, 1866-01-26
HoME uoRRRaPoNnRNoR.
WAILA WAILA, january 25. lse

WAIIA WALLA, January 25, 1885,
| EDITOR STATESMAN - Inasmueh as Your cor
respondent is a subscriber to your paper. 1t ap-
pears to him that be ought to be allowed to com
municate to you, Occasionally, such general
items as may be worthy aniche in your. columns.
Thanks to your enterprise, We were enabled to
peruse President JOhnsOn's message, cOmmuni-
Gated 70 Congress in December last. We are no,
partisan, but careful digestion of its contents
gives thsAssutance that the ChiG Magistrate Of
the nation has at heart the welfare of the coun-
try. The paper bresthes an eminently healthy,
elevated aud conservative tone, and cannOt-fail
to heal the wounds and assauge the animosities
which have been oeeasioned between the two
sections of the country. Nous usrroas.
The many indications of an early opening of
Spring, now to be seen on every hand, appear to
encourage everybody, and to infuse new life into
animated nature generally. The mercaptile fra
ternity are in high glee, looking anxiously for,
ward to a busy season ere long. That industri-
Gus aud sturdy class of our fellow citizens, the
packers are more than ever solicitous about
the condition of their faithful trains of mnles
and horses, intending to take up the line of
march hence to Blackfoot, Boise, Upper Column
ba etc., as soon as the state of the roads lead
| ing to these points, respectively will permit
them to leave. And last though not least, the
mining crowd in general, and such as are yet
verdant in the application of the pick and shO-
vel, are seriously discussing the comparative
merits of the two rOutes-Of which, by the way
you have had much to say during the past two
months. At this point, allow an interrogation :;
Is it to be understood, by an article in the
| STATEsMAN of the 10th inst, headed "Ceur
d'Alene vs.. Pen d'Oreille Route" that your
predictions in this matter run in favor
of the latter road? You intimate very correctly
that the great natural impediment to the C@ur
d'Alene route is those two ugly bottoms of the
Ceur d'Aleae and St. Regis Borgia; still these
can be much improved and made practicable for
wagons if that road is ever to be repaired. In
the extract you gave from Mullan's Road Report,
the author seems to have been solicitous regard
| ing the question Of snow, and fears that this
will form an objection to this route of so vital
importance " that the travelling public will pre-
fer the Lake route. We admire the writer's
franknesI iD thus presenting the good and bad
points of the line, which engaged his best sner-
gieS for four years; yet even the depth of snow
which falls upon the summit of the Cear
d'Alene mountains does not in our opinion con.
Ititute an insurmountsble difficulty, because
with such immense travel to and fro-Which
may be safely calculated upon during this year
the above distance from the Spokane river,
thence to the Mission, thence (including the sum-
nit Of the mountsins) to the Bitter Root river,
will.bs kept open all the year round-ths snow
will be packed down and thus made Iolid
But to another subject. A "chum Of ours
sitting by the hotel stove says he was present
Thursday evening, 18th inst, atthe address pro-
nounced before the FeniAn society Of WAllA
Walla, bv Rev. Fsths, Hslda It was quite ap-
propriSte, well conceived, and delivered with
effect; it went far to arouse the symPathies of
Irishmen and their descendants in our midst to-
ward the cause of IOng-suhering and oppressed
| Erin. AJAX.