Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-14

Iliht IdTkoF Qu6nClCl0S are neeQeQ Chan OF
harder and tirmcr coal. It is not mineral.
It is lighter than the Iowa coal, has more
water, more volatile matter, less carbon
and less sulphur. AS household fuel it \
serves its best purpose and is entirely sat
isfactory. In an open CRATE it furnishes
the prettlest sort of flame, producing
pinkish ash. Looking from the windows
of Northern Pacific train, the passengers
may see hundreds of dark excavations
made by the farmers into mounds and
bluffs where good, thick surface seams
have been discovered. With this industry
waiting to be turned to profit, and with the
great Missouri flowing at her feet,
BISMARCK HAS NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT
HER FUTURE.
The Missouri at Bismarck is better be-
haved, on the whole, than elsewhere on its
course. 1t rises 1900 miles further north
and west, and occasionally in the early
sprung when the Chinook winds, sweeping
across nOrther Montana, melt the ice and
starts rapid flow of water, gorges are
formed in and around Bismarck, where the
ice remains solid, and flood is brought
on. But the city, securely protected be-
hind enormous bluffs, regards this misde-
menor as venial. The headquarters of the
Missouri River Transportation company
are here, ,and it has various establishments,
shops, shipyards and freight-houses down
upon the "first bench,'' as the lowest slope
of land nearest the river is called. The
company's freight-hOuse is singular
structure As feet wide and, 600 feet long.
To some people igures never convey much
Of an idea, and therefore will add that a
building As feet by 600 is about as big
building as is worth while making in all
this world of human endeayor. Two win
tiers ago, the river, apparently dissatisfied
with the situation of the building, quietly
got up one night and laid it on bluff some
2OS feet above its original site and about
4O8 feet nearer the town. Then, having
slowed some thousands of tons of ice
against the freight-house to keep it in
place, the river lowered its back and swept
amiably on as before. There is person
ality about the Missouri and mischievous
motive about its rascally performances
that are highly amusing. The huge, un.
slightly steamboats, that ply
BETWEEN ST. LOUIS AND BISMARCK.
and then for another thousand miles
onward to Fort Benton, carrying from
sixty to two hundred tons OF freight, draw
only form two to four feet of water! This
is hard to believe, but it is fact. And
even then, they will often get into trouble.
They will be going placidly along when
suddenly the river will toss sandbar in
their way. and they will be buried in mud
and misery. But the ingenuity of man has
not failed to provide for this emergency
Each steamer is equipped with two big
poles. These are let down into the mud
and water, and by means of ropes and
pulleys the boat is hoisted upon the poles
out of the stream. Then, when the current,
to its und0ubted regret and annoyance, has
washed away the sand. the steamboat
ijauntly proceeds. Nothing is funnier than
to see great. big boat pulling itself on top
of couple of crutches to cheat the sand
bar.
WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT.
In closing, as I do herewith. the story
that has been too feetly told of the ma
terial condition and the wonderful achieve
ments of the two Dakotas, it may be de.
sirable to collect a few Of the more elo-
quent facts in a single forceful group. The
population of these sister states has come
up in eighteen years from 100000 to 900, 900.
In twelve years the acreage acquired by
actual settlement has been 41,OOO 900. The
first railroad track was laid in 1872. To-.
day you can ride 5000 miles over steel
rails within the boundary lines of North
and South Dakota. You can start for your
newly taken homestead on Monday
and can reach your final destination in
three days without ever leaving your car.
You will find your household goods on a
sidetrack waiting for you, and by the next
Monday you can be breaking sod for your
first crop. Conditions are not as they were
in the days, still vividly clear in living
mems memories, when the prairies were
only to be crossed in wooden-wheeled
carts, drawn by yoke of oxen and
furnished with barrel of -four in
one end and a barrel OF water in the other!
To-day there are in Dakota 25O,OOO horses,
25O, 600 milch cows, 100000 cattle, 10000
sheep, 100000 hogs. They are worth $780,
100000, and to this grand fortune 10 per
cent. accretiOn must be added every year.
At this moment a harvest is growing, with
every promise of happy realization, of 35,-
100000 bushels of corn, 70, 100000 of wheat,
100000 of flax, 1OOOO, 600 Of barley, 5O.O0O,-
600 of oats and 100000 of potatoes! And
Of the imperial domain stretching from a
central point 200 miles north, east, south
and west Of the 96OOO,0O0 acres that consti-
tute these states, barely 7,oOO,O 900 less than
one-thirteenth-have felt the harrow's
touch! Everywhere, in social life, in relig-
.ious life, in political life, a perfect and
liberal organization exists. Wherever
there is q settlement the spires of half
dozen churches rise and the bells of half
dozen schools sound out. Crime is scarcely
heard of in Dakota. It has nothing that
even family resembles criminal class,
There are but two prisons in the two
states that really look like prisons, and the
inmates Of these are only luckless crea-;
lures, who couldn't make things go and