The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-02-04
LETTER FROM KANSAS.

= 1--WE AN%A4AS@
To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
If not intruding too much upon your
valuable time, would you have the
kindness, at your early convenience, to
return this to me with the information
asked for?
1 am thirty years of age, and speak
the English, German, and Spanish Ian
guages luently, having also fair
knowledge of the French language. 4
received my early commercial training
in Wall street, and have by my former
employers always been considered an
efficient book-keeper and general clerk.
l am unmarried and temperate in my
habits.
1. Do you believe that man so con-
dItioned could readily find employment
in Portland or vicinity? 1 do not ex-
pect to find immediate employment, yet
L would not like to remain idle long.
2. When is the busy season in Port
land?
8. In what does the trade mainly con-
sist
4. What is the average salary of book
keepers and clerks?
5. Is the circulating medium entirely
coin?
6. For how much week can board be
obtained?
7. How many Inhabitants has Port
land? Salem?
8. Can you give me the present ad-
dress of F. w. Chadwick, a lawyer?
1 am aware that take a great liberty
In addressing you, as to you am per-
feet stranger; still, having no acquaint-
ances in that part of our country, 1 ven
ture to do so. Awaiting your kind re-
ply, remain, Respectfully yours,
JOHN F. GERHARD.
Fort Leavenworth, January IA, 1876.
7. We need in Oregon men who are
willing and able to fell forests, erect
bridges, dig bitches, make railroads,
build steamboats,, break prairies, train
horses, run wooden mills and raise sheep
and cattle; dig gold, smelt iron, make
wagons, plows, barrows, buggies, rakes,
hoes, shovels, pitchforks, reaping and
moving machines, stoves, ranges,
hOrse-shoes, fence fields, and build farm
houses. Every nook and corner where
man can get his bread without the
sweat of his face is full to overfowing,
and likely to remain so. Our educa-
tional interests are first-class, and brain,
! from other parts of the country, is at a
discount. Brawn, we'll backed by in
tellect, would readily command pre-
MUM. If you could see the number of
lily-handed, brOad-brained young men
who come over here from the East every
year in the vain expectation that these
light occupations are waiting for them,
you would not wonder that we fail to
encourage you to look in this direction
for professional employment where
muscle is not needed. Profitable open
ings are yet to be made for engravers in
wood and steel, for stereotypers, electro
typers, type makers, and machinists Of
every description. Such positions as
you name are always filled by favorit-
ism, everybody who is able to employ
such labor having friends or poor rela-
tions in the East, whom they import
for the purpose, if they haven't already
reared them in their own homes. We
do not underrate the accomplishments
you enumerate; but we regret that they
are SO often procured at the expense of
the more necessary qualifications to
battle successfully with a life full of
hard, enduring energy of body.
2. The busy season in Portland lasts
all the year.
8. The trade mainly consists in the
expectation of wheat, flour, bacon,
bullion, wool, flax, lumber, iron, fruit,
salmon, smelt, oysters, beef, mutton,
pork, poultry, butter, eggs, cheese, and
wooden manufactures. The importa-
tions chiefly are ardent spirits, tobacco,
dry-goods and groceries, boots and
shoes, confectionery, stationery, books,
paints, oils, furnishing goods of every
conceivable description and for every
imaginable purpose, machinery of all
kinds, and indeed everything that
abounds in any cosmopolitan country.
4. The average salary of book-keepers
and clerks does not exceed fifty dollars
per month. A few favored ones get
much higher wages.
8. The circulating medium is coin.
Greenbacks are always discounted from
10 to II per cent.
6. Board can be obtained at from 81
to Sc per week, and as much higher as
you prefer.
7. Portland has $4,000 inhabitants,
Salem 1000.
8. We presume you refer to Hon. S.
F. Chadwick, Secretary of State. We
do not know a lawyer with the initials
you mention. The former gentleman
resides in Salem, and is a prominent
and reliable official, who can give you
any information you desire.
We are always glad to receive letters
of inquiry in relation to our State and
its resources. There is room for every
body who will come to cast their lot
/ a