i»
: the Northerp * Pacific, running up the
+ Springs 8 miles; five or six days board-
. casionally at some fellow whom you
- surprise .and enjoyment, in a manner
springs or pools of hot water, as placid
Deworealic {atc
Bellefonte, Pa., Aug. 21, 189L
WHERE HE PUT HIS ARM.
He stood outside the gate awhile,
And said “Good night,” with lovesick smile,
%Good night,” she said. “Good night,” ence
more
He muttered as he'd done before,
Aud then lured by some subtle charm,
He came inside and put his arm—
She wore a hat of jaunty shape,
Tied up with some soft clinging crape,
A truant ribbon from its peak
Strayed down and kissed her dimpled cheek.
The moon was full, the hour was late;
As they stood there beside the gate.
His love, by Cupid’s bellows fanned,
‘Blazed up. He took her little hand
And muttered, ‘Dear, what is the harm?”
And then he gently put his arm—
She wore a gown of creamy white
So filmy that a fairy might
Have spun it in an hour of thrift,
And sent it to her as a gift.
The moon reflected, “Three's a crowd,”
And thea politely sought a cloud.
‘With opportunity so near, Hy
His love welled strong and banished fear,
He smiled away her first alarm,
And then he gently put his arm—
A little bird came round next day
And told me thaf twas just this way;
He put his arm as thus they stood,
‘Where it would do the greatest good.
—Clothier aud Furnisher.
To the Rockies and Return.
How the North-West Looks #0 a t’eun-
sylvanian.
(Continued from last awed.)
We reached Livingston about eight
o'clock on Sabbath evening. Here, ae
at Miles city, where we left in the morn-
ing, the bars, cigar stores and business
places were in full blast and seemed to.
be doing & thriving business. This is.
the point at whieh tourists to the Yel--
lowstone Park leave the ‘main line of
the Northern Pacific. It hes a popula- |
tion of about 2,706 and town lots which ;
the owners want $5000 a pieee for, This’
is the first place we saw gambling in
public, carried om under the protection
of a law licensing this evil. TtwasSun-:
day evening, but =ll the same you could
stand alomg the streets at almost any
point and hear the rattle of ivory chips
and see the games go on as men lost or
won at faro or poker. We did not go to |
church, nor did we observe any particu-'
lar greed for the Gospel in that locality,
but we did see fully as maay persons
trying their “luck” at cards that Sab-
bath evening as would have made a |
very good sized eongregation. It is'
hardly necessary to state that this high-
ly moral (?) munieipality supports two
Republican newspapers and een always
be counted upon at election time for a
rousing Republican majority.
At Livingston you purekbase your
ticket for the Park, that is, if you forget,
as we did, to buy it at St. Paul. For a
five days trip it will cost you $40,
and for a six days tour, which includes a
visit to the Lake, in addition to the
Geyser basins, the esayons, ete., the
cost will be $50. This ticket entitles
you to transportation ever a branch «f
Gardner river to Cinmabar,51 miles;
from there, by coach, tec Mammoth Hot
ing, as your ticket ealls for at the Park
hotels ; transportation through the Park
and back to Livingston, It isthe only
expense you will be at, unless you feel
like tipping the servants, or “wina™ oc-
suppose is prepared to be “winked™ at.
We could teil you much that you
will see in the Park, but no pen or no
painter can describe or color the wom-
ders of the Geysers, the beauties of the
canons, or the grandeur of the scenery
which nature has placed there for man’s
‘that you could either yoderstand or ap-
preciate their awe-inspiring actions or
‘their sublime beauties. These ean only
be known by being seen. There are
as the sea in a calm, upon whose surface
no ripple is ever seen, aud down into
‘the depths of which one can look for
-8ixty or seventy feet upon walle encrust-
ed with formations and colors the beauty
of which is beyond conception. There
are others that ere continually boiling
-and hissing, and roaring and steaming
as if hell was immediately beneath them
and the fires thereof being continuously
stirred up. There .are others quiet and
calm for a time, and while you may be
admiring their beauty and placidity,
will begin to simamar, then to bubble, |
then to boil and roar, end roar and boil,
harder, and harder, and harder,until in
their effort they cast up water and steam
in columns and clouds to the height of |
8 hundred feet or more. #ome of these |
are so regular in their time.of ‘playing,’
83 it is called there, that you could
regulate your watch by their actions.
