Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/taleoftwocitiesm01john A TALE OF TWO CITIES: MINNEAPOLIS « & and ST. PAUL COMPARED. “ And thereby hangs a tale !’■ — William Shakspeare. _ IjJ - ^ COPYRIGHTED 1885. [SECOND EDITION.] MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.: Johnson, Smith & Harrison, Printers. 1885. 9 / 7,7 4, TUT REASONS FOR THIS BOOK. This publication is issued to correct many errors and to call attention fairly to many advantages which Minneapolis offers to investors and people who are looking for permanent homes in a thriving, promising western city. We claim that in many essential particulars Minneapolis has no equal in respect of her development, and the opportunities presented for business men of enterprise and capital. The showing which she makes in population and wealth can find parallel in no other city in the country. The point in tins book is in its comparisons with its nearest rival and neighbor, St. Paul. They are not made with hostile purpose. They are unavoidable, and it is puerile to decry them. They serve both cities as a necessary stimulus. So far as Minneapolis is concerned, her people do not fear or shrink from comparison, and the same is true of those intelligent people in St. Paul who contemplate the growth of other cities than their own with a broad interest. What we object to is persistent misrepresentation of Minneapolis and inordinate padding of statistics constantly put before the public in newspapers and reports belittling Minneapolis and puffing St. Paul, and the ridiculous attempt to reduce them to an equality. The truth in regard to these cities is good enough. It is quite impossible that they should be the same in all respects, and the indications during the last ten years all point conclusively to the fact, as we think, that Minneapolis has passed her rival in nearly every important regard. Briefly stated, then, this work sets forth a careful comparison of the resources, industries, advantages and opportunities of the two cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A studied effort has been made in certain quarters, and for obvious reasons, to make it appear that St. Paul is the larger and wealthier city, or failing in this, that Minneapolis and St. Paul are about equal ; about equal in population and wealth, in railway and manufacturing enterprises, and in a variety of other details going to make up desirable inducements to promote settlement and investment. There are marked differences, and, as we believe, vastly to the advantage of Minneapolis, and they can be readily demonstrated. iPjyiS .MJJ v (M9 P42805 4 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. The comparisons are instituted upon information drawn as far as- possible from official records, and in all cases from the best available sources. The work is fully endorsed by the Mayor of Minneapolis, ana the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade. The acknowledgments of the compiler are due and cordially tendered to Sweet W. Case, Esq., City Assersor, C. C. Sturtevant, Secretary Chamber of Commerce, C. M. Palmer, Esq., Editor Northwestern Miller, O. M. Laraway, Esq., Postmaster, Samuel Goodnow, City Comptroller, Mr. C. W. Davison, of Davison s Minneapolis Directory, A. S. Dimond, Editor Tour- ist and Sportsman, and other gentlemen who have assisted by way of sug- gestion and otherwise. C. W. JOHNSON. POPULATION It is a universally accepted fact that population is the true and enduring basis ol the wealth and prosperity of states 'and cities. Given the population, .and the industrial and commercial elements that combine with it to give force to a community necessarily follow. Legislative representation and political power are based upon it. It is, therefore, of the very highest importance to the state that the enumerations of population should he faithfully made in order that the political equities between individuals and communities in a free government be maintained. In rapidly growing America, especially in the hustling, hustling western states, many anomalies and some errors necessarily appear. Allowing a fair margin for all these circumstances, it is still insisted on that collateral facts ought to converge in support of census work. If they fail to do so, the defects of the law and the unwarranted results of the work of the enumerator are manifested. The census law of Minnesota is very defective ; the question of a faithful count is left largely to the good faith of the census officers, and the pressure of competition upon them. Their work must therefore be tested by comparison, and to this task we apply ourselves. 6 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. THE POPULATION OF MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL We extract from the daily papers the reports of the census of 1885 of both cities : ST. PAUL. The following are the figures of population for the last twenty years : Tear. Population. 1838 3 1847 50 1849 400 1850 840 1855 4,400 1856 5,630 1857 9,973 The following table shows the increase 1885 1880 Incr. First ward 15,056 6,344 8,712 Second ward. . . 9,299 5,317 3,982 Third ward. ... 12,249 6,073 6,176 Fourth ward.. .34,129 11,734 22,395 Fifth ward .... 25,389 9,317 16,072 Year. Population. 1860 10,600 1865 13,210 1870 20,300 1873 27,023 1875 33,178 1880 41,498 1885 111,397 in St. Paul by wards from 1880 to 1885. 1885 1880 Incr. Sixth ward .... 13,565 2,688 10,877 Seventh ward. . 1,710 1,710 Total 111,397 41,473 69,924 MINNEAPOLIS. There was no Minneapolis until 1856 ; but settlement was made at St. An- thony, on the east side of the river, in 1845. That portion of the city has since been embraced in what is now Minneapolis. For purpose of comparison, there- fore, the population is given from 1 845, the figures being those given in the cen- sus reports— State and United States — up to 1885. The showing is a remark- able one, and is as follows : 1845 45 1850 2,200 1860 5,821 1865 8,106 1870 13,066 1875 32,493 1880 46,887 1885 129,200 The following table shows the increase by wards since 1880 : 1880 1885 Incr. First ward... 6,596 16,021 9,425 Second ward. 3,735 8,527 4,792 Third ward.. 7,126 19,222 12,096 Fourth ward. 9,244 21,992 12,748 Fifth ward.. 10, 020 20,063 10,043 1880 1885 ' Incr. Sixth ward.. 10, 166 30,893 20,927 Seventh ward 6,971 6,971 Eighth ward 5,571 5,571 46,887 129,200 82,413 Total MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 7 The statisticians of St. Paul, using the directory for a basis of calculation attempt to show that the growth of the two cities was in about the same pro- portion year by year since 18S0. For Saint Paul, they say, the increase was as follows : 1880 to 1881 9,402 1881 to 1882 24,935 1882 to 1883 12,543 And for Minneapolis, as follows : 1880- ’81 15,812 1881- 82 15,406 1882- 83 15,432 The increase cited for Minneapolis, it is true, can be supported by its city directory, but it is well to note that other tests agree quite as well with it ; while as to Saint Paul, glaring discrepancies and inconsistencies will be ob- served whenever we travel away from the city directory for a standard of com- parison, and the directory itself will not bear close analysis. Commenting still further on the growth of Minneapolis, it is stated that — “*#*** st. Paul is spreading to all points of the compass, and principally westward, so that the oft-repeated assertion that before many years pass by the two cities will be one in reality of connecting streets, as they are in boundary, has every basis of truth. ********** “There is nothing in the figures to encourage the hope that Minneapolis will grow toward St. Paul. The smallest growth has been in the ward which borders the city limits of St. Paul — the Second. The increase of population has been even more rapid, it will be observed, in the First ward, five years ago the least forward ward in the city, and which is north from St. Paul. The rapid growth of the city has, however, been on the west and south sides of the city, away from SI. Paul rather than toward it, and comparatively little has been contributed to the closing of the gap between the two cities.” There is something plaintive and regretful in the tone of the above para- graph. We do not have the heart to reproach the yearning of St. Paul to get nearer to her beautiful, stalwart sister; but the coyness and coquettishness With which these advances are met clearly indicate that the naughty maiden of the falls feels that she would rather remain single than unite her fortunes with such an insinuating, patronizing suitor as St. Paul. And yet, as against Chicago, Milwaukee, and all the rest of the world , when St. Paul feels that she is being imposed on, Minneapolis may always be depended on to strike heavy blows in the common defense. For it will occur immediately to any one meditating an attack on either city, that two cities so near together with a combined population of 240,597, nearly a quarter of a million active western people, furnish a substantial resistance whose fores is well understood by com- peting points. 1883- 84 20,320 1 884- ’ 85 15,594 1883 to 1884 10,934 1884 to 1885 12,075 8 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. TAKING THE CENSUS. When we come to compare the methods and results of census takingdn Min- neapolis and St. Paul, we find very many interesting little details. We think the census of Minneapolis can be demonstrated to be accurate and reasonable in a variety of ways ; the usual tests applied to it will confirm it. Applying the same tests to results in St. Paul, we shall discover an unsat isfactori ness about it, a whichness of nothingness to base it upon at times quite startling, and suggesting the inference that the anxiety to win in competition has stim- ulated the census experts to see triplets where only twins were reported, and to disregard boundary lines altogether. IN 1875. It has been a long time since an honest census was taken in St. Paul. When the census of 1875 was taken, under the direction of the state authorities the schedules for Minneapolis were filed with the Secretary of State about August 1, and the figures exceeded by several hundred the population of St. Paul. On this fact being made known in that city there was a commotion about it, and under the pressure of leading men in the Chamber of Commerce, the entire city w T as recanvassed, the returns held back, and in the latter part of November the returns were finally deposited with the Secretary of State, and the results then being made public, put St. Paul several hundred ahead. IN 1880. The census was again taken, this time under the direction of the authorities at Washington. It was perfectly apparent to every careful observer that in the five years intervening between 1875 and 1880 Minneapolis had far out- stripped her rival in growth of population. But the census takers of both cities went at their work industriously and conscientiously, determined not to lose one person properly entitled to enumeration. Much has been said about the comparative accuracy of the enumeration of that year. The St. Paul work was denounced as imperfect, and the gentleman who conducted it as an imbecile. It was insisted that he stubbornly refused to enumerate persons who were clearly entitled by residence there to be put on the lists ! No list of such persons was ever collected or made public or presented to the census office in Washington. The census work of Minneapolis was, on the other hand, violently denounced as fraudulent, and the person in charge as a knave and a perjurer. No evidence whatever was ever even indicated that a single name was put on the Minneapolis lists improperly, although a searching ex- amination was made of these lists subsequently. The census superintendent MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 9 at Washington was appealed to to cause a re-emimeration of Minneapolis to be made, but he, after examining the work thoroughly, fully approved it in writ- ing. And all the circumstances and facts of the growth of Minneapolis have confirmed over and over again the census work of 1880. One striking confirma- tion is found in a table found below which shows that in 1880 Minneapolis enumerated but 6.9 persons to each school child enrolled in the public schools, while St. Paul enumerated 9.5, a greater proportion than any other city in the United States. FACTS NOT HERETOFORE KNOWN. Pending the taking of the population in 1880, and before the districts were all completed, the exact state of the Minneapolis census was made known in St. Paul and published in the Pioneer Press the next morning At that very moment, (it was near the close of June) Minneapolis led St Paul by about 4,000. The enumerators in St. Paul had covered nearly all their districts once, and were going over their work tor omissions, as was permitted by the superintendent, and reporting to him about 60 to 100 persons per day, the number daily growing smaller. The same state of affairs existed in Minneapolis, except that there were more districts which had not been gone ever the first time, and several were very important districts. When the disparity in favor of Minneapolis was learned in St Paul, there was a general onslaught on the supervisor there, and though he was conscious of having omitted nothing proper to he inserted, his enumer- ators were assembled in the second story of the old court house, and there set to copying lists of men from no one knew where, furnished by irresponsible persons. The averages returned by this plan by enumerators whose reports had dwindled down to 60 per day quickly rose from 250 to 300 per day. One of these enumerator’s districts comprised the old Manitoba depot and a num- ber of foreign boarding houses in that vicinity. It was one of the most dif- ficult districts to enumerate in that city. It had been fully canvassed, and yet after the scare about Minneapolis, the reports showed an average of 312 per day ! It is clear that these schedules were simply filled up by copyists to swell the number. It was in this unauthorized way that the population in St. Paul was increased from about 38,000 to over 11,000 in 1880. The schedules in Washington, now in the archives of the census office, will verify these state- ments, as they also verify the integrity of the Minneapolis census taken at the same time. THE TWIN CITIES. Lfss than sixty days had elapsed after the census of ’83 was made known when the St. Paul papers claimed that the population of the two cities was about equal, and began to do the “twin sister” act. This delusion has been cultivated persistently ever since, until it has even affected unin- formed Minneapolitans. To support it the directory in St. Paul has been padded year after year, the number of new buildings erected have been exaggerated, and other statistics deliberately manufactured. The growth of Minneapolis during ’81, ’82 and ’83 and the first half of ’84 was so marked as shown by official returns of assessments, real estate transfers, number of 10 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. school chiklien. the vote cast at elections, etc., that St. Paul people were actually shamed out of their ridicu’ous pretensions that the cities were equal, or any thing like equal. t was now time to do something to attempt to close the ever widening gap of population, and the project of annexation was hit on, the project of appropriating, as Kamsey County had an unquestionable right in the Legislature to do, a valuable territory developed principally by Minne- apolis capital and enterprise, and wh ch greatly preferred to be left by itself. This was cute and the plan was successful. Jn the nature of things, and with the precedents in the Legislature of conceding to each county the control of its own affairs, our delegation could not resist it. THE OLD PBETENSE. that the two cities would now be equal was again set up, and the census for 1885 was undertaken with the purpose of establishing it. There is little doubt that various schemes of public improvement were inaugurated against the protests of the unwilling tax-payers of St. Paul tor the purpose of drawing thither large numbers of men from Minneapolis and other places to swell the census, and the scheme worked pretty well. The number drawn from this city was not very great, however, as M inneapolis had also large plans of her own for growth and development, and was able to give employment to her own labor. IN 1885. Everything was now cut and dried for the state census of 1885. The new territory had been taken in, the directory was padded up to support a popula- tion of 110,000, the new public buildings were set in operation, the bridges and railroads were all manned to the maximum. The instructions to enumerators were liberal and emphatic. “ Give the city the benefit of the doubt every time,” was the motto of the census taker, and he did so — several times in many instances. They made a clean sweep; they took people at their houses, as was proper, and again where they were at work, which was very improper. It is too old a trick to copy hotel registers and graveyard records, but they invented new and novel ways of securing names, on a comprehensive scale. After considerable effort, and the employment of much machinery not known to the census law, repeated revisions, additions, multiplications and distribu- tions St. Paul finally succeeded in conforming her census to the directory and the rest of the well laid out programme, and reported a population of 111,307, to 120,200 in Minneapolis. And upon the results in both cities being made known to each other, she sets up the cry of fraud to divert atten- tion from her own crookedness, and refuses to send the official figures by Associated Press to the newspapers of the country; thus taking the last step she will have an opportunity to take in many years to smother the information that Minneapolis has finally outrun her, and that it is useless for her to attempt to enter this race again. Now lor more comparisons. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST PAUL COMPARED. 11 COMPARISONS WITH THE VOTE. POPULATION OP ST. PAUL BY WARDS. The census of St. Paul as reported by wards is as follows : First ward 15,056 Second ward 9,299 Third ward 12,249 Fourth ward 34,129 Fifth ward 25,389 Sixth ward 13,565 Seventh ward 1,710 111,397 VOTE OF ST. PAUL BY WARDS. The largest vote cast in St Paul proper to he adopted as a basis of com- parison is that of November, 1884, cast during the presidential election, when there was also a lively canvass for congressman, and an unusually hard fight on many local candidates. The vote that year by wards was as follows: First ward 1,998 Second ward 1,623 Third ward 2,097 Fourth ward 4,029 Fifth ward 3,550 * This is new territory, and the vote gi election of 1885. Sixth ward 1,315 Seventh ward*.’. 418 15,040 is that cast in the Seventh ward in the spring RATIO OF POPULATION TO THE VOTE CAST. From the above tables another table is deducible, showing the number of inhabitants enumerated to each voter in St. Paul, as follows : First ward 7.5 census names to a vote. Second ward 5.7 census names to a vote. Third ward 5.8 census names to a vote. Fourth ward 8.4 census names to a vote. Fifth ward 7.2 census names to a vote. Sixth ward 10.2 census names to a vote. Seventh ward* 4 census names to a vote. * There is but one conclusion to be derived from the result in the Seventh ward ; that is, the fraud is in the number of illegal votes cast, probably 200, in the spring election, comprising gangs of railroad men . The average number enumerated to each voter in the whole city, was 7.42 persons. POPULATION OF MINNEAPOLIS BY WARDS. First ward 16,021 Second ward 8,527 Third ward 19,222 Fourth ward 21,992 Fifth ward 20,062 Sixth ward 30,89.3 Seventh ward 6,971 Eighth ward 5,511 129,200 12 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. VOTE OF MINNEAPOLIS BY WABDS. The basis of comparison is the same election as used for St Paul, -viz., the presidential election of 1884, as follows : Pirst ward 2,669 Second ward 1,494 Third ward 3,004 Fourth ward 3,781 Fifth ward 3,674 Sixth ward 4,466 Seventh ward 1,193 Eighth ward 914 21,951 BATIO OF POPULATION TO THE VOTE. First ward 6 census names to a vote. Second ward 5.7 census names to a vote. Third ward 6.3 census names to a vote. Fourth ward 5.8 census names to a vote. Fifth ward 5.4 census names to a vote. Sixth ward 6.9 census names to a vote. Seventh ward 5.8 census names to a vote. Eighth ward 6 census names to a vote. The average number enumerated to each voter in Minneapolis was <1.01 persons ; in St. Paul, 7 . 