Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1899 — From Way Out West. [ARTICLE]

From Way Out West.

Spokane, Washington, ■ Oct. 19th. 1899. Deab Republican;— This is one of those melanoholy days in the which’natures tear-drops incessant ly fall until everything soluble seems to have forsaken its former steadfastness and in sympathy has softened to the occasion. Even humanity grudgingly abandons itsßfixed purpose, and passively yields to the inevitable. Being thus hindered in myjwork my mind has taken me back to former times and associations, and have thought perhaps those might be some one who would be glad to know the whereabouts of a former resident of old Jasper. July 15th. I left Chicago for Helena, Mountana. My ticket was over the Chicago Milwakee & St. Paul to Omaha Neb. From there over the Burlington to Denver, over the Denver & Rio Grand to Salt Lake & Ogden. From Oden over the Oregon Short Line to Garrison Montana. Then over the North Pacific to Helena. It was a circuitous route but as I did not purchase the ticket by the yard it cost no more than it would to have bought it over the North Pacific or the Great Northern. As the train sped over the rich agricultural district of Illinois, and Nebraska I wondered if there was another place in this big world of ours, where the Yeomanry received a better returned for his labor than that which is reaped in the great Mississippi Valley. I stopped but a little while in Denver.’* From Denver over the Denver & Rio Giand there is seen some of the most rugged and picturesque scenery of our continent. We passed the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas in day light. The awe inspiring scene as we enter the bridge suspended (hundreds of feet above the seething cataract) by the perpendicular walls of the mountains on either side has been described by abler pens than mine. I stopped 24 hours at the Latter Day Saints: Visited the tabernacle and had a bath in the Great American Dead Sea. I arrived in Helena on the night of the 20th. of July. Helena is a rather pleasant city, it was once the centre of rich placer mines, and there are yet some, paying mines near the city. I was in Helena about six weeks and Butte about 3 weeks Butte is the larger city, and is the richest mining camp in the west There is over $30,000,000 annually taken out of the ground in the county, and mostly in a district covering about six miles of which Butte is the centre. I was told that over seven hundred million has been mined in Silver Bow County. On the Ist of Oct. I left Montana for Spokane, Washington, Spokane is destined to be the best inland city of the northwest. It is in the centre of a rich agricultural and fruit growing county. Besides it is surrounded by rich mines and it is the point from which supplies must be had for a large mining county both in this state and British Columbia. Then it has a water-power second to none perhaps except Niagara. There is a fall of about one hunddred feet from within the city limits. I expect to be here or in . this part of the country until about Christmas, after that I shall be subject to the'orders of the firm for which I am working. With kindest remembrances for old Jasper and its associations I will close.

J. H. WILLEY.

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