Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-08-01
BISMARCK'S REPUTE
REV. MILLER OF GRAND FORKS
PLEASED WITH CAPITAL ss..
CITY CONDITIONS.
BISMARCK HAS GIVEN TOO GEN.
ERoUs> RECOGNITION TO FEW
BAD MEN. s.V =.
EVIL REPUTATION OF CITY
ABROAD NOT JUSTIFIED BY
ACTUAL CONDITIONS.

After speaking of the dedicatory ex-
ercises at the Baptist church in Bis
marck, Rev. F. E. R. Miller OF Grand
Forks, on his return home, has the
following to say about Bismarck to a
Herald reporter:
Bismarck is larger and better city
than expected to see. 1t has, the
advantages of several slightly and at
tractive governmental buildings-the
/ capitol, the Indian school, the states
prison, the barracks at Fort A., Lin
coin, and the weather bureau, with the
scenic advantages of the .dusky and
sullen Missouri river It is not an
arid waste and neither is it God for
saken, ~
From what have heretofore read
in the newspapers, the Bismarck jour
nails not excepted, I expected to find
this city populated byf%a slawless and
Goddess class of social and political
grafters. 1 supposed drinking and
gambling would be as evident as in
cities where the liquor license policy
holds sway. But this is not SO. The
evil reputation Bismarck has abroad is
not deserved. It's citizens who talk
disparagingly of the moral condition
of the town, and its press which ad-
vertises blind piggery asa worse evil
than saloonism are to. blanle6for Bis
marck's notoriety.% Asa matter of
fact, this inland town gives the stran-
ger the impression that liquor selling
and the other social evils are so mod
erately INDUCED in, in comparison with
cities of equal size in non-prohibitory
states where they flourish openly and
under protection, that prohibition is a
complete, relatively, a complete sue
cess This has been market day,
scores of visitors have been in town,
but though + have walked at large
have seen no drunkenness and heard
of no violence, and best of all have
neither seen a saloon nor smell the
offensive saloons nor seen ladies in
suited by the rowdies which loaf
about their ornate entrances. p
ct is believable that Bismarck has
given too generous recognition to the
talents and ambitions of few bad
men who have aspired to leadership
for the sake of power and revenue
only, but that disposition is being
changed by the recognition of those
who have shaken off timidity and, in
difference, as also by the incoming pf
| class. of men and women who are
persuaded that Righteousness exalteth
nation but sin is reproach to any
people'3 E&5
:" Moreover, this city has in all prob
ability suffered from the evil deeds and
grating proclivities of men who have
come here at certain seasons pretend
ing to represent the interests of the
people of the state in the legislature.
BY intrigue and chicanery they have
fought for the spells of local, state and
national patronage much to the harm
of contemplate onlookers, and thus
Bismarck has been .debauched. But a
better day has dawned in state politics,
and so We who have the highest hopes
OF the efforts of a pure citizenship be-
lieve in the future of Bismarck and
prophecy its cleaning of all iniquity,
and so the redemption of it's reputa.
ton from evil" .525