The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-11-25

John Phoenix, poet, philosopher, humorist,
and likewise also' a correspondent of the
Knickerbocker Magazine, has been sojourning
in Oregon, and thus gives utterancc to his ex-
periences in that climate, in letter Of an .Au-
gust date, from Portland, O. T.:
at gives me unfeigned pleasure to inform
you that | am about to quit the gloomy and
never-to-be-dr up sky Of Oregon, and re
pair without unnecessary delay to D., on
our borders. Yes sir, Pm off; services no
longer required on these inclement shores
shores which, when you read Of in Irving's
Astoria, you naturally wish to behold, and
admire old Astors pluck in making establish
ments thereon, and which, when you reach,
you wish you hadn't, and admire still more
old Ast0r's good sense in breaking his estab-
lishments up and quitting while there was yet
time.
Rain is an exceedingly pleasant and graft
flying institution in its way, and in moderation;
it causes the grass to grow, the blossoms to
flourish and is positive necessity to the UNI
brela maker but when you get in a country
where i RAGS. ineessapay twenty-six hours a
day, for seventeen months in the year, you
cannot resist having the conviction forced up
on your mind that The thing is slightly over
done. That's the case in Oregon it commenc-
ed raining pretty heavily on the third of last
November, and continued up to the fifteenth
of May, when it set in for long storm, which
isn't fairly over yet. There's moisture for
you.
"The consequences of this awful climate
are just what might be supposed. The i'm
mense quantity of the protoxide squirted about
here causes trees, buildings, streets, everything,
to present diluted and wishy washy appear
ance The women lose their color, the men
their hair, (washed off, sir,) and the animals,
by constant exposure, acquire scales and fins,
like the natives Of the great deep. In fact,
all the inhabitants of this territory have a
generally scaly appearance, and rejoice in a
peculiar smell, combination, should say, of
fish, ball and fresh mud sucker.
The rains ofOregon beat everything of that
kind | ever beheld or conceived of Those
that fell on Noah's Ark were not more helvy
those Of Nero Caligula, and |, Neely Johnson
not more terrible; nor those of Lady Suffolk
and Moscow longer or stronger, which is slight
ly mixed metaphor ofa very happy description.
So, upon the whole, Pm glad Pm off, yes Pm
quite sure of it; and long to get to D,
where the people enjoy the light of the bless
ed sun, and where can enjoy it also, and dry
my things, and read Irving's astoria"
"Howbeit, there are many interesting and
curious things in Orrgon; many odd and enter
tanning people therein; and | have seen much
that was funny and laughed thereat, and
should have laughed louder and longer, if my
mouth had not filled with rain before I had
half finished; and might prebaps regret leay-
ing a country in which had so much posi-
tive enjoyment, were it not have chronicled
ali these amusing things and pecularitieS, and
shall be glad to get somewhere where l can
have dry laugh over them. Such thing as
"dry humor," in Oregon is of course; physi-
cal imposSibility."