Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1883-12-14
NO.. 49,.
which the following is an extract:
THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES IT'S WAY C0NsID-
ERABLY NORTH OF WEST.

which the following ls an extract:
THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES IT'S WAY CoNsID-
ERABLY NORTH OF WEST.
On account Of the convenience and oompara-
tive cheapness Of access. and "a affording the
last opportunity to get fertile. easily cultivated
government lands under the presumption, home-
stead and tree-claim acts, the rush of emigra.
ton is now mainly to Dakota, but, at the rate it
il pouring in, that territory, immense as it il,
will soon be flooded, and then it is likely
to push on in somewhat diminished vol
ume into Montana, Idaho, Washington Ter
ritory, Oregon and the Puget Sound region.
The Question comes up - to the stability Of this
growth. There are those who hold that it is
speculative mushroom affair, and cannot be
maintained away up here to the north, close to
the Manitoba blizzard mills. But the same was
said of Chicago twenty years ago, when that
city had the efrontery to set up rivalry with the
solid wealthy old bunker city of St. Louis. The
talk was then that st. Louis had such exoep-
tional advantages of position, geographically,
and near the junction of great navigable rivers,
that Chicago, away to the north Of the great
central line of western travel and business, had
no sort of show in the way of rivalry. The
growth of Chicago was declared to be specula-
tive bubble, kept afloat for the time being by
borrowed eastern money, and the inevitable COL
lapse, it was said, would soon leave the aspiring
citv sort of deserted village in its native
swamps. But Chicago has gone on growing in
this ''mushroom" way, and has so far surpassed
st. Louis in population and business prosperity
that its rival has lost all interest in the census
reports. -
THE ADVANCE OF THE 'RUsTLERs,"
The same restless, speculative people that raised
Chicago bodily out of the mud, and recreated it
again and again out Of the ashes, and then
pushed on further northwest to the Mississippi
and leveled the hills and filled up the valleys to
make room for st. Paul with its busy population
Of 10000 and as soon as that task was we'll un"
der way moved step further north and con-
verted the great falls of st. Anthony into mill
race to make Minneapolis the biggest -four
factory in the world, with duplicate popu-
lation 20 that of st. Paul,-these are the
same ''rustlers" that are now overrunning
Dakota, building up railroad towns, river towns,
valley towns, and starting wheat farms, raising
grain elevators, and preparing generally to
make that territory fulfill its manifest destiny
of supplying the larger part of the 20,OO0,OO0
bushels of wheat required annually to keep the
Minneapolis mills going. That job finished,
they will soon be pushing further west toward
the Pacific coast. Who can tell what limits to
put to the growth of this new nsrthwest in tho
next twenty years, with such men to the front?
What developments they will make Of the great
mining and grazing regions of Montana, of the
vast bunch grass wheat lands of central Oregon
and Washington territory, of the wonderful
timber lands and grass lands Of
the "Webfeet" country, west of the
Cascade mountains, and what new Ohicagos
they will build on the Columbia river, on Puget
sound, or away up Alaska way? Who can tell
just where the line of northern progress will be
drawn? Already the North Pacific has lost its
distinction as the most northerly road. The
Canadian Pacific is making its way across the
continent some hundreds of miles yet further
north. Where ia the north, any how? To drop
into Pope:
Ask where's the north? At York it's on the
Tweed;
In Scotland, on the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows
where. O.S.N.