The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-30
rn1TnRIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

we nave enjoyed Whoie F..
months holiday at home. And il has .
been a holiday indeed. by this we 10 .
not mean an interval of dreamy or ecs- /
tatfe idleness, but a season Of coveted .
change. wherein the exalted theories Of
our long-continued public missionary
work could take sweet, prolonged sicsto
amid the many details necessarily at
tendant upon replenishing and rejuven-
ating a somewhat depleted aud GER
tainlv dilapidated wardrobe. Women
have a great many more perplexities in
life than men: but TO connteract these,
they are possessed Of infinitely greater
resources. Whoever knew a man who
could, OF did, combine the occupations
of lecturer, editor, novelist, canvasser
aud business manager with another art,
even more complicated than all Of these,
the making over of his last years cloth
ing into new suits for the coming sea-
son? Does any masculine professor Of
bellies tetfres under the sun ever stop 10
snap the thread Of his rhetoric in order
to weave it into All infinitude Of Worn-Out
buttOn-hOles Does he resort once
year to the wash-tub with his rlpped-up
outer garments, to extract from them
the half-hidden dirt of long campaigns
and rid them of the mixed magnetism
of many multitudes with free use OF
Colgate's best? But enough. You can
easily discern our manner Of spending
the holidays, good reader, il you are
at all astute. Aud yet, we haven't
hinted at the half that we might men
tiOn.
As We sit here in the pleasant home
of dear, good Mrs. Daniels in the sub
urban city Of Vancouver, and unfold the
scroll Of busy memory which, like a
panorama, readily reveals its real pic
lures at our touch, We get a view Of
home with its decorations Of ever
greens, its notices Of cedar in impossi-
ble letters, its laden Christmas trees
and its happy New Year. Aud now, the
social life Of beloved Portland outside OF
our own precious home unrolis before
/ Us. We see the open temperance meet
/ ings, where many hundreds congregate,
and watch the usual procession OF men
and women as they advance to the great
register to sign the pledge. The scene
changes and the Young Mems hall is
| filed with an earnest, devoted band Of
/ Christian worshipeTs, who are pointing
out, with what light they eau them
selves command, the straight and mar
row path that leads TO righteousness.
But this panorama of retrospection
must be closed. Our dress-making days
are over for the present, and the Peo-
! pies Paper, Ikea Corliss engine, is cry
I ing out for steam. Our missionary la
bors serve not only to carry our gospel
Of liberty and justice to the people
wherever we go, hut we are in great
measure dependent upon them for fin
ancial fuel with which 10 feed the pa
/ per's constantly consuming fire Of cur
rent expenses. SO here we are al Van
couver, and now We pause and look
about Us. The new aud cOmmodiOus
accommodation packet that bore us
hither, and plies daily between its Port
land dock at the foot of Alder street
and its nightly resting place at ths Van
couver wharf, is decided improvement
upon its immediate ancestor, which Is
lying by for repairs. The Pacific House,
where we hide away for a few hours un-
til We can scribble a chapter Of "Fact,
Fate aud Fancy" makes Us welcome in
its own primitive fashion, aud then,
when the writing is done and a heavy
rain storm over, we are ready for lee
lures and visits; aud the time has come,
as we have said, when we can look
about Us.
The town is growing, not rapidly hat
peTceptibly. And yet, TO "a Portlander,
il seems almost dead. Nature never
did any more for any other town site
than she has for this one. Why Port
land did not come here while yet in her
babyhoOd and settle down in her swad-
ding clothes, is a mystery to be solved
only by the admission that infants are
very apt TO do foolish things. But,
though nature has done so much for
Vancouver, art has done little, and COM
merce still less; aud so, to very great
extent, she is fossilized. The Sisters OF
Charity have a very large school and
nunnery. the Episcopalians have a quite
n r. &
closed almost constantly against hu-
manity aud dedicated to solitude and
mould; the Methodists have a comfort
able but notwithstanding chapel, which
is devoted to tyranny and presided over
bv Pharisees, whose wives "have all
the rights they want" and whose chill
dren and youth overrun the town and
disturb our lectures at Branrs hall with
their hoodlumism and general miscon-
duct. But there is a flourshing, WELL
filed public school, and to this, through
the enlightenment Of the rising genera
ton, we may ultimately hope for the
I redemption Of the masses.
4 great many citizens Of Vancouver
object TO attending the public hall,
partly on account Of its supposed inse-
eurity. but chiefly because Of the cold.
For these reasons, and knowing also
that Brother Judy, the present pastor
Of the Methodist Church, has claimed to
be a friend to Woman Suffrage, aud
also to Us personally, in other places