Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-07
To the Editor of the Globe.

To the Editor of the Globe.
GRAND Forks, Dakota, April 4.-History
repeats itself, and in some things we are
no wiser than the generation which pre-
ceded US. The visitor to Minnesota from
the year 1850 to 1857, found here and there
along the banks of the Mississippi, Mime
sofa or st. Croix rivers, on the roads lead
ing into the interier,a and upon the surveyed
lines of our future railroads upon paper,
towns, villages and cities by the score.
Every settler who had a claim would with
pride show you his corner stakes and tell
you confdentially that in the near future
right there would be either prosperous
county seat, a great city or a manufactur-
ing center that would have no rival. The
settler was millionaire, the toll and
drudgery of farmers life was no part of
his vision; the future to him was a thing
of beauty; but alas, one bright morning
the financial world was startled by fail
ure that turned topsy-turvy the monetary
affairs of the country, and the visions of
future towns, villages and great cities
passed away as the mists of the morning /;
the man OF town sites, as if in dream,
turned to his pillow; and the land which was
to have been the home of thousands, the
center of commercial enterprise and thrift,
was appropriated to the more humble,
but useful, use of furnishing bread for his
family. Hundreds and hundreds of town
sites become valuable as farms,
the bubble had burst, and Minnesota
made one move in the right direction,
more farming and less town site specula-
ton. The town site Spectator became
thing of the past, and it is only now and
then at some country Preside or at the vii
lage postoffice you will hear the marvellous
story of the flush times of Minnesota
when every man was millionaire, but the
curtain that was rung down with such
startling effect in Minnesota in 1857, with
a new field, new actors and new
scenery has been rung up in the terri
tory of Dakota, that land of promise, and
a hungry horde of town site spectators
are found on duty according to their say,
ready to make any sacrifice to make you
rich. The hunter of new home being
attracted by the often repeated story of
thirty-fve bushels of wheat to the acre,
and the general productiveness of the
soil, starts for this golden Eldorado of the
of Fargo, where lots, sections, and how
fortunes are made, are nearly the only
topic he hears discussed, it is breakfast,
dinner and supper, the morning as we'll as
the evening prayer, he becomes bew1ldered
at the vastness of Fargo, he has seen
Chicago, Cincinnati, st. Louis and other
great cities of the West, but they become
mere villages compared to what an ordi-
nary Fargoian claims for the future of that
magnificent city; they point with a
chuckle to its electric lights, its water
works, its street cara, its paper
manufactroy, and a score or moro
of other things which adds to
its Importance, some of which are. sone
of which never will be as the beginning of
that, of which there will be no end, and
will wind up with the question: What do
you think of that? But great as Fargo
now is, great as she may be in the future,
when her population will be numbered by
the hundreds Of thousands Ito prevent any
misapprehension as to the writer's CREDIBLE
ity, he will with some frankness say that
this is ironicaD greater etill lin their own
estimation) is that army, and one of no
small number either, of town site owners,
town site spectators, and town site job
bers, who make Fargo their present abid-
ing place. They rarely have homes, in fact
every real estate dealer in Fargo owns one
or more town sites. The importance of
the town site operator is governed in
great measure by the number of towns or
cities he owns, or says he owns, and while
his word may not always be gilt edge at
bank, statement of town site ownership
is rarely questioned, except by some en-
vious rival, while the owners OF but one
TOWNSHIP will be found occupying a side
pew III fashionable church, the owner of
five or six Will be found III one Of the best
seats, as he is supposed to contribute liber-
ally to the cause of his Divine Master from
the feecings of the sucker. At Fargo you
are besieged by number of the gentle
men.who deal in real estate and town SITES
kind, benevolent and charitable apparently
it would seem at first sight that they
were IN the employ of the territory or soma
great modern charity-that their only duty
was to aid the stranger and not take him
II, their time, their hospitality is at your
disposition, delighted beyond expression
to have you visit their Office, where they
can show you on paper the garden spot of
the world, the identical place, where, if
you will invest. you and your heirs forever
will figure among the wealthy nabobs of
TIC Aduu; Cnauc0 WIN CAeIn VIII draw
prize, as certain as one day follows an
other.
You are surprised, perhaps delighted,
at having found so large a class of men,
who beg of you, yea impIore you, to accept
fortunes at their hands, Offering you town
lots, broad acres, and whole town sites, at
less than Is per cent. of their value They
take down their maps, Fargo, as matter
of course, is the center of modern civiliza-
ton and wealth, and the point from which
everything good and great must emanate,
the hub around which lesser Dakota orbits
are to revolve. If you are we'll fixed finan-
cially, and bite freely, they never get out
of Fargo, otherwise they will name hun
dred other points in which they are inter
ested, reaching to the Polar seas on the
north and the Pacific coast on the west,
in either of which fortunes can be made;
they will show you beautiful photographic
map, upon which are shown broad ave-
nues, public squares, parks, reservations
for churches and schools, with the right of
way indicated for one or more railroads,
depot grounds and machine shops, and
confdentially, in a whisper they Will tell
you that certain railroad companies are
interested in the enterprise, and are de-