Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-03-16
LIFE IN DULUTH.
WHAT FRANK WILkESON SAW ON
THE MAIN BUSINESS STREET.

Hundreds of Busy Toilers-Sightseers
and Merrymakers After Nightfall-Few
Gray Haired People.
Here is Duluth, as it was last October,
without statistics. To the east lies the dark,
cold water of Lake Superior. Westward for
200 miles are a succession of swamps, quak-
ing boys, forests, rolling ridges and acres of
fire blackened stums Beyond the 200 mile
9iue lie the "No. 1 hard' wheat fields, rolling
prairie, bad lands, irrigated valleys and the
pine clad foothills of the Rocky mountains.
Directly north of the original location of
Duluth, which was on a comparatively level
strip of land adjacent to the lake. is a bluff
like hill, the TANKS of which are pierced and
ribbed by crags and ridges of solid granite.
Beyond the summit of the bluff are more
bluffs and swamps and forests, and gravel
covered ridges that carry seams of valuable
iron ore, and these bluffs and swamps and
ridges extend from Duluth far into Canada.
The region which lies north of Duluth is a
dismal one and wholly unattractive except
ing to miners and lumbermen. A long, low
gravel bar juts southwark from the eastern
extremity of the old town far out into the
the lake. This bar forms natural break
water to protect the harbor which lies be-
hind it. The natural channel to Duluths
harbor, into which the St. Louis river flows,
is around the southern extremity of the out
jutting bar and leads directly to Superior
City An artificial channel has been dug
through the bar to admit vessels to Duluth's
harbor, which is surrounded by elevators and
wharves, as the harbors of all the lake cities
are.
Duluths main street, business street I
mean, is lined by buildings, some of which
are handsome, and costly blocks built of iron
and dressed stone and pressed brick, but
the larger number are cheap buildings of
wood or rough brick. On some of the va
cant lots on Superior street tents have been
pitched or car like booths built. These are
occupied by candy, fruit and tobacco ped
oilers who, almost without exception, make e
good living in their little shops. There are @
few large dry goods stores and many hotels
and scores of saloons and real estate offices on
the street. From Z a. m. till 6 p. m. the main
street and the cross streets which lead from
it to the lower town, which stands on the
bar and along the edge Of the harbor, were
filed with heavily laden trucks and wagons.
Handsome carriages and brightly painted
omnibuses ceaselessly rolled to and fro be-
tween the hotels and railroad stations and
" ieil NSn NoHo Vi lltl GSSeU SIOI1e. OUI6r
gangs dug cellars. Hundreds of men were
engaged in digging sewers and laying pipes.
Other hundreds dug and blasted streets
through hills Of earth and solid granite And
thousand men sawed boards and timbers
and drove nails for ten hours every day.
The whaives and elevators were crowded
with men who worked to load and discharge.
vessels. Tugboats pulled and whistled in the
barhOr. and touo6 10
fro. Enormous propellers, each towing three
OF four consorts, arrived loaded with coal or
iron, and presently departed loaded with
wheat, or steamed dragging their consorts
after them, to Two Harbors to get cargoes of
iron ore that had been mined at the Tower
mines near Vermilion lake. The loud, boom.
ing whistles of propellers, the shrill whistles
of tugs, the piercing whistles of many loco.
motives and the ceaseiess murnlur of thou,
sands OF strong voices caused the air to
tremble. At 6o'clock all the whistles sounded.
Work ceased Columns of grimy, toll
stained men, who carried tin dinner buckets,
marched up from the wharves. Swarms of
men clambered up from cellars and pits in
which foundation stones were being dressed,
AND down from unfinished houses, and walked
home i'll pipe smoking groups. By o'clock
the main street began to fill with sightseers
and merrymakers. Groups of young women,
gayly dressed and chattering like blackbirds
walked slowly up and down the street
Workmen, well dressed and smoking cigars,
walked in groups and made eyes at the young
women.
By 8 o'clock the street was so crowded that
it was necessary to walk slowly. Electric
lights blazed overhead and in nearly all the
stores and saloons. Strains of music 1oated
out from dozens of saloons and occasionally
men, whose faces were flushed and whose
eyes shone with the peculiarly evil glare pro-
duced by heavy doses of alcohol, staggered
out of the drinking rooms and endeavored
to walk with firm steps on the sidewalk,
which generally proved to be too narrow for
these jewellers, and they lurched heavily into
the street. where they spent unhappy minutes
in lodging bobtail cars and finally staggered
around corners and disappeared. By 10
O'Clock the crowd was perceptibly thinned
By - o'clock the streets were deserted And
by o'clock the following morning they
were again astir with life, Vegetable
wagons, some of which were driven by
Indians, who raised the produce, rolled into
the town from the country. The night
workers on the wharves We're going home.
smoking and talking as they walked At Z
o'clock whistles sounded, bells rang, and the
sounds produced by steel hammers striking
against granite and lumber the clang OF
steel bars on the distant wharves, the click
of the bricklayers' trowels, the hum of the
buzz saws in the sawmills and the roar of a
busy commerce caused the air to culver and
forbade sleep.
Duluth now contains about $1,000 people,
1t is easy to prophesy its future Northeast
Of the town, and distant seventy miles lies the
largest and most valuable deposit of iron in
America if not in the world. Westward of
Duluth lies land as yet hardly furrowed by
plows that is fully capable of producing ,000-
900, 900 bushels of ''No. hard" wheat annu-
ally. Standing in the forests which are tribu-
tary to Duluth are billions of feet of lumber
Eastward stretch the great lakes which, in
with the Erie canal, connect the
heart of the republic with the export port of
New York At Duluth the Goals mined in
and Ohio, the up cargo of
which is the life of the lake commerce, will
meet the iron ores of Minnesota and the gold
and silver ores from Montana, and think it
is certain that great and profitable iron and
steel, and ore smelling industries will be es-
at Duluth. As the wheat produc-
ing country becomes more thickly settled and
the mining region in northeastern Minnesota
is developed, the demand for fuel will stead
ily increase, This fual will be supplied by
the soft coal mines Of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
1t will be screened at Duluth to separate the
lump coal from the slack, and the Jumps will
be shipped westward and northward for sale
and the slack will be cooked and used in smelt-
ing ores at Duluth. No man can accurately
forecast this towns future commercial i'm
portance. 1t is the only town in the entire
northwest, excepting st. Paul and Mime
apolis, whose future I consider worthy of
mentian, The digging of the new Sault Ste. |
Marie's canal assures Duluths future, and |
Chicago only Of all the cities that stand on |
the shores OF the great western lakes will
surpass Duluth in population or in manufact-
lring and commercial importance.-Frank |
Wilkeson in New I ork Times.
Men as NIessengeY Boys.
1t has been noticed among the brokers Of |