“Old Faithful,’ inthe Upper&reyser ba-
sia (therejare three basins, the Norris,
the Middle and the Upper, distant from
each other from ten to twenty miles)
plays every 65 minutes just as certainly
a3 the 65 niinates come round. The
fountain in the Middle Geyser basin
plays every two and a quarter hours;
others every three, four or five hours ; !
some every other day, some play con-
stantly, and others put off their per-
formances for a week at a time. There
are thousands of them, from the Excel-
sior, covering half an acre in extent, to
Around the mouths of most of them are
strangg, ‘fantastical, many colored for- |
mations made by the solidifying of the
different minerals contained in the water
when thrown out. The water in all of
them is so hot you cannot bear your
hands init. i
There are other Geysers and Boiling
springs, not of water, but of mud an¥
mineral, encircled in crater-shaped
cones, some covering a quarter of an
acres in extent, others of less size, and of
all conceivable colprs, one of which, up
near the Lake, spouts mud to the height
of sixty feet; the others boiling and
spouting all the ‘time like a mush pot
ons farmers stovedin November. There
is a sulphur mountain fram the base of
‘which roaring, boiling sulphurous
springs, and smells that would discount
the perfume of the infernal regions,
come forth. There are steam vents that
{ipa out clouds of blistering white steam
as regularly asithe stroke of an engine.
{| Mhere are holes in hills that belch forth
thot air and steam and roar and rumble
as it the earth beneath was writhing in
convulsions. Tt isnot to be wondered
:at that in this section of the Park such
{places as the Devil's Frying Pan, the
Devil’s Panzh Bowl, the Devil's Stair-
way, the Bevil’s Kitcken, or Hells
{Half Acre, ere to be found.
There is the Obsidian Cliff, a moun-
{tain of voleanic glass, and then the can-
-ons, half a dozen in number, with their
-cliffs and chasms and many colored
walls, and water-falls ranging in height
from 60 to'880 feet, with their mistand
thunder, the beauty and sublimity of
which no pen can describe. All through
the Park there are pretty lakes and
meadow land, thickly wooded bills and
clear, cold rivers and streams with flow-
ers of innumerable variety and wild
beasts of nearly every species, There
are few birds, possibly because there ara
no berries or buds for food. At the outlet
of the Yellowstone Lake trout weighing
from one totwo and a half pounds can
be caught as fast as one can take them
from ‘the hoek and cast a fly. At one
place you cen take them from the lake,
and without moving from your position
or taking them from your line, swing
them into & spring hot enough to boil
them. At the Hotel in the Upper Gey-
ser basin wesaw them washing clothes
in a way that any good house-wife
might well-envy. There was a slat box
anchored in one of the many hot pools
in that vicinity, into which, well soaped,
‘the clothes were dumped in the morn-
ing; the constant boiling and spurting
| of the water cleansed them by evening
|as thoroughly as if put through the most
effective washing machine. There was
mo labor about the operation except the
soaping and rinsing—the bubbling,
boiling water did the rest.
While passing through the Park we
saw deer so tame you could not frighten
them from their grazing ground ; wolves
stood within afew rods of the road as
our surrey passed, and watched us as
quietly as a pet dog would have done;
antelope and elk fed within ten rods of
the public road and did not move as wa
passed by; big gray cranes and wild
geese swam upon the lakes as tame as
common ducks, and red squirrels ran
over the porches and under chairs of
guests at the hotels. Fire arms are not
allowed to be used within the park, and
heavy penalties are imposed for killing
any kind of game hence this tameness of
the animals.
