The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-04-23
SOME PIONEERS OF THE WEST
James ]. Hill, the Irish. Canadian
Railroad King.
LEADING CELTs OF PIG'S-EYE.
Described by a Correspondent of a
Dublin Paper.

The following interesting sketch of the
Western Celts is given by P. A. O'Far-
rell, in the Dublin Freeman's Journal:
In this century of marvels there is
nothing half so wonderful as the trans
formation of the wilderness of Western
America into an empire of marvellous
fecundity and wealth. Half the bread
that Europe eats comes from the surplus
product Of the farms west of the Missis-
sippi river. New England and New
York are incapable of consuming a
moiety of the surplus of the gardens,
orchards and granaries scattered today
over that wonderful land. The cattle
on ten thousand hills and the sheep in
ten thousand valleys are as likely to be
marketed in Europe as at home. The
cavalry of European armies find that the
noblest war horse can be had almost
for the asking In a country where the
horse acquires strength and an endur-
ance surprising that of the tabled Arab
steed. I have seen orange groves and
vineyards and orchards so prolific in
their fruitfulness that more than half
Of it was wasted or destroyed. The
United States exported over &200000,-
600 worth of farm and other products in
1897, and by far the greater part of it
came from the West. Americas imports
during the same period were G80,000,0 600
more than her exports. Moreover. it
must not be forgotten that the mineral
wealth of the same country surpasses
the widest dreams of man. In the past
so years, the value of the gold and cop
per and silver and lead taken from the
mines of Western America was more
than sufficient to wipe out the national
debt Of the British empire The same
region will produce within 80 years more
gold than now exists as money in all
the countries of the world
1t has been my fate to wander over
this country from Mexico to Alaska, to
talk to the men who blazed the trails
and made the desert blossom like the
rose; to the men who stumbled on for
tunes in the gold fields, and to the men
who hewed the forest, and planted the
seeds Of the noblest civilization the
world has ever seen, and 1 would like
to tell my countrymen at home that the
brain, and the bone, and the muscle
that created these glorious western
states of the great republic was mainly
and chiefly Irish.
Here in ST. Paul is great archbishop
John Ireland. I think he told me once
he was born in Kilkenny, but wherever
he was born it should be hallowed
spot for his race, for no man living has
worked so long, so hard, and so assidr-
ously in the upbuilding of this mighty
Western country. From Minnesota to
California, and from Yexas to Alaska,
you will find great people freer from
cant, humbug, bigotry, and tomfoolery
than any people on the globe-a people
who vie In honoring honest ambition
and generous rivalry-a people great as
they are free, and people only intol-
Grant of the mean and the sordid, race
Of happy destiny, which eventually will
outshine any other that has lived along
the tide of time; and Archbishop Ireland
has been to this people friend, sage,
an oracle Millions of them differ from
him in race and in creed; but to all, re-
gardless of race and creed, John Ire
land has been what Moses was to the
children of Israel when he led them to
the Promised Land.
Some 35 years ago young Irish
Canadian entered what was then the lit
tie frontier town of St. Paul. He picked
up some odds and ends of work before
he got regular employment. One day
he was driving a van, the next day he
was clerking in store, and a lit
tie later he was found keeping set OF
books. A few years later he was run
ming stage line to the outlying dis
tricts, and when railroads began to be
built he pushed his way to the front
as railroad builder. The obscure
youth OF the past generation is the fam
GUS railroad king Of this place.
James j. Hill did what no other man
has dared to do-he spanned the mighty
West from the Great Lakes to the Pa
cific ocean with a railroad system, and
took 1t across two vast mountain ranges
without ever having received fraction
from the government in aid Of his enter
prise. This is the Great Northern rail-
road, and ]. J. Hill is its president, it's
guiding genius, the heart and soul Of a
great enterprise that has been finan-
cially as successful as it is colossal. Mr.
Hill now dwells in a palace gloriously
situated on the heights above the rolling
Mississippi. There. too. dwells the
Is b.. 4 81 - J.