4 . REGISTRATION OF VOTERS. Pending the election of 1884, a determined effort was made in Saint Paul to exceed the Minneapolis registration of voters. A fund was subscribed; a joint committee of both parties was constituted to look after registration ; hacks were hired; bands were out; notices printed and distributed on a large scale, and the utmost endeavor was made to secure a large registration.' The follow- ing shows the results of registration in each city for the same election, no special effort having been made in Minneapolis: MINNEAPOLIS. First ward Sixth ward 6,152 Second ward 2 071 Seventh ward ... . 1,679 Third ward 4,315 Eighth ward 1,190 Fourth ward — Fifth ward ,151 Total ST. PAUL. First ward 2,631 Sixth ward 1,419 Second ward 2,173 Seventh ward* 418 Third ward 2,571 — Fourth ward 5,591 Total . /'8,927 Fifth ward 4,074 * We add in the 418 votes cast in this ward in the spring election of 1885. It was vehemently claimed in that election that the voters of Saint Paul did not come out, hut the above figures show that of the voters registered in Saint Paul 79 per cent, actually voted, and in Minneapolis but 75 per cent, voted. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 13 THE NUMBER OF HOUSES. In order to arrive at a fair comparison of the recent census by a direct but unofficial method, an examination has been made of the number of residence houses in both cities. Within a year a map publisher of Philadelphia, Mr. G. M. Hopkins, compiled an atlas showing every structure in both cities. The work was intended primarily ror the use of fire insurance companies all over the United States. It not only purports to show every structure but the material of which it is built as well It shows the contiguity, size and location on the lot, of each house. It was compiled after a careful inspection by a person who made a diagram of each house. It is as near absolutely correct as such a work can be made. It is thoroughly impartial, being compiled by an outsider, and mainly for the use of outsiders, who are carrying insurance on our buildings, and who have no interest whatever in our squabbles. A. count of the houses as they appear on these two maps, adding 215 houses to St. Paul for the Seventh ward, which was created since this map was made, and which is the number of houses in that ward by actual count, has been made, and is here presented. NUMBER OF HOUSES IN SAINT PAUL. \ First ward 1,468 Second ward 929 Third ward 1,292 Fourth ward 4,097 Fifth ward 8,159 Sixth ward 1,385 Seventh ward 215 Total number houses in Saint Paul 12,545 NUMBER OF HOUSES IN MINNEAPOLIS. First ward 2,339 Second ward 1,130 Third ward 2,679 Fourth ward 2,379 Fifth ward 2,971 Sixth ward 3,479 Seventh ward : 1,483 Eighth ward 1,088 Total number houses in Minneapolis 17,588 Number in Saint Paul 12,545 Difference in favor of Minneapolis 5,043 u A TALE OF TWO CITIES. From the above count of houses it is easy to figure that in enumerat- ing the population of Saint Paul the following number of persons were enumerated in each house in the several wards : Persons per House. First ward 10.25 Second ward 10.01 Third ward 9.48 Fourth ward 8.33 Fifth ward 8.03 Sixth ward, 9.87 Seventh ward 7.95 Or an average of 8.87 persons to each house in Saint Paul, this with Minneapolis : Compare Persons First ward Second ward. . Third ward Fourth ward* Fifth ward Sixth ward Seventh ward. . Eighth ward. . . per House . . 6.84 . 7.54 . 7.17 . 9.24 . 6.75 . 8.94 . 6.04 . 5.12 *It will be borne in mind that the Fourth ward contains the West Hotel, Nicollet House, Clark House, The Albion, Hoblit House, The Pauly House, The Carr House, The Wessex, and a large number of large board- ing houses. The Sixth ward also contains a large number of ■ foreign boarding houses, the Beard block, and other populous sections. The general average arrived at in Minneapolis was 7.34 persons enumerated per house as against 8.87 in St. Paul ! There are 5,043 more houses in Minneapolis than in St. Paul. If we were to estimate the difference in the population of the two cities using the lower, i. e. the Minneapolis multiple, we should have this example : Houses. 5,043 Average Difference per in favor of House. Minneapolis. x 7.34 = 37,016 And this is really about the difference in population. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST PAUL COMPARED. 15 THE SIXTH ATARI). This territory is an interesting field for comparison, and a special examination has been made of it. The enumerators when they first went over' it got about 11,000 people. They reached these enormous figures by in- cluding all the employes on all the grading sections headed for St. Paul on the new railroad routes, the Chicago people at work on the new bridge, and by taking in a large section of Dakota county. Adjoining the Sixth ward, a kind of overflow of its rapidly developing territory, are about 160 houses, mostly new, all in West St. Paul township in Dakota county. The people living in them were all taken by the assessor of the West. St. Paul township, when he made his assessments. They were again taken on the St. Paul schedules, by the enumerator of the Sixth ward, and included in his returns. His schedules now on file in the office of the Secretary of State will show it. Adopting the multiple used in enumerating the Sixth ward, viz : 9.87 persons per house, we find that the enumerator in the Sixth ward put on his lists fifteen hundred and eighty people who then lived and now live in Dakota county. But eleven thousand people got in this way was not enough. The returns claim 13,565 ! The Sixth ward has not many large houses of any kind and few large boarding houses. The buildings which have all been carefully counted and analyzed by going from house to house show up as follows : Four-room houses 762 Six-room houses 448 Eight-room houses 178 Twelve-room houses 22 Boarding-houses and hotels 14 Vacant houses 71 Total 1,495 The above also includes all stores, most of which were occupied by families in the upper stories. Those who believe that the four or six-room houses in the Sixth ward will contain 9.87 persons each are to be admired for their enthusiasm ; and those who believe that the Sixth ward has 13,565 inhabitants are to be pitied for their credulity. 16 A TALE OE TWO CITIES. WEST ST. PAUL COMPARED WITH PRINCIPAL CITIES OP MINNESOTA AND DAKOTA. From a recent editorial article in the Minneapolis Tribune relative to the census of the Sixth Ward, Saint Paul, returned at 13,565, weabridge the follow- ing : The population of some of the principal cities of Minnesota is as follows: Dulntli 18,036 Stillwater 16,438 W inona 15,625 Mankato Red Wing Faribault Albert Lea 5,367 Rochester 5,314 Anoka 4,629 St Cloud 4,560 Fergus Falls 4,985 Hastings 3.9S4 Sixth Ward (West St. Paul).. 13,565 The above fable shows the territory of the Sixth W ard, or West St, Paul, as returned by the enumerators to have nearly the same population as Duluth, Still- water, and Winona, and to have nearly twice the population of Mankato, over twice that of Red Wing, Faribault, Albert Lea and tiochester; more than three times that of Anoka, St. Cloud, Fergus Falls and St. Peter; or four times the population of Fastings. The Sixth Ward at the last presidential election cast 1 335 votes, and some of the towns named above, at the same election cast a total vote as follows : Stillwater. Winona . . Red Wing Faribault. Rochester 2,496 I St. Cloud 956 3,172 I Brainerd 1.170 1,589 Fergus Falls. 875 1,246 I St. Peter 528 979 | It is needless to add that the census of the Sixth Ward is not sustained by the vote when compared with these thriving towns of Minnesota. COMPARISONS IN DAKOTA. In order to facilitate further comparisons by merchants and other people in Dakota, who, like the leading citizens of Minnesota, are quite familiar with the extent and appearance of West Saint Paul, we add a table showing the popu- lation of some of the leading cities ot North and South Dakota : NORTH DAKOTA. Fargo 8,201 I Jamestown 2,482 Grand Forks 4,692 | Mandan 2,263 Bismarck 3,067 | SOUTH DAKOTA. Sioux Falls 7,205 I Chamberlain 1,559 Watertown 2,819 I Pierre 1,527 Aberdeen ,164 | Does anybody believe West Saint Paul has nearly twice as many people as Fargo or Sioux Falls, or three times the population of Bismarck, the capital, or Grand Forks? The plain answer to this conundrum is, that nobody believes it — not even the members of the Jobber’s Union. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL C'OMPAKED. 17 THE SCHOOL CENSUS. The state census compared with the number of school children enrolled in Minneapolis and St. Paul presents striking features. It is claimed in St. Paul that the reason why the ratio of the census is so large when compared with the school children enrolled, is that there is so large a proportion of children of schoolable age in private and denominational schools. In order to meet this plausible theory we have taken about twenty other cities into the account, basing our comparisons of these other cities on the report of the United States Commissioner of Education of 1881, immediately after the census of 1880 was completed. Surely many of these outside cities must present similar conditions to those found in St. Paui in respect to private schools. The following table shows the number of persons enumerated to each school child enrolled in the public Kansas City, 1880 schools : .... 6.9 Milwaukee 1880 Cleveland, 6. “ 6.4 Nashville, Boston, St Louis. 7 4 Columbus 0 “ 6 4 4. 6 0 Albany N. Y. “ 6 5 44 6 8 ^Rochester N.Y. “ 6 6 Philadelphia, Chicago, 44 8 2 Providence. B. I. ‘‘ . . . 7.3 “ 7.8 Leavenworth , “ 5.2 "W inona, ‘4 6 0 Peoria, “ 6,1 Stillu ater, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Paul, (4 9 0 Denver, “ 7.1 44 6 9 l( .... 58 8 9 Hacine. ’ “ . ... 6.7 4 4 11.7 According to reports made to the respective Boards of Education of the two cities at the close of the Spring term last June, and covering the enroll- ment for the year just past, the enrollment was as follows: Minneapolis 14,515 | St. Paul 9,491 The following is a list of the public schools of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with the number of pupils enrolled during the month of September, 1885, the first month of the fall term : SAINT PAUL. Schools. High Training Franklin Madison Van Buren Jefferson Lincoln Monroe Webster Jackson Humboldt Pupils. 355 206 856 751 545 497 477 406 389 381 364 18 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Schools. Pupils. Adams 321 Neill 321 River 310 Garfield 288 Rice 358 Sibley 256 Cleveland 237 Irving 55 Merriam Park 46 Saint Anthony Park 36 Harvester Works 32 Ham line 32 Total 7,519 MINNEAPOLIS. Schools Adams Clay Douglas Emerson Everett Franklin Garfield Harrison Hawthorn High ‘ Humboldt Irviug Jackson Jefferson Lincoln Longfellow Lyndale Madison Marcey Monroe Prescott Sumner Washington Webster Whittier Winthrop "White or Silver Lake Totals ats. Pupils. 774 881 438 434 83 67 536 231 207 182 662 692 418 464 442 274 418 496 485 426 428 283 437 468 426 392 620 580 557 478 200 265 235 184 430 473 437 393 524 541 228 162 620 554 636 617 367 394 436 487 591 589 48 40 ,299 11,097 It will be observed that in enumerating 11.7 persons to each school child enrolled in 1885, 8t. Paul enumerat s nearly twice as many as nearly all the other cities cited, and nearly thr e more than the one next below her (Still- water). There is no theory that can be set up to explain this story of the figures. The reas ina'de explanations a’-e all against it. For in-tance, it is a well understood fact that manufacturing cities have a greater proportion of unmarried men to the population than merely commer- cial Cities. It follows, in such cases, that the proportion of persons enumerated -to school children enrolled, must therefore be larger. The figures above quoted MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 19 for Philadelphia, Chicago, Providence, and Stillwater disclose this fact. We believe it has never been claimed for St. Paul that it is a manufacturing city. Boston, Saint Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Minneapolis each have strong denominational schools, and the number taken from the enrollment in the public schools is reduced thereby, but none of them present such an as- tonishing discrepancy as the figures in Saint Paul show. The situation in which Saint Paul is placed is that the census recently taken is grossly wrong, or the local public school system wretchedly poor — inferior in fact to the parochial schools surrounding it; that a large proportion of schoolable children are sent to schools where tuition js charged in preference to the public schools which are free. We think it is clear that it is the census that is at fault; for the system of public schools in Saint Paul, though by no means so good as in Min- neapolis, is lully up to the standard of the other cities named in our compari- sons. When compared with Minneapolis, St. Paul claims too much when it is assumed that the number of pupils in private and denominational schools in that city exceeds the number in Minneapolis. The Catholic schools in St. Paul comprise tour-fifths of the attendance in such schools, and between the two cities the account stands thus — we have the figures from the best official authority in the church: SAINT St. Joseph’s Academy 200 Visitation Academy 50 ■Cathedral, boys’ school 250 Cathedral, girls’ school 235 Assumption, boys 3(J0 Assumption, girls 500 St. Mary’s Christian Brothers — 300 PAUL. St. Louis 175 St. Joseph’s 190 Sacred Heart 189 St. Francis 180 St. Michael’s 175 2,744 St. Anthony Immaculate Conception St. Joseph’s St Boniface Holy Kosary MINNEAPOLIS, 370 410 155 175 380 St. Elizabeth . . Orphan School 120 70 1,680 Only about 1,000 more in St. Paul than in Minneapolis. The number of pupils in Minneapolis outside of the Catholic schools in pri- vate seliools is more than double that in St. Paul. The University of Minne- sota has more pupils (350) than all the so-called universities and colleges in St. Paul combined. Curtiss’ Business College in Minneapolis has more pupils than all the business colleges in St. Paul, including the Curtiss College there Then there is the Augsburg Seminary, the Bennett Institute, Archibald’s, the Minneapolis Academy, Miss Judson’s, the Episcopal schools, and several Scan- dinavian parochial schools, and the kindergartens. The St. Paul census cannot be bolstered up by indefinite assumption, and the gap which is clearly shown iD the number of school buildings, teachers’ roll, and the enrollment ot public school children cannot be bridged by saying that the children of St Paul at- tend private schools, for in this regard Minneapolis is also ahead. A TALE OE TWO CITIES. 20 THU STORY OF THE DIRECTORIES. These who have the hardihood to defend the recent census of St. Paul, justify it upon the directory alone; the directory as compared with the directory and census of Minneapolis. The directory, under the strain of competition and removed from the restraints of the pains and penalties for perjury, is not con- sidered a reliable criterion. In many cas^s it is not even approximate. In the case of St. Paul it is not a s ife approximate. The usual ratio ol directory estimate in figuring population can be mainta ned when the Minneapolis census is compared to her directory, but no stress has ever been laid on that fact ; there were so many other and official figures sustaining it In order that the census of St. Paul shall bear a proper ratio to the directory of St. Paul,* it is necessary that all the firm names, references, cross references, &c , should be counted as individuals , and that over two thousand servant girls inserted in the book as “do- mestics”, for purely padding purposes, shall all be counted. Both cities should have the same basis. If the firms, “domestics”, &c., are. thrown out in Minneap- olis, they should be thrown out in St. Paul. It is vehemently denied by the lead- ing newspaper of St. Paul that these firms, references, &c., are included, but an analysis of the St. Paul book shows that I hey are. The number of individual names in the Minneapolis book is 44,250, as ayainst 38,961 individual names in the St. Paul book. The St. Paul book is claimed to contain 43,960 names, and this is the number used as a basis of computation. By actual count, the St. Paul directory contains 43,825 names, including all cross reference lines, firms, corporation names, names of churches, schools and “domestics.” The following table shows, how many individual names it contains, and what else is stuffed into the false basis of comparison. Whole No. " entries “ Domestics” References, firms etc.. Residue 1 Whole No. entries “ Domestics” References, fiims, etc... Residue A 1,389 3.792 2,748 1C9 33 1,247 3,388 N 1,213 1,183 2,019 103 1,993 4,620 1,196 119 74 90 1,049 1,057 1,807 90 B 150 259 O 80 114 46 C . 121 195 2,432 1,724 843 P 98 D 1,938 952 69 145 Q 10 3 E . . 47 62 R 74 120 1,799 3,976 1,098 83 F .. 1.732 2,038 3,411 150 78 136 1 518 S 258 386 G 81 133 1,824 3,009 139 T 54 44 II . 167 235 U 4 32 I 4 7 Y 383 13 21 349 J 1,476 2 031 145 31 1,300 1,788 W 2,401 177 80 132 2,189 K . 102 141 Y 5 15 157 L 2,362 1,192 3,037 108 66 119 77 64 238 2,177 1,062 2,680 Z 197 9 4 184 JYLC M 43,852 2,141 2,747 38,964 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 21 A glance at the St. Paul and Minneapolis directories will easily convince any one of the glaring attempt at padding in many respects besides the ones above cited. But it is a very easy thing to pick flaws in a city directory. They are not intended to he more than approximately reliable, and when com- pared with official reports vary greatly in their showing. THE DUAL CITY BLUE BOOK. Some genius in the directory line conceived the enterprise of compiling tor Minneapolis and St. Paul a directory of all the leading society people, and all people whom it was worth while, in the judgment of the compiler, for a retail dry goods man to send circulars and announcements to. Eeference is made to the “Dual City Blue Book,” a work gotten out by parties outside of both cities, and printed in St. Paul. This little work states the number of such persons as follows: No. pages. No. to page. Total No. names. Minneapolis 89 90 9,010 St. Paul 60 90 5,400 According to the above authority Minneapolis is shown to be much the stronger socially ; that is, there are more spike-tail coats, high collars, more silks, satins, diamonds, jewelry and gim-cracks generally; more ton. We have always contended that this was true, but we did not expect to demon- strate it so clearly by cold statistics. 