Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-25
The STAR OF EMPIRE
Growth of Population and Material Wealth
Beyond the Mississippi.
HISTORIC FACTS AND CONVINCING FIGURES
Railway and Postal Facilities, Col
ieges and Public schools, Mineral
Wealth. Products of the Farm
and Orchur,I-Live stock.

| Omaha today, where subjects bearing on the
| growth and development of the west are to
be discussed The Bee reprints for the benefit
Of those interested the following extracts
from the address delivered by Hon. Edward
Rosewater before the Young Mems Christian
association in March. 1892:
Sin the year 1900 the United States of
America contained 5.308.4S3 inhabitants,
| nearly one-fifth Of whom were negro slaves.
! Even after two centuries OF struggle the
land was still untamed forests. except here
and there strip of cultivated soil. The min
erals lay undisturbed in their rocky beds, and
| more than two-thirds of the people clung to
the seaboards within fifty miles of the tide
| water, where alone the wants Of civilized life
could be supplied. The center of population
| rested within eighteen miles Of Baltimore.
| north and east of Washington. The entire
| continent was not much easier to- penetrate
| than when La Sale and Hennepin found their
way to the Mississippi more than century
| before.
1.-TWO wagon roads crossed the Allegheny
| mountains In Pennsylvania one leading from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg, one from Po-
! tomac to the Monongahela. while a third
passed through Virginia southeastward to
| Knoxville Tenn, with branch through the
| Cumberland gap in Kentucky. By these
roads and by trails less passable from North
| ard South Carolina. or by waterways from
the lakes between 100000 and SOC, 900 psr-
| sons had invaded the country beyond the AL
| leghanies
Nowhere did eastern settlement touch the
western. At least 100 miles Of mountainous
country held the two regions apart. The
| shore of Lake Erie, where alone contact
seemed easy, was still unsettled. The In
| dis ms had been pushed back to the Cuyahoga
| river and a few cabins were built on the
site Of Cleveland Even western New York
was still wilderness. Buffalo was not laid
out. Rochester did not exist. Utica con-
| tained fifty houses. Albany was Dutch city
with some 5000 inhabitants.
The people of the old thirteen states along
the Atlantic seaboard thus sent westward q
dge-shaped mass of nearly 100000 persons
| from the region penetrated by the Ten
| nessee, Cumberland and Ohio rivers to the
western limit of the union. With the excep-
tion that 100000 of people had crossed the
Alleghanies and were struggling with diff
cultfes that appeared almost insurmountable
America, so far az concerned physical prob
lens, had changed little in fifty years The
same bad roads and difficult rivers connect
Ing the same small towns stretched into the
same forests in 1900 as when the armies of
Braddock pierced the western and northern
Alleghanies, except that these roads extended
few miles farther from the seacoast.
The 100000 Americans struggling with the
untamed continent scented hardly more COM
petent to their task than the beaver and
buffalo. which had for countless generations
made bridges and roads of their own.
Even by water along the seaboard commu-
as in colonial times. At the opening Of the
nineteenth century no regular packet piled
between New York and Albany. Passengers
waited till sloop was advertised to SAIL they
provided their own bedding and supplies and
a week on the North river or on the sound
was an experience not at all unknown to trav-
elers. The settler who, after buying wagons
and horses, hauled his family across the
mountains, might buy or build d fiat bot
tened ark to float with him his belongings
down the Ohio river. in constant danger of
being attacked or being sunk. : II he carried
his tobacco and wheat down the Mississippi
to the Spanish port Of New Orleans and sold
1t he might return on horseback through the
Indian country from Natchez to Nashville, or
he might take ship to Philadelphia, IL ship
were about to sail. and again cross the Allie
ghanies, Nearly all the rivers which pene-
trated the interior were liable to be made
dangerous by freshets and both, dangerous
and impossible by drouth, yet such as they
were these streams were made the main paths
of traffic. sos. n.
'In the year 1900 one general mail route
extended from Portland, Me-, to Louisville,
the time required for the trip being twenty
days. From Philadelphia a branch line went
to Lexington In sixteen days and into Nash
vile In twenty-five days.
"The gross receipts for postage in the year
ending October 1, 1901. were only 1920 900 for
the whole United States. For the year 1891
the postofiice receipts at Omaha alone were
1864. .5SS.99, exclusive of money order trans
iciS, "hiCH dSSEeSdteu $l,ooO,o
In 1900 the census of the city of Boston
showed $4,000 inhabitants In appearance
Boston resembled an English market town
The sidewalks as well the crooked and
narrow streets were paved with round cobble
stones and were divided from the carriage
way only by posts and a gutter. The streets
were almost unlighted at night, the few oil
lamps rendering the darkness more visible
and the rough pavements rougher. Such
thing as police hardly existed The total bank
M
century, including a branch bank of the
United States, was about 81. 500, 900.
The state of New York had a population
of $4,000, and the valuation of all the prop
erty OF the Empire state was fraction over
Sl00.O0O,OO0, while that of Massachusetts
was $s4,00O.000, or less than one-half of the
assessed valuation of Nebraska at this time !
New York City had fraction over 10000
population. The city resembled a foreign |
seaport, badly paved, undraned and as foul |
as town surrounded by the tides could be. |
No day police existed. The night police con-
sisted OF two captains, two deputies and |
seventy-two men, Two banks besides the |
branch bank of the United States supplied |
the financial wants Of the American metrop-
oils.
During the first quarter of the present
century the westward trend OF civilization
was very slow. Up to 1926 canals had not |
been thought Of west of New York. The |
averags time required to make a trip from
Cincinnati to New Orleans and back was six
months. The craft made use of were neces-
sarily small and the cargoes proportionately
light, and when they arrived In New Orleans
In fiat boats, which could not be taken back,
The boats were abandoned and the hands re-
turned by land. Under such disadvantages
The commerce of the country was nominal
The farmer had no motive to increase the
produce of his fields beyond the wants of his
lamily and OF newcomers who might settle
IN his neighborhood. Corn and oats rarely
more than 10 or ~ cents
,ushel and wheat from 30 to 40 cents The
lverage price Of good beef was $15O per
100, and pork fromfsl to 81 per 100. according
% quality.
"During this period our national govern
nent entered upon a scheme of internal i'm
,rovements. The national road commencing
It Cumberland. Md. and running thence
to Ohio. through the state of Penn
'ylvania, and thence through central Ohio.
vas constructed at the expense OF the gem
expended on this highway by 1885. It was
he first great national Improvement In the
direction OF internal improvements.
THE ERA OF CANALS. |.
During this period of depression, when the
roduce OF the country would not defray the
Expense Of transportation 10, a, distant mar
lot. the Miami canal was projected.
"By an act passed by the legislature of !
)hio In 1922 the.'goyernor was authorized to ,
mploy engineers to make surveys of the
ountry between Lake Erie and the Ohio ,