The entire distance through the Park
—75 by 85 miles in xtent— is made by
stage coach orsurrey, and the five days
trip aggregates about 130 miles of this
kind of travel. The roads, which are
made and kept in repair by the govern-
ment, areexcellent, except in spots, but
in many places precipitously steep.
Most of the time you are in the Park y ou
are at an elevation of over 7500 feet
sbove sea level, and yet at this great
height the sun burnsand blisters until
your face assumes the the appearance of
a boiled lobster, and during the day,
while we were there, the thermometer
scarcely ever got below 85, notwith-
standing the fact, that we rode within
sight of snow tipped mountains nearly
all the time. The nights are eool and
but few mornings dawn that frest can-
not be een. The highest point reached
during the five days’ ride,is when eross-
ing the summit of Mary’s Mountain, at
which place you find & beautiful, elear,
cold {ake at an altitude of 9,000 feet, —
four thousand feet higher than the sum-
mit of the Rocky Mountains where the
Northern Pacific railroad crosses it at
Butte. Xleciric Peak is the highest
mountain in the park, its rocky tips
showing an elevation of 11,125 feet.
Theonly species of timber growing with-
in the Park is a mountain fir. These
trees attain the height of 80 or 90 feet,
are as straight as an arrow anl scarcely
ever larger than from eight to twelve
inches in diameter at the butt, and with
so little foliage upon them that al-
though in places they stand exceedingly
thick, the sun blazes down through
them as if they were gigantic hop poles.
There is no underbrush of any sort, and
you might as well look for an ice cake
in one of the Geysers as for a cane or
fly-brush in that entire territory. Un-
derneath these trees, as well as over the
meadow land, is a carpet of the greenest
little ones not larger than a wash bowl.
of grass, decked with flowers of many
sorts. In the winter, we were old , ‘the
creeks freeze to the bottom -and snow
| often falls te the depth of {fften feet.
The stage drive through the Park is’
an exceedingly pleasant one—barring
the alkali dust which, with the sun,
burns and blisters you, and the pestifer-
ous mosquitoes, which at times are so
thick, so our driver informed us, that
often he had been compelled te stop
and ran a pole up through them
to let sunshine enough down to see to
drive by. Wedidn’t hit one of these
“times,” but, as it was, the mosquitoes
were a perpetual pest. The vehicles are
easy riding and safe and are suited to
the size of the party. If thereare three
persons traveling together, they are
furnished with a good surrey, two
horses and a driver ; if more constitute
the.crowd, they are taken in a well
cushioned stage coach, carrying from
seven to twelve persons amd drawn by
four ov six good horses, Careful and
intelligent drivers are furnished who
haye strict orders to give all the infor-
mation and attenticn possible to those
in their charge. The transportation is
in the hands of Mr. Geo. H. Wakefield,
whose management of it is so admirable
and perfect that, in addition to accom-
modating the usual park travel, our
jparty, consisting of 160 persons, found
‘every comfort and convenience and were
as promptly and pleasantly carried over
the long route as if we had been a crowd
of but half a dozen. The hotels, which
are located at convenient points and un-
der the superintendence of Mr. W. G.
Johnson, are large and well furnished
and extend to guests the best of service.
When you start through the Park
leave everything you have at the Mam-
moth Hot Springs Hotel, except the old
suit of clothes you wear, a single wrap
and what money you may want to
spend for cigars, as tips to waiters, &c.
There are no bars allowed within the
limits of the government reserve, but if
you know which eye to “wink” and
which particular person to “wink” it at,
you are generally able to get whatever
the inner man craves most. In fact, so
complete are all the arrangements with -
in the limits of this wonderland, that
sight seers can enjoy all the comforts
they will find any where outside.
