St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-25

on the solid rock, and the dawn OF Deuter
times found its citizens ready to take ad-
vantage Of all opportunities.
THE FIRST RAILROAD
was opened in 1862. 1t was a part Of the
st. Paul 6 Pacific, and ran from st. Paul
to st. Anthony. The following year this
road was extended to Anoka. Out of this
company came the existing Northern Pa
citic, st. Paul & Northern Pacific and st.
Paul, Minneapolis Manitoba the former
of which was opened to the Pacific in 1883,
and the latter OF which has grown to be
one of the greatest systems in
the Northwest The st. Paul & Duluth
road. under the name of the Lake Supe-
rior 6 Mississippi, was opened to Duluth
in 1870. The Milwaukee road ran its first
train into st. Paul over the river division
in 1879. From this time onward new roads
kept coming into ST. Paul yearly until now
1t Is the railroad center of the Northwest.
WONDERFUL PROSPERITY.
Remarkable Improvement which
Has Been Made in Five Years.
Without the opportunity to witness the
fact. few people would be able to realize,
and fully believe statement plainly and
simply made, setting forth the marked
change that has taken place in the city Of
st. Paul during the past five years. 1t is
change that would require very large
amount of faith to believe were it not for
the plain facts, which have became anthem
tic history and leave no room for doubt.
Five years ago st. Paul was a country town
with population of Al, 49S, according to
the United States census. To-day it is a
city of over Ill, 900. Five years ago it was
town that was satisfied with an opera
house with seating capacity of 900. To-
day an opera house that seats 1900 is not
sufficient for the requirements of the pub
lie, and it is not an unusual thing to see
people turned away from the doors for the
want of room to accommodate them. Five
years ago from fifty to sixty passenger
trains arrived and departed daily. To-day
over two hundred passenger trans arrive
and depart every twenty-four hours. Then
there were within the city limits from 9, 600
to 10. 900 buildings. Now there are over
80. 900.
The rural accommodations that were suffi-
cient for town of 1000 people five years
ago. will not answer for a city of the
present size of st. Paul. The tastes of the
people, and all the financial, business,
social and material requirements are wholly
different, so that there is scarcely enough
points of resemblance between the present
time and that Of five years ago to institute
legitimate comparison. The whole busl-
ness of the city has changed and reached
out with wider and broader grasp. When
In 1880 our wholesale houses were satisfied
with supplying Dakota and a considerable
portion of the Manitoba people with goods,
they thought they were doing
A SATISFACTORY BUSINESS.
At the present time all that trade is but
fraction of the city's business. The in
crease of population in the vast Northwest,
the opening up of the Northern Pacific
road, and the multiplying of other and
shorter lines of railroad have SO enlarged
the scope Of the trade of the ST. Paul whole
sale business, that the St. Paul as it was
five years ago. with its 41.OOO population,
seems like frontier village. Now, the
immense and largely multiplied wholesale
houses of st. Paul, instead of being limited
in their dealings to Dakota, and some por-
ton Of the British possessions, have reached
out immensely beyond this limited sphere.
The whole Pacific coast trade is now open
to our merchants, and in their ordinary
business enterprise and sagacity they reach
even beyond the Pacific coast to Japan, and
from that point are engaged in importing
their teas. These are no idle words. The
teas Of Japan have been landed in the St.
Paul custom house, and transferred thence
to our wholesale houses. from which they
are daily distributed to dealers and the peo-
pie throughout the whole Northwest. If
five years ago anyone had made the pre-
diction that the enterprising jobbers of ST.
Paul, in 1885 would be
IMPORTING TEA FROM JAPAN
across the Pacific ocean and the western
part of this continent to st. Paul, the per-
son making the prediction wonld have been
regarded as using wild and eXtravagant
language. not warranted by anything known
in the business world. Where the city then
represented and welded the influence and
power of one dollar, she now represents
more than ten. Judging from the progress
made during the past five years, it is diff
cult to fix a limit to
WHAT MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED
by the business men of this city. st. Paul
is peculiarly situated. in business point of
view, and the reasons why this is so have
been so often and so concisely stated, that
every intelligent citizen fully comprehends
them. 1t is the peculiarly fortunate loea-
ton of st. Paul that Mr.. Seward hadsin
mind when he made that compendous. and,
at the same time comprehensive statement,
from the capitol steps. Large cities and
important trade centers depend somewhat.
after all, upon something besides
bare location. Superior location is,
beyond all question a very great and i'm
portant factor, and cannot be too highly es-
teemed. TO render superior location sue
cessful it must be assisted by the energy,
sagacity, good judgment and activity of the
hi,cI ffer
Without saying anything unreasonably fiat
tering, it may be safely remarked that the
business men of st. Paul have not been
lacking either in capacity, judgment or ae-
tivity, when any contingency has arisen
where the exercise of such qualifications
have been necessary. 1t is not, therefore,
reasonable to expect that at the present
time when such brilliant and magnificent
opportunity is offered. that they will be
found wanting. st. Paul has never before
had offered to her such rich and
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
as the present, and her dealers should take
hold of it with that broad, firm. business
like grasp that has heretofore characterized
the vigorous, business operations of this
body of men. They have the whole matter
in their own hands.
One of the natural results of all this in
crease in business is a very great change
aud improvement in architecture. The
tastes of our people have somewhat
changed, and as they have accumulated the
means which will allow of some indul-
gence in the way of identifying and embel-
ishing their residences and grounds,
one observes a very great change
in the size and cost of dwelling
houses. Heretofore they have been of a.
plain style and the grounds somewhat lin
tied. If you will take the trouble to notice,
it will not be difficult to observe that the
more wealthy people of our city, those who
have aided in building up st. Paul, are not
only constructing larger and much more