Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-25


tanned the hearts of the savages, protected
the person of its possessor from the arts
of willy witches and evil spirits, and could
change truth into lies and lies into truth.
Several trials of the power of this magic
crucifx have recently been had. 1t charms
the most venomous reptiles and extracts
confessions and cons piracies from
the reluctant bowels of confederates.
This cruciix was presented by a certain
NJ. C. to Detective William R. Marshall,
the whilom famous and self-styled Bald
headed Charger of the Prairies," with the
particular request that he make use of this
miraculous power to detect and punish the
bare faced pre-emptors and other auda-
cious men Engaged in conspiracies to de-
fraud the Minneapolis Pine Land syndi-
cate out of the public pine lands in the
state of Minnesota. It was with this sill
yer crucifx, 1 am told, that Detective
Marshall extracted those revelations of
damnable conspiracies from the reluctant
bowels of shinglemill Lovejoy, and pre-
vailed on the pious Deacon Spaulding to
sacrifice, on the altar of his country, his
dearest and only friend-the sunny-haired
editor of the Duluth Tribune.
This historical region is watered by in
Vulnerable lakes and rivers. Pine logs
from it can be foated not only down the
st. Croix and its tributaries to Saltwater
and below, and down the thousand tribu
taries of the Mississippi to the impossible
barriers of the booms at Minneapolis, and
down the branchy st. Louis to Knife Falls
and Duluth, but also down the tributaries
of the ''Bloody river'-the Red River of
the North, to Breckenridge, Fargo, Moor
head, Grand Forks, Pembina and Winni-
peg, and down the tributaries of Rainy
lake and Rainy river through the Lake of
the Woods to Rat Portage on the Cana
dian Pacific railroad, and the great land
locked seas and natural canals of Mani
toba. There is probably pine enough still
standing in this vast region, if protected
from forest fires and economically cut, to
supply the demands of Minnesota and Da-
kota for hundred years The main and
vexed question now is, shall it be
"gobbled" by the favored few,
or parcelled among the many?
Large quantities-several thousand mil
lions feet-of the best pine are standing
on the Indian reservations of Mile Laos
("gobbled" by the syndicate) Leech Lake,
('gobbled" by the syndicate who recently
let go to get better hold) Red Lake, (be-
ing manipulated for the syndicate), White
Earth, Winnebagoshish, damned and will
be flowed. so as to compel the sale of the
timber for the benefit of the syndicate)
and Bots Font, all within the limits Of this
pine region, This section is not valuable
for its pine alone, it also contains many
valuable tracts of oak, ash, elm, maple,
linden, larch, spruce. birch and cedar.
Not many years ago it was considered I'M
fit for agricultural purposes, but the gar
dens of the lumbermen and the fields of
the many hardy settlers are rapidly dem
onstrating that much of it is more pro-
ductive than our prairie lands. Tame
grasses, corn, oats, wheat potatoes and gar
den vegetables wax and grow fat in this
whilom desert of the pines.
AS a farming region it is better than New
England, New York, Pennsylvania or Vir-
ginia. The day is not far distant when
twill be the homes of tens of thousands
of hardy and contented tillers of the soil.
Indeed many hundreds of agricultural set
tiers have already penetrated this terra
i'lcognita, and are hewing out for them
selves fertile fields and happy homes.
When railroads penetrate it, as they
shortly will, it will be transformed, as if
by magic, from a wilderness of woods and
waters to fields of golden grain and corn
and clover. The white cottages of thrifty
farmers will CLEAN through the somber
branches of the pines where now curls only
the silent smoke from the wigwams of the
wandering Chippewas:
And the Saxon's silvery laughter,
And his humming hives of gain,
will shake the shadows of the forest where
now only the boot of the owl, the bugle
of the loon, and the wall
of the sorrowing Indian mother
in summer, and in winter, the strokes of
the lumberman's axe and the merry
whistle of the teamster, awake the echoes
of the forest primeval and startle the
rabbit and the grouse.
That part of the pine region lying north
and northwest of Lake Superior abounds
also in silver, copper, slate, granite, and the
finest iron ore yet discovered on the
western continent. Gold also has been
found at Vermilion Lake and in the rocks
of Rainy Lake, and the Lake of the
Woods. The entire region at the head of
and north of Lake Superior is volcanic,
which accounts perhaps for the frequent
and frightful eruptions and commissions IN
the Duluth land Office and the politics of
that portion of the 'Bloody Fifth
Having thus mapped out and described
the field of my Iabors, will, with your
permit, refer in my next letter to the trials
and tribulations of the early lumbermen,
and the struggles, methods and Christian
fortitude of the men who 'wrestle'' with
half-breed scrip, "Chippewa applications"
soldiers homesteads, Prescriptions, rail-
road grants, state lands, department de-
cisions and special legislation for the
benefit of the Immortal few. Respect
fully, H. L. GORDON.
Minneapolis, July %, 1888.
WINSTON, FORSYTH Co., N. C.