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198 several communities, who were presumed to have influence with the voters, giving them free rides for the purpose of getting them interested in that city as the capital. These influential persons let it be known in their home communities that they had been thus favored, and their neighbors promptly applied for like favors, which could scarcely be refused. So it came about that long before the close of the campaign the railroad companies felt compelled to carry to these two cities every person who applied for the privilege. At least one hundred thousand persons were carried into each town. In the last weeks of the campaign many special trains daily, loaded with good-natured men, women, and children, were carried into Mitchell and Pierre. It was a great, continuous picnic, in which all of the people participated, and probably has not had an equal in American history.

The election resulted in the retention of the capital at Pierre, by about eighteen thousand majority. The legislature of 1905 made provision for an appropriate capitol building at Pierre, and it is probable that the people of South Dakota are through with campaigns for the removal of the capital.