Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-17
GSpecihI to rhe Glo5e.1
ALRrNA. Orc . Sent.

ALBrNA, Ore, Sept. 10.
After crossing the Snake river
at Ainsworth our course lay
for fourteen miles through a sand
desert, similar to that on tbs east side cf
the river with immense sage bush and
other herbage needing little or no moist
ure save what they gather from the atmos-
phers. Large tracts of this sandy waste
had not the most minute sign OF vegetable
life, but the sand lay in biliows rippled
by the winds, like sand ridgel by this tiny
riplets Of oceans strand, and yet dry,
parched and uninviting as it seemed, hun
dreds of horses aud cattle could be seen
roaming about, picking here and there
something in accordance to their palates
of which We knew not, and from this
one would think there must be that
in the sand which the magic of humidity
might render fertile only the very margin
of the river IS just as bare and grassless
as the surrounding country. At the end
of the fourteen miles is low bluff, at the
foot of which runs the Walla Walla river,
and Just before
ITS JUNCTION WITH THE COLUMBIA
is Wallula junction with its half dozen
habitations and magnificent rail
road buildings. The station building
and hotel is the larsest and handsomest on
the line, and would be sufficiently COM
modious for city with twenty thousand
population, but the entire inhabitants of
Wallula number twenty-five souls. For
the accommodation of these thirsty people
there are four saloons and there is a dance
house in course of erection. The railroad
buildings were
ELABoRATELY DECORATED,
and as the train slowed into the station
the Chinese camps of railroad hands fred
a salute of hand bombs. Leaving the juno
ton and passing under triulnphal arch
with the inscription, "Acti LGbores jucun-
d." the train swept round a graceful
curve into narrow gorge, through which
the Columbia flows. The rocks on each
side were beautiful. Their perpendicular,
weather-beaten fronts were decorated Law
ishly by natures deft fingers, and the viv-
id green moss shone out brightly upon the
-blackened battlements of the tower
like rocks. Passing into the gorge was
like entering the keep of some gray tow
ored castle of unknown antiquity. The
| picturesque bluffs, however, soon subsidized
| to very unromantic sand hills. Darkness
| soon began to settle upon us, and as we
| approached Jumper, the next station we
could but family discern that the build
ings we're draped with flags and
COVERED WITH EvERaREENs.
| Another Chinese salute greeted us, and
| after few moments we passed out of the
'gas lights" into obscure night. Then a
run of 202 miles while all are obliyions to
the many wondrous attractions of the Col
umbian scenery and We arrived at Albina.
whore We now lie swsiting;o our turn to be
conveyed across the Willemette
where the Portland citizens are
awaiting US. 1t is said that it is their in.
tention of outdoiny St. Paul and Mime
apolis, both in their immense pageant
and oriental hos spitality. Whether they will
succeed or not remains to be seen. The
only thing certain, however, is that they
have for the last three weeks been making
preparations was up long before dawn
this morning and straining my eyes to get
glimpses of the beautiful and singular
scenery along the Columbia, but clouds
and cloudy mists made the obscurity
doubly Obscure.
| On arriving here the rain descended in g
gentle shower. laying the dust and some
what clearing the atmosphere, and the in