"In Fargo, built of stone and brick, there are already three good hotels, and another in contemplation; rather too many drinking saloons; a concert and ball room, where recently a grand subscription ball was given for which gentlemen's tickets were stated to be $25. There is a courthouse and two portly courteous judges, and a provost marshall or commandant of police, all those important officers holding their appointments from year to year; a successful daily newspaper, two corn-merchants, a thriving school, while preparations are being made for building churches. An Opera-Comique is in successful operation ... (and) from an area of many miles the dark-visaged farm-fellows with slouch hats, many with blue guernseys, some lumberers in red flannel jackets, and occasional Indians, and many half-breeds, congregated in large numbers to this opera-house in Fargo.... The immense and varied collections of agricultural implements are strikingly indicative of the breaking in of new lands. The light wagons are drawn by horses, mules, and oxen, but the ox teams are rather the most numerous." Even as he wrote, Fargo was rapidly changing from a frontier village to a city, for he says, "But Fargo is a metropolis compared with the 'primordial cells' of towns budding at roadside stations...." While almost everyone in the city owned a buffalo-robe coat, and one of the duties of locomotive engineers was to use their steam whistles for fire alarms, a horse-car line was in operation during the winter of 1879 and 1880; unfortunately the track layers failed to prepare a firm bed for the rails and when spring came the track disappeared into the mud. Early in the city's life William G. Fargo offered a premium of $500 for the establishment of a newspaper to be called the Fargo _Express_. In order to secure the bonus A. H. Moore and Seth Boney started a paper under that name in June 1873, but payment was withheld for the reason that it was printed on the press of the Glyndon, Minn., _Gazette_. On January 1, 1874, the Fargo _Express_, the first paper actually printed in Fargo, was published and received the promised bonus. From a combination of the _Express_ and seven later papers has emerged the Fargo _Forum_, today leading the newspaper field in Fargo and the State. The _Normanden_, a Norwegian weekly, successor to the Red River _Posten_ established in 1886, is the only foreign language paper published in the city.