Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-12-27
A Quiet Day in the Capital After
the Departure of the
S0lOns.
A Fort Lincoln Correspondent Gives
Some Good Points Regarding
the Posts Needs.
Mrs. Streeter Dead-A Few of the
Solons Remain George Haigh
Found Dead.
What Fort Lincoln Needs.
TFrom Saturdays Daily.1

~ss~>S't
The following communication from Fort
Lincoln is from the pen of gentleman
thoroughly competent to speak and is
worthy of serious consideration.
FORT A. LINCOLN, N. d., December 10.
EDITOR TRBUNE:-I have noticed in the
congressional proceedings reported from
Washington that bill had been intro
duced. asking for an appropriation of $15.-
ham Lincoln. do not know whether the
able senator from Dakota, who presented
the bill, has taken the trouble to inquire
from any one in authority as to how far
that amount would 60 in placing the post
named in proper condition for its mainten.
ance as a military station, but if he has not,
then it would have been wise to have done
present condition would be to throw it
away, for there is so much needed that the
sum referred to could only be used in
tinkering. We have been d0ctorlng long
enough. What the case needs now is the
surgeon, to kill or cure.
In fact the post, if it is retained, does not
need repair, but requires reconstruction,
least service, except to make it a little
comfortable for a year or two longer.
If it is not wanted for longer period than
that, then the $l5, 900 had better be saved
and the post abandoned when the authOri-
ties desire to do so.
In the first place, if kept as a military
station, there will have to be water works
and some system of drainage. This will
cost $4,000 Mt least. Every building will
have to be newly Weather-bOarded and
shingled; all the houses will have to be
'jacked" up to a level, the old cottonwood
posts on which they were originally built
having .rotted away, leaving the buildings
a,,t of ,1,,,,, f0 o1yn
not only unsightly, but dangerous; this
would necessitate an entire reftting of the
interiors, as doors and windows and frames
have become so warped and twisted by the
settling of the houses as to make those
articles unservlceable in the general re-
pair. The officers quarters and the bar
racks for the men have not even the sim
respectable civilians house; they have
neither bathrooms or water. closets, and
not drop of water but that which is de-
livered by the water-Wagon and placed in
barrels for family and barrack use. New
stable for the ANIMALS will have to be con-
structed, as the one now in use is liable to
fall in the event of a blizzard.
The post is too large for the present gar
rison 1.-TWO companies) to take care of, it
having been constructed for the accOmmO-
datiOn of six companies, and, therefore,
while one part is occupied the other is 60
ing to ruin simply by the action OF time.
Thus, without an increase of the garrison,
it would be folly to attempt to maintain
the present structures, and it would be
more than folly to spend $4,000 repairing
unoccupied buildings, even if the post
were retained with its present force. What
is wanted is somebody to live in the va
cant houses, and if additional troops were
sent here, then sufficient appropriation
for reconstruction with some degree of
permanency would become necessity.
The policy of the government now is to
abandon all small and expensive posts and
to collect the troops near important points
with available railroad facilities by which
they can not only be better instructed in
their. duties, but used as necessity de-
mands. AS North Dakota has no large
post within her borders from which troops
could be rapidly moved by rail, and as Fort
Lincolnlpossess the advantage of easy
access to the railroad running through the
center of the state from east to west, con-
Meeting with various other roads north and
south and at the capital of the state where
other roads are certain to center, it would
seem desirable to make it comparatively
permanent post by increasing its garrison
and putting it in such shape as to make
the officers and men comfortable and con.
tented. X