‘We were unfortunate when leaving
the Park and Livingston, in choosing a
night train for the ride to Butte. By
doing so we failed to see Bozeman, said
to be one of the best built towns in
Montana, as well as the Gallatin valley,
of the fertility and productiveness of
which we afterwards heard such fairy-
like tales. After listening the next day
at Butte, for an hour or more to an
Arabian Night's description of how
things grow all through this wonderful
valley, we inquired of our informant,
who, we afterwards discovered, was a
real-estate agent from Bozeman, if he
knew of any one by the name of Anna-
nias, or if a man or the name of Gulli-
ver had lived in his section ? “Cer-
tainly,” was the reply, “I knew them
both well. Gulliverlived up on the
West Gallatin. I fished with him many
a day on that stream, and Annanias
located the claim upon which Bozeman
now stands. They were both friends of
mine. Did you know them ?’’ he added.
We pleaded ignorance of a personal ac-
quaintance with either and deeply re-
gretted that we had missed a sight of
this highly favored locality.
The hour hand on our watch pointed
to 3 o’clock, Sunday morning, as we en-
tered a carriage at Butte station to be
driven to the hotel in the upper part of
of the city. As we passed along the
streets at that hour in the morning, the
saluons, gambling houses and even
smallshops were brilliant with lights,
and scores of men were occupying seats
at gambling tables or standing in rows
along the bars, while out on the pave-
ments were men and women, as plenti-
ful as they may be found on the streets
of Bellefonte at ten o’clock in the even-
ing, and nowhere was there any sign
that night was fast turning into dawa.
A few hours rest, such as could be had
amid the din of women’s voices and the
banging of a piano just across the street
from our hotel, and the constant patter
of feet upon the wooden pavement, and
we were out ready to see this city of sil-
ver mines and sinners, quartz lodes and
courtesans, barrenness and bruisers,
smelters and smoke. It is a city, as the
census tells us, containing about 30,000
inhabitants, and stands on the western
slope of the Rockies, but a few miles be-
yond the summit. It is known as the
greatest mininz camp in the world, and
from mines within its municipal bound-
aries it furnishes gold silver, copper and
000 yearly. Like other cities it has
water-works, street cars, electric light,
a court house, &c., but, unlike any city
we have ever seen, it has neither tre»,
nor vine, nor shrub, nor grass, nor any
green thing, unless it be some of its own
population. The residences generally,
with the exception of a very few busi-
ness blccks, are but one story frame
buildings, and every indication points
to the fact that it is a city without
who are getting rich, tor those who are
holding on, hoping to get rich, and for '
others who have given up that hope but
lead ores to the value of over $30,000,- |
are too poor to gel away.
We visited the Lexington mine, said
to be the deepest one in that section, and
saw them bringing ore up from the
depth of 1500 feet. Through the polite-
ness of a young gentleman in the assay-
er’s department of the smelting works,
which are connected with the mine, and
whose name we neglected to take, we
were shown through the works and wit-
nessed the process of crushing the
quartz, (which when brought up from
the mine has very much the appearance
of our common lime stone rock); of
stamping it until as fine as flour; then
the roasting, cooling, washing, amal-
gamating, retorting and finally the cast-
ing into bullion bars,—processes we
would like to describe in detail, that the
reader might understand the great ex-
pense of mining and extracting from
the rocks the precious metals, but
which the limits of this article will not
allow. Into the butte or mountain up-
on which the city stands mine holes are
drilled as plentiful as passage ways in an
ant hill, and the great smelting works
send up their smoke so thick,from every
section of it, that at times it is impossi-
ble to see across the street. Lt is alleg-
ed that the poisonous gasses arising from
the roasting of ores in these works, is the
cause of the desolate and desert like ap-
pearance of the country in an about
Butte—a place where vegetation refuses
to grow and where every living thing
the ground produces has blackened and
died.
It was near noon when we returned
from the mine to the hotel, and were
scarcely seated in our room when the
music of a brass band was heard. Tt
sounded as if marching by and went out
of hearing ; and then it passed again,
and again, and again, and kept this up
so continuously that we began to won-
der what kind of wind the members of a
Butte brass band had, that they could
blow and march up and down, and
across that hilly, hot city, in a blistering
sun, without a moment's rest, and what
they were doing this for on Sunday.
