, 1853-09-03
From our StellacOOm Correspondent.
SLElLAcooM, Aug. rs, 1853.

SLElLAcooM, Aug. rs, 1858.
FRIEND McELRoY Just say, if you
please, to the people of Olympia, and espe-
ciously 10 that portion of them who have
never, for the last two years, allowed sim
gle opportunity Of either public or private
nature to pass by unimproved, whereby
Olympia could be advanced and the prog
ress Of Steiacoom rctarled-that almost all
kinds of Improvements that go to make n
fourlshing town in this.new Territory Of
ours, are actively progressing, and that 9TH
ers have been projected and will be carried
out by men who never put their hand to the
plough but TO complete the furrow, in this
ilourishing little town of ours. Tell them
too, that in the matter of Improvements,
Steilacoom is bound 10 "bear off the palm"
from her neighbor and rival Olympia, and
that it becomes each and every citizen Of
the LATTER place to "be up and doing"
'lnstant in season and out of season." if
they would not only be beaten but absolute
ly DlsTANcED in the very interesting race
for the supremacy that the two places are
now fairly entered upon.
From some cause or other that is not
worth speculatlng upon, probably Olympia
has acquired pretty respectable start but
notwithstanding that, present appearances
and local advantages plainly indicate that
she cannot hold it long in contest with one
that has such "speed" and "boIlom" as her
neighbor, Sleilacoom.
Until quite recently, there has been but
very little done in this place that could pos. .
sibly bring it into notice, or tend in any way
to advance its interests, and consequently
many men, and among them, too, warm
friends and ready supporters, have almost
doubted if the place would ever ego a
head yet for all that, there has not been
wanting shrewd thinking men, who plainly
saw that Steilaeoom possessed SUPERIOR nat
ural advantages, and that in a very short
time she would be a SUCCESSFUL rival of
her elder, but not half so lceH eHdOioed sister
Olympia. This they not only saw but pre-
dicted, and am no good judge of "Buenos
Ayres Beef" as they say in the ''classics,"
if their prediction is not in fair way 10 be
verified.
But "after all is said and DONE" if Olym-
pia can but manage 10 hold the SECOND place,
Steiacoom being the FIRST, in Commercial
Importance, her citizens should be perfectly
we'll satisfied, for more they cannot hope for,
if as much.
AT this moment there are men in Olympia,
residents there, nicely calculating in their
own minds, whether they did not make
"slight mistake" in adopting THAT place as
The theatre &C their operations in preference
10 THIS. They know that their gains have
been greater there than they possibly could
be here, in the two or three years just past,
but their eyes are now being opened TO the
fact that Olympia is not the ONLY place in the
world or even in Washington Territory; and
that the property they have been gradually
and almost imperceptibly acquiring will
chain them down to that place unless they
dispose of it at a sacrifice.
Do not understand me to say that such
property as real estate is about 10 diminish
in value, for know better. On the contra
ry, am certain that it will rapidly rise in
value for many years to come what do
mean, is simply that BETTER investments in
the way of buildings, lots, &c., could have
been made in THIS town than in Olympia,
and that many of the citizens of the latter
place now know it, Notwithstanding the pains
they have taken to get their town MENTION
ed in the Papers of the Atlantic cities, as a
place delightfully."- situated at the head of
navigation on Puget Sound, and possessing
greater commercial advantages than almost
any other place on the Pacific Coasi.n /
cheerluly allow thai Olympia is not only at
the "Head Of Navigation, p but some one or
two miles be;ond it at low water, but can.
dor compels me TO differ very widely from
those who assert that she can ever rank A.
mong the FIRST of the cities on the Pacific
Coast, in Commercial importance.