Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-04-11

prairie grass grew taller because II
wagon Wheel had pulveriZed its crust.
and on toward the far off rim of a
forest bound ocean was Il dream of
genius.
Genius always has dreamed and much
of ii has died dreaming. Hill awoke
from his dream and. with n strong
common sense q%uickened by his horny
handed touch with the world of work,
he set about the task of materializing
the pigments of his imagination.
Chance has made the opportunity for
this Canadian boy. A rang years
before had stopped at the Canadian
farmhouse for dinner. prepared for
, him by the widowed mother of he boy.
He tied his horse at the gate. and Jim,
noting that the ANNA! WAS tired. car
ried a pail OF water to the thirsty crea-
tule. The stranger WAS pleased at the
action. n in recognition of IT tossed
The boy Il chance newspaper. telling
him to read of the demand for men i'm
Minnesota. AS a result the boy Dor
rowed $40 and bought passage to the
United States. From Syracuse. y. y.
he moved WestW ard as Il boy Of all
work to find himself in the little own
Of ST. Paul, then Il station for the stern
wheel boats of the upper Mississippi.
To-day. from the windows of the finest
mansion in the Minnesota capital. he
MA look OUT upon tle COCKS where ne
toiled at loading and unloading the
scant freight that PASSED to and from
the little town of 1000 people.
First Railroad in 1874.
1t was in 1874 that Hill became a
railroad man In the requirement of the
bankrupt stub road stretching fifty
miles from ST. Paul to ST. loud. Thus
half Il hundred miles of his dreams
came true--rough. rusty, t%ortuous miles
they We're. but the rails lay toward the
goal of the Pacific.
Perhaps capital vas not so timid as
il is now. In amy event the young man
talked it so convincingly that In 1879
the building of the new st. Paul. Min
neapolis and Manitoba was begun. How
the building progressed In after years
ma be Appropriated when for a
period of fifteen years am average of
one mile of completed and equipped
railway was turned out each working
day at the hands Of this master build
er and designer. In 1880 the Manitoba
line had GOO miles OF track: IN 1890 1t
lad $500 miles IN the system. with the
six of the Northern Steam
ship company carrying freight from
Duluth to Buffalo And In that year
the Great Northern Railway
was organized with leases on all ac-
CURED properties for Il period Of 999
years.
Jim Hills dream had come true,
Building a railroad may be easy,
however. when compared With the
building of traffe for the road. But
Hill could build t~rlffice. too-build it
out of nothing. take it and transport
1t at a gross cost that has become the
wonderment of railroad men who were
experts when he WIS a mere laborcr ON
the river docks al st. Paul.
SebooI 9 R,;lro.d;..
Wall street was Disguised whon the
western magician first announced that
Il railroad ought to be operated at a
cost not greater than 80 per cent. of
its gross earnings. 1t was In 1898 that
the railroad interests of the continent
sat up. awake. when the 5000 miles of
the Northern Pacific system showed
its cost of operation to have been only
4S.02 per cent. Of its earnings. Hill
methods, the school OF r%ailroading. and
the Hill graduates Of that school had
been established.
Opportunities FOR some of the Hill
methods have passed. When the Hill
road was new III Dakota its farmers
We're dependent upon wheat. Some
times the wheat crop failed. and the
road felt the failure az quickly as
did the farmer. Get out OF the rut-
have something 10 do all the year
round" was the call of the railroad
builder. and as "A spur to the effort h.
bought a 1000 blooded bulls and TO-
900 blooded swine, which he distribu-
ted among the farmers along his line
with the result that today no othe,
o carries as many head Of live stOch