The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-22

cabins, built after the style of the logging
camps of Michigan and the Nortnwes.,
and here a regular lumberman's dinner
will be served. There will be coffee ana
cornbread and bacon, and this dinner
promises to be both popular and curious.
Minneapolis is q great lumber town, ana
by this ii calls attention to Its immense
lumber interests. 1t is, In fact, the great
est lumber producing point in the world
at least, Minneapolis people say so. BY
the last census it had $6,5oo,0D0 worth OF
lumber year. and this is 80 per cent.
more than that of any other city IN the
country. The Mississippi for miles above
Minneapolis is filled with logs which nave
been cut In the winter in the pine regions
of Minnesota and foated down with the
spring thaws. One of the sights to the
convention visitors will be these immense
booms of logs and the sawmiiis working
at them. These sawmills work day and
night, and they use electricity to light the
mills at night. They take up the largest
of pine logs, run them into ne null ana
with one saving turn them into boards by
great gang saws which cut number OF
boards at time. Minneapolis cuts about
$50. 009, 900 feet OF lumber every year with
these mills, and she turns out enough
boards to make board walk foot wide
twice around the world, taking in sea and
land, every year.
ished at how these people do business in
the Northwest. Minneapolis has as fine
buildings as you will find in any OF the
big cities of the East, and it has half
dozen buildings which would be credit
TO New YORK. The Guaranty Loan build
ing covers half an acre. and 1t is twelve
stories high. Its first three stories are of
green granite, brought from New Hamp-
shire, and the remainder of the building
is of red sandstone. 1t is architecturally
one of the finest buildings in the country,
and it cost altogether about 100000
The most striking thing, however, to
stranger about Minneapolis is its immense
elevators. These rise in every direction,
and they are, as it were, monuments of
this great grain center. One of these sle-
vators holds 2, 500 900 bushels of grain, and
the twenty-one elevators which are now
in operation here hold more than
100000 bushels. Most of the grain
immense crops Of last fail have
packed them to bursting. The crops
were SO great that they are not all har-
vested yet, and the threshing Is now GO
ing on in the fields. The money that
moves the crops of the Northwest comes
from Minneapolis and st. Paul, and there
is a great system OF elevators along the
railroads which lead from here into the
Dakotas and throughout Minnesota by
which the crops are stored for time in
these and then shipped on here, and from
here over the railroads or down the lakes
to the different parts of the United States
and to Europe. There are more than 900
of these elevators scattered over the
Northwest tributary to Minneapolis, and
these elevators have storage capacity of
45, 900, 600 bushels of grain, and with the
elevators at Minneapolis they could pack
away enough grain to furnish one bushel
at least for every man, woman and child
in the United States.
Minneapolis is known as the Flour city.
1t is the greatest milling center of the
world, and nearly every town in the
United States eats more or less bread made
out of Minneapolis flour. One of the larg-
est of these mills turns out from Ii. 900 to
$1,000 barrels of flour per day, and Mime
apolis grinds out from 81, 600 to 1000 bar
rels of -four every day. The city of Lon
don eats about $4,000 barrels of flour every
twenty-four hours, and 1t has 800, 600 of
people. These mills could almost feed it,
and their product is worth something like
$50, 600 600 annually. Speaking of the
grain trade, this city is the grain market
of the Northwest, and it takes an army of
men to handle the grain as it comes in.
The wheat is inspected as soon as it lands
here, and there is a set of officials who do
this and get % cents a car load for their
work. They have little tin tubes about
four feet long which they stick
down into the car and scoop out
some grain from the bottom. From
these samples they estimate just how
much the grain will weigh per bushel and
to what grade it belongs. 4 great deal of
the grain is handled ON commission and
commission men receive / cent a bushel
for receiving and selling wheat and corn
and only y cent bushel for selling oats.
The city has a Stock exchange and grain
is bought and sold here in quite as lively
a way as it is in Chicago. The banking in
terests of Minneapolis, by which the crop
is moved are very large for a city of its
size, and they have capital altogether of
about SIS. 100000, and the building associa-
tons have capital of nearly as much more.
The bank clearances of Minneapolis last
year were $3.50, 100000 or more than
81. 600 900 per day. The city has a jobbing
trade amounting to sos coo, 0O0 and its
wheat receipts last year amounted to more
than 81, 900, 600 bushels. 1t will be seen
from this that Minneapolis is by no means
a small business center, and the conven-
ton visitors who expect to find a frontier
town with board sidewalks and wooden
shanties will be disappointed.
am surprised at the electric street rail-
ways of Minneapolis. There are here in
this city and in st. Paul 2s4 miles of street
railways under one management, and they
run these cars by electricity. The over
head wire is used, and the cars go as fast
as twelve miles an hour. There is an cleo
trio line between here and ST. Paul, and
there are lines running out to the suburbs,
and you can go to st. Paul for "a dune and
to any place throughout the city for a
nickel.
Speaking of board walks, Minneapolis
has as well paved streets as you will find
in any city of the country. There are
forty miles of such streets here, and most
of these are made of granite and cedar
blocks. The cedar blocks are the most
popular. except where heavy hauling is
required. in which case granite is used
The city extends over large territory.
and, like maLy Western towns, its cor
poration limits reach out into the country.
| 1t is ten miles long and six miles wide,
and as its area is, all told, shout fifty-four