Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-04-24

Al newspapers utpenueu Oh t0lS con-
Germ for their circus tickets and for
railroad passes and for tickets to the
church dinner it would be a long time
between drinks. as the Governor Of
North Carolina once remarked to the
Governor of South Carolina
l refer to the Dupont Powder
Works. situated in the southeast cor
ner Of the State. And I suspect that
not one person in ten, yea, I doubt if
one person in fifty ever heard of such
a concern as powder factory in this
State. Yet such is the case and it is
&n immensely big one, too.
Find the widest, toughest, Woodiest,
most primitive looking spot in the
State and imagine how it would look.
Divest the landscape of all signs of
civilization. Remove the school house
from the hilltop and blot out the sa-
loon in the valley and forget that there
is such thing as rural mail delivery,
and you can imagine the spot chosen
by the Duponts for their Powder Fac
tory in Iowa. They came to Keokuk
about fourteen or fifteen years ago.
The factory has been running thirteen
years. They bought up this tract of
land, had the deeds and owned it in
fee simple before anyone except the
people with whom they had business
knew anything about it. Even to this
day it is not known especially why
they located the factory in Lee County.
It is the way the Duponts have ever
done their business. They do not pro-
claim from the housetops what they
propose to do. When they have aught
to do they do it and let the people
talk about it afterwards.
1t was so with the locating of the
Powder Factory. They bought up $50
acres of the widest land they could
find. They wanted it that way. They
want to be away from civilization and
from neighbors as far as possible,
And in this anxiety to be away from
the world they are not at all impeded
by the rest Of the folks, for the feel
Ing is clearly mutual. If they want
no neighbors, the neighbors surely do
not object. 1t will readily be seen
that powder making is not business
that a town would pay much Of a bo-
nus to have located in the city limits.
They are the most selfish people in
the world They not only withdraw
as far as possible from the world but
they say to the world, thus far and no
farther. They do not want any Wis
itors. For this there are two reasons.
One is the extreme danger which will
be readily conceded and understood
by anyone, and the other is the pre-
serving of the secret processes Of pow
der making possessed only by the ia
nous Duponts.
I visited their works near Keokuk.
That is to say, went there for that
purpose but 1 changed my mind. I
did not intend to steal their trade nor
; do any unkind thing, but they kept
me at distance. I,asked permission
to see the works from the outside, and
to this they readily acceded. They
said there was absolutely no objection
to my wandering through the brush
as much as l liked. I climbed hills
and trudged through ravines the like
Of which you do not find in many
NdTIS OIL Iowa. Lie ldCCOly
located down on the peninsula
between the Des Moines River
end the Mississippi, and Sugar Creek
is not far, and little farther on is
Fox River, in Missouri, so it is not any
wonder that there are hills and hol-
lows equal to Sleepy Hollow made ia
nous by the vagabond Rip Van Win
kle. And if I had overtaken any
dwarfs belonging to Hendrix Hudson,
or to anybody else, would have been
tempted to emulate Rips ilustrious
example when he drank to "your
health and your family's."
The Dupont powder factory is about
five miles northwest of Keokuk. One
reaches it by driving or on foot, or if
you are not in too big hurry you can
go by the steam cars. There is a train
that goes out in that direction every