The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-31
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

both mental and physical, that would
have done no discredit to the woman
who lived in a shoe, behold US, on
Wednesday morning, aboard the east
side train, bound Salemward.
Dame Nature has changed her spring
time robe of emerald green for demi-
train of russet-brown, with overskirt
and pannier of canary and amber color,
and mantle of purple, trimmed pro-
fusely with ripened wheat ears. Her
head-dress is of purple, golden and scar
let fruitage, and she carries a magnifi-
cent boquet of sun flowers, golden rods
and china asters. Her jewels are soli-
taires of lakelets, irregularly set in
rims of catkins; her fan a breeze from
the eternal ocean; her embroidery the
cultivated flora of green houses; her
crown a tiara of mountains. At her
feet the crystal river meanders lazily,
while lambkins sport in the sunshine of
her pastures, and children roam at will
in the shades of her door-yards.
/ No wonder the old dame is happy.
Already her garners are grOaning under
the weight of her good things, and her
larders reek with fatness. Her apron is
loaded with cereals, her baskets with
apples, her firkins with butter, and her
pastures crowded with kline.
The iron horse is painting in his eager
ness to do her bidding, and he switches
his tail of freight cars along the lines of
travel like monster anaconda writhing
through the brakes. The little towns
along his route have a deserted look.
The surplus labor that erewhile thronged
, the stations is graphing with the glad
, some harvest. Children are out OF
; school, for it is vacation now, and
ma'ams and masters are attending the
, Teachers Institute.
, While we are busily engaged in tax
/ ing note of all these things, the train is
: nearing Salem, and soon we are seated
r in the Chemeketa bus, en- route for the
3 hotel, where we arrive in twenty oil
r thirty minutes, covered with dust, and
! tired enough to forget all our other mis-.
t cries.
E A good bath and thorough dusting
/ somewhat refresh us, and by two P. NJ
t we are seated in hack with Mrs. Odel
7 and Mrs. Jackson, whose husbands owl
t the Statesman, and who are as wide
| awake in public matters as their gentle
manly lords, and we all bowl away t.
: the capitol, which still holds aloft it!
3 skeleton arms as of yore, mocking, il
= its undressed unsightliness, the wantor
0 stock-jobbery of former gubernatora
administration, while standing ever a
r a silent monument of the fizzled expec
: tations of INSCRIPTIONS political Gerry
t Wandering.
d Mounting one long fight of stairs
t and then another, and yet another, W
pause, literally breathIess, in silent con
e temptation of the magnificent viev
e from the many windows. Mother Ma
ture has lifted her overskirt in tue dis
u tance, displaying it full of ripene
q wheat. The hem of her russell robe
llalllbS III IhC laLJ WdlClo vi IbC u old
q Willamette, and her tilting hoops re
J. veal the fcrest-crowned and field-cla
IL hills of the agricultural county of Polk
II But we must not linger here, for jus
= beyond US is the, Legislative Hall, an
IL the Teachers Institute is in council
d Entering, we behold fine array of tn
}, professional element, the feminine pre-
er dominating in numbers and intellec
s and the masculine bearing the palm {
b power and pay. We are introduce
e. here, there, and everywhere to profe'
D. sionaI dignitaries of genial mien an
10 well-filled brains, and seat Ourself 6
er soon as may be to the work in hand.
D. The chairman is a natty little body
Dc about the size of an ordinary popinjay
+ and as dignified as a bantam Tooste
v How he came to be elected to the pos
or tion deponent knoweth not. Certain
It. is that he presided well when no know
lk edge of parliamentary law was needed
'u and when it was needed, Miss Hodgdel
e' the efficient vice-president, was near
ou to prompt him, and he got along fir
~ rate.
er The first question that came up f,
Id consideration after our entrance W;
er "Citizenship." Professors Lane, Wortl
sr. ington, Crawford, and Bishop each hs
en- something to say upon the subject, al
er succeeded admirably in avoiding it a
ot together, whereupon the undersignt
Nv innocently arose and defined the wo
at according to Webster, taking the grour
en- that it was a necessary study, and oug
OF to be taught in all American school
ID. where government rests upon so
nd ereignty, and the safety of the peop
es, upon their intelligence and liberty. v
OF held that the Declaration of Indepen
mt ence and Constitution of the Unit
I'm States were the only needed text-bo
Dr. for the study of citizenship; that, right
ne interpreted, they included the fund
lgs mental principles of liberty, and so o
IN ending the ten minutes address with
gs' appropriate hit or two upon femini
sFs sovereignty, which "took" immensel
The discussion thus far had not occ
aiu pied above twenty minutes of the tn
ee' ty-five allowed for its considera tion, a