The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-31

rush went on peacefully till the tide reached
the wet prairies near Lafayette; there it
halted the tide from the north came down
moN slowly, and to this day there is a clearly
defined east and west line across that part Of
Indiana, north of which the main stock is
''Yankee," south of it southern"
a BOOM ALWAYS WORKS WESTWARD.
Illinois was settled with more elaboration,
whiSh may be due partly to the fact that peo-
pie c1me into it first from the west and south.
1t is curious fact in United States history
that no one has ever been able to get up a
boom towards the east. The eastern side Of
a new state is often settled before the western
side of the state just east Of it, and when
there are rival cites with anything like equal
advantages the one on the western bank of a
river seems to get ahead. Kansas and West
Missouri made a curious exception, because
the Indians held their Kansas lands nearly
thirty years after all Missouri was opened
but emigrants Travelled across a hundred mile
strip of unbroken Iowa sod to get into Ne
bFaska, and Minnesota waa a big and boom
ing state while there was still abundance of
cheap land in Iowa and Wisconsin Indeed,
the Dubuque and Sioux City railroad was
built west of the Iowa river, across an almost
urbroken prairie, in 1860.
Thus Illinois had no boom to speak of till
the crazy spell of 1851 Then she had a
boom indeed, in fact bocmed clear out Of
sight of common sense anGalmost beyond the
control of common honesty. 1t was the mad
ness of the hour, and was only cured by
general bankruptcy.
1t is hard to believe now that intelligent
men could have been 50 deluded as the law
makers of the new states were about that
time. Those of Illinois gridironed the state
with railroads-in their minds All thesame
they issued bonds to build l $50 miles of rail-
road, some S., COX, 900 worth for a canal and
proyided for beginning work at once at the
TED aini of all the roads and the crossings of
the rivers. A debt of $4,000. 900 was created
as great weight ON the state as fifty times
the amount would be now-and almost with
out opposition. One legislator wanted to
make it 500, 000, 900, and to put the whole in
internal improvements, demonstrating to his
own satisfaction that the rise in land values
would far more than pay it by the increase
of taxes. "Blue Monday" came in 1889, and
the state struggled with debt for many a
year. She paid out at last, but fifteen years
r,sfsed before she ventured on another boom,
and then it was a modest one and well
founded.
THE Pc-N OF AE.L BooMs.
The next booII after the boom Of 1897, the
boom Of all booms in the eyes of Americans
then, was in California; and in view Of what
was 50 soon to happen, it raises quiet smile
now to read the following from a History Of
the Mexican War;" published soon after It's
close, by the veteran scholar and essayist, T.
D. Mansfield: But will the greater part Of
this vast space ever be inhabited by any but
the useless hunter and tie wandering trap
peri Two hundred thousand square miles Of
this territory, in New California, has been
tro6SS5y the foot of no civilized being. No
spy, or pioneer, or vagrant trapper has ever
returned to report the character and scenery
of tkat waste and lonely wilderness. Two
hundred thousand square miles more are
occupied with broken mountains and dreary
wilds. But little remains then for civiliza-
ann-n But "New California" then included