The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-09-15
Special Correspondence

Special Correspondence.
BISMARCK, D. T., Sept. 10, 1888
The eyes of the world have of late been |
fixed upon Dakota As one of the chief re-
liances of millions upon millions of that
surplus population who are constantly !
chasing after the star of empire. The |
extreme fertility of soil; the infnitude OF
lakes, rivers and streams that affort an |
abundance of the clearest and purest
Whitewater that even exceeds in all its |
purities that for which Minnesota has be- |
come renowned; belts of timber compris-
ing hickory, oak, walnut, Eastwood, pine,
maple and cedar, all seeming to be exactly
adjusted geographically to the wants and
necessities of the settlers of the boundless
prairie, there would seem to be everything
TO induce the immigrant hither TO make
this his everlasting abiding place--and he
is coming He is coming by train and by
prairie schooner, and by any and every
conceivable means of transportation that
pioneer ingenuity can devise He is com
ing in such numbers that he adds 70, 000I
10 her population every twelvemonth, and
from the handful of people who were
here when yoHr correspondent first visited
the territory in 1878, she can now boast
Of population greater by far than either
Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Nevada,
Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont or New
Hampshire. That is the way a western
state grows. This population is composed
of the ambitious portion of those who
have met Encouragement in agricultural
pursuits where there was no agriculture
To pursue, as in sterile New England,
whose horny handed yeOmanry make up
a portion of the best stock of this new
country. And New York and Pennsyl-
vania have forwarded their thousands
who have been accustomed for genera
ton to the vicisstudes of farming upon
a less fertile soil. Wheat growing Canada
pours her tens of thousands upon us,
armed with the experiences and armored
with the acclimation that welcomes the
coolest of the northern Billiards.
What the population of Dakota will be
at the time of the next census, no human
being can surmise, because there is no basis
for calculation. The towns that spring
up as if by magic on every hand, become
populous cities ere one can make up his
mind whether it were prudent 10 invest in
the chances for its future. Everywhere
the newspaper, and the bank, and the
church, and the sehoolhouse, and the
railroad, and the telegraph, and all the.
indications of American civilization are
being instituted. and the vast region COM
prisi NO what is known as Southern Da-
kota presents every indication of an old
settled state The exhibits of the grain,
vegetable, and other products of Dakota
made by the Northern Pacific railroad
from year to year at the Chicago Exposi
ton, form one of the most extraordinary
attractions for the public eye, for there
are stalks of corn thirty feet in height;
wheat whose kernels are marvel of
plumpness and productiyeness; sqnashes
that kick the beam at $50 pounds each;
potatoes, such as no one ever saw either
~ to size or quality which are yielding
a thousand bushels to the acre, and so on
without end as to the miraculous power
of this new and virgin soil. The territory
may be said to be practically exempt from
every species of malarious influence and
the percentage of mortality shows the
best bill of health to be found this side of
the Alps. Yet there seems to be a need
of doctors, as there is demand for law
yeTs and the other necessary evils or non
producers. Thirty of the Sawbones hang
out their signs right here in Bismarck, and
if they increase as does the population,
next year we shall have thirty additional.
OF lawyers there are any number, but
they are generally engaged in the real
estate business as side issue, and all of
them are getting rich. Many of the best
and shrewdest of the cloth who resided at
Yankton have removed here, anticipating
in these green fields and pastures new
better returns and fatter fees in exchange
for making the worse appear the better
case.
One of the first settlers in the vicinity
of Bismarck was clergyman of the
UniYersalist denomination, who had re-
tired from the pulpit, and practically
from religion also. He went into the real
estate business made money so fast that
he didn't know what to do with it; and
now, after gathering in his shekels by the
millions, he renounces again the world.
the flesh, and the other fellow, and has
gone to preaching again. The scripture
that remarks something about o fellows
inability to serve two masters, exempts
this ministerial Shylock from its opera
lions. Lots in the principal business
thoroughfare in Bismarck were held at
what might be called fabulous figures so
long ago as 1879 but what would a poor
devil who desired business corner think
now if. he should drop in and be in
formed that $500 front foot is the low
est possible figure, and the owner would
rather keep it for rise anyhow? This is
tri1e higher than corner lot on Clark
street in Chicago is held; but while it
doesn't prove conclusively that Bismarck
is the largest city, it does prove conclu-
sively that the real estate mania in
our newly-built western cities develops
some unconscionable fools.
What is wanted here, and l may say is
the great crying demand in all the larger
towns and villages in Dakota, is something
approximating to first-cfass hotel Not
an ornate building, with elaborate facades
and tilagree pillisters and that sort of
thing, but place where one can get
something to eat. With ham and pota-
toes for breakfast, shoulder and ditto for
dinner, bacon and more potatoes for
supper, with the monotony unbroken for
weeks at a time, / don't see how people
can stand it, or stand up under it. Yet
YOU are charged good beef prices at every