The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-09-03
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE,

DEAR READERS OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
- From the various resorts down by the
sounding sea, to which painting denizens
of the interior have hied themselves to
escape the discomforts of midsummer,
have for some weeks past come alluring
tales of cool breezes, delightful drives,
luscious clam-bakes, invigorating baths,
sounds so suggestive of rest and recre-
alton that the atmosphere of certain
cozy little sanctum in the metropolis
grew tropical in the extreme, and caused
its perspiring inmate to ardently long to
follow the rest of the world in the pur-
suit of summer pleasures.
The coveted moment and opportunity
came at length, and on the morning of
the 25th inst, as the steamer "Wel-
come" was loosed from her moorings
and swung out into the Willamette,
your correspondent stood upon her deck,
with expectations that extended to Vic
toria. Down the Willamette to its con-
fiuence with the Columbia, and thence
on the broad and placid bosom of the
latter for few miles, and behold Ka-
lama. Not all the glory of the morning
sunlight, nor the vivid imagination of a
delighted tourist, could for a moment
invest this city of vast and vain expec-
tations with anything akin to lowell
ness, albeit that for two hours, while
waiting for the train which was to con-
vey us to Tacoma, we perambulated its
highways and byways in search of some
thing of beauty whose memory should
be "a joy forever" The painting engine
was at length attached to the waiting
train, the coach was filled with impa-
tient passengers, and the fruItless search
for items of interest about Kalama ended
as we sped over the track of the North
ern Pacific Railroad. Sped, did we say ?
Crept, it seemed, through wilderness
of UNMARRIED sameness, the only signs OF
life being the railroad, and now and then
the obscure cabin of squatter; faded
and untidy woman at the door; unkempt,
half-clad children peering between the
rails of the fence; and leaning upon his
hoe-handle in the midst of few vege-
tables that struggle for a dwarfed exist
ence, the proprietor of this domain,
smoking leisurely the inevitable pipe OF
civilization. The monotony of the ride
was varied frequently by the halting o1
the train, and the stentorian voice of the
brakeman calling out the unpro.
nounceable name of station, which
passengers peered right and left in the
vain attempt to discover.
The wilderness of the woods at length
gave place to the equally wild plains
We did appreciate even the slow-going
train of the Northern Pacific, as a fel
low-passenger related an experience o
twenty years ago, when crossing wha
was then known as Sanders prairie, on {
journey that occupied two weeks il
going from Portland to Olympia, the
mud was here so deep that it took sever
yokes of oxen to draw an empty wagor
a distance of five miles.
Nesqually plains were next reached
stretching in barren, rocky desolation oil
every hand. Dilapidated fences and OBJ
scure roads traversed in aimless name
these plains, which are dotted here ant
there with small clumps of trees-the en-
closures tenanted in some instances b.
sheep, busy apparently in feeding upol
nothing.
Lake View, the name of the last sta
tion before reaching Tacoma, was 81
, suggestive of something beautiful tina
we made an extra effort to obtain viev
: from the car window; an effort that re
, suited in nothing satisfactory, however
, although friend remarked that Brothe
Hammond need not have gone SO far a
/ Switzerland to sing of lakes, as NOR
than "'leven lakes of matchless beauty
! were to be seen not far from thence.
! But the terminus was at length il
sight, sitting in lonely, listless inactiv
ity on the margin of wide and desolat
/ range of country, upon the shores of tn
/ tOhuEge; monument to hopes bortiv
expectations vain, and "citadels begun
, reduced to DEATH"
After paying our cordial respects t
3 the CLANS and halibut which were serve
t in hotel built upon piles over the sal
water, we started out for the double puI
l pose Of seeing the renowned terminu
and catching the breath of old Neptune
Neither object was difficult in accom-
/ plishment. The grade from the hote