Che Conservative. 11
the Port of Wyoming , " no less than
seven steamboats having passed up in
that week ; the Regular St. Joseph ,
Omaha & Council Bluffs Packet
"Watossa" is a steady advertiser , and
will positively make weekly trips dur
ing the season of 1857 ; the editor not
ices with much pleasure the rapidity
with which S. F. Nuckoll's large
stone Store House progresses ; instruc
tion in the use of the Scriptures and
the singing of church music are ad
vertised ; Win. J. Hughes , M. D. ,
tenders his professional services to
the citizens Wyoming City ; F. S.
Haffa respectfully announces to the
citizens of Wyoming City and the sur
rounding country , that ho has opened
a Coach and wagon manufactory ;
The Telescope has advertisers in St.
Louis , Chicago , Minneapolis and
Sioux City , besides a good number
from Nebraska City , Plattsmouth ,
Florence , Clinton , Cassvillo , Lewiston
and Kanosha , as befits the organ of
the ' ' place formed by nature , ' ' as the
editor explains , "for the depot of the
Weeping Water valley. ' ' But who can
now tell where Lewiston and Clinton ,
N. T. , and those other places stood ?
Just as two or three could not bo
gathered together on the prairie in
those days with-
The Railroads. out o r g a 11 i z i ng
themselves into a
City , so no cluster of shanties was not
happy without its railroad ; for it
was foreseen rightly as we now know
that whore the Pacific road planted
itself , there would bo the city of the
future ; so all were ambitious to have
"the ferruginous equine quadruped
whisk his tail in our midst , ' ' as one
early editor neatly put it. Probably
nothing in the history of Wyoming
City , N. T. , is more curious reading
than the story of the Wyoming , St.
Peters and Fort Kearney Railroad
Company , which was organized at a
great mass meeting convened in Ma-
han Hall on the evening of Septem
ber 15 , 1875. A notice , signed "many
citizens "had been published a month
beforehand , calling on the inhabi
tants of the surrounding country and
of Civil Bend , Iowa , to come out
"fox an interchange of sentiment ; "
and in the interval the ' ' Telescope' '
had contained several interesting ar
ticles by Amicus and others pointing
out why the railroad should bo built
from Wyoming and no other point.
H. Hurst , Esq. , presided over the
meeting ; a code of rules and regula
tions , prepared by J. G. Treadway
Esq. , was adopted ; a committee was
appointed to memorialize congress ;
' ' the meeting was then addressed in
an oloqiTcnt and forcible manner by
Charles Van Wyck , Esq. , and others , ' '
and adjourned.
It was pointed out that railroads
were no longer an experiment , as
was demonstrated
Details. by "the success
ful operations'
the railroads of Michigan , New'
YorkPennsylvania and other states. "
These had shown that the "inconven
iences of snow and cold' ' wore not in
surmountable obstacles , and had also
proven that railroading paid , for they
were all "declaring largely increased
annual dividends. ' ' And if this was
the case in those effete civilizations ,
what could not be expected in this
favored section ' ' with climate
; a pe
culiarly favorable to the production
of the grape , the strawberry , the rasp
berry , the wild plum and the apple ?
Why , the "hardy New Englauder"
would rush in by train-loads , to a
spot where , ' ' in the geographical cen
ter of the United States , he may
proudly reflect and watch with con
stantly increasing interest upon the
giant growth which as a people , wo
are so rapidly attaining. ' '
But without waiting for the hardy
New Englander to embrace this priv
ilege , just give "the
A Sure Thing , wealthy companies
that are not organiz
ing to our west" a railroad outlet to
the Atlantic for the millions of bush
els of excellent salt which will be
there manufactured ( on Salt Creek ,
no doubt ) and you at once perceive
that a sitre and never failing source
of revenue is immediately secured.
The heavy dividends which the stock
holders would realize , would give to
this road a character , equal to those
which lead from the great coal works
of Pennsylvania into the wealthy
manufacturing and commercial marts
of Philadelphia and Pittsbtirg. "
This ought to have been conclusive ;
but there was yet more behind. Fig
ure iip the sums to be earned by haul
ing coal to the "furnaces of the man
ufacturers of your city" and other
points , "and some idea may be
drawn of the value of the stock. ' '
Nor was this all ; the bold statement
is advanced that the country between
Wyoming and Fort Kearney is of val
ue for the growing of cereals , ' ' while
as a stock-raising country , it is not
surpassed by the musqiiette coun
try of Texas , or the rec < ls of Michi
gan. "
The Wyoming , St. Peters and Fort
Kearney Railroad Company was ac
cordingly organized , with a capital
stock of four million dollars , ' ' with
power to increase the same to fifty
millions ; " a committe was appointed
to see that subscription books were
opened in Boston , Now York , Phila
delphia , Chicago , St. Louis , Now Or
leans , Cincinnati , Pittsburg "and
such other places as said committee
may think proper ; " and the rest of
the story , as Mr. Kipling says in con
cluding one of his tales , is not worth
the telling.
The dwellers up-
UNAPPRECIATED , on the fertile and
health-giving lands
of the Trans-Mississippi and Trans-Mis-
jBOuri domain do not , as a rule , appreci
ate the value of their fields and homes.
There are no othjer lands comparable to
them i this same latitude , anywhere
else on * tlie globe. Reckless , stoneless
and stumpfess , they offer to the plow
man the bestroturn or his labor and
the highest and surest compensation for
deep tillage. Rich m potash which has
been distilled into them from the ashes
of autumnal prairie fires for uncounted
centuries , and opulent in plant food of
all desirable sorts these vast stretches of
prairie land offer to intelligent agricul
ture satisfactions and emoluments in
numerable.
Butas "familiarity breeds contempt , "
there are hundreds and thousands of
pretty good men , and women too , who
asperse , decry and depreciate the capa
bilities and productive resources of this
empire of arable land.
The fact that forty successive years of
cropping these lands exhibit fewer fail
ures than on any other lands in the
United States which have been consec
utively tilled for the same period of
time is not remembered.
The fact that these lands by their
generous returns , have lifted up tens of
thousands of human beings from the
depths of poverty to the fairest heights
of domestic comfort and opulence is
ignored.
The great Northwest is unappreciated
by many of its own people. It is under
valued. It is because they have traveled
too little.
If The Conservative could take all
the discontented denizens of Kansas ,
Iowa , Nebraska , the Dakotas , and Mis
souri in a big balloon and sail them over
all the other states and let them see
farms and farming there , and homes
and homelife there , it would return the
excursionists in a most contented frame
of mind. And each and every one
would glorify the prairie states.
The towns and
EMBELLISHMENT , all suburban and
rural homes in Ne
braska are needing decoration in the
way of landscape gardening. There is
no state in the Union which will respond
spend more readily to intelligent arbori
culture and floriculture than our own.
The gently undulating lands of eastern
Nebraska present possibilities in adornment -
ment which stimulate every lover of the
beautiful to create a public sentiment
and popular movement towards village
and home improvement. THE CON
SERVATIVE congratulates Nebraska City
upon being the first in this field of use
fulness , as it was in the founding and
upbuilding of a free public library. Let
efficient and judicious activity along
these lines be increased and intensified.