‘We satisfied our curiosity by going
down stairs and ascertaining that there
are three systems of street car lines in
Butte—electric, cable and steam—be-
tween which a great rivalry exists;
thation Sunday afternoons it is cus-
tomary to have some kind of an enter-
tainment out along their lines, and to
attract the crowd, bands are hired and
hauled through the city,in cars placarded
all over with bills setting forth the at-
tractions. We waiched until the first
one came along, and on the side of it
was a muslin streamer setting forth in
very big letters that at 2 p. m. there
would be a wrestling match between
the champion of California and the
champion of Montana, away up on the
hill at a hall the name of which we have
forgotten. The next one running in a
different direction promised a ‘‘mam-
moth exkibition” of some sort out ata
treeless park in the suburbs of the city,
and the third had something equally as
exciting and entertaining to offer.
There was no evidence anywhere that it
was the Sabbath day. Wagons were
rattling around, men in their working
clothes were hurrying along the streets,
saloons, gambling rooms and stores
were open, and to add variety to the
bands and business of the day, a woman
in her night dress danced on her back
porch across the street from the hotel, to
the music of one of the bands as it pass-
ed along. It was a queer sight and ex-
perience to one used to the quiet of a
Pennsylvania Sunday, and remember-
ing the Geyser region, not far distant,
and from whick we had just come, with
its roaring mountains, scalding springs
and brimstone smells, and gazing over
this blackened, sun scorched, homeless
looking city, with its thousands of noises
dinning in our ears, is it to be wondered
at that the place seemed as near hell’s
borderland as one might wish to get?
The Northern Pacific railroad, over
which we had traveled from St. Paul,
for the smoothness of its road-bed,
the speed and safety of its trains,
the cleanliness and comfort of its cars
and the polite attention of 1ts employes,
is unexcelled by any of our eastern roads.
After leaving Minnesota,it passes the en-
tire distance to Butte through the south-
ern parts of North Dakota and Mon-
tana. Our trip out gave us a very fair
iden of this portion of these two States,
and we concluded to return via the
Great Northern, which, after running
north to Fort Asinniboine, turns east
and keeps close to the Canadian line,
aatil it reaches Grand Forks in the Red
| River valley, when it turns almost due
| south to St. Paul.
Leaving Butte, which is in the ex-
| treme south western corner of the State,
the Great Northern starts directly north
rand passes through a sterile mountain
district, over deep gorges, through rocky
i cuts and around sparsely timbered hills,
[until it reaches the Boulder valley,
| where the first efforts at farming are to
'be noticed. Here and there small
patches of oats and potatoes can be seen,
some promising, others poor. The
homes—simply a staying place for those | houses, what few there are, have the
appearance of wood cutters’ cabins in
the mountains of this State. The valley
is not wide and you soon get in among
| the hills again, where scattered, sickly,
| pines push themselves out from between
the rocks, and on either side of the road
you see holes dug in the hills, where
some poor fellow has wasted his time
and little fortune hunting for gold or
silver that was not there.
As you near Helena, whichis 75 miles
distant from Butte, and at tha eastern
foot of the Rockies, you enter a, pretty
valley, fairly well watered from irrigat-
ing ditches, and in places showing that
the soil is productive, by the excellent
promise of a tull harvest. Oats and hay
are the principal crops, the land mostly
being used for stock raising. Helena
is one of the loveliest cities of the West.
It lies at the base of high hills that protect
it on the north and east, while a rich
valley stretches to the south and west.
It is built on an old placer mine district,
——the washings of which still litter the
vacant lots--and from which over $60,-
000,000 of gold was realized. The
principal business streets have blocks of
buildings, of which our eastern cities
would be proud. It has an abundance
of banks that are said to hold an almost
unlimited amount of capital, and the
finest driving horses we saw west of the
Mississippi. Two miles from the city is
the celebrated hot springs, boasting the
finest hotel of any watering place in the
country, and a bathing pool unequaled
in the world. And yet with all its
cleansing and purifying properties it has
not been able to make Montana politics
or morals seemingly pure or respectable.
