Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-03-16
CUSTER CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, SATURDAY, MARCH 6 1899


| The Outlook.
The CHRONICLE has repeatedly dis
cussed the general outlook for the future
prosperity of Custer and the Black Hills
| That our predictions have been at all
times correct, it would be idle to assume
and yet it may be safely set down as a
| fact, that this paper has in no single
| instance presaged the advent Of an era
of higher prosperity, when the surround
| ing circumstances did not fully justify
| the prediction. 1t would, indeed be a
model journal that never erred in this
respect; and it is safe to say that such
journalistic model could not be found
even in the Black Hills.
Viewing the outlook from our present
standpoint, Notwithstanding the blasting
Of SO many buds of promise in the past,
we cannot escape the conviction, that
we are now surely treading upon the
brink of boom. We use this hackney
ed term, boom, with a full understand
ing of its matchless significance, for the
! reason that no other will adequately
express the measure of the mighty
revival that is already taking form, and
which will ere long, when tin operations
are fairly inaugurated, burst forth like
mighty torrent, upon which, even Tom
White might gaze with sublime aston
ishment.
Now that a month has transpired
since the cabling Of the good news from
London, of the signing Of the tin con
tracts, and the coming of Prof Vincent
TO start up tin operations-and no denial
Of such cablegram has appeared in the
New York Engineering and Mining
JournaI-we think we may safely rely
upon the truth of the report. and enter
upon the full enjoyment of the comfort
which only a confirmed report of this
character could afford the long waiting
but ever expcctant denizens of the
Black Hills. The .magnitude of the
benefits arising from the development
and successful operation of our tin mlnes
can scarcely be estimated. 4 reasona-
bic estimate Of the number Of men di
rectly and indirectly employed in the
future, in connection with this important
industry in all ali its varied branches,
should our tin resources be as extensive
as they are now reasonably believed o
be, when in full operation will reacn
many thousands. This number, vast as
it may seem to be, will not be regarded
as being eXorbitant when the stupen-
dous magnitude Of the industry. which
is 10 supply the United States with
product in every day use by every in
habitant of the nation, 10 say nothing Of
the possibility Of contributing in some
measure TO the supply of foreign coun-
tries is fully considered Eventually
the Black Hills must become, not only
the tin mining emporium bat also the
great tin manufacturing center of the
world. Every essential requisite to the
reduction of tin is here found. and here
where the tin exists, viii it be reduced
and manufactured into tin plate. Coal
and iron, although as yet not extensiv
ely mined, are known to exist here III
ineXhaustible quantities, and the day is
not distant when they will take rank
among the leading mineral resources of
the Hills, and become an important
| factor in the reduction and manufacture
of tin in this locality.
We think we may now venture, with
| more safety than ever before, to make
| the prediction that the present year will
not close before tin operations upon a
scale Of high magnitude will be inaugu-
rated in the Black Hills, and that it will,
| from year to year, increase in impor-
tancc until it will take a leading posi-
ton with the chief commercial in
dustries Of the nation There is good
time coming, let us wait for it, as every
indication points to the conclusion that
| il is now fairly in sight