A Booming Town

Hearing of the boom at ftault 8te. Marie in real estáte Thk Couiuru dctcr111:11c. 1 to senil a correspondent to the scène of nction, and with tlio following resul t: Aa the town is located on the northeastern corner of tlie Upper Peninsula seventy miles from the rail-road, largo sleighs were brought into use froin St. Ignace, which point we reached by boat from Mackinac aftcr bufletinof the ce for two hours in going seven miles. A general rush of peculators from Chicago, 8t. Paul and Minncapolis was centering at St. Ignace, all clamoriiig for conveyances. The regular sleigh is coyered, has a stove and carries the mails with two changos of horses on the road. But everything went, parties of live or six paying from $2." to f250 for transportation. The country is bleak, desolate, and wild, dotled with farm-houses from flve to ten miles apart where the pilgrims floeked tr warm and lunch. It took sixteen hoursof riding to cover the distance, and upon MTiring we found the accomoilations so crowded tliat men hired billiard tables by the hour to alternately play on and sleep on during the nlght. A friend gave us the use of his librnry room Hoor whereon we spread our buffalo overcoats, blankets, etc, auU slept the calm sleep of the weary. Next morning the towu was early astir and afler breakfast the road in front of the hotel was not long in being blocked by enger sieculators bnying and selling. They trled it at first by options, oftering to put up $100 for the refusal of a piece for ten dnys. If the land should go back in value they only lost f 100, but it was likely to doublé or treble in value. However the owners were too sharp for such deuling and required at least ouethird cash down. In conseqnence many of the speculators wlio carne with the intention of bnying the town for a thoiisand dollars went off saddened and depressed. To givc au instance of the ?udden rise in values, a piece of land on thcir main busiuess Street sold six weeks ago for $62 per front foot, a month later $80 was offered; two days afterwards, $100; two dnys more $125; next day $150 and it sold last Saturday for $200. Aiiothcr ir star.ce, a piece of acreage was purcliased a year ago for $1,600, two weeks aro for $17.000 and last Frlday for $32,000- for 17 acres. Farms out three miles have juraped from ten dollars an acre to seventy-tive dollars. Last week it is safe to say that property to the iimount of a mülion dollars changed hands In that crst-while slecpy little town of 3,500 InbabltaaU. Halfbreed?, living meanly and in squalor on lotg they paid f30 for some time ago refused $3,000 for thein witli lordly Indlfference. The boora was started eailier than was expectjd, but it has to back it the natural advantage8 of a vast water power, equal if not superior to Minneapolis. The International bridge will be erected this summer and tlnee railroads will be ready to cross upon its couipletion, one fr m Duluth, one from M'mneapolU and the Canadian Pacific. Besides this the rovermnent will spund thirteen millions this year on the new Lock, the Fort, thechannels, etc. Being the terminus of these systems it promises to be an important point for manufacturing and Bhipplng. But prices wcre nished up so high ttint many were scared out and returned home without purebulng. So the ticle tiirned and flowed out the last of last week. Seats in sleigus sold at high premiums, despite the terreitic blizzard which ralned on Sunday and snowed on Monday. However, your correspondent captured a seat on the 5 A. M. stage and the hoises went plunging on. Whenever tliey stepped out of the beaten track they broke throtlffh the crust and went down t their bodies, sometimes tmiflng flat. Pro;ress for many a mile was at the rate of three miles in boor. However, after eighteen hours of this we arrived at Polnt St. Ingnace, only to lind that the boat had started for tlie other side. Six oí us then tried to get a team to take us across the Mackinaw straits on the ice, but only one man was found who cared to risk liis horses falling tbroogb the ice, since in places water laid upon the surface, whlle the rapid current was enting away the neder side. We made a bujptta with the man to take us across for $IG, but when the horses were hitched up our friends iiatl been so frightened by the stories of teams going through the ice ttiat tlity backed out, II save Mr. Evart Scott and j'our correspondent, wlio had the nerve to undertake the journey. At one o'clock in the night the trip was commenced across the bleak, windy, Oold and treaeherous tract. Bc f ore starting, the two drivers fastened ropes to the horses' col 1 ars go that they could pull them out n case of falling in. The moon gave an uncertain light nnd the wind howled across the loDesome place. Scarcely a word was spoken as eacli one was calculating how thick the ice was, and how deep tlie water underneath. Ooc isionally a horse would fall down either thiough tllpplne or in stenping through, so honey-coinbeil was the ice. At lust, wlien witii'n i mile of tlie Mackinac hore, one of the horses went through with both hind feet and the wagon settled down to the surface, the runners cutting through completely. We did not tarry long to enquire into the matter, bilt sprang out mid pulled the horse to his feet, thm llftcd the runners out and got it on to solid ice. After lliis one of the men went ahcmd and sounded the track, so we reached land gafely :n n ) (rot to bed after twenty-two hours of battling with the elementa. When we had rested three hourg we went down and discovered the mail boat lialf wny acrosfiand stuck in the ice, where he had laln all night. Snuie of the passeners walked asliore In the morning and caught our train down. Uut those cars at Mackinac City were the prettiest sight, after ridmg in sleighs 150 miles over well-nljrli impasslble roads, thatyour correepondcnt ever expects to see. " Boombk." As near as can be learued fren the present lijjurea Iba prohibitory amendment is defeated in the state by ibout 2,000 majority. Tliere have been thmisands of lionest, earnest temperance uien who have oontiibuted to this result, belleving it the best for the temperanee cause. Now it is to be lioped tlmt a legislature may be chocen thut will revine our liqnor laws In sevcrnl ways. The Minnesota law, for natanee, would be a irrand tliing for Mlcliijfan, in the Mtlraation of many. In the circuits throughout the gtate the republicana have probably elected 2ü judges ind the demócrata 8. Poütios, however, lias had little to do with lhM offices. As in this district, luid (bat been the test, the demócrata would have been overwlielminffly sucoessful. And in the 7th circuit, where jud;e Newton, democrat, has lit'on clected over kii ovcrwhclniing republican majority. The DMpU ippreciale such men, regardless of tlieir party alllliations.