A short distance from Helena the
road passes out of the valley to which
we have referred and strikes the waters
of Wolf Creek, following it down
through Prickley Pear canon to the
Missouri river—an hour’s ride through
magnificent mountain scenery along a
stream fairly well shaded, the only one
of the kind we saw west of St. Paul,
and said to be literally alive with trout.
Houses, such as they are, can be seen at
every turn, and the public road, as one
sees it from the car window, winding
round the hills and across the gulches,
appears to be well worn, showing that
considerable population exists among
the barren hills and rocky cliffs that
tower up in all directions. From where
the railroad meets the Missouri river at
the mouth of Wolf’s creek on down to
Great Falls, the flat lands widen out
into a great rolling prairie, productive
looking, but needing irrigation to secure
the growth *of any vegetation, Little
houses show up occasionally, and a
lonesome oats or potato patch grows
wherever water can be got to wet the
soil. Throughout this section the same
want of trees and shade and water is
felt that makes so much of the distance
along the Northern Pacific so dreary
and desolate looking. The sun shines
down blistering hot, but in the shade,
where any can b- found, a cool breeze is
felt and one could be fairly comfortable
were it not for the voracious mosquitoes
and the burning western alkaei dust.
Great Falls, 171 miles east of Butte,
and 1074 west of St. Paul, is just now
in the midst of a boom. It is believed
by those who are investing, to be the
coming business and manufacturing
centre of the State. Within easy reach
of the Canadian and Belt mountain coal
fields; surrounded by a good gryzing
country and a soil which when watered
will grow any thing planted, with sil-
ver, gold, copper and iron ore in abund-
ance and a water power that is unex-
celled anywhere in the world, itis not
strange that real estate owners believe
they have a good thing in the lots and
land they own, and expect to become
rich by the increased value of their be-
longings. From this point the Great
Northern has two branches, the one
running south-east to the mining regions
of the Belt mountains, the other north
west ‘to the coal and lumber fields of
British Columbia. Through this town,
for town only it now is, must be hauled
all the fuel for the engines that keep in
motion the monster machinery of the
almost numberless smelting works in
and about Butte; through here goes
much of the pine wood used in these
same works for roasting the crushed
ores of the thousands of mines around
them ; and such are its facilities for the
lessening of the. cost of smelting ores,
that a number of large works of this
kind are now in the course of erection
which will utilize the magnificent water
power to run their machinery with.
Manufactories too are starting up, and
the fact that steam power, so expensiv@
in a country that is scarce of fuel, can
ba dispensed with, and a water power
that costs nothing but the realty adjoin-
ing,substituted in its place, gives promise
of making this the largest manufacturing
city of the West. Last year there was
shipped from Grand Falls over 4,000,-
030 pounds of wool; 125,000 sheep;
1,000 horses and 14,000 fat cattle, show-
ing that the country thereabouts is no
slouch of a place for stock raising, and
yet with all its advantages,, promises
and prospects, it is like all other places
west of the Minnesota timber line, tree-
less, arid, dusty, hot and disagreeable in
summer, and biting, bitter cold in win-
ter.
From Great Falls east to Minot, a
distance of 650 miles, is comparatively
Ey TT STINE
an unpeopled prairie; long stretches of
rolling iand, then longer ones of flat,
following each other, with nothing to
attract attention, outside of the little
towns that are few and far between, but
occasional herds of grazing stock and
colonies of prairie dogs. Itisa ride of
almost twenty-four hours, and after the
first one hundred miles as monotonous
as listening to the same preacher al}
your life, or courting a girl you don’t
care much about, This section is not
as arid and dry as along the Northern
Pacific. Grass grows much more pro-
lificly, and sage brush is not nearly so
abundant. “Hay can be eut almost any
place, the cattle can be seen from the
cars, and in good condition, and but few
stretches ot bad lands are passed. No
effort at cultivation is made, for during
this entire distance the land requires ir-
rigation to grow anything but grass,
and water can be gotten for most of it
only from artesian wells. It is nearly all
government land, unclaimed and open
for anyone who wants it. The towns are
small and mostly made up of the little
houses of stock raisers and ranchmen,
with a plentiful sprinking of saloons,
gambling rooms, and corals for
confining stock ready to be shipped. At
many of the stations you will see In-
dians closely wrapped in thick warm
blankets, although the sun is boiling
hot and the thermometer,outside the car,
is upto 90, offering polished Buffalo
horns for sale. Ask them the price and
they look at you, grunt, and hold up.
