The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1893-02-24
W ERLAND!
"A Tale OF Our Coming Land.
Iords---A Story of Ire
lands Wrongs.
BY SARAH MABIE BRIGHAM
CHAPTER XIv.--DAKOTA.

y CtlAF Elk Als.-DAholA.
Leaving Chicago we went northwest,
passing through Wisconsin, that grand
state so famous for cheese and butter;
through Minnesota with its broad fields of
growing wheat, clear rivers and bracing
air. into Dakota, the new, the great, the
grand; the giant of the northwest. Here
little homes dot the prairies, giving evil
dence Of growth. Here the hardy pioneers
come to taste the romance of tanning nat
llre and to coax wealth and happiness
from the fertile soil. We passed over riv-
erS whose waters were clear as crystal,
through villages full of enterprise and
thrift.
t'This seems a growing state" l said,
looking out over the expanse of country
thickly dotted with cosy little homes.
1T is among the first said the duke, in
answer to my question. 1T claims a
greater number OF postofices than anyone
of the twGnty-tilree other states and terri
tories, and pays more revenue into the
postotfice department than any one of the
thirty two of them. 1t has colleges, nor
NAL schools and institutions endowed by
the territory. It's, educational fund, de-
rived from lands donated by the general
government, promises to be the largest be-
show that there is less sickness in Dakota
than in any other state or territory in the
Union. Immense beds of coal are being
discovered in many parts of the territory.
Time was, they tell me, when all these
fertile plains belonged to what we knew in
-~oEr school days as the Great American
Desert. But not trace of the desert re-
mains on any railroad map of to-day.
remember picturing the sand on the des-
crt here, as playing the same pranks as in
the Great Sahara of Africa But imagine
that great desert becoming blooming
garden
Chow much this looks like Illinois,"
said as we were riding along.
Eyes, Waverland, you will be surprised
to find that all prairie lands have some of
the same general features, at least | was
But you notice there is no low, flat,
marshy land here. The surface of the
prairie, both upland and valley, is every
where undulating," said the duke, while
the river courses, fringed with timber
afford a grateful relief from the monotony
of the prairies."
"Here we are at our destination said
the duke as the train came to halt at a
little station where everything looked new.
Even the business signs seemed to smell of
new paint
We found comfortable rooms in little
house occupied by the dukes agent. The
agent kept provision store aud postoffice.
His wife, q fair, intelligent woman, took
charge of the Office and did her own house
keeping. She was a stout energetic wo-
man, kept things in order, gave us good
meals, and the tenants their mail
'Then this is your FL Dorado Tsaid to
the duke, when, after com Portable din
ner we started out to see something of
this new American dukedom'
Eyes, this is my Ell Dorado he an
swered laughing. You have not seen any
thing of the famous king, have you?'
The prairie stretched away in the dis
tapce like mighty sea of gentle undulat-
ing verlIire. 1t was a country fresh from
the hantt of nature.