The Newtown bee., 1909-10-29
HOME NEWS.
E. L. JOHNSON IN SOUTH DAKOTA.
Something About the City of Sioux
 Falls.

abiding-place during our stay Tn Da-
 kota, and from which we have radi- ated into the surrounding coutry as
 best we could in the meantime, is
 coated in the southeastern part, on
 the Big Sioux river, 90 miles north
 of Sioux City, which is the gateway
 out of Iowa into South Dakota. It is
 the oldest and largest city in the
 state and located near the falls from
 which it takes it's name. Its elevat-
 tion is 1894 feet above sea level. Its
 present population is estimated at
 1S,000 and it is one of the princi-
 pal distributing centers of the state.
 The Big Sioux river at this point has a fall of 100 feet in half mile and affords power for several manufac- tories. Two years ago this month an electric plant was installed near the falls, affording lighting current and also power for the street railway
 which has been running for two
 years. There are many up-to-date
 industrial establishments, stockyards
 and packing plants, extensive stone
 quarries that lie just beneath the surface, furnishing beautiful colored
 granite for building material and
 blocks for street improvement. The city proper extends over large area, city lots are not crowded in size, the streets are wide and the sidewalks as well, giving the visitor the impress sion that those who used the compass carried the chain and drove the stakes, realizing that they had all out doors to draw upon, did not scrimp at all in the appropriation of land on which to build the city. Six lines of railroads run through the city, each line having it's separate station, but so well punched as not to be extremely inconvenient. They are the South Dakota Central, Rock Is land, Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, Chicago, St Paul, Milwaukee & Oma= na, Great Northern and Illinois Gen. tral R. R. Sioux Falles is the county seat of Minnehaha county. It has a state penitentiary, state school for deaf mutes, an interdenominational orphans home, Sioux Falls Baptist University, All Saints school (Epis- copaD, Lutheran Normal school, an up-to-date system of graded schools and the finest High School building both in material (which is native granite), architecture and equip ment there is in state, the arne- gie public library bui dino. 'ost'n" s25, ,O00, a large Masonic Temple, fine mercantile houses of five stories and built of brick, National banks. Sav- ings banks, and so we might go on until we had communicated every thing one might expect to find in a frontier city of 30 years of healthy Like most of our new cities and towns that are springing up on the frontier, one is dazed and per plexed when turning to the religious element that makes up the body poll- tic. He opens an official church di- rectory, to bunch the names by which ! it is known, and cannot help ask ing why it should necessarily be thus The city of Sioux Falls is TO excep- l ton to what seems to be the rule. There is the Calvary Cathedral (Epis- copal,) First Free Methodist church, church, Livingston Me inorial Reformed church, St Olaf Evangelical Lutheran church, First | Christian church, First Methodist church, English Evangelical Luther an church of the Redeemer, First l Baptist church, Jordan Methodist church, United Norwegian Lutheran church, German Congrega- Iional church, Zion Evangelical Lutheran church, Swedish Evangeli-
 rth, First Congrega- .ional church, and 1 am told there are others whose names from choice pr otherwise do not appear in the directory. Is it any wonder that the different religious bodies in the new y and sparsely settled townships of
 his great Western world should find t so difficult to keep body and soul ogether. The city is well shaded with trees, the putting out of which was not neglected at tine outset, the water supply is ample both from the ,ity reservoir and individual wells, IS good water can be procured at a lepth of 40 to 60 feet. The main itreets are paved with stone blocks rom the nearby quarry, and wooden 1 tide walks of early days are being 'eplaced with paving of cement, and tide gutters of the same material. 1ere, as in our Eastern cities, one leeds to go on the outskirts to see LOW it is stretching out it's homes. The city as a whole gives to the vis- tor the appearance of we'll ordered md u-alI onvprnnd city for which