How feeble is our grasp upon the future may be seen from the last
utterance. The sum of $15,000,000 seemed "enormous." To-day, less than
a century from that time, one American citizen has in his lifetime made
from the raw resources of this land a fortune held to be $266,000,000.
One Western city, located in that despised territory, during one
recent year showed sales of grain alone amounting to $123,300,000; of
live stock alone, $268,000,000; of wholesale trade, $786,205,000; of
manufactures,--where manufactures were once held impossible,--the total
of $741,097,000. It was once four weeks from Maine to Washington. It
is now four days from Oregon. The total wealth of all the cities, all
the lands, all the individuals of that once despised West, runs into
figures which surpass all belief and all comprehension. And this has
grown up within less than a hundred years.