The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-04-07
COMING OF THE SETTLERS.

There is q vast change going on in
northern and eastern Montana, and
one quite impressive to the visitor
who has been absent a number of
years from any particular section of
that country. Where formerly the
railroad cars for many years passed
through q country empty of human
hsbitation, now every little meadow
or water spring has On it q house
and barn, and the struggling villages
of one single street are getting to be
bustling towns with an opera house
and brick blocks. The country ia
developing fast and yet when one
thinks of the vastness of the oppor-
tunity yet in front of the homeseekers
who come to Montana, and the wealth
of the lands, minerals, and timber yet
unsought and almost unknown, be
begins to get a realization OF the fu-
ture in store for the state.
The settlers are coming to Montana
this spring In far greater number than
aver before. Perhaps the fact is due
to a better advertising of the resources
of the state, perhaps to the greater
efforts of the railroad companies to
settle the lands along their right of
way, perhaps to the swiftly increasing
price of land elsewhere, and. the grow
ing difficulty of obtaining it, perhaps
the increase of the movement away
from salaried positions back to the
soil. Whether it is all these things
combined or not, yet it is certainly a
fact that the trains are loaded down
this spring with homeseekers bound
for Montana, where a few years ago
the large proportion Of them we're
bound to points further west of US.
The advent of the settler in large
numbers means much of change to the
state, and while not every side of this
change wears q pleasant aspect, on
the whole the changes they bring are
for our good. They bring a change
In the character of the people of our
state. The old time pioneer citizen of
Montana, who was here before the
buffalo left the plains, was q pictur.
esque character, and if he had his
failings he also had his striking vir.
He is following the buffalo he
once chased behind the sinking vest
ern sun now. Even the children he
left behind him and the tenderfeet of a
dozen or a o OF years ago will
soon be in a minority, for the tidings
of the pleasant fruits of this land of
Montana, plain and valley has gone
far out into the wide world of men,
and they come seeking homes among
US from every cline, and ever more
and faster. There is little doubt that
this wave of immigration we now note
is only a ripple compared to what we
will see in a few years more. For
wealth and great riches are here, and
the world full of eager and willing
hands to gather it.
1t is not that anyone would now
willingly 60 back to the days of the
bull cam transportation even if it
were true that the rugged and meager
civiliz alton of that time developed it's
own peculiar sturdy mental and moral
characteristics. 1t is not that we look
with timid or cowardly eyes on the
coming a of new citizenship which
is bound to materially modify our
present ideals. political and moral,
and may possibly submerge them.
1t is only that with this change i'm
pending, invited by ourselves, well
coined by us, We should not lose
sight of all it means in the anticipa.
ton which comes to US in realizing
the material prosperity that new
homeseekers in great and ever in
creasing numbers will bring u.s.
Great Falls Tribune.