Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-02-07

pleted In 1885, unless the Democratic Con-
gress make trouble with the annual appro
priatiOns for the work.
The workmen at the top of the column
hold continued levee or review of all the
celebrities, brides and grooms and sight
seers in town, and they frighten the timid
people hall: out of their senses by the seem.
ingly reckless way in which they tread on
the airy ledges and let themselves down in
to the safety net which is spread around
the outer walls. The men walk around on
planks laid inside of this net to finish up
the edges of the marble blocks and fill in
the finest crevices with hard cement From
the outside they look like so many flies
crawling around the wall, and to look over
at them from above and see their airy
perch is enough to give vertigo to noun
tain goat. There has not been an acciden t
yet, and with picked men to work at that
height and an elevator tested to many tons
beyond its regular loads, there seems no
possibility of disaster. Suicides have not
yet made themselves immortal by Ieaping
from the monument top, and the nearest to
a fatality was when an addle headed young
lady made jump over the wall into the
safety net
JUST FOR FUN,
and to scare the people, as she naively con-
tessed when the half paralyzed workmen
Hshed her out. The majority of people
who 60 up the monument step warily,
hold fast and accustom themselves to the
outlook slowly, needing all the encourage
ment of the busy wOrkmen before they
can believe they are not in mOmentary
danger. Beside the elevator there is tele-
phone connections between the top and
the bottom of the shaft, and it is comical
enough to see the colored mixer of mortars
seize the instrument and begin "hallOOing"
to the man on the ground to have certain
things rely for the next trip of the ele
vatOr. The prospect Of cropping ones way
down 700 steps without banister OF rail-
ing, and for the greater part of the way in
total darkness, is not more alluring to one
than the eight minutes ride on the ele-
vator, and there is thankfulness on reach
ing solid earth again that surpasses any
satisfaction to be derived from the magnifi-
cent view from the summit If an earth
quake does not come along and lay the
column low, sight-seers will have a chance
to see the tallest thing in the way of
monument any country can display, and if
they ever see any thing more hopelessly
blank, expressionless and ugly they must
be pitied. The Father of his Country
would certainly shake that wise old conf
cal head of his if he could see the expen-
sive monument that is being reared to his
memory without any compensating beauty
to palliate the crime of bad taste, and any
one can call up dozen other public works
ut
dressed marble and granite might better
have been devoted Laid sideways the
monument would have made a good sub
Star'ial lp~pe for some $50 feet along the
banks vi the Mississippi lNer and tnu
home and lands Of many people protected
from devastating floods Set endways it is
good for nothing but to excite the grangers
awe and test the nerves and lungs of those
sight-seers who are always wanting to go
on top of things and get view.
The Resources of America.
Alta California.
The drift OF events is evidently about to
establish the conclusion that North Ameri-
ca, especially the portion embraced within
the United States, has been more richly en-
dOwed with natural wealth than any other
section of the globe. 1t would be tedious
to read over list of the various items go
ing to make up the body of this bound
less wealth. good climate and an i'm
mense extent of productive soil las yet but
very little cultured-insure a bountiful
supply of food to support the population
that so rapidly increases. Forests, coal beds
and waterfalls are abundant. Mines of the
n1n III
richness and number, invite our energetic
business men to seek fortunes in them.
Among the most remarkable of our ore
beds mention may be well made of some,
which have been long overlooked and
neglected. Such for instance, as those of
Red Mountain and Cahaba hill, in North
eTn Alabama, estimated to contain seven
hundred billions of tons of iron and the
great advantage of being near to large veins
of coal, good for making coke OF these
coal veins one named the Cahaba is about
twelve feet thick, and the Black Warrior
vein in some places is is fifteen feet thick
These coal fields cover an area OF over ten
thousand square miles in Alabama alone.
Tennessee, Missouri and Texas also abound
in good iron. When we remember the
profits likely to be realized from working
his coal and iron in Northern Alabama
may ultimately amount to several times
more than the whole present volume of
American values, the mind is liable to be-
,ome somewhat bewildered But at the
same time it must inspire our patriotic
people with new confidence to press for
ward bravely in their new career, which
,annot fail to result in developing a nation
'icher and stronger than any other in the
world.