one dirty finger,—which means $1.00..
One thing in particular was noticeable,
that while the few white people who
stood about the depots to watch passing
trains, were continuously and vigor-
ously brushing at and fighting away
mosquitoes, the Indian never appeared
to mind these pests a particle. We
don’t know whether it was because the
mosquitoes don’t care for Indians, or
that the Indian don’t: care for mosqui-
toes.
Hast of Minot, which is 525 miles
west of St. Paul, the country begins to
put on a different appearance, and you
run by squares of wheat and oats, and
see little houses scattered here and there
between the towns ; flocks of fat cattle
are more plentiful and hay fields
show up every few miles. Trees are
seen in narrow fringes along the streams,
and as you get farther east, all of these
signs of a promising and thriving coun-
try multiply, until, when you reach the
Devil's Lake region,you are in a section
fairly well populated and much of it
under cultivation. TItis here at Devil's
Lake that you enter the famous Red
river valley, and from this on east to
Grand Forks, and on over into Minne-
sota, along the valley of the river of the
Red Lake, is a country that would make
a Pennsylvania wheat farmer's eyes
stand out in surprise. The land is flat,
with scarcely enough of fall towards
the Red river to drain it—were that.
necessary ; the soil is from 25 to 80 feet
in depth, a loose, rich, sandy loam, that
will produce from 20 to 40 bushels of
wheat to the acre, or grow anything
else with the same prolificness, that the
length of the seasons will admit of. It
is a wheat country only, however, and
elevators are as thick, after you get east
of Devil’s Lake, as school houses are in
this State. Along the streams, which
are sluggish, there is considerable hard
wood timber, the farm buildings are bet-
ter and more comfortable than you see
elsewhere in the West. Churches and
school houses are not forgotten and al-
together it is the most homelike, promis-
ing and seemingly prosperous and rich-
est section we visited west of the Min-
nesota line. Like other places it has its
disadvantages and failures, as well as its
productiveness and plentitude. The
winters are terribly severe, fuel is scarce,
and drouths in summer often wither up
the crops. It is “God’s country’ for
wheat, oats and barley, if the power
that regulates the rain would not forget
when it is needed and be more regular
and liberal in the supply. This present
season the crops, which are just now be-
ing harvested, will exceed anything
ever known in the north-west, both in
amount and quality. The past two
years, however, they were almost total
failures, for want of rain, and as a con-
sequence, most of the cultivated land is
now loaded down with mortgages, upon
which interest from ® to 12 per cent. has
to be paid. In this section, unbroken
land can be bought from $5 to $15 per
acre,
At Grand Yorks, a substantial and
pretty town of 5.000 inhabitants, we met
W. R: Bierley, esq., formerly of Miles
township, this county, whois getting
rich publishing the Grand Forks’ News,
a paper that'is Democratic all over and
independent in all things. He has been
a resident of that place for about eight
years and gives most glowing accounts
of the advantages of his adopted home,
The sun was setting as we rattled out
of Grand Forks across the Red river into
Minnesota, and for the next 50 miles we
could see, as twilight came on and deep-
ened, the same easily tilled, productive
»ooking farms, that we had been passing
since entering the Red river valley. The
| next morning we wakened up as the
engine whistled for St, Paul, and our
(concluded cn third page)