The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-28
EDITORIAL O0RREspoNDENoE.

ent moment she would prefer to seek
the somber shades of the wee small
hours and catch up with the sleep that
bade her French leave long before reach
ing Seattle.
Hurrying up in the early dawn of
what proved to be balmy day, we left
Portland on the 18th inst, our immedi-
ate destination Kalama, our final aim
the Sound.
Kalama, though dark, gloomy, SOM
ber, and apparently hopeless, in the
estimation of so many travellers, greats
US with signs of life that are plainly
visible. The Fulton House, a clean,
well-ordered hotel, presided over by a
CHEEKY young landlady, gives us food,
fire, and lodging; the Methodist Church
opens its doors for an evening lecture,
and many friends make glad our COM
ing by their words of sympathy and
cheer. Let everybody who is disposed
to mock at Kalama, as it sits, with one
foot in the marsh and the other on the
hillside, all ragged, rocky and desolate,
note the forthcoming prophecy: Twenty
years hence, and you shall see these
swampy places covered with business
blocks, and those ragged hillsides ter
raced and adorned by elegant homes.
You may laugh now; but we can afford
to let you. Wait twenty years and see
who laughs.
The pleasant afternoon and evening
were succeeded by decidedly unpleas-
ant rain, that precluded much going out
among the people until near train time,
when the heavens became more propi-
tious, and we ventured forth to meet old
friends and new ones and gather sub
scriptions to the Journal of Peace.
Found General Sprague very busy at
headquarters, asserting deeds, reading
letters, and experimenting the somno-
lent railroad interests. Mr.. Comegys
was busy in a store devoted to general
merchandise, and several carpenters
were driving saws and planes. The sa-
looms are plenty. Indeed, you can gen.
orally judge of the "hard times" in any
village by the number of these dead
falls that you encounter. Mr.. and Mrs.
Money keep job office in the building
where the light of the erewhile Beacon
has gone out, and Mr.. Bloomfield, quite
sanguine as to Kalama's future, what
ever he may think of its present, keeps
the post office and good assortment oI
merchandise. We had barely time tC
note this much of the business of the
town, and interchange glad converse
with number of wide-awake and ex.
cellent ladies, when the bell sounded
"all aboard" rang out in stentoriar
staccato from the matter-of-fact con
ductor, and we were soon jolting oveI
the unballasted North Pacific, our des
tination Steilacoom.
The graphic description given las
year by ye sage associate of the desc
late country through which the CREATE
part of the road passes is yet fresh in tn,
minds of our readers. Suffice it for u
/ to say, that the ride was long and ia
tiguing, but we reached Lake View
Station at five P. NJ, where we tool
{ stage for Steilacoom, five or six mile
> away, through one of the prettiest nat
> ural drives in the world. Brought ~
at six o'clock at the solitary hotel
? where, as a solitary guest, we surveyed
the solitary-looking town from the par
lor windows, only to see long rows o
, sign-boards on disused and decayin,
: buildings, with once in while a cheer,
corner or center building, where evel
the present languishing condition of th
once fiourishing terminus of many
railroad aspiration fails to cast a gloon
or destroy thriving trade.
r With the early morning we sallie
, forth to gaze upon the mighty Mediter
ranean of the great Northwest and not
= the ravages that time had made in tn
f works of man that were visible alon
5 its borders, while the great Sound itsel
= though antedating the town by untol
! ages, is yet as young and vigorous, an
us CLhGAoiu SCbtih6 VI lOIcSJ-SLuuu6
/, mountains as fresh and as misty, as the
5 might have been, and were, for all W
know, when the morning stars first san
p together.
D But this is no time for theorizing
, We must look after business. Gettin
f few directions from the obliging lanC
S lord, we seek the store of McCaw & Rog
e ers, where we find the gentlemanly pre-
s prietors of the town hall, who kindl
J, place the same at our disposal, and W
i are soon a welcomed and well-please
guest in the elegant home of the latte
gentleman, where his excellent wi
e and son and daughter drive from us til
j. homesickness that had become unbea
d able in the loneliness of the hotel.
i Friday evening brought us fine, il
IS telIigent, and attentive audience, 70
: lowed by an invitation to speak agai
|. on Saturday, which we did, gathering
e in the mean time, a gOodly array of ne
l. subscribers, and finding few old frienC
and many new ones. Bolivar Alva, q
c. old time merchant of Lafayette, who
ly we knew when both were younger tbs
n now, is engaged with Captain Cove in
-s tannery and glove business, which biz
fair to become quite an enterprise. I'll