The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-27
Millions Taken From tho Plaoers
and Quartz Leads Since
the Early Days.
The Thousands Of Dollars Paid Out
Each Month to the Wage
Farmers.
What Capital is Doing to Make
tho City o Pleasant Abiding
Place.
What Has Becn Accomplished in Two
Ycars-Thc Churches. schools and
Various Societies.

BUTTE CRY, Nov. 2~6.--[Special. THE
pen-pictnros and photographs of Butte
depicting that city MS a place whers
the sole habitations were miners shanties
and the business houses temporary wooden
structures should be called in now, and
across their face the words, Past and
Void'' written in big letters. As the day OF
the shanty and she'll has and is passing
in Butte, SO is the day Of the hoodlum, of
the notorious tough, and of all that vast
army Of law breakers who during the first
years of the life of every western. city make
a part OF it's population. "The wiokedest
town OF earth" has been a f~avorite ex-
preston with those who have visited Butte
solely to hunt out whatever wickedness
there was in the city. They confined their
Investigations to thu slums, and saw moth
ing else. Had they looked at any prosper
GUS city IN the union through the same
spectacles, they would have witnessed the
same scenes, only o N q more extended
scale, Butte has the same
characterization as other places, and
the visitor who desires to form q fair iudg-
ment Of it, must see it in all its phases.
In one respect other cities might pattern
H1to1 DUeG6-lbhk cA61OuS way IA lcoEOAA-
ing to every call upon it's sympathy. If a
wage-earner be injured, and there be a wife
and little ones dependent upon him, it is
only a question of a few hours when a
purse is raised Of such proportions as to
preclude the possibility Of want while the
husband and father is disabled. If the
head of a family is killed in a mine acci-
dent, and the mother and babies need
money to take them to friends elsewhere,
there is no delay in providing it. In truth,
Butte is quick to respond to every impulse
sometimes too quick, as where a fancied
wrong has been inflicted, but her sins in
in the latter behalf are atoned for a thou
sand-fold in her responses to the calls Of
the unfortunate. @
Butte can afford to be generous. Though
sho is but fifteen years old (because it was
only in 1875 that active quartz mining be-
Rau), shs; justly has the title of ''the great
est mining camp in the world" Her 1900
miners are paid the best wages in the
country, and her mineral output leads all
compstitors. The permanency of her mines
have been demonstrated, and she feels that
she has a solid foundation Cd which to
build a substantial city. This faith in the
city's permanency and growth is not con-
fined to residents. but is shared in by east
y 0AA WVoeo4A oS -
by their Investments. Reference is not had
to those made in mining properties, but to
improved and unimproycd realty, and to
the thousands of dollars put into the water
works, electric lighting and street railway
systems. OF these latter enterprises capl-
tai is very chary until full investigation is
made, and if after that investments follow,
it is a sure indication that there ia going to
be business sufficient to pay a fair interest
on the outlay.
It is only within the past two years that
Butte has made any effort to build comfort
able homes for her people n to put up
business establishments commensurate with
tho demands of her trade and such as her
necessities demand. But she has taken
hold of this with the same push and energy
that has developed her mines, and the
changes wrought since 1889 have been
most marked. While growing in material
wealth, she has also progressed in those
things which go to make life pleasant and
worth the living. Reading some of the
things which have been written about
Butte, one would suppose that there was but
one temporary church in the city and that
the pastor of that spent all his time at the
gaming table, save when he was officiating
vt a funeral. Instead of that, all this lead
ing denominations are represented. and the
church-going population is equal to that of
any other city Of like size in the union. OF
societies, social, secret and benevolent,
there is a full representation, the number
of school houses and the t~horoughnegs of
the system compares favorably with those
in other sections of the northwest, while
the means for doing good to those in need
are never lacking.