Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-04
DAKOTA'S CLAIMS.
Col P. DOMAIN Discourses of the
Resources of the Won
derland.
TPhiiadelphia Press.1

Col. 7. DOMAIN, than whom no newspaper
man is better known in the Mississippi and
Missouri valleys is one of the lay delegates
from Dakola to the Episcopal convention.
That growing territory owes much to DOMAINS
tacile, albeit sometimes extravagant, pen,
for advertisement of its manifold attractions
and resources. The Press reporter found an
Did acquaintance in the colonel.
''Soyou think have stray ed a long way from
home, and must feel somewhat lost?' he said,
after hearty greeting. "Not bit of it, I'm
like an Indian who was found wandering
around in the woods, and unable to get back
TO his camp. Some one asked him, 1njun
lost.' Ugh, MOP he grunted, slapping him
self on the breast, Injun here! Wigwam
lostr I'm here, and it would be hard to lose
me in our half of the world. You must re-
member we are used to long distances in Da-
kota. Our territory is SO big that it is al
most a transcontinental journey from any
where else From Philadelphia to Boston
would be mere step across the street to see
q neighbor. 1t is as far in a straight line from
Pembina, on our northern, to Yankton, on
our southern border, as from New York to
Raleigh N. c., or from Washington to On
tario Canada. By the routes we have to
travel a man going from the northwestern
corner of the territory to attend court, or
the legislature, at Yankton, has as long a
trip as from St. Paul to New York, or from
Philadelphia to Mobile. AS for feeling far
from home, sweet old song declares s'Tis
home where'er the heart is and I have all
my life paraphrased it into s'Iis home
where'er my hats hung up On the princi-
pie of the song, q genuine Dakotan is at
home wherever there is work to be done for
his territory, and that is just what I ana in
Philadelphia for now.
owe have by far the largest and most I'M
portant territory in all the union Laid down
upon a map of the United States Dakota
would cover every foot of land and water
from the st. Lawrence and ST. Johns to the
Susquehanna and Schuylllill. With her
l53, 900 square miles of area, she is as large
as all six New England states, New York,
New Jersey and half of Pennsylvania, with
Delaware'S three little peach orchards and
two toy senators thrown in. She is $4,000
square miles greater than all Great Britain,
with the Isle of Man and Mrs. Langtry's Jer-
sey to boot. She is nearly as largea as Penn
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois ali put
together, and, spread out in proper shape,
would almost cover the whole vast region
bounded by the great lakes On the north, the
Ohio on the south, the Mississippi on the
west, and the Alleghenies on the east.
"And all this mighty domain is rich in agri-
cultural, pastoral and mineral resources.
The bonanza wheat fields of Dakota are the
wonder and admiration of the world. The
greatest gold mine on the globe is in her
borders, and she has 5000 square miles,
whose every crag and rugged peak is ribbed
with gold and silver, copper, iron. lead, tin,
zinc and coal Her horizon-fenced plains,
which fed millions on millions OF buffalo,
will pasture a nations fiocSs and herds. Her
population has grown from Il, 1876 in 1870 to
900 in 1880, and $4,000 in 1858, and it is
daily and hourly increasing at such a rate as
was never known before il any region Of
earth. All the tales Of enchantment become
commonplace beside the everyday realities
of Dakota's progress. Last May town was
laid out in the wild prairie grass on Devils
lake. One log cabin and a sod stable were all
the buildings it contained six months ago.
To-day it is a busy little city, with fifty or
sixty business houses, five or six hotels, two
fourishing newspapers, car shops, steam
boats and all the accessories of me ropolitan
life. A daily newspaper outfit has just been
shipped in, and electric light for the streets
and public buildings is projected. This is
not an exceptional case. Fargo, the princi-
pal city in the territory, has been almost
wholly built within the past four years, and
hosts of your people who have visited us this
summer will admit that, in many respects, it
is almost as metropolitan and COSMOPOLITAN
as Philadelphia.
owe have in Dakota 5000 miles of rail-
roads in operation, and hundreds of miles in
process of construction. We have at least
100 thriving cities and towns scattered broad
cast over the pasturing places of yesterdays
buffalo and antelope. We have over $50
daily and weekly newspapers which compare
favorably with any in the older regions We
have as handsome churches and schools as
can be found in any of your smaller cities,
and we have population unsurpassed on
earth i'll intelligence, energy, enterprise pub
lie spirit and hospitality. 1t is but seven
years and three months since Custer and his
battalion were massacred by the Sioux Just
over our western border, and only three
years ago savage war parties Taided over
much territory and killed settlers and pros
pectors between the Missouri river and the
Black Hills. Yet to-day we number over a
third of million souls, and if the present
grand rush forward is unchecked II is but 81
few moons until we shall have our full mill
ion. We have the vastest territory in all this
new-world republic, the Richest and most
varied i'll its resources, the most populouS
productive and prosperous now, and the full
est Of glorious promise for the future If all
this doesn't entitle us to be put, politically
and religiodsly, on an equality with Carolina
and Florida negroes and truckpatchers, I
can't ina oipp what 1youid