Year: 1874




Where 10?


''TO the Dry Reg ion.


This will soon be the brief hut expressive
interview between cmigrants and forward
ing agents. From the Gulf of Mexico to the
Saskatchewan is a strip of country four hun
tred miles wide, along the base OF the
Rocky Mountains. All over this region none
other than the natural grasses grow from
April to October when their development Is
complete. Unless cut and dried when ripe
they are OF no value for winter food the
rains. dews and frosts destroy them. In the
Dry Region the moving machine OK scythe
is needed only every tenth ycar-thc year
of unexplained climatic vicissitudc. With
this great natural advantage no stock raisers
can compete with those of Montana.


CLIMATIC TEST.


The tes. on the best climate is the degree
in which it conduccs to the pleasure of mere
physical existence, and TO which 1t exaltf
mans power morally and intellectually
Montana is ''first proof" in this particular.
There is not in the whole Territory an ounce
of material for tlacidity or inertncss. Even
her whisky does not make sotS after the
Eastern pattern. The Montana drunkard
has the spirit to blow his brains out, or the
enterprise to violently persuade some bosom
friend to hew him down with Il knife or per-
forate him with revolver. lie does not
slowly and tamely soak himself into the poor
house OK the grave.


vACILLArISG VISITORS.


can name men whose lives swing like
pendulum between Montana and the Atlantic
seabOard; and in just the same manner are
alternating between robust and red-checked
health in the mountains and all sorts of ills
and aches and misery in New York md
elsewhere in the East. The Missouri rive:
at Omaha is their Ruhcon Of health. Cross
ing it eastward, their vitality is gone, and
they arc given over to a winter of drugs and
doctors. But returning again in the spring.
the i'll effects of medicine and climate dis
appears as if ty magic, and once more they
riot in health, vigor and effectiveness.


1t may astound some of our Eastern read
crs to know there is enough iron ore Of the
best quality out-croping in Montana, and
lying rpon the surface, to make the rails OF
the Northern Pacific from end to end; and
vet it is 50 worthless that no man will waste
time To become its owner. so says United
States Marshal Wheeler, and so say the
records of the Land Office These valuable
veins and deposits are neither located nor
taken ND, which is not to be wondered at.
Gold, silver, copper, lead loaded with silver,
and float tin and cinnabar are 80 plentiful a.
to keen the entire stock Of labor in q chronic
fever.


1t is estimated that the coal fields of Mon
tana cover 10000 square miles. With this
is associated iron orc and fine clay. Eng
land is the workshop and bank of the world.
but she could be pockctcd in this single mine
of Montana and leave plenty of elbow room
to work in.


0OII, DY THE ErSItEI.


Up to the close Of 1872 the handful OF min
ers who had for ten years wandered over
Montana, picking and panning, and ever
moving about, had added to the worlds
wealth in gold one hundred and twenty mil
lions Of dollars.


MONTANA IS AN EMPIRE.


1t is latticed with twelve degrees Of longi-
tudc and four degrees of latitude. 1t is $50
miles long and $50 miles wide. 1t has more
than three times the surface Of the State OF
New York.


4 SORHEJ. THAT COULD ''STAY.


rode on the trail through the canyon cast
of Fort Ellis, behind s0rrcl pony which
had easily made 40 miles one day under the
saddle, his rider weighing 10 pounds.
saw many horses in Montana, not one OF
them thoroughbred, or half or quarter-bred,
which was assured had been ridden one
hundred miles in 4 day without stffening
them. The secret of these wonderful per-
formances by animals which had been sold
from hand to hand for from 1915 to 80 was