Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-03-16
Official Paper for the Territory.
OLYMPIA. WASHINGTON ter.
OLYMPIA. FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH fe. 1855.
More Misrepresentation.

More Misrepresentation.
LII. Wells. formerly editor of the Lc-
ola Blade, writes that paper as follows:
There are some of your readers l know
are looking with eager eyes to Washing
ton. To all such will say, if you cannot
he contented in Dakota. go there by all
means, and go there in the winter as I
did, and il after three weeks OF rain and
mud and rheumatism You are not ready
to return, stay longer. loERed for water.
have had it. The atmosphere was sat
urated with it; the ground was covered
with it; the sidewalks and buildings were
beds were vapor baths; sheep and cattle
were gathered on hills and peaks, look
ing like "reminiscences of q second deluge.
Hens were roosting on stumps and gasp
ing for dry air, which they did not get.
The gulches. streets, bitches, sewers and
cutters were running with streams of
water and mud and filth. Moss covers
the houses, the rocks, the trees. the
stumpS, and even some OF the people are
termed moss-backs. Not only ducks and
geese, but turkeys. chickens and Indians
are web.footed; and other people who are
not. wish they were before they pass
forty-eight hours west OF the Cascade
Mountains.
The above slip cut from Dakota
paper was sent by a resident of that
State, who has long contemplated re-
moving to Washington Territory, to
an old-time acquaintance and long res
ident of this city with the question
I" Is that so?" and the assurance that
he "don't believe it." We are re-
~.,,oexoJ ~ c,,s~yor t1,o ouoot;nu on1
will do so with as few lies as possible.
It is indeed pretty much 50, just as
stated by the Dakota man. Western
Washington is little moist in the
winter, and if J. H. Wells had con-
suited any of the ordinary sources of
information about the climate he
might have learned that fact at home.
1t is quite obvious from the tone of
his remarks that he came here in the
middle Of the winter longing for water
yet expecting tn find neither rain nor
mud. Aside from the exaggerations
of man who evidently came here ex-
pecting impossibilities, the description
is probably about what would be the
experience of any person coming to
Puget Sound from q country 80 diff
>ferent in every respect as Dakota and
spending three weeks in the middle of
our rainy reason.
r-1sAnd with some slight qualifications
what he describes as remarkable and
evidently very Disappointing things to
him are the necessary consequences
of our long protracted rain and what
he should have expected to find. Mr..
Wells may have had the rheumatism
during the three weeks he spent in
the Territory, which by inference he
attributes to the moisture, but ~ o
matter Of fact it is not true that there
is any more rheumatism here than in
dry climates. Mr.. Wells says that
sheep and cattle were gathered on
hills and peaks, and hens were roost-
ing on stumps. Well how is it out in
his beloved Dakota about that time
Of the Year, Would it be possible
for cattle and sheep to gather on hills
or peaks, or for hens to roost on
stumps in mid-winterf Oris it strange
that when the rain was pouring down,
the gulches, streets, bitches, sewers,
and cutters were running streams Of
water'f Did this Dakota man expect
to find them running streams Of
whiskey, and is he mad because they
weren'tf Or is it ct all remarkable
that in mild and humid climate like
this there should be moss ON the
houses, rocks, trees and stumps.
Three weeks experience in Dakota
in pid-winter, with q blizzard or two
thrown in, would probably not impress
a man from Puget Sound very favor
ably nor would his description Of his
experience be calculated to induce his
neighbors to emigrate to that Terri
tory, and yet it would give no fair idea
of the climate of Dakota. The fact is
that to get fair and just idea OF
country that is greatly different from
that to which we have been accus-
toned and to learn how it will proba-
bly, suit us as permanent abiding
place, it is necessary to see it at all
seasons Of the year, as there is no
country in the world that would suit
all men better than any other, and it
il fortunate that it is go.
When we consider that the Es-
quimaux prefers his country of per
petual ice and snow to any other, it
can not excite wonder that there are
even men who prefer the severe Da-
kota winters with their terrific and
destructive billiards., to the mild and
equable winters of Puget Sound, with
their long and saturating rains.
LAST week q pack of wolves sur
rounded and devoured q Dakota farm
CT and his son. The unfortunate VIC
Tins were feeding some stock near
their house, and were 50 suddenly over
powered escape was impossible. The
most appalling of all was the fact the
family OF the deceased were compelled
to witness the scene, not daring to 60
TO the rescue.
JOHN R. Graham, who founded Gra-
hams Magazine over forty years ago, is
still living in New York. His maya
zine was Z very notable publication in