g8 TOM’S EXPERIENCE 
THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THERE. 
‘And what kind of people are they, generally ?’ 
che asked. | ) 
‘As good a class as you will find, on an average, 
anywhere in this country. A majority of them are 
Americans, and they come from all over the north- 
ern States, commencing witli Maine and ending with 
Minnesota and Iowa. ‘They are generally wide- 
awake, earnest, energetic people, determined to make 
good homes for themselves and their children in the 
great new west. 
. “You will find plenty of college graduates among 
the men, and among the women are the graduates of 
many of the best female colleges in the United 
States. I have seen a cabinet organ in a dug-out, 
and a piano 1n a sod-house, and you will find plenty - 
of the best newspapers and magazines in the houses. 
of most of those prairie pioneers. Wherever such 
people plant themselves you will see the church and 
the school house springing up almost as soon as you 
see their sod crops showing green above the black 
soil. 
NEWSPAPERS. 
* And the way local newspapers flourish on those 
Dakota prairies is simply a marvel. _In one county, 
a hundred miles west of my home, in which three 
years ago there was not half a dozen settlers all told, 
there are now eight weekly newspapers. In another 
town, of not over 600 inhabitants, not long ago 
