Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-09

prophet, made converts, spread widely and
grew into popularity, until it finally at
tanned to the Importance Of a leading
public question and object of national
legislation.
You will be shown how the northern
route, which at first WAS the only one
thought of, gradually lost prestige and
other routes took prominence. You will
see the quaint figure of an honest vision
airy appear upon the scene, first as the pro-
moter of an odd illusion, and next as the
moving spirit in the formal birth and
christening of our enterprise through the
congressional charter of 1864. You will
hear that the charter failed to give real
life to the corporation, owing to certain
abnormal features engrafted upon it, and
that it passed eventually to the control Of
wise, experienced and influential men, but
who, however, also failed at first to attract
the needed capital until those features were
eradicated by congressional amendment.
Then the brilliant episode in our history
will pass before you, in which an able,
bold and resolute man was the central fig.
ure, to whom, most of all, the company
owes its practical existence. You will be
reminded how the hopeful brightness of
that period was collapsed by the black
darkness Of the cataclysm OF 1873. Our
fabric seemed then to be lost in bottom
less pit. Yet an entire resurrection follow
ed, owing to the inherent vitality OF the
PROSTATE body, and to the resolute appli-
cation of the heroic remedies Of foreclos-
ure and reorganization.
There was no immediate restoration to
very active life. Years of slsw recupera-
ton followed, until the advent of the ex-
traordinary revival of commerce and in
dustry generally, and of railroad under
takings especially, in the years 1879 and
1880. The sagacious men who then di-
rected the company's affairs saw their pa
tience rewarded and the time ripe once
more for the resumption of construction
work upon the road.
They began cautiously, seeking what
was possible rather than what was desir-
| able. All at once, fortune smiled with in
tense radiance upon the company. a
! financial alliance with great syndicate
| was formed. It's conclusion meant nothing
| less than the assurance o. all the capital
required to complete the road, and there
| by the end of all uncertainty in the pros
poets of the company-a leap, in short
| into assured success.
With a flood tide in the company
| treasury, there arose not only the posi-
bility, but the necessity Of pushing the
construction of our transcontinental line
with the utmost energy. I hope may be
permitted to say that We have striven to d.
our full duty, and to obtain the creates
effort of which human brain and muscles
stimulated by unlimited capital, are ca
| pable, in given time and in Stated direc
ton. Work on the main line was first re
sumed on the west bank Of the Missouri
river in the spring of 1879, and at the con
fluence of the Columbia and Snake river
in the fall of the same year. The distsnc
between the two starting points was 1,22
miles. The PIT miles from the Missouri
to the Yellowstone were completed in JUNE
1881; the 225 miles from the Columbia t
Lake Pend d'Oreille in November, 1881
The completion of the $40 miles of tn
Yellowstone Valley took seventeen month;
The 1874 miles up the gorges of Clark
Fork to Missoula, nineteen months; fror
the head of the Yellowstone Valley to He
ena, and thence to this junction, min
months. Thus, the first 442 miles of th
total mileage to be pleted-that Ii
! the Missouri and Pend dOreille division