The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1904-10-20
DR.. 7. 7. CHURCH,
DENTIST.
Office over POstoffice.
Scotland, South Dakota.
Great Gathering at Mitchell from
Southern Counties Tuesday
Evening.
Address by Maj. Robert Dollard.

| |tNuTesS ny haJ kODefI
The trains to Mitchell Tuesday p. m.
from the older parts of the state, south
! from Hutchinson and Turner counties
carried large crowds to that town to
inspect its condition favorable to capi-
| tai location, and hear what might be
| urged as reasons for its candidacy.
In the evening the corn palace was
filed to its ground floor capacity, and
an interesting musical and literary en-
tertainnlent was given by local talent,
after which Maj Robert Dollard was
invited to address the audience which
he did with few eXtemporary re-
marks on the occasion's subject of in
terest. In beginning his remarks he
said he did not enter upon the task
of making comparisons with locations
of the two candidates for capital hon
ors with any degree Of pleasure, but the
facts of the situation and the public in
terest as they presented themselves did
not leave one open to choice in the
matter. He recalled the excursion from
Huron to Pierre made 81 years ago last
June by the members of the conven-
ton which met at Huron to set the
ball to rolling in the interest of state
hood for South Dakota, and paid a
glowing tribute to the general appear
ance in its native condition, of the
country west from Huron, and its ap-
pearance as promise to furnish field
of agriculture quite as productive as
that part of the state east of it. Also
to the energy and enterprise which
characterized the people of the towns
of Blunt and Pierre as evidence that
they too were in high hopes Of the full
measure Of prosperity from the produc-
tive capacity Of the country N which
they were located, indicated by the ev-
dence then at hand. That up to the
time the capital was temporarily locat
ed at Pierre there had not been enough
criticism as to one part of the future
state promising better location for
farmers than another to bring that
question before the people to any con-
siderable extent, and the surprise of
those who visited the newly selected
capital was great indeed, as to the want
of population and agricultural develop.
ment in the long stretch of country
from Wolsey to Pierre, as well as the
sad and faded condition Of the towns of
Blunt and Pierre both Of which seem
to have seen time when they would
favorably compare with Goldsmith s
Deserted Village.
An instance was given of a story
that went the rounds on the trains
coming out of Pierre shortly after the
location of the capital there to this eff
feet One morning while the train was
stopped at Holabird where the depot
doors were locked and windows board.
ed up a detected looking creature
standing on the platform was hailed
with "What do you raise here?" what
do we raisem replied the fellow in as,
constituent as though unable to under
stand the question. eyes, How dc
you make living?" ooh, we raise hel
and live off Of strangers
The location of the capital at Pierre
for fifteen years had given the country
under criticism ample time to develop
as we'll as the country to the west o
it, so that we might at this tins
have substantial evidence as to thu
prol ability of Pierre's becoming th'
center of the states population as near
ly as it is the territorial center, but tn,
speaker regretted the fact that the evi
dence Of that was not sufficient to shov
any substantial change in that direc
b ton, and when we turn to Kansas ant
4 Nebraska, the settlement of which be
gan at least SO years ago on the eastern
borders we find seven-eighths of thei
y people livingin the eastern half of th'
: states, and their capitals located with
s in rs and SO miles respectively, of th
n Missouri river, we are irresistibl
drawn to the conclusion that the Ger
ter of population and convenience Wi
L be better served by q change of tn
) capital from its present location
n Mitchell under the law passed by a
a overwhelming majority Of the legisls
ture as its reflection of the public will
: The speaker illustrated the criticism
~ of some of the Pierre friends that the
u who bring up the agricultural cond
r. tions of the state to the disadvantag
j. of Pierre are knockers" of the state
A. interests, by story in point, asfollow
= Down in prominent inland town (
y Illinois, where was located in the da,
10 before the civil war an undergroun
go railroad station to aid the runawa
&. slaves from the South, about thirt