The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-11-20

sets. New York gained in wealth $7.-
600, 600 nor than the combined in
crease of l6 Of the most productive agri-
cultural states of the Union. All the
northern Atlantic states made a like
tremendous gain as compared with the
rest Of the Union.
The other side of the picture is that
in the very states which grow in wealth
SO rapidly pauperism increases just as
rapidly. The state of New York is so
wealthy that year before last its riches
increased more than 500, 900, 900. Yet
this same New York contains nearly
one-seventh of all the paupers in the
country. In the three states Of New
York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts,
where the largest fortunes of the coun.
try are concentrated, the pauper rate is
twice as high as in the agricultural
states. Splendid wealth and ahject pow
erty walk hand in hand and with equal
step. One grows as the other grows.
III hfctlc TNplOfdtlOH.
The arctic explorations of 1896 were
not startling i'll any way. Still, they
were, IN the whole, satisfactory. 1t is
true that Nansen did not reach the
north pole, Peary did not bring home
the big Greenland meteorite from Mel
vile bay, while Andree did not ven
start on his wild goose chase o. a bal
loon voyage across the pole. These are
the things that were not done.
AS to what was done, Nansen proved
that a ship may be built strong enough
to drift for a year among the ice foes of
the polar region and not be crushed. He
also got within $50 miles of the pole it.
self-nearer than anybody else had done
by walking and sledging over the ice.
It was ice. He has proved that there is
no land north Of Franz Josef Land on
the eastern half of the globe. Whatever
landward advances are to be made in
future will therefore be from the west
ern side Of the world north of Green
land. The Americans Brainard and
Lockwood found in 1881 a fringe Of
land northeast of Greenland and traced
it's southern shores westerly for some
distance. 1t was in latitude SO degrees
"a minutes. This is still the highest
point of land attained by man. Lock-
wood and Brainard thought it was part
of the northern coast of Greenland.
Peary proved two years ago that it was
not, but that it was a detached mass
north of Greenland. It will probably
urn out to be the land that is nearest
to the pole of any on the globe. And it
will yet be reached-that, too, by the
Greenland route, which the explorations
Of 1896 apparently show to be the most
feasible.
The interior of north Greenland has
been named Peary Land, and the chan
mel which separates the north coast of
Greenland from the land reached by
Brainard and Lockwood has been named
Peary channel.
In the frozen solitudes of Alaska, Pro-
lSSSOl A11lEu 1I1u1luSS 1udllS UIlG V1SCUN-
cry, already noted, of the ruins of a pre-
historic city 400 miles up the Kuwalik
river from it's mouth in Kotzebue sound.
Of all the achievements of the arctic ex-
p]orers this year that of Professor Ell
bridge is most interesting. The city was
great and prosperous in the days when
the north pole enjoyed a warm climate.
Interesting as well as important, too,
was the finding by Professor Dyche of
great lodges of coal in Alaska. The coal
is sc soft that it can be cut with a knife.
Still, it is there.
What a Spaniard is at his best, cour
teous, honorable, high minded and
quick tempered, mankind knows. What
a Spaniard is at bis worst the hapless
Moors in Spain found out more than
four centuries ago, the Montezumas in
Mexico and the Incas in Peru found out
soon after America was discovered and
the Cubans are finding out today. They
have had the knowledge forced upOn