Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-07-27
Some Pertinent and Logical Remarks
on the Development of the
Great Northwest.
1t Requires Three Crops OF Settlers
to Give a Country a Perma-
nent Population.
Matters of Local Interest to Bis
marckers and Visitors and
Notes in General.
Some Conclusions.


son, and Dakota comes in for a liberal
share of this higher class literature adver-
tising. "The Great American Desert" as
PORTRAYED by Frank II. Shipman in Harper's
Magazine for July, is quite different
landscape from that outlined on the maps
which were the "text books" of many in
their school days in the east, who now
have flourishing farms and luxuriant fields,
heavily laden with the best products of the
earth, within the boundaries of this once
ostracised, sterile domain. And this dam
aging feature of our old United States
maps has been dropped only within the
last twenty years. Crude and uncertain as
the first settlement of new country is,
and always must be, the developments in
that period are astounding, even to those
who have been eye witnesses to the great
change. Says Mr.. Shipman: Experience
proves that 1T takes three sets of pioneers
to make permanent population. For it
must not be supposed that the original
homesteader is necessarily farmer. You
will find all sorts and conditions of men
among them, from ministers to cowboys,
from bankrupt business men to the latest
eXils from Russia. All of these, together
with professional men and trades men in
the villages, and a fair sprinkling of bona
fide farmers, appear in the ranks of the
homesteaders." After graphic descrip-
ton of the "dug OUT in which the "settler''
first makes his home, with its interior pro-
vided with more or less comforts for living
and sometimes "a very modern organ with
an imposing Cathedral back towering high
in one corner of the room," and in the
social arrangement, day designated in
each week for meeting OF the "literary
club" who intelligently discuss all that
pertains to their 'life. liberty and pursuit
of happiness" some idea may be formed as
to how new country commences to be
settled mp. "The homesteaders are very
honest" says Mr.. Shipman. "You can
leave house unlocked at all times and
your stores are perfectly safe-with the
exception of what liquor you may have on
hand for medical purposes" In other
words, if they will steal whisky every
time, they will be neighborly and kind to
one in distress and exceedingly hospitable.
This is all right so far as the honest
homesteader goes, but there are parasites
that prey upon the homesteader as destruc-
tive to his interests as the pirates upon the
seas to the unprotected merchant marine.
You might as well leave your house un-
Locked D. as 70 attempt to protect yourself
bolts and bars. Steal! There is nothing
moveab ble that these proWling. pirates OF
the prairie won't steal. With less cOnsci-
ence than the lOcusts or hail storm they
do not confine themselves ''to every green
thing" but gather up every scrap of old
lumber they can find, take musquito. bars
off Of windows and dismantle the house
outside and in, provided the honest home
steader is absent long enough to make
their escape secure. But why inveigh
against this class of pests. They are as
unreachable as the badgers and gophers
and to rid the country OF them you must
hunt them down with the same weapons.
briefest outline OF the many good. practical
sentences contained in Mr.. Shipman's ar
ticle, and one more extract must be the
limit:
But the worst vice Of the average pioneer
is his improvidence. 1t is true that there
are many things against him, such as
poverty, to begin with, exorbitant railway
charges, high rates OF interest, and finally,
and fatally in most cases, total lack Of
thrift and management. His first step is to
make his committed entry. This means a
mortgage on his farm. Then it is not a
question OF how little money he can get
along with, but how much money he can
matter over with great interest among
themselves Especially the interest), and
will travel fifty miles half dozen times if
they hear cf an opportunity to make a deal
with loan agent whose company will
lend hundred dollars more on quarter
section than the others.
With few exceptions the only people
among the first cOmers who retain their
farms are the foreigners, principally Ger
mans and Scandinavians. These men,
drilled into the most rigid habits of econ
Omy by the experience of hundreds of
years in hard struggle for existence, will
start with the Americans under precisely
give way under the severe conditions i'm
posed upon them, the foreigners will sur
mount the same obstacles and make q sue
cess of life; if indeed they do not 90 to the
other extreme and work and starve them
selves to death-instances not so rare as
one might imagine.
The farms OF nearly all Of the unfortunate
representatives of Old-time Yankee indus
try and economy are provided with the
most expensive kind of modern agricultural
machinery, for all of which they are in
debt, and which is left exposed to the ele-
ments when not in use. a
Yet these people are the pioneers Of the
true civilization; upon the wrecks of their
fortunes abler hands will build anew; and
If the second attempt fails, success crowns
q third effort. Here the law of the sur.
vival of the fttest is seen in full play.
He Was From Denver.
The following telegram from Denver
brings important information:
DENVER, COL, July 10.
To the Bismarck TRIBUNE
Please send full information concern
ing the killing of man named William
Stevenson of Denver, last Friday.
Rocky MOUNTAIN News.
This is pretty conclusive evidence that
Stevenson was citizen of Denver an(
later particulars will be published as soo1
as received. f8
+, The Indian Commission Here.
Several memberssof the commission ap
pointed by President Cleveland to confer
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