News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-07
Letter from Oregon.
PORTLAND, Oregon

PORTLAND, Oregon.
NeSsrS. Editors -
Southern Oregon is just now at
tracing a good deal of attention.
The Oregon and California railroad
extends south from Portland to Ash
land. a distance of over 250 miles,
and has reached the Rogue River
Valley. The counties opened up for
settlement are Josephine and Jack
son. The valleys have long ago been
taken up, but there is any quantity of
mountain land open for settlement at
S1.25 per acre. The land looks
about as inviting to the settler as the
west end of Mansfield Mountain.
Hard work and plenty of it, is the
fate of the man who takes farm here.
There are not the dense forests of
Northern Oregon, the hills being COW
cred with the scrubby manzanita.
The soil is red gravel. The climate
is fine and healthy. There is not rain
fall enough, and the farmer must irri-
gate. These lands are valuable for
nothing but grape culture. There is
no doubt but that grapes will grow by
the ton in Southern Oregon, but I'M
fortunately the crop is of little value
when grown. It cannot be marketed
fresh, there is no demand, and the
cost of transportation to the east too
much. The wine made is of a very
inferior quality, and the raisin grape
does not grow well. If man has
money and can pay from 500 to $3.50
an acre he can get good farm, where
the climate is mild and the crops sure.
Everything that farmer has to sell
here, brings good price. Pine wood,
for instance, brings 81 a cord, and
yet the stumps are hardly out of the
streets, while rifle ball can be shot
from the center of the city into dense
forests. The farmers have a bad
habit of giving short measure and
weight. A cord of wood measures
about three-fourths of cord pound
of butter is two ounces short. This,
however, is an advantage. as the less
Oregon butter one has the better he
is off. This habit is not confined to
Oregon farmers exclusively: When
L lived in Vermont used to buy milk
of an honest old farmer and 90 after
it myself. The good cid wife, who
hopes some day to be an angel, used
to have the milk ready in a quart
measure on the table. 1 noticed that
the milk came mp to within about an
inch of the top of the measure, and
then, like "Grandfather's clock"
stopped short. The old lady one
day explained this phenomena, say
ing that A., meaning her husband, |
made mark on the quart measure
and told her rot to fill it above that.
as quart was not as large now as it
used to be.
Just now things are looking pretty
blue in Portland. Men (unskilled la
borers) are walking the streets and
can get no work. Even good me-
chanics now find it difficult to Obtain
work. Women are in demand, but
men are a drug. Times are growing
harder every day. Millions of dol
lars have been lost by the solid men
Of the city on n. p. stocks. The
facts are, the country through which
The road passes has been over-esti-
mated. Seven-tenths of it is practi-
oally worthless. Then the road was
extravagantly built, and at best is
rickety, ram-shackle affair from St.
Paul to Portland. When investors
fs,un1 ont tho 70 ote tho ofoolyS finn, |
bled. The legal rate of interest in
this State is 10 per cent, but the
Jews will not loan money for less than
10, and often 20 per cent. The
bankers are rich and the people fall
down and worship them. One of the
wealthiest men in Portland, banker
and millionaire, who obtained his
money through usury and oppression,
is a paralytic wreck, half dead with a
foul disease, yet the people speak his
name with "bated breath" and stumble
over each other in their eagerness to
do him honor. l have heard a good
ieal about the large hearted, gener-
ous western people, but have failed to
see any of them. They talk big, but
Gou will find them just as close in
their dealings as the marrow minded"
eastern men. Here in Portland last
week a woman died in a cellar, her
sick husband beside her, and two
children crying with hunger. She died !
for want Of proper food and attention.
Yet there were lots of "big-souIed," {
western people who knew her condi-
lion. She died within a stones throw
Of a church, whose wealthy pastor
speculates in real estate and rides in
a fine carriage. | knew a man in
Montana who was turned out of a I,
house because he could not pay his
board, being sick. He died that same
night in a deserted blacksmith shop,
with no one near him but his little
boy, who would have starved, had it /
not been for "small-souled" eastern {
'tenderfoot" There is not town
on earth with more grasping, selfish
population than Minneapolis. Their
hearts are as cold as their climate, {
and that is below zero most of the c
year. Friends, word with you IN
all truth and soberness. If you are :
making living in Vermont, and are t
contemplating coming out here, dis
miss the idea from your mind. You |
will find it just as hard work here as :
there: Take the advice of trolling !
stone" and stay where you are. Don't
be deluded by the pamphlets gotten ,
up by the railroads TO get your hard ,
earned dollars. Every tie on the
Northern Pacific railroad, represents a +
lie, scattered broadcast through the !
country to induce people to seek a
fooPs Paradise at the other end of the
inc. Respectfully,
DoCToR-