Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-01-02
HELENA, Mont, Dec. %, 1885


Regular Correspondence TRIBUNE.
This glorious weather with oyereoats
laid aside and farmers ~pLooeting in tGe
valleys is designed to remove the iass
trace u Inconsistencies from The pilgrim,
and nahes Che native Moutanian cling
more closely 70 His home in the Tar
"e4t. Who would liz, East IN thas ice
boau1 region who're winter rein, supreme
for six months y the year:
Che street. NJ Helena the past week
have been thr3a@ad with crowds of PEG
PIE, and the toy merchants have reaped
bountiful harvests. Christmas trees have
hlossomed in all the churches and in most
private houses. Geese, turkeys and
chickens have retailed at 90 cents a pound.
The markets have been filed with veni-
son and other game; salmon and all other
varieties of fish. The oyster is no longer
a "rare bird" in Montana, SO everybody
is wearing 4 contenfed look.
The court house racket eliminated in
4 mass meeting last Thurday night
Three hundred Of tho heaviest taxpayers
in the county met and selected q commit
tee to investigate the court house fraud.
Various charges are made against the
county fathers. Whether true or not, the
sentiments OF the people is that the com
missioners should either call for an inves-
tigation Or stepdown and out. The course
of one Of the city papers in mlsrepresent-
ing the proceedings Of the meating meets
great condemnation, and its friends de
clare it il time for it to tumble to itself.
| One thing is certain, the foundations of
! the court house are faulty, this seems to
be confessed by the architect.
Outside the court house matter it is
charged that $4,000 has been paid to j.
ID. McIntire for the survey OF the city,
| which is claimed to be absolutely worth
less.
There is q bull in the mining boom.
| An old timer who has been engaged IN
mining for years loudly condemns the
| schemes started to excite speculation. lie
| saws one company which is stocked for
! about s15O,0 coo has nothing to show but a
| hole in the ground nine feet deep. An
OF .nr mine which could not be sold 10
ona who knows anything about mines for
$500. has been stocked for 3250,000. The
man seems to be for two or three business
men to get together, buy a prospect hole,
give the papers q few dollars, who forth
with puff up the property hire one or
tvo clergymen to do the piols racket,
manufacture some assays, call a meeting,
get the names Of some or the prominent
men for directors, sell all he stock they
can t O school teachers, clerks and women
and then when the scheme is ripe, the or
iginators quietly dispose of their stock,
ard the others suck their thumbs. There
are undoubtedly some good mines near
Helena, bat a man who invests blindly in
mines generally gets burnt.
| was talking the other day with a gen
tleman connected with one of the best
paying mines here. He seemed greatly
Interested in Great Falls. His company,
he says, is paying $500 a day for fuel, to
furnish simply the power for crashing
and working ores. This did not include
the pay OF the engineers and fFeIae1. .nof
repairs, eto. oH engines. WOW, said
lie, 1T gaoaid net take one-thira Of tnat
amount 70 tTsnsportshe ores - Great Falls
where there IL abundance Of w~ater-power
available "a reduce all the ores in fIon-
tana."
Appropos of that. an interview in the
Inter MoHnta Il Of S n Word, attorney
for the I. n. feflroad, intlmates that his
road will be- extended to the Sand Coulee
coal fields in the near future. His CON
pany surveyed a route down the Missouri
river by the falls only a year ortw since,
and it is said the road will be butt much
soone than has been anticipated.
With reduction works at Great Falls
there is no reason why all the ores OF
Rutte, Ten Mile, MarysFille, and Neihart
should not be transported there at a great
saving. The road would be down grade
all the way aud not difficult to build. |
can only add that if J. J. Hill should
complete reduction works and a railroad
next year he would find it none to early,
and would secure a paying business from
the start.
The Wicks branch of the Northern Pa
cifc has been the best paying branch on
the line, but it will not compare with the
business that would be done oTer a rail-
road from Butte to Great Falls in onnec |
ton with reduction works. Twentyone
years ago when I crossed the plains,
Omaha was only a 4 small hamlet. Now
it is 4 large city, which owes most of its