22 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. THE SHOWING AT THE POST-OFFICE. A fair indication of the growth of a city may be found in the business trans- acted at the post office. St. Paul has always claimed the advantage in this respect, but the figures do not sustain this claim. On the contrary, it is clearly shown that Minneapolis completely distances her competitor, in number of money orders and postal notes issued, and in aggregate receipts, when the busi- ness which pertains to St. Paul proper is considered. The receipts of the St. Paul and Minneapolis post offices for the year ending December 81, 1834, were, respectively, $183,925.74 and $178,218.97, an excess- of $5,706.77 in favor of St. Paul Taken alone, postal receipts are not an unerring criterion of population ; the character of the business must necessarily be taken into account. Manufac- turing enterprises do not require the volume of correspondence as does the job- bing trade of a city. A publishing house which has a large weekly circulation may make thousands of dollars difference in the postal receipts, without per- ceptibly increasing the population. For instance, the item of newspaper post- age in the receipts of the St. Paul post office, for the year given, exceeds the Minneapolis receipts for the same item $12,000, but it does not follow that the persons engaged in the publishing business in St. Paul correspondingly exceed in number those engaged in the same calling in Minneapolis. It will be noted that this one item is more than double the total excess of receip ts of St* Paul over Minneapolis, confirming the correctness of the above theory. To this may be estimated, upon the same theory, the State capitol, $4,000, and the headquarters of three railroads, $9,000, equal in the aggregate to $25,000, which might be taken from the receipts of the St. Paul post-office without ma- terially reducing the population, leaving their legitimate postal receipts $158,925 an excess in favor of Minneapolis of $19,293. The following table shows the number of money orders issued from the Minneapolis and St. Paul post-offices since the establishment of the present money order system of transmitting money by mail, begun in 1866. MONEY ORDERS. The money order blanks are issued by the post-office department to the post-offices in series numbered as high as 100,000. When the first series is finished a new series of blank orders is supplied and No, 1 is started as on the previous series. The table given below shows the aggregate number of orders MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMP ABED. 23 issued by Minneapolis and St. Paul, with the net annual gain of each city since 1876. The figures clearly indicate the remarkable advance made by the Minne- apolis post office: Sept. 14, St. Paul. Minneapolis. 1876 46,891 42,771 1877 54,627 50,649 1878 63,602 60,258 1879 72,135 73 900 1880 85,456 85,523 1881 98.363 New Series 798 1882 12,788 19,152 1883 27,705 41.424 1884 39,656 59,110 1885 58,547 85,125 In Exc s of Minneapolis. 4,120 3,978 3,344 1,765 In Excess of St Paul. 67 2,433 6,364 13,719 9,454 26,578 September 14 is the date in each year to which count is made. It will be seen that on September 14, 1876, St. Paul was 4,120 orders ahead of Minneapo- lis, while the advance was gradually reduced in 1879 to 1,765. In 1880 Minne- apolis made up the advance and at the end of the year finished its first series, and was 67 orders ahead. During the subsequent year, 1881, Minneapolis fin- ished the first series of orders and used to No. 793 on the second series of 100,000. The gain was continued at even a greater ratio during the years’82 and ’83 and during the nine and a half months up to July 1st, this year, at which date Minneapolis had used 159.110 money orders, or 19,454 more than St. Paul. The manner in which the number of orders issued at St. Paul is learned is through advice of orders drawn on the Minneapolis P. 0 in favor of beneficiaries resident in the city. St Paul is designated as a depositing office of this State where all post masters of offices in Minnesota deposit their surplus money order funds, but the business done as such depository is unimportant and while in its report it may make a more favorable showing in figures the actual business done is as shown in the above report of Domestic Money Orders issued, far behind that of Minneapolis, It is estimated that the orders here average $13,217, a fraction which represents an aggregate of nearly $300,000 in excess of St. Paul. THE POSTAL NOTES. On September 3, 1883, the day on which Minneapolis astonished the Vil- lard-Northern- Pacific -General Grant tourists with a most wonderful street exhil ition of varied industries in competition with St. Paul, the postal-note system went into effect, which provides for transmitting sums of money below $5 for a fee of 3 cents. The system has now been in operation a little more than two years. During this period to September 14, 1885, St. Paul issued 13,870 notes, Minneapolis 18,316. a difference in the number of notes issued at Minneapolis in excess of St. Paul of 4,246. WEALTH, DEBT AND TAXATION COMMERCIAL AGENCY FIGURES. The Merchantile Agencies of this country have a cold-blooded way of mak- ing estimates and furnishing figures about business matters, for the use of business men, that is not excelled in the line of raw facts. For the purpose of making a comparison that will stand unquestioned with business men, we have compiled the report of R. G. Dunn & Co. for the two cities, showing the judg- ment of that agency as to the pecuniary responsibility of the business men in each. These tables are also verified by an examination of Bradstreet’s reports. The two tables follow : Minneapolis. 14 houses, responsibility over . 13 26 13 44 58 111 126 165 212 315 1235 “ “ average. 2332 Totals Houses not rated, 1,179. Total houses, ! ST. PAUL . . .$1,000,000 $14,000,000 . . . 500,000 6,500,000 . . . 300,000 7,800,000 . . 200,000 2,600,000 . . . 125,000 5,500,000 75,000 4,350,000 40,000 4,440,000 20,000 2,520,000 10,000 1,650,000 5,000 1,000,000 2,000 930,000 800 988,000 10 houses, responsibility over $1,000,000 $10,000,000 12 “ u u 500,000 6,000,000 12 “ a (( 300,000 3,600,000 11 a u 200,000 2,200,000 31 “ tt i( 125,000 3, 875, 000 41 tt u 75,000 3,075,000 (36 “ i u 40,000 2.640,000 94 “ a « 20,000 1,880,000 148 “ a u 10,000 1,480,000 158 “ a tt 5,000 790,000 259 “ tt 2,000 518,000 987 “ “ average 800 789,600 1829 Totals $36,847,600 Houses not rated, 772; total houses, 2,601. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 25 From these figures, which are the result of careful compilation, it will be seen that Minneapolis has a list of commercial houses that exceeds the St. Paul list 910; and a pecuniary responsibility that is $16,290,400 in excess of that of St. Paul . So far as we are aware, this is the first compilation pub- lished of Minneapolis, but the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce printed the fol- lowing table in a publication issued in 1884, and it was widely circulated under credit of R. G. Dun & Co.’s reports : 5 houses. responsibility over $1,000,000 $5,000,000 6 750,000 4,500.000 17 500,000 8,500,000 33 300,000 9,900,000 51 li “ 200,000 10,000,000 70 125,000 8,750,000 107 75,000 8,025,000 162 « 40,000 6,480,000 268 20,000 5,360,000 405 10,000 4,050,000 545 5,000 2,725,000 $73,490,000 Taking these figures to have been accurate when published (and -who can question them, as they are vouched for by the St Paul Chamber of Commerce as taken from Dun’s reports), we find that within a few short months the financial responsibility of St. Paul has decreased over fifty per cent But the figures are not accurate, and were never compiled from any report of Dun & Co Evidently the “compiler” counted the concerns representing a million of capital, and then graded off the rest of his table in beautiful progression, trust- ing that nobody would ever take the trouble to go over the list to verify it. It contains no element of accuracy, and is padded to more than twice the amount possible for the city to have been possessed of at that time, and it was done for the purpose of making a great showing in the East and South, where the rep oit (?) was circulated by hundreds of thousands. On the opposite page ( page 24) line 24, for $25,038,000, read $52,038,000 ; the first two figures having dropped out and been transposed in replacing them in the form while the press work was being done. COMPILER. 26 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. BANKS AND BANKING. The following compilation is one that breaks the monotony of the com- parisons between the two cities, and it is made full and complete that the glory redounding to St. Paul so far as it redounds may not be in any measure diminished We might show how Minneapolis is rapidly overtaking her neighbor in this one matter, and how short will be the time before the statement will be reversed; we might call attention to how close present deposits are to those of the “financial center of the North west,’’ which has ‘‘more banking capital than all the rest of Minnesota combined,” but we refrain and leave all the glory of the appended tables to our sister, simply saying that the showing made is very gratifying to Minneapolis, The statements are of date of July 1, 1885. BANKS UNDER STATE LAW, MINNEAPOLIS. NAME. CAPITAL. SURPLUS. DEPOSITS. Bank of Minneapolis Citizen’s Bank $100,000 100,000 800,000 100,000 60,000 1,000,000 $10,000 $ 310,659.14 167,533.15 560,862.07 267,682.12 226,808.29 2,581,604.16 City Bank Commercial Bank Scandia Bank Security Bank Totals 9,000 250,000 $1,660,000 $269,000 $4,115,148.93 ST. PAUL. NAME. CAPITAL. SURPLUS. DEPOSITS . Bank of Minnesota Capital Bank German American Bank Germania $600,000 100,000 25,000 300.000 100.000 $40,000 30,000 In Liquidation $1,828,031.21 212,468.16 220.00 290,600.52 104,952.38 People’s Bank Totals $1,125,000 $70,000 $2,436,272.27 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 27 MINNEAPOLIS SAYINGS BANKS. Name. Deposits. Undivided Profits. Farmers’ and Mechanics’ $2,025,793 25 733,709 88 $71,559 33 Hennepin County 20,007 49 Totals $2,759,503 13 $91,566 82 In addition the Hennepin County Bank has a capital of $100,000 and a surplus of $25,000. ST. PAUL SAYINGS BANKS. Name. Deposits. Undivided Profits. Savings Bank of St. Paul $309,759 25 $18,093 67 In addition, this bank has a capital of $50,000 and a surplus of $10,000. NATIONAL BANKS OF MINNEAPOLIS. Name. Capital. Surplus. Undivided Profits. Deposits. Nat’l Bank of Commerce. . Nicollet National. . . . 400.000 500.000 500.000 600.000 1,000,000 $10,000 5,000 25,000 125.000 100.000 $6,587 63 2,492 74 2,367 22 48,001 66 47,282 29 $309,981 56 424,887 14 477,187 74 2,442,749 29 1,508,501 26 Union National First National Northwestern National. . . $3,000,000 $265,000 $106,731 54 $5,163,306 99 NATIONAL BANKS OF ST. PAUL. Name. Capital. Surplus. Undivided Profits. Deposits. First National. . $1,000,000 200,000 500,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 500,000 $500,000 55.000 4,500 33.000 400,000 8,000 $40,958 58 225,289 47 19,533 80 5,938 16 48,265 81 20,170 56 $4,406,578 88 967,232 39 202,626 78 2,025,594 08 3,152,781 81 290,916 15 Second National Third National Nat’l German American.. Merchants’ National St. Paul National. . . . $5,200,000 $1,000,500 $360,156 38 $11,045,730.09 In addition to these banks the Minnesota Loan and Trust Company, of Minneapolis, had on deposit with the state auditor, September 12, ls85, a guar- antee iund of $102,400, and the Saint Paul Loan and Trust Company, of Saint Paul, had a deposit with the same officer, at the same date, of $104,500. Count- ing the guarantee funds, this makes the total capital of the Minneapolis banks, authorized by law, $4,862,400, and that of Saint Paul $6,479,500 — a difference of $1,617,100 in favor of Saint Paul. Surplus and undivided profits of Minne- 28 A TALE of two cities. apilis banks aggregated $757,297.54, and that of St. Paul, $1,448,750.05; in favor of St. Paul, $716,437.51. In amount of deposits Minneanolis banks have $11,570,346.84, and St. Paul $13,781,761.61, a difference in favor of St. Pad of $2,211,414.57. In the matter of savings deposits Minneapolis exceeds St. Paul $2,449,743.88, showing that the laboring men and women of the for- mer city are given to thrift. The savings deposits are rapidly growing in Min- neapolis, the Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Bank deposits having increased from July 1st to September 1st, of this year, from $2,025,793.25 to $2,118,329.41. STATEMENT OF CLEARING HOUSE. The clearing house figures in Minneapolis far exceed those in St. Paul, and the difference in the volume of transactions is so marked that St. Paul declines io furnish the figures for publication along with Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Boston, and the other really great cities of the country. The figures for Minneapolis were as follows last year: •T auuary . . February . March .... April May June July August . . . September $6,782,022.26 6,525,853.98 7,639,509.91 8,521,435 60 8,882,135.68 8,878,303.46 8,104,676.09 8,861,105.49 9,856,558.58 October $14,610,959.94 November 11,600,148.14 December 10,291,935.42 Total for 1884 110,556,619.73 Total for 1883 87,568,000.00 Gain of 1884 over 1883. 22,988,619.73 Gain of 1883 over 1882 . 24,318,000,00 It is estimated that the figures for the clearing house for 1885 wdl show an increase of thirty per cent, over 1884. DISCRIMINATIONS. The banking business in St. Paul enjoys the benefit of discriminations to a degree that if they were withdrawn they would present a sorry showing as compared with Minneapolis. Under an old State law, framed when St. Paul dominated the whole State and hanking was weak in the interior towns, and before Minneapolis had a beginning, the deposits of the State treasury are re- quired to be kept in the St. Paul banks. The State is a good customer and never borrows money ; so these funds are always available to swell the figures of her banking business, and to loan at short interest rates to her business men. The same is true of government deposits for public works on rivers and harbors, the Military Department of Dakota, the land and Indian business, the cus- toms service and so on. There is no reason whatever why Minneapolis, Stillwater and Duluth and other cities should not have a share in these deposits, and the advantages they bring, but what a wail of anguish would rise if a fair effort were made to divide up these plums! This spirit of discrimination is shown in many other w r ays. The drummers of St. Paul are in our business houses every day and receive a liberal share of the purchases made here. That this business is not reciprocated is notorious. The St. Paul newspapers are liberally subscribed for in Minneapolis and our business men occupy a large share in their advertising columns. But it is a well understood MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 29 fact in both cities that the St. Pa ul business men persistently ignore the Min- neupoiis. newspapers, both as to subscription and advertising. Further than this it has been the settled policy for many years to discriminate against all Minneapolis newspapers on all railway trains running out of St. Paul, and this policy continues to a large extent. Notwithstanding these facts the subscription lists of the Minneapolis papers compare favorably with those of St. Paul. They have equal news facilities; equally able writers, and print papers as large and as well edited, and which exercise an equal influence over the people of Minnesota and the Northwest. A TALE OF TWO CITIES. 30 BONDED DEBT. In the matter of indebtedness Minneapolis is compelled to yield the palm to Saint Paul, as the latter city lias a debt statement $516,140.71 excess. The following tables show the debts in detail, as stated by the comptroller of each city: BONDED DEBT OF MINNEAPOLIS. Date. Issued for— Oct. 1, 1870. Falls improvement Oct. 5, 1870. Falls improvement July 1, 1872. Falls improvement July 1, 1872. Falls improvement July 1, 1872. Falls improvement May 1, 1874. Fire department, E. D — July 1, 1872. Falls improvement July 1. 1872. Falls improvement Feb. 1, 187. . Water-works Dec. 2, 1872. Bridges April 1, 1881. Schools Feb. 2, 1874. Bridges Feb. 2, 1874. City Hall July 1, 1871. Sewers Sep. 1, 1877. Railroads Nov. 15, 1877. Railroads Feb. July July Nov. July July July May July July 2, 1874. 1, 187y. 1, 1870. 1, 1871. 1, 1872. 1, 1872. 1, 1872. 1, 1-75. 1, 1881. 1, 1881 . April 1, 188: April 2, 1-83. July 2, 1883. Mar. 15, 1-81. Mar. 15, 1884. J une 30, 1883 . Jan. 1, 1884. July 1, 1884. July 1, 1871. Aug. 1, 1873. July 30, 1872. Aug. 1, 1873. Aug. 15, 1872. Aug. 26, 1872. Sep. 24, 1872. Nov. 1, 1872. Water-works Schools Water-works and sewers .. Railroads Water-works Sewers General purposes Bridges Sewers Permanent improvements . Permanent improvements . Permanent i in pro vements . Permanent improvements . Permanent improvements . Permanent improvements. Parks Parks Parks Schools— west di vision Schools— west division Schools— east division . . j Schools— west division Schools — east division Schools— east division Schools -east division Schools— east division Numbers. Each Bond. Total. Rate. When due. 91— 120 $500 $15,000 10 Oct. 1, 1885 31- 40 500 5,000 10 Oct. 5, 1885 260— 289 500 15,000 8 J illy 1, 1886 230- 258 500 14,500 8 July 1, 1887 200- 229 500 15,000 8 •July 1, 1888 41— 64 500 12,000 8 May 1, 1889 170- 199 500 15,000 8 July 1, 1889 121— 169 500 24,500 8 July 1, 1890 1— 110 500 55,000 8 Feby. 1, 1891 1- 250 1,000 250,000 8 Dec. 2, 1892 491— 512 1,000 22,000 5 April 1, 1893 251— 270 1,000 20,1X10 8 Feby. 2,1894 1— 100 500 50,000 8 Feby. 2, 1894 1— 25 1,000 25,000 7 July 1, 1896 251- 281 1,000 31, 000 7 Sept. 1, 1897 282— 351— 350 400 1,000 500 94,000 7 Nov. 15, 1897 151— 270 500 60,000 8 Feby. 2, 1899 451 — 490 1,000 40,000 6 July 1, 1899 i— 80 500 40,000 8 July 1, 1900 i— 250 500 125,000 7 Nov. 1, 1901 in- 150 1,000 40,i 00 7 July 1, 1902 26- 50 1,000 25,000 7 July 1, 1902 1- 20 1,000 20,01X1 7 July 1, 1902 271- 320 1,000 50,000 8 May 1, 1905 514— 563 1,000 50,000 m July 1, 1906 564— 603 1,000 40,000 i L A •1 uly 1, 1908 604— 969 1,000 366,000 4% *April 1, 1912 970- .103 1,000 134,000 414 April 2, 1913 1104- .428 1,000 325,000 m J uly 2, 1913 1429— .503 1,000 75,000 4 Vi Mar. 15, 1914 1504- .555 1,000 52.000 414 Mar. 15, 1914 1— 200 1,000 200,000 414 July 1, 1913 200- 300 1,000 100,000 414 Jan. 1, 1914 301— 32 1,000 25,000 414 •J uly 1, 1914 1— 7 1,000 7,000 8 July 1, 1891 1— 6 1,000 6,000 8 Aug. 1, 1891 82 83 1,000 500 | 1,500 10 July 30, 1892 1- 6 1,000 6,000 8 Aug. 1, 1892 84 200 85 300 | 1,500 10 Aug. 15, 1892 86 1,000 87 88 1,000 500 £ 1,500 10 Aug. 26, 1892 89 -90 91 1,000 500 | 2,500 10 Sept. 24, 1892 92 -96 1,000 5,000 10 Nov. 1. 1892 2.461.000 .. 1 * Or any time after April 1, 1902, at option of city. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 31 BONDED DEBT OE ST. PAUL. 32 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. These figure’s are official from comptroller’s report in each city, of date of April 30 and March 31 respectively. They show that the bonded debt of St. Paul is 27.17 per capita, and that of Minneapolis $19.05 per capita, a margin of $8.12 per capita in favor of Minneapolis. Since the above dates, Minneapolis has sold $400,000 in four and a half per cent, bonds at a premium of three per cent., and St. Paul has sold $800,000 of five per cent, bonds at a premium of 7.15 per cent., a difference in negotiation of 3.85 per cent, of premium in favor of the Minneapolis bond, as 1.03 for a 4J4 per cent, bond is exuivalent to 1.11 for a 5 per cent, bond running thirty years. These late sales may be taken as fairly indicative of the relative financial standing of cbe two cities, and it shows both to be very high with a small percentage in favor of Minneapolis, with much the larger population and much the smaller debt. Hennepin county has no bonded debt. Ramsey county has a bonded debt of $240,000. No debt can be created or bonds issued by the city of Minneapolis to a greater amount than five per cent, of the assessed valuation of the city, and the chatter prohibits the creation of a floating debt. There is no limit to the bonded debt of St. Paul. To the bonded debt statement of St. Paul should be added $240,000 of Ramsey county bonds and $300,000 of “City and County” bonds sold last spring for building a new court house and city hall, which are really chargeable almost, entirely to the city, as Ramsey county outside of St. Paul has but a few rural townships, whose proportion of the county tax is insignificant; also $800,000 bonds for water works extension, sewers, and the new bridge across the river at Robert sfreet; also an outstanding issue of about $300,000 of school bonds. Besides all the above, which should really be added to the bonded indebtedness of St. Paul, the city assumed a mortgage of $160,000 due by the old water works company, on which interest must be annually paid until maturity, when the mortgage must be paid. From the above it may be figured that the bonded debt of St. Paul, when it is all included, is nearly double that of Minneapolis. On the English theory, that a national debt is a national blessing, the debt of St. Paul is a good thing to have in the family; but on the New England pay-as-you-go theory, that a municipal debt is a burden to the tax-payer, the interest of which is to be reg- ularly paid, and the principal at maturity, the proportions of the municipal debt of St. Paul must be annoying when new loans are to be negotiated. