladln's
old brass lamp, made of politicians
cheeks, has sunk to feebleness, and all
its miraculous tricks have grown tame
and commonplace. All the tales of
oriental magic, all the Jonah's gourds,
and mushroomlike castles and palaces,
builded by enchanters' spells in the
dewfall of night. have dwindled to
nothirgness beside the everyday reafi-
ties of Dakota progress.