Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-01-30

great inducements are offered for such per.
Sons in any Of the southern states east of
the Mississippi, il at all. But the south
probably offers a large field for skillful in
vestors, and perhaps for considerable mum.
bers having exceptional skill in some spe-
cial industries. In that regard 1 can only
say that so far as I know it does not pre-.
sent such disadvantages as should deter
laborers, mechanics, farmers and clerks
from settling in the south in places where
the climate is likely to improve or restore
the health of themselves or of members OF
their families. Such people should come
here, and perhaps to many other parts OF
the south, only expecting to receive at the
best an equal net return for an equal
mou of work and skill, and hoping only
for advantage in a more delightful climate,
in more perfect health, and in the ability
to do more work.
That this is true in the south generally,
as well as in places that nave come under
my direct observation, is IL not unnatural
inference from certain action of the con.
vention which looked more to special in.
terests than the general advantage.
Such as they are, the remaining public
lands in the far west belongto the American
people, and under proper regulations for
occupancy and use they should be made as
accessible to the people Of every state as the
circumstances permit. But the competi-
ton of this poor remnant of public lands
troubled the convention, and it passed
resolutions looking to concerted action by
all southern Legislatures and by all south.
ern representatives and senators in con-
gress for national legislation which should
withdraw all such lands from sale or occu.
~ All Aha ,,~oo,,:oJ 1,-l. =. A..
older states are disposed of.
These Whds in the older states are in
private hands, and the resolutions simply
mean that their owners are either unable
or unwilling to sell them to immigrants
in competition with the remainder of the
public lands of the far west. This, on the
one hand, is a practical admission that
southern lands offer no great inducement
to the agricultural settler, while, on the
other, the cheapness of labor is one of the
chief reasons alleged for northern invest
ments in southern mineral lands, manu-.
factories and town sites.
The delegates were generally armed and
equipped with documents setting forth the
advantages of their respective localities.
supplied myself with these and looked
them over with care. The most striking
OF all is an illustrated pamphlet setting
forth the advantages of a distant health
resort, where the death rate among the
residents, as stated, is 6. IL per 200 per year
that is, the average expectation of life is
1874 years, 6 months, 81 days.
l have had some experience with colored
walters. If those twenty-five or thirty
years old are slow enough both for D
tite and digestion, how "may good digestion
wait on appetite" if both have to wait for
a middle aged waiter whose years number
1874, 6 months 81 days? How could Succi
himself abide an old waiter of twice the
average years?
This was by no means reassuring, but
the next fact that riveted my attention
was a death rate among visitors of 1.32 pei
LOCO. That is to say, if a reprobate of SC
years, broken down by his vices, visits this
strange resort, the chances are even that he
won't die for 75.7 years 6 months q days
This being the average, is it better OF
worse than the days of "Mathusalem?"
am afraid it is worse. Among these play.
full middle aged visitors of some 800 year
apiece, or among the residents or both, one
died last year of endocolita, one of hemo
philia, one of emphysemia, one of cere
BIRTHS, three of meningitis, one of ~cystitis,
one of myelitis and one of endarteritis,
~ SohoAOoAoAS, OuO VI pltlu murU6r,
and many of other diseases equally fatal.
The advantages of that place forcibly re-
mind me of those claimed for another,
with which it may have some underground
connection, where the guests, freely ad.
mitted and warmly welcomed, receive the
most constant attention, and where they
are warranted to live forever. I shall give
no more of these interesting particulars
until l have made a personal inspection OF
this health resort, and I certainly shall not
visit it till have received a full descrip.
ton of the accommodations provided for
me, with d menu accompanied by a time
table for each course and a free return pass,
all in duplicate, properly authenticated.
and with an adequate bond to be enforced
by my attorney for the benefit of my heirs,
providing it is found that nulla vestigia
retrorsum. EDWIN A. CURLEY.