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMP ABED. 33 THE ASSESSMENT AND TAX LEVY. When we take the assessment of the two cities as a criterion of size and business, we again find that the figures are against all of the St. Paul claims to equality, and that Minneapolis takes the lead in nearly every item. The fol- lowing table shows part of the detail items, in numbers and values, and are from the figures equalized by the State Board of Equalization of the personal property assessment of 1885 : Horses, mules and asses Cows Wagons and carriages. Sewing machines Watches and clocks .... Melodeons and organs . . Pianos Household furniture Gold and silver plate and plated ware Diamonds and jewelry Steamboats, sailing vessels, etc Goods and merchandise Manufacturers’ materials and manufactured articles Moneys Credits Bank Stock Stock and furniture of sample rooms Total personal assessment of Minneapolis .... Total personal assessment of St. Paul Difference — Minneapolis in excess of St. Paul Minneapolis. No. 7,686 1,987 7,031 4,609 5,553 942 1,945 VALUE. $1,491,137 27,885 38,020 10,657 3,054,554 1,940,132 391,485 1,901,229 4,690,300 137,900 St. Paul. No. 4,226 1,975 3,396 1,818 3,093 243 1,089 VALUE. $1,344,879 32,776 44,341 4,765 3,367,850 287,198 278,397 1,734,035 4,944,050 142,345 $15,990,316 14,290,946 1,699,370 PERSONAL ASSESSMENTS FOR THREE YEARS. Year. 1883. 1884. 1885. Minneapolis. $15,057,876 15,346,034 15,990,316 St. Paul. $11,954,518 13,883,428 14,290,946 In the real estate assessment, the difference is more marked. The follow- ing table shows: REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENTS FOR THREE YEARS. Year. Minneapolis. ' St. Paul. 1883 $44,544,715 $31,623,373 1884 60,209,343 46,579,735 1885 62.715,983 48,612,515 3 -34 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. TOTAL ASSESSMENTS FOR 1885. Minneapolis, real and personal $78,706,299 St. Paul, “ “ “ . . . ._ 62,903,461 Minneapolis over St. Paul $ 15 , 602,838 In selecting items we find that the hank stock of St. Paul is only assessed at $53,750 in excess of Minneapolis, while in money and credits St. Paul falls $113,088 behind Minneapolis. The assessment of manufactured articles in Minneapolis is over seven times as large as in St. Paul, while it is only about $313,000 behind that city in goods and merchandise. The detail tables will repay careful perusal ; and the totals speak i'or themselves. TAX LEYY OF 1885— MINNEAPOLIS. CO CO A 'S REMARKS. n 1 50 1 50 1 4 Board of Education. . 3 20 5 Interest Fund 2 ■t; Sinking Fund i Regular annual levy, as required by City Charter. I General Fund 4 90 % Park Fund 40 30 10 Permanent Improve- ( For city’s proportion of cost of sewers, pavements and j curbing, and for buildings for fire and police depart- ( ments, and miscellaneous improvements. ment Fund 2 20 1 1 4th, 5th 80 1st, 2d, 3d, 6th, !-For grading and cleaning streets, laying cross-walks, 7th, 8th 2.00 1 &c. Average ward 1 30 J Total 19 30 Assessed valuation, $ 77 , 500,000 About one-half of the total cost of constructing sewers is paid out of the Permanent Improvement Fund, and TOTAL LEVY. the balance is assessed upon abutting property, at an On $45,188,000 18 80 equal rate per front foot. On 82,342,000 20 For paving a street, each abutting lot is assessed for the actual cost of the work done opposite its front and to 19 30 the center of the street. The cost of paving street in- tersections is paid from the Permanent lmp’t Fund. The average rate of taxation for the ensuing year in Minneapolis is 19.30 mills; in St. Paul it is 19 mills, and would have been 19.97 mills, if an amount had been levied sufficient to meet the bonds falling due this year. A glance at the above table shows that there is a wide difference in the cost of running the municipal governments of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Under the head “ general fund ”, Minneapolis levies 4.90 mills, St. Paul 7.70 mills. The “general fund”, as is well understood, covers the expense of running ifcke police and fire departments, printing and advertising, salaries, election expenses, and incidentals generally. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 35 TAX LEVY OF 1885— ST. PAUL. REMARKS . 1 State 2 County 3 General School 1 Board of Education . . •5 Interest Fund 1 2 1 3 1 50 70 ’so’ 90 -6 Sinking Fund L In addition to $71,500 — interest on bonds issued for water works — which is paid from water revenue. Equal to 1 11-100 mills. No levy, St. Paul has no Sinking Fund on hand, and is consid- ering the feasibility of “funding” or renewing the bonds due next year, amounting to $62,540.* 7 General Fund 70 8 Park Fund 9 Library Fund 10 Per. Improveme’tF’d 11 Wards. 90 No separate levy — $ 6,000 included in General Fund levy. “ “ “ — 10,000 . “ “ “ “ — 30,000 “ “ ( For cleaning streets and sewers and laying cross-walks, ■j The cost of grading streets is assessed on property ( “benefited.” Total 19 Assessed valuation, $64,500.000 Total cost of sewers and pavements is assessed on prop- erty abutting or benefited . *This transaction is nothing more or less than a renewal of the paper of the city, an extension to avoid levying a tax this year to pay the matured debt. It reminds us of the famed financial policy of Mr. Wilkins Micawber. who when he had taken up an old note and substituted a new one exclaimed exu- berantly, “Thank God, that debt is paid ! ” The city charter of Minneapolis requires “ an annual levy of one mill on the ■dollar of the assessed valuation of all the taxable property” for a sinking fund to provide for the payment of city bonds as they become due. This fund now -amounts to $ 75,000, and a'l matured bonds have been paid. 36 A TALE OE TWO CITIES. MANUFACTURES. When we come to discuss the manufacturing facilities already in place, and the resources for more in Minneapolis, we touch the real source of wealth and growth of both cities. The water power of the Falls of St. Anthony, at Min- neapolis, is the basis both of the manufacturing and commercial interests of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Without it Minneapolis could not sustain her posi- tion as one of the most important manufacturing cities in the United States? and St. Paul and Minneapolis could not maintain their position in the whole- sale trade as against Chicago, New York, St. Louis and Kansas City an instant. The amount of merchandise distributed by Minneapolis and St. Paul together would not give these cities the influence in railway pools, the command of “through rates for the long haul.” which they now unquestionably enjoy, were it not for the amount of freight furnished the railroads by Minneapolis from her lumber and flouring mills. We reiterate to make plain the tact that the wholesale trade could be easily supplied from other points by railroad systems which might practically ignore St. Paul, if it were not, for the milling interests of Minneapolis. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the shippers of St. Paul have failed to secure low enough rates to enable them to compete with Chicago until th e millers of Minneapolis united with them in their demands, and with their offerings of millions of tons of return freight were in a position to dictate terms. The manufactures of Minneapolis are by no means confined to flour and lumber. There is a very extended list of other commodities, the fabrication of which are at home at the Falls of St. Anthony, and drawing force to turn their myriads of wheels from its water power. The vast iron foundries and machine shops, car wheel and agricultural implement factories, woolen and blanket mills, paper mills, planing and sash, door and blind mills, oil mills and paint works, boot and shoe and clothing factories, and an endless variety of other goods are turned out to swell the grand total of the manufacturing industries of Minneapolis. Ten thousand men support themselves and families in the various departments of manufacture, two thousand in iron and steel alone, ex- clusive of railroad work* with an annual product in these classes alone of $3,500,000. The following table shows the amount of manufactures other than wheat and flour for the last nine years : 1876 $3,776,000 1877 4,802,000 1878 5,696,000 1879 8,155,000 1880 10,333,000 1881 $14,872,000 1882 16,727,000 1883 24,002,000 1884 25,627,000 Minneapolis is the natural home for manufactures of every sort. There is no other place iu the West with which it may be compared in this respect. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 37 PADDING ST. PAUL MANUFACTURES. It is a well understood fact that the whole jobbing trade of the Northwest might be thrown into a single city, and it would not give employment to as many men as are engaged in the lumber business in Minneapolis. The statisti- cians of St. Paul realize the importance of a fact like this, and have, therefore, ever striven to swell the aggregate of manufactures of St. Paul to equal those of Minneapolis. For example, in the report of the Chamber of Commerce for 1884, the value of the product manufactures of all kinds is set down at over $26,000,000. Some of the items making up this startling total will repay examination. Five millions is the amount of the product of Contractors and Builders m St. Paul. Contractors and builders of houses have not usually been classified as manufac- turers in any other city in the country, and the houses they construct are never classed as manufactures. Four thousand one hundred and eleven men are claimed to be employedjin this branch of manufactures! Another item of marble and stone-cutting $800,000, is also called manufactures. The marble and stone- cutting in St. Paul is all included, without a doubt, in the construction of houses. “Contractors and builders,” as “manufacturers,” cover it, except the amount which goes to make up the manufacture of grave-stones in St. Paul. It cannot be that $800,000 worth of grave-stones are consumed annually by the citizens of St. Paul. It is not borne out by the mortality reports. The manufacturers of tin and hardware, stoves and plumbing are set down at over half a million, and this is also largely included in the “contractors’ aud builders’ manufactures.” Painting and glazing, $290,000, are included in the same; and all these items and many others of smaller importance ought to be thrown out when compared with the manufactures of Minneapolis, for the simple reason that they are not properly classified as manufactures, and for the other reason that they are all included in the footings of building statistics, and ought not to be duplicated. But the statistician of St. Paul is nothing if not a duplicator. In his reports of freight received and shipped at St. Paul, he includes without a blush all the lumber shipped through St. Paul from points beyond to Minneapolis, and which stops only iong enough in St. Paul to have the car numbers taken. As a further duplication, he counts into the St. Paul volume of business all the lumber and kindred commodities manufactured in Minneapolis and shipped through St. Paul. This stuff appears in his reports first, as receipts and shipments to St. Paul; and again as manufactures of St. Paul, and the third time, as “manufactures” of the •contractors and builders! But when the inquirer after the truth comes to look the territory over he fails to find, on the soil and territory of St. Paul, the factories which turn out this product so duplicated, and the men who furnish the brawn and muscle. The difficulty in reaching a comparative statement of the manufactures of St. Paul and Minneapolis is therefore quite apparent. Manufactures St. Paul doubtless has (the correct data of which are never collected), and they are im- portant; but how futile and foolish the effort to make Sfc. Paul appear as in any 38 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. sense a manufacturing city; and how unfair and hoggish the propensity contin- ually manifested, to claim the manufactures of Minneapolis as St. Paul’s as is so unblushingly done in the frequently published reports of her ‘statistics” of vari- ous kinds Let every tub stand on its own bottom. It is a fair statement to make of the manufactures of St. Paul, that they do not exceed ten millions per annum, with the number of employes at about 6,000, including those engaged in railway shops. This is a fine showing for St. Paul, and it is enough. It cannot be fairly shown to be more. THE FLOURING MILLS OF MINNEAPOLIS It is scarcely necessary to enlarge upon the mammoth proportions of the flour manufacturing business of Minneapolis other than to present the outlines of the astonishing figures. The colossal buildings, the perfection of machinery, the superiority of the product are world-famed. MILLING CAPACITY "OF MINNEAPOLIS. As informer seasons Minneapolis for the crop year just closed has shown a. considerable gain in milling capacity. Aside from the completion of the Pills- bury B, no new mills have been added to the list, but there are a number of in- stances where the mills have had their capacity augmented several hundred barrels by the addition of machinery. Notably among the latter are the Hum- boldt and Palisade mills. The Pillsbury B now starts up for the first time for regular work, and there is little doubt that it can very readily turn out 2,000 barrels daily. The Pillsbury A continues the wonder of the Falls. When about a year ago it made 6,000 barrels of flour, the belief prevailed that it had done its maximum work. But this seems to have been without justification, as for the week ending Sept. 12, it manufactured 40,050 barrels of flour, on two separate days turning out 7,000 barrels! Below will be found the mills, with their capacity in detail: 1884. 1885. ' NAME OF MILL. OPERATED BY BARRELS. * Anchor C. A. Pillsbury & Co Cataract D. R. Barber & Son Columbia Columbia Mill Co Crown Roller Christian Bros. & Co Dakota H. F. Brown & Co Excelsior D. Morrison Galaxy Cahill, Fletcher & Co Holly A. W. Krech Humboldt Hinkle, Greenleaf & Co Minneapolis Crocker, Fisk & Co jNational W. Clark & Co Northwestern Sidle, Fletcher, Holmes & Co 1,250 1,300 575 575 1,200 1,200 1,900 1,900 310 310 800 800 900 900 275 300 800 1,000 800 1,000 100 100 1,500 1,500 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPABED. 39 NAME OF MILL. OPEEATED BY *Palisade Washburn Mill Co *Pettit J. A. Christian & Co Pillsbury B C. A. Pillsbury & Co St. Anthony Morse & Sammis Standard D. Morrison & Co Union Morse & Sammis *Washburn A Washburn, Crosby & Co Washburn B “ “ “ * Washburn C “ “ “ Zenith Sidle, Fletcher, Holmes & Co *Pillsbury A C. A. Pillsbury & Co Phoenix Stamwitz & Schober 1884. 1885. BARBERS. 1,500 1,800 1,300 1,300 2,000 Too 500 1,500 1,500 300 300 3,500 3,600 1,000 1,000 2,000 2,200 800 800 6,200 7,000 275 275 Total capacity 29,335 33,160 OUTSIDE MILLS CONTEOLLED IN MINNEAPOLIS. MILL. OPEEATED BY Lincoln, Anoka Washburn Mill Co Townshend (2) Stillwater. . . .Florence Mill Co Stillwater, Stillwater “ “ “ Minnetonka, Minnetonka. .. .Jos. G. Dawee CAP. BBLS. 1885. 500 .... 550 500 500 Total 2,050 Grand total 35,210 *Wate r and steam power. tSteani power. ELEVATOR CAPACITY OF MINNEAPOLIS. There hare been three new elevators erected in the city during the year, and the gain in capacity has been 2,200,000 bushels. One, the Union, haa a capacity of 2,000,000 bushels, and besides being the most perfectly equipped, is said to be the largest elevator in the world. This gives Minneapolis eleven individual houses, distinct from several adjuncts to the mills, with a total storage, including that in the mills, ot 7,768,000 bushels. Next year gives promise of showing fully as great if not a larger gain in the local elevator capacity. The table below gives the storage of the city in detail : Elevator— Operated by— Oap’y. bus. *A1 Minneapolis Elevator Company 800,000 A2 Minneapolis Elevator Company 1,250, 000 *B and Warehouse C. M. St. P. & M. By 1,100,000 *C H. W. Pratt & Company 140,000 *D Van Dusen Elevator Company 600,000 *E Sowle Elevator Company 100,000 *Pillsbury C. A. Pillsbury & Company 425,000 *Lowry Street Bailway Company 130,000 Central Baker-Potter Elevator Company 300,000 *Union Minneapolis Union Elevator Company. 2,000,000 *Bagley & Cargill Bagley & Cargill 100,000 Total .... *Private elevators. 6,945.000 40 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. ELEVATOR CAPACITY IN THE MILLS. Bushels. Bushels. Anchor 7,500 Phoenix 20,000 Cataract 28,000 Pillsburv A 126,000 Columbia 70,000 Pillsbury B Crown Holler 75,000 Saint Anthony 8,000 Dakota 2,000 Standard 30,000 Excelsior 7,000 Union 4,000 Galaxy 60,000 Washburn A 110,000 Holly 2,500 Washburn B 65,000 Humboldt 25,000 Washburn C 65,000 Minneapolis 19,000 Zenith 20,000 Northwestern 35,000 Palisade 30,000 Total 823,000 Pettit 8,000 RECAPITULATION. Bushels. Elevator storage 6,945,000 Storage in mills 823,000 Grand total . . . . 7,768,000 MINNEAPOLIS COMPARED WITH CHICAGO AND DULUTH. The following figures show a comparison of the amount of receipts of wheat at Minneapolis during the last crop year as compared with Duluth and Chicago Saint Paul has no claim to be mentioned in this comparison : Duluth 16,600,000 bushels . Chicago 22,000,000 bushels. Minneapolis 32,000,000 bushels. It is now well known all over the world that Minneapolis, as a grain-receiv- ing point, is second only to one other in the United States, viz., New York City. DIRECT EXPORTS OF FLOUR TO EUROPE, The exports of flour by Minneapolis for a series of eight years are shown in the appended table : Barrels. 1878 109,133 1879 442,598 1880 769,442 1881 1,181,322 Barrels. 