The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-07-13
COME alive!
RAPID CITY THE CONFER OF THE
MIGHTY MIDDLE WEST.
LET THE BUSINESS MEN GET a
HIKE ON THEMSELVES.

The completion of the railroads to
Rapid City has been looked forward
TO and discussed SO much and so
often that the people become ac-
customed to thinking of it, and per-
haps do not realize in its entirety
The full meaning of this important
event. When the guns of Admiral
George Dewey thundered their chal-
/. lenge to Spain that May morning in
Manila Bay, the United States of
America took her place as a world
power among the nations. Up to
that time our positionI had been
largely defensive one. and the ma
tions Of the world took little note of
us. And when the whistles of the
locomotives, hearlding the advent Of
the trains bearing their cargoes of
freight and loads of passengers from
the east. awaken the echoes along
the Rapid River, it will mean to us
that we have passed from the expert
mental stage. and Rapid City, S. d.,
VIII take her place among the COM
mefc1al centers Of the west. This
does not mean that we are to he
come city over night, nor does it
mean that we must become a city at
all, but it does mean that we have
facilities at hand. which il wisely
and persistently used, will make this
a strong. vigorous, and commercial
city. There is nothing more certain
than that there is to be somewhere
between the Missouri river and the
tsocky mountains city of from
twenty to thirty thousand inhabi-
tants that will dominate the busi-
ness life Of this portion of the great
west, and there is nothing moro
certain than at the present time Rap
Id City holds the key to the situation
and has the best opportunity to be
the coming city. But let no one i'm
agine for single moment that this
great result can be accomplished
without determined, united, persis-
tent work. We must advertise Rap
i'd City as has never been done be-
fore. All personal prejudice, bus
mess jealousies,, and everything that
savors of selishness, must be laid
aside, and our business men must
stand heart to heart, and shoulder to
shoulder, in this great endeavor. This
is the kind of Spirit that has made
Denver, Omaha, Sioux City, Fort
Worth, and all the marvellous young
cities of the mighty west.
Let us not take it for granted
that Rapid City will grow, simply by
being let alone. A long time ago
someone said that call things come
to him who waits" but we like that
modern version of it which says, call
things come to him who waits, and
hustles while he waits'' Our read
ers are perhaps familiar with that
quaint character of Dickens, Mr.
Micawber, who is always waiting
for something to turn up" The mod
ern spirit of industrial development
does not wait for something to turn
up, but goes out and turns something
up. Let us all, standing together and
facing the great possibilities which
lie before us, join hands in great
and noble endeavor to build here
along the banks of this little stream,
a second Denver. Remember that if
we do not, if we lie supinely by and
wait for something to turn up, that
it will turn up, but it will be- at
some other place, and then we will
realize, when the day of our oppor-
tunity is passed and some other town
has taken the place which rightfully
belonged to us that ''of all sad words
of tongue and pen, the saddest are
these, it might have BEEN The
Black Hills Union does not count for
very much compared with the great
journals of the country, but such as
we are and with whatever influence
we possess, we commit ourselves to
the cause Of the Greater Rapid City.
: :.