The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-10-06
THE WALLA wALLA FAIR,


thony lectured to an intelligent and
deeply interested audience.
The morning was one Of those excess
lively foggy ones that only serve to render
darkness visible. 4 dead calm settled
itself over the murky Willamette and the
fleecy atmosphere enshrouded the
steamer Oneonta like an impenetrable
pail. 1t was nine o'clock before we
swung loose from the moorings of the
dock and guided our steamers head into
the gloomy darkness. Carefully we
ploughed the waters and jOyfully we
at last emerged in bright and balmy sun
shine.
Passing Vancouver with its beautiful
site and tidy surroundings, steaming our
way up the broad Columbia, and taking
mental notes of every passing landmark,
we soon found ourselves among the roll
ing hills of the grand Oregon, where
beauty sits i'm silent majesty, where
mountains hob-Or-nOb with trees and
boulde-s, and the dark, deep gOrges file
away in the impenetrable distance, car
rying tidings maybe of the busy world
below into the Businesses of the eternal
rocks where spirits and silence reign.
All day our mind is occupied with these
wierd fancies, and we take but little
heed of the din and hustle and hurry
around us.
Eight o'clock at last, and the town of
Dalles is reached. Runners from the
two hotels jostle and crowd Us in the
darkness, disturbing the equanimity Of
belated lecture gOers and making the
evening hideous with their discordant
yells.
Getting into the nearest hack we
drive to the nearest hotel, TO find that our
baggage has been left behind, the peo-
pie congregated and waiting for the
coming lecture, and everything in COM
motion and confusion.
Miss Anthony is capable of composing
herself and making a good speech upon
any occasion, no matter how adverse
may be the circumstances, % the people
of The Dalles, who were accommodated
in Mr.. Condon's well-appointed church,
were treated to a lecture of one hour and
a half in length, with which they were
80 intensely gratified that upon our re-
turn one week afterwards another de-
lighted audience assembled for another
discourse, which was as well appreciated
as the first.
but at the rate we're running We
won't reach Walla Walla this week, ant
we started out to write of Walla Walls
rather than The Dalles.)
Taking the morning train past ia,
wild wonders of The Dalles and around
Cape Horn, we reached Cello, where W,
boarded the steamer TeninO, and were
once more steaming up the Columbia
through barren-lOoking region ol
seemingly interminabIe undulation,
abruptness, boulders and oddity, where,
in spite of the forbidding aspect Of the
country, the fat cattle Of a thousand
hills come down to drink, bringing in
their sleek sides and playful gambols ev-
idence unmistakabie that the fat of the
land is spread for them i'm these grand
solitudes.
Be patient, reader. We have not for
gotten that this article is headed "Walla
Walla Fair"
: Umatilla is reached, and here we spend
the night What once was known as q
, thriving commercial town Is now 4
rocky succession of sand hills, and what
once We're streets and stores and dwell
ings look now TO be abodes OF owls amC
bats. Trade has taken another dircc,
tion, and this dilapidated town bcwail,
its wind-wom raggedness and weep,
, DER days departed. \ few prosperous
and responsible business men are here
however, and we wish them joy of al
they get in UmatiIla.
With the early dawn our steamer i,
of again, and for three or four hours W,
\ stem the rapid current, and at last W,
reach Wallula, which looks like "a rag.
. ged fragment of poor, tattered Una
, tilla which the wailing winds had watt
cd To this barren rock and left i'm desola-
tion. As this God-forsallen spot is now
the head of navigation, we here met the
stage, huge, ungainly omnibus, with
six fine horses and a manly driver, who
handled the lines with that dexterity
for which his class are so particularly fl-
nous.
Miss \. mounted the outside of the
Numbering vehicle. We tried the seat
beside her for while, but soon yielded
to the burning sunshine, exchanged with
not an unwilling hombrc and seated
us beside placid Chinaman, who seemed
oblivious to all surroundings. Oh, that
: Walla Walla road Pen cannot paint
or picture portray it! Driving up long
and narrow grade upon the rugged hill
side, where careless move would unset
our coach and land Us in eternity. we
suddenly meet loaded prairie sloop.
drawn by four horses with a leader of the
mule fraternity.
Our driver stops suddenly to give the
teamster opportunity to get out of the
way of the coach.
''Hold on, good friend; you'll smash
my hub to smithereensr' yells the busy
teamster.
One of his horses, a piebald, rat-tailed
caricature upon well-kept hOrse-hesh,
rears and lodges as if he expects the