Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-05-25
A PEERLESS PRAIRIE LAND.
The Wonders of Dakota Set Forth by Colonel
Pat, DOMAIN.

tlOn. Colonel Fat. DOnan was the
orator of the occasion. He is the man
who claims to have written Proctor
Knott's celebrated speech. The intro
ductory part of his breezy address is
given below:
Mr.. Commissioner General and La
dies and Gentlemen-In his short but
eloquent address Colonel Howard has
struck the keynote of all Dakota's
longings and labors-her right to
Statehood, and the wrong of denying
1T. The pleasant duty has been en-
trusted to me to-day OF throwing open
Dakota's exhibit to the world and
formally turning it over to the man
agement of this wondrous Exposition
In doing so it seems not only fitting,
but necessary, that | should speak for
a few moments of the great Territory
to which ! bear n proud allegiance.
But, two difficulties confront me at
the outsct-there is nothing / can say
that have not said a thousand times
before, and the facts in regard to that
faraway region are SO marvellous that
Eastern and Southern people laugh
me to scorn when tell them. AT the
annual banquet of the famous Clover
Club, of Philadelphia, last January;
at the opening of the Chicago, Mil
waukee & st. Paul Railways beauti-
full display, just over there, ten days
ago; and at a dinner party given me
few evenings since by one OF my
boyhood friends and playmates, the
accomplished editor of the New Or
leans Times Democrat, who sits upon
this platform, | made some simple,
commonplace statements about Dako-
ia, and in each and every instance my
hearers roared their incredulity in my
very face. Everywhere | have been
since, | have found myself canonized
with Ananias, Baron Munchausen, and
Tom Uchiltree; although know that
l can, here and now, produce at least
500 estimable and veracious Dako-
tans, like my friends Fleming, Grigs-
by, Sterling, Wallace, Scott and Skin
ner, who will make ailidavits, on q
stack OF Northwestern railway guide
books mile high, to the absolute
truthfulness of every assertion | made.
told these scoiling unbelievers that
Dakota is peerless but modest land
that never sounds the fish horn of its
own fame. That it is the worlds true
wonderland, where no storms or tenn
pests ever blow, and where all the
breezes are trained to sing psalm
tunes in pianissimo style. Our wild
est blizzards, as unenhghtened South.
erners and down-Easters delight in
terming them, are used by gentle
mothers to lull their babes to sleep.
The sun shines ever with mellow
splendor that calls to mind the far
famed "Happy Valley of Rasselas, y
and there is Just frost enough in our
winters to turn the elm leaves golden.
No summer drOughts or winter floods
spread devastation over the fields and
hopes of our husbandmen. No army
worms or grasshoppers sweep those
fertile plains and valleys with nibbling
desolation. No hail storms rattle their
destroying musketry upon the grains
and fruits and plate-glass window
panes of that elysium, except now
and then Just enough to furnish bust
ness to our ambitious young home hal
insurance companies. Bananas bloom
in November, and young oranges are
dug the day before Christmas. Raisins
striped stick candy, tin horns and
gunjun rubber dolls ripen always JUS
in time for Santa Claus peddler wag
on, with his reindeer team and "his
little round stomach that shakes wher
he laughs, like bowlfull of jelly
Pineapples and figs grow spontane
ously on Canada thistle bushes every
where, while the cottonwood and dog
fcnnel trees yield brook trout, necta
rire5and persimmons, oflarge sze anC
flavor, canalboat load to the acre
Spring roses bloom on tho plain, gen
tie Annie, for New Years posies, anC