Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-12-10
COMMERCIAL CLUB is
PROSPEROUS and HAPPY.
Members Hold Their Annual Banquet and Meeting and
Combine Pleasure With Business. New Directors
Much Has Been Accomplished for the City During the
Past Year and Future Is Bright

Over so members of the CONNER
cial club sat down to the annual ban
qnet Wednesday sight in the clubs
hall and a merrier lot or more con-
genial lot Of men were never gather
ed together in this city.
s The menu was served under the di-
rection Of William O'Hara and full
of the good things which go to make
such an occasion satisfying to the
.epicure and when the cigars were
passed all were in a good frame of
mind to listen to the bits of wisdom
which fell from the speakers lips. T
During the banquet Messrs. Vogt
and Killer greatly pleased the club.
members with many selections of mu-
sic in solos and duos on the zyther
and harp-guitar, with which instru-
ments they are masters, and after the
tables had been cleared away a quar-
tette composed Of Messrs. Humphrey,
Winslow, Chase and Halvorsen fav-
ored the gathering with some very
fine vocal numbers which were most
heartily received.
Senator Welch. n
President Conklin then called the
. meeting together and called on sena-
tor George "A. Welch to respond to
the toast: s'Bismarck in the Past, !"
The senator told how 81 years ago
the first location of tine city. was
made south of this point at what was
known as Edwinton and how the
next year it was moved to, the pres
ent site and named Bismarck; how
the people fought over the site and
finally won against the townsite COM
pany, that being the first time sub
scription paper was passed-a pro-
ceeding which has remained popu-
lar to the present day. The people re-
5sponded literally then, as they do
now, and were full of enthusiasm and
push for the new town, as they are
i today. He said he came here when
IA years of age and told Of some
Of his first experiences in bright and
dark color, and how the people were
always kind to him and others, be-
# ing a good bunch as men go and in
this connection he paid a glowing
tribute to those old timers, many OF
whom are with us today as ready
as ever to lend the helping hand to
individual and town. These were
the men who dug up 100000 and 16o
acres of land and made this the Cap
ital City, which the speaker believed
was the salvation of the place.
g. H. Russ.
l25 G. II. Russ was the next speaker
called on, responding to the senti-
ment, "Bismarck Today" He said
.i it had been said that Bismarck was
net cordial to strangers, but that had
not been his experience, for he had
no sooner got off the train before he
was embraced by dust storm, and
later had been treated most cordially
B by all whom he had met. He said
the development of the city in the
past three years was simply phenom-
enal. the evidence Of the for
ward strides of the city being evi-
denced on every side by the new
building and municipal improve.
ments. There had been a marked
growth in the social features of the
city In that time: The Commercial
club had been formed, the Civic
League, the Young Mems association
and innumerable societies of all
kinds which made for the uplifting
and betterment In one way, and an.
otaer OF the people. Bismarck, he
said, offered excellent opportunities
for individual effort. The old cliques
had lost their strength and the 8peo,
pie do not recognize the divine
right of kings, sInd ndoubtedly there
were many things Of the past which
were best kept from sight, that the
skeletons in the closet Of the city
council might be many, but the dooi
should be sealed apd in this case Of
in ali others the dead past should
bury its dead. We are here IN Bis
marck to build up our own fortunes
and at the same time to build vi
the city OF our adoption. As We SOW