1881- 2 627,686 1882- 3 1,700,750 1883- 4 „ 1,785,450 188D5 2,055,488 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 41 The figures above given do not include the exports to Canada, which the past year amounted toover 66,000 barrels, making thetotal to all countries 2,121, - 000 b irrel-i. These figures include only the export of mills located in Minneap- olis, omitting those of the several mills operated from this city but located else- where. The showing is certainly very gratifying. During the crop year just closed the mills of C. A. Pillsbury & Co. turned out 1,730,000 barrels of flour, and the Washburn mills turned out 1,318,939 bar- rels ! These are the largest two milling firms in the world, and it will be borne in mind that they are both located at Minneapolis. THE FLOUR INDUSTRY OF ST. PAUL, The following table shows the capacity and output of flour of the mills of St. Paul during the last crop year — from September 1, 1884, to September 1, 1885. There is really but one first-class mill in St. Paul, namely, the St. Paul Roller Mills Company’s mill, which has a capacity of not over 750 barrels per day, although stated in the table below at 1,000 barrels. The others are simply feed and grist mills. St. Paul is exceeded in flour manufacture by North field, Dundas, Stillwater, Fergus Falls, Anoka, and half-a-dozen other cities of Minnesota The table for St. Paul, as furnished in that city, is as follows : Daily Annual No. Mill. Operated by. Capacity, Product, Barrels Barrels. Barrels. Exported. St. Paul Roller Mill — . . St. Paul Roller Mill Co. 1,000 265,000 400,000 l Thon & Hamm’s Mills . . . Thon & Hamm 100 25,000 St. Paul Mills . . Schaber & Wendt 50 10,000 Union Mills . . Wm. Lindeke 50 15,000 City Mills . . Hermann Teuber 50 15,000 Totals 1,250 330,000 *400,000 *It will be observed that the St. Paul Roller Mills exported more flour last year than was manufactured by all the mills of St. Paul combined ELEVATORS IN SAINT PAUL AND CAPACITY. Bushels. A 500,000 B 750,000 Transfer 500,000 1,750,000 Elevator A is on the line of the Milwaukee & St, Paul road, and practically inaccessible to the Minneapolis mills. It is, therefore, used for storage of coarse grains and a limited supply of wheat for the St. Paul Roller Mills. As an ele- vator and for elevator purposes, it has no particular reason for being, as it does not pay. 42 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Elevator B and the “Transfer” are both used exclusively by the mills and grain men of Minneapolis, the elevator facilities for Minneapolis proper being- inadequate for the vast bulk of wheat handled annually. The Transfer elevator has its offices at Minneapolis, and is wholly controlled in this city. It has no connection with St. Paul save that, together with a block of other Minneapolis capital, it was included in the city limits by an act of the Legislature. THE LUMBER PRODUCT OF MINNEAPOLIS. There are twenty-one lumber manufacturing mills in Minneapolis. The following table gives the cut of lumber in Minneapolis for the past sixteen years: Year. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. Feet. 118,233,100 117.157.500 167,918,820 180.970.000 191,305,680 156.665.000 200,371,250 129.676.400 130.274.400 149.151.500 195,452,200 230.403.800 312.230.800 278,716,480 300,724,373 310,813,410 4,170,998,163 The figures for the last two months of the lumber crop year, September and October (1885), have been estimated, basing the estimate on last years cut for the same period and the number of feet of logs now ir. the booms. THE LUMBER PRODUCT OP SAINT PAUL. There is but one mill in St. Paul, which cuts annually about 4,000,000 feet. COMPARISONS OF THE MIDI INC FACILITIES OF MIN- NEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL ARE ODIOUS. No comparisons ought in fairness to be made with the milling facilities of Minneapolis and St. Paul either of flour or lumber, and none would be made in this book, were it not for the fact that it is coolly claimed by St. Paul writers that the product of the brains, money and enterprise of Minneapolis is the product of St. Paul. It is well enough therefore to point out by comparison where this manufacturing is really carried on. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 4a Railway Systems of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A slight reference to the tables submitted at the conclusion of this article of the amount of raw material shipped into Minneapolis and shipped out as manufac- tured commodities, and the immense amount of tonnage handled at Minneapolis annually, must be a convincing argument to railway corporations that this is an important distributing center, and the most necessary point to reach for freights and long hauls in the long stretch of country from Chicago to the British pos- sessions or the Pacific coast. So far as freights are concerned, it is the pivotal point, so fixed by nature in the location of the renowned water power formed by the Falls of Saint Anthony at Minneapolis. The entire railway public, those who embark their investments in railway securities, have had these facts forced upon their attention by the matchless development of the city of Minneapolis within a very few years. Stockholders realize them fully; if the persons who- administer the details of railroads do not conform their plans to them, the way is left open for new enterprises that will improve the opportunity thus pre- sented. The tonnage handled at Minneapolis is at least five times as great as that at or incident to St. Paul. Why, then, should railroads make their termini at St. Paul, and content themselves with track and transfer facilities for Minneapolis upon lines already established here? Why should railroad shops and general offices converge at a mere way station between Minneapolis and Lake Superior or Lake Michigan ? One thing is certain. The shippers and business men in Minne- apolis understand the position of affairs. They know they hold the key to the situation. The railroads which come to Minneapolis and identily themselves with the men who are creating these great industries and directing the course of this immense bulk of freight will receive the business. Those who are con- tent to stop in St. Paul with their terminal appurtenances, and send a clerk to drum the city for business will certainly be ignored. Minneapolis stands in with her friends. We have the Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Omaha and Albert Lea and other through roads to choose from as to rates, and do not feel obliged to confer business on unfriendly corporations, so stupidly managed as to ignore Minneapolis. The Mahomets must come to the mountain. The following is a list of the railroads having terminal facilities in Minne- apolis, together with the mileage of each. 44 A TALE OE TWO CITIES. RAILROADS OPERATED BY THE COMPANIES CENTERING AT MINNEAPOLIS. Mileage. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 5,774 Chicago & Northwestern 5,645 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 3,036 Northern Pacific 2,537 St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba 1,467 Wisconsin Central 549 St. Paul & Duluth 208 Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic* 70 Minneapolis, Lyndale & Minnetonka ,, 22 Total 19,321 *This is a new outlet to the seaboard, via Sault Ste. Marie, organized in 1883, and now in construction. It brings Minneapolis 300 miles nearer Portland, 200 miles nearer Boston and 81 miles nearer New York than via Chicago. It places Minneapolis as near tidewater (at Montreal) as Chicago is at New York. It extends a distance of 475 miles from Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie; seventy miles are now com- pleted from Turtle Lake east. Seeking a connection with it from the east north of the great lakes is the great Canadian Pacific railway, with but an eighty-five mile gap to complete, the Grand Trunk with but 200 miles intervening, and several other chartered routes. Virtually the Sault Ste. Marie road changes the railway map of the Northwest by providing an entirely new and independent route to the seaboard, and it makes Minneapolis the objective point of a neiv railway system as important as that centering at Chicago. Thh country through which it is to pass is heavily timbered with limitless tracts of pine, hemlock and hard wood; it is exceedingly rich in minerals, and will connect with and build up an important lake port on the north shore of Lake Michigan available for the heaviest boats. Tbe terminal facilities of this road will be at Minneapolis. Ic was started by Hon. W. D. Washburn, of Minneapolis, and is controlled by Minneapolis capital. It has no outstanding bonds and no debt, and the portion already com- pleted shows a surplus above interest and operating expenses every month. The importance of this great iine can scarcely be realized at present or overstated. THE RAILROADS IN DETAIL. A more extended description of the railway systems centering in Minneapolis is found in a recent report of the Board of Trade. It is as follows: The first in- dication of a city’s permanent growth is its inclusion among the number of places with which one or more important railway lines communicate; and the final recog- nition of its established greatness is the concentration of railway systems to- wards it as a terminal point and a traffic producing center. In the present case MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PALL COMPAKED. 45 both these indications have been fulfilled. The reader is familiar with the present status of the companies whose iron roads traverse the country surrounding the city of Minneapolis. A glance at the- State map will show the position which Minneapolis occupies as the heart from which these great arteries of commerce diverge, and toward which their re- turning currents of trade tend. These diverging and constantly extending lines are the radius of the agricultural and commercial area which the city commands. Among those courses of travel come in the raw supplies which feed her manu- factories, and go out the finished products of her trade and industry. By virtue of her natural position, and by means of these great avenues, she has unchangeably become the depot for the collection of the agricultural re- sources of a practically unlimited area, or the medium through which they pass, as well as the main ultimate point ol distribution for the commodities which its rapidly increasing population demands. A hint is furnished by the fact, that one point of a compass being placed at Minneapolis and the other at New Or- leans, and the latter being swung around to the west and northwest, it will describe a line which does not reach the outer circle of fertile, growing country, lying beyond Minneapolis, which, by reason of her geographical situation and extensive railway system she must naturally and permanently control. Nine- teen distinct railways thus concentrate their trains and traffic at Minneapolis, either over their own independent roadways, or, by arrangement, over other stem lines entering the city. Sixteen of these reach Minneapolis over their own rails. The list is as follows: St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba: Main Line, St. Paul Short Line, St. Cloud and Fargo Line, Breckenridge Line, Lake Minnetonka Line. 1,314 miles long. Chicag'o, Milwaukee & St. Paul: Main Line, Fort Snelling Line St. Paul Short Line, Iowa & Minnesota Division, Hastings & Dakota Division. 4,383 miles. Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway: Main Line, Minnetonka Line. 399 miles. Chicag'o, Rock Island & Pacific: Over M. & St. L. R. R. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha: 1,257 miles. Chicago and Northwestern: Over Omaha Line. 3,489 miles. Northern Pacific Railroad: Main Line. 2,100 miles. St. Paul & Duluth Railroad: Main Line. Stillwater Line. Knife Falls Branch. Taylor’s Falls & Lake Superior Branch. 208 miles. Minneapolis, Lyndale & Minnetonka Railroad; 22mdes. These are operated by nine separate corporations. They send out from the citv over 100 passenger trains daily, and here originate more than 250,000 car loads of freight traffic yearly. Their recent rate of extension has been more rapid than that of railways traversing any other section of the country, and one of them has a greater mileage taan any other company in the United States. So closely are these corporations allied to the commercial and manufacturing interests of the city that it is worth while to speak briefly of each. 46 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. TIIE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL COMPANY. Although the name of Minneapolis is not incorporated in that of the com- pany, this city is its terminal point upon five divisions or lines. These are known as the Main Line, St. Paul Short Line, Fort Snelling Line, Iowa and Minnesota Division, and Hastings and Dakota Division. Its connections with the city have been further strengthened by the erection here of large car shops, at a cost of $500,000, which constitute the main plant for the company’s repairing and manufacturing west of the Mississippi; employing about 2,000 men. THE ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS & MANITOBA BAILWAY COMPANY. Although its general offices are in St. Paul, the entire railway system of this company really centers at Minneapolis, and is one of the most important factors in establishing the present and tutuie prosperity of the city. Its mileage in Minnesota is 968 miles, in Dakota 499, making a total of 1,467 miles. The road traverses by its main lines and branches the richest portion of central Minnesota, and the well known wheat fields of the Red River Valley, both in Minnesota and Dakota; also extending into the heart of the rich terri- tory known as the Devil’s Lake and Turtle Mountain region. THE MINNEAPOLIS & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY COMPANY. The road owned by this company is operated in conjunction with the Chicago & Rock Island Railway as a through line to Chicago. Its terminus, as well as its general offices and car shops, are in this city. This road has a line running nearly due west from Minneapolis to Water- town, Dakota, 228 miles. It runs through a rich and beautiful country, and will be one of the most important feeders to the city. CHICAGO, ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS & OMAHA RAILWAY. One of the most enterprising railroad lines in the Northwest is the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and in connection with the Chicago & North- western Railway, with which through connections are formed at all junction points, contributes greatly to the prosperity of Minneapolis. Radiating from this city these two lines, operated as one, bring into close communication all the country to the Southwest through to Pierre, Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City, Northeast extending thiough the great pine district of Northwest Wiscon- sin to Duluth, Ashland, Washburn and Bayfield, and eastward connecting’ Min- neapolis, St. Paul and Chicago, the three great cities of the Northwest. THE SAINT PAUL AND DULUTH RAILWAY COMPANY. The connection of this system with Minneapolis is very close, although its terminus is in Saint Paul. Recent changes indicate that a still closer relation with Minneapolis is to be cultivated. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY. The completion of this gigantic enterprise, now practically accomplished, marks a notable epoch in the railway history of the world, and not less in the MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 47 annals of this country’s material development and progress. The latest and greatest of the transcontinental lines has its western termini at Portland. Oregon, where it is met by the tide-water navigation of the Columbia River, and at New Tacoma, on Puget Sound, Washington Territory, where it reaches the water of the Pacific Ocean proper. On the east, one arm touches the head of Lake Superior, and thence follows the south shore eastward to the Michigan boundary, while the other and princi- pal arm has its terminus in Minneapolis, with running arrangements which carry its trains on to Saint Paul. This main southeastern arm extends down the east bank of the Mississippi River to Minneapolis, the crossing being made to the west bank over a substan- tial double-track iron bridge, now built, within the city limits, near Twenty-sixth avenue north. The company has purchased nearly one hundred and fifty acres of ground, for terminal purposes, within the city, and will expend several mil- lion dollars here in such buildings and improvements as will be adequate to han- dle fits immense traffic at this point. The construction of this highway opens and renders accessible to Minneapolis a fertile tributary country extending 1,200 miles north and west. Minneapolis as the first great city reached by the Northern Pacific Railroad in its progress from the Pacific Ocean, naturally and necessarily receives the chief impetus resulting from the great work, and enjoys a larger advantage than any other city from the trade this thoroughfare is developing. The fact that Minneapolis now is and will permanently continue to be the market for the bulk of the grain crop produced in the fertile belt traversed by the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the chief distributing and shipping point for those manufacturing commodities which are naturally sent in return to the peo- ple of the grain-producing region, renders the relations of this city to the road in question particularly intimate and important. MINNEAPOLIS, SAULT STE. MARIE AND ATLANTIC RAILWAY. This corporation, organized in 1883, by leading capitalists and business men •of Minneapolis, is engaged in building a railroad from Minneapolis northwest- wardly through Wisconsin and the northern peninsula of Michigan, to a cross- ing of the Ste. Marie River, which connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. At the river crossing,, which is the international boundary line, the road will con- meet with one or more lines leading thence to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Port- land, Boston, and other cities of the American seaboard. At Minneapolis the new company has formed an alliance with the Northern Pacific Company, whereby the track, bridges, passenger depots, and all the extensive terminal facilities of the Northern Pacific corporation will be jointly used by the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. and Atlantic Company. The importance of this enterprise to the northwest and its chief city, is suffi- ciently indicated by the following table of comparative distances to sea-board points by this and other routes : HA .LLtJS . Prom Minneapolis to New York, via Chicago 1,370 From Minneapolis to New York, via Sault Ste. Marie 1,288 In favor of latter 82 48 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. From Minneapolis to Boston via Chicago 1,458 From Minneapolis to Boston via Sanlt Ste. M 1,340 In favor of latter 118 From Minneapolis to Portland via Chicago 1,556 From Minneapolis to Portland via Sault Ste. M 1,300 In favor of latter 259 From Minneapolis to Montreal via Chicago 1,256 From Minneapolis to Montreal via Sault Ste. M 1,000 In favor of latter 256 In the matter of grain shipments from Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, Mon- tana and Manitoba, and the transit of flour from Minneapolis to the sea-board, it will worn a revolution and solve lor all time the question of cheap transit from the world’s greatest milling center to the world’s greatest markets. It will fix permanently the supremacy of Minneapolis’ greatest industry and enable her millers, while defying competition, to pay northwestern farmers so high a price for their hard wheat that it cannot go elsewhere until the demand at this point is supplied. It will render it feasible to enlarge the milling capacity at Minneapolis so as practically to mill in transit the entire surplus wheat crop of the new Northwest, no matter to what magnitude that crop may attain. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC. This company reaches Minneapolis by practically controlling the Minneapolis & St. Louis road. Through trains between Minneapolis and Chicago are run over this consolidated line known to the public as the “Albert Lea Route.” CHICAGO, DURLINGTON & QUINCY. This strong corporation has resolved to tap the trade of the Northwest, and is building a line from near Clinton, Iowa, to Minneapolis and St. Paul. THE MINNEAPOLIS, LYNDALE & MINNETONKA RAILWAY. This suburban road has been in operation four years, extending first to Lake Calhoun, later to Lake Harriet, and subsequently to Lake Minnetonka. Its further terminus is at Excelsior, a small town on the borders of the last men- tioned lake. THE MINNEAPOLS, MINNEHAHA & FORT SNELLING RAILWAY. This new line extends from the southern limits of the present tracks on Nic- ollet avenue to Thirty-fourth street, thence east to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and south on the west side to that latter company’s tracks, thence to Minnehaha Falls. Excursionists will appreciate the new link thus formed between the city, the Falls, and the Fort. When the early history of railroads as related to Minneapolis is cons : dered_ when it is remembered that prior to 1862 no railroad existed in the State, that MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARE!). 49 for two years subsequent to that date only ten miles of line were in operation, between St. Anthony and St. Paul, and that it was not until 1867 that a track first entered the Minneapolis proper of that period — this record of the present general determination of railway systems toward the city, becomes one of most remarkable import. It signifies — in common with the preceding facts of population, extending area, trade and manufacture — that not only has a great city developed from the nucleus of the water fall, but that fate with “the forefinger of all time” points to her as the present and permanent metropolis of “the new Northwest.” FREIGHT RECEIPTS AND SHIPMENTS AT MINNEAPOLIS. The following table is condensed from a showing of receipts and shipments of four varieties of grain at Minneapolis, recently published in a St. Paul paper* No report of like character has been printed for St. Paul, although there has been ample time to prepare it. The secretary of the St. Paul Board of Trade has no record apparently of the receipts and shipments of grains at St. Paul, and yet with what composure St. Paul claims to be a grain market ! RECEIPTS OF GRAINS FOR FOUR TEARS AT MINNEAPOLIS. 1881-2. 1882-3. 1883-4. 1884-5. Wheat, bushels 16,556,250 19,293,375 23,514,576 32,112,840 Corn, bushels 851,300 649,003 453,300 318,000 Oats, bushels 1,260,400 849,934 538,681 728,600 Barley, bushels 93,217 162,300 160,109 Totals 18,667,950 20,885,529 24,668,857 33,319,549 SHIPMENTS OF GRAIN FOR FOUR TEARS AT MINNEAPOLIS. 1881-2. 1882-3. 1883-4. 1884-5. Wheat, bushels 1,831,750 1,423,211 3,132,749 5,584,320 Corn, bushels 630,800 180,400 54,305 23,000 Oats, bushels 866,800 203,750 45,985 64,000 Barley, bushels 36,976 16,100 67,200 Totals 3,329,350 1,844,337 3,249,139 3 9.0 5 8,0 6 9 RECEIPTS AND SHIPMENTS FOR FOUR TEARS ADDED TOGETHER. 1881-2. 1882-3. 1893-4. 1884-5. Receipts 18,667,950 20,885,529 24,668,857 33,319,549 Shipments 3,329,350 1,844,337 3,249,139 5,738,520 Grand total 21,997,300 22,729,866 27,917,996 39,058,069 Think what railway trains must be required to handle the forty million bush- els of grain in Minneapolis in one year, or an amount of freight equal to the entire wheat crop of Minnesota! 50 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. The following is a statement showing the receipts at and shipments from Minneapolis September 1, 1884, to August 31, 1885, inclusive : Article. Wheat Corn Oats Barley Rye Flax seed Flour Millstuff Hay Lumber Machinery Merchandise Household and emigrant goods Cured and dressed meats Lime Cement Railroad iron and material Pig-iron Brick Coal Wood Stone and marble Hides and pelts Live stock Barrel stock Sundry articles Car lots Butter . . bushels . . . . bushels . . . bushels . . . bushels . . . bushels . . .bushels. . . . barrels . . .... tons . . .... tons . . feet . . \ pounds . . . pounds. . . pounds . . . pounds . . tons . . . . barrels . . .... tons . . . . . . tons. . M. . . . . . tons . . . . . cords . . . pounds . . .pounds. . . . .head. . . . . . cars . . . pounds . . pounds . . Receipts. 32,112,840 318.000 727,200 160,109 8,400 140,500 23,378 3,003 12,483 55.630.000 29,329,970 243,426,884 5,302,400 6,754,390 17,010 71,631 66,045 8,910 15.822.000 261,012 29,309 65.940.000 1,503,525 42.000 2,355 32.690.000 128,631 147,565 Sliipm’ts. 5,584,320 24.000 44.000 67,200 1,200 26.000 5,298,941 142,815 1 973 151.100.000 27,021,220 258,099,304 4,158,570 537,650 3,435 4,453 71,070 282 323,000 102,861 204 21.060.000 3,312,250 13,950 157 55,680,000 118,324 176,200 Statistics frequently become more pointed in effect when expressed in other than staid and solemn figures, From the above table we find the total of car- lots, receipts and shipments, is 246 955 cars. If we make a few simple illustra- tions the reader will be better prepared to comprehend the enormous amount of traffic represented by the figures, and more clearly see why nineteen lines of rail- road have come to Minneapolis either directly or indirectly after its cariying trade. If all of these cars were made up into trains of twenty cars each they would make 12,347 trains, requiting that number of engines to move them ; if cars and engines were continuously coupled together they would make a train 1,700 miles in length; or, if made up into four trains, each train would reach from Minneapolis to Chicago; or sufficient to completely fence in the State of Minnesota with freight cars, and build a fence across the middle of the State from north to south. Something of an idea of the enormous amount of flour manufactured by the mills of Minneapolis can be gathered if we estimate it at the rate of 250 loaves of bread to the barrel, which would give us the total of 1 ,5:10,000,000 loaves of bread or 25 loaves for each of the 60,000.000 people of the United States; or the pro- duct would give 1,500 loaves to each Mirmesotian, so that if he were compelled to “ live on bread alone,” be would have enough to keep him comfortably and a sur- plus with which to feed the people of Dakota and Nebraska. Again, if the flour in MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 51 barrels was piled up, one barrel on top of another, it would make a column 2,366 miles high, or if roped together would make a pontoon bridge from Boston to Queenstown. Placed end to end we would have a line of barrels reaching more than half way across the continent. MINNEAPOLIS THE HEAD OF NAVIGATION. Boats have frequently run to the foot of St. Anthony Falls when they could pass over Pig’s Eye Bar, just below St. Paul. Notwithstanding this fact Saint Paul has always boasted that she enjoyed the distinction of being the head of navigation. It is one of the things she has prided herself on being the head of But an assemblage of river men, interested in securing an appropriation from Congress for improvement of rivers and harbors in the west and northwest, came together in convention at Saint Paul this summer, and decapitated Saint Paul as to the headship in an obdurate and effective way. The men in that convention knew a river from a drive- well, and as soon as they glanced at the Mississippi at Minneapolis they said, by resolution, in the following language, that Minneapolis is, and, in the immortal phraseology of the declaration of independence, “ of right ought to be,” the head of navigation on the Mississippi River: Resolved, That the Mississippi River from the Falls of Saint Anthony to the Brulf of Mexico is a great and natural highway for the commerce of the west, and that the distance between the said falls and the mouth of the Ohio River being more than half the distance of the navigable waters of said river — Resolved, That sufficient appropriations should be made to give at least six feet of water in the Mississippi River from Cairo to the Falls of Saint Anthony at the earliest practicable day, and that we urge upon Congress that an immediate appropriation be made for the amount necessary to complete the said work; and we also favor continuing liberal appropriations by Congress for the improvement -of the Mississippi River from Cairo to the gulf. And Congress will doubtless provide early for the improvement of the river so as to admit the larger boats to the foot of the falls, as being the head of navi- gation of the Mississippi River. 52 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. HOTELS. THE HOTEL CAPACITY OF BOTH CITIES. Since the building' of the West Hotel in Minneapolis, it has been conceded in St. Paul that we have at least one good tavern. This is a concession worthy of note, as previous to the building of the West St. Paul insisted that Minneapolis could not accommodate the traveling public. Of course this was not true, as Minneapolis was then quite as well able to take care of a crowd as her neighbor. Minneapolis now exceeds St. Paul in hotel capacity, and several new hotel en- terprises on foot will give us a further advantage within a year. The list is as follows in both cities : MINNEAPOLIS. West Hotel Nicollet Windsor St. James Bellevue -. National Pau y St. Charles New St. Charles Sixth Avenue Wessex Central Avenue. Clark Albion Rooms. Accom. . . 450 1,200 . . 160 400 .. 57 145 . . 71 175 .. 23 60 . . 75 190 140 .. 26 65 . . 50 125 . . 50 125 40 100 . . 60 150 .. 65 165 . . 50 125 1,232 3,165 Besides the above, the hotels at Minnetonka for summer crowds are for all practical purposes an extension of the hotel facilities of Minneapolis, and usually receive the overflow from our crowded houses. The capacity of four principal hotels, the Lafayette, Lake Park, Hotel St. Louis, and Excelsior House is not less than seventeen hundred. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPAKED. 53 ST. PAUL. ifcuumt). Annul. Hotel Ryan 340 800 Merchants Hotel 225 500 Windsor Hotel 150 300 Clarendon Hotel 76 250 St. James Hotel 35 75 Inter Ocean Hotel ,, 22 60 International Hotel 73 150 Sherman House 84 150 Winslow House 25 60 Baugh’s European Hotel, formerly the Astoria 76 125 Commercial Hotel 25 70 Hotel Grand 27 60 St. Paul House. . : 23 60 1.181 2,660 THE WEST AND THE RYAN. Ch.is. W. West, a millionaire, of Cincinnati, built and equipped the palatial hotel in Minneapolis which bears his name. From acquaintance and business interests in Minneapolis, he knew as well as any man could the need of a first class hotel in the city. So the West Hotel was built as a business investment by a man who seldom made financial errors. Built solidly of stone and brick, this great hotel towers eight high stories above the pavement, fronting 196 feet on Fifth street and 174 feet on Hennepin avenue. Its interior finishings and furnishings are as complete and sumptuous as those of any hotel on the continent, while its rotunda stands alone’ as a marvel of size and beauty not excelled in the world. From the day it was opened it has proved the correctness of Mr. West’s judgment, for it is a hotel that pays as a hotel, and one that has no favors to ask nor old obligations to discharge. When Mr. West decided to erect his hotel in Minneapolis, the people of St. Paul immediately set to work to secure a duplicate hotel for that city. Capi- talist after capitalist fewas approached to build one that should “ scoop” the West. But no man with money would touch the enterprise. St. Paul already had sufficient of hotel room to accommodate its custom. But a big hotel must be had at any price. Public meetings were held, and finally $265,125 was sub- scribed and paid as a bonus, and Mr. Dennis Ryan accepted it and built a hotel tha cost $750,000, just one-half the amount that Mr. West had put into his hotel in Minneapolis as a business investment pure and simple. There is no comparison between the two houses. The Ryan is of light, airy architecture, with a gingerbread appearance internally, and a red plush and wall paper effect in decoration that shows in every wainscot and panel the doubt of the builder as to his ability to make it pay. The guests climb stair 54 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. ways after the style of the last century, and aie crowded into an office room that is not so roomy as that of the old Merchants Hotel. While the West Hotel made money from the start, the Ryan apparently did not. It demoralized the hotel business of St. Paul, while the West really bene- fited every other house in Minneapolis. Some of the Ryan stockholders owned the Metropolitan Hotel, and it was closed up and every effort made to transfer its custom to the Ryan. Low special rates were made to regular boarders, and the Ryan is now well filled with families, giving it the appearance of a high" toned boarding house. On the other hand, the West Hotel has not encouraged the boarding house feature, but has remained loyal to the great traveling pub- lic, adding new features and constantly improving its service for the travelers’ benefit, eyer striving to be at the head as a hotel, and as a consequence of that spirit ot enterprise and of being situated in the brightest, busiest and most en- terprising city in the country, it has been a financial success from its opening. It has not asked other first-class hotels to close their doors nor been an appli- cant for cheap business. The Ryan has done the one and been the other from the start, though much smaller and less costly than the West. The West of Minneapolis, the Palmer, the Grand Pacific of Chicago, the Palace of San Francisco, the Fifth Avenue of New York, and the Windsor of Montreal are the really great hotels of this continent, and the West belongs at the top. The Ryan does not belong in this list. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 55 WHOLESALE TRADE. A comparison of the wholesale trade of Minneapolis and St. Paul is favorable to the latter city, when the manufactures jobbed in Minneapolis directly from the nulls, such as lumber and flour, are separated from the jobbing exhibit. Both cities have an important wholesale interest; they command an empire of tributary territory, and they divide the honors of dominion. The wholesale trade of Minneapolis last year amounted to about $60,000,000, that of St. Paul to $75,000,000. In the St. Paul aggregate we think the items of “grain, flour, feed and commission,” “lumber,” “provisions,” and “miscellaneous,” are largely overstated in amount. These are stated as follows: Grain, flour, feed and commission $7,931,000 Lumber 3,714,000 Provisions and dressed meats 3,710,000 Miscellaneous 2,421,000 Four items $17,776,000 An even ten millions would doubtless cover these four items. The Pioneer Press graciously says the “straight” jobbing trade of Minneapolis for 1884 was $39,380,292, and the amount jobbed by manufacturers $33,767,120, making a total of $73,147,412. This is an unfair statement of the case; for if the pro- ducts of Minneapolis were included in goods “jobbed by manufacturers,” the figures would reach the enormous sum of $120,000,000, and how would the comparison with the St. Paul jobbing trade appear then? No, we would rather see the two cities weighed in the same balances. Strike from the St. Paul jobbing trade the manufactures of St. Paul, and the manufactures of Minneapolis cribbed by St Paul “duplicators;” and strike from the Minneapo- lis wholesale trade all the manufactures. While the showing on this fair basis would be favorable to St. Paul, it would also clearly prove that the jobbers of St. Paul do not handle fifteen millions more of merchandise than Minneapolis. The wholesale trade of Minneapolis is comparatively a new departure. Brad- street’s and Dun’s commercial agencies both show that about the same num- ber of new honses have opened in each city since January 1, 1885. It can no longer be truthfully said that St. Paul is a commercial and Minneapolis a man- ufacturing city; the exhibits of Minneapolis show that she is a manufacturing city in a large sense, and that her wholesale trade is making rapid strides to an equality with St. Paul, and has little more to do to equal her. Oh. yes, Min- neapolis is a wholesale and distributing center, and is bound to be the focus for this sort of thing as she already is for the flour and grain trade of the North- west. Minneapolis will require but three years more of growth to pass St. Paul as a wholesale point. 56 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. THE PARKS AND PARKWAYS. The rapidity with which great improvements develop in Minneapolis is seen nowhere more unmistakably than in the growth of her park sys- tem. The act of the legislature creating the board of Park Commissioners was not approved until February 27, 1883, and it was not until April 18th of the same year, that the board, after the acceptance of the act by the voters of the city, began the execution of the trust confided to it. The progress of the first year was necessarily confined to the designation and acquisition of park lands, and it was only last season that the commis- sioners, having obtained such lands as were considered desirable, could be- gin the active work of improvement. The general system adopted by the commission was that of a number of small parks for the enjoyment of the population in the vicinity of each, together with connecting drive-ways and a system of boulevards encircling the city and the beautiful chain of lakes in the western suburbs. With this plan before it the board has selected sightly and conveniently located tracts in various parts of the city for parks, and has also acquired and improved the right of way for several of the boulevards contemplated by the system. Of the parks there are three large ones on the west side of the river, and one on the cast ; there being one for each of the four divisions of the city. These parks are Prospect, located in the Third ward; Central, located in the Fourth; Riverside, located in the Sixth, and First Ward Park, on the east side. The other parks, now under the control of the commissioners, are Mur- phy Park, Franklin Steele Square, Hawthorne Park, Market Square, Elliot Park, and Oak Lake Park. These are all small tracts scattered about the thickly populated portions of the city, and all have been improved. At the opening of the present season the large parks had scarcely been touched. Such has been the progress made this summer, however, that Central Park is now a finished and artistic pleasure resort, and Riverside, Prospect, and First Ward parks have been transformed into attractive places where natural beauties require but little additional embellishment to make them complete. As for the boulevards, the magnificent drive around beautiful Lake Harriet has been almost graded, and the finishing touches have been put upon the Hennepin Avenue boulevard, which is designed to be the great pleasure thoroughfare from the business part of the city to the lakes. A qiarkway connecting the river and the lakes also seemed desirable, and the line of Thirty-fourth street from the MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMP ABED. 57 river to Bloomington Avenue lias been adopted. A boulevard along the east side of the river, from the University grounds to the Mil- waukee Short Line bridge, together with a park immediately be- low the new Washington Avenue Bridge, was contemplated in the sys- tem originally adopted. On account of the trouble in securing the land, the boulevard has been abandoned, but by some of the commissioners it is still thought that that portion of the proposed park below the bluff should be laid out. It is almost opposite Riverside Park, and would form an auxiliary to it. It is capable of being greatly beautified, but if unim- proved for park purposes, it is, from its location, likely to be built up with an inferior class of buildings that would detract from the otherwise agreeable surroundings of Riverside Park. The only boulevard at present established on the east side is that donated by Mr. James Stinson, and known as the Stinson Boulevard. The right of way is two hundred feet in width, extending from Division street along the east side of the city, to the Minneapolis and Duluth road. The board has appropriated $5,000 for the improvement of the driveway. The construction of the Harriet boulevard will soon be followed by a series of drive ways, embracing Calhoun, Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake. The Calhoun boulevard will extend from the foot of Lake street around the northern, western and southern shores of the lake, skirting Lakewood cemetery on the west, and turning into the boulevard from the river at the foot of Thirty-sixth street. This completed, the next step will be to connect the Calhoun and Harriet drive-way by a grand boule- vard, 200 feet in width. Another drive is from the intersection of Hennepin avenue and the Thirty-sixth street boulevard to Harriet, circling the cemetery grounds. This roadway will rim through a very picturesque stretch of land. To utilize the attractive country north of the Lake of the Isles, a boulevard is proposed along Mount Curve avenue, thence southeasterly to Cedar lake and from there south along the shore of the Lake of the Isles, connecting finally with the Calhoun boulevard. To finish the magnificent system of boulevards which the construction of these various drives would produce, it will be only neces- sary to connect Riverside park and Minnehaha by a roadway along the banks of the river. Such is the arrangement of parkways which mem- bers of the park commission have in view in the prosecution of the work. In the two years since they began their labors they have, without signifi- cant cost, prepared the way for several of the most desirable driveways proposed, and the unexpected benefits that have followed the completion of those already undertaken give assurance that the greater part of the system contemplated will soon become reality. The improvements made in the parks and boulevards already acquired are so great that they can best be appreciated if reviewed separately. CENTRAL PARK. Central park is the most pretentious park improvement yet made by the commission. From ts location and accessibility it has 58 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. become the most popular park resort of the city. It contains over thirty acres, bounded northerly by Harmon place, easterly by Fifteenth street south and Place’s addition, southerly by the Sixteenth street extended, and westerly by Henpepin avenue. It embraces Johnson’s lake, which is fed by unfailing streams of pure water. The surrounding area is level, and on the north and east side there is an undulating declivity, covered by a fine growth of trees and a rich heavy sward which fit it peculiarly for park uses. The chief expenditure of the board last year was directed to the adornment of this park. An artificial arm of the lake was projected toward Hennepin avenue and the margins of the natural lake were excavated and deepened. The walks have all been graded and graveled and hundreds of trees have been planted along the boundaries and paths in the central portion. The abut- ments are in place for a bridge across the channel connecting the two arms of the lake. Numbers of benches have been placed in the park this summer, and have added greatly to the comfort of the many visitors. Another year, when boating has been provided, and a stand has been erected for music, the present popularity of the park will be still more enhanced. The remainder of Place’s addition will be included in the park, thus extending it on the east to Willow street, adding to its symmetry, and making a drive around the entire park. This plan has also been adopted with those portions of Harmon jjlace and Fifteenth street adjacent to the park which Pave been graded, and the sidewalks along the boundaries widened by adding a strip of ten feet from the park. RIVERSIDE PARK. The most important acquisition made by the commissioners last year was that of the Sixth ward or Riverside park. This tract is, by nature, highly suited to park purposes. It extends along the Mississippi, being bounded on the east by Twenty-ninth avenue south, from Eighth street to the river, if extended; on the south by Eighth street south between Twenty-seventh and Twenty -ninth avenues, and by Sixth street south, from Twenty-seventh avenue to the grounds of the Sisters of Mercy hospital, and on the west by Twenty-seventh avenue south between Sixth and Eighth streets, and by the hospital grounds. In general it may be described as an L shaped piece of ground, containing nearly twenty acres. Of these some five acres are bottom land, covered with a magnificent growth of ash, elm, butternut, and sugar maple. This is separated from the remainder of the tract by a bluff, and beyond this the ground slopes upward to the level of the city, and is dotted with native burr and black oak trees. The picturesqueness and beauty of this location has always made it a favorite resort and the hand of the land- scape architect has found but little work to convert it into an ideal park. The scenery afforded by the river and bluffs is nowhere else along the interurban stretch more animating or more varied. In the adorn- ment of the park the aim has been to preserve its pristine beauty, which must always furnish a refreshing contrast to the monotony of MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMP APED. 59 the city streets. The wooded slopes and sparkling springs have been allowed to retain their natural character. Seclusion is secured by the planting of groups of trees and shrubbery along the boundaries. With this supplement to what nature has already done, scarcely any other tree planting will be required. This summer the upland portion of the park has been graded and the drives have been macadamized, and another year will see all of this class of work finished. The driveways are not numerous, since it has been deemed best to provide rather for the comfort of pedestrians, with whom the park will always be a favor- ite. The single carriageway or drive which extends through its greatest length commands all the attractive sights among the surroundings, and is a pleasant drive. The park is a source of both pride and pleasure to the residents of the Sixth ward, and the people of the entire city. MUBFHY PARK. This park, which is also in the Sixth ward, comprises one block of land between the intersection of Eighth street, between Twenty-second and Twenty-third avenues south. ' It was dedicated to the public use as a park by the late Edward Murphy, and contains about three acres. This year it has been seeded and trees have been set on the outside. The park is immediately below Augsburg seminary. ELLIOT PAEK. This beautiful park had its origin in the donation by Dr. Jacob S. Elliot of the valuable block in the Fifth ward, bounded by Ninth and Tenth avenues south and Ninth and Tenth streets south, which had been known as Elliot’s gardens. Subsequently the board had purchased the fractional block on the north, thus extending the northerly limits of the park to Eighth street south, and increasing its area to four acres. A small lake has been created in the center of the park, and a graceful arrangement of walks produced. The lawns have been sown and trees planted around its exterior. The appearance of the park is very pleas- ing, and its walks , are frequented every pleasant day by large numbers of people living in the neighborhood. PRANKLIN STEELE SQTJAEE. In one of the most desirable localities of the Fifth ward, between Portland and Fifth avenues south and Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets, lies Franklin Steele square, which had been donated to the city by Mary C. Morrison, Catherine B. Steele and Caroline H. Addison, daughters of the late Franklin Steele, prior to the creation of the park board. It is a pretty spot and has been surrounded by a sidewalk of asbestine stonOj eight feet in width. The grounds have been well cared for, and are more mature in appearance than the other parks. During the summer months they are enjoyed by hundreds of people. 60 A TALE OP TWO CITIES. PIBST WABD PABK. It has been the wise policy of the park commission to extend its system to all portions of the city, irrespective of the superior adapt- ability of one section to another. In accordance with this spirit the First Ward park was laid out. It consists of eleven acres in a well- populated district and is bounded by Thirteenth avenue north, Monroe street, Broadway and Jefferson streets. There are no natural aids to the landscape gardener in the embellishment of its surface, but the im- provements that have been made transform it into a beautiful spot. The park has been graded, platted, and seeded, and walks have been laid out. The trees and grass are flourishing, and already the square is assuming an air of attractiveness. HAWTHOENE PABK. Hawthorne Park was one of the small tracts in the possession of the city previous to the establishment of the board. It is a triangular piece of land in thp Fourth Ward, bounded by Linden and Hawthorne avenues and Thirteenth avenue north. It has been adequately improved since coming under the control of the commissioners, and has been provided with benches, which are always occupied during the pleasant days of summer. Open air concerts, attended by thousands of people are maintained in Hawthorne Park during the summer. PBOSPECT PABK. Prospect Park, like Riverside, is rich in the possession of natural advantages. It lies between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-ninth avenues north, and Lyndale and Fourth streets, in one of the most eligible loca- tions in the Third ward. Rising in the center is a stately eminence that commands a view of the entire City as well as the course of the Missis- sippi River for miles. The long stretch of country across the stream presents a pretty spectacle as seen from the hill. The contour of the park is rolling, and it is diversified with groves and lawns of much natural beauty. All the driveways, which center at the summit of the hill, are finished. The surface is seeded and additional attractions are to be created, among which will be a lake in the northwestern part. OAK LAKE PABK. This is a charming little triangular piece of land in Oak Lake ad- dition, recently donated to the city. The commission has appropriated money for tree planting and has increased the attractiveness of the place in other ways. THE LAKE HABEIET BOULEVABD AND PABK. While the progress in the parks this season has been in a high degree satisfactory, it is in the matter of boulevards that the com- missioners have attained the greatest results. The Lake Harriet boulevard, which is now entirely graded gives Minneapolis a drive- MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 61 •way, finer than that possessed by any other city in the country. The right of way through the lands around the shore of the lake to an average width of 125 feet was donated by the owners of the property, with the exception of about eighty rods, through which it is believed, a public highway already exists. The roadway proper is forty feet in width, and between it and the shore of the lake there is a walk, on each side of which there is a strip of grass ten feet wide sown. Trees will be planted in the middle of each strip of grass, so as to completely shade the walk, and also, at certain times of the day, the driveway. On the outside of the driveway, for most of the distance around the lake there is a slight bluff, thickly wooded. The trees around the boulevard will be planted next spring. The drive will far surpass in beauty and attractiveness that along the lake shore of Lincoln park, Chicago, and time is all that is needed to make it comparable to the celebrated boulevards of European countries. The Lake Harriet boulevard and Park, including the lake, comprises over seven hundred acres. HENNEPIN AVENUE BOULEVAKD. The Hennepin avenue boulevard, which extends from Lyndale avenue to Lake street, was constructed because Hennepin is consid- ered one of the chief avenues for pleasure driving from the heart of the city to the lakes. The avenue was originally sixty-six feet wide along the course of the boulevard and wa widened to eighty-eight feet by a strip of eleven feet of land to each side. The grading was commenced last fall and the work is now completed It is already a beautiful drive. The roadway is forty-four feet in width and on either side is a wide stretch of turf with a walk in the middle. Trees have been planted on each side of the walk after the manner of the Lake Harriet boulevard. Of 1,700 trees that were planted along the driveway, all but three are now growing finely, and those three were struck by lightning. The benefits of the boulevard are already apparent. The drive has become more popular than ever, while property along the whole length of the boulevard has almost doubled in value as a consequence of the improvement. EINANCIAL STATEMENT. The following exhibit shows the financial condition of our Park Sys- tem, and the extent to which expenditures have been undertaken and authorized. It also shows the amount expended on each park; Cost of various parks — Central Park $217,601.78 First Ward Park 61,134.11 Prospect Park .* 36,103 . 27 Riverside Park 61,153 . 64 Elliott Park 26,177.23 Hennepin Avenue Boulevard 26,875.17 East Side Boulevard 1,909.89 62 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Hawthorne Park 2,933.11 Franklin Steele Square 2,341.89 Murphy Park 1,498.94 Lyndale Park ... : 352 . 96 Resources — Bonds authorized but not issued $230,500.00 Cash 5,093 . 74 Park assessment, due in September 5,853.97 Park tax due in September 4,338.27 Total $245,785 . 98 Future Resources — Park assessment due September 1 $21,622.58 Park tax, if levied as last year 52,431.68 Park assessments to become due 243,783.29 Park assessments to be made 53,307.61 Liabilities itemized 368,511.28 ST. PAUL PARKS. In the matter of Parks and Parkways, St. Paul cannot be compared with Minneapolis. The city has no commission, nor has it authority to expend money systematically for parks. Through the enterprise of a very few of its citizens it has secured 27 small squares which are devoted to park purposes, but only six of these are improved, and that by private subscription, at a cost of $42,500. The city purchased 256.55 acres and created Como Park, which has cost $100,000 and is in a chaotic condition. The city has no plan of boulevards or parks except on paper, and all attempts to create these breathing places for tired humanity are strongly opposed by the property owners of the city. Rice, Smith, and Irvine parks, consisting of one square each, are the only open places that can be digni- fied by the name of parks. It is cruel to make a comparison between the Park system of St. Paul, and the magnificent parks and boulevards of Minneapolis. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMP APED. 63 THE MORTALITY RATE. To show the comparative healthfulness of the two cities we have secured the monthly reports of the health officers of Minneapolis and St .Paul for the twelve months from March 1st, 1884, to March 1st, 1885. They show that the much- vaunted claim of St. Paul, that it is the “healthiest city in the world,” is not borne out by the records when compared with Minneapolis. The following table shows the rate each month of the number of deaths in a thousand: March, 1884 April, 1884 May, 18S4 June, 1884 July, 1884 August, 1884 September, 1884 October, 1884 November, 1884 December, 1884 January, 1885 February, 1885 Average rate per annum. Minneapolis St. Paul Minneapolis. St. Paul. . .. 7.38 11.28 . .. 7.38 9.00 . .. 11.16 15.48 ... 9.78 14.40 . .. 24.73 29.88 . .. 19.37 21.24 . .. 16.05 16. OS . . . 12.27 12.36 . .. 8.21 12.96 . . . 10.42 11.04 ... 9.04 10.56 . . . 10.88 10.92 :S 12 22 . ... 14.60 The rule of civilization is that the larger the city the greater the necessary precautions to secure good health, and when cities succeed in obtaining sanitary conditions such as are shown by both of these cities they at once become par- ticularly desirable as business and residence localities. With a population 18,000 in excess of Saint Paul, Minneapolis shows a death rate 15 per cent, less, which certainly is conclusive as to the relative drainage, water supply, and sanitary in- spection of each. The figures dispose of the St. Paul claim to being the healthier city, and once more Minneapolis steps in and occupies her rightful place as hav- ing more and better sanitary improvements, and as showing a lower death rate than any city in the world of 100,000 or more people. For the purpose of further comparison we have made up another table, which shows the number of deaths in each city from September 1, 1884, to August 31, 1885, inclusive, and from which we deduce percentages independent of the figures of either health officer. 64 A TALE OE TWO CITIES. The following table shows the total deaths reported by months, the basis of the calculation is 130,000 population for Minneapolis and 112,000 for Saint Paul. September, 1884 . . . October, 1884 November, 1884 . . . December, 1884 . . . January, 1885 February, 1885 March, 1885 April, 1885 May, 1885 June, 1885 July, 1885 August, 1885 Total deaths Minneapolis. Saint ! 167 134 124 103 89 108 113 92 98 88 119 91 95 94 100 77 106 90 76 76 167 188 160 143 1,414 1,286 Average rates — Minneapolis, 10.87 ; Saint Paul, 11.49, a difference of over 5 per cent, in favor of Minneapolis. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPAIiED. 65 THE WATER SUPPLY AND RATES. The Minneapolis water supply is taken from the Mississippi by pumps and forced through the city, the total amount of mains in use at the date of January 1, 1885, being 41 miles, and the number of hydrants 485. The entire cost of the water works has been $893,474.56. The capacity of the pumping machinery is 40,000.000 gallons per diem, and the actual supply f or the past year has been over 7,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. The St. Paul water is obtained from Lake Yadnais, nine miles from the city and is principally distributed by gravity, through 44J4 miles of mains, about five miles of which are used in bringing the water to the city limits. The capacity of the main conduit is 30,000,000 per diem. The rumping works have a capacity of 3,500,000 gallons, and furni h actual service of about 1,000,000 gallons. The gravi y service supplies about 3,000,000 gallons per diem, making the total supply about 4,000,000 each twenty-four hours. The total number of hydrants in place is 315. The works have cost up to January 1, 1835, $1,272,000. This includes the cost of a plant formerly owned by a private corporation which furnished water to the city. Minneapolis has seven pumps. The power for the Minneapolis water works is furnished by the water power of St. Anthony Falls operating seven Turbine water wheels, the finest pumping system on the conti- nent That of St. Paul is furnished by steam. There are two pumping engines. Minneapolis actually uses three million gallons more of water every twenty-four hours than St. Paul. COMPARISON OF WATER RATES. A recent article printed in a St. Paul paper makes a comparison between the water works system and rates in that city and Minneapolis. Appended is a condensation of its principal points; “The following carefully prepared table will show the comparative rates of eleven principal cities on the various items for which charges are specified : COMPARATIVE TABLE OF RATES. 66 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. o CM I CO \w CO I IO CM rH d Ct! rO <1 c3 pp a Q d d .2 o d O ■4-3 o d CtS M © © dfj d £ rd o$ d ct: O Pd kH o Ph o hp 02 rd o Ph Pd ■4-i 02 at CM o o o o o o o o o IO <3 rH o o o o IO o o o o ,tH o CO co’ 00 io CO CO CO IO o CM rH rH CM rH 1 — 1 r-H rH rH rH tH r-H 1 — 1 rH rH bfl | 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 d o o o o o o o o o IO o GO o o o o o o o o o I- o - © o I O rH o rH o CM GO 00 cd o' 1 — 1 1 — 1 i — i tH H rH rH p; 1 00 1 CM 1 o 1 00 ! GO 1 GO 1 o 1 IO 1 tH 1 CO 1 o 1 GO m i — i r — rH m o o o o o o o o CM io o o o o o o o © S-? e CO rp CO CO CM CM 00 CO CM CO CO P-102 m * m o o o o o c o O' o tH o o o o o c_ o o o tH CO rH CO rH CO CO CM CO cd CM i 1 1 1 I 1 "5 w o o o o o o c o o o o IO - o o o o o o c o o IO o © CO IO CM CO IO CO IO rH id CM rH rH m r — , o o o o o o o o o o tH ^ 1 — 1 o o o o o o o o o o o CM S CO CO CO CO o IO IO rH id CO cd rH m rH m © fc£ d © < ♦Charge for entire stable — not per head. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 67 “In this table, under the head of baths and water closets, the figures of the second column represent the charge for each additional bath or closet after the first. Under livery stables, the second figure is the charge for every head of stock after the first thirty. Under dwellings, the first figure is the charge for a six or seven room house; the second for a seven to ten, and the third for larger houses. Under meters, the first figure is the charge per 1,000 cubic feet, and the second the lowest charge where large quantities are used. It will be noticed that Minneapolis rates are considerably lower than those of any other city on the list. For dwelling houses St. Paul charges considerably more than Minneapolis, Rochester or St. Louis, a trifle more than Albany, Cincinnati or Milwaukee; a trifle less than Buffalo or Portland, Me., and about the same as Chicago and Kansas City. It will be seen by the table that St. Paul rates are higher than the average of these cities on steam engines, water closets, dwellings and meters, and below the average on yard sprinklers, baths, livery stables and saloons. Taking the places where most water is used, St. Paul rates are above the average. St. .Paul charges $6 for a private stable without taking into account the number of •horses. Other cities charge per horse. THE TWO CITIES COMPARED. “Taking a nine-room dwelling, the charges in St. Paul are more than half as high again as in Minneapolis, as the following table shows: Dwelling. Bath. Closet. Basin. Total. St. Paul $ 11 00 $4 09 $5 00 $20 00 Minneapolis 4 00 2 50 3 00 $3 00 12 50 POINTS OF DIFFERENCE. “Another great difference in the methods of the two cities is the manner of paying tor their mains. All the work in St. Paul is done by the board, raising mont'y by the issuance of bonds. Minneapolis has laid all her mains by assess- ing the full cost on the fronting propeity. For example, last year Minneapolis charged $1.35 per foot on all streets where mains were laid, so that every owner on either side of the street paid 67% cents per front foot. By this tax about $92,000 was collected — more than enough to pay for the full cost of laying the mains. This year the assessment < as been reduced to $1.25, or 62% cents on either side of the street. The only charge in any manner approaching this in St. Paul is the frontage tax of 10 cents per foot — not charged the first year. With all these explanations, the plain fact remains that water rates in St. Paul are considerably higher than in Minneapolis, and above the average of the cities the rates in which are shown above. * * ****** “The cost of laying mains m St. Paul has been considerably more than in Min- neapolis on account of the ground formation in the latter city. Moreover, the water is drawn directly from the river, and most of their expenditure has been on paying mains. There is the great point of difference between the two cities, and the true explanation of the high rates in the capital city. In St.- Paul half of the mains are outside of the city — supply pipes bringing the water from the lakes— and consequently pay no revenue. Of the seventeen odd hundred thou- sands expended, about $750,000 has been spent at the lakes and between the lakes and the city. From this, of course, there is no direct return. Each year the mains will be extended throughout the city and the number of consumers increased. Each year, the board promise, rates will be correspondingly low- ered, and before the end of 1837 they claim that St. Paul rates will compare favorably with those of any city in the country.’' 68 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. NEW WATER RATES OF ST. PAUL COMPARED. Since commencing the compilation of this work the city of St. Paul has made a reduction of its water rates, and we give most of the new rate items in comparison with similar items in the Minneapolis rate adopted in the spring of 1884 and still in force. On meter rates a reduction of 20 per cent was made June 1st, 1885, and the rate given in the table is from 10 to 20 per cent below the June rate, and yet the meter rate in St, Paul is from 50 to 380 per cent greater than in Minneapolis. The rates for private houses, hotels, shops, etc., are largely in excess of the Minneapolis. In Minneapolis schools and charitable institutions are furnished with water free of charge, while the contrary is true of St Paul, which even charges her school children 5 cents each for the priv- ilege of water in the school houses. Fountains are taxed for a five months* term from 250 to 800 per cent more than they are in Minneapolis. And yet the usual cheeky claim is made by St. Paul that its water rates are low in comparison with any city of the same class. The appended table disposes of 0 the claim in a way that cannot be disputed: cc WATER RATES p - tn CD : p : ^ Building purposes — Raying stone, per perch 02 on 05 Raying brick, per M 10 Plastering, per 100 yards 50 20 Beer pumps if 25 00 4 00 if 20 00 Bakeries — Each bbl. flour daily 4 00 Horse power boilers 10 00 Blacksmith shops — First fire 5 00 3 00 Each additional fire 3 00 2 00 Each additional band 50 Banks, each 6 00 10 00 Baths — Private house, 1 bath 3 00 2 50 Private house, each additional 2 00 2 50 Hotels and boarding houses 6 00 8 00 Public 8 00 8 00 And for each additional tub 8 00 4 00 5 00 4 00 Each additional chair 3 00 2 00 EarVh wash basin 1 00 Boarding houses dw’l’ng rts 1 00 8 00 Each room 25 5 00 Each additional 50 25 5 00 Carriage Shops— 5 persons or less . . 5 00 5 00 Ea.eh additional .. 50 More than 5 and less than 10 10 00 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 69 WATER RATES. St. Paul . . Minneap- olis .... More than 10 15 00 For each fire, blacksmith rates in Minneapolis .... Churches 6 00 5 ‘00 Dentists’ offices 5 00 6 00 Dye works ( 15 00 i to Meter Rates. Dwelling's — Four rooms ( 50 00 5 00 Five rooms 6 00 3 00 Each additional room 50 25 Each additional family 5 00 Fountains — 5 mos. in St. Paul, 6 mos. in Minneapolis — One-sixteenth inch nozzle 10 00 3 00 One-eighth inch nozzle 20 00 8 00 Three-sixteenth inch nozzle 40 00 One-fourth inch nozzle 60 00 25 00 One half inch nozzle 120 00 Laundries 15 00 Not over 10 persons 15 00 Mark pit, TTmisp — FarVh stall .... 5 00 Frpp. Offices and sleeping rooms — First 3 00 2 00 Second room 2 00 1 00 Each additional 1 00 1 00 Printing offices 10 00 Five persons or less 3 00 Each additional 25 Photo galleries ( $ 15 00 \ to $ 15 00 15 00 Restaurants ( 25 00 15 00 Stables — Private, each cow or horse 2 00 1 00 Livery 20 00 Livery, each stall 2 00 1 00 Steam engines — Each horse power, up to 10 4 00 4 00 Each additional horse power 4 00 2 00 School houses — Per scholar 05 Free. Stores — (Except liquor and drug) 5 00 Twenty-five feet wide and 1 story 6 00 Each additional story 2 00 Each additional ten feet in width 2 00 Stores — Liquor. . . . ( 10 00 4 to 25 00 Drug ( 20 00 ( 10 00 to 7 00 Saloons — Liquors alone ( 20 00 12 00 15 00 With restaurant ( 15 00 ■] to 25 00 Tenements — Each family ( 50 00 5 00 3 00 Urinals — In houses, stores and offices 3 00 2 50 70 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. WATER RATES. St. Paul. . g o B tip Ui © • 03 ; h o In barber shops, salotms, hotels, etc 5 00 5 00' Vegetable fountains 5 00 8 00 Water closets — Private 4 00 3 00 Each additional 3 00 3 00 Stores, banks, etc Barber shops, hotels, etc 4 00 | 10 00 6 00 Wash bowls — Each 1 50 1 00 Meter rates for monthly consumption of 10,000 gal- lons or less 40 20 From 10,000 to 30,000 38 10 From 30,000 to 50,000 - 35 10 From 50,000 to 100,000 33 10 From 100,000 to 150,000 30 10 From 150,000 to 200,000 28 10 From 200,000 to 250,000 25 10 From 250,000 to 300,000 23 10 From 300,000 to 400,000 20 10 From 400,000 to 500,000 18 10 Over 500,000 15 10 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 71 OUR WATERING PLACES. THE MINNEAPOLIS SUMMER RESORTS. Minneapolis is surrounded in nearly all directions by lakes, Hennepin county con- taining over eighty within its limits. While many of these are small, a goodly number exceed a mile in length, and nearly all of them have well wooded shores. The Big Woods, a body of heavily timbered forest, stretching across the state for a distance of 85 miles, covers nearly all the northwestern portion of the county, and the numerous lakes embosomed in the forest are delightful resorts during the summer, and many have summer residences on their banks. Within the city limits, and forming its southwestern boundary, are Lake Cal- houn, Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake, three of which are over a mile in length, and are visited by thousands of people during the summer months. Hotels are located at Calhoun and Harriet, which are accessible by motor trains hourly. Many cottages are owned by private families, and many are kept for rent. There are many private camping places, and at one time this season the writer counted fifty tents on the banks of Lake Harriet, visible from a single point. This number did not cover more than one-fourth of the tents located around the lake at that time. On Sundays it was many times difficult for the motor line, with half hourly trains, to convey the crowds who visited these lakes and Minnetonka. Of the fine lakes which are visited by crowds of people besides those named above are Crystal, Medicine and Christmas lakes, and LAKE MINNETONKA. There is no other lake in the country that presents so many inviting features for a pleasant summer resort as Minnetonka. It lies twelve miles in a south- westerly direction from the city, and besides being easily reached over fine car- riage roads, has three railways leading to it from Minneapolis, over which about twenty regular trains are run each way daily during the summer season, and one of them has run its southern passengers to the lake in through sleeping cars without change of cars. These roads are all finely equipped, the tracks laid with steel rails, and making the run in about 40 minutes. Minnetonka is an aggregation of bays, its water area covering some 15,000 acres, surrounded by the grand forest known as the Big Woods, and has high and rolling banks and an undulating shore. Numberless points and promon- 72 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. tories break the lake up into bays, some twenty-five in number, affording some of the finest scenery that ever charmed the eye of poet or painter. No lake is sketched oftener, no lake is the subject of more rapturous and enthusiastic laudations from visitors than Minnetonka; and there is no resort which is so justly entitled to all the praises bestowed upon it. The number of tourists who visited Minnetonka during the summer of 1885 amounted to about 200,000, who passed over its railways, sailed on its mag- nificent steamers and visited its hotels. It has around its shores nine first-class hotels and twenty-five regular board- ing houses, besides many houses where a few guests are entertained for the sake of ■“company.’’ The estimated cost of hotel and boarding house property alone, which is used only during the tourist season, amounted in 1884 to $1,760,000, without including the furniture. The amount invested in boating property at the same date, when there were but fifteen steamers on the lake, was $164,200. Since that date there have been fifteen steam yachts added to the boating facilities, most of which are run regu- larly for carrying passengers, or are chartered for excursions. At the same date there were 116 summer residences, valued at $275,225. Now there are 185, an increase of nearly 33 per cent, in two years. In addition to these there are about 25 cottages which are kept for rent during the summer, all of which were occupied. The number of people visiting Hotel Lafayette during the season, who registered, was about 7,000; Lake Park Hotel, 5,000; Excelsior House, 2,000; Hotel St. Louis, 2,000. During the height of the season nearly every house of entertainment was crowded, and at Excelsior all the spare rooms in private houses were filled, the Excelsior House having at times guests in five tenements outside of the hotel. There is no resort in the country that boasts of finer hotels than Hotel Lafay- ette and Lake Park Hotel, or as fine passenger steamers as the Belle of Minne- tonka and City of St. Louis Hotel Lafayette is 800 feet long, nearly 100 feet wide, with 20 foot verandas extending almost entirely around the ground floor, and is three stories in height. It has accommodations for 900 guests, and its furnishing and equipments are perfect in detail, and embrace every modern contrivance for hotel use. Lake Park Hotel, while considerably smaller than Lafayette, having accommodation for about 500 people, is fitted and furnished on the same generous plan. Hotel St. Louis is a fine hotel, caring comfortably for about 400 guests, and handsomely furnished. All these hotels have steam fixtures for heating, the two former are lighted by electricity and the latter by gas. The character of all the other houses is first-class, and it is doubtful if any resort can show a list of houses of entertainment that are so universally popular- The fishing here, as at other lakes, is a great attraction, and many sports- men spend their vacations on Minnetonka. Tnis resort has attained a high place in the estimation of eminent physi- cians for the great benefit derived by patients suffering from throat and lung diseases and hay fever. Sufferers from asthma and hay fever receive almost immediate benefit. The number of invalids visiting Minnetonka increases argely every season, as the fame of its cures or partial cures spreads abroad. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL COMPARED. 73 The season of 1885 was noted for the unusual number of invalids and the great number of physicians from all parts of the country who visited the lake. We are aware that it will be claimed that Minnetonka is not exclusively a Minneapolis summer resort, and it is not But it is nearer Minneapolis than St. Paul, and every body must go through Minneapolis to reach it. The ■comparison between Minnetonka and White Bear, the favorite St . Paul lake re- sort is made because generally speaking St. Paul booms White Bear and ignores if she does not depreciate Minnetonka, while Minneapolis sticks by Minne- tonka, and invests money in her private cottages, steamers and residence sites. Some St. Paul capital it is true, is also expended at Minnetonka, but in order that it may be at all measured with Minneapolis, the investments of the Mani- toba road in hotels and steamers must be included. We think it will be gen- erally admitted that Minnetonka is the favorite Minneapolis resort, and White Bear is preferred in St. Paul, although many Minneapolis people go there every year. WHITE BEAE LAKE. White Bear Lake, lying about ten miles north of Saint Paul, is a sheet of pure water covering about 5,000 acres with sparsely wooded shores. Its proximity to Saint Paul made it the exclusive resort of pleasure-seekers from that city until the building of the palatial hotels on Minnetonka attracted many to the larger resort. White Bear was the only lake resort that the Saint Paul hotel man knew anything about when tourists desired to go fishing, because it was not necessary to go through Minneapolis to reach it; but White Bear is a beautiful lake, and now boasts of three summer hotels, accommodating respectively, 200, 150, and 100 guests. Each of these hotels has cottages on its grounds, so that lodgings for aboflt 1,000 in all can be furnished. There are three boarding-houses, a res- taurant, three elegant club houses, a summer resort for religious gatherings, and about thirty summer cottages. A handsome steamer will carry about 200 pas- sengers, and the two row and sail-boat fleets include nearly a hundred boats. The Saint Paul and Duluth Railway is the only railway to White Bear, and this season, if we are to rely on the assertions of hotel keepers, the management has not catered as much as usual to the tourists’ trade. Six trains daily have been run from Saint Paul and two from Minneapolis, including the through trains to Duluth and those to Stillwater and Taylor’s Falls, and the passenger traffic is said to be decreasing. Probably about 20,000 persons is a large estimate of the visitors to White Bear this season, including those to Mahtomedi Assembly ■Grounds. No effort has been made of late years to extend the hotel accommodations here to keep up with the advancement of the country, and hence Minnetonka, by its superior beauty, the large extent of its water surface, and the magnificent hotels, steamers and railways are capturing the lion’s share of the trade ; so that even the Saint Paul hotel-keeper has become painfully aware of the fact that there is a lake known as Minnetonka. With the exception of White Bear, Saint Paul has no resort that is popular enough to take the trade of the masses, either of rich or poor. Elmo, which rose in a blaze of glory under Stickney’s administration of the lower route ” to Still- 74 A TALE OF TWO CITIES. water, had one season of popularity with its “ lodge,” but subsided afterwards into a bathing place, and the effort was made to recover the losses in the hotel business by running “ bathing trains ” from the city every evening. It was soon found, however, that the masses of Saint Paul did not take to water kindly, and Elmo Lodge was converted into a. saloon. MINNEHAHA FALLS. One of the delightful resorts of Minneapolis people, and of tourists who stop- at Minneapolis hotels, is Minnehaha. Here a fine hotel is located, mainly for the benefit of those who drive down and wish to obtain refreshments. The cas- cade retains all the beauty for which it has become famous, and is visited an- nually by thousands of people, who reach it from Minneapolis via the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway or the Motor line on frequent trains. Many ga by carriage, as it is a very pleasant drive of about four miles, and they are thus- enabled to visit FORT SNELLING. This is the oldest fort in the Northwest, and a very interesting place to pass away a few hours. The government has expended several hundred thousand dollars in improving this sightly place, which commands a view of the Minne- sota river as it comes down the Minnesota valley, and the Mississippi after it has turned the magnificent mill machinery of Minneapolis, the two rivers form- ing a junction at the foot of the picturesque old fort. The Department of Da- kota, Gen. Terry in command, has headquarters here. .All this natural scenery of exceptional beauty and the government improvements have made Fort Snell- ing a park suburb of Minneapolis. This excites the envy and cupidity of the capital city, and it is now urged at the War Department and on congress that, the Department of Dakota be removed to St. Paul , the fine new government buildings and the fort abandoned, and the government urged to spend a half a million or more money for headquarters in St. Paul, less than six miles from where the former lavish expenditure was made. There is neither economy, nor military necessity, nor public convenience to support such a proposition — nothing but the general want-the-earth policy indicated in so many other instances. MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. FAUL COMPARED. 75 MISCELLANEOUS COMPARISONS. REAL ESTATE. To compare a mountain to a molehill is a gross injustice to the mountain. Even so is it an injustice to Minneapolis to compare her magnificent real estate record for the past four years with the comparatively puny showing of St. Paul. Minneapolis stands ready to compare notes on real estate matters with any city of twice her size and age in the country, but is really ashamed to have her giant figures laid up alongside the St. Paul dwarfs. For the sake of shedding a little of that electric light which Ajax defied upon the situation, however, Minneapolis- has consented to make a martyr of herself and let the cat out of the bag. It relieves the case somewhat for both the mountain and Minneapolis (the two are synonomous) to call it a contrast instead of a comparison. Here it is in all its- awfulness, year by year, in parallel columns, the number of deeds filed and the total consideration involved: 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. No. Minneapolis 5,902 St, Paul 2,881 Amount. §8,425,345 4,345,991 No. 7,811 4,447 Amount. §19,161,294 9,354,841 O Hi 1 .