The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-22
THE CITY OF DESTINY" "
HY WILL viss<auRx.


 place on this excellent 9th day of Scp- tember, A. D. 1888, and of the repub- lie tho i12th, write you.
 Tacoma is indeed a city of great promise, being the Puget Sound ter. minus of the Northern Pacific rail. road, and the head of navigation on the grand sheet of water mentioned. The city is beautifully situated, on rising ground, at the mouth of Puyallup river, and 1t was laid out by famous landscape gardener, The streets which run north and south ara succession Of terraces, and those rum ming east and west climb tho hin by easy grades. All of the streets are broad, and along those parts of them which are built up the structures are handsome, spacious and solid, and, altogether, Tacoma is an exceedingly we'll built city, for a place eight years old, and which has only had, In reality, four years of lively existence. It Is now growing with remarkable rapidity, and will doub btleas be place of 100000 inhabitants in very few years. though now it's population Is only lS,00o.
 "Tho Tacoma" Is the name ot tho great hotel ot the place, and it is one of the city's chief ornaments. Please observe that l am not and havc not been, and expect not to bc, a guest of the establishment, and in writing of st simply do so as distant admircr. It Is huge building, with walls of pressed brick, and Ia of mixture of Elizabethan and Queen Anne arohI- lecture. It stands on great bluH overlooking the mouth of the Puyal- mp and the head of Commencement bay, and from its long, wide porticoes at tho rear, one of the grRndest viows of land and water on the continent Is obtained. Puget sound, with it's many wooded islands, stretches far away to the north, and to the south Mount itanicr, snow -mantleti, eternally, looms up like great pile of ficccy cloud. "The Tacoma Is the property of the Tacoma Land Company, and was built for the purpose of entertain. Ing the myriad purchasers of real Csc tate In this region, as well as tho travel ing public generally. It has proven a brilliant investment, as 1t is always filled with guests, to It's utmost ca pacity, and has now taken the chnrAo- ter of both a summer and winter re- sort, for here Is climate of "ethereai mildness." without heat In summer or cold in winter. Think of that, now, while in the cast the dog star rages in all his Sirius ness, and think of 1t about January, ante and past, when crude Boreas, clustering railer," is making himself so immediately forth with.
 Along the Puyallup for many miles above Tacoma, lies the great hop growing region of tho Pacific coast, Tn which tho fragrant "SiwAsh," the only name by which the Indians hero arc known, are employed, at the proper season, as gatherers of the brown bloom from which John Bull, and others, squeeze their "alf-and- -alf," and from which arises a great profit, as well as much yeast. Ali the country about here which has not been cleared Is covered with mighty forests of tho finest pine timber on earth. have eeen vast piles of this timber, on countless acres of land, burned 10 get rid of 1t, and 1t looked like a pity. Only to-day 1 saw among the timber thus being destroyed tree four hun dred feet long, without A knot or branch, being cut up and heaped for the torch, in a clearing. Such trees and thousands of others of approxi- mate size, are being thus burned by the mile every day.
 The Northern Pacific road Is build ing in Tacoma-in fact, has neerly completed,-a structure for Its own use, as offices, which Is another of the striking edifces of the place. It Is unique in architecture, colossal and imposing, and that, together with other very expensive work in the way of grading, Is an evidence that the road takes great stock in this city and will help 1t to its fAttering destiny" Among the work which the road is doing Is that of removing great hill, as high and long, for instance, as five squares Of Chicago, from Randolph street to Van Buren between Michi. gan and Wabash avenues. This Is be- ing done by hydraulics, and the dirt is going into . place where low lands along the bay are being reclaimed from the tides, for the purpose of making room for warehouses, wharves and road beds, and which, when conn., pleted, will vastly improve, both is appearance and convenience, the water frontage of the city.
 Across the Puysllup on land, which Is covered by water st high-tide, . wealthy St. Paul and Tsc0ma com pany Is constructing . mill for the purpose of making houses, In al "knock-down" condition, which may he taken anxwh here and sef mn as xon