The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-06-23
THENEW NORTHWEST
Characteristics of the Soil and
the Settlers.
A Land of Ready Cash. High
Wages and Quick Fortunes.

Wages and Quick Fortunes.
Beginning with the Dakotas, we
enter the vast plains country-monot-
onous, all but treeless, blanket Of
brown grass almost as level as the
mats of grass that the Pacific coast
Indians plait. 1t is only a little wrinkled
in the finishing at the top edge and
down in the southwest corner. On
its surface the houses and the villages
stand out in silhouette against sky
that bends down to touch the level
sward Here we find the western
edge of the lands which the Scandina.
vians who have come among us pre-
fer to their own countries. Here we
come upon the yellow wheat fields
that turned their kernels into millions
of golden dollars last year. Here,
also, we see the more than half savage
cattle whose every part and posses
sion, except their breath. io converted
into merchandise in Chicago. The
hard-riding cowboys are here "turned
loose," and the not less domesticated
Indians in their blankets are cribbed
in the national corrals. A great
thirst would seem to overspread the
fn, ha lou ~ hi In
the people possess prohibitory liquor
DAVIS, and water that is poisoned with
| alkali.
In the Black Hills we prepare our
selves for Montana by first glimpse
of mining. In Montana, where the
veiy first merchants signboard an
nounced "pies, coffee and pistols for
SALE" we now see the legend "licensed
gambling saloon" staring at the tour
lists, who may walk into the dens
more easily than they can into the
stock exchanges of the East. In Mon
tana we feel an atmosphere of specu-
laifln. Every store clerk boards some
shares in undeveloped mines for his
nest-cgg. 1t is natural that this should
be. The stories of quick and great
fortunes that daze the mind are sup
ported by the presence of the million
aire heroes of each tale. Moreover,
the very air of Montana is a stimulant.
Perhaps it gathers its magic from the
earth. where the precious metals are
strewn over the mountains, where
sapphires, rubies and garnets are
spaded out of the earth like goober
nuts in the South, and where men
hunt for the diamonds which scientists
say must be there.
Montana is a land of ready cash and
high wages. Lumbermen and miners
get as high as seven dollars day, and
the very street-sweepers get twice as
much rs broom-handers in New
York. Here we find wealth, polish
aud refinement, noble dwellings, pala-
tial hotels, and numerous circles of
charming, cultivated folk. Their
mistake has been to despise agricul-
ture. They know this, and with
them, 10 see an error is to repair it.
The mining camps and California
colored characteristics of the moun-
famous half of Montana spread over
into Idaho, baby giant born with
golden spoon. The cattle ranges and
cowboy capitals of Montana's grass
clad hills are repeated upon the gigan-
tic but virgin savannas of Wyoming.
In Washington all is different again.
The forests of Maine and of the re-
gion of the Great Lakes are here exag-
gerated. the verdure of the East reap
pears and passes into semi-tropical
and incessant freshness and abun-
dance. Here flowers bloom in the
gardens at Christmas, small fruits
threaten California's prestige and the
aborgines are bow-legged. boating
Indians who work like 'longshore-
men. Cities with dozen-storied build
ings start up like sudden thoughts and
everywhere is note of promise TO make
us belittle our Eastern growths that
startled the older world Harper's
Magazine.
FIorida